Variable inhibition of different species by antagonistic bacteria.

Unlabelled: The genus includes opportunistic pathogens inhabiting engineered aquatic ecosystems, where managing their presence and abundance is crucial for public health. In these environments, interact positively or negatively with multiple members of the microbial communities. Here, we identified bacteria and compounds with -antagonistic properties.

Wastewater as a dual indicator of human and environmental exposure to synthetic antioxidants: Occurrence and fate in biological and advanced wastewater treatment.

Synthetic antioxidants (SAOs) are widely used additives in industrial and consumer products, yet their human exposure and fate throughout wastewater treatment remain poorly understood. This study investigates the occurrence of SAOs and their human metabolites in wastewater influent as well as their abatement in three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) employing both conventional and advanced treatment technologies. In vitro human liver S9 assays were performed to generate a SAO metabolite MS2 library containing over 2500 potential metabolites, which was matched against wastewater influent data.

Fluorescence Quenching as a Diagnostic Tool for Prediction Reliability Assessment and Anomaly Detection in EEM-Based Water Quality Monitoring.

Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy offers rapid and informative water monitoring, but its reliability is limited by chemical composition variability, which disrupts the relationship between fluorescence signals and contaminant concentrations. Recognizing this limitation, the lack of a robust and physically interpretable tool for assessing prediction reliability has become a critical bottleneck. In this work, the composition and photophysical inconsistencies among fluorescent compounds underlying the same fluorophore signal were identified as key sources of predictive inaccuracy.

Comparison of aquatic system models using outdoor mesocosm data for ecological risk assessment, part I: methodology.

Mesocosm studies are conducted in the context of higher-tier ecological risk assessments (ERAs) to integrate environmental conditions and study species interactions within waterbodies in agricultural landscapes. Aquatic system models (ASMs) could provide tools to extrapolate the dynamics and effects of chemicals observed in mesocosm studies to a wider range of environmental conditions and exposure scenarios. In this paper, we present the methodology of a ring study with four ASMs (Aquatox, CASM, StoLaM+, Streambugs) applied to data from mesocosm studies, while the results of the ring study are presented in a companion paper published alongside this manuscript.

Distribution of geogenic arsenic in European topsoil and potential concerns for food safety.

Arsenic (As) is naturally present in trace amounts in most soils and poses a public health risk when elevated in topsoil due to potential accumulation in agricultural products. Europe has several regions with natural As enrichment in soils, but since soil analyses are limited to individual soil samples, information on the spatial distribution has been lacking. This study uses expert-based machine learning to create a high-resolution map of As exceeding 20 mg/kg in European topsoil based on ∼4100 data points of the Geochemical Mapping of Agricultural and Grazing Land Soil in Europe (GEMAS) dataset and 15 environmental variables.

Characterizing influenza A virus lineages and clinically relevant mutations through high-coverage wastewater sequencing.

Influenza A virus poses significant public health challenges, causing seasonal outbreaks and pandemics. Its rapid evolution motivates continuous monitoring of circulating influenza genomes to inform vaccine and antiviral development. Wastewater-based surveillance offers an unbiased, cost-effective approach for genomic surveillance.

Wastewater treatment plant effluent drives coupled changes of viral and bacterial community structure and function in impacted rivers.

The discharge of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent containing bacteria and viruses has significant ecological and public health implications for aquatic ecosystems. While viruses infecting bacterial hosts are abundant and diverse in wastewater, their environmental fate, host association, and functional impact in affected river ecosystems remain poorly understood. Using a metagenomic approach, we characterized double-stranded DNA viral communities across nine WWTPs and impacted riverine habitats, including water, suspended particles, sediment, and epilithic biofilm.

Logging disrupts the ecology of molecules in headwater streams.

Global demand for wood products is increasing forest harvest. One understudied consequence of logging is that it accelerates mobilization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from soils to aquatic ecosystems where it is more easily rereleased to the atmosphere. Here, we tested how logging changed DOM in headwaters of hardwood-dominated catchments in northern Ontario, Canada.

