Reducing external costs of nitrogen pollution by relocation of pig production between regions in the European Union

This paper tests the hypothesis that relocation of pig production within the EU27 can reduce the external costs of nitrogen (N) pollution. The external cost of pollution by ammonia and nitrate from agriculture in the European Union (EU27) in 2008 was estimated at 61–215 billion € (0.5 to 1.8% of the GDP). Per capita it ranged from more than 1000 € in north-west EU27 to 50 € in Romania. The average contribution of pig production was 15%. Using provincial data (224 NUTS2 regions in EU27), the potential reduction of external N cost by relocation of pig production was estimated at 14 billion € (10% of the total). Regions most eligible for decreasing the pig stock were in western Germany, Flemish region, Denmark, the Netherlands and Bretagne, while Romania is most eligible for increasing pig production. Relocating 20 million pigs (13% of the total EU stock) decreased average external costs per capita from 900 to 785 € in the 13 NUTS2 regions where pigs were removed and increased from 69 to 107 € in 11 regions receiving pigs. A second alternative configuration of pig production was targeted at reducing exceedance of critical N deposition and closing regional nutrient cycles. This configuration relocates pigs within Germany and France, for example from Bretagne to Northern France and from Weser-Ems to Oberbayern. However, total external cost increases due to an increase of health impacts, unless when combined with implementation of best N management practices. Relocation of the pig industry in the EU27 will meet many socio-economic barriers and realisation requires new policy incentives.     

Optimization of Pellet Production from Agro-Industrial By-Products: Effect of Plasticizers on Properties of Pellets and Composite Pots

The present study aimed to optimize the pellets formulation (deoiled rice bran, potato peel powder and plasticizers) for the development of the injection molded pots. The maximum hardness and bulk density (desirable responses) were obtained for pellets having 100 g of deoiled rice bran, 100 g potato peel powder and 14 % of cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) as well as 14 % of glycerol (GL) (on raw material basis). The optimized pellets and the pots developed from them were characterized for their physico-chemical, functional, rheological and morphological properties. Expansion ratio, pellet durability index and hardness of the pellets with 14 % CNSL were found to be 1.097, 98.647 % and 485.551 N, respectively. For pellets with 14 % GL expansion ratio, pellet durability index and hardness were found to be 1.150, 97.747 % and 462.949 N, respectively. The biodegradation analysis of the pots developed from optimized pellets with 14 % CNSL and GL degraded in 11 and 9 weeks, respectively. Porosity, puncture force, density and hardness of ‘AP’ pots were 27.473 %, 495.731 N, 1.549 g/ml and 542.641 N, respectively. However, for ‘BP’ pots, the porosity, puncture force, density and hardness were 32.548 %, 440.149 N, 1.191 g/ml and 507.841 N, respectively. Pots prepared from 14 % CNSL (AP) were better in physical and mechanical properties as compared to pots developed from glycerol.     

Local Arctic air pollution: Sources and impacts

Local emissions of Arctic air pollutants and their impacts on climate, ecosystems and health are poorly understood. Future increases due to Arctic warming or economic drivers may put additional pressures on the fragile Arctic environment already affected by mid-latitude air pollution. Aircraft data were collected, for the first time, downwind of shipping and petroleum extraction facilities in the European Arctic. Data analysis reveals discrepancies compared to commonly used emission inventories, highlighting missing emissions (e.g. drilling rigs) and the intermittent nature of certain emissions (e.g. flaring, shipping). Present-day shipping/petroleum extraction emissions already appear to be impacting pollutant (ozone, aerosols) levels along the Norwegian coast and are estimated to cool and warm the Arctic climate, respectively. Future increases in shipping may lead to short-term (long-term) warming (cooling) due to reduced sulphur (CO₂) emissions, and be detrimental to regional air quality (ozone). Further quantification of local Arctic emission impacts is needed.     

Bringing together raptor collections in Europe for contaminant research and monitoring in relation to chemicals regulations

Raptors are good sentinels of environmental contamination and there is good capability for raptor biomonitoring in Europe. Raptor biomonitoring can benefit from natural history museums (NHMs), environmental specimen banks (ESBs) and other collections (e.g. specialist raptor specimen collections). Europe’s NHMs, ESBs and other collections hold large numbers of raptor specimens and samples, covering long periods of time. These collections are potentially a valuable resource for contaminant studies over time and space. There are strong needs to monitor contaminants in the environment to support EU and national chemical management. However, data on raptor specimens in NHMs, ESBs and other collections are dispersed, few are digitised, and they are thus not easy to access. Specimen coverage is patchy in terms of species, space and time. Contaminant research with raptors would be facilitated by creating a framework to link relevant collections, digitising all collections, developing a searchable meta-database covering all existing collections, making them more visible and accessible for contaminant research. This would also help identify gaps in coverage and stimulate specimen collection to fill gaps in support of prioritised contaminant monitoring. Collections can further support raptor biomonitoring by making samples available for analysis on request.     

Greening flood protection through knowledge processes: lessons from the Markermeer dikes project in the Netherlands

Greening flood protection (GFP) is increasingly recognized as an adaptive and flexible approach to water management that is well suited to addressing uncertain futures associated with climate change. In the last decade, GFP knowledge and policies have developed rapidly, but implementation has been less successful and has run into numerous barriers. In this paper, we address the challenge of realizing green flood protection goals by specifically considering knowledge in the decision-making of a Dutch flood protection project in Lake Markermeer. In this project, an ecological knowledge arrangement and a traditional flood protection knowledge arrangement are compared and their interactions analysed. The analysis provides insight into the specific difficulties of implementing GFP measures and identifies ways to realize GFP goals. The primary challenge is twofold: First, a self-reinforcing cycle of knowledge production and decision-making in the flood protection domain inhibits the introduction of innovative and multifunctional approaches such as GFP; second, the distribution of power is severely unbalanced in terms of ecological enhancement and flood protection, favouring the latter. Implementation of GFP requires structural change and the integration of ecological and flood protection knowledge and policy. Potentially rewarding routes towards this integration are the exploration of shared interests in GFP and the creation of mutual dependency between knowledge arrangements. The case study and the insights it provides show that GFP is far from mainstream practice and that implementation requires serious effort and courage to break with historical practices.     

Investigations on mobility of carbon colloid supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) in a column experiment and a laboratory 2D-aquifer test system

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) has recently gained great interest in the scientific community as in situ reagent for installation of permeable reactive barriers in aquifer systems, since nZVI is highly reactive with chlorinated compounds and may render them to harmless substances. However, nZVI has a high tendency to agglomerate and sediment; therefore it shows very limited transport ranges. One new approach to overcome the limited transport of nZVI in porous media is using a suited carrier colloid. In this study we tested mobility of a carbon colloid supported nZVI particle “Carbo-Iron Colloids” (CIC) with a mean size of 0.63 μm in a column experiment of 40 cm length and an experiment in a two-dimensional (2D) aquifer test system with dimensions of 110?×?40?×?5 cm. Results show a breakthrough maximum of 82 % of the input concentration in the column experiment and 58 % in the 2D-aquifer test system. Detected residuals in porous media suggest a strong particle deposition in the first centimeters and few depositions in the porous media in the further travel path. Overall, this suggests a high mobility in porous media which might be a significant