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Two-dimensional (2D) iron oxide-hydroxide (FeOOH) nanomaterials as low-cost and environmental-friendly composites are promising materials for application in heavy metal elimination. However, developing 2D FeOOH adsorbents with high adsorption capacity and excellent durability toward Cr (VI) removal is still a challenge due to the intrinsically non-layered structure. Here, a novel polyethyleneimine (PEI) functionalized 2D single-layer nano-raft-like α-FeOOH (α-FeOOH NF) consisted of parallel-aligned ultrathin nanowires was obtained via a facile one-pot hydrothermal approach. It was found that the 2D α-FeOOH NF nanostructure was formed by an in-plane iterative self-assembly mechanism, where α-FeOOH nanoparticles acted as intermediates and iterative seeds with anisotropic growth. The as-prepared 2D α-FeOOH NF possessed porous structure and high surface area, which provided a strong ability to capture the Cr (VI) ions in water. Benefiting from the unique structure and PEI modification, it exhibited fast adsorption kinetic rate, high reusability, and high adsorption capacity toward Cr(VI) removal. The removal mechanism involved adsorption and reduction process. Besides, the molecular dynamic simulations disclosed a facet-dependent Cr(VI) adsorption behavior of α-FeOOH. The maximum adsorption capacity was 67.1 mg/g and the removal efficiency still maintained 83.9 % in the fifth cycle. This work demonstrated that 2D α-FeOOH NF could be a promising adsorbent for Cr(VI) removal.This study investigated the potential of ensiling pretreatment fortified with laccase and a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculant on improving the utilization of alfalfa stems for bioethanol production. The alfalfa stems were ensiled with no additives (Con), 0.04 % laccase (LA), a LAB inoculant containing Pediococcus pentosaceus at 1 × 106 fresh weight (FW) and Pediococcus acidilactici at 3 × 105 cfu/g FW (PP), and a combination of LA and PP (LAP) for 120 days. By reshaping the bacterial community structure of alfalfa stem silages toward a higher abundance of Lactobacillus, the addition of laccase and LAB inoculant either alone or in combination facilitated lactic acid fermentation to reduce fermentation losses, as evidenced by low concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (53.7 to 68.9 g/kg total nitrogen) and ethanol (2.63 to 3.55 g/kg dry matter). All additive treatments increased lignocellulose degradation and soluble sugars concentrations of alfalfa stem silages. Due to delignification and polyphenol removal, glucan and xylan conversion (70.3 % vs. 35.7 % and 51.6 % vs. 27.9 %, respectively) and ethanol conversion efficiency (53.9 % vs. 26.4 %) of alfalfa stems were greatly increased by ensiling fortified with LA versus Con, and these variables (79.8 % for glucan, 58.7 % for xylan, and 60.1 % for ethanol conversion efficiency) were further enhanced with a synergistic effect of LA and PP fortification. The spearman correlation analysis revealed that bioethanol fermentation of silage biomass was closely related to ensiling parameters and total phenols. In conclusion, ensiling pretreatment with LA and PP combination offered a feasible way to efficient utilization of alfalfa stems for bioethanol production.Amid concerns on the myriad of existing chemical stressors in agroecosystems, pesticides and particularly neonicotinoid insecticides are in the forefront. Despite that, these neurotoxic compounds remain the dominant group of insecticides in worldwide use with the added versatility of use in seed coatings. Such use sparks environmental concerns counterbalanced by their reported insecticidal efficacy and potential plant bioactivation. Nonetheless, this alleged double benefit and interconnection expected with neonicotinoids has been little explored particularly when the whole plant phenology is considered. Regardless of the expected efficacy against targeted insect pest species, like whiteflies, neonicotinoids may spark dual effect on plants - negative at higher concentrations, positive at low concentrations, which is consistent with the hormesis phenomenon that may be expressed as a plant bioactivation. This effect may also cascade to the targeted insect species, what deserves attention. Therefore, soybean seeds treated with increasing concentrations of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam were followed throughout their development in greenhouse, recording the plant response and yield, besides their effect in whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci MEAM1). Thiamethoxam application was correlated to leaf contents of thiamethoxam and its metabolite clothianidin. Plant hormesis was found for leaf area and root growth, but not for other plant morphological or physiological parameters, nor plant yield. The insecticide concentration-dependency compromised whitefly population growth without evidence of cascading any plant-mediated hormesis to the insects. Thus, although plant hormesis was recognized with thiamethoxam in treated soybean seeds in relevant parameters, no evidence of plant bioactivation was observed to justify its use with such a secondary objective, nor did this hormesis impair whitefly control.Agricultural ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) is an important indicator reflecting carbon-water coupling, but its control mechanisms in managed fields remain unclear. In order to reveal the influencing factors of WUE in the agricultural field under mulched drip irrigation (DM), we carried out the 8-year continuous observations in a maize field from Northwestern China. The structural equation model, relative importance analysis and principal component analysis were used to quantify the regulation effects of environmental and biological factors on WUE at