Ultrastructural Changes of the Digestive Tract of Pomacea canaliculata Exposed to Copper at Lethal Concentration

The present study was undertaken to elucidate the basis of cellular reactions and to verify the suitability of Pomacea canaliculata digestive tract ultrastructure as a biomarker for assessing the Cu pollution in freshwater environments. Two-month-old P. canaliculata were exposed to 96-h lethal concentration of Cu (0.15 mg L-1) for 96 h. Electron microscope investigations showed different alterations of organelles in the epithelial cells lining the esophagus and intestine. The most striking changes were damages to the mitochondria, RER, and nucleus typified by loss of cristae and degeneration of mitochondria; degranulation and fragmentation of RER. In nucleus, karyolysis and rupture of nuclear envelope were observed. These changes were attributed to membrane destabilization and increased membrane permeability to ions under the influence of toxicants or heavy metals. These findings indicate the possibility of using the P. canaliculata as biomonitor for Cu contamination in the freshwater environment.

The Effect of Wafer Edge Cu Contamination on FinFET Devices

The effect of copper (Cu) contamination inside the Si substrate from the wafer edge to the nearby devices has been investigated. After the Cu seed layer deposition, Cu contacted directly with Si at wafer edge where dielectric isolation layer was removed. Under the routine BEOL metallization and after the capping SiON/Si2O layers, SEM and AES analysis located a strip of islets of Cu contaminants. TEM analysis revealed that the seed Cu had interacted with Si substrate to form a stable ?-Cu3Si intermetallic compound that appeared to be planted into the Si substrate at the surface. SIMS analysis from the wafer backside, opposite to this strip of ?-Cu3Si islets at front, showed no Cu detection even after the majority of the backside Si was removed by grinding. Electrical nano-probing did not discern any parametric drift for the nanometer FinFET devices on chips near the edge surface of massive ?-Cu3Si islets in comparison with a reference chip from an uncontaminated wafer center. These results indicate that the formation of ?-Cu3Si, with a well-defined crystalline structure and a relatively stable stoichiometry, immobilizes Cu diffusion inside the Si substrate. In other word, the impact of Cu diffusion in Si has no effect on device performances as long as ?-Cu3Si is not directly formed in the FinFET channel or presents to short any structures within the chip.

Ultra-fast Cu-based A3-coupling catalysts: faceted Cu2O microcrystals as efficient catalyst-delivery systems in batch and flow conditions

Cu(I) catalysts were studied for the synthesis of a propargylamine via A3-coupling of aldehyde, amine, and alkyne, under solvent-free and low loading conditions, using batch microwave or flow thermal heating. We explore ultra-low loading conditions with Cu(I) salts as ultra fast and active catalysts featuring TOFs above 105 h-1. Well-defined octahedral and cubic Cu2O microcrystals were also successfully applied and compared to this reaction. Both types of microcrystals exhibited excellent catalytic activities within minutes, via in-situ generation of low dose of Cu(I) ions within the reaction medium, to achieve TON beyond 2000 and recycling up to 10 times in a flow reactor. The study of the catalytic system demonstrated that the activity was surface-structure dependent and allowed for the design of low Cu contamination A3-coupling systems, affording a product at the decigram scale, with Cu contamination below FDA recommendations for drug synthesis, without the need for a purification procedure.

Estimating The Ability of Lanceleaf Arrowhead (Sagittaria lancifolia ) in Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Copper (Cu)

One of Indonesia's strategies to improve the quality of its economy as a developing country is to boost industrial activity. However, the existence of industry has a detrimental consequence, one of which is heavy metal copper pollution (Cu). Phytoremediation is one of the ecologically acceptable pollutant treatment methods. Phytoremediation approaches using Sagittaria lancifolia plants are thought to be capable of overcoming heavy metal Cu contamination in the environment. This research is a preliminary study into the limitations of the Sagittaria lancifolia plant's capacity to absorb heavy metal Cu. This study employed an experimental technique, which was carried out between March 26 and April 7, 2021, in the Purwodadi Botanic Garden's Greenhouse, with four concentration variations, namely 0 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 3 mg/L, and 5 mg/L. According to the result of this research, the plant Sagittaria lancifolia may remediate heavy metal Cu at a maximum concentration of 5 mg/L. This is due to the fact that at this concentration, the Sagittaria lancifolia plant presents indications of death, particularly severe chlorosis and necrosis.

