Determining sediment quality for regulatory proposes using fish chronic bioassays

Sediment quality assessments for regulatory purposes (i.e. dredged material disposal) are characterized by linking chemical and acute ecotoxicological data. The design of chronic bioassays that incorporate more sensible endpoints than acute tests is discussed to address sediment quality for environmental quality assessment and regulatory proposes. The chronic tests use juveniles of commercial species of fish Sparus aurata and Solea senegalensis, to assess sediment toxicity in samples collected along different littoral areas in the North and the South of Spain. The organisms were exposed during 60 days and sublethal endpoints were selected including biomarkers of exposure to metals (metallothioneins - MTs) and to organic contaminants (ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity - EROD activity) and biomarkers of effect (histopathology in different tissues, gill and liver). A Multivariate Analysis Approach was conducted in order to associate these biological responses with sediment metal concentration from the ports and with chemical residues in biological tissues exposed to sediments under laboratory conditions.     

Perceived workplace racial discrimination and its correlates: A meta‐analysis

We combine the interactional model of cultural diversity (IMCD) and relative deprivation theory to examine employee outcomes of perceived workplace racial discrimination. Using 79 effect sizes from published and unpublished studies, we meta‐analyze the relationships between perceived racial discrimination and several important employee outcomes that have potential implications for organizational performance. In response to calls to examine the context surrounding discrimination, we test whether the severity of these outcomes depends on changes to employment law that reflect increasing societal concern for equality and on the characteristics of those sampled. Perceived racial discrimination was negatively related to job attitudes, physical health, psychological health, organizational citizenship behavior, and perceived diversity climate and positively related to coping behavior. The effect of perceived racial discrimination on job attitudes was stronger in studies published after the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was passed than before. Results provide some evidence that effect sizes were stronger the more women and minorities were in the samples, indicating that these groups are more likely to perceive discrimination and/or respond more strongly to perceived discrimination. Our findings extend the IMCD and relative deprivation theory to consider how contextual factors including changes to employment law influence employee outcomes of perceived workplace discrimination. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A New Ozonated Cassava Film with the Addition of Cellulose Nanofibres: Production and Characterization of Mechanical,Barrier and Functional Properties

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - In this study cassava starch modified by ozone technology and cellulose nanofibres were used to produce films. These nanocomposites were produced by...     

Single adsorption of diclofenac and ronidazole from aqueous solution on commercial activated carbons: effect of chemical and textural properties

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The importance of the textural and physicochemical characteristics upon the adsorption capacity of the commercial activated carbons (ACs) Coconut,...     

Effects of public health interventions on industrial emissions and ambient air in Cartagena, Spain

Background, aim, and scope

Ten years of public health interventions on industrial emissions to clean air were monitored for the Mediterranean city of Cartagena. During the 1960s, a number of large chemical and non-ferrous metallurgical factories were established that significantly deteriorated the city’s air quality. By the 1970s, the average annual air concentration of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) ranged from 200 to 300 µg/m³ (standard conditions units). In 1979, the Spanish government implemented an industrial intervention plan to improve the performance of factories and industrial air pollution surveillance. Unplanned urban development led to residential housing being located adjacent to three major factories. Factory A produced lead, factory B processed zinc from ore concentrates, and factory C produced sulfuric acid and phosphates. This, in combination with the particular abrupt topography and frequent atmospheric thermal inversions, resulted in the worsening of air quality and heightening concern for public health. In 1990, the City Council authorized the immediate intervention at these factories to reduce or shut down production if ambient levels of SO₂ or total suspended particles (TSP) exceeded a time-emission threshold in pre-established meteorological contexts. The aim of this research was to assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of the intervention plan implemented from 1992 to 2001 to abate industrial air pollution.

Materials and methods

The maximum daily 1-h ambient air level of SO₂, NO₂, and TSP pollutants was selected from one of the three urban automatic stations, designed to monitor ambient air quality around industrial emissions sources. The day on which an intervention took place to reduce and/or interrupt industrial production by factory and pollutant was defined as a control day, and the day after an intervention as a post-control day. To assess the short-term intervention effect on air quality, an ecological time series design was applied, using regression analysis in generalized additive models, focusing on day-to-day variations of ambient air pollutants levels. Two indicators were estimated: (a) appropriateness, the ratio between mean levels of the pollutant for control days versus the other days, and (b) effectiveness, the ratio between mean levels of the pollutant for post-control days versus the other days. Ratios in regression analyses were adjusted for trend, seasonality, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure, calendar day, and special events as well as the other pollutants.

