Measuring total sustainable incomes from multifunctional management of Corsican Maritime Pine and Andalusian Cork oak Mediterranean forests

Enough advances have recently been made in income accounting theory to recommend that environmental services accruing either to the forest owner or to the general public should be included in the forest accounting system. In this study, the results of two case studies, one in Bonifatu, Corsica (France) and the other in Alcornocales, Andalusia (Spain), show that private environmental services provide the majority share of social total sustainable income in Alcornocales (29%), whereas public environmental services are the most relevant in Bonifatu (32%). The social total sustainable income measured by the agroforestry accounting system is, respectively, 1.6 and 2.4 times higher than the income estimated by economic accounts for forestry in Alcornocales and Bonifatu forests.     

Inter-laboratory validation of an ISO test method for measuring enzyme activities in soil samples using colorimetric substrates

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The evaluation of soil quality requires the use of robust methods to assess biologically based indicators. Among them, enzyme activities are used for...     

An efficient simultaneous degradation of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim by photoelectro-Fenton process under non-modified pH using a natural citric acid source: study of biodegradability,ecotoxicity, and antibacterial activity

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this work, the use of natural organic wastes (orange and lemon peels) as sources of citric acid was evaluated along with the application of the...     

Compositional analysis of topsoil metals and its associations with cancer mortality using spatial misaligned data

The presence of toxic metals in soil per se, and in soil impacted by mining, industry, agriculture and urbanisation in particular, is a major concern for both human health and ecotoxicology. The dual aim of this study was: to ascertain whether topsoil composition could influence the spatial distribution of mortality due to different types of cancer and to identify possible errors committed by epidemiological studies which analyse soil composition data as a closed number system. We conducted an ecological cancer mortality study, covering 861,440 cancer deaths (27 cancer sites) in 7917 Spanish mainland towns, from 1999 to 2008. Topsoil levels of Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined by ICP-MS at 13,317 sampling points. We transformed the topsoil data in two ways, i.e. log transformation and centred logratio transformation. Principal factor analysis was performed to obtain independent latent factors for the transformed variables. To estimate the effect on mortality of topsoil factor loadings, we fitted Besag, York and Mollié models embedded in geostatistical-spatial models. This model included soil sample locations and town centroids (non-aligned data), fitted using the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) as a tool for Bayesian inference and stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE). All results were adjusted for socio-demographic variables. The results indicated that soil composition could have an influence on the spatial distribution and mortality patterns of cancer. The analysis adjusted for socio-demographic variables showed excess male mortality due to digestive system tumours in areas with soils containing higher Cd, Pb, Zn, Mn and Cu concentrations, bladder cancer in areas with soils containing higher Cd concentrations, and brain cancer in areas with soils containing As. In both sexes, cancer of oesophagus was associated with soils containing a higher lead content, while lung cancer was associated with soils containing a higher copper content. Stress should be laid on the importance of taking into account the compositional nature of the data in this type of analysis.     

Evaluating pollution-related damage and restoration success in urban forests with participatory monitoring and digital tools

Peri-urban forest monitoring requires indicators of vegetation damage. An example is the sacred fir (Abies religiosa) forests surrounding Mexico City, which have been heavily exposed to tropospheric ozone, a harmful pollutant, for over 4 decades. We developed a participatory monitoring system with which local community members and scientists generated data on ozone tree damage. Santa Rosa Xochiac rangers (13) used the digital tool KoboToolBox to record ozone damage to trees, tree height, tree ages, tree condition, tree position, and whether the tree had been planted. Thirty-five percent of the trees (n = 1765) had ozone damage. Younger trees had a lower percentage of foliage damaged by ozone than older trees (p < 0.0001), and asymptomatic trees tended to be younger (p < 0.0001). Symptomatic trees were taller than asymptomatic trees of the same age (R²_c = 0.43, R²_m = 0.27). Involving local communities facilitated forest monitoring and using digital technology improved data quality. This participatory system can be used to monitor forest condition change over time and thus aids restoration efforts driven by government or local communities’ interests, facilitating local decision-making.     

Human disturbance and shifts in vertebrate community composition in a biodiversity hotspot

Understanding how human modification of the landscape shapes vertebrate community composition is vital to understanding the current status and future trajectory of wildlife. Using a participatory approach, we deployed the largest camera-trap network in Mesoamerica to date to investigate how anthropogenic disturbance shapes the occupancy and co-occurrence of terrestrial vertebrate species in a tropical biodiversity hotspot: the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. We estimated species richness in different categories of land protection with rarefaction analysis and estimated the expected occupancy with a joint species distribution model that included covariates for anthropogenic disturbance, land protection, habitat quality, and habitat availability. Areas with the most stringent land-use protections (e.g., Corcovado National Park, 24 species [95% CI 23–25]) harbored significantly more species than unprotected areas (20 species [19.7–20.3]), mainly due to a reduced presence of large-bodied species of conservation concern in unprotected areas (e.g., jaguar Panthera onca and white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari). Small-bodied generalist species, such as opossums (Didelphidae) and armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus), in contrast, were more common at disturbed sites, resulting in a significant difference in vertebrate community composition between sites with low and high disturbance. Co-occurrence of species was also mainly associated with response to disturbance. Similar responses to disturbance create two groups of species, those whose site-level occupancy usually increased as anthropogenic disturbance increased and those whose estimated occupancy decreased. The absence of large-bodied species entails an important loss of ecological function in disturbed areas and can hinder forest development and maintenance. Efforts to protect and restore forested landscapes are likely having a positive effect on the abundance of some threatened species. These efforts, however, must be sustained and expanded to increase connectivity and ensure the long-term viability of the wildlife community.     

Greenhouse gas emissions of biosolid and cow manure during composting and vermicomposting and when applied to soil cultivated with wheat (Triticum sp. L.)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Biosolids are a by-product of wastewater treatment, and their nutritional composition makes them ideal for fertilizing crops. However, pre-treatments,...