Currently, natural and urban ecosystems are affected by different types of atmospheric deposition, which can compromise the balance of the environment. Plastic pollution represents one of the major threats for biota, including lichens. Epiphytic lichens have value as bioindicators of environmental pollution, climate change, and anthropic impacts. In this study, we aim to investigate the lichen bioaccumulation of airborne microplastics along an anthropogenic pollution gradient. We sampled lichens from the Genera Cladonia and Xanthoria to highlight the effectiveness of lichens as tools for passive biomonitoring of microplastics. We chose three sites, a \"natural site\" in Altipiani di Arcinazzo, a \"protected site\" in Castelporziano Presidential estate and an \"urban site\" in the centre of Rome. Overall, we sampled 90 lichens, observed for external plastic entrapment, melt in oxygen peroxide and analysed for plastic entrapment. To validate the method, we calculated recovery rates of microplastics in lichen. Particularly, 253 MPs particles were detected across the 90 lichen samples: 97 % were fibers, and 3 % were fragments. A gradient in the number of microplastic fibers across the sites emerged, with increasing accumulation of microplastics from the natural site (n = 58) to the urban site (n = 116), with a direct relationship between the length and abundance of airborne microplastic fibers. Moreover, we detected the first evidences of airborne mesoplastics entrapped by lichens. On average, the natural site experienced the shortest fibre length and the centre of Rome the longest. No differences in microplastics accumulation emerged from the two genera. Our results indicated that lichens can effectively be used for passive biomonitoring of microplastic deposition. In this scenario, the role of lichens in entrapping microplastics and protecting pristine areas must be investigated. Furthermore, considering the impact that airborne microplastics can have on human health and the effectiveness of lichens as airborne microplastic bioindicators, their use is encouraged.

Many studies highlighted that rivers transported land-based plastics to the sea. However, most of the litter remains stuck in the fluvial ecosystem, also blocked by vegetation. To date, research on riverine macrolitter focused on floating and riverbank monitoring, thus methods to sample riverbank and floating litter have been developed. Concerning rivers, few recent studies highlighted the role of riparian vegetation in entrapping plastics. Given that vegetation represents a large part of riverine ecosystems and that the dynamics of plastics entrapped by vegetation are neglected, it appears pivotal to study in more detail how vegetation contributes to plastic retention. However, as current protocols and guidelines considered only floating and riverbank plastics without providing standardized and updated strategies to monitor litter in vegetation, here we aimed to develop a new standardized protocol and tools to assess plastics in vegetation. Specifically, we focused on unveiling the three-tridimensional structure of vegetation in relation to plastic occurrence, while considering seasonal and hydromorphological aspects. To investigate the trapping effect of vegetation, we developed a three-dimensional vegetation structure index (3DVI) related to plastics. The 3DVI index considers plant structure (i.e., number of branches) and diversity (i.e., species). To test the 3DVI, we conducted an in-situ case study in central Italy. We found that both primary and secondary riparian vegetation blocked plastic litter. In detail, 3DVI correlated with the number of plastics, highlighting that the densest and most diverse communities trap more plastics. Furthermore, we provided for the first time the assessment of seasonality for the macroplastic entrapment by riparian vegetation and a preliminary quantification of wind-blown plastics. Our results should be of interest to promote the development of standardized and harmonized monitoring strategies for riparian habitat management and conservation.

