Source apportionment of urban fine and ultra-fine particle number concentration in a Western Mediterranean city

Extensive measurements on particle number concentration and size distribution (13–800 nm), together with detailed chemical composition of PM_2.5 have constituted the main inputs of the database used for a source apportionment analysis. Data were collected at an urban background site in Barcelona, Western Mediterranean.The source identification analysis helped us to distinguish five emission sources (vehicle exhausts, mineral dust, sea spray, industrial source and fuel-oil combustion) and two atmospheric processes (photochemical induced nucleation and regional/urban background particles derived from coagulation and condensation processes). After that, a multilinear regression analysis was applied in order to quantify the contribution of each factor.This study reveals that vehicle exhausts contribute dominantly to the number concentration in all the particle sizes (52–86%), but especially in the range 30–200 nm. This work also points out the importance of the regional and/or urban formed aerosols (secondary inorganic particles) on the total number concentration (around 25% of the total number), with a higher impact on the accumulation mode. The photo-chemically induced nucleation of aerosols only represents a small proportion of the total number as an annual mean (3%), but is very relevant when considering only the nucleation mode (13–20 nm) fraction (23%). The other sources recognized registered sporadic contributions to the total number, coinciding with specific meteorological scenarios.This study discloses the main sources and features affecting and controlling the fine and ultra-fine aerosols in a typical city in the Western Mediterranean coast. Whereas the road traffic appears to be the most important source of sub-micrometric aerosols, other sources may not be negligible under specific meteorological conditions.     

Reconciling people's livelihoods and environmental conservation in the rural landscapes in Kenya: Opportunities and challenges in the Amboseli landscapes

Two of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000 are: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; and ensuring environmental sustainability. The link between depressed livelihoods and unsustainable use of land and natural resources can be seen in Kenyan rangelands. Here, the local community is dependent on land and its resources for livelihoods, but the demand and competition is increasing, endangering both the resources they depend on and threatening environmental health. Amboseli is an Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) area that experiences ecological constraints, resource limitations, and low economic investment. Local communities in such landscapes are resource-dependent for their daily livelihoods, and have few socio-economic opportunities. Pastoralism, which is the main source of their wealth, continues to decline and exploitation by a few local elites and poor local leadership further depresses livelihoods. Other challenges to these poor rural landscapes are increasing human population which increases demands on natural resources and environment; persistent hunger; low universal primary education; poor gender equality and empowerment of women; environmental degradation; and lack of local and global partnership for development. This paper focuses on the two Millennium Development Goals mentioned above. Linkages, challenges and opportunities in enhancing rural livelihoods while promoting environmental sustainability in rural landscapes of the Amboseli Rural Landscape are discussed.     

Both trivalent and hexavalent chromium strongly alter in vitro germination and ultrastructure of kiwifruit pollen

Due to its widespread industrial use, chromium is considered a dangerous environmental pollutant. It is known to inhibit plant growth and development. The present study provides the first evidence of the toxicity of this metal on the male haploid generation of a higher plant. Both Cr(III) and Cr(VI) species, supplied as CrCl(3) and CrO(3), respectively, exerted a strong dose-dependent inhibitory effect on kiwifruit pollen tube emergence and growth. Cr(III) resulted more effective than Cr(VI) in the 16-75microM interval; moreover, complete inhibition of germination was attained at much lower doses than Cr(VI). Also tube morphology was affected. While the plasma membrane was still undamaged in the large majority of the treated pollen grains, dramatic ultrastructural alterations were induced by chromium including chromatin condensation, swelling of mitochondria, cytoplasmic vacuolization, and perturbed arrangement of endoplasmic reticulum cisternae. Thus, it seems that the impact of the two chromium species on kiwifruit pollen may result in severe compromission of both essential structures and functions of the male gametophyte.     

