Project house water: a novel interdisciplinary framework to assess the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of flood-related impacts

Protecting our water resources in terms of quality and quantity is considered one of the big challenges of the twenty-first century, which requires global and multidisciplinary solutions. A specific threat to water resources, in particular, is the increased occurrence and frequency of flood events due to climate change which has significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In addition to climate change, flooding (or subsequent erosion and run-off) may be exacerbated by, or result from, land use activities, obstruction of waterways, or urbanization of floodplains, as well as mining and other anthropogenic activities that alter natural flow regimes. Climate change and other anthropogenic induced flood events threaten the quantity of water as well as the quality of ecosystems and associated aquatic life. The quality of water can be significantly reduced through the unintentional distribution of pollutants, damage of infrastructure, and distribution of sediments and suspended materials during flood events. To understand and predict how flood events and associated distribution of pollutants may impact ecosystem and human health, as well as infrastructure, large-scale interdisciplinary collaborative efforts are required, which involve ecotoxicologists, hydrologists, chemists, geoscientists, water engineers, and socioeconomists. The research network “project house water” consists of a number of experts from a wide range of disciplines and was established to improve our current understanding of flood events and associated societal and environmental impacts. The concept of project house and similar seed fund and boost fund projects was established by the RWTH Aachen University within the framework of the German excellence initiative with support of the German research foundation (DFG) to promote and fund interdisciplinary research projects and provide a platform for scientists to collaborate on innovative, challenging research. Project house water consists of six proof-of-concept studies in very diverse and interdisciplinary areas of research (ecotoxicology, water, and chemical process engineering, geography, sociology, economy). The goal is to promote and foster high-quality research in the areas of water research and flood-risk assessments that combine and build off-laboratory experiments with modeling, monitoring, and surveys, as well as the use of applied methods and techniques across a variety of disciplines.     

Monitoring nutrients fate after digestate spreading in a short rotation buffer area

One of the main sources of reactive nitrogen pollution is animal manure. The disposal of digestate (material remaining after the anaerobic digestion of a biodegradable feedstock) in agricultural soils could solve both the problems of soil fertilization and waste removal, but the fate of digestate in the environment must be assessed carefully before its massive utilization. To investigate whether digestate could be safely employed as a soil fertilizer, an agricultural field located in Monastier di Treviso (Northern Italy) and characterized by the presence of low hydraulic conductivity clay soils, was selected to be amended with bovine digestate. The experimental site was intensively monitored by a three-dimensional array of probes recording soil water content, temperature, and electrical conductivity, to solve the water and bulk mass fluxes in the unsaturated zone. High-resolution soil coring allowed the characterization of soil water composition over two hydrological years. Chloride, found in high concentrations in the digestate, was used as environmental tracer to track the fate of the percolating water. The study concluded that digestate could be confidently employed in short rotation buffer areas at an average rate of 195 ± 26 kg-N/ha/year in low hydraulic conductivity soils not affected by diffuse fracturing during dry periods.     

Predictive statistical modelling of cadmium content in durum wheat grain based on soil parameters

Regulatory limits on cadmium (Cd) content in food products are tending to become stricter, especially in cereals, which are a major contributor to dietary intake of Cd by humans. This is of particular importance for durum wheat, which accumulates more Cd than bread wheat. The contamination of durum wheat grain by Cd depends not only on the genotype but also to a large extent on soil Cd availability. Assessing the phytoavailability of Cd for durum wheat is thus crucial, and appropriate methods are required. For this purpose, we propose a statistical model to predict Cd accumulation in durum wheat grain based on soil geochemical properties related to Cd availability in French agricultural soils with low Cd contents and neutral to alkaline pH (soils commonly used to grow durum wheat). The best model is based on the concentration of total Cd in the soil solution, the pH of a soil CaCl₂ extract, the cation exchange capacity (CEC), and the content of manganese oxides (Tamm’s extraction) in the soil. The model variables suggest a major influence of cadmium buffering power of the soil and of Cd speciation in solution. The model successfully explains 88% of Cd variability in grains with, generally, below 0.02 mg Cd kg^?1 prediction error in wheat grain. Monte Carlo cross-validation indicated that model accuracy will suffice for the European Community project to reduce the regulatory limit from 0.2 to 0.15 mg Cd kg^?1 grain, but not for the intermediate step at 0.175 mg Cd kg^?1. The model will help farmers assess the risk that the Cd content of their durum wheat grain will exceed regulatory limits, and help food safety authorities test different regulatory thresholds to find a trade-off between food safety and the negative impact a too strict regulation could have on farmers.

