The shiitake mushroom ( Lentinula edodes ) is a rich source of bioactive polysaccharides with potential applications in sustainable agriculture, particularly as environmentally friendly alternatives to synthetic fungicides. This study aimed to employ membrane separation technology to streamline the recovery of polysaccharides from shiitake mushrooms and evaluate their antifungal activity against phytopathogens. Crude aqueous e...

Freshwater ecosystems worldwide are increasingly threatened by human activities, yet the ecological mechanisms linking anthropogenic pressures to algal community dynamics remain incompletely resolved in the Himalayan river systems. To bridge this gap, this study presents a rapid ecological assessment of algal diversity and water quality across three sites in the Kosi watershed, India, integrating comprehensive physicochemical...

The increasing release of engineered nanoparticles into wastewater systems has raised concerns regarding their long-term effects on biological treatment processes and soluble microbial product (SMP) formation. However, the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on the composition, diversity, and persistence of low-molecular-weight (low-MW) SMPs in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) remain poorly understood. In this study, the...

Environmental pollution with pesticides, including neonicotinoid insecticides, is a major driver of biodiversity loss and raises concerns for both pollinators and human health. As a product of nectar foraging, honey integrates environmental contamination across large spatial scales, making it a valuable sentinel matrix for pesticide exposure. However, systematic data on neonicotinoid residues in commercial honey from tropical...

Previous studies have shown that diverse cocktails of pesticide mixtures are omnipresent in agricultural soils yet miss a clear link to the effects on the soil microbiome. In this study, we linked the occurrence of pesticides in conventional and organic agricultural soils of the SPRINT (Sustainable plant protection transition) projects’ Case Study Sites to the composition and function of soil microbial communities. Metagenomic...

The grey water footprint (GWF) quantifies freshwater pollution from pesticide use. The H-model relies on regulatory concentration limits, while the P-model uses ecotoxicological endpoints and concentration addition (CA); independent action (IA) across modes of action (MOA) remains underexplored. We present a fully re-verified probabilistic Monte Carlo comparison of CA and HRAC-based IA P-models for 17 herbicides applied to Bra...