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in milk from Italian women living in Rome and Venice

The levels of selected polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were measured in human milk samples from the areas of Venice and Rome, primarily in order to characterize the current levels of infant exposure to PCBs and PBDEs due to breast feeding in Italy. Sixteen non-dioxin-like PCBs, including the traditional indicator congeners, and 11 PBDEs, comprising the relevant PBDE-47, PBDE-99, and PBDE-153, were determined. Congeners were selected for analysis according to their relative abundance in human tissues, toxicological relevance, and diffusion in the environment. Dietary habits of the milk donors were recorded by questionnaires; mothers of the Venice area were classified into three groups according to their consumption of local fish, molluscs, and other fishery products. Sigma(16)(PCBs) and Sigma(11)(PBDEs) (ng g(-1) fat) for the areas of Venice and Rome were respectively, 250-390 and 240, and 1.6-2.8 and 4.1. An increase of fish and fishery product consumption could not be associated with an increase of PCB and PBDE levels in milk.     

Effectiveness of Treatment Technologies for Wastewater Pollution Generated by Indian Pulp Mills

India has a large number of paper manufacturing units, with mills varying in size of operations and type of product, scattered all over the length and breadth of the country. Present study deals with the survey of four different pulp and paper mills (Mill A, Mill B, Mill C and Mill D) in India, differing in their scale of operation as well as raw material usage. Physico-chemical characterization of wastewaters produced by different processing units like digestor house liquors, bleaching section, paper machine backwaters, combined inlet to the ETP and outlet to ETP, for all the four mills, was conducted. Different parameters like pH, Color, COD, BOD, percent Na, SAR, TDS and Total hardness were analyzed and compared. Highly significant differences were thus found between all the processing units of all four mills with p values < 0.01. This evaluation showed that though these mills have effluent treatment facilities installed in their premises, improvements are still needed to increase their efficiencies for treating the discharged wastewaters.     

An exploratory study of the effect of high and low fascination environments on attentional fatigue

According to attention restoration theory attentional fatigue can be renewed in environments where fascinating stimuli are present as they evoke effortless attention and allow directed attention to rest and be restored. The present study hypothesizes that performing an attention-orienting task in a state of attentional fatigue costs less in a high fascination than in a low fascination condition. In the former attentional shifts are expected to be facilitated because one can function in the involuntary mode. The high fascination condition is also expected to facilitate attention in the coding process and therefore to affect the likelihood of stimulus material to be remembered. To this end 31 subjects were mentally fatigued by performing a sustained attention test. Then they performed an ad hoc attention-orienting task inspired by Posner's paradigm and applied to 40 photographs of environments already assessed for their fascination value. Finally they performed an incidental memory task. As expected, only in the high fascination condition did participants show a significant benefit (reaction time reduction) in shifting attention between trials. The role of fascination on recall is less clear since it interacts with the naturalness of the scene.     

Recovery after trampling disturbance in a canopy-forming seaweed population

The recovery of Ascophyllum nodosum, and the associated benthic community, was followed after repeated trampling disturbance at different intensities, from 2005 to 2010, at its southern limit (41°41′27″N; 8°50′57″W). The cover of A. nodosum and associated organisms and the demography of A. nodosum individuals in the most disturbed areas were followed over a recovery period of 54 months. Recovery of A. nodosum assemblages was negatively affected by increasing trampling intensity. After 54 months, the highest intensity plots were still significantly different from control plots. Growth and mortality rates of A. nodosum increased shortly after disturbance but progressively recovered to levels close to control plots. The results of this study demonstrate the sensitivity of this habitat-building species to human trampling and also show its plasticity to cope with disturbance events.     

A methodology for rapid assessment of the environmental status of the shallow aquifer of ��Tavoliere di Puglia�� (Southern Italy)

Anticipating the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), the Italian Government issued Legislative Decree n.152/99 which sets out rules for classifying the environmental status of national water bodies in order to achieve specific qualitative objectives by 2016. The most recent European Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC), which was only recognized by Italy in early 2009 (Legislative Decree 30/09), requires such resources to be characterized from a qualitative standpoint and the risk of their being polluted by individual pollutants or groups of pollutants to be evaluated. This paper reports a simple methodology, based on easy-to-apply rules, for the rapid classification of groundwater, and the results of its application to the shallow aquifer of the plain of Tavoliere delle Puglie located in south Italy. Data collected during well-water monitoring campaigns carried out from 2002 to 2003 made it possible to assess the environmental status of the Tavoliere which, unfortunately, was found to be characterized by ??significant anthropic pressures on quality and/or quantity of groundwater and necessitating specific improvement actions??.