In gonochoristic vertebrates, sex determination mechanisms can be classified as genotypic (GSD) or temperature-dependent (TSD). Some cases of TSD in fish have been questioned, but the prevalent view is that TSD is very common in this group of animals, with three different response patterns to temperature. We analyzed field and laboratory data for the 59 fish species where TSD has been explicitly or implicitly claimed so far. For each species, we compiled data on the presence or absence of sex chromosomes and determined if the sex ratio response was obtained within temperatures that the species experiences in the wild. If so, we studied whether this response was statistically significant. We found evidence that many cases of observed sex ratio shifts in response to temperature reveal thermal alterations of an otherwise predominately GSD mechanism rather than the presence of TSD. We also show that in those fish species that actually have TSD, sex ratio response to increasing temperatures invariably results in highly male-biased sex ratios, and that even small changes of just 1–2°C can significantly alter the sex ratio from 1∶1 (males∶females) up to 3∶1 in both freshwater and marine species. We demonstrate that TSD in fish is far less widespread than currently believed, suggesting that TSD is clearly the exception in fish sex determination. Further, species with TSD exhibit only one general sex ratio response pattern to temperature. However, the viability of some fish populations with TSD can be compromised through alterations in their sex ratios as a response to temperature fluctuations of the magnitude predicted by climate change.

The current socio-economic, environmental and public health challenges that countries are facing clearly need common-defined strategies to inform and support our transition to a sustainable economy. Here, the technology-critical elements (which includes Ga, Ge, In, Te, Nb, Ta, Tl, the Platinum Group Elements and most of the rare-earth elements) are of great relevance in the development of emerging key technologies—including renewable energy, energy efficiency, electronics or the aerospace industry. In this context, the increasing use of technology-critical elements (TCEs) and associated environmental impacts (from mining to end-of-life waste products) is not restricted to a national level but covers most likely a global scale. Accordingly, the European COST Action TD1407: Network on Technology-Critical Elements (NOTICE)—from environmental processes to human health threats, has an overall objective for creating a network of scientists and practitioners interested in TCEs, from the evaluation of their environmental processes to understanding potential human health threats, with the aim of defining the current state of knowledge and gaps, proposing priority research lines/activities and acting as a platform for new collaborations and joint research projects. The Action is focused on three major scientific areas: (i) analytical chemistry, (ii) environmental biogeochemistry and (iii) human exposure and (eco)-toxicology.

11 páginas, 3 tablas, 4 figurasThe Northern coast of Galicia, NW Iberian Peninsula, exhibits a variety of geological features: Ortegal allochthonous complex, Ollo-de-Sapo autochthonous domain and massifs of Bares, Barqueiro and San-Ciprian. In order to examine the influence of terrestrial lithologies on coastal sediments, 103 samples were collected in the Rias of Ortigueira, Barqueiro and Viveiro, their neighbouring shelf and the estuaries of Mera, Sor and Landro rivers. Aluminium, Fe, Sc, particulate inorganic and organic carbon and rare earth elements (REE) were determined in the 6) near Cape Ortegal and the innermost ria zones. The ratio between light and heavy REE (L/H) showed lower values (4–11) around Cape Ortegal and the shelf while higher ratios (15–23) were detected in west of the Cape Estaca-de-Bares and in the inner Viveiro Ria due to elevated contributions of La and Ce. The L/H values normalised to ES reflects the importance of HREE in the adjacent area to Ortegal Complex (LN/HN1.4) in the inner estuaries and west Cape Estaca-de-Bares. The highest REE individual ES normalised were measured in fine-grained sediments of the Mera and Sor estuaries. Sediments from the eastern shelf of Cape Ortegal presented enhanced ratios only for HREE. These results indicate that distribution of REE in the northern Galician region is highly depending on the neighbouring lithological pattern, contrasting with the situation found in the western Galician shelf and the Bay of Biscay. Lanthanides can, thus, provide a useful tool to follow the sediment pathway in the land–sea boundary zones, denoting continental geochemical imprint or fluvial outputs accordingly to the existing hydrological and geological conditionsCICYT project ‘Influence of meteorological forcing, land geochemistry and estuarine zone in the hydrodynamic, biogeochemical cycle of trace metal and rare earth and plankton transport in the Northern Galician Rias (NW Spain)’, ref. CTM2007-62546-C03/MAR, in cooperation with the Spanish–Portuguese Action ref. 2007PT0021Peer reviewe

Alumina (Al₂O₃) with an average particle size of 63 μm was modified with the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and then applied to (i) solid phase extraction and separation of both thallium(I) and thallium(III), and (ii) preconcentration of Tl(III) from waste water samples. Only Tl(III), in the form of its complex with diethylenetriaminepentaacetate (DTPA), was retained on the sorbent, from where it can be eluted with 40 % nitric acid. Thallium species were then quantified by ICP MS. The method was characterized by a LOD of 25 pg of Tl(I) and 160 pg of Tl(III) in 10 mL samples. A large excesses of Tl(I) over Tl(III) was tolerated, and relatively high levels of other metal ions, such as a 500-fold excess of Pb(II) and Cd(II), and a 2000-fold excess of Zn(II), respectively, do not interfere. The sorbent was easily prepared and possesses a high loading capacity, and these properties make it an attractive material for rapid and efficient extraction and speciation of Tl.