Transmission dynamics of Norovirus GII and Enterovirus in Switzerland during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021-2022) as evidenced in wastewater.

Noroviruses and enteroviruses are major causes of endemic gastrointestinal disease associated with substantial disease burden. However, viral gastroenteritis is often diagnosed based on symptoms, with etiology infrequently tested or reported, so little information exists on community-level transmission dynamics. In this study, we demonstrate that norovirus (NoV) genogroup II and enterovirus (EV) viral loads in wastewater reveal transmission dynamics of these viruses.

Aphid herbivory on macrophytes drives adaptive evolution in an aquatic community via indirect effects.

Indirect ecological effects occur when the impact of one species on another is mediated by a third species or the shared environment. Although indirect effects are ubiquitous in nature, we know remarkably little about how they may drive ecoevolutionary processes across community boundaries. Here, we show that insect (aphid) herbivory on macrophytes (duckweed) drove the adaptive evolution of a planktonic crustacean () in large outdoor aquatic mesocosms via indirect ecological effects.

Advanced Wastewater Treatment by Ozonation for Abatement of Micropollutants from Municipal Wastewater Effluents.

Municipal wastewater treatment plants are important contributors to the discharge of micropollutants to the aquatic environment. Therefore, in Switzerland it has been decided to treat the water at these point sources to reduce the discharge of micropollutants from municipal wastewater effluents. A team of scientists at Eawag has evaluated treatment options, which need to be readily available, easily applicable, and cheap.

Developing a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary communication, collaboration, and integration: A structured approach.

Interdisciplinary research is essential to address the complex environmental challenges faced by social-ecological systems (SES). However, it is often hindered by difficulties in integrating diverse knowledge and perspectives. Conceptual Frameworks (CFs) can act as boundary objects, facilitating integration in contexts with incomplete knowledge, nonlinearity, and divergent interests.

Bdh1l Gene Expression Is a Potential Molecular Factor in the Evolution of Carotenoid-Based Colour Diversity of Cichlid Fishes.

Carotenoids contribute substantially to animal body colour pattern diversity. While the ecological and evolutionary drivers of carotenoid coloration are reasonably well understood, the molecular mechanisms facilitating evolutionary transitions between red and yellow hues are less investigated. Here we leverage phylogenetically replicated red-versus-yellow colour contrasts in three pairs of closely related cichlid fishes (Tropheus and Aulonocara; Haplochromini) to investigate biochemical and genetic parallels in carotenoid colour differentiation.

Intraday trends of chemical biomarkers in wastewater monitored through automated real-time surveillance.

Wastewater-based epidemiology is an established approach for monitoring population-level illicit drug use. Standard methods rely on 24-hour composite samples collected from treatment plant influent. While suitable for assessing long-term consumption patterns, composite samples obscure diurnal information on daily load dynamics - valuable for understanding substance sources and normalization strategies.

Pick of the crop: understanding the choice of scientific and experiential evidence in Swiss pesticide discourse.

In political discourse, speakers use scientific and experiential evidence. Both types can inform policy making, yet little is known about when political actors turn to experiential evidence to back their statements. In this article, we examine factors that influence the selection of scientific and experiential evidence in political discourses.

Estimated transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants from wastewater are unbiased and robust to differential shedding.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development and adoption of wastewater-based epidemiology. Wastewater samples can provide genomic information for detecting and assessing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants in communities and for estimating important epidemiological parameters such as the selection advantage of a viral variant. However, despite demonstrated successes, epidemiological data derived from wastewater suffers from potential biases.

Development of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays for the detection of diarrheagenic in wastewater.

Diarrheagenic is responsible for a substantial portion of foodborne diseases globally. The use of standard diagnostic tools for the detection of diarrheagenic often hampers the establishment of robust surveillance when no expensive laboratory equipment, such as thermocyclers, is present. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has shown potential to enable the resource-efficient detection of pathogens.

Beyond Genetic Indicators: How Reproductive Mode and Hybridisation Challenge Freshwater Mussel Conservation.

