Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42401150
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Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban surface temperatures is essential for climate-resilient green planning under intensifying heat stress and rapid land-use change. This study investigates seasonal thermal...Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban surface temperatures is essential for climate-resilient green planning under intensifying heat stress and rapid land-use change. This study investigates seasonal thermal behavior at a microscale analytical resolution (200 × 200 m) across Bologna, a densely urbanized city with diverse morphology. Satellite-derived land surface temperature (LST) was statistically downscaled to 10 m resolution and subsequently aggregated to the 200 m grid, and integrated with urban morphological and socioeconomic variables, including built surface, tree cover, population density, land-use classes, and settlement zones. A twofold approach was developed: (1) unsupervised k-means clustering to identify thermally distinct clusters per season, revealing consistent spatial patterns where tree-dominated areas remain cooler and dense urban cores warmer; and (2) an explainable deep learning model based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) to quantify variable contributions using permutation-based feature importance, benchmarked against Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, and XGBoost models. Model performance differences were evaluated using paired statistical tests with significance assessed at accepted thresholds. The CNN demonstrated competitive performance, effectively capturing nonlinear relationships in the data and, when combined with subsequent analysis, providing insights into feature relevance. Built surface was the most influential driver (>37% across all seasons), while tree cover (7%-11%) and population density (5%-35%) showed pronounced seasonal variability, reflecting shifts in vegetation activity and energy demand. This integrative, interpretable modeling framework establishes a foundational step toward a neighborhood-scale urban climate digital twin, capable of linking multi-source data to simulate and explain intra-annual heat dynamics. The findings provide critical insights for adaptive, fine-scale heat mitigation and climate-resilient urban green planning.
Kossey J, Belanger RM, Metcalf JS
… +2 more, Morris Z, Moore PA
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42401149
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Anthropogenic factors have negatively impacted the health of freshwater ecosystems by increasing the occurrence of harmful cyanobacterial blooms and their associated toxins. Water column mixing and reworking of substrate...Anthropogenic factors have negatively impacted the health of freshwater ecosystems by increasing the occurrence of harmful cyanobacterial blooms and their associated toxins. Water column mixing and reworking of substrate by organisms allow for cyanotoxin deposition into sediments and resuspension into the water column. Crayfish rework benthic substrates and are exposed to toxins in both benthic and pelagic phases. Since crayfish are keystone species and ecosystem engineers, understanding the spatial dynamics and effects of aquatic toxins on crayfish is necessary. In this study, crayfish were exposed to low concentrations of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) present in the water column or sediment of a closed system for 108 h. After exposure, crayfish were placed in flow-through mesocosms to monitor foraging and locomotive behaviors and were subsequently dissected to assess membrane integrity of hepatopancreas cells. The presence of EtOH or EtOH/MC-LR in the water column decreased crayfish foraging compared to the control. Crayfish locomotive behaviors increased when the water column was dosed with EtOH or EtOH/MC-LR and when the sediment was dosed with EtOH/MC-LR compared to the control. Non-significant trends suggest that foraging was impaired when MC-LR was present in the water column vs the sediment and that locomotion was enhanced when MC-LR was present in the water column vs the sediment. Additionally, MC-LR present in the water column significantly lowered fluorescein diacetate (FDA) fluorescence per crayfish hepatopancreas cell. A non-significant trend also suggests that the amount of hepatopancreas cells detected was lower when MC-LR was present in the water column vs the sediment. MC-LR was observed to negatively impact crayfish hepatopancreases membrane integrity which could explain the resulting behavioral changes. These findings have implications for crayfish health and for overall ecosystem functioning in environments known for the occurrence of MC-LR.
