RESUMO
Environmental pollution is one of the most serious challenges to health in the modern world. Pollutants alter immune responses and can provoke immunotoxicity. In this Review, we summarize the major environmental pollutants that are attracting wide-ranging concern and the molecular basis underlying their effects on the immune system. Xenobiotic receptors, including the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), sense and respond to a subset of environmental pollutants by activating the expression of detoxification enzymes to protect the body. However, chronic activation of the AHR leads to immunotoxicity. KEAP1-NRF2 is another important system that protects the body against environmental pollutants. KEAP1 is a sensor protein that detects environmental pollutants, leading to activation of the transcription factor NRF2. NRF2 protects the body from immunotoxicity by inducing the expression of genes involved in detoxification, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Intervening in these sensor-response systems could protect the body from the devastating immunotoxicity that can be induced by environmental pollutants.
Assuntos
Poluentes Ambientais/efeitos adversos , Poluição Ambiental/efeitos adversos , Imunidade , Animais , Gerenciamento Clínico , Suscetibilidade a Doenças , Exposição Ambiental/efeitos adversos , Poluentes Ambientais/química , Poluentes Ambientais/imunologia , Predisposição Genética para Doença , Humanos , Hipersensibilidade/etiologia , Hipersensibilidade/metabolismo , Hipersensibilidade/prevenção & controle , Hipersensibilidade/terapia , Sistema Imunitário/imunologia , Sistema Imunitário/metabolismo , Imunização , Inativação Metabólica , Proteína 1 Associada a ECH Semelhante a Kelch/metabolismo , Metais/efeitos adversos , Metais/química , Metais/imunologia , Células Mieloides/imunologia , Células Mieloides/metabolismo , Fator 2 Relacionado a NF-E2/genética , Fator 2 Relacionado a NF-E2/metabolismo , Especificidade de Órgãos/imunologia , Material Particulado/efeitos adversos , Material Particulado/química , Material Particulado/imunologia , Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromáticos/efeitos adversos , Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromáticos/química , Polimorfismo Genético , Linfócitos T/imunologia , Linfócitos T/metabolismoRESUMO
Anthropogenic change is contributing to the rise in emerging infectious diseases, which are significantly correlated with socioeconomic, environmental and ecological factors1. Studies have shown that infectious disease risk is modified by changes to biodiversity2-6, climate change7-11, chemical pollution12-14, landscape transformations15-20 and species introductions21. However, it remains unclear which global change drivers most increase disease and under what contexts. Here we amassed a dataset from the literature that contains 2,938 observations of infectious disease responses to global change drivers across 1,497 host-parasite combinations, including plant, animal and human hosts. We found that biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, climate change and introduced species are associated with increases in disease-related end points or harm, whereas urbanization is associated with decreases in disease end points. Natural biodiversity gradients, deforestation and forest fragmentation are comparatively unimportant or idiosyncratic as drivers of disease. Overall, these results are consistent across human and non-human diseases. Nevertheless, context-dependent effects of the global change drivers on disease were found to be common. The findings uncovered by this meta-analysis should help target disease management and surveillance efforts towards global change drivers that increase disease. Specifically, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing ecosystem health, and preventing biological invasions and biodiversity loss could help to reduce the burden of plant, animal and human diseases, especially when coupled with improvements to social and economic determinants of health.
Assuntos
Biodiversidade , Mudança Climática , Doenças Transmissíveis , Poluição Ambiental , Espécies Introduzidas , Animais , Humanos , Efeitos Antropogênicos , Mudança Climática/estatística & dados numéricos , Doenças Transmissíveis/epidemiologia , Doenças Transmissíveis/etiologia , Conservação dos Recursos Naturais/tendências , Conjuntos de Dados como Assunto , Poluição Ambiental/efeitos adversos , Agricultura Florestal , Florestas , Espécies Introduzidas/estatística & dados numéricos , Doenças das Plantas/etiologia , Medição de Risco , UrbanizaçãoRESUMO
The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technological, economic and legal view on how to deliver a circular carbon and plastics economy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. Different pathways that maximize recirculation of carbon (dioxide) between plastics waste and feedstocks are outlined, including mechanical, chemical and biological recycling, and those involving the use of biomass and carbon dioxide. Four future scenarios are described, only one of which achieves sufficient greenhouse gas savings in line with global climate targets. Such a bold system change requires 50% reduction in future plastic demand, complete phase-out of fossil-derived plastics, 95% recycling rates of retrievable plastics and use of renewable energy. It is hard to overstate the challenge of achieving this goal. We therefore present a roadmap outlining the scale and timing of the economic and legal interventions that could possibly support this. Assessing the service lifespan and recoverability of plastic products, along with considerations of sufficiency and smart design, can moreover provide design principles to guide future manufacturing, use and disposal of plastics.
