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Accumulating heavy metal contamination in soils caused by industrial waste, fertilizer, and wastewater irrigation is a matter of grave concern for the environment and food safety. In recent years, remediation agents with the characteristics of economy, high efficiency, and simple operation have become a popular choice for remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil. By far, there are relatively few studies evaluating the effects on remediation agents for their both heavy metal passivation and soil fertility promotion. This study investigated the effects of a remediation agent on Cd passivation, soil pH, and heavy metal uptake by rice crops. Eight treatments were used to evaluate the effect of Cd immobilization in soil. Changes in soil pH and soil Cd fractions were monitored during incubation for 30 days. The field study was conducted during the whole growth stages of rice crops, samples of rice plants and soil at the tillering, booting, and harvesting stages were collected and tested. Cd fractions were extracted from soil at different stages to investigate the effects of various treatments on Cd uptake and bioaccumulation in rice plants. The results show that composite mineral remediation agents composed of mineral fertilizer and synthetic zeolite could effectively improve the pH of soil in incubation experiments and field experiments. Composite mineral remediation agents were effective in stabilizing Cd and increasing rice yield. Mineral fertilizer and Synthetic zeolite played an important role in the tillering stage and harvesting stage of rice growth in field, respectively. Group A4 (mineral fertilizer: synthetic zeolite at mass ration of 10:6) had the best results. Compared with control experiment (CK), HOAc extractable Cd of A4 group decreased by 6%, oxidizable Cd of A4 group increased by 2%, and the residue Cd of A4 group increased by 4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haze pollution has been a public health issue. The skin microbiota, as a component of the first line of defense, is disturbed by environmental pollutants, which may have an impact on human health. A total of 74 skin samples from healthy students were collected during haze and nonhaze days in spring and winter. Significant differences of skin fungal community composition between haze and nonhaze days were observed in female and male samples in spring and male samples in winter based on unweighted UniFrac distance analysis. Phylogenetic diversity whole-tree indices and observed features were significantly increased during haze days in male samples in winter compared to nonhaze days, but no significant difference was observed in other groups. Dothideomycetes, Capnodiales, Mycosphaerellaceae, etc. were significantly enriched during nonhaze days, whereas Trichocomaceae, Talaromyces , and Pezizaceae were significantly enriched during haze days. Thus, five Talaromyces strains were isolated, and an in vitro culture experiment revealed that the growth of representative Talaromyces strains was increased at high concentrations of particulate matter, confirming the sequencing results. Furthermore, during haze days, the fungal community assembly was better fitted to a niche-based assembly model than during nonhaze days. Talaromyces enriched during haze days deviated from the neutral assembly process. Our findings provided a comprehensive characterization of the skin fungal community during haze and nonhaze days and elucidated novel insights into how haze exposure influences the skin fungal community. IMPORTANCE Skin fungi play an important role in human health. Particulate matter (PM), the main haze pollutant, has been a public environmental threat. However, few studies have assessed the effects of air pollutants on skin fungi. Here, haze exposure influenced the diversity and composition of the skin fungal community. In an in vitro experiment, a high concentration of PM promoted the growth of Talaromyces strains. The fungal community assembly is better fitted to a niche-based assembly model during haze days. We anticipate that this study may provide new insights on the role of haze exposure disturbing the skin fungal community. It lays the groundwork for further clarifying the association between the changes of the skin fungal community and adverse health outcomes. Our study is the first to report the changes in the skin fungal community during haze and nonhaze days, which expands the understanding of the relationship between haze and skin fungi., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.