Differentiating the effects of climate and land use change on European biodiversity: A scenario analysis

Current observed as well as projected changes in biodiversity are the result of multiple interacting factors, with land use and climate change often marked as most important drivers. We aimed to disentangle the separate impacts of these two for sets of vascular plant, bird, butterfly and dragonfly species listed as characteristic for European dry grasslands and wetlands, two habitats of high and threatened biodiversity. We combined articulations of the four frequently used SRES climate scenarios and associated land use change projections for 2030, and assessed their impact on population trends in species (i.e. whether they would probably be declining, stable or increasing). We used the BIOSCORE database tool, which allows assessment of the effects of a range of environmental pressures including climate change as well as land use change. We updated the species lists included in this tool for our two habitat types. We projected species change for two spatial scales: the EU27 covering most of Europe, and the more restricted biogeographic region of ‘Continental Europe’. Other environmental pressures modelled for the four scenarios than land use and climate change generally did not explain a significant part of the variance in species richness change. Changes in characteristic bird and dragonfly species were least pronounced. Land use change was the most important driver for vascular plants in both habitats and spatial scales, leading to a decline in 50–100% of the species included, whereas climate change was more important for wetland dragonflies and birds (40–50 %). Patterns of species decline were similar in continental Europe and the EU27 for wetlands but differed for dry grasslands, where a substantially lower proportion of butterflies and birds declined in continental Europe, and 50 % of bird species increased, probably linked to a projected increase in semi-natural vegetation. In line with the literature using climate envelope models, we found little divergence among the four scenarios. Our findings suggest targeted policies depending on habitat and species group. These are, for dry grasslands, to reduce land use change or its effects and to enhance connectivity, and for wetlands to mitigate climate change effects.     

Ozone oxidation and aerobic biodegradation with spent mushroom compost for detoxification and benzo(a)pyrene removal from contaminated soil

The combination of ozonation and spent mushroom compost (SMC)-mediated aerobic biological treatment was investigated in the removal of benzo(a)pyrene from contaminated soil. The performances of the process alone and combined were evaluated in terms of benzo(a)pyrene removal efficiency, mineralization efficiency (as total organic carbon removal), and soil residual toxicity (phytotoxicity to Lepidium Sativum and toxicity to Vibrio fischeri). In spite of the removal efficiency (35%) obtained by SMC-mediated biological process as a stand-alone treatment, the combined process showed a benzo(a)pyrene concentration reduction higher than 75%; the best removal (82%) was observed after 10 min pre-ozonation treatment. In particular, ozonation improved the biodegradability of the contaminant, as confirmed by the increase of CO(2) production (close to 70% compared to the control), mineralization (greater than 60%) and bacterial density (which increased by two orders of magnitude). Moreover, according to phytotoxicity tests on L. Sativum, the aerobic biological process of pre-ozonated soil decreased toxicity. According to the results achieved in the present study, ozonation pre-treatment showed an high potential to overcome the limitation of bioremediation of recalcitrant compound, but it should be carefully operated in order to maximize PAH removal efficiency as well as to minimize soil residual toxicity which can result from the formation of the oxidation intermediates.     

Impacts of past and future land changes on landslides in southern Italy

Regional Environmental Change - Land use and land cover (LULC), as well as their geographical and temporal variations, affect landslide occurrence and the related risk, in ways that are difficult...     

Submarine wastewater discharges: dispersion modelling in the Northern Adriatic Sea

Background, aim and scope   

Opposite interests must coexist in coastal areas: the presence of significant cities and urban centres, of touristic and recreational areas, and of extensive shellfish farming. To avoid local pollution caused by treated wastewaters along the Northern Adriatic coast (Friuli Venezia-Giulia and Veneto regions), marine outfall systems have been constructed. In this study, the application of a numerical dispersion model is used to support the traditional monitoring methods in order to link information concerning the hydrodynamic circulation and the microbiological features, to evaluate possible health risks associated with recreational and coastal shellfish farming activities. The study is a preliminary analysis of the environmental impact of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with submarine discharge outfalls. It also could be useful for the water profile definition according to the Directive 2006/7/EC on the quality of bathing water and for the integrated areal analysis (Ostoich et al. 2006), to define the area of influence of each submarine discharge point.     

Environmental distribution of uranium and other trace elements at selected Kosovo sites

This paper reports the results of a study using lichens as biomonitors to investigate the environmental distribution of uranium and other trace elements at selected Kosovo sites. The results suggested that the use of depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions in Kosovo did not cause a diffuse environmental contamination in such a way to have caused a detectable U enrichment in lichens. Also isotopic (235)U/(238)U measurements did not indicate the presence of DU particles in lichens. The present results also provided no indication of intense environmental contamination by the other trace elements analyzed, with the exception of Kosovska Mitrovica, where a diffuse environmental contamination by several heavy elements such as Pb, Zn, As and Cd was found.