Germination,root elongation,and photosynthetic performance of plants exposed to sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES): an emerging contaminant

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The anionic surfactant SLES (sodium lauryl ether sulfate) is an emerging contaminant, being the main component of foaming agents that are increasingly...     

Spatial scales of variation in lichens: implications for sampling design in biomonitoring surveys

The variability of biological data is a main constraint affecting the quality and reliability of lichen biomonitoring surveys for estimation of the effects of atmospheric pollution. Although most epiphytic lichen bioindication surveys focus on between-site differences at the landscape level, associated with the large scale effects of atmospheric pollution, current protocols are based on multilevel sampling, thus adding further sources of variation and affecting the error budget. We test the hypothesis that assemblages of lichen communities vary at each spatial scale examined, in order to determine what scales should be included in future monitoring studies. We compared four sites in Italy, along gradients of atmospheric pollution and climate, to test the partitioning of the variance components of lichen diversity across spatial scales (from trunks to landscapes). Despite environmental heterogeneity, we observed comparable spatial variance. However, residuals often overcame between-plot variability, leading to biased estimation of atmospheric pollution effects.     

Differences between carbon dioxide levels over suburban and rural sites in Northern Spain

Purpose  

A comparison between suburban and rural atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in Northern Spain is made.     

Capability of the natural microbial community in a river water ecosystem to degrade the drug naproxen

The present work aims at evaluating the ability of the River Tiber natural microbial community to degrade naproxen in water samples collected downstream from a wastewater treatment plant. For this purpose, different water microcosms were set up (microbiologically active vs sterile ones) and treated with naproxen (100 μg/L) alone or in the co-presence of gemfibrozil in order to evaluate if the co-presence of the latter had an influence on naproxen degradation. The experiment was performed in the autumn and was compared with the same experimental set performed in spring of the same year to highlight if seasonal differences in the river water influenced the naproxen degradation. Pharmaceutical concentrations and microbial analysis (total cell number, viability, and microbial community composition) were performed at different times in the degradation experiments. The overall results show that the natural microbial community in the river water had a key role in the naproxen degradation. In fact, although there was a transient negative effect on the natural microbial community in all the experiments (3 h after adding the pharmaceutical), the latter was able to degrade naproxen within about 40 days. On the contrary, no decrease in the pharmaceutical concentration was observed in the sterile river water. Moreover, the co-presence of the two drugs lengthened the naproxen lag phase. As regards the natural microbial community composition detected by Fluorescence in situ Hybridization, Alpha and Gamma-Proteobacteria increased when the pharmaceutical halved, suggesting their role in the degradation. This study shows that with the concentration studied, naproxen was degraded by the natural microbial populations collected from a river chronically contaminated by this pharmaceutical.     

Concentration and Recovery of Viruses from Water: A Comprehensive Review

Enteric viruses are a cause of waterborne disease worldwide, and low numbers in drinking water can present a significant risk of infection. Because the numbers are often quite low, large volumes (100–1,000 L) of water are usually processed. The VIRADEL method using microporous filters is most commonly used today for this purpose. Negatively charged filters require the addition of multivalent salts and acidification of the water sample to effect virus adsorption, which can make large-volume sampling difficult. Positively charged filters require no preconditioning of samples, and are able to concentrate viruses from water over a greater pH range than electronegative filters. The most widely used electropositive filter is the Virosorb 1MDS; however, the Environmental Protection Agency has added the positively charged NanoCeram filters to their proposed Method 1615. Ultrafilters concentrate viruses based on size exclusion rather than electrokinetics, but are impractical for field sampling or processing of turbid water. Elution (recovery) of viruses from filters following concentration is performed with organic (e.g., beef extract) or inorganic solutions (e.g., sodium polyphosphates). Eluates are then reconcentrated to decrease the sample volume to enhance detection methods (e.g., cell culture infectivity assays and molecular detection techniques). While the majority of available filters have demonstrated high virus retention efficiencies, the methods to elute and reconcentrate viruses have met with varying degrees of success due to the biological variability of viruses present in water.     

Agricultural landscapes as multi-scale public good and the role of the Common Agricultural Policy

During the last 50 years, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has impacted the evolution of European agricultural landscapes by driving changes in land use and farming practices. We propose a typology characterising the scales relevant for agricultural landscapes management and argue that action is required on three scales: (1) a landscape oriented management at the farm level; (2) the coordination of land managers’ actions at the landscape level; and (3) the conservation of the diversity of agricultural landscapes in the EU. We provide evidence that until now the CAP has mainly focused on the first scale. We also illustrate how agricultural policy could encourage coordinated actions at the landscape- and EU-scales. In particular, we propose policy instruments to coordinate actions of individual land owners (e.g. collective bonus in agro-environmental contracts or support to environmental cooperatives (scale 2)). We also analyse how the recognition and transposition of the European Landscape Convention could promote trans-frontier landscape cooperation in order, not only to conserve high-quality rural landscapes, but also to ensure the conservation of the diversity of EU landscapes (scale 3). This paper provides a knowledge base to support an integrated CAP design in the direction of improved landscape management, as an important component of the EU project towards more sustainable agriculture.     

Minimization of the environmental impact of chrome tanning: a new process reusing the tanning floats

A chrome tanning process which allows the reuse of tanning floats has been developed. The most commonly used chromium salts were replaced by highly masked and basified ones. This substitution eliminates basification operation and prevents pH change and the considerable neutral salts concentration increase in the tanning float. Consequently, tanning float can be reused several times. An optimum chromium salt concentration in the tanning float between 10% and 12.5% has been determined. It has been shown that the number of times the tanning float can be reused depends on the quality of the leather grain to be manufactured. In the best case, a saving of 18 L of water per kilogram of tanned leather is calculated. This means savings of 90% of water normally used.