     

Monetary assessment of the recreational benefits of improved water quality – description of a new model and a case study

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) has created a demand for comparing the benefits and costs of the remedial measures. A major part of the benefits from improved water quality relate to the increased recreational value. However, there is a lack of easily operative and widely applicable quantitative methods to assess the benefits of improved water quality for recreational use. We present a new model to link physical indicators of water quality, water feasibility indicators for different recreational uses, individuals’ perceptions concerning the current feasibility of water for recreational purposes and monetary measures of water-related recreation benefits. The model has been applied to nine lakes, three rivers and one large coastal area in Finland. In this paper, we present the principles of the method and the results from one case study. In Finland, the method has been applied for the economic analysis required in the WFD.     

Evaluation of non-carcinogenic health risks of thallium in grapevine exposed to mine waters of an abandoned mining region in Turkey

Environment, Development and Sustainability - In this study, non-carcinogenic health risks of thallium in grapevine exposed to mine waters of an abandoned mining region in Turkey were evaluated....     

Influences of Climatic Change on Some Ecological Processes of an Insect Outbreak System in Canada's Boreal Forests and the Implications for Biodiversity

Insect outbreaks are a major disturbance factor in Canadian forests. If global warming occurs, the disturbance patterns caused by insects may change substantially, especially for those insects whose distributions depend largely on climate. In addition, the likelihood of wildfire often increases after insect attack, so the unpredictability of future insect disturbance patterns adds to the general uncertainty of fire regimes. The rates of processes fundamental to energy, nutrient, and biogeochemical cycling are also affected by insect disturbance, and through these effects, potential changes in disturbance patterns indirectly influence biodiversity. A process-level perspective is advanced to describe how the major insect outbreak system in Canadian forests, that of the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem. [Lepidoptera: Tortricidae]), might react to global warming. The resulting scenarios highlight the possible importance of natural selection, extreme weather, phenological relationships, complex feedbacks, historical conditions, and threshold behavior. That global warming already seems to be affecting the lifecycles of some insects points to the timeliness of this discussion. Some implications of this process-level perspective for managing the effects of global warming on biodiversity are discussed. The value of process-level understanding and high-resolution, long-term monitoring in attacking such problems is emphasized. It is argued that a species-level, preservationist approach may have unwanted side-effects, be cost-ineffective, and ecologically unsustainable.     

Biomass from phytopathogens and culture conditions improve Penicillium chrysogenum antimicrobial activity and antifungal compounds production

The present study evaluated the effect of culture conditions and phytopathogenic strain co-culture on the production of antimicrobial metabolites and antifungal activity of Penicillium chrysogenum R1, which PCR identified. Antimicrobial activity was determined using the Hunter-Hunter experimental design with three factors (pH, incubation temperature, and inoculum, at two levels each). The antifungal metabolites, β 1-3 glucanase and chitinase, produced in the presence of live and inactivated Fusarium oxysporum Fsox C11 biomass, were evaluated using HPLC-MS and GC-MS. Results showed that P. chrysogenum inhibited the growth of five phytopathogenic fungal strains, and the most significant inhibition was observed for F. oxysporum Fsox C11. The best conditions to achieve the highest antifungal activity of the cell-free extract were pH 7, 28°C, 1 × 10⁶ spores/mL, and 144 h of fermentation, observing 86% inhibition of F. oxysporum Fsox C11 growth. Production of antifungal metabolites such as 1,4-benzoquinone imine, viridicatic acid, phenol-5-methyl-2-(1-methyl ethyl), and hydrolytic enzymes β 1-3 glucanase and chitinase was detected. The results define the perspective in designing new processes and products for biocontrol phytopathogens.     

