The Environmental Performance Strategy Map: an integrated LCA approach to support the strategic decision-making process

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-known tool for analyzing environmental impacts on a wide perspective with reference to a product system and the related environmental and economic impacts. The need for a novel approach that complements environmental and financial considerations is addressed in this study with the introduction of a new graphical representation: the Environmental Performance Strategy Map. This graphical map allows one to combine the main environmental indicators (footprints) with the additional dimension of cost. The paper defines the Sustainable Environmental Performance Indicator as a single measure for sustainability of a given option. Comparison of different options for strategic decision-making purposes can be enhanced and facilitated by the use of this indicator.     

Physiological response to etho-ecological stressors in male Alpine chamois: timescale matters!

From a life history perspective, glucocorticoids secreted by the neuroendocrine system, integrating different sources of stress through an adaptive feedback mechanism, may have important consequences on individual fitness. Although stress responses have been the object of several investigations, few studies have explored the role of proximate mechanisms responsible for the potential trade-offs between physiological stress and life history traits integrating social and environmental stressors. In 2011 and 2012, we collected data on faecal cortisol metabolites (FCM) in a marked male population of Alpine chamois, within the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). Using a model selection approach we analysed the effect of potential etho-ecological stressors such as age, social status (territorial vs. non-territorial males), minimum temperature, snow depth and precipitation on FCM variation. To correctly interpret environmentally and socially induced stress responses, we conducted model selections over multiple temporal scales defined a priori: year, cold months, spring, warm months, mating season. Over the year, FCM levels showed a negative relationship with minimum temperature, but altogether, climatic stressors had negligible effects on glucocorticoid secretion, possibly owing to good adaptations of chamois to severe weather conditions. Age was negatively related to FCM during the rut, possibly due to greater experience of older males in agonistic contests. Social status was an important determinant of FCM excretion: while both the ‘stress of subordination’ and the ‘stress of domination’ hypotheses received some support in spring and during the mating season, respectively, previous data suggest that only the latter may have detrimental fitness consequences on male chamois.     

Aluminium flows in vehicles: enhancing the recovery at end-of-life

The transportation sector constitutes the major end-use market for aluminium-containing products and expectations for the future do indicate that aluminium will increase at 140 kg per vehicle. Moreover, up to 75 % aluminium recycled in Europe is used in transportation: thus, metal scrap recovered from ELVs is a key lever to act for closing material cycles. However, although the management chain of ELVs has an established procedure and aluminium scrap is usually recovered in shredding plants, a considerable fraction of the metal particles ends up in the light fraction called car fluff and is then landfilled. In this study we investigated potential of enhancing the recovery of aluminium scrap from the light fluff treatment. With this goal, the quantity of aluminium embedded in the Italian transport sector in the last 62 years was estimated, and a campaign of characterization in size and shape distribution of aluminium particles in the light fluff output has been carried out. The results estimated up to about 560,000 tons of metal are potentially recoverable from the treatment of light fluff at current operating conditions, but relevant improvements may be achieve when size and shape distribution criteria are adopt to implement eddy currents separation for a quantitative metal recovery.     

Global mismatches in aboveground and belowground biodiversity

Human activities are accelerating global biodiversity change and have resulted in severely threatened ecosystem services. A large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is harbored by soil, but soil biodiversity has been omitted from many global biodiversity assessments and conservation actions, and understanding of global patterns of soil biodiversity remains limited. In particular, the extent to which hotspots and coldspots of aboveground and soil biodiversity overlap is not clear. We examined global patterns of these overlaps by mapping indices of aboveground (mammals, birds, amphibians, vascular plants) and soil (bacteria, fungi, macrofauna) biodiversity that we created using previously published data on species richness. Areas of mismatch between aboveground and soil biodiversity covered 27% of Earth's terrestrial surface. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome had the highest proportion of grid cells with high aboveground biodiversity but low soil biodiversity, whereas the boreal and tundra biomes had intermediate soil biodiversity but low aboveground biodiversity. While more data on soil biodiversity are needed, both to cover geographic gaps and to include additional taxa, our results suggest that protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity. Given the functional importance of soil biodiversity and the role of soils in human well-being, soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas.     

In-between regional disparities and spatial heterogeneity: a multivariate analysis of territorial divides in Italy

Processes such as economic polarization, social disparities and the asymmetric distribution of natural capital are becoming progressively more interlinked in developed countries and may reflect the uneven decline of the ‘centre-periphery’ model. The assessment of regional disparities and spatial heterogeneity in socioeconomic phenomena is a key issue in regional studies and takes advantage of the use of multi-domain frameworks and decision support systems. We performed an exploratory analysis of 133 indicators assessing seven thematic domains (demography/settlements, labour market, economic structure, quality of life, agriculture/rural development, landscape/water, environment/soil resources) with the aim of investigating regional disparities in Italy in the light of territorial changes driven by urbanization, industrial decentralization, agricultural intensification and land abandonment. The results of our study indicate that latitude, elevation and urban gradients have determined a complex spatial pattern in both socioeconomic and environmental variables in Italy. The proposed approach provides an overall assessment of the intensity of territorial disparities on a regional scale for each thematic domain, and of intra-region spatial heterogeneity for each indicator, representing a decision-making tool for policies targeting a sustainable and spatially balanced development.     

Spatial scales of variation in lichens: implications for sampling design in biomonitoring surveys

The variability of biological data is a main constraint affecting the quality and reliability of lichen biomonitoring surveys for estimation of the effects of atmospheric pollution. Although most epiphytic lichen bioindication surveys focus on between-site differences at the landscape level, associated with the large scale effects of atmospheric pollution, current protocols are based on multilevel sampling, thus adding further sources of variation and affecting the error budget. We test the hypothesis that assemblages of lichen communities vary at each spatial scale examined, in order to determine what scales should be included in future monitoring studies. We compared four sites in Italy, along gradients of atmospheric pollution and climate, to test the partitioning of the variance components of lichen diversity across spatial scales (from trunks to landscapes). Despite environmental heterogeneity, we observed comparable spatial variance. However, residuals often overcame between-plot variability, leading to biased estimation of atmospheric pollution effects.     

Objectives and structure of the DRAIN project: an extensive study of the delivery from the drainage basin of the Venice Lagoon (Italy)

The Venice Lagoon and its drainage basin form a vast system, where historical and recent cities, large and medium-small industrial districts and intensive agricultural activities coexist within a peculiar environment. The drainage basin constituted of an ensemble of tributary sub-basins with contrasting characteristics and freshwater fluxes; the hydraulic pathways are generally complex and not univocally established. With the main objectives to measure the annual freshwater discharge into the Venice Lagoon and to estimate the related load of pollutants, an intense field activity was carried out in the ambit of the DRAIN project. The 12 main tributaries of the drainage basin were monitored for more than 2 years (1998-2000), obtaining a relevant data set of hydrodynamic, physico-chemical and chemical data. Integrative investigations were also developed in a multidisciplinary approach, covering the existing knowledge gaps on the hydrology and behaviour of such a complex system. The paper describes the characteristics of the system, the selected approach to investigate it, and the main project outcomes.     

Buffer capacity of seawater at high pCO2

Measurements of the variation of the carbon dioxide partial pressure in water were performed up to pCO₂ and CO₂ using 6.000 ppm. The consistent data so far obtained were compared with calculated pCO₂ using the Lynan constants. A plot of the experimental and calculated data evidences that comparisons are only possible by using varying carbonate alkalinity.