A knowledge network to promote the use and valorization of wild food plants in the Pantanal and Cerrado,Brazil

Regional Environmental Change - The conservation and use of wild food plants should include local people in the decision-making process, and many countries have done so. However, interacting with...     

Integration of ozonation and an anaerobic expanded granular sludge bed reactor for micropollutant removal from sewage

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Conventional sewage treatment systems are generally not designed to remove micropollutants, requiring the development of new technologies, such as the...     

Blood markers among residents from a coal mining area

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Coal extraction and processing generate environmental contamination, which has several negative impacts on human health. Hematological and biochemical...     

Ecotoxicity of imidacloprid to soil invertebrates in two tropical soils with contrasting texture

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Imidacloprid is one of the most commercialized insecticides in agriculture in the world, with a broad spectrum of action. However, little is known...     

The value of open ocean ecosystems: A case study for the Spanish exclusive economic zone

Valuing goods and services from open oceans provides arguments for the ocean's protection and plays an increasingly important role in debates on the use and management of natural resources. This paper identifies and estimates the monetary value of some of the most important goods and services provided by open oceans. The list of goods and services considered includes food production, raw materials, water supply, CO₂ regulation, bioremediation of waste, biomass and biodiversity conservation. Therefore, not only values associated with productive uses are quantified but also values assigned to other biological ecosystem services. This paper constitutes a first attempt in the open ocean literature at evaluating services such as water supply, biomass and biodiversity conservation. To obtain their monetary value, different techniques, some not applied before in this area, have been used depending on the ecosystem service to be evaluated. As a general criterion we use the concept of net value added (revenues obtained from the services less incurred costs). Our methodology is illustrated by estimating the monetary values of goods and services provided by the open ocean ecosystem of Spain as defined by its exclusive economic zone. The total economic value obtained measures the contribution of oceans to overall welfare and it may be an important instrument in managing open ocean ecosystems and developing environmental policies in the future.     

Ecosystem development in roadside grasslands: biotic control, plant-soil interactions, and dispersal limitations

Roadside grasslands undergoing secondary succession are abundant, and represent ecologically meaningful examples of novel, human-created ecosystems. Interactions between plant and soil communities (hereafter plant-soil interactions) are of major importance in understanding the role of biotic control in ecosystem functioning, but little is known about these links in the context of ecosystem restoration and succession. The assessment of the key biotic communities and interactions driving ecosystem development will help practitioners to better allocate the limited resources devoted to roadside grassland restoration. We surveyed roadside grasslands from three successional stages (0-2, 7-9, and >20 years) in two Mediterranean regions of Spain. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate how interactions between plants, biological soil crusts (BSCs), and soil microbial functional diversity (soil microorganisms) affect indicators of ecosystem development and restoration: plant similarity to the reference ecosystem, erosion control, and soil C storage and N accumulation. Changes in plant community composition along the successional gradient exerted the strongest influence on these indicators. High BSC cover was associated with high soil stability, and high soil microbial functional diversity from late-successional stages was associated with high soil fertility. Contrary to our expectations, the indirect effects of plants, mediated by either BSCs or soil microorganisms, were very weak in both regions, suggesting a minor role for plant-soil interactions upon ecosystem development indicators over long periods. Our results suggest that natural vegetation dynamics effectively improved ecosystem development within a time frame of 20 years in the grasslands evaluated. They also indicate that this time could be shortened if management actions focus on: (1) maintaining well-conserved natural areas close to roadsides to enhance plant compositional changes towards late-successional stages, (2) increasing BSC cover in areas under strong erosion risk, to avoid soil loss, and (3) enhancing soil microbial functional diversity in resource-limited areas, to enhance soil C and N accumulation.     

Voltammetric analysis of metallothioneins and copper (II) in fish for water biomonitoring studies

An major research area in environmental chemistry is the development of methods for the analysis of biomarkers. Metallothioneins are used as biomarkers in studies of heavy metals exposure in water, because metallothioneins are synthesized and accumulated when organisms are exposed to toxic concentrations of pollutants. In this work, simple and sensitive voltammetric methods were developed for metallothionein and copper (II) determinations in fish liver Lepomis gibbosus. Both analytical methodologies were optimized and applied to samples extracted from individuals previously submitted to sub-lethal toxicological trials with copper sulphate (CuSO₄) and cadmium chloride (CdCl₂). The obtained results showed that both methods are very precise, sensitive, and involve simple sample preparation processes. Moreover, metallothioneins showed better correlation with the toxic exposure than Cu²⁺. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that hepatic metallothioneins and Cu²⁺ contents are voltammetrically determined in order to be compared in their function as heavy metal biological indicators.     

Loft features reveal the functioning of the young pigeon’s navigational system

It is thought that young homing pigeons are able to use information acquired en route for their initial homeward orientation. However, the cues involved and mechanisms utilised are under discussion. Blocking light-dependent route-specific information during the first leg of an outward journey detour, together with analysis of pigeons that were raised under different loft conditions, allowed us to correctly evaluate the functioning of this mechanism and, more generally, the navigational map of birds. Pigeons from the same stock were raised and kept in two different lofts. The birds in the experimental groups were transported to the release sites via detours, and light-dependent information was denied during the first half of the outward journey (no compass information was available). Control birds were transported by the most direct route and had access to all available information. In general, the results showed that the low-loft birds preferred to use magnetic compass cues, whereas the high-loft birds preferred to use navigational map cues to collect information of the first part of the outward journey. The impairments observed in the homing performances of the experimental groups highlight the reliability of information collected inside the map area. Relevant to an understanding of the route-reversal mechanism was the evidence that this mechanism is able to function in the absence of compass information (birds raised in a wind-exposed loft show a detour effect). In systems where directional information could be provided by multiple sources, processing and extracting accurate course trajectories through a common mechanism may prove more efficient and reliable.