Can microbial mineralization be used to estimate microbial availability of organic contaminants in soil?

The aim of this study was to characterize the behaviour of a PAH-degrading bacterium to determine whether mineralization plateaus as a result of substrate removal, a decrease in microbial activity or nutrient availability in sterile soils over time. To investigate this, the mineralization of 14C-phenanthrene was measured until it plateaued; subsequently, additional 14C-phenanthrene, catabolic inocula or nutrients were introduced and mineralization was measured for a further 10 d. Cell numbers were also measured together with 14C-uptake into microbial biomass. Freshly added 14C-phenanthrene was rapidly metabolised by the microorganisms. Neither the addition of a catabolic inoculum nor nutrients affected the extent of 14C-phenanthrene mineralization. Cell numbers remained constant over time, with only a small amount of the 14C-activity incorporated into the microbial biomass. This study indicated that the termination of mineralization was due to the removal of available phenanthrene and not decreasing cellular activity or cell death. The mineralization values also correlated with 14C-phenanthrene extractability using beta-cyclodextrin.     

Influence of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-related seawater acidification on extracellular acid–base balance in the velvet swimming crab <Emphasis Type="Italic">Necora puber</Emphasis>

We investigated the effect of different levels of hypercapnia-induced acidification (pH = 7.96, 7.31, 6.74 and 6.05) on the extracellular acid base balance of a shallow-water crustacean, the velvet swimming crab Necora puber over a period of 16 days. Any extracellular acidosis incurred was completely compensated by an increase in bicarbonate. Bicarbonate was partly, but not wholly, supplied by dissolution of the exoskeleton. This compensation was sustained for 16 days under all experimental treatments with two exceptions. First there was some evidence of extracellular acidosis in crabs after 16 days at pH = 6.74. Second at the lowest environmental pH (6.05) there was a marked uncompensated acidosis after 24 h. Necora puber appears less sensitive to low pH than many other species examined acutely. However, local acidification as a result of ocean CO₂ dispersal or leakage from geological sequestration is likely to compromise even this species.     

New Models for Implementation Theory: Striking a Consensus on Windfarms

The UK Government has provided financial support to developing renewable technologies through the Non-fossil Fu el Obligation imposed on the regional electricity companies. Several hundred renewable energy schemes have come forward to be assessed for their environmental suitability by local level regulators in a very poorly developed national policy framework. This study examines the development control decisions on windfarm applications since 1983 by the largest district council in Wales, and seeks to highlight the role played by clusters of public and private organizations in policy and programme implementation. With the multiple and sometimes conflicting objectives advanced by these organizations, it was in the interests of the district council to strike a negotiated consen sus between landscape conservation and inward investment concerns. The case study shows the crucial importan ce of the socio-political context for understanding the dynamics of policy making.     

Source characterization of nervous system active pharmaceutical ingredients in healthcare facility wastewaters

Nervous system active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), including anti-depressants and opioids, are important clinically administered pharmaceuticals within healthcare facilities. This study provides source characterization data describing the composition and magnitude of nervous system APIs present in healthcare facility wastewaters. Concentrations and mass loadings of ten nervous system APIs and three nervous system API metabolites are reported for wastewaters from a hospital, nursing, assisted living, and independent living facility within a single municipality. Concentrations of nervous system APIs ranged from non-detectable levels for alprazolam in all four facility wastewaters to a high of 290 ng/L amitriptyline in nursing facility wastewater. The summed mean concentration of all thirteen analytes ranged from 402 ng/L in independent living facility wastewater to 624 ng/L in assisted living facility wastewater. Wastewater flow rates from each facility were combined with concentration data to estimate the daily mass loading of nervous system APIs leaving each facility through wastewater discharge to the municipal sewer system. The total mass loading of all thirteen analytes for the hospital, nursing, assisted living, and independent living facility was 228, 44, 29.5, and 28.1 mg/day, respectively. The total mass loading of nervous system APIs contributed to the municipality's wastewater from all four facilities was 330 mg/day.     

A new approach of ecologically based life cycle assessment for biological wastewater treatments focused on energy recovery goals

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The energy potential of high-organic loaded agro-industrial effluents receiving biological treatment is often neglected, particularly in emergent...     

Relationships between dissolved and particulate carbohydrate temporal patterns and mucilaginous aggregates formation: evidences from time series analysis and biochemical composition of aggregates

A 3-year monitoring of dissolved and particulate carbohydrate concentrations in four transects located in the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas was performed in order to get information on the role played by carbohydrates in the mucilage formation in these areas. The application of time series analysis pointed out that the concentration of dissolved carbohydrates does not vary significantly in coincidence of the mucilage appearance showing an almost constant state with respect to time. In contrast, wider temporal variations of carbohydrate amounts, either increase or decrease, were observed when mucilages were lacking or reduced. This almost constant state of carbohydrate amounts observed in presence of mucilages that we define 'steady state' could be associated to an alteration of the complex chemical equilibrium between synthesis and degradation (either hydrolysis or oxidation) reactions of the organic polymers which are typical of the humification processes in the marine environment. The results of this study suggest that the monitoring of carbohydrates can represent an useful tool for the comprehension of the most relevant phenomena of mucilage appearance in the Northern Adriatic Sea.     

Expression of transcobalamin II by amniocytes

Children with a genetic absence of transcobalarnin 2 (TC2) are clinically asymptomatic at birth but develop severe megaloblastic anemia early in life. We have examined the incorporation of [⁵⁷Co]-CN-B₁₂ in the absence of any exogenous source of TC2 in control amniotic fluid derived cells and cultured diploid fibroblasts, and in fibroblasts from a patient with TC2 deficiency. Both control fibroblasts and arnniocytes incorporated labelled B₁₂, into TC2-B₁₂, and the proportion of labelled TC2-B₁₂ could be increased by growing cells in the presence of chloroquine which prevents intralysosomal hydrolysis of the TC2-B₁₂ complex. In contrast, fibroblasts from the patient with TC2 deficiency incorporated almost no label as TC2-B₁₂. These studies suggest that TC2 deficiency either due to aberrant production of TC2 or because of the production of an abnormal TC2 which does not bind B₁₂ can be diagnosed before birth.