An economic assessment of drought effects on three grassland systems in Switzerland

This paper analyzes the economic impacts of summer drought on Swiss grassland production. We combine field trial data from drought experiments in three different grasslands in Switzerland with site-specific information on economic costs and benefits. The analysis focuses on the economic implications of drought effects on grassland yields as well as grassland composition. In agreement with earlier studies, we found rather heterogeneous yield effects of drought on Swiss grassland systems, with significantly reduced yields as a response to drought at the lowland and sub-alpine sites, but increased yields at the wetter pre-alpine site. Relative yield losses were highest at the sub-alpine site (with annual yield losses of up to 37 %). However, because income from grassland production at extensive sites relies to a large extent on ecological direct payments, even large yield losses had only limited implications in terms of relative profit reductions. In contrast, negative drought impacts at the most productive, intensively managed lowland site were dominant, with average annual drought-induced profit margin reductions of about 28 %. This is furthermore emphasized if analyzing the farm level perspective of drought impacts. Combining site-specific effects at the farm level, we found that in particular farms with high shares of lowland grassland sites suffer from summer droughts in terms of farm-level fodder production and profit margins. Moreover, our results showed that the higher competitiveness of weeds (broad-leaved dock) under drought conditions will require increasing attention on weed control measures in future grassland production systems. Taking into account that the risk of drought occurrence is expected to increase in the coming years, additional instruments to cope with drought risks in fodder production and finally farmers’ income have to be developed.     

Cemetery waste as a substream of municipal waste: research and structure of the selective waste collection in Poland

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Cemetery waste (CW) constitutes one of the streams of municipal waste (MW). Based on the available data, it can be said that it accounts for about 1%...     

Comparison of the performance of different methods to stabilize mercury-containing waste

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The work is devoted to the study of a possible technology for the immobilization of mercury in waste, based on the principles of converting mercury...     

Radon variations during treatment in thermal spas of Lesvos Island (Greece)

The aim of this paper was to study the variations of radon and daughter nuclei during treatment in the thermal spas of Lesvos Island (Greece). For this purpose, in the thermal spas of Lesvos we have measured the radon concentrations of thermal waters, as well as indoor radon, daughter and coarse particle (>500 nm) concentrations. Various instruments and procedures were employed for measurements. Radon concentrations of thermal waters were found to lie in the range 10 Bq l(-1) and 304 Bq l(-1). Concentration peaks both for radon, radon daughter and coarse particle, were found to appear during filling of baths in the treatment process. The doses delivered to the bathers during treatment were in the range of 0.00670-0.1279 mSv per year, while the doses delivered to personnel were below 20 mSv per year.     

Lights and shadows: growth patterns in three sympatric and congeneric sponges (Ircinia spp.) with contrasting abundances of photosymbionts

The life-history traits of long-lived benthic littoral invertebrates remain poorly understood. In this study, we analysed patterns of growth in three abundant sublittoral sponges from the western Mediterranean Sea, chosen for their close phylogenetic relatedness, sympatric distribution, and contrasting amounts of photosymbionts: high in Ircinia fasciculata, lower in I. variabilis, and absent in I. oros. Sponge area, perimeter, number of oscula, and epibiont abundance were quantified from in situ digital images taken monthly for 1.5 years and volumetric growth rates were calculated from empirical area–volume relationships. Volumetric growth rates were different among species and coherent with the photosymbiont abundance: high in I. fasciculata (40.03 ± 4.81 % year^?1, mean ± SE), low in I. variabilis (5.65 ± 6.11 % year^?1), and almost nil in I. oros (?0.04 ± 3.02 % year^?1). Furthermore, a marked seasonality was observed in the first two species, with greater growth during the warm season. The high growth rates of I. fasciculata were likely fuelled by symbiont-derived photosynthates and required to compete in the well-lit, algal-dominated habitats this species prefers. In contrast, I. variabilis and I. oros tended to dwell in shaded habitats, where competition from slow-growing invertebrates is intense, and featured lower growth rates. The flattened morphology and lower circularity of I. variabilis indicates a capacity for adaptation to any space that is freed, while I. oros had less oscula and was more massive and circular, suggesting a strategy of passive occupation and minimisation of biological interactions. The results show that even congeneric species living sympatrically can achieve important biomass using different growth and substrate occupation strategies.     

