Changes in air pollution during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain: A multi-city study

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated into one of the largest crises of the 21st Century. The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, responsible for COVID-19, has spread rapidly all around the world. The Spanish Government was forced to declare a nationwide lockdown in view of the rapidly spreading virus and high mortality rate in the nation. This study investigated the impact of short-term lockdown during the period from March 15th to April 12th 2020 on the atmospheric levels of CO, SO₂, PM₁₀, O₃, and NO₂ over 11 representative Spanish cities. The possible influence of several meteorological factors (temperature, precipitation, wind, sunlight hours, minimum and maximum pressure) on the pollutants' levels were also considered. The results obtained show that the 4-week lockdown had significant impact on reducing the atmospheric levels of NO₂ in all cities except for the small city of Santander as well as CO, SO₂, and PM₁₀ in some cities, but resulted in increase of O₃ level.     

Evaluation of the effectiveness of red mud-supported catalysts in combination with ozone and TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> in the treatment of solution containing benzene,toluene, and xylene

Ozone and a Fe²⁺/TiO₂-based catalyst were examined in the degradation of a synthetic solution of benzene toluene and xylene (BTX) in an advanced oxidation process (AOP). The catalyst beads were made from the slurry waste of aluminum production process, by inserting the TiO₂ content and subsequent calcination. The reduction of the BTX concentration load was monitored by the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and BTX concentration. Different levels were used on factors: pH, time of treatment, initial concentration of BTX, and percentage of TiO₂. The process was conducted in a bubble column reactor with the insertion of catalyst beads. A response surface methodology technique (CCD) was used to build a model based on COD reduction results. The model was optimized using the normal-boundary intersection (NBI) algorithm to maximize COD reduction and minimize the variance attributed to the process. Optimization led to COD reductions of 80% in 2 h of experiment. Correlation analysis of coefficient models from experimental data R²_adj was 0.9966, showing a good fit of model data. In the optimized conditions, the possible increase of the biodegradability ratio of the BTX solution, through the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and COD, was also analyzed. Under pre-treatment conditions, the BOD/COD ratio was 0.13. After the treatment, it increased to 0.56.

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Thermoplasticized Pectin by Extrusion/Thermo-Compression for Film Industrial Application

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Researches for the development of materials with less environmental impact have been more common. Pectin is a natural polysaccharide, presenting in plants...     

Removal of emerging pollutants in aqueous phase by heterogeneous Fenton and photo-Fenton with Fe2O3-TiO2-clay heterostructures

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Fe2O3-TiO2-clay heterostructures have been prepared using an organo-bentonite as support, which organophilic character favored the fixation of TiO2....     

Tributyltin chloride disrupts aortic vascular reactivity and increases reactive oxygen species production in female rats

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Organotin compounds, such as tributyltin (TBT), are environment contaminants that induce bioaccumulation and have potential toxic effects on marine...     

An Indigenous perspective on ecosystem accounting: Challenges and opportunities revealed by an Australian case study

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) is widely promoted in environmental and economic policy and management. Unfortunately, the SEEA-EA has not substantively addressed the aspects of accounting that may be of interest to, or used by, Indigenous peoples. We investigate an Indigenous perspective on the potential of the SEEA-EA to support cultural and environmental management through collaborative workshops with managers of Nyamba Buru Yawuru, the Prescribed Body Corporate representing the Yawuru Traditional Owners in Western Australia. Our discussions highlight that while the SEEA-EA may be a valuable tool for empowering Indigenous people and supporting the management of their lands and seas, there are areas where the SEEA-EA needs to be broadened to better reflect cultural values, and the services to ecosystems provided by Indigenous peoples. Embedding Indigenous perspectives into the SEEA-EA would mean that it is of greater use to Indigenous peoples and their representative organisations and ensure that these values are better recognised in the policymaking of government.     

