Preliminary assessment of plastic waste valorization via sequential pyrolysis and catalytic reforming

In this article, a life cycle assessment approach is used to carry out a preliminary assessment of the environmental and energy performance of a specific chemical recycling and recovery system that supplies a variety of petrochemical blendstocks through the sequential pyrolysis and catalytic reforming of plastic wastes. Characterization results are presented for a selection of seven impact categories: abiotic depletion, global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidant formation and cumulative non-renewable energy demand. From a combined environmental and energy perspective, the results suggest the suitability of this system for plastic waste valorization. However, improvement actions aimed at reducing the thermal energy demand and mitigating direct emissions to the air should be undertaken. Furthermore, the environmental profiles of the proposed petrochemical blendstocks are compared with those of conventional energy products. A comparison among this chemical recycling and recovery system and two conventional management practices (municipal incineration and landfilling) is also addressed. The results show that the considered system could entail relevant environmental and energy benefits when compared to conventional energy systems and waste management strategies.     

Integrative assessment of sediment quality in lower basin affected by former mining in Brazil

The Ribeira de Iguape River (Southeast Brazil) is metal contaminated by mining activities. Despite it has been cataloged as “in via of restoration” by the literature, this basin is still a sink of pollution in some segments of the fluvial system. This study aimed to assess the sediment quality in the lower part of the RIR basin. The employed approach was based on biological responses of the freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea after 7-day exposure bioassays using as the reference site the Perequê Ecological Park. Toxic responses (burial activity and lethality) and biochemical biomarkers (GST, GR, GPx, LPO, MTs, AChE and DNA damage) were evaluated and then integrated with metal bioavailability and chemical concentrations to address the sediment quality in the area through the weight-of-evidence approach. A multivariate analysis identified linkages between biological responses and contamination. Results pointed that, despite being below the benchmarks of the US Environmental Protection Agency, there is slight metal contamination in the lower part of the basin which induces oxidative stress in C. fluminea; other toxic responses were sometimes attributed to As and Cr bioaccumulation. The sediment quality values (TEL–PEL values in mg/kg) were calculated for the current study for As (0.63–1.31), Cr (3.5–11.05), Cs (1.0–1.17), Cu (6.32–7.32), Ni (6.78–7.46), Ti (42.0–215), V (1.77–8.00). By comparison with other international guidelines, the sediment quality of the lower basin of the Vale de Ribeira does not identify a significant environmental risk.     

Modeling spawning dates of Hucho taimen in Mongolia to establish fishery management zones.

The ecological impacts of recreational fisheries are of growing concern and pose a number of unique management challenges. Here we report on our efforts to provide guidance for managing a recreational fishery for taimen, the giant Eurasian trout (Hucho taimen) in Mongolia. This species has declined dramatically across its range of Siberia and Central Asia, and is currently listed as endangered in Mongolia. Strong populations persist in remote regions of Mongolia because of limited anthropogenic impacts and harvest, though interest in the fishery is expanding rapidly. Current fishing regulations list the spring "opening date" for taimen fishing as 15 June, although regulations have not been consistently enforced, partially because taimen spawn much earlier than 15 June in much of the country. Through a combination of statistical models, climate data, knowledge of taimen biology, and geographic information systems (GIS), we model taimen spawning dates for potential habitat in Mongolia. A parametric bootstrap procedure was used to simulate variability in spawning date derived from inter-annual climate variability and model error, from which we estimated the date in which taimen spawning is predicted to occur with 90% confidence. We recommend the designation of three fisheries management zones, with corresponding opening dates of 20 May, 1 June, and 15 June. Our fishery opening date recommendations are less restrictive than existing regulations. Provided there is little or no catch-and-release fishing mortality, this approach serves both environmental and human needs by protecting taimen during the reproductive period, while still allowing a post-spawning catch-and-release fishery that benefits local economies and generates revenue (through fishing concession fees) for local conservation efforts.     

