2.1 Types and Amounts Present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Distribution, Transport and Transformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Uptake by Biota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . 2.4 Fate in the Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

In recent years, pharmaceutical pollution in the environment has been a great concern due to the potential effects on the human and animal health. Some of the most used classes such as antibiotics, which are used to prevent and treat bacterial infections and promote the growth of livestock, deserve to be highlighted since their intensive use has contaminated environmental matrices such as soil,...

Karst ecosystems are fragile and are in many regions degraded by anthropogenic activities. Current management of degraded karst areas focuses on aboveground vegetation succession or recovery and aims at establishing a forest ecosystem. Whether progressive succession of vegetation in karst areas is accompanied by establishment of soil biota is poorly understood. In the present study, soil microb...

We present the construction of a dynamic area fraction model (DAFM), representing a new class of models for an earth-like planet. The model presented here has no spatial dimensions, but contains coupled parameterizations for all the major components of the hydrological cycle involving liquid, solid and vapor phases. We investigate the nature of feedback processes with this model in regulating E...

The current massive degradation of habitat and extinction of species is taking place on a catastrophically short timescale, and their effects will fundamentally reset the future evolution of the planet's biota. The fossil record suggests that recovery of global ecosystems has required millions or even tens of millions of years. Thus, intervention by humans, the very agents of the current enviro...

In the recent era, due to tremendous advancement in industrialization, pollution and other anthropogenic activities have created a serious scenario for biota survival. It has been reported that present biota is entering a "sixth" mass extinction, because of chronic exposure to anthropogenic activities. Various ex situ and in situ measures have been adopted for conservation of threatened and end...

Allelopathy has been hypothesized to play a role in exotic plant invasions, and study of this process can improve our understanding of how direct and indirect plant interactions influence plant community organization and ecosystem functioning. However, allelopathic effects can be highly conditional. For example allelopathic effects demonstrated in vivo can be difficult to demonstrate in field s...

As populations and human activities increase in coastal watersheds, an understanding of the connections of aquatic ecosystems to the adjacent terrestrial landscape is necessary to identify, monitor, and protect vulnerable coastal habitats. This study investigates the relationships between land-use patterns and δ 15N values of aquatic organisms in coastal ecosystems, across a defined watershed g...

Salt is a natural component of the Australian landscape to which a number of biota inhabiting rivers and wetlands are adapted. Under natural flow conditions periods of low flow have resulted in the concentration of salts in wetlands and riverine pools. The organisms of these systems survive these salinities by tolerance or avoidance. Freshwater ecosystems in Australia are now becoming increasin...

Preservation of soft-bodied organisms is exceedingly rare in the fossil record. One way that such fossils are preserved is as carbonaceous compressions in fined-grained marine sedimentary rocks. These deposits of exceptional preservation are known as Burgess Shale-type (BST) deposits. During the Cambrian Period, BST deposits are more common and provide a crucial view of early animal evolution. ...