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High-tech industrial agglomeration is conducive to boosting technological progress, promoting industrial structure upgrading and realizing economic transformation, and certainly affects the overall industrial environmental efficiency. However, few recent studies have focused on its impact on industrial environmental efficiency from a green perspective. In the context of promoting the development of green economy, it is of great significance to clarify the links between high-tech industrial agglomeration and industrial environmental efficiency. In this research, we first analyzed the theoretical mechanism of the impact of high-tech industrial agglomeration and its spatial spillover effects on industrial environmental efficiency and then made an empirical analysis based on the panel data of 29 provinces and cities in China from 2003 to 2016. During the research, Super-DEA method, ESDA method and spatial Dubin model are used. The result shows that: (1) There is a significant spatial positive correlation between China's industrial environmental efficiency and high-tech industrial agglomeration; (2) high-tech industrial agglomeration has improved the local industrial productivity and industrial technology level through scale effects and technical effects, which has accordingly significantly enhanced the corresponding environmental efficiency; (3) through the association of regional industries, the cross-regional cooperation of enterprises and the formation of innovation networks, high-tech industrial agglomeration promotes the spillover of knowledge and technology among regions, improves the level of industrial technology in neighboring regions, and enhances the industrial environmental efficiency in neighboring regions. All these three is helpful to re-evaluate the development mode of high-tech industry agglomeration and to formulate relevant government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has the largest antimony (Sb) reserves and Sb production and consumption levels in the world. The Sb emissions from PET products have caused great concern regarding human health and environmental risks with the widespread use of Sb-containing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) products in China. However, the main sources and magnitude of Sb risks in the PET life cycle for humans and the environment are unknown. Therefore, the PET cycle is constructed. And we further quantified the Sb flow and emissions in the PET life cycle and mass ranges of Sb entering the biosphere in each stage. The results show that in the PET life cycle, Sb emissions and risks are the highest in the manufacturing and use stage, especially in the fiber manufacturing and use stage, which is much higher than that of PET bottles, film, and engineering plastics. The Sb emissions and risks in the production stage are only next to that in the manufacturing and use stage, and a large amount of Sb directly enters the biosphere in this stage. It is worth noting that thousands of tons of Sb enter the biosphere in the reclamation and market trade stage. The study reveals the Sb emissions and risks during the PET life cycle and provides suggestions for Sb management in the PET life cycle to reduce the risks of Sb to humans and the environment. Image 1 • We analyzed the flow and environmental release of Sb from PET products in China. • In the life cycle of PET, Sb emission mainly comes from the M&U stages. • During the M&U stage, a total of 4.6–5.9 Gg of Sb entered the biosphere. • Sb leaching and exposure from PET products should be taken seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River Estuary and Laizhou Bay are located on the northern Shandong Peninsula in the Bohai Sea in China and have been polluted by intensive anthropogenic activity. However, few studies have focused on the effect of these activities on the microbial communities and their ecological functions in this area. In this study, the combination of 16S rDNA gene sequencing and GeoChip technology was used to analyzed the microbial community component and their functional genes. Thaumarchaeot and Bacteroidetes are the most abundant phyla. The results of correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) showed water depth (r 2  = 0.76, P = 0.005), total Na content (r 2  = 0.63, P = 0.021) and total Ca content (r 2  = 0.53, P = 0.05) in the sediments were the most significant environmental factors affecting the microbial community. The diversity of the microbial community and signal intensity of functional genes at nearshore sites (N sites) were higher than that at the offshore sites (O sites), but the component of microbial community and functional genes was similar in general. Functional genes for C, N, P and S cycle were detected at both nearshore and offshore sites, which illustrated that microbial communities were active in nutrient cycle. Proteobacteria contributes significantly to material cycle in microbial community. In addition, functional genes related to organic remediation and metal detoxification are also abundant. It indicated that the environmental pollution caused by anthropogenic activities has greatly affected the microbial community components and their biochemical functions in the Yellow River Estuary and surrounding areas. This study reveals the effect of anthropogenic activities on microbial communities and provides the basis for environmental management., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)