SNOTEL,the Soil Climate Analysis Network,and water supply forecasting at the Natural Resources Conservation Service: Past,present, and future

The Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (SSWSF) Program and the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) of the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) generate key observational and predictive information for water managers. Examples include mountain climate and snow monitoring through manual snow surveys and the SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL) and SNOtel LITE networks, in situ soil moisture data acquisition through the SCAN and SNOTEL networks, and water supply forecasting using river runoff prediction models. The SSWSF Program has advanced continuously over the decades and is a major source of valuable water management information across the western United States, and the SCAN network supports agricultural and other water users nationwide. Product users and their management goals are diverse, and use-cases range from guiding crop selection to seasonal flood risk assessment, drought monitoring and prediction, avalanche and fire prediction, hydropower optimization, tracking climate variability and change, environmental management, satisfying international treaty and domestic legal requirements, and more. Priorities going forward are to continue innovating to enhance the accuracy and completeness of the observational and model-generated data products these programs deliver, including expanded synergies with the remote sensing community and uptake of artificial intelligence while maintaining long-term operational reliability and consistency at scale.     

Quantifying and mapping species threat abatement opportunities to support national target setting

The successful implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity's post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will rely on effective translation of targets from global to national level and increased engagement across diverse sectors of society. Species conservation targets require policy support measures that can be applied to a diversity of taxonomic groups, that link action targets to outcome goals, and that can be applied to both global and national data sets to account for national context, which the species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric does. To test the flexibility of STAR, we applied the metric to vascular plants listed on national red lists of Brazil, Norway, and South Africa. The STAR metric uses data on species’ extinction risk, distributions, and threats, which we obtained from national red lists to quantify the contribution that threat abatement and habitat restoration activities could make to reducing species’ extinction risk. Across all 3 countries, the greatest opportunity for reducing plant species’ extinction risk was from abating threats from agricultural activities, which could reduce species’ extinction risk by 54% in Norway, 36% in South Africa, and 29% in Brazil. Species extinction risk could be reduced by a further 21% in South Africa by abating threats from invasive species and by 21% in Brazil by abating threats from urban expansion. Even with different approaches to red-listing among countries, the STAR metric yielded informative results that identified where the greatest conservation gains could be made for species through threat-abatement and restoration activities. Quantifiably linking local taxonomic coverage and data collection to global processes with STAR would allow national target setting to align with global targets and enable state and nonstate actors to measure and report on their potential contributions to species conservation.     

Maternal characteristics and the production and recruitment of sons in the eastern kingbird (<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Tyrannus tyrannus</Emphasis>)

Sex allocation theory predicts that if variance in reproductive success differs between the sexes, females who are able to produce high-quality young should bias offspring sex ratio towards the sex with the higher potential reproductive success. We tested the hypothesis that high-quality (i.e., heavy) female eastern kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) that bred early in the breeding season would produce male-biased clutches. A significant opportunity for sexual selection also exists in this socially monogamous but cryptically polygamous species, and we predicted that successful extra-pair (EP) sires would be associated with an excess of male offspring. Although population brood sex ratio did not differ from parity, it increased significantly with female body mass and declined with female breeding date, but was independent of the morphology and display (song) behavior (correlates of reproductive success) of social males and EP sires. Male offspring were significantly heavier than female offspring at fledging. Moreover, the probability that male offspring were resighted in subsequent years declined with breeding date, and was greater in replacement clutches, but lower when clutch size was large. Probability of resighting female offspring varied annually, but was independent of all other variables. Given that variance in reproductive success of male kingbirds is much greater than that of females, and that male offspring are more expensive to produce and have a higher probability of recruitment if fledged early in the season, our results support predictions of sex allocation theory: high-quality (heavy) females breeding when conditions were optimal for male recruitment produced an excess of sons.     