Genetic diversity is a fundamental aspect of biodiversity, yet it is rarely assessed and monitored in conservation practice. Unionid freshwater mussels exemplify the dramatic loss of biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems, yet genomic data for these ecologically important species remain scarce. Here, we conducted a high-resolution population genomics study of all Anodonta species in Switzerland, with a focus on two species with contrasting reproductive strategies.

A Global Synthesis on Land-Cover Changes in Watersheds Shaping Freshwater Detrital Food Webs.

Anthropogenic land-cover changes are among the most pressing global threats to both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, jeopardizing biodiversity and the critical connections between these systems. Resource flows and trophic interactions intricately link aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, with terrestrial-derived detritus playing a fundamental role in supporting aquatic food webs. These detrital inputs form essential cross-ecosystem linkages, underpinning key ecological processes and providing vital resources for aquatic communities.

Long-term performance of low-cost free chlorine sensors to monitor on-site water reuse.

Water scarcity increasingly challenges the supply of sufficient quantities of safe water for human consumption. On-site water reuse systems can contribute to mitigating the effects of water scarcity by closing water cycles locally. However, broader adoption of on-site water reuse is constrained by the high cost of water quality monitoring.

Advanced on-site monitoring of industrial wastewater: integration of online biological and chemical tools to identify toxic compounds.

Monitoring of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents from complex industrial clusters with high temporal resolution is crucial for detecting and subsequently managing problematic compounds to reduce their release into the environment. This study explored the potential of combining biological early warning systems (BEWS) with a transportable high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-HRMS/MS) platform (MS2Field) to detect and identify toxic pollutants in industrial-driven WWTP effluent. BEWS, using the organisms Daphnia magna, Chlorella vulgaris, and Gammarus pulex, provided real-time biological responses to micropollutants, while the MS2Field allowed continuous chemical detection of toxic compounds in parallel.

The extended chemical defensome: emphasizing mechanisms of defense as key research avenues to tackle priority questions in environmental toxicology.

Chemical pollution threatens organismal integrity, affecting growth, reproduction, behavior, and overall fitness, ultimately leading to shifts in biodiversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services. In response to chemical exposure, organisms use specific regions of their genome coding for different defense mechanisms-this collection of genes is termed the "chemical defensome". Specifically, genes associated with efflux transporters, transcription factors, antioxidant systems, and biotransformation pathways, among others, are expressed to reduce toxicity.

Terrestrial land cover shapes fish diversity in a major subtropical river catchment.

Freshwater biodiversity is critically affected by human modifications of terrestrial land use and land cover (LULC). Yet, knowledge of the spatial extent and magnitude of LULC-aquatic biodiversity linkages is still surprisingly limited, impeding the implementation of optimal management strategies. Here, we compiled fish diversity data using environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling across a 160,000-km subtropical river catchment in Thailand characterized by exceptional biodiversity yet intense anthropogenic alterations, and attributed fish species richness and community composition to contemporary terrestrial LULC across the catchment.

Drastic Variations in Chemical Composition of Organic Inputs: Implications for Organic Fertilization.

Soil amendment with organic inputs is gaining importance with the ongoing shift toward circular economies. While these inputs can fertilize soils with micronutrients such as zinc (Zn), it is crucial to prevent potential contamination stemming from Zn accumulation in soils or crop uptake of toxic elements such as cadmium (Cd). While both organic matter (OM) composition and Zn and Cd speciation are key factors controlling Zn and Cd fate in soil-plant systems, these factors remain largely uncharacterized in many commonly used organic inputs.

Molecular diversity of dissolved organic matter reflects macroecological patterns in river networks.

Deciphering dissolved organic matter (DOM) molecular complexity is crucial for understanding ecosystem function. Using the continental-scale Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic Rivers Systems (WHONDRS) Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) dataset, we reveal fundamental scaling patterns of DOM chemodiversity with watershed characteristics. Analysis of 54 river sites shows local and regional watershed features significantly influence DOM chemodiversity (2500-8718 unique formulae), exhibiting consistent scaling patterns across compound classes and a novel latitudinal gradient (decreasing diversity with increasing latitude).