The blue mussel (Mytilus spp.) is widely used as a bioindicator for monitoring of coastal water pollution (mussel watch programs). Herein we provide a review of this study field with emphasis on: the ...suitability of Mytilus spp. as environmental sentinels; uptake and bioaccumulation patterns of key pollutant classes; the use of Mytilus spp. in mussel watch programs; recent trends in Norwegian mussel monitoring; environmental quality standards and background concentrations of key contaminants; pollutant effect biomarkers; confounding factors; particulate contaminants (microplastics, engineered nanomaterials); climate change; harmonization of monitoring procedures; and the use of deployed mussels (transplant caging) in pollution monitoring. Lastly, the overall state of the art of blue mussel pollution monitoring is discussed and some important issues for future research and development are highlighted.
•An overview of blue mussel ecotoxicology and pollution monitoring was provided.•Factors that render blue mussels favorable as environmental sentinels were discussed.•Challenges related to influence from different confounding factors were discussed.•There is a need for standardization and harmonization of blue mussel monitoring techniques.•Internationally harmonized assessment criteria for prioritized contaminants specially adapted for blue mussel sentinels are needed.
Toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is widely distributed worldwide. Seroprevalence in pets is a reliable tool to determine environmental parasite presence and human risk of ...infection due to proximity to these animals. In this context, the frequency of anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies in sera of dogs and cats from Espirito Santo, Brazil and risk factors associated with the infection (sex, age, allocation, and breed) were assessed. Antibodies against T. gondii were detected in 39.4% (149/378) and 38.1% (142/373) of the dogs by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and by indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT), respectively. In cats, antibodies were detected in 15.2% (12/79) by ELISA and 7.6% (6/79) by IFAT. Canine infection was associated with stray origin and older ages. Feline females showed a higher chance of infection. There was an agreement between techniques in the detection of antibodies in dogs (k = 0.82) and cats (k = 0.63). These results indicate the parasite presence in the urban environment, suggesting the possibility of infection to humans and other animals. However, this risk is lower while considering pet domiciled animals with a more controlled diet and better hygiene conditions.
The NASA Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission and ESA Sentinel‐1, inter‐alia, propose to monitor inland waters from satellites. The radar altimeter and the microwave radiometer can be used ...to monitor water surface level and assess the cross‐sectional mean flow velocity, respectively. However, for most river sites bathymetric data are lacking, preventing the direct computation of discharge. In this context, a new methodology for simulating the bathymetry and estimating the discharge is proposed. The approach is based on entropy theory and can be applied using ground and satellite observations. Four parameters are needed and include channel roughness, water surface slope, channel bottom elevation, and an entropy parameter of flow depth. These parameters are estimated using a genetic algorithm by minimizing the error in the observed maximum surface velocity. Parameter uncertainty is considered through 1,000 random realizations based on different initial values. Eighteen streamflow measurements recorded from three different gauged river sites are used to benchmark the ground observations. The method included ENVISAT altimetry and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data (2002‐2010) at one river site. Relative to ground measurements, the method provides good results with an error in channel area and discharge that, on average, does not exceed 10% on the 50th percentile. Relative to satellite measurements, channel area is well simulated with an error, on average, lower than 9%; discharge is less well simulated and represented by an error greater than 30% on the 50th percentile.
Key Points
The paper brings together important hydraulic and remote sensing information that combine to build a methodology to be applied to any river
The paper can lay the groundwork for numerous remote sensing applications to estimating bathymetry, flow velocity, and discharge in rivers
A new perspective for noncontact streamflow measurements during high floods is addressed also at ungauged river sites
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are a unique sentinel cell type that can detect pathogen-derived nucleic acids and respond with rapid and massive production of type I interferon. This review ...summarizes our current understanding of pDC biology, including transcriptional regulation, heterogeneity, role in antiviral immune responses, and involvement in immune pathology, particularly in autoimmune diseases, immunodeficiency, and cancer. We also highlight the remaining gaps in our knowledge and important questions for the field, such as the molecular basis of unique interferon-producing capacity of pDCs. A better understanding of cell type-specific positive and negative control of pDC function should pave the way for translational applications focused on this immune cell type.
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are innate immune sentinels that play important roles in immunity to infection and autoimmunity. This review by Boris Reizis highlights recent progress and emerging areas of interest in pDC biology as well as translational applications.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants, exposure to which is associated with birth defects, neurocognitive and reproductive impairments, and cancer. Little is ...known, however, about VOC exposure in pet dogs and cats, which represent sentinels for human exposure as well as having value as companion animals. In this study, we determined 38 VOC metabolites (VOCMs) in urine samples collected from 47 dogs and 42 cats from the Albany area of New York State. Seventeen (in cats) to twenty (in dogs) VOCMs were found at detection frequencies (DFs) above 60%. The creatinine-adjusted geometric mean (GM) concentrations of individual VOCMs ranged from 5.43 (EMA) to 761 μg/g (3HPMA) in dog urine and 0.824 (SBMA) to 278 μg/g (ATCA) in cat urine. The ∑20 VOCM concentration in dog urine was 2280 μg/g (geometric mean) and the ∑17 VOCM concentration in cat urine was 847 μg/g. Eight individual VOCMs were significantly more abundant in dog than in cat urine, and the urinary concentrations of several VOCMs in dogs were comparable to those reported for human tobacco smokers. Metabolites of acrolein accounted for 43% of ∑20 VOCM concentration in dogs, whereas those of cyanide and benzene accounted for 60% of ∑17 VOCM concentration in cats. Based on acrylamide exposure doses, calculated hazard quotients were above 1 in 77% of dogs and 50% of cats studied, and cancer risk values (using a benchmark of 10−6) from exposure to acrylamide exceeded 1 for all dogs and cats. This is the first study to report VOCM concentrations in urine collected from pet dogs and cats and highlights the need to identify sources and health implications of VOCs exposure in these animals.