Does Copper Contamination Affect Soil CO2 Emissions? A Literature Review

Contaminated soils are widespread and contamination is known to impact several biotic soil processes. But it is still not clear to what extent soil contamination affects soil carbon efflux (CO2) occurring through soil microfauna respiration. Regarding the large stocks of organic carbon (Corga) stored in soils, even limited changes in the outputs fluxes may modify atmospheric CO2 concentration with important feedbacks on climate. In this study, we aimed at assessing and quantifying how soil respiration is affected by contamination. For that, we performed a quantitative review of literature focusing on 1) soil heterotrophic respiration measurements thus excluding autotrophic respiration from plants, 2) soil copper contamination, and 3) the influence of pedo-climatic parameters such as pH, clay content or the type of climate. Using a dataset of 389 data analyzed with RandomForest and linear mixed statistical models, we showed a decrease in soil CO2 emission with an increase in soil copper contamination. Specific data from ex-situ spiking experiments could be easily differentiated from the ones originated from in-situ contamination due to their sharper decrease in soil Corga mineralization. Interestingly, ex-situ spikes data provided a threshold in soil Cu contents for CO2 emissions: CO2 emission increased for inputs below 265 mgCu.kg−1 soil and decreased above this concentration. Data from long-term in-situ contaminations due to anthropogenic activities (industrialization, agriculture, … ) also displayed an impact on soil carbon mineralization, much particularly for industrial contaminations (smelter, sewage sludge, … ) with decreased in CO2 emissions when Cu contamination increased. Soil pH was identified as a significant driver of the effect of Cu on CO2 emissions, as soil C mineralization was found to be more sensitive to Cu contamination in acidic soils than in neutral or alkaline soils. Conversely the clay content and the type of climate did not significantly explain the responses in soil C mineralization. Finally, the collected data were used to propose an empirical equation quantifying how soil respiration can be affected by a Cu contamination. The decrease in soil CO2 emissions cannot be related, however, in a role of C sink as it comes together with a decrease in soil microbial biomass.

A converging subset of soil bacterial taxa is permissive to the IncP-1 plasmid pKJK5 across a range of soil copper contamination

ABSTRACT Stressors like metals or antibiotics can affect bacterial community permissiveness for plasmid uptake, but there is little knowledge about long-term effects of such stressors on the evolution of community permissiveness. We assessed the effect of more than 90 years of soil Cu contamination on bacterial community permissiveness (i.e. uptake ability) toward a gfp-tagged IncP-1 plasmid (pKJK5) introduced via an Escherichia coli donor. Plasmid transfer events from the donor to the recipient soil bacterial community were quantified and transconjugants were subsequently isolated by fluorescence activated cell sorting and identified by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Transfer frequency of plasmid pKJK5 was reduced in bacterial communities extracted from highly Cu contaminated (4526 mg kg−1) soil compared to corresponding communities extracted from moderately (458 mg kg−1) Cu contaminated soil and a low Cu reference soil (15 mg kg−1). The taxonomic composition of the transconjugal pools showed remarkable similarities irrespective of the degree of soil Cu contamination and despite contrasting compositions of the extracted recipient communities and the original soil communities. Permissiveness assessed at the level of individual operational taxonomic units (OTUs; 16S rRNA gene 97% sequence similarity threshold) was only slightly affected by soil Cu level and high replicate variability of OTU-level permissiveness indicated a role of stochastic events in IncP-1 plasmid transfer or strain-to-strain permissiveness variability.

Soil copper contamination effect on carbon mineralisation: evidence of a soil CO2 emission decrease from literature review

<p>Among all pollutants, copper (Cu) is of major environmental and toxicological concern with contamination from various origins. Moreover as a cation, Cu is easily complexed by the negatively charged soil organic matter (OM) inducing high concentrations in upper layers of soils where OM dominates. Due to its biotic and abiotic interactions with soil constituents Cu is expected to affect several soil processes among them the soil respiration, but studies provided contrasting results as soil respiration have been shown to decrease or increase with soil contamination depending on the studies.</p><p>In this study, we aimed at assessing how soil respiration is affected by Cu contamination in order to quantifying as a first approach the GHG emissions for a contaminated soil. We performed a quantitative review of literature focusing on soil heterotrophic respiration (thus excluding autotrophic respiration from plants) which aimed at 1) assessing the impact of a copper contamination on soil carbon (C) mineralisation and thus CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, and 2) hierarchizing the determinants of such an impact on C mineralisation compare to the influence of pedo-climatic soil parameters such as pH, clay percentage or the type of climate.</p><p>On the basis of a selection of roughly 390 literature data, global main results showed a decrease in soil CO<sub>2</sub> emission with an increase in soil Cu contamination. Data from ex situ spiking experiments could be easily differentiated from the ones originated from in situ natural contamination due to their sharper decrease in soil organic carbon mineralisation. Interestingly, ex situ spikes data on the short term provided a threshold: an increase in soil CO<sub>2</sub> emissions was noticed for data below total soil Cu content of 180 mg kg<sup>-1</sup> while a decrease was observed above this concentration. On the contrary, long-term in situ contamination due to anthropogenic activities (urbanisation, agriculture …) did not significantly impact soil carbon mineralisation except when we focused on the high inputs of industrial contamination (smelter, composted plant…). Soil pH was found as a variable of interest as acidic soils were more sensitive to Cu contamination for C mineralisation than neutral or alkaline soils, while the % of clay and the type of climate did not add explanation to the variation in C mineralisation. These results are discussed and the collected data allowed us to propose a general equation quantifying how soil respiration can be affected by a Cu contamination.</p>