Renzi N, Rugani B, Penna D
… +4 more, Pacetti T, Caporali E, Bresci E, Castelli G
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42398374
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ISO 14046:2014 is nowadays the international standard for measuring the Water Footprint (WF) of products, processes, and organizations, following a life cycle approach. The Available Water Remaining (AWARE) is an ISO 140...ISO 14046:2014 is nowadays the international standard for measuring the Water Footprint (WF) of products, processes, and organizations, following a life cycle approach. The Available Water Remaining (AWARE) is an ISO 14046-compliant characterization model to measure the WF characterization factors (CFs) at national and sub-national levels considering only the quantity aspect of the impact, named Water Scarcity Footprint (WSF). Despite being established on international consensus, AWARE is calculated with global water balance models and does not entail data of hydrological dynamics at high spatial resolution. Thus, the resulting WSF values may be inaccurate for local studies. We calculate sub-regional CFs at hyper-resolution (sub-basin scale) to highlight water shortages that are not visible using current methods and improve the reliability of WSF of products and processes. Hydrological information (i.e., water availability) was retrieved from the Italian national water balance model with 1 km spatial resolution (BIGBANG 7.0), and water consumption time series (2012-2021) were obtained at the municipality level. Results show that the recalculated CF for Tuscany (= 41.8 m m) is ∼26% higher than the original AWARE's CF, suggesting that the method is not able to capture the variability of water dynamics at the sub-basin level. WSF results for three representative crops (tomato, apple and corn) are influenced by the new CFs, increasing between 50% and 100%. The proposed approach can improve the reliability of WSF assessments and can be extended to the entire Italian territory and other territories in the world.
Yifru BA, Scantlebury L, Tiwari S
… +3 more, Kouba C, Foglia L, Harter T
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42398373
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Groundwater recharge in irrigated agricultural landscapes and surrounding watersheds is critical for sustainable water management and environmental flows. In irrigated Mediterranean regions, quantifying this process is c...Groundwater recharge in irrigated agricultural landscapes and surrounding watersheds is critical for sustainable water management and environmental flows. In irrigated Mediterranean regions, quantifying this process is complicated by substantial interannual and spatial variability in precipitation, irrigation practices, and evapotranspiration (ET), which introduces significant uncertainty. Here, we assess field-scale spatiotemporal variability in potential and actual contributions to aquifer replenishment across Mediterranean intermontane irrigated basins. Potential estimates were derived from a remote sensing ET water-balance residual (RSET-WB) and soil water balance modeling (SWBM), whereas the actual component was inferred from groundwater-level fluctuations using the water-table fluctuation method (WTFM). Results reveal strong spatial and crop-specific contrasts among basins and fields. In SWBM, irrigation-season variability was primarily associated with soil available water storage (AWS) and crop type, whereas non-irrigation season patterns were explained largely by interbasin differences in wet-season precipitation. Crop-specific patterns differed between methods, with alfalfa dominating RSET-WB residual estimates and grain and pasture lands showing greater SWBM-derived dry-season deep percolation below the root zone. Within SWBM, low-AWS fields also showed enhanced growing-season drainage. WTFM estimates indicated relatively balanced water table recharge between wet and dry seasons across most basins, contrasting with the wet-season dominance shown by RSET-WB and SWBM. Long-term averages (2008-2023) from RSET-WB and SWBM suggest that the dry season accounted for about 29-34% of annual potential recharge, while the wet-season fraction ranged from 54% to 78% of precipitation. Collectively, these findings underscore that irrigation return flow and late-season precipitation are critical to sustaining groundwater potential recharge in Mediterranean agricultural lands, supporting managed aquifer recharge strategies such as early- or off-season irrigation in low-AWS pasture grasslands.
Christiani P, Räsänen A, Kuzmin A
… +6 more, Ojanen P, Minkkinen K, Korpelainen P, Rana P, Kumpula T, Isoaho A
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42391899
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Water table (WT) is a key indicator of peatland ecosystem functioning, but its spatiotemporal monitoring is challenging. Optical remote sensing has been used in peatland WT monitoring with varying success, but few studie...Water table (WT) is a key indicator of peatland ecosystem functioning, but its spatiotemporal monitoring is challenging. Optical remote sensing has been used in peatland WT monitoring with varying success, but few studies have tested whether environmental variables-particularly topographic and tree stand structure variables derived from LiDAR-improve modelling performance. We tested whether environmental variables improve (1) uncrewed aerial vehicle-derived spatial WT models in two northern boreal, partly drained aapa mires and (2) satellite image-derived spatiotemporal WT models in a southern boreal drained peatland forest in Finland. We employed random forest regression and variable selection techniques to model WT, using optical remote sensing and environmental variables as predictors. Our results showed that environmental variables related to topography and tree stand structure improve modelling performance, with R increasing by 0.01-0.19 compared to optical-only models. Our findings support the integration of optical and environmental data for spatial and spatiotemporal WT monitoring in boreal peatlands.
