Parasitoids are important organisms in the regulation of insect herbivores in natural, urban, and agricultural ecosystems. The impact of pollutants acting on parasitoids has not been extensively reviewed. This prompted us to propose a falsifiable null hypothesis (pollutants have no effects on parasitoids) and two alternative hypotheses (pollution negatively or positively affects parasitoids) to...

BACKGROUND Over the past two decades there has been a large migration of China's population from rural to urban regions. At the same time, residences in cities have changed in character from single-story or low-rise buildings to high-rise structures constructed and furnished with many synthetic materials. As a consequence, indoor exposures (to pollutants with outdoor and indoor sources) have ch...

The air pollution problem has been serious in Delhi due to the rapidly expanding economic, industrial and vehicular developments. It has significant influences on atmospheric visibility, whose degradation dominates in urban areas. Increased air pollution in urban area may lead to the atmospheric reactions, resulting into the formation of secondary pollutants similar to cloud the condensation pr...

In this paper is reported an analysis about the outdoor air pollution of the urban centre of the city of Messina. The variations of the most critical pollutants concentrations (PM10, O3, CO, C6H6) and their trends respect of climatic parameters and vehicular traffic have been studied. Linear regressions have been effectuated for representing the relations among the pollutants; the differences b...

How bad is living in a city for asthma? Several investigations have indicated that individuals living in cities have a higher risk of suffering from asthma and allergies compared to those living in the countryside, this being due to several factors. Besides the fact that individual susceptibility varies between urban and rural settings, there are environmental factors that are typical of living...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of local emission sources to the selected trace metals levels (As, Ni, Cd, Pb, Ti, V, Mn, Cu, Mo and Hg) in urban particulate matter, PM10 and PM2.5, in the Cantabria region (Northern Spain) during the year 2008. PM10 and PM2.5 samples were collected and characterized in an urban sampling site at Santander (Cantabria); additional PM10 sampl...

Large tracts of abandoned urban land, resulting from the deindustrialization of metropolitan areas, are generating a renewed interest among city planners and community organizations envisioning the productive use of this land not only to produce fresh food but to effectively manage stormwater and mitigate the impact of urban heat islands. Healthy and productive soils are paramount to meet these...

Large reduction in emissions of anthropogenic pollutants in a mega city during the week-long holiday gives an opportunity to investigate how the urban air quality reacts to reductions in emission. This study conducted a systematical examination of the “Spring Festival effect” over three consecutive winters in Shenzhen with a population of greater than ten million, and the difference in the conc...

Large reduction in emissions of anthropogenic pollutants in a mega city during the week-long holiday gives an opportunity to investigate how the urban air quality reacts to reductions in emission. This study conducted a systematical examination of the “Spring Festival effect” over three consecutive winters in Shenzhen with a population of greater than ten million, and the difference in the conc...

nowadays, air pollution in cities with regard to its harmful outcomes has been turned into one of the serious challenges in urban management. pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and the aerosols that are known to be among the most important factors related to heart, vascular, and lung disease, have underlined public welfare and health, and the organizations concerned with community h...