Financing for innovative technologies and best practices to reduce persistent organic pollutants

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) threaten human health and the global environment. Recognizing their dangers many countries began to limit or ban POPs production, use, and release in the 1990s. Eventually the Stockholm Convention on POPs, was adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provides financial support to developing country Parties for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention. The GEF’s POPs investment portfolio focuses on: 1) strengthening the capacity of developing country Parties to implement the Stockholm Convention; 2) establishing and supporting partnerships to develop and implement National Implementation Plans (NIPs), and 3) demonstrating and deploying best technologies and practices to reduce POPs emission, including development of safe alternatives. Since 2001 the GEF has committed US$568.8 million to POPs projects and leveraged some US$1474.5 million in co-financing from partners in the public and private sectors, bringing the total value of the GEF POPs portfolio to over US$2 billion. With GEF support, 108 developing country Parties have developed their NIPs. The GEF also financed 109 projects for the implementation of the Convention. Upon completion, these GEF POPs investments will contribute to the disposal of more than 70,000 tons of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) oil, contaminated equipments, and waste, more than 40,000 tons of obsolete POPs pesticides and associated waste, and reducing dioxin/furan and mercury emission by introducing environmentally sound technologies and best practices. This paper summarizes: 1) direct and indirect GEF investments to support the goals of the Stockholm Convention; 2) investment case studies on PCB, DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane (DDT), chlordane and mirex, medical waste, obsolete POPs and engaging civil society; and 3) lessons learned in terms of GEF financing strategies, best technologies and environmental practices to address POPs.     

Distribution and dietary regulation of an associated facultative Rhizobiales-related bacterium in the omnivorous giant tropical ant,Paraponera clavata

We document a facultative Bartonella-like Rhizobiales bacterium in the giant tropical ant, Paraponera clavata. In a lowland tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, 59 colonies were assayed for the prevalence of the Bartonella-like bacterium (BLB), 14 of which were positive. We addressed three questions: First, how does the prevalence of BLB within colonies vary with environmental conditions? Second, how does diet affect the prevalence of BLB in P. clavata? Third, how does the distribution of BLB among colonies reflect ambient differences in food resources and foraging habits? A variety of environmental variables that may be predictive of the presence of BLB were measured, and diet manipulations were conducted to test whether the prevalence of BLB responded to supplemental carbohydrate or prey. The ambient frequency of BLB is much higher in young secondary forests, but is nearly absent from older secondary forests. The prevalence of BLB inside field colonies increased over the duration of a 2-week carbohydrate supplementation; however, water and prey supplementation did not alter the prevalence of BLB. The diets of the colonies located in young secondary forest, compared to other habitats, have a diet richer in carbohydrates and lower in prey. The abundance of carbohydrate, or the relative lack of N, in a colony’s diet influences the occurrence of the BLB microbe in P. clavata. As experimental diet manipulations can affect the facultative presence of an N-cycling microbe, a consistent diet shift in diet may facilitate the emergence of tighter symbioses.     

Direct evidence of trophic interactions among apex predators in the Late Triassic of western North America

Hypotheses of feeding behaviors and community structure are testable with rare direct evidence of trophic interactions in the fossil record (e.g., bite marks). We present evidence of four predation, scavenging, and/or interspecific fighting events involving two large paracrocodylomorphs (=‘rauisuchians’) from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation (～220–210 Ma). The larger femur preserves a rare history of interactions with multiple actors prior to and after death of this ～8–9-m individual. A large embedded tooth crown and punctures, all of which display reaction tissue formed through healing, record evidence of a failed attack on this individual. The second paracrocodylomorph femur exhibits four unhealed bite marks, indicating the animal either did not survive the attack or was scavenged soon after death. The combination of character states observed (e.g., morphology of the embedded tooth, ‘D’-shaped punctures, evidence of bicarination of the marking teeth, spacing of potentially serial marks) indicates that large phytosaurs were actors in both cases. Our analysis of these specimens demonstrates phytosaurs targeted large paracrocodylomorphs in these Late Triassic ecosystems. Previous distinctions between ‘aquatic’ and ‘terrestrial’ Late Triassic trophic structures were overly simplistic and built upon mistaken paleoecological assumptions; we show they were intimately connected at the highest trophic levels. Our data also support that size cannot be the sole factor in determining trophic status. Furthermore, these marks provide an opportunity to start exploring the seemingly unbalanced terrestrial ecosystems from the Late Triassic of North America, in which large carnivores far outnumber herbivores in terms of both abundance and diversity.     

An estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community

Spiders have been suspected to be one of the most important groups of natural enemies of insects worldwide. To document the impact of the global spider community as insect predators, we present estimates of the biomass of annually killed insect prey. Our estimates assessed with two different methods suggest that the annual prey kill of the global spider community is in the range of 400–800 million metric tons (fresh weight), with insects and collembolans composing >90% of the captured prey. This equals approximately 1‰ of the global terrestrial net primary production. Spiders associated with forests and grasslands account for >95% of the annual prey kill of the global spider community, whereas spiders in other habitats are rather insignificant contributors over a full year. The spider communities associated with annual crops contribute less than 2% to the global annual prey kill. This, however, can be partly explained by the fact that annual crop fields are “disturbed habitats” with a low buildup of spider biomass and that agrobiont spiders often only kill prey over short time periods in a year. Our estimates are supported by the published results of exclusion experiments, showing that the number of herbivorous/detritivorous insects and collembolans increased significantly after spider removal from experimental plots. The presented estimates of the global annual prey kill and the relative contribution of spider predation in different biomes improve the general understanding of spider ecology and provide a first assessment of the global impact of this very important predator group.     

Testing the influence of gravity on flower symmetry in five <Emphasis Type="Italic">Saxifraga</Emphasis> species

Flower symmetry is considered a species-specific trait and is categorized in asymmetry, actinomorphic symmetry, bisymmetry and zygomorphic symmetry. Here we report on the intra-individual variation of flower symmetry in the genus Saxifraga and the influence of light, gravity and intrinsic factors on the development of flower symmetry. We tested five species—Saxifraga cuneifolia, Saxifraga imparilis, Saxifraga rotundifolia, Saxifraga stolonifera and Saxifraga umbrosa—concerning six flower parameters—angles between petals, petal length, petal pigmentation, angular position of carpels, movement of stamens and (only for S. imparilis and S. stolonifera) the length of the two lower elongated petals in regard to their position towards the stem. Specimens of all species were tested on a vertical clinostat as a gravity compensator, on a horizontal clinostat as a light incidence compensator and on a stationary control. The results show that the angle of incident light has no apparent impact on flower symmetry, whereas gravity affects the angular position of petals in S. cuneifolia and S. umbrosa and the petal colouration in S. rotundifolia. In S. cuneifolia and S. umbrosa, the absence of directional gravity resulted in the development of actinomorphic flowers, whereas the corresponding control flowers were zygomorphic. The development of flowers in S. rotundifolia was not altered by this treatment. The length of the two elongated petals in S. stolonifera and S. imparilis was not affected by gravity, but rather was determined by position of the flower within the inflorescence and resulted in asymmetrical flowers.     

Effect of vegetation type on throughfall deposition and seepage flux

This paper compares different vegetation types (coniferous and deciduous forest, grassed and pure heathland) in terms of input (throughfall deposition) and output (seepage flux) in a region with intermediate nitrogen load (+/-20kg Nha(-1)y(-1) via bulk precipitation) in comparable conditions in north Belgium. Coniferous forest (two plots Pinus sylvestris and two plots Pinus nigra) received significantly higher nitrogen and sulphur throughfall deposition than deciduous forest and heathland. Grassed and pure heathland had significantly highest throughfall quantities of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+), respectively. The observed differences in throughfall deposition between the different vegetation types were not univocally reflected in the ion seepage flux. Considerable seepage fluxes of NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-), Ca(2+) and Al(III) were only found under the P. nigra plots. We discuss our hypothesis that the P. nigra forests already evolved to a situation of N saturation, while the other vegetation types did not.     

Seasonal concentrations and partitioning of PAHs in a suburban site of Bursa, Turkey

Effects of space heating on atmospheric concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of PAHs were investigated in a suburban site of Bursa, Turkey. The average concentrations of ∑₁₅-PAHs in heating season samples were approximately 10 times higher than those of non-heating season samples. The plot of log K_p versus log P_L⁰ for all the data set gave significantly different slopes. The slope for the heating season (−0.75) samples was steeper than the one for the non-heating season (−0.64) samples. It was also observed that partitioning of PAHs for the non-heating season samples showed different characteristics depending on air parcel trajectories. Generally steeper slopes were obtained for the air parcels traveled across the Black sea and arrived to the sampling site from northern sector. On the other hand, the variations in slopes according to air mass origin were insignificant for the heating season samples. Local contributions from space heating are the reason for this observation.     