Dos Santos Sá AKD, Cutrim MVJ, Soares RDB
… +6 more, da Cruz QS, de Azevedo Cutrim ACG, Nunes YBS, Aride PHR, de Sousa Torquato JH, Sá ARDC
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42391821
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Infectious diseases transmitted through environmentally mediated faecal-oral pathways and climate-sensitive vector-borne routes remain major public health challenges in the Brazilian Amazon, where sanitation deficits int...Infectious diseases transmitted through environmentally mediated faecal-oral pathways and climate-sensitive vector-borne routes remain major public health challenges in the Brazilian Amazon, where sanitation deficits interact with hydroclimatic variability. This study investigated how ENSO-related climate variability, sanitation conditions, and socioenvironmental factors jointly influence disease incidence across seven Amazonian states from 2010 to 2022. Epidemiological, climatic, and socioeconomic datasets were integrated using statistical models and explainable machine learning approaches. Disease incidence exhibited strong heterogeneity across transmission pathways. Climate was the dominant predictive domain for faecal-oral, contact-related, and arboviral diseases (mean SHAP up to 0.871), whereas spatial structure dominated protozoan vector-borne diseases and the combined model (up to 0.628). At the variable level, contributions were concentrated in a limited set of predictors, particularly state effects (up to 0.401) and key climatic variables, including temperature and lagged humidity and rainfall. Lagged climatic variables (t - 1) contributed substantially to model performance, indicating delayed responses to environmental variability. Generalized additive models showed high explanatory capacity, with explained deviance ranging from 68.2% to 94.9% across disease groups. Ensemble models outperformed conventional approaches, capturing nonlinear relationships among predictors. Overall, climate variability acted as a modulating factor within a broader system of structural vulnerability, rather than as an isolated driver. These findings support integrated strategies combining sanitation improvements, climate-informed early warning systems, and spatially targeted public health interventions.
Petrucci R, Muscas D, Orlandi F
… +3 more, Torre L, Bonciarelli L, Fornaciari M
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42391820
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Urban trees play a crucial role in delivering ecosystem services (ES), such as reducing PM10 concentrations, and acting as carbon sinks to combat the climate crisis. While previous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies hav...Urban trees play a crucial role in delivering ecosystem services (ES), such as reducing PM10 concentrations, and acting as carbon sinks to combat the climate crisis. While previous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have highlighted how tree environmental performance largely depends on the species, transforming Urban Forests (UF) composition is a slow, long-term process. Therefore, this study relies on the lessons learnt from the Life Clivut project (LIFE18 GIC/IT/001217) in Mediterranean UF. Specifically, it aims to identify the processes within conventional urban tree management that exert the greatest environmental impact, enabling targeted intervention on pollution hotspots to achieve meaningful short-term reductions in overall environmental burdens. The LCA study, conducted using SimaPro 9.6.0 software, focuses on the city of Perugia (Italy) to assess the environmental benefits of implementing Clivut Best Practices. By analysing the most promising strategies tested in Clivut pilot cities, the study designs a "Future scenario" to further improve the municipal environmental performance by adopting electric tools in UF management. The study is based on ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) and Midpoint (H) LCA impact assessment methods over a 70-year timeframe. Results indicate that the most significant improvements in environmental performance occur between the benchmark scenario and the implementation of Clivut Best Practices (21%), while shifting to the Future scenario determines only a 0.8% improvement. Notably, utilising chipped wood residues as mulch proves to be environmentally beneficial only on large volumes of pruning residues (>2554 Kg). However, the use of electric brush cutters and power saws would reduce the environmental impact of the tools by -2% and - 66%, respectively, while it would be detrimental in the case of car-driven green monitoring activities (+29%).
