Polyphenols dynamics and phytotoxicity in a soil amended by olive mill wastewaters

The effects of unprocessed olive mill wastewaters (OMW) on soil characteristics were investigated. Phenolic compounds levels in the treated soil were compared to those of a control soil profile. Results showed that OMW infiltration caused a modification of soil physicochemical characteristics. Phenolic compounds were detected at a depth of 1.2m four months after the last application of OMW. A moderate phytotoxic residual phenolic fraction (F) was extracted from the superficial soil layer 1 year after the OMW application. This residual F had a phytotoxic potential comparable to that of 25-fold diluted OMW.     

Mediterranean land systems under global change: current state and future challenges

Regional Environmental Change -     

Exploring the determinants for adopting water conservation measures. What is the tendency of landowners when the resource is already at risk?

In Finland, the current water conservation policy sets equal incentives for water conservation, regardless of the environmental condition. Before any policy reform, it is vital to investigate the tendency of landowners to adopt water conservation measures. In this study, we were interested in examining adoption if the soil quality implies a high leaching risk and if the water quality is already poor. By combining survey data with GIS data, we analysed the effect of farm and farmer characteristics and attitudes towards adoption. Our probit models indicated that financial variables were the key determinants of adoption for active farmers, whereas for passive owners, adoption was also explained by attitudes. In contrast to our expectations, adoption in areas under risk was weakly supported by our estimates. Environmental awareness, providing it increases with risk, is not strong enough to motivate adoption. Targeted agri-environmental measures, even though costly, cannot be avoided, and spatially tailored measures can attract adopters in hotspot areas.     

Cytotoxic effect of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate on human intestinal Caco-2 cells: associated biomarkers for risk assessment

Linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) is a synthetic anionic surfactant widely present in the environment due to its intensive production and use in the detergency field. Admitting that current procedure of risk assessment has limits in providing realistic risk assessment data and predicting the cumulative effect of the toxicant mixtures, the incorporation of information regarding the mode of action and cell response mechanism seems to be a potential solution to overcome these limits. In this regard, we investigated in this study the LAS cytotoxicity on human intestinal Caco-2 cells, trying to unveil the protein actors implicated in the cell response using proteomics approach in order to give a better understanding of the toxicological effect and allow the identification of appropriate biomarkers reflecting the mode of action associated with LAS. As results, we demonstrated that LAS induces a time- and dose-dependent cytotoxicity in Caco-2 cells accompanied by an induction of oxidative stress followed by an excessive increase of intracellular calcium level. Proteomics approach helped in discovering three informative biomarkers of effect associated with LAS cytotoxic effect, reported for the first time: calreticulin, thioredoxin, and heat shock cognate 71 (HSP7C), confirmed by real-time PCR and western blot analysis. These biomarkers could serve for more reliable future risk assessment studies that consider the toxicants mode of action in order to help in the prediction of potential cumulative effects of environmentally coexisting contaminants.     

Development of Nanocomposite Films Based on Chitosan and Gelatin Loaded with Chitosan-Tripolyphosphate Nanoparticles: Antioxidant Potentials and Applications in Wound Healing

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Recently, there is an increasing interest to prepare wound healing agents based on bio-polymers, due to their non-toxicity, biocompatibility and...     

Effects of environmentally relevant levels of polyethylene microplastic on Mytilus galloprovincialis (Mollusca: Bivalvia): filtration rate and oxidative stress

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential toxic effects of polyethylene microplastics (PE-MPs) (40–48 μm) on the...     

Recent progress and challenges on the removal of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from contaminated soil and water

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Currently, due to an increase in urbanization and industrialization around the world, a large volume of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)...     

Biological treatment of fish processing wastewater: A case study from Sfax City (Southeastern Tunisia)

The present work presents a study of the biological treatment of fish processing wastewa at salt concentration of 55 g/L. Wastewater was treated by both continuous stirred-ta reactor(CSTR) and membrane bioreactor(MBR) during 50 and 100 days, respectively. Th biological processes involved salt-tolerant bacteria from natural hypersaline environme at different organic loading rates(OLRs). The phylogenetic analysis of the correspond excised DGGE bands has demonstrated that the taxonomic affiliation of the most domin species includes Halomonadaceae and Flavobacteriaceae families of the Proteobacteria(Gamm proteobacteria class) and the Bacteroidetes phyla, respectively. The results of MBR w better than those of CSTR in the removal of total organic carbon with efficiencies from 97 to 98.6%. Nevertheless, salinity with increasing OLR aggravates fouling that requires m cleaning for a membrane in MBR while leads to deterioration of sludge settleability a effluent quality in CSTR.     

Uptake and elimination,and effect of estrogen-like contaminants in estuarine copepods: an experimental study

Background, aim, and scope  

In recent years, anthropogenic chemicals which can disrupt the hormonal systems of both humans and wildlife have been raised to a major cause of concern. The aim of the present work was to determine the bioconcentration factors of the two major alkylphenols (AP) of the Seine Estuary [4-nonylphenol (4 NP) and nonylphenol acetic acid (NP1EC)] and of the synthetic estrogen, estrogen ethinylestradiol (EE2), in Eurytemora affinis after exposure in a continuous flow-through system under environmental realistic conditions. Moreover, the elimination of these compounds in copepods from the Seine Estuary has been investigated by measuring concentrations after 1 week in clean water in comparison to background levels.     

Mating with a kin decreases female remating interval: a possible example of inbreeding avoidance

Inbreeding depression is a relative decline in fitness in offspring of related parents. The magnitude of inbreeding costs varies among taxa and may increase under stressful conditions. Inbreeding tolerance is expected to be low and selection for inbreeding avoidance intense when both sexes invest substantially in shared offspring like in nuptial gift-giving butterflies. This is especially true for increasing mating rate for inbreeding avoidance as nuptial feeding decreases net costs of mating for females. We explored implications of inbreeding in the nuptial gift-giving green-veined white butterfly, Pieris napi. Compared to outbred ones, partially inbred (F = 0.25) eggs and neonate larvae had 25% lower hatching success and 30% lower survival until adult eclosion, respectively. Inbreeding was also associated with small size. Yet, the magnitude of inbreeding depression was independent of larval conditions. A lack of assortative mating and mating durations independent of mating type suggest that neither females nor males discriminate close relatives (r = 0.5) as mates. Indicative of a postcopulatory mechanism to avoid inbreeding, female remating intervals decreased following incestuous matings. Such a plastic response may affect the level of postcopulatory sexual selection as female remating interval (time between successive matings) is necessarily negatively correlated with mating rate (matings per unit time) and mating frequency (lifetime number of matings), and precopulatory mate choice appeared insignificant. Moreover, incest-induced shift in the phenotype towards the adaptive peak may contribute to the evolution of female mating rates, although alternative explanations for polyandry besides material benefits have rarely been invoked when nuptial feeding is involved.