The use of semipermeable membrane devices as passive samplers to determine persistent organic compounds in indoor air

In the study reported here semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) were used to sample 28 PAHs and 19 PCBs in the gas phase in 15 single-family houses located in an area where domestic wood burning is widespread. Eight of the households used wood burning appliances whereas the others used other systems for residential heating. Most of the studied compounds were found in the houses: the PAHs at levels that were similar to or slightly higher than published SPMD-sampled levels for background or urban sites in Sweden, and the PCBs at levels that were somewhat lower than those recently found in both indoor and outdoor urban locations. A principal component analysis revealed that wood-burning heating systems may contribute to PAHs in indoor air. The sources may be emissions indoors or penetration from outdoors. The convenience of SPMD technology facilitates its use for semi-quantitative screening and monitoring of various persistent organic compounds indoors in dwellings and working environments.     

Road pavers' occupational exposure to asphalt containing waste plastic and tall oil pitch

Waste plastic (WP) and tall oil pitch (T), which are organic recycled industrial by-products, have been used as a binder with bitumen in stone mastic asphalt (SMA) and asphalt concrete (AC). We compared the exposure over one workday in 16 road pavers participating in a survey at four paving sites, using mixes of conventional asphalt (SMA, AC) or mixes containing waste material (SMA-WPT, AC-WPT). The concentrations of 11 aldehydes in air were 515 and 902 microg m(-3) at the SMA-WPT and AC-WPT worksites, being 3 and 13 times greater than at the corresponding worksites laying conventional asphalt. Resin acids (2-42 microg m(-3)), which are known sensitizers, were detected only during laying of AC-WPT. The emission levels (microg m(-3)) of total particulates (300-500), bitumen fumes (60-160), bitumen vapour (80-1120), naphthalene (0.59-1.2), phenanthrene (0.21-0.32), pyrene (<0.015-0.20), benzo(a)pyrene (<0.01) and the sum of 16 PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 1.28-2.00) were similar for conventional and WPT asphalts. The dermal deposition of 16 PAHs on exposure pads (on workers' wrist) was low in all pavers (0.7-3.5 ng cm(-2)). Eight OH-PAH biomarkers of naphthalene, phenanthrene and pyrene exposures were quantified in pre- and post-shift urine specimens. The post-shift concentrations (mean +/- SD, micromol mol(-1) creatinine) of 1- plus 2-naphthol; 1-,2-,3-,4- plus 9-phenanthrol; and 1-hydroxypyrene were, respectively, for asphalt workers: 18.1+/- 8.0, 2.41 +/- 0.71 and 0.66+/- 0.58 (smokers); 6.0+/- 2.3, 1.70+/- 0.72 and 0.27+/- 0.15 (non-smokers); WPT asphalt workers: 22.0+/- 9.2, 2.82+/- 1.11 and 0.76+/- 0.18 (smokers); 6.8+/- 2.6, 2.35+/- 0.69 and 0.46+/- 0.13 (non-smokers). The work-related uptake of PAHs was low in all pavers, although it was significantly greater in smokers than in non-smokers. The WPT asphalt workers complained of eye irritation and sore throat more than the pavers who had a much lower exposure to aldehydes and resin acids.     

Phosphorus recovery methods from secondary resources,assessment of overall benefits and barriers with focus on the Nordic countries

Phosphorus (P) recovery and recycling play a crucial role in improving resource efficiency, sustainable nutrient management and moving toward circular economy. Increasing demand for fertilizers, signs of geopolitical constraints, and high discharge of P to waterbodies are the other reasons to pursue the circularity of P. Various research have been carrying out and several processes have been developed for P-recovery from different resources. However, there is still a huge unexplored potential for P-recovery specially in the regional framework from the four main P-rich waste resources: food waste, manure, mining waste, and sewage sludge. This study reviews recovery methods of P from these secondary resources comprehensively. Additionally, it analyzes the Nordic viewpoint of P-cycle by evaluating Nordic reserves, demands, and secondary resources to gain a systematic assessment of how Nordic countries could move toward circular economy of P. Results of this study show that secondary resources of P in Nordic countries have the potential of replacing mineral fertilizer in these countries to a considerable extent. However, to overcome the challenges of P-recovery from studied resources, policymakers and researchers need to take decisions and make innovation along each other to open the new possibilities for Nordic economy.