different time scales, in different growth stages and under different hydrothermal conditions. The results showed that annual WUE varied between 2.18 g C Kg-1 H2O and 3.60 g C Kg-1 H2O, with a multi-year mean of 2.91 g C Kg-1 H2O. The total effects of air temperature on the daily WUE in the whole growth period, the vegetative growth stage, the warm and dry years, the cold and wet years, and the warm and wet years were the largest, with values of 0.61, 0.80, 0.70, 0.70 and 0.91 respectively. However, vapor pressure deficit and net radiation had the largest total effect in the cold and dry years (-0.63) and the reproductive growth stage (-0.49), respectively. Leaf biomass played a leading role in regulating the daily and interannual WUE, and the relative importance of leaf biomass to WUE in the vegetative growth stage was up to 75 %. In the warm and wet years, the relative importance of root biomass to WUE was 33 %, slightly higher than that of leaf biomass (31 %). At the same time, we found that Ta has the potential to increase WUE under future climate warming. Our results improve the understanding of carbon-water coupling mechanisms and provide important enlightenment on how crop ecosystems should adapt to future climate change.Artificial light at night, often referred to as 'light pollution', is a global environmental problem that threatens many nocturnal organisms. One such species is the European common glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca), in which reproduction relies on the ability of sedentary bioluminescent females to attract flying males to mate. Previous studies show that broad-spectrum white artificial light interferes with mate attraction in this beetle. However, much less is known about wavelength-specific effects. In this study, we experimentally investigate how the peak wavelength (color) of artificial light affects glow-worm mate attraction success in the field by using dummy females that trap males landing to mate. Each dummy was illuminated from above by either a blue (peak wavelength 452 nm), white (449 nm), yellow (575 nm), or red (625 nm) LED lighting, or light switched off in the control. We estimated mate attraction success as both the probability of attracting at least one male and the number of males attracted. In both cases, mate attraction success depended on the peak wavelength of the artificial light, with short wavelengths (blue and white) decreasing it more than long wavelengths (yellow and red). Hence, adjusting the spectrum of artificial light can be an effective measure for mitigating the negative effects of light pollution on glow-worm reproduction.As an essential environmental property, the aqueous solubility quantifies the hydrophobicity of a compound. It could be further utilized to evaluate the ecological risk and toxicity of organic pollutants. Concerned about the proliferation of organic contaminants in water and the associated technical burden, researchers have developed QSPR models to predict aqueous solubility. However, there are no standard procedures or best practices on how to comprehensively evaluate models. this website Hence, the CRITIC-TOPSIS comprehensive assessment method was first-ever proposed according to a variety of statistical parameters in the environmental model research field. 39 models based on 13 ML algorithms (belonged to 4 tribes) and 3 descriptor screening methods, were developed to calculate aqueous solubility values (log Kws) for organic chemicals reliably and verify the effectiveness of the comprehensive assessment method. The evaluations were carried out for exhibiting better predictive accuracy and external competitiveness of the MLR-1, XGB-1, DNN-1, and kNN-1 models in contrast to other prediction models in each tribe. Further, XGB model based on SRM (XGB-1, C = 0.599) was selected as an optimal pathway for prediction of aqueous solubility. We hope that the proposed comprehensive evaluation approach could act as a promising tool for selecting the optimum environmental property prediction methods.Re-wetting of agricultural areas reclaimed by draining peatlands reportedly entails risks of nutrient loads downstream because of leaching of dissolved nutrients from pools in the soil. On floodplain fens, nutrient retention and runoff function have been recognized as dependent upon the hydrological environments of re-wetted agricultural peatland (RAP). Although many studies have been conducted for artificially re-wetted agricultural peatlands (artificial RAPs), knowledge on naturally re-wetted agricultural peatlands (natural RAPs) has been lacking. This study assessed the natural re-wetting of agricultural areas in floodplain fens in terms of risks of nutrient loading in the basin of Kushiro Mire, northern Japan. Flooding of the adjacent river caused by heavy rainfall remarkably increased the water flow, and the inflow and outflow fluxes of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) of a test plot in the natural RAP. Flood waters supplied mainly inorganic nutrients to the test plot, including NO3-N and PO4-P. Larger amounts of dissolved organic N and P, NH4-N, and PO4-P that had accumulated in surface water and surface groundwater in the plot flowed out. Consequently, the test plot represented net runoff of 3 and 0.4 mg m-2 day-1 as total N and total P, respectively, for the average of the whole observation period. The test plot was a source of N loading downstream, which was contrary to results obtained for artificial RAPs in many studies. However, the test plot showed a smaller amount of net phosphorus runoff. Our findings suggest that water level fluctuation and river flood water inflow affect the nutrient retention and runoff functions of RAPs. Repeated inundated and dried conditions, with no continuous inflow of river water, explain the nutrient runoff in the test plot.