Environmental context. In countries where inhabitants are not exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water, food is the major source of potentially toxic inorganic arsenic. To complement the existing worldwide dataset on arsenic in rice, data are presented on Australian- and overseas-grown rice, and assessed in terms of possible risk. Only a diet comprising multiple serves of some rice products per day poses a potential risk to young children.

Environmental context. A widespread pollutant in groundwater, rivers and lakes is nitrite, which is commonly determined batchwise by using colourimetry. The batchwise method, however, requires relatively large and expensive instrumentation, and hence is unsuitable for in-field measurements. This work introduces a simple and portable colourimetric analyser based on a mobile-phone camera for monitoring nitrite concentrations in environmental water samples.

Environmental context. Acetate esters, emitted into the atmosphere from both natural and anthropogenic sources, can participate in photochemical processes leading to the formation of secondary organic aerosols. We report a study on the kinetics and mechanisms of the reaction of two acetate esters with O₃, OH, NO₃, and Cl radicals. The results help our understanding of the chemical behaviour of this important class of compounds in the atmosphere.

Environmental context. Global warming is an important problem for life on Earth, and there is an increasing need to understand how organisms respond to rising temperatures. We show that an Antarctic fish, the emerald rockcod, can acclimate to thermal shock by modifying the fatty acid composition and total lipid content in its gills. This study contributes to our understanding of how the physiology of Antarctic life could be influenced by climate change.

Environmental context. Dissolved organic matter (DOM), a key parameter in aquatic biogeochemistry, is difficult to characterise owing to its variable composition and structure. We report a chromatographic method with carbon, nitrogen and absorbance detection able to record the size distribution of DOM and changes in its composition. The method could be used to identify additional sources to river or coastal waters as well as monitoring the DOM size/reactivity continuum in open oceans.

Environmental context. Transformation of silver nanoparticles in the environment is an important issue because the form they take directly influences what effect they have. We show that the size of the primary particles of silver nanosuspensions is a major factor determining their evolution under sunlight irradiation (dissolution, formation of nanoseeds and nanoprisms, agglomeration). The persistence of nano-sized silver particles after exposure to sunlight irradiation implies that their ecotoxicological impact will likely last well beyond their introduction in the environment.