Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) Lake Region has largest abundance and size distribution of lakes in China. Being relatively away from major human activities, the water quality of these lakes has not attracted concerns in the past. However, dramatic climate change and intensified anthropogenic activities over the past 30 years have exerted multiple pressures on the water environment of the lakes, resulting in elevated nutrient concentrations in major freshwater lakes of the region. Rapid water quality deterioration and eutrophication of the lakes were first found in Lake Hurleg in the northeast of the plateau. Analyses of driving forces associated with these changes indicate that both the intrinsic characteristics of the QTP lakes and climate change were responsible for the vulnerability to human activities than other lakes in different regions of China, with accelerated urbanization and extensive economic development in the lake basin playing a decisive role in creating water pollution events. Under combination pressures from both natural and anthropogenic effect, the increasing rate of nutrient concentrations in Lake Hurleg has been 53-346 times faster than in Lake Taihu and Lake Dianchi during the deterioration stage. The result suggests the current development mode of Lake Hurleg basin is not suitable for setting protection targets for the QTP lake region more broadly due to its extremely poor environmental carrying capacity. To stop worsening the lake water environment condition, it is necessary to review the achievements made and lessons learned from China's fight against lake pollution and take immediate measures, inform policies into the development mode in the QTP lake region, and avoid irreversible consequences and ensure good water quality in the "Asian Water Tower."Soil samples were collected at 61 sites of the national monitoring network for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in South Korea. The target compounds were brominated flame retardants (BFRs), including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDDs), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). The mean concentrations of Σ27 PBDEs, Σ3 HBCDDs, and TBBPA in soil were 222, 17.2, and 4.4 ng/g, respectively, but PBBs were not detected. Industrial sites had statistically higher BFR concentrations than suburban sites but no significant difference compared with urban sites. The commercial deca-BDE mixtures were the most likely source of PBDE contamination in the soil samples, with the minor influence of commercial penta-BDE and octa-BDE mixtures. The profiles of HBCDDs in most soil samples differed from those in the powder types of technical HBCDD mixtures, indicating that they are affected by the HBCDDs contained in commercial products and the conversion of HBCDD diastereoisomers (γ-HBCDD to α-HBCDD) in the environment. The concentrations of Σ27 PBDEs, Σ3 HBCDDs, and TBBPA were significantly correlated with population density, gross domestic product, and the number of companies (p less then 0.01), indicating a direct impact of anthropogenic activities. Significant correlations among BFRs were determined (0.63 less then r less then 0.74, p less then 0.01), suggesting that these pollutants had similar sources. Relatively good correlations (0.44 less then r less then 0.98, p less then 0.01) between BDE-209 and other light BDEs (except for BDE-71, -77, -126, -156, and -205) might result from the degradation of heavy BDEs under anaerobic and natural sunlight conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the most comprehensive soil monitoring data for various BFRs in South Korea. Furthermore, it is the first report on soil contamination by deca-BDE, HBCDDs, and TBBPA in South Korea.A complex relationship exists between copper stress and the accumulation and release of domoic acid (DA) in toxin-producing Pseudo-nitzschia cells. To clarify the changes and role of DA in this process, we exposed the toxin-producing P. multiseries and the non-toxin-producing P. pungens to copper stress (5 and 9 μM) for 96 h. Results showed that P. multiseries grew better than P. pungens under the two aforementioned copper concentrations. DA content in the cells of P. multiseries increased with increased copper stress, and the dissolved DA in the medium under the 9 μM copper treatment increased. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/skf38393-hcl.html DA addition at a 9 μM copper concentration reduced the copper content in P. multiseries cells and cell walls, but did not change the free copper ion content in culture medium. Adding DA to the medium reduced the malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the cells of P. multiseries under copper stress, DA addition also reduced the activities of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) at 5 μM Cu, and the activity of peroxidase (POD) at 9 μM Cu. This suggests that DA may not alleviate copper stress by improving the antioxidant defense system of algal cells, nor can it be complexed with copper ions in the medium to alleviate copper stress. Furthermore, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger N-tert-butyl-α-phenylnitrone (BPN) was used to study the DA accumulated in cells. The BPN addition significantly reduced the accumulation of DA in the cells under copper stress, suggesting that DA content in cells was closely related to ROS. Moreover, further experiments demonstrated that DA addition can improve the growth of P. multiseries under hydrogen peroxide stress. Our results indicate that DA alleviates P. multiseries oxidative damage when expose to copper stress.Previous studies have developed a stable weather index (SWI) based on meteorological elements that adequately represent PM2.5 pollution over the North China Plain (NCP). However, the SWI performs poorly over the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region because air pollution over this region is affected not only by stagnant weather (STAG) but also by transport (TRANS). For example, air pollutants can be transported from the NCP to the YRD by cold fronts. In this study, an obliquely rotated principal component analysis in the T-model is applied to classify the synoptic patterns of winter weather over the YRD region from 2013 to 2018. Among the four identified synoptic patterns, two of which cause TRANS, one pattern is most likely to cause STAG, and one pattern can lead to either STAG or TRANS depending on the location of high pressure around Shandong province. Due to the large contribution (63%) of TRANS to the total PM2.5 pollution events, a transport pollution index (TPI) is constructed to describe the transport features of PM2.