This paper aims to review the global research progress and emerging hotspots related to plastic pollution in marine and inland water from 2008 to 2023, based on data from the Web of Science and CNKI databases. A total of 13872 articles were selected and analyzed, with the majority of studies conducted in analytical methods and monitoring techniques. The findings emphasize that discharge and non-degradable nature of plastic waste are the main drivers of pollution in these aquatic environments. Increasing global attention has been directed toward this issue, as reflected in the growing number of publications since 2020. At present, mainstream analytical methods for studying plastic pollution include microscopic observation, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. However, field sampling efforts remain limited, with challenges such as varying mesh sizes used in trawl nets affecting data consistency. To address these limitations, future research should utilize unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and advanced remote sensing technologies for monitoring plastic pollution. It should also explore the potential integration of satellite, aerial, and ground-based remote sensing into a multi-scale, comprehensive monitoring system, providing scientific insights and practical recommendations for advancing plastic pollution research and management.

The transmission of prions can induce the largely spread of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which pose a serious threat to animal and human health. Soil is a natural reservoir for prions. Prions can enter the soil through animal excretion, carcass decomposition, and bind to soil components. The binding of prions to different soil components varies significantly, and their effects are simultaneous and mutual, jointly influencing the spread of prions in the soil. On the one hand, the adsorption of soil particles and humic substances enhances their stability and persistence in the soil, reduces their bioavailability, and thus inhibits the spread of prions. On the other hand, montmorillonite and manganese ions can increase their activity and infectivity to a certain extent, thereby contributing to the spread of prions. The control of prions in the soil can be achieved through biotechnologies such as environmental prevention and control, enzyme treatment and composting technique, based on the improvement of their detection methods. In the future, the research on prions in the soil environment should take more into account the influence of the characteristics of soil compounds and native microorganisms on prions, so as to promote the development of in-situ prion degradation methods to control their spread. This work will provide theoretical support for the development of new technologies for soil prions control.

In order to analyse the response of bacterial community structure to the abundance of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) metabolic functions in different water depths of lakes, this paper presents a characterization of the spatial distribution and correlation of bacterial community structure and the abundance of N and P related metabolic functions in the surface, middle and bottom waterbodies by high-throughput sequencing technology, with Lake Dali as the object of the study. The results showed that the composition of the dominant bacterial communities in the surface, middle and bottom water layers varied significantly with the changes in the physical and chemical properties of the water. Based on the ecological network, the dominant and important genera under the first five dominant phyla were analysed under the screening criteria of degree and abundance values, and the dominant genera in the different depths of Lake Dali were significantly changed, such as three genera in the surface and middle water, and two genera in the bottom water. Comparatively, CL500-29_marine_group and Thermus in the surface water, Synechococcus and norank_o__NB1-n in the middle water, and Synechococcus、norank_o__NB1-n、norank_f__CK06-06-Mud-MAS4B-21 in the bottom water, remained consistent with the two screening criteria. Further PICRUSt2 prediction of the functional composition of the bacterial community yielded 6 primary functions and 12 secondary metabolic functions. In particular, although Pseudomonas,Paracoccus and Synechococcus showed significant positive correlation with the abundance of N and P metabolic functions, the correlation with the N and P content of different forms was different, such as Pseudomonas showed positive correlation with the change of N and P content, Paracoccus showed negative correlation with the N and P content, and Synechococcus showed negative correlation with N and positive correlation with P elements. Overall, the differences in N and P contents caused by changes in water depth had significant effects on N and P metabolism and the dominant genera.

A typical urban lake (Xinghu Lake) in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area was selected as the study area, and the density flotation method was used to extract microplastics from surface sediments. The spatiotemporal occurrence characteristics of microplastic were presented, and the potential ecological risks of microplastic were revealed, and the spatial autocorrelation of microplastic abundance was analyzed. The results showed that the average abundances of microplastic in surface sediments of Xinghu Lake were (637±392) and (1765±883) particles/kg during the wet and dry seasons, respectively. Here, the colors of microplastic were mainly blue and black, lines were the dominant microplastic shapes, and the size of microplastic was concentrated in the range of 100 to 2000µm. Rayon, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate were the main polymer types of microplastic in surface sediments of Xinghu Lake during the wet and dry seasons. The abundances of microplastic in surface sediments of Xinghu Lake showed a strong spatial autocorrelation during different seasons, and the sampling interval for microplastic should be less than 435m here. Meanwhile, the average comprehensive potential ecological risk indexes of microplastic in surface sediments of Xinghu Lake were 53.0 9and 344.08 during the wet and dry seasons, which were the slight and very strong risk levels, respectively. Furthermore, the potential ecological risks of rayon microplastics were relatively high.