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•VOC metabolites (VOCMs) were measured in the urine of 47 dogs and 42 cats.•Up to 20 VOCMs were found at detection frequencies >60%.•Metabolites of acrolein, cyanide and benzene were abundant in urine of both species.•Creatinine-adjusted GM levels ranged 5.43–761 and 0.824–278 μg/g in dogs and cats, respectively.•Cancer risk from acrylamide exceeded the threshold values in all dogs and cats.
In order to monitor ice avalanches efficiently under disaster emergency conditions, a snow cover mapping method based on the satellite data of the Sentinels is proposed, in which the coherence and ...backscattering coefficient image of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data (Sentinel-1) is combined with the atmospheric correction result of multispectral data (Sentinel-2). The coherence image of the Sentinel-1 data could be segmented by a certain threshold to map snow cover, with the water bodies extracted from the backscattering coefficient image and removed from the coherence segment result. A snow confidence map from Sentinel-2 was used to map the snow cover, in which the confidence values of the snow cover were relatively high. The method can make full use of the acquired SAR image and multispectral image under emergency conditions, and the application potential of Sentinel data in the field of snow cover mapping is exploited. The monitoring frequency can be ensured because the areas obscured by thick clouds are remedied in the monitoring results. The Kappa coefficient of the monitoring results is 0.946, and the data processing time is less than 2 h, which meet the requirements of disaster emergency monitoring.
•Combined big and multisensory Earth observation data with deep learning.•Revealed the first time detailed morphology of urban agglomerations across the globe.•Statistical study of our results ...quantifies a global inequality in population density.•Clustering of the global result identified seven unique urban morphological patterns.•This global urban morphological dataset (So2Sat Global Urban LCZ) will be open access.
Urbanization is the second largest mega-trend right after climate change. Accurate measurements of urban morphological and demographic figures are at the core of many international endeavors to address issues of urbanization, such as the United Nations’ call for “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. In many countries – particularly developing countries –, however, this database does not yet exist. Here, we demonstrate a novel deep learning and big data analytics approach to fuse freely available global radar and multi-spectral satellite data, acquired by the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites. Via this approach, we created the first-ever global and quality controlled urban local climate zones classification covering all cities across the globe with a population greater than 300,000 and made it available to the community (https://doi.org/10.14459/2021mp1633461). Statistical analysis of the data quantifies a global inequality problem: approximately 40% of the area defined as compact or light/large low-rise accommodates about 60% of the total population, whereas approximately 30% of the area defined as sparsely built accommodates only about 10% of the total population. Beyond, patterns of urban morphology were discovered from the global classification map, confirming a morphologic relationship to the geographical region and related cultural heritage. We expect the open access of our dataset to encourage research on the global change process of urbanization, as a multidisciplinary crowd of researchers will use this baseline for spatial perspective in their work. In addition, it can serve as a unique dataset for stakeholders such as the United Nations to improve their spatial assessments of urbanization.
Shallow lakes are the most productive freshwater ecosystems in the Argentinian Pampa Region. Only in Buenos Aires province, about 14000 shallow lakes larger than 10 ha exist, which provide important ...ecosystem services. Since the middle XX century profound changes are occurring in the region as a consequence of the anthropogenic activities, mainly associated to the expansion of agriculture, but also to livestock and urbanization. Different studies strongly suggest that changes in land use, as well as increased eutrophication of lakes, accelerated since 1990’s. In this article, we provide a general overview of the main features of the Pampean shallow lakes and a review of published evidences based on paleolimnological and satellite images studies that indicate changes in the state of the lakes related with eutrophication during the last two centuries. On the other hand, we analyzed the historical changes that are occurring in these systems since the 1980’s until the present by means of the principal variables associated with trophic status. This analysis, based on a data set of 740 samples from 87 shallow lakes, showed that nutrients (TP and TN) and algal biomass (as chlorophyll a) increased over the time, whereas transparency (Secchi depth) decreased; differences between XX and XXI centuries were significant. We also evaluated the change in the cyanobacteria assemblages (abundance and composition) between both centuries. We found that the biomass of this group increased in the XXI century and the composition of the assemblages changed, which nowadays are frequently represented by potentially toxic, bloom forming species. The shallow lakes of the region play an important role as sentinels of changes and all pieces of evidence are showing the impact of the anthropogenic activities.
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