Assuntos
Poluição Ambiental , Objetivos , Plásticos , Reciclagem , Desenvolvimento Sustentável , Biomassa , Dióxido de Carbono/análise , Dióxido de Carbono/química , Dióxido de Carbono/metabolismo , Poluição Ambiental/economia , Poluição Ambiental/legislação & jurisprudência , Poluição Ambiental/prevenção & controle , Poluição Ambiental/estatística & dados numéricos , Combustíveis Fósseis , Aquecimento Global/prevenção & controle , Gases de Efeito Estufa/análise , Plásticos/síntese química , Plásticos/economia , Plásticos/metabolismo , Plásticos/provisão & distribuição , Reciclagem/economia , Reciclagem/legislação & jurisprudência , Reciclagem/métodos , Reciclagem/tendências , Energia Renovável , Desenvolvimento Sustentável/economia , Desenvolvimento Sustentável/legislação & jurisprudência , Desenvolvimento Sustentável/tendências , Tecnologia/economia , Tecnologia/legislação & jurisprudência , Tecnologia/métodos , Tecnologia/tendênciasRESUMO
Cropland is a main source of global nitrogen pollution1,2. Mitigating nitrogen pollution from global croplands is a grand challenge because of the nature of non-point-source pollution from millions of farms and the constraints to implementing pollution-reduction measures, such as lack of financial resources and limited nitrogen-management knowledge of farmers3. Here we synthesize 1,521 field observations worldwide and identify 11 key measures that can reduce nitrogen losses from croplands to air and water by 30-70%, while increasing crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by 10-30% and 10-80%, respectively. Overall, adoption of this package of measures on global croplands would allow the production of 17 ± 3 Tg (1012 g) more crop nitrogen (20% increase) with 22 ± 4 Tg less nitrogen fertilizer used (21% reduction) and 26 ± 5 Tg less nitrogen pollution (32% reduction) to the environment for the considered base year of 2015. These changes could gain a global societal benefit of 476 ± 123 billion US dollars (USD) for food supply, human health, ecosystems and climate, with net mitigation costs of only 19 ± 5 billion USD, of which 15 ± 4 billion USD fertilizer saving offsets 44% of the gross mitigation cost. To mitigate nitrogen pollution from croplands in the future, innovative policies such as a nitrogen credit system (NCS) could be implemented to select, incentivize and, where necessary, subsidize the adoption of these measures.
Assuntos
Produção Agrícola , Produtos Agrícolas , Poluição Ambiental , Nitrogênio , Solo , Humanos , Análise Custo-Benefício , Ecossistema , Fertilizantes/análise , Nitrogênio/análise , Solo/química , Poluição Ambiental/economia , Poluição Ambiental/prevenção & controle , Produção Agrícola/economia , Produção Agrícola/métodos , Produção Agrícola/tendênciasRESUMO
Excessive agricultural nitrogen use causes environmental problems globally1, to an extent that it has been suggested that a safe planetary boundary has been exceeded2. Earlier estimates for the planetary nitrogen boundary3,4, however, did not account for the spatial variability in both ecosystems' sensitivity to nitrogen pollution and agricultural nitrogen losses. Here we use a spatially explicit model to establish regional boundaries for agricultural nitrogen surplus from thresholds for eutrophication of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and nitrate in groundwater. We estimate regional boundaries for agricultural nitrogen pollution and find both overuse and room for intensification of agricultural nitrogen. The aggregated global surplus boundary with respect to all thresholds is 43 megatonnes of nitrogen per year, which is 64 per cent lower than the current (2010) nitrogen surplus (119 megatonnes of nitrogen per year). Allowing the nitrogen surplus to increase to close yield gaps in regions where environmental thresholds are not exceeded lifts the planetary nitrogen boundary to 57 megatonnes of nitrogen per year. Feeding the world without trespassing regional and planetary nitrogen boundaries requires large increases in nitrogen use efficiencies accompanied by mitigation of non-agricultural nitrogen sources such as sewage water. This asks for coordinated action that recognizes the heterogeneity of agricultural systems, non-agricultural nitrogen losses and environmental vulnerabilities.