Cooperative strategies that mitigate competition among dominant functional microorganisms are crucial for efficient nitrogen and phosphorus removal in wastewater treatment. This study investigated a novel single-stage sequencing batch reactor operating under an anaerobic/anaerobic/oxic/anaerobic (A/A₁/O/A₂) mode for 100days to regulate the dynamic balance of phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAOs), denitrifying PAOs (DPAOs), and denitrifying glycogen-accumulating organisms (DGAOs). The optimized system, featuring a recycle loop and reduced aerobic phase duration, achieved nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies of (95.13%±0.35%) and (94.70%±0.96%), respectively. Mechanistic analysis suggested that the A₁ phase created an anoxic environment conducive to DPAO-mediated denitrifying phosphorus removal, while the A₂ phase supported DGAO-driven denitrifying nitrogen removal using polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and glycogen (Gly). Extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) analysis revealed increases of 35.38mg/gVSS in protein (PN) and 12.39mg/gVSS in polysaccharide (PS) content, enhancing sludge aggregation. Microbial community analysis demonstrated significant enrichment of Dechloromonas and Ca. Competibacter, with their abundances increasing from 2.24% and 1.53% in R1to 7.61% and 7.94% in R2, respectively. The A/A₁/O/A₂ mode effectively created a synergistic environment for key DPAOs and DGAOs, achieving superior nitrogen and phosphorus removal performance compared to conventional modes.

Based on the acidic and phosphorus-rich properties of phosphogypsum (PG), it was dope-modified (PO-PG) to cement (PO) and used for lead removal from acid mine wastewater. The results showed that PO-PG removed more than 99% of lead at different concentrations (15~100mg/L) with suitable dosage; under the reaction conditions of initial pH=3, PO-PG dosage of 0.2g/L, and 25℃, the effect of PO-PG on the removal of lead from 30mg/L Pb²⁺ was completely removed in 20min instead of 120min for PO; meanwhile, PO-PG had a high affinity for lead, and the removal effect of lead remained stable in the simulated wastewater with complex composition. Mechanistic analysis showed that isomorphous replacement and surface heterogeneous chemical precipitation were the main mechanisms for lead removal by PO-PG, Ca(OH)₂, CaCO₃ and Ca₅(PO₃)₃ OH were the main lead removal factors in PO-PG, and Pb²⁺ is removed by lattice displacement and other chemical reactions with Ca²⁺ to form a water-insoluble precipitate, and the products of the lead removal mainly included PbCO₃, Pb₃(CO₃)₂(OH)₂, Pb(OH)₂ and Pb₅(PO₄)₃ OH precipitates. In summary, the doping of acidic PG can accelerate the hydration rate of alkaline PO, thus improving the reaction efficiency and alleviating the problem of high pH in PO-treated effluent, in addition to the presence of phosphates in PG can be an effective species for lead removal. This study provides a cost-effective and efficient new method for the removal of lead from acid mine wastewater and can realize the resource utilization of phosphogypsum.

Based on the InVEST model, Hierarchy of Needs Theory, and ecosystem service supply-demand analysis, we utilized Linkage Mapper and other tools to extract ecological sources, corridors, and pinch points in the Sichuan Basin from 2005 to 2020, following the least-cost path theory. The ecosystem service supply-demand relationship was analyzed to construct the ecological security pattern of the basin. Spatially, ecosystem service supply and demand in the Sichuan Basin exhibited a negative correlation. Despite an overall ecological surplus (supply exceeding demand), spatial mismatches between supply and demand intensified regional contradictions. From 2005 to 2020, the area of ecological sources in the basin was 68700km², 63900km², 63100km², and 64800km², respectively, presenting a “dense periphery-sparse center” ring-shaped distribution. The total length of ecological corridors across four periods increased continuously (6693.38km, 8342.29km, 8594.62km, and 14130.94km), forming a “periphery-connected, sparse-center, dense-east” network structure. Ecological pinch points were clustered at source junctions, while obstacle points were concentrated near fragmented source patches, particularly in the eastern parallel ridge-valley region. Integrating ecosystem service supply-demand dynamics and existing ecological security patterns, we proposed an optimized protection framework termed “Three Belts, Four Zones, and Five Cores”. Three Belts: East-west axial belts in the basin’s southern and northern regions, and a north-south axial belt in the eastern basin. Four Zones: Ecological security protection zone (eastern Sichuan), ecological restoration zones (western and northern Sichuan), and an ecological fragility recovery zone (central Sichuan). Five Cores: Key connectivity nodes in the southern basin and the eastern parallel ridge-valley area.