Understanding slums: analysis of the metabolic pattern of the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

This paper illustrates an innovative approach to characterize the metabolic pattern of informal urban settlements or slums with the aim to better understand the factors that affect the material standard of living of slum residents, the dynamics of slum development and the interaction of the slum with its wider socioeconomic context. The proposed system of accounting, multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM), integrates socioeconomic and spatial data and studies energy and monetary flows in relation to the pattern of human activities and land uses. The theoretical basis of the approach is illustrated with data from Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In particular, we show how to construct taxonomies of accounting categories to characterize: (1) the set of activities carried out by the slum dwellers, to which to link assessments of flow rates per hour; (2) the set of land uses or spatial elements making up the slum, to which to link assessments of flow densities per hectare. The analysis of the interaction of Vidigal with its wider socioeconomic context focuses on monetary flows and transport (job commuting).     

Natural forest expansion on reclaimed coal mines in Northern Spain: the role of native shrubs as suitable microsites

The characterization of suitable microsites for tree seedling establishment and growth is one of the most important tasks to achieve the restoration of native forest using natural processes in disturbed sites. For that, we assessed the natural Quercus petraea forest expansion in a 20-year-old reclaimed open-cast mine under sub-Mediterranean climate in northern Spain, monitoring seedling survival, growth, and recruitment during 5 years in three contrasting environments (undisturbed forest, mine edge, and mine center). Seedling density and proportion of dead branches decreased greatly from undisturbed forest towards the center of the mine. There was a positive effect of shrubs on Q. petraea seedling establishment in both mine environments, which increase as the environment undergoes more stress (from the mine edge to the center of the mine), and it was produced by different shrub structural features in each mine environment. Seedling survival reduction through time in three environments did not lead to a density reduction because there was a yearly recruitment of new seedlings. Seedling survival, annual growth, and height through time were greater in mine sites than in the undisturbed forest. The successful colonization patterns and positive neighbor effect of shrubs on natural seedlings establishment found in this study during the first years support the use of shrubs as ecosystem engineers to increase heterogeneity in micro-environmental conditions on reclaimed mine sites, which improves late-successional Quercus species establishment.     

Organochlorine concentrations in franciscana dolphins, Pontoporia blainvillei, from Brazilian waters

Blubber samples were collected from ten franciscana dolphins either incidentally captured in fishing operations or stranded on São Paulo (SP) and Paraná (PR) states littoral, Southeastern and Southern Brazilian coast, respectively. Determination of PCB, DDT and HCB concentrations were performed by capillary gas chromatograph coupled to electron capture detector (ECD). ΣDDT, ΣPCB and HCB concentrations ranged from 264 ng g⁻¹ to 5811 ng g⁻¹ lipid, from 909 ng g⁻¹ to 5849 ng g⁻¹ lipid and from 10 ng g⁻¹ to 61 ng g⁻¹ lipid, respectively. Regarding DDTs, the distribution of the mean percentages decreased in the following order: p,p′-DDE > p,p′-DDD > p,p′-DDT. The ΣDDT/ΣPCB ratio varied between 0.27 and 0.42 in Northern and Central SP coast, while in Southern SP and PR coast the values were 1.6 and 1.9, respectively. Dissimilarities in ΣDDT/ΣPCB ratios point to different sources of organochlorine compounds to franciscana dolphins in the study area. Considering the endocrine disruptive action of organochlorine compounds, the concentrations found in franciscana dolphins from Brazilian waters may represent an additional obstacle to the conservation of this endangered cetacean species.     

Influence of sugar cane vinasse on the sorption and degradation of herbicides in soil under controlled conditions

This study reports the influence of sugar cane vinasse on the persistence, sorption and leaching potential of diuron (3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea), hexazinone (3-cyclohexyl-6-(dimethylamino)-1-methyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-dione) and tebuthiuron (1-(5-tert-butyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)-1,3-dimethylurea) in both a clay and sandy soil from a tropical area of Brazil. The experiments were conducted out under controlled laboratory conditions. The addition of sugarcane vinasse to soil influenced the persistence and sorption of the herbicides in both the studied clay and sandy soils, with a considerable decrease in the diuron DT₅₀ values in clay soil. The Ground Water Ubiquity Score (GUS) Index classifies the herbicides as leachers in both soils and treatments, with the exception of diuron, which is classified as a non-leacher in clay soil-vinasse and as a transient herbicide in sandy soil. These results suggest that special attention should be given to areas such as those where the sandy soil was collected in this study, which is a recharge area of the Guarani Aquifer and is likely to experience groundwater contamination due to the high leaching potential of the applied pesticides.