Potentiality of different isolates of wilt fungus Fusarium oxysporum collected from rhizosphere of tomato against root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita

This investigation was undertaken to determine the effect of culture filtrates of different isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici on mortality of Meloidogyne incognita juveniles and egg hatching. It was observed that different concentrations including standard extract (S.E), 1:10 and 1:100 dilutions of all fungal filtrates inhibited egg hatch when compared with control. Minimum mortality and maximum hatching was observed in BRT (showing least mortality) isolate of F. oxysporum, while maximum mortality and minimum egg hatching was recorded in BGT (showing maximum mortality) isolate. Larval mortality was decreased with a decrease in concentration and the least mortality was observed in 1:100 when compared with SE and 1:10. The potentiality of both the isolates (BRT and BGT) against root-knot nematode M. incognita was confirmed by the pathogenicity test on tomato. These observations confirmed that F. oxysporumisolates possesses variability in pathogenicity ranging from pathogenic to bio-control agent. The plants inoculated with BRT isolate failed to show wilt symptoms while plants inoculated with BGT isolate showed wilt indices.     

Biodegradation of lindane, methyl parathion and carbofuran by various enriched bacterial isolates

In the present study, lindane (1,2,3,4,5,6-hexachlorocyclohexane), methyl parathion (O-dimethylO-(4-nitro-phenyl) phosphorothioate) and carbofuran (2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate) degradation potential of different enriched bacterial cultures were evaluated under various environmental conditions. Enriched cultures behaved differently with different pesticides. Degradation was more in a facultative anaerobic condition as compared to that in aerobic condition. A specific pesticide enriched culture showed maximum degradation of that pesticide irrespective of pesticides and environmental conditions. Lindane and endosulfan enriched cultures behaved almost similarly. Degradation of lindane by lindane enriched cultures was 75 +/- 3% in aerobic co-metabolic process whereas 78 +/- 5% of lindane degradation occurred in anaerobic co-metabolic process. Degradation of methyl parathion by methyl parathion enriched culture was 87 +/- 1% in facultative anaerobic condition. In almost all the cases, many intermediate metabolites were observed. However, many of these metabolites disappeared after 4-6 weeks of incubation. Mixed pesticide-enriched culture degraded all the three pesticides more effectively as compared to specific pesticide- enriched cultures. It can be inferred from the results that a bacterial consortium enriched with a mixture of all the possible pesticides that are present in the site seems to be a better option for the effective bioremediation of multi-pesticide contaminated site.     

In-field variation in 2,4-D mineralization in relation to sorption and soil microbial communities

This study was undertaken to assess 2,4-D mineralization in an undulating cultivated field, along a sloping transect (458 m to 442 m above sea level), as a function of soil type, soil microbial communities and the sorption of 2,4-D to soil. The 2,4-D soil sorption coefficient (Kd) ranged from 1.81 to 4.28 L kg(-1), the 2,4-D first-order mineralization rate constant (k) ranged from 0.04 to 0.13 day(-1) and the total amount of 2,4-D mineralized at 130 days (M(130)) ranged from 24 to 39%. Both k and M(130) were significantly negatively associated (or correlated) with soil organic carbon content (SOC) and Kd. Both k and M(130) were significantly associated with two fatty-acid methyl esters (FAME), i17:1 and a18, but not with twenty-two other individual FAME. Imperfectly drained soils (Gleyed Dark Grey Chernozems) in lower-slopes showed significantly lesser 2,4-D mineralization relative to well-drained soils (Orthic Dark Grey Chernozems) in mid- and upper-slopes. Well-drained soils had a greater potential for 2,4-D mineralization because of greater abundance and diversity of the microbial community in these soils. However, the reduced 2,4-D mineralization in imperfectly drained soils was predominantly because of their greater SOC and increased 2,4-D sorption, limiting the bioavailability of 2,4-D for degradation. The wide range of 2,4-D sorption and mineralization in this undulating cultivated field is comparable in magnitude and extent to the variability of 2,4-D sorption and mineralization observed at a regional scale in Manitoba. As such, in-field variations in SOC and the abundance and diversity of microbial communities are determining factors that require greater attention in assessing the risk of movement of 2,4-D by runoff, eroded soil and leaching.