A novel catalytic membrane (AC-MgO@PVDF) was fabricated by loading activated carbon (AC) and MgO onto a poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane using a vacuum filtration method. The as-prepared catalytic membrane (AC-MgO@PVDF) was employed to activate persulfate (PS) for the oxidation of ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) in aqueous solution. The structure and elemental composition of the catalytic membrane were characterized by SEM, Raman and XPS. The efficiency and mechanism of NH₄⁺-N oxidation by the AC-MgO@PVDF/PS system were investigated. The results showed that under the conditions of a flow rate of 1mL/min, a PS dosage of 8g/L and an AC loading of 4.8mg/cm², the removal rate of 30mg N/L NH₄⁺-N and the nitrogen gas (N₂) selectivity of the NH₄⁺-N oxidation products reached 100% and 91.7%, respectively, after 25min of operation. The system exhibited a broad pH tolerance range (3~12) and was barely affected by common anions and natural organic matters in water body. Even after 240min of continuous operation, the system could still achieve a removal rate of over 60% for NH₄⁺-N. Quenching experiments, EPR measurements, and electrochemical tests revealed that f NH₄⁺-N was primarily oxidized through a non-radical pathway, with direct electron transfer being the main mechanism for its oxidation to N₂.

In this study, we measured the contents of P in various forms in the topsoil (0~10cm) of 8representative pine (Pinus massoniana) forests in the main urban area of Chongqing. We used high-throughput sequencing technology to investigate the community characteristics of the phoD-harboring bacteria. The results showed that the surface soils of Pinus massoniana forests in the study area had relatively low phosphorus levels, with average total phosphorus (TP) contents of 192.787mg/kg in winter and 169.512mg/kg in summer. Among the inorganic phosphorus fractions, the content distribution followed the order: occluded phosphorus (O-P) > iron-bound phosphorus (Fe-P) > aluminum-bound phosphorus (Al-P) > calcium-bound phosphorus (Ca-P) > exchangeable phosphorus (Ex-P), showing a seasonal pattern of higher levels in winter and lower levels in summer. The dominant phyla of phoD-harboring bacteria in the soil were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Planctomycetes, collectively accounting for 96% of the average relative abundance. Correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation (P<0.05) between the diversity of phoD-harboring bacteria and Al-P, as well as a significant positive correlation (P<0.05) with soil pH. Redundancy analysis indicated that Al-P and pH were the most important factors influencing the community structure of phoD-harboring bacteria. In conclusion, the topsoil of pine forests in the main urban area of Chongqing is generally P-deficient, and the P content is significantly influenced by season. The forms of P occurrence affect the community structure and diversity of phoD-harboring bacteria.

This study investigated the regulatory mechanisms of zero-valent iron-graphite composite materials (0~4.0g/L) on sludge fermentation via chain elongation(CE) systems through a gradient dosing approach. The enhancement of iron-carbon materials on the CE process were systematically analyzed by monitoring the variations of short-chain carboxylic acids (SCCAs) and medium-chain carboxylic acids (MCCAs) concentrations, decomposition and metabolism of organics, electron transfer efficiency, and evolution of microbial community structure. The results demonstrated that the MCCAs production reached 10.65g/L at an iron-carbon dosage of 0.5g/L, representing a 2.04-fold increasement compared to the control group. The selectivity of caproic acid reached 53.60%, enhanced by 24.96% compared to the control. Mechanistic studies revealed that iron-carbon materials influenced the three stages of anaerobic fermentation (solubilization, hydrolysis, and acidification), promoting the decomposition and metabolism of organics and the conversion of polysaccharides to SCCAs. Simultaneously, a significant enhancement in electron transfer activity was observed in the groups with iron-carbon addition. Microbial community analysis further indicated that iron-carbon materials increased the relative abundance of the phylum Firmicutes and the genus Clostridium sensu stricto 12, which facilitated hydrolysis and CE processes in anaerobic fermentation. This study suggested that the application of iron-carbon materials could enhance MCCAs production in sludge anaerobic fermentation systems.