Assuntos
Agricultura , Ecossistema , Poluição Ambiental , Água Subterrânea , Nitrogênio , Agricultura/legislação & jurisprudência , Agricultura/métodos , Planeta Terra , Poluentes Ambientais/análise , Poluentes Ambientais/provisão & distribuição , Poluição Ambiental/análise , Poluição Ambiental/legislação & jurisprudência , Poluição Ambiental/prevenção & controle , Eutrofização , Água Subterrânea/química , Nitratos/análise , Nitrogênio/análise , Esgotos/química , Água/química , Abastecimento de AlimentosRESUMO
Biological rhythms have a crucial role in shaping the biology and ecology of organisms. Light pollution is known to disrupt these rhythms, and evidence is emerging that chemical pollutants can cause similar disruption. Conversely, biological rhythms can influence the effects and toxicity of chemicals. Thus, by drawing insights from the extensive study of biological rhythms in biomedical and light pollution research, we can greatly improve our understanding of chemical pollution. This Essay advocates for the integration of biological rhythmicity into chemical pollution research to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how chemical pollutants affect wildlife and ecosystems. Despite historical barriers, recent experimental and technological advancements now facilitate the integration of biological rhythms into ecotoxicology, offering unprecedented, high-resolution data across spatiotemporal scales. Recognizing the importance of biological rhythms will be essential for understanding, predicting, and mitigating the complex ecological repercussions of chemical pollution.
Assuntos
Ecossistema , Poluentes Ambientais , Tempo , Poluição Ambiental/efeitos adversos , PeriodicidadeRESUMO
We live our lives immersed in plastic pollution: a problem that is becoming more acute. Viable alternatives that can reduce plastic pollution are being sought. Could bioplastics be the hoped-for solution to this problem?
Assuntos
Poluição Ambiental , Plásticos , Poluição Ambiental/prevenção & controle , BiopolímerosRESUMO
Funding injections by British Petroleum this summer are fueling studies in the Gulf Coast, raising hopes that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill might provide answers to long-standing questions on the nature of cellular toxicity. Rebecca Alvania investigates.
Assuntos
Poluição Ambiental , Fundulidae , Hidrobiologia/economia , Petróleo/toxicidade , Peixe-Zebra , Animais , Genômica , Hidrobiologia/métodos , Compostos Policíclicos/toxicidadeRESUMO
For each kilogram of food protein wasted, between 15 and 750 kg of CO2 end up in the atmosphere. With this alarming carbon footprint, food protein waste not only contributes to climate change but also significantly impacts other environmental boundaries, such as nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, global freshwater use, change in land composition, chemical pollution, and biodiversity loss. This contrasts sharply with both the high nutritional value of proteins, as well as their unique chemical and physical versatility, which enable their use in new materials and innovative technologies. In this review, we discuss how food protein waste can be efficiently valorized not only by reintroduction into the food chain supply but also as a template for the development of sustainable technologies by allowing it to exit the food-value chain, thus alleviating some of the most urgent global challenges. We showcase three technologies of immediate significance and environmental impact: biodegradable plastics, water purification, and renewable energy. We discuss, by carefully reviewing the current state of the art, how proteins extracted from food waste can be valorized into key players to facilitate these technologies. We furthermore support analysis of the extant literature by original life cycle assessment (LCA) examples run ad hoc on both plant and animal waste proteins in the context of the technologies considered, and against realistic benchmarks, to quantitatively demonstrate their efficacy and potential. We finally conclude the review with an outlook on how such a comprehensive management of food protein waste is anticipated to transform its carbon footprint from positive to negative and, more generally, have a favorable impact on several other important planetary boundaries.
Assuntos
Eliminação de Resíduos , Animais , Alimentos , Poluição Ambiental/análise , Nitrogênio , TecnologiaAssuntos
Poluição Ambiental , Cooperação Internacional , Manobras Políticas , Negociação , Plásticos , Pesquisadores , Nações Unidas , Plásticos/provisão & distribuição , Nações Unidas/legislação & jurisprudência , Poluição Ambiental/legislação & jurisprudência , Poluição Ambiental/prevenção & controle , Cooperação Internacional/legislação & jurisprudênciaAssuntos
Comércio , Poluição Ambiental , Cooperação Internacional , Manobras Políticas , Plásticos , Pesquisadores , Nações Unidas , Plásticos/provisão & distribuição , Cooperação Internacional/legislação & jurisprudência , Comércio/legislação & jurisprudência , Nações Unidas/legislação & jurisprudência , Poluição Ambiental/legislação & jurisprudência , Poluição Ambiental/prevenção & controleRESUMO
SignificanceAgricultural systems are already major forces of ammonia pollution and environmental degradation. How agricultural ammonia emissions affect the spatio-temporal patterns of nitrogen deposition and where to target future mitigation efforts, remains poorly understood. We develop a substantially complete and coherent agricultural ammonia emissions dataset in nearly recent four decades, and evaluate the relative role of reduced nitrogen in total nitrogen deposition in a spatially explicit way. Global reduced nitrogen deposition has grown rapidly, and will occupy a greater dominant position in total nitrogen deposition without future ammonia regulations. Recognition of agricultural ammonia emissions on nitrogen deposition is critical to formulate effective policies to address ammonia related environmental challenges and protect ecosystems from excessive nitrogen inputs.