Relevant scales of variability of the benthic allochthonous microalga Chrysophaeum taylorii

Chrysophaeum taylorii (Pelagophyceae) is an allochthonous benthic microalga recently recorded in the Mediterranean Sea. During summer, the occurrence of C. taylorii is usually visible to the naked eye due to the large amount of mucilage this species produces. Information on the spatio-temporal variability of this species and on the predictability of massive mucilage events is still scarce and requires to define ad hoc managing strategies of major bloom events. The aim of this work was to identify the relevant scales of variation in the abundance of C. taylorii abundance and to estimate the relative recurrence of its blooms, testing the hypothesis that mucilage was dependent on the cell density. The first approach was the identification of the most appropriate sampling procedure to estimate benthic cell abundance of C. taylorii. The second one was the estimation of the magnitude of variation in C. taylorii cell abundance attributable to each of several spatial (areas, sites, zones and replicates) and temporal scales (fortnights and years) in the Marine Protected Area of Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo (Western Mediterranean Sea). The results indicate fortnight and year as the most relevant scales of variability in the cell abundance of C. taylorii and highlight the unimportance of small spatial scales (zone and replicates) to the species variability. The collected data also evidence the absence of a direct relationship between the cell density of C. taylorii and the production of mucilage. In conclusion, these results indicate that patterns in the cell abundance of C. taylorii vary notably depending on the considered scale and that future investigations on processes affecting its performance will need to consider the relevant scales of variation evidenced.     

Effects of remarriage after widowhood on long-term fitness in a monogamous historical human population

The fitness benefits of multiple mating determine the strength of sexual selection in each sex. This is traditionally quantified by the number of offspring born to once versus multiply mated individuals. In species with (bi)parental care, however, this measure may overestimate the benefits of multiple mating since having several mates can increase offspring number but decrease offspring quality. We analyzed short- and long-term fitness consequences of multiple marriages for both sexes in humans in preindustrial Finnish populations, where monogamy was socially enforced and remarriage was possible only after widowhood. Remarriage increased the lifetime number of offspring sired by men by lengthening their reproductive span but was unrelated to the lifetime number of births for women. However, neither men's nor women's long-term fitness, measured as their number of grandchildren, was significantly increased or decreased by remarriage. These associations were not modified by individual wealth. Our results suggest that despite increasing the number of offspring sired by men, the long-term fitness benefits of serial monogamy may be negligible for both sexes when parental investment is crucial for offspring success and continues to adulthood. They also demonstrate the importance of incorporating long-term fitness measures when quantifying the benefits of mating and reproductive strategies.     

On possibilities to estimate local concentration variations with CFD-LES in real urban environments

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - Applied studies with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of hazardous gas dispersion around buildings in cities have become increasingly feasible due to rapid advancements...     

Culturomics and metagenomics: In understanding of environmental resistome

State of the art of culturomics and metagenomics to study resistome was presented. The combination of culturomics and metagenomics approaches was proposed. The research directions of antibiotic resistance study has been suggested. Pharmaceutical residues, mainly antibiotics, have been called “emerging contaminants” in the environment because of their increasing frequency of detection in aquatic and terrestrial systems and their sublethal ecological effects. Most of them are undiscovered. Both human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, are introduced into the environment via many different routes, including discharges from municipal wastewater treatment plants and land application of animal manure and biosolids to fertilize croplands. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the widespread problem of antibiotic resistance, modern and scientific approaches have been developed to gain knowledge of the entire antibiotic-resistant microbiota of various ecosystems, which is called the resistome. In this review, two omics methods, i.e. culturomics, a new approach, and metagenomics, used to study antibiotic resistance in environmental samples, are described. Moreover, we discuss how both omics methods have become core scientific tools to characterize microbiomes or resistomes, study natural communities and discover new microbes and new antibiotic resistance genes from environments. The combination of the method for get better outcome of both culturomics and metagenomics will significantly advance our understanding of the role of microbes and their specific properties in the environment.