Building a marine ecological security shelter (MESS) has become the main strategy to adapt marine ecological threats in China. As China\'s marine policy lacks a robust framework document, it is necessary to consider whether the policy system can effectively support the construction of MESS. However, the linkage between the construction measures of MESS and related policies is not clear. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of MESS and its connection with policy, by adopting the policy content analysis method to analyze the evolution process of MESS-related policy system. The legislative shortcomings and implementation obstacles of the MESS-related policy system are then summarized and discussed. The results show that from 1981 to 2021 the MESS-related policy system has been continuously improved. However, the policy system\'s support and guarantee capacity for building MESS still needs to be improved. (1) Due to the lack of basic laws and special laws, the coordination among governance subjects and among policies lacks legislative guarantee. (2) The construction of MESS continues the inter-regional and inter-department administrative barriers in collaborative governance of marine environment. To establish an effective collaborative governance model, it is essential to improve the governance structure and mechanism. (3) The government-led governance pattern faces the problem of mechanism failure. The command and control instrument accounts for more than 82%, and the public and enterprises lack strong policy guarantees to participate in marine governance. (4) The policy system\'s adaptability to emerging threats must be improved. Marine policies rarely involve emerging threats such as climate change and new pollutants. Meanwhile, the real-time supervision and monitoring mechanism is weak. The real-time supervision is only accounting for about 10%. Generally speaking, as a complex and long-term system engineering, the construction of MESS will inevitably encounter contradictions in politics, culture, and economy. China should deepen the construction of marine ecological civilization and form a governance concept based on ecosystems. Overall, this paper helps to understand the internal connection between MESS and policy comprehensively and provides a new perspective for improving China\'s marine governance capacity.

The COVID-19 pandemic is considered one of the most significant global disasters in the last years. The rapid increase in infections, deaths, treatment, and the vaccination process has resulted in the excessive use of pharmaceuticals that have entered the environment as micropollutants. Considering the prior information about the presence of pharmaceuticals found in the wastewater of Cali, Colombia, which was collected from 2015 to 2022. The data monitored after the COVID-19 pandemic showed an increase in the concentration of analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs of up to 91%. This increase was associated with the consumption of pharmaceuticals for mild symptoms, such as fever and pain. Moreover, the increase in concentration of pharmaceuticals poses a highly ecological threat, which was up to 14 times higher than that reported before of COVID-19 pandemic. These results showed that the COVID-19 had not only impacted human health but also had an effect on environmental health.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated the demand for disposable masks to an unprecedented level, which also poses a significant risk to the natural environment from the improper treatment or disposal of waste masks. To lower such an environmental risk and maximize the added value of the waste masks, this paper proposed to recycle the waste mask fiber (MF) in combination with the waste cooking oil (WCO) for hot mix asphalt (HMA) application. A series of MF + WCO modified asphalt binders were first designed and fabricated. Their performance properties were then systematically measured. The physical-rheological test results showed that the incorporation of MF can significantly improve the high-temperature rutting resistance performance of asphalt binder. However, it may also lower the asphalt\'s low-temperature anti-cracking performance. The addition of WCO was found to compensate for this low-temperature performance loss effectively, and the MF5% + WCO3% was identified as the best combination. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy test results revealed that the asphalt modified by the MF + WCO involved only a physical modification. The performance test results indicated that the high-temperature permanent deformation resistance and low-temperature anti-cracking of MF5% + WCO3% modified HMA was greatly enhanced, while its moisture stability was slightly reduced but still met the specification requirement. The environmental benefit assessments proved that recycling the waste masks for asphalt paving can provide an enormous added value to pavement engineering in terms of carbon emission reduction and land resource saving.

People vary on their desire for strict norms, and the moral underpinnings of these differences have yet to be explored. The current research examined whether and how moral beliefs held by individuals would affect the extent to which they want their country to be tight (i.e., having strict social norms) or loose (i.e., having more permissive social norms). In particular, the effects of the \"binding\" and \"individualizing\" foundations, which are moral beliefs focused on the importance of groups and individuals, respectively, were examined. We hypothesized that the binding foundations could predict people\'s desire for cultural tightness. We also hypothesized that the perception that one\'s society is threatened may drive this effect. Three studies were conducted using both cross-sectional (Studies 1 and 3) and two-wave (Study 2) designs. Demographic variables and participants\' political orientation effects were controlled. In Study 1, only the binding foundations significantly predicted higher desired tightness. In Study 2, binding foundations predicted desired tightness measured at follow-up. In Study 3, the positive effect of perceived threat on desired tightness via the binding foundations was confirmed. From additional within-paper analyses we also have some evidence of significant relationships, albeit unstable across studies, between desired tightness and individualizing foundations.