Chwastowski J, Nowak P, Rupar W
… +2 more, Wikar J, Staroń P
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42385670
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Heavy-metal contamination of water resources remains a major environmental challenge, and the development of low-cost, biologically based technologies for manganese removal has gained increasing attention due to the limi...Heavy-metal contamination of water resources remains a major environmental challenge, and the development of low-cost, biologically based technologies for manganese removal has gained increasing attention due to the limitations of conventional treatment methods. This study investigates the biosorption and bioprocessing potential of two non-pathogenic bacterial strains, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, for the removal of Mn(II) ions from aqueous solutions, addressing several shortcomings in current research, including limited comparative studies between Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, insufficient mechanistic interpretation, and a lack of standardized kinetic-equilibrium evaluations across metal concentrations. Here, we evaluate cell viability, proliferation, adsorption kinetics, and equilibrium behaviour across Mn(II) concentrations of 50-250 mg L. Both strains demonstrated rapid Mn(II) uptake (>80% within 30 min), driven by the abundance of negatively charged surface functional groups and favourable surface charge conditions that facilitate strong Mn(II) binding via electrostatic interactions and chemisorption. The maximum adsorption capacities were 9.56 mg/g for E. coli and 7.52 mg/g for S. aureus. The Freundlich isotherm provided the best fit to equilibrium data, indicating heterogeneous multilayer adsorption, while the pseudo-second-order model best described the kinetics, suggesting chemisorption dominance. FTIR and SEM-EDS analyses indicated changes in surface functional groups and confirmed Mn association with bacterial cells. This work contributes to improving bioremediation strategies by offering a comparative assessment of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and highlights the need for future studies incorporating thermodynamic and molecular-level investigations to expand understanding of metal-microbe interactions.
Loecke TD, Koenigsberger SN, Sikes B
… +5 more, VanderPutten M, Leininger L, Avocat H, Billings SA, Kirk MF
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42385669
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Anaerobic microsites promote soil organic carbon (SOC) storage by shielding it from oxidative degradation. However, relationships between anaerobic microsite abundance and SOC storage in upland soils have yet to be explo...Anaerobic microsites promote soil organic carbon (SOC) storage by shielding it from oxidative degradation. However, relationships between anaerobic microsite abundance and SOC storage in upland soils have yet to be explored on a regional scale, where variation in climate and land use co-occur. This study examines the association of a proxy for soil anaerobic volume and SOC concentration across the North American mid-continent's mean annual precipitation (MAP) gradient (478-1040 mm, ∼1.1 mm km) and three common land uses (native prairie, agriculture, and post-agriculture). We analyzed soil samples for the concentration of 0.5 N hydrochloric acid extractable ferrous iron (Fe(II)), which we use as an integrative proxy of antecedent anaerobic conditions. Soil Fe(II) concentration was highest in soils with minimal sand content and increased with MAP in agricultural and post-agricultural soils but not in native prairie soils. Soil Fe(II) concentration was consistently higher near the soil surface (0-5 cm) than at depth (5-15 or 15-30 cm). We found that Fe(II) was a better predictor of SOC across our 20 study locations and three soil depths than was MAP or soil pH or texture. Furthermore, our results highlight how anaerobic microsites in soils can mediate well-established relationships between SOC concentrations and land use and MAP. Land use had a predictable effect on SOC, but these land use effects on SOC were partly attributed to variation in anaerobic microsites. Specifically, 25% (P < 0.05) of the greater SOC in post-agricultural compared to agricultural sites was associated with increased anaerobic microsite concentration. Additionally, half of the total effect of MAP on SOC was explained by variation in soil Fe(II) (52.6%, P < 0.018). Taken together, our findings indicate that soil anaerobic microsites contribute significantly to SOC stabilization across large-scale precipitation gradients in otherwise well aerated soils, and that current agricultural management destabilizes both anaerobic microsites and SOC.
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42385668
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Coral reef degradation is accelerating globally, yet monitoring efforts remain uneven in scale, accessibility, and resolution. Visual surveys of percent live coral cover offer low-cost but coarse assessments of reef heal...Coral reef degradation is accelerating globally, yet monitoring efforts remain uneven in scale, accessibility, and resolution. Visual surveys of percent live coral cover offer low-cost but coarse assessments of reef health, while more advanced tools (e.g., autonomous underwater vehicles, airborne LiDAR) often remain inaccessible for many low-income, tropical nations. In this study, we used low-cost, high-resolution Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry across 21 sites in Ulithi Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, spanning a gradient of oceanic and lagoonal exposure, fishing pressure, and human population density, as a community-centered approach to assess reef habitat complexity and its relationships to benthic and fish communities. Habitat complexity was not strongly correlated with live coral cover or coral morphotype composition, two common indicators of reef health, but instead, was most closely associated with overall benthic community composition, including the relative abundance of sponges, macroalgae, and turf algae. Contrary to expectations, habitat complexity did not significantly correlate with total fish abundance but was a stronger predictor of fish and benthic assemblage structure across all reef types and exposure zones. Notably, several sites under active community-led management exhibited higher-than-average structural complexity despite their proximity to human settlements, suggesting that local management practices may help preserve reef architecture. SfM photogrammetry provides a scalable, community-accessible monitoring approach to inform adaptive management, particularly in remote or data-limited reef systems facing compounding climate and human pressures.