Results

A total of 702 control days were made on the factories’ industrial production during the 10-year period. Fifteen reductions and five shutdown control days took place at factory A for ambient air SO₂. At factory B, more controls were carried out for the SO₂ pollutant in the years 1992–1993 and 1997. At factory C, the control days for SO₂ decreased from 59 reductions and 14 shutdowns to a minimum from 1995 onwards, whereas the controls on TSP were more frequent, reaching a maximum of 99 reductions and 47 shutdowns in the last year. SO₂ ambient air mean levels ranged from 456 to 699 µg/m³ among factories on reduction control days and between 624 and 1,010 µg/m³ on shutdown days. The TSP ambient air mean levels were 428 and 506 µg/m³ on reduction and shutdown days, respectively. For all types of control days and factories, a mean ratio of 104% (95% confidence interval [CI] 88 to 121) in SO₂ levels was obtained and a mean ratio of 67% (95% CI 59 to 75) in TSP levels. Post-control days at all factories showed a mean ratio of ?16% (95% CI ?7 to ?24) in SO₂ levels and a mean ratio of ?13% (95% CI ?7 to ?19) in TSP levels.

Discussion

Interventions on industrial production based on the urban SO₂ and TSP ambient air levels were justified by the high concentrations detected. The best assessment of the interventions’ effectiveness would have been to utilize the ambient air pollutant concentration readings from the entire time of the production shutdowns or reductions; however, the daily hourly maximum turned out to be a useful indicator because of meteorological factors influencing the diurnal concentration profile. A substantial number of interventions were carried out from 1 to 3 am, when vehicular traffic was minimum. On the other hand, atmospheric stability undergoes diurnal cycling in the autumn–winter period due to thermal inversion, which reaches maximum levels around daybreak. Therefore, this increases the ambient air levels and justified the interventions carried out at daybreak in spite of the traffic influence.

Conclusions

All the interventions for SO₂ and TSP were carried out when the measured ambient air levels of pollutants were exceeded, which shows the appropriateness of the intervention program. This excess was greater when intervening on SO₂ than on the TSP levels. For both ambient air levels of SO₂ and TSP, significant drops in air pollution were achieved from all three factories following activity reductions. The production shutdown controls were very effective, because they returned excess levels, higher than in the reduction controls, to everyday mean values.

Recommendations and perspectives

The Cartagena City observational system of intermittent control has proven to effectively reduce industrial emissions’ impact on ambient air quality. This experienced model approach could serve well in highly polluted industrial settings. From a public health perspective, studies are needed to assess that the industrial interventions to control air pollution were related to healthier human populations. Legislation was needed to allow the public administration to take direct actions upon the polluting industries.     

What Influences Innovation Adoption by Water Managers? Climate Information Use in Brazil and the United States1

Abstract: This paper examines the use of climate forecasting in water management in Brazil and the United States (U.S.). Specifically, it seeks to understand how different institutional arrangements shape the willingness and ability of water managers to incorporate technoscience, especially seasonal climate forecasting (SCF), in their decision‐making process. It argues that among the many factors shaping the willingness of water managers to use SCF, institutional design and change is critical to explain different patterns in Brazil and the U.S. Moreover, factors related to individual flexibility, discretion, and accountability also affect the ability of managers to use climate information in water management. This paper finds that while water managers in the U.S operate in a mostly fragmented and risk‐averse system – which constrains the adoption of innovation – decision makers in Brazil can afford more flexibility to introduce new decision tools as a result of widespread water management reforms initiated in the 1990s.     

Trophic role of small cyclopoid copepod nauplii in the microbial food web: a case study in the coastal upwelling system off central Chile

Copepod grazing impact on planktonic communities has commonly been underestimated due to the lack of information on naupliar feeding behaviour and ingestion rates. That is particularly true for small cyclopoid copepods, whose nauplii are mainly in the microzooplankton size range (<200 μm). The trophic role of Oithona spp. nauplii was investigated off Concepción (central Chile, ~36°S) during the highly productive upwelling season, when maximum abundances of these nauplii were expected. Diet composition, ingestion rates, and food-type preferences were assessed through grazing experiments with different size fractions of natural planktonic assemblages (<3, <20, <100, and <125 μm) and cultures of the nanoflagellate Isochrysis galbana. When the Oithona spp. nauplii were offered a wide range of size fractions as food (pico- to microplankton), they mostly ingested small (2–5 μm) nanoflagellates (5–63 × 10³ cells nauplius⁻¹ day⁻¹). No ingestion on microplankton was detected, and picoplankton was mainly ingested when it was the only food available. Daily carbon (C) uptake by the nauplii ranged between 28 and 775 ng C nauplius⁻¹, representing an overall mean of 378% of their body C. Our relatively high ingestion rate estimates can be explained by methodological constraints in previous studies on naupliar feeding, including those dealing with “over-crowding” and “edge” effects. Overall, the grazing impact of the Oithona spp. nauplii on the prey C standing stocks amounts up to 21% (average = 13%) for picoplankton and 54% (average = 28%) for nanoplankton. These estimates imply that the nauplii of the most dominant cyclopoid copepods exert a significant control on the abundances of nanoplankton assemblages and, thereby, represent an important trophic link between the classical and microbial food webs in this coastal upwelling system.     

Removal of nickel from neutral mine drainage using peat-calcite,compost, and wood ash in column reactors

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The effectiveness of compost, peat-calcite, and wood ash to remove Ni from a circum-neutral-contaminated mine water was tested in continuous flow...