Target Analysis and Machine Learning Unveil Pharmaceutical Fate and Removal Prediction in Full-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plants with Diverse Processes
Available online 10 November 2026
Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment primarily originate from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Characterizing their fate and predicting removal efficiencies during pandemics is critical for...
Linking Phytoplankton Cellular Phosphorus Storage to Its Contribution to Total Phosphorus in a Large Drinking Water Reservoir
Available online 10 November 2026
Phytoplankton blooms frequently occur even when dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) is below detection limits, partly because cellular phosphorus (P) can sustain growth under P-limited conditions....
Revisiting Sulfur-Mediated Biological Processes: From Natural Biogeochemistry to Next-Generation Wastewater Treatment Engineering
Available online 10 November 2026
Sulfur metabolism, one of the oldest metabolic systems in the biosphere, plays a central role in coordinating elemental cycling in natural ecosystems. However, modern wastewater engineering has traditionally...
Acute Toxicity Assessment of Heavy Metals Arising from Deep-Sea Polymetallic Nodule Mining in Mytilus Coruscus: Bioconcentration, Oxidative Stress, Tissue Damage, and Gene Expression
Available online 10 November 2026
Deep-sea polymetallic nodules are rich in multiple critical metals and abundant reserves essential for green energy, infrastructure, and military applications. However, during their mining process,...
From Biogeochemical Nexus to Static Conduit: Large-Scale Water Diversion Reshapes Dissolved Organic Matter Molecular Networks
Available online 1 November 2026
Large-scale hydraulic infrastructure has profoundly affected global aquatic ecosystems. However, its influence on the molecular-level transformations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is not well understood....
Dynamic Diagnosis and Integrated Intelligent Management of Urban Drainage Ecological Risks
Available online 1 November 2026
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-throughput environmental sensing technologies are transforming conventional approaches to urban drainage ecological risk management. Urban drainage...
Enhancement Pathways for Urban Water Ecological Resilience
Available online 1 November 2026
Enhancing urban water ecological resilience (UWER) is increasingly essential as climate change, rapid urbanization, and ecological degradation intensify pressures on urban aquatic systems. However,...
Nitrogen Pollution in the Water Source Region of the Middle Route of China’s South-to-North Water Diversion Project: A Review of Research Progress and Challenges
Available online 1 November 2026
The Danjiangkou Reservoir and the upper reaches of the Han River constitute the primary water source region of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which supplies freshwater...
Evolution of Trophic Status and Its Driving Factors in Danjiangkou Reservoir
Available online 1 November 2026
Understanding the changes in trophic status within the Danjiangkou Reservoir, the primary water source for the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, is essential for effective...
Distribution, Host Association, and Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Water-Receiving Area of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project
Available online 1 November 2026
Rapid urbanization has created heterogeneous aquatic niches in megacities; however, how functionally distinct water bodies shape the environmental resistome remains poorly understood. To elucidate this,...
Distribution, host association, and spread of antibiotic resistance genes in the water-receiving area of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project
Available online 11 July 2026
Rapid urbanization has created heterogeneous aquatic niches in megacities, yet how functionally distinct water bodies shape the environmental resistome remains poorly understood. We analyzed 30 surface-water...
Toward the Cross-Scale and Intelligent Assessment of Aquatic Ecosystem Health: A Paradigm Shift from Description to Prediction
June 2026
Freshwater ecosystems are undergoing unprecedented degradation driven by accelerating global change and intensive human activity, exposing the fundamental limitations of conventional indicator-based...
Priorities and Future Outlook for Cross-Country Collaboration in Surface Water Quality Modeling: Collective Insights from China, Australia, and New Zealand
June 2026
Water quality modeling is a powerful tool for analyzing the spatiotemporal dynamics of water quality and its key drivers. It is determined by the different development stages, management priorities,...
Panning for Gold: Finding Representative Water Quality Dynamic Data for Data-Efficient Machine Learning Through Koopman Analysis
June 2026
The perception and prediction of water quality dynamics are crucial for optimizing water system management in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Various machine learning (ML) methods have been employed...
Challenges and Future Perspectives in the Study of Watershed Aquatic Ecosystem Health
June 2026
In the context of accelerating climate change, intensifying human activities, and expanding watershed development, the degradation of aquatic ecosystems and the limitations of conventional management...
Beyond the Boundary: Bridging Earth Science and Environmental Engineering for Waterborne Pathogen Mitigation
June 2026
Waterborne pathogens represent a persistent threat to human health with recalcitrant transmission dynamics shaped by the intricate interplay between the natural environment and anthropogenic disturbances....
Monitoring and Assessment of Aquatic Ecosystems in the Yangtze River Basin
June 2026
Monitoring and assessing aquatic ecosystems are essential for diagnosing ecological conditions and supporting ecosystem management at the basin scale. In response to the strategic transition from a...
The Overlooked “Toxic Trap” in No-take Marine Reserves
April 2026
Driven by the ambitious global “30×30” biodiversity target, the unprecedented expansion of no-take marine reserves (NTRs) has yielded significant ecological dividends, notably the remarkable recovery...
Reframing Dams as Basin Governance Platforms: Engineering Safety, System Operations, and Digital-Intelligent Governance in China
April 2026
Dams are central to securing flood protection, water supply, irrigation, hydropower, navigation, and ecological functions. However, their global record reveals persistent dilemmas, including reservoir...
6∶2 Chlorinated Polyfluorinated Ether Sulfonic Acid (6∶2 Cl-PFESA) Exposure Exacerbates the Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes during Anaerobic Digestion
April 2026
Perfluoroalkyl sulfonate alternatives, such as 6∶2 chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonic acid (6∶2 Cl-PFESA), are increasingly detected in wastewater treatment systems, yet their ecological risks...
Toward Integrated Ecological Operation of River Basins in Arid Regions: Challenges and Emerging Solutions
April 2026
River ecosystems in arid regions are undergoing rapid ecological degradation due to intensive water withdrawal and hydropower development. Ecological operation has emerged globally as a critical approach...
Integrated Framework for Lake Ecological Risk Assessment: Prioritizing Areas and Uncovering Mechanisms across Aquatic–Terrestrial Boundaries
April 2026
Lake ecosystems are increasingly threatened by climate change and human activities. However, conventional ecological risk assessments are often limited to a single perspective and frequently overlook...
Precision Accounting and Targeted Allocation of High-Quality Water in Protected Areas: A Source–Flow–Use Framework Applied to Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park
February 2026
High-quality water resources (HQWRs) generated in ecological conservation areas, such as national parks, constitute critical ecosystem products. However, conventional water allocation frameworks often...
Three Waters Synthesis and Evolution with Sustainable Development Goals in the Yellow River Basin from 2015–2022
February 2026
China’s “Three Waters” system (water environment, resource, and ecology) forms a critical foundation for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, conventional management tools often...
A 10-year investigation of the impact of a wastewater treatment plant upgrade on nitrogen-cycling microorganisms and DNA viruses in receiving river
February 2026
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are upgraded to improve the quality of river water downstream, but the effects of such upgrades on aquatic microbial and viral communities remain poorly understood....