Novel polyol initiator from polyurethane recycling residue

Flexible polyurethane foams can be advantageously treated by two-phase glycolysis in order to recover polyols with improved quality. The bottom phase obtained, which contains highly toxic reaction by-products and the excess glycol, presents an environmental and economic problem which should be solved. The main purpose of this work is the development of process for the valorization of these by-products, converting them in non-dangerous and profitable substances. For this process, most of the glycol can be recovered by means of vacuum distillation in order to reuse it in the glycolysis. On the other hand, the vacuum residue, containing the isocyanate part of the glycolysis by-products, was assayed as initiator in the synthesis of new polyols. Propoxylation of the initiator was carried out in different experimental conditions to obtain several polyether-polyols. Rigid polyurethane foams with suitable technical properties were synthesized with those polyols synthesized with the dangerous glycolysis by-products.     

Unexpected effects of sublethal doses of insecticide on the peripheral olfactory response and sexual behavior in a pest insect

Pesticides have long been used as the main solution to limit agricultural pests, but their widespread use resulted in chronic or diffuse environmental pollutions, development of insect resistances, and biodiversity reduction. The effects of low residual doses of these chemical products on organisms that affect both targeted species (crop pests) but also beneficial insects became a major concern, particularly because low doses of pesticides can induce unexpected positive—also called hormetic—effects on insects, leading to surges in pest population growth at greater rate than what would have been observed without pesticide application. The present study aimed to examine the effects of sublethal doses of deltamethrin, one of the most used synthetic pyrethroids, known to present a residual activity and persistence in the environment, on the peripheral olfactory system and sexual behavior of a major pest insect, the cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis. We highlighted here a hormetic effect of sublethal dose of deltamethrin on the male responses to sex pheromone, without any modification of their response to host-plant odorants. We also identified several antennal actors potentially involved in this hormetic effect and in the antennal detoxification or antennal stress response of/to deltamethrin exposure.     

Building capacity through action research: reflections on working with low-carbon communities in the UK

This paper describes a four-year programme of “action research” (AR) undertaken with six communities in the UK, referred to as the Evaluating Low-Carbon Communities (EVALOC) project. The research combined a programme of research events with phased household-level monitoring of energy and carbon-reduction interventions. The carbon-reduction interventions were funded by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change prior to the onset of the research. AR has recently been adopted within the context of environmental behaviour change programmes in the UK, with a number of methodological challenges. The EVALOC project’s challenges included developing a collaborative research design; building reciprocity between the researchers and research participants; dealing with biases and burdens in the research process; ensuring analytical rigour in the interpretation of the primarily qualitative evidence and dealing with the long-term and process-driven outcomes that arise from such interactions. This paper explores and discusses the challenges of AR in relation to selected research outcomes from EVALOC. We conclude by suggesting that the AR approach has helped to build capacity in the participating low-carbon communities (LCCs), through supporting the design, delivery and evaluation of their energy and carbon-reduction activities.     

Application of Fenton, photo-Fenton, solar photo-Fenton, and UV/H2O2 to degradation of the antineoplastic agent mitoxantrone and toxicological evaluation

In the present study, selected advanced oxidation processes (AOPs)—namely, photo-Fenton (with Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺, and potassium ferrioxalate—FeOx—as iron sources), solar photo-Fenton, Fenton, and UV/H₂O₂—were investigated for degradation of the antineoplastic drug mitoxantrone (MTX), frequently used to treat metastatic breast cancer, skin cancer, and acute leukemia. The results showed that photo-Fenton processes employing Fe(III) and FeOx and the UV/H₂O₂ process were most efficient for mineralizing MTX, with 77, 82, and 90 % of total organic carbon removal, respectively. MTX probably forms a complex with Fe(III), as demonstrated by voltammetric and spectrophotometric measurements. Spectrophotometric titrations suggested that the complex has a 2:1 Fe³⁺:MTX stoichiometric ratio and a complexation constant (K) of 1.47 × 10⁴ M^–1, indicating high MTX affinity for Fe³⁺. Complexation partially inhibits the involvement of iron ions and hence the degradation of MTX during photo-Fenton. The UV/H₂O₂ process is usually slower than the photo-Fenton process, but, in this study, the UV/H₂O₂ process proved to be more efficient due to complexing of MTX with Fe(III). The drug exhibited no cytotoxicity against NIH/3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblast cells when oxidized by UV/H₂O₂ or by UV/H₂O₂/FeOx at the concentrations tested.