Assuntos
Poluentes Atmosféricos , Amônia , Agricultura , Poluentes Atmosféricos/análise , Amônia/análise , Ecossistema , Monitoramento Ambiental , Poluição Ambiental , Nitrogênio/análiseRESUMO
Environmental pollution significantly impacts global disease burden. However, the contribution of environmental pollution to kidney disease is often overlooked in nephrology. This review examines the growing body of research demonstrating the significant impacts of environmental pollutants, with a focus on air pollution as a primary factor, and acknowledges the roles of other pollutants, such as heavy metals, in the development and progression of kidney diseases. Short-term exposure to air pollution is linked with an increased risk of kidney disease-related events, including hospital admissions, and death, predominantly occurring in vulnerable populations. In contrast, long-term exposure, even at low to moderate levels, may lead to progressive pathophysiological changes, such as chronic systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, that contribute to the development of kidney disease. In addition, air pollution may exacerbate traditional kidney disease risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes, thereby accelerating disease progression. The review also explores how climate change may interact with various pollutants, including air pollution, influencing kidney disease indirectly. The examined evidence underscores the urgent need for an interdisciplinary approach to research further into environmental kidney disease. Environmental health policies could play a crucial role in the prevention, intervention, and improvement of kidney health worldwide.
Assuntos
Poluição do Ar , Mudança Climática , Exposição Ambiental , Nefropatias , Humanos , Fatores de Risco , Exposição Ambiental/efeitos adversos , Nefropatias/induzido quimicamente , Nefropatias/epidemiologia , Nefropatias/etiologia , Poluição do Ar/efeitos adversos , Progressão da Doença , Poluentes Atmosféricos/efeitos adversos , Poluição Ambiental/efeitos adversosRESUMO
Plastic substrates introduced to the environment during the Anthropocene have introduced new pathways for microbial selection and dispersal. Some plastic-colonising microorganisms have adapted phenotypes for plastic degradation (selection), while the spatial transport (dispersal) potential of plastic colonisers remains controlled by polymer-specific density, hydrography and currents. Plastic-degrading enzyme abundances have recently been correlated with concentrations of plastic debris in open ocean environments, making it critical to better understand colonisation of hydrocarbon degraders with plastic degradation potential in urbanised watersheds where plastic pollution often originates. We found that microbial colonisation by reputed hydrocarbon degraders on microplastics (MPs) correlated with a spatial contaminant gradient (New York City/Long Island waterways), polymer types, temporal scales, microbial domains and putative cell activity (DNA vs. RNA). Hydrocarbon-degrading taxa enriched on polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride substrates relative to other polymers and were more commonly recovered in samples proximal to New York City. These differences in MP colonisation could indicate phenotypic adaptation processes resulting from increased exposure to urban plastic runoff as well as differences in carbon bioavailability across polymer types. Shifts in MP community potential across urban coastal contaminant gradients and polymer types improve our understanding of environmental plastic discharge impacts toward biogeochemical cycling across the global ocean.