Cranford HM, de Wilde L, Gallalee S
… +2 more, Ekpo LL, Ellis EM
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42385667
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OBJECTIVE: To address limited substance use prevalence and outcome data available for U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), we analyzed wastewater surveillance data to understand the presence of select parent drugs and their metab...OBJECTIVE: To address limited substance use prevalence and outcome data available for U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), we analyzed wastewater surveillance data to understand the presence of select parent drugs and their metabolites. METHODS: The 24-hour composite wastewater samples were collected at wastewater treatment plants across the St. Croix (STX) and St. Thomas/St. John (STT/STJ) Districts, during October 2023-December 2024. A total of 204 samples were analyzed for cocaine (benzoylecgonine), fentanyl (norfentanyl), methamphetamine, amphetamine, xylazine, and nicotine (trans-3'-hydroxycotinine). Consumption estimates and descriptive statistics were calculated. Linear mixed-effects models (LMEM) were used to analyze the effects of tourism season and District on drug consumption. RESULTS: Cocaine, benzoylecgonine, and trans-3'-hydroxycotinine were detected in 100% of USVI samples tested. STT/STJ exhibited higher consumption of cocaine and nicotine compared with STX, although these differences were significant only during the low tourism season (p < 0.05). There were statistically significant differences in amphetamine and fentanyl consumption between STX and STT/STJ, controlling for tourism (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: USVI estimates varied significantly across the two Districts. Higher cocaine and nicotine use for USVI, particularly for STT/STJ, underscores the need for tailored interventions addressing use of illicit stimulants, tobacco, and other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes.
Panagiotou CF, Martins T, Varvaris I
… +2 more, Eliades M, Stefan C
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jul · PMID 42385666
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This study focuses on the Sado and Ribeira do Alentejo River Basins (southern Portugal), where managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is considered a promising strategy for increasing water availability while preserving groundwa...This study focuses on the Sado and Ribeira do Alentejo River Basins (southern Portugal), where managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is considered a promising strategy for increasing water availability while preserving groundwater quality through low-maintenance and cost-effective techniques such as infiltration basins and trenches. Key factors influencing MAR suitability were jointly selected with stakeholders and include aquifer properties (geochemistry, geometry, lithology, storage capacity, and specific yield), vadose zone thickness, land slope, land use, and topsoil texture. These criteria were integrated within a GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework. Although GIS-MCDA approaches are widely used for MAR screening, most studies rely on deterministic criterion weights and single suitability estimates. To address this limitation, an uncertainty-aware GIS-MCDA framework is proposed that explicitly accounts for spatial heterogeneity and autocorrelation in the weighting process. Stratified stochastic sampling guided by Moran's I correlogram was used to generate multiple weight realizations derived from correlation-based and principal component analysis (PCA)-based approaches. This procedure reduces subjectivity in weight assignment and enables quantification of uncertainty associated with suitability assessment. The PCA-based approach produced wider weight distributions (standard deviation: 0.033-0.073) than the correlation-based approach (0.0007-0.0023), indicating greater variability in criterion importance. Propagation of this uncertainty through the GIS-MCDA framework generated suitability-map ensembles yielding statistical summaries, probability-of-exceedance maps, and agreement diagnostics. Most of the study area exhibits low-to-moderate suitability (SI < 0.6), representing 78% and 65% of the area under the PCA- and correlation-based approaches, respectively. Combining the outputs of both weighting approaches yielded a final classification that distinguishes robust MAR candidate areas, conditionally suitable zones, and areas of low suitability or high uncertainty. The proposed framework provides a transferable screening-level methodology for evidence-based MAR planning and prioritization under uncertainty.
Zhang Y, Zhi G, Guo S
… +23 more, Jin W, Wang L, Du J, Cheng M, Xue Z, Xu Y, Shi R, Lu Y, Dang H, Yang W, Zhang P, Zhang B, Wu J, Shi Z, Liu B, Zhang Y, Gu X, Liu N, Gu T, Zhu Y, Liu C, Dong H, Li S
Sci Total Environ
· 2026 Jun · PMID 42379918
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