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001), suggesting similar sources of sex hormones. The mean concentration of Σsex hormones varied considerably across the selected provinces/municipality. Notably, the annual slaughter of poultry and swine (R2 = 0.75-0.88), female population (R2 = 0.57-0.58), and soil organic carbon content (R2 = 0.20-0.55) in each province were significantly correlated with the concentrations or mean concentrations of Σsex hormones, Σestrogens, or Σprogestins. This finding implies that these parameters contributed to the occurrence and distribution of sex hormones in the studied soils. Finally, risk quotients for some sex hormones exceeded 0.01, indicating medium or high risks to agroecosystems. This study highlights the importance of designing an optimal manure fertilization strategy in order to mitigate the risks posed by sex hormones in agroecosystems.Anthropogenic climate change, namely climate alterations induced by human activities, is causing some issues to agricultural systems for their vulnerability to extreme events. Forecasts predict a global population increase in the near years that will exacerbate this situation, elevating the global demand for food. It will pose severe concerns in terms of natural resource usage and availability. Agriculture is one of the anthropogenic activities that will be more affected in the future. Climate extremes menace to affect the quantity and quality of crop production severely. Drought, water and soil salinity are considered among the most problematic factors that anthropogenic climate change will increase. This complex and worrying scenario requires the urgent implementation of sustainable measures which are capable of improving crop yield and quality, fostering the robustness and resilience of cropping systems. Among the more current methodology, the use of natural plant biostimulants (PBs) has been proposed to improve plant resistance to abiotic environmental stresses. The advantage of using these substances is due to their effectiveness in improving crop productivity and quality. Therefore, in this review, the most recent researches dealing with the use of natural PBs for improving plant resistance to drought and salinity, in an anthropogenic climate change scenario, have been reported and critically discussed.An issue of significant importance worldwide is the contamination of water with antibiotics giving rise to antibiotic resistance in the environment. Antibiotics such as tetracycline are widely used in agriculture, as such they can pollute water courses, providing a means by which environmental bacteria can evolve antibiotic resistance genes. Biochar can form part of a solution as it is a well-known adsorbent. This material can be efficient in the adsorption of a wide range of pollutants and is inexpensive. An innovative heat pipe reactor was used to produce biochar from excess food and garden materials. This biochar was characterised using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analyser (SEM-EDAX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The biochar produced had an adsorption capacity between 2.98 mg/g and 8.23 mg/g for initial tetracycline concentrations of 20 mg/l and 100 mg/l, respectively. The Freundlich isotherm provided the best fit to the experimental data. Kinetics examination revealed a rapid adsorption of tetracycline during the initial stages. The Elovich equation fitted the experimental data well. This adsorbent could therefore be produced at the site of an agricultural enterprise through the pyrolysis of agriculture waste and then used to reduce the infiltration of antibiotics into the environment.The intensive use of organochlorine pesticides, such as lindane (γ-HCH), and the inadequate management of their wastes, is a huge environmental problem. The lindane production during the last century has generated huge volumes of solid wastes of other HCH isomers, causing hot points of soil and groundwater contamination. The soil treated in this work was obtained from a landfill located in the nearby of an old lindane factory, containing α-HCH and β-HCH as main contaminants. This study addresses for the first time the application of different chemical oxidation treatments, viz. Fenton process (H2O2 + Fe), persulfate (PS) activated by temperature (20 and 40 °C), by alkali (NaOH) and by the combination of alkali and temperature (NaOH, 40 °C) for the remediation of HCH-polluted soils (CHCHs = 155 mg kg-1). The intrinsic characteristics of the soil (high carbonate content) led to high consumption of H2O2 (XH2O2 ≈ 100% at 24 h) and complete iron precipitation, making unappropriated the application of the Fenton process. The efficiency of thermal PS was limited by the low solubility of HCH isomers in the aqueous phase, the high refractoriness of these compounds towards oxidation, and the presence of the contaminants in the form of particulate matter. After 25 days of treatment, a conversion of chlorinated organic compounds (COCs) of 50% was achieved (VL/Wsoil = 2, CPS = 40 g L-1, 40 °C), whereas the application of PS activated by alkali and temperature (40 °C) led to promising results. At pH above 12, HCHs were dehydrochlorinated to trichlorobenzenes, which were further oxidized by hydroxyl radicals. The hydrolysis rate of β-HCH was the limiting step of the process, and it was favored by increasing the reaction temperature. At 40 °C, a conversion of COCs above 95% was achieved (VL/Wsoil = 2, CPS = 40 g L-1, CNaOH = 13.5 g L-1, 14 days) with low oxidant consumption (XPS = 30%).The goal of this work was to investigate the occurrence of contaminants of emerging interest (CEI) in source surface water (SW; river water) and drinking water (DW; tap water) from five drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) in the Province of Québec, Canada. A total of 28 sampling campaigns were conducted to collect SW and DW samples from each DWTP from June 2016 to July 2017. The seven targeted CEI, including acetaminophen, salicylic acid, caffeine, carbamazepine, ibuprofen, sulfamethoxazole and drospirenone, were analyzed using solid-phase extraction-ultra pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPE-UPLC-MS/MS) for all collected water samples. PRT062607 mw The selected CEI were detected in all SW and DW samples, with the exception of drospirenone, which occurred in amounts that were below the limit of detection in one DWTP in June and July 2016. In all the SW samples, caffeine was detected and had the highest median concentration range (12.3-91.0 ng/L), followed by acetaminophen (7.9-85.0 ng/L) and salicylic acid (21.