Direct and Indirect Impacts of Disposable Face Masks and Gloves on Freshwater Benthic Fauna and Sediment Biogeochemistry

To reduce virus transmission, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) increased substantially during the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a result, disposable face masks and gloves made from plastic polymers rapidly entered the environment, with little understanding of ecological impacts. Many plastic polymers sink to the bottom of freshwater bodies, either immediately or following biofouling and degradation, posing a potential risk to the benthos. We assessed the acute and chronic ecotoxicity of disposable polypropylene face masks and nitrile gloves on Lumbriculus variegatus, a benthic ecosystem engineer. In microcosm experiments, we also investigated direct impacts on sediment biogeochemistry and indirect impacts mediated by toxicity to L. variegatus. Exposure to fragments of both masks and gloves decreased vitality of L. variegatus. Gloves were acutely toxic, but mask toxicity was mediated by physical interactions. Glove fragments significantly decreased nitrogen removal and phosphorus release to the water column. Both materials suppressed the ecosystem engineering role of L. variegatus by decreasing its impact on microalgal primary production, net ecosystem metabolism, and sediment nitrate consumption. The influx of PPE to the environment may have profound and cascading negative impacts on benthic organisms and ecosystem function, suggesting the need for improved management of PPE litter. © 2022 American Chemical Society.

Direct and Indirect Impacts of Disposable Face Masks and Gloves on Freshwater Benthic Fauna and Sediment Biogeochemistry

To reduce virus transmission, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) increased substantially during the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a result, disposable face masks and gloves made from plastic polymers rapidly entered the environment, with little understanding of ecological impacts. Many plastic polymers sink to the bottom of freshwater bodies, either immediately or following biofouling and degradation, posing a potential risk to the benthos. We assessed the acute and chronic ecotoxicity of disposable polypropylene face masks and nitrile gloves on Lumbriculus variegatus, a benthic ecosystem engineer. In microcosm experiments, we also investigated direct impacts on sediment biogeochemistry and indirect impacts mediated by toxicity to L. variegatus. Exposure to fragments of both masks and gloves decreased vitality of L. variegatus. Gloves were acutely toxic, but mask toxicity was mediated by physical interactions. Glove fragments significantly decreased nitrogen removal and phosphorus release to the water column. Both materials suppressed the ecosystem engineering role of L. variegatus by decreasing its impact on microalgal primary production, net ecosystem metabolism, and sediment nitrate consumption. The influx of PPE to the environment may have profound and cascading negative impacts on benthic organisms and ecosystem function, suggesting the need for improved management of PPE litter.

Dispersal of bacteria and stimulation of permafrost decomposition by Collembola

Contrary to most soils, permafrost soils have the atypical feature of being almost entirely deprived of soil fauna. Abiotic constraints on the fate of permafrost carbon after thawing are increasingly understood, but biotic constraints remain scarcely investigated. Incubation studies, essential to estimate effects of permafrost thaw on carbon cycling, typically measure the consequences of permafrost thaw in isolation from the topsoil and thus do not account for the effects of altered biotic interactions because of e.g. colonization by soil fauna. Microarthropods facilitate the dispersal of microorganisms in soil, both on their cuticle (ectozoochory) and through their digestive tract (endozoochory), which may be particularly important in permafrost soils, considering that microbial community composition can strongly constrain permafrost biogeochemical processes.Here we tested how a model species of microarthropod (the CollembolaFolsomia candida) affected aerobic CO2 production of permafrost soil over a 25 d incubation. By using Collembola stock cultures grown on permafrost soil or on an arctic topsoil, we aimed to assess the potential for endo- and ectozoochory of soil bacteria, while cultures grown on gypsum and sprayed with soil suspensions would allow the observation of only ectozoochory.The presence of Collembola introduced bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) absent in the no-Collembola control, regardless of their microbiome manipulation, when considering presence–absence metrics (unweighted UniFrac metrics), which resulted in increased species richness. However, these introduced ASVs did not induce changes in bacterial community composition as a whole (accounting for relative abundances, weighted UniFrac), which might only become detectable in the longer term.CO2 production was increased by 25.85 % in the presence of Collembola, about half of which could be attributed to Collembola respiration based on respiration rates measured in the absence of soil. We argue that the rest of the CO2 being respired can be considered a priming effect of the presence of Collembola, i.e. a stimulation of permafrost CO2 production in the presence of active microarthropod decomposers. Overall, our findings underline the importance of biotic interactions in permafrost biogeochemical processes and the need to explore the additive or interactive effects of other soil food web groups of which permafrost soils are deprived.

Building a Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure to Address Global Grand Challenges for Macrosystem Ecology

The development of several large‐, “continental”‐scale ecosystem research infrastructures over recent decades has provided a unique opportunity in the history of ecological science. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GN1 -https://media.proquest.com/media/hms/PFT/1/tH74N?_a=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%2BgIBWYIDA1dlYooDHENJRDoyMDIyMDUyNzE1MjE0NjA4MzoxMjE1MjM%3D&_s=X56Bn7jbW%2FHzqBBHc7s64wnr4lo%3D ERI) is an integrated network of analogous, but independent, site‐based ecosystem research infrastructures (ERI) dedicated to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. Bringing together these ERIs, harmonizing their respective data and reducing uncertainties enables broader cross‐continental ecological research. It will also enhance the research community capabilities to address current and anticipate future global scale ecological challenges. Moreover, increasing the international capabilities of these ERIs goes beyond their original design intent, and is an unexpected added value of these large national investments. Here, we identify specific global grand challenge areas and research trends to advance the ecological frontiers across continents that can be addressed through the federation of these cross‐continental‐scale ERIs.

Cooperative Evolution of China's Excellent Innovative Research Groups from the Perspective of Innovation Ecosystem: Taking an "Environmental Biogeochemistry" Research Innovation Group as a Case Study.

Research, understanding, and prediction of complex systems is an important starting point for human beings to tackle major problems and emergencies such as global warming and COVID-19. Research on innovation ecosystem is an important part of research on complex systems. With the rapid development of sophisticated industries, the rise of innovative countries, and the newly developed innovation theory, innovation ecosystem has become a new explanation and new paradigm for adapting to today's global innovation cooperation network and the scientific development of complex systems, which is also in line with China's concept of building an innovative country and promoting comprehensive innovation and international cooperation with scientific and technological innovation as the core. The Innovative Research Group at Peking University is the most representative scientific and technological innovation team in the frontier field of basic research in China. The characteristics of its organization mechanism and dynamic evolution connotation are consistent with the characteristics and evolution of innovation ecosystem. An excellent innovative research group is regarded as a small innovation ecosystem. We selected the "Environmental Biogeochemistry" Innovation Research Group at Peking University as a typical case in order to understand and analyze the evolution of cooperation among scientific and technological innovation teams, improve the healthy development as well as internal and external governance of this special small innovation ecosystem, promote the expansion of an innovation team cooperation network and the improvement of cooperation quality, promote the linkage supports of funding and management departments, and improve their scientific and technological governance abilities. Through scientometrics, visual analysis of knowledge maps, and an exploratory case study, we study the evolution process and development law of team cooperation. It is found that the main node authors of the cooperation network maintain strong cooperation frequency and centrality, and gradually strengthen with the expansion of the cooperation network and the evolution of time. Driven by the internal cooperative governance of the team and the external governance of the funding and management departments, this group has gradually formed a healthy, orderly, open, and cooperative special innovation ecosystem, which is conducive to the stability and sustainable development of the national innovation ecosystem and the global innovation ecosystem.