Assuntos
Microplásticos , Poluentes Químicos da Água , Plásticos , Poluição Ambiental , Polietileno , Hidrocarbonetos , Monitoramento AmbientalRESUMO
The relationship between pathogen proliferation and the cost of infection experienced by a host drives the ecology and evolution of host-pathogen dynamics. While environmental factors can shape this relationship, there is currently limited knowledge on the consequences of emerging contaminants, such as pharmaceutical pollutants, on the relationship between a pathogen's growth within the host and the damage it causes, termed its virulence. Here, we investigated how exposure to fluoxetine (Prozac), a commonly detected psychoactive pollutant, could alter this key relationship using the water flea Daphnia magna and its bacterial pathogen Pasteuria ramosa as a model system. Across a variety of fluoxetine concentrations, we found that fluoxetine shaped the damage a pathogen caused, such as the reduction in fecundity or intrinsic growth experienced by infected individuals, but with minimal change in average pathogen spore loads. Instead, fluoxetine modified the relationship between the degree of pathogen proliferation and its virulence, with both the strength of this trade-off and the component of host fitness most affected varying by fluoxetine concentration and host genotype. Our study underscores the potential for pharmaceutical pollution to modify the virulence of an invading pathogen, as well as the fundamental trade-off between host and pathogen fitness, even at the trace amounts increasingly found in natural waterways.
Assuntos
Infecções Bacterianas , Daphnia magna , Poluentes Ambientais , Animais , Poluição Ambiental , Fluoxetina , Preparações Farmacêuticas , Daphnia magna/microbiologiaRESUMO
The mitigation of climate change and pollution-related hypoxia and anoxia is a growing challenge for coastal communities. Known ocean conservation measures do not show the desired fast results counteracting deoxygenation. The new infrastructure related to the coastal production of renewable energies linked to the production of green hydrogen can provide new possibilities of artificial ocean reoxygenation to mitigate coastal hypoxia, but has to be treated urgently and seriously from different scientific, engineering and socio-economic angles.
Assuntos
Mudança Climática , Ecossistema , Humanos , Poluição Ambiental , HipóxiaRESUMO
Groundwater is a vital ecosystem of the global water cycle, hosting unique biodiversity and providing essential services to societies. Despite being the largest unfrozen freshwater resource, in a period of depletion by extraction and pollution, groundwater environments have been repeatedly overlooked in global biodiversity conservation agendas. Disregarding the importance of groundwater as an ecosystem ignores its critical role in preserving surface biomes. To foster timely global conservation of groundwater, we propose elevating the concept of keystone species into the realm of ecosystems, claiming groundwater as a keystone ecosystem that influences the integrity of many dependent ecosystems. Our global analysis shows that over half of land surface areas (52.6%) has a medium-to-high interaction with groundwater, reaching up to 74.9% when deserts and high mountains are excluded. We postulate that the intrinsic transboundary features of groundwater are critical for shifting perspectives towards more holistic approaches in aquatic ecology and beyond. Furthermore, we propose eight key themes to develop a science-policy integrated groundwater conservation agenda. Given ecosystems above and below the ground intersect at many levels, considering groundwater as an essential component of planetary health is pivotal to reduce biodiversity loss and buffer against climate change.
Assuntos
Ecossistema , Água Subterrânea , Biodiversidade , Água Doce , Poluição AmbientalRESUMO
Biodiversity is considered important to the mitigation of global change impacts on ecosystem multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems. However, potential mechanisms through which biodiversity maintains ecosystem multifunctionality under global change remain unclear. We grew 132 plant communities with two levels of plant diversity, crossed with treatments based on 10 global change factors (nitrogen deposition, soil salinity, drought, plant invasion, simulated grazing, oil pollution, plastics pollution, antibiotics pollution, heavy metal pollution, and pesticide pollution). All global change factors negatively impacted ecosystem multifunctionality, but negative impacts were stronger in high compared with low diversity plant communities. We explored potential mechanisms for this unexpected result, finding that the inhibition of selection effects (i.e., selection for plant species associated with high ecosystem functioning) contributed to sensitivity of ecosystem multifunctionality to global change. Specifically, global change factors decreased the abundance of novel functional plants (i.e., legumes) in high but not low diversity plant communities. The negative impacts of global change on ecosystem multifunctionality were also mediated by increased relative abundance of fungal plant pathogens (identified from metabarcoding of soil samples) and their negative relationship with the abundance of novel functional plants. Taken together, our experiment highlights the importance of protecting high diversity plant communities and legumes, and managing fungal pathogens, to the maintenance of ecosystem multifunctionality in the face of complex global change.
Assuntos
Ecossistema , Fabaceae , Biodiversidade , Plantas , Solo , Poluição AmbientalRESUMO
There are close links between solar UV radiation, climate change, and plastic pollution. UV-driven weathering is a key process leading to the degradation of plastics in the environment but also the formation of potentially harmful plastic fragments such as micro- and nanoplastic particles. Estimates of the environmental persistence of plastic pollution, and the formation of fragments, will need to take in account plastic dispersal around the globe, as well as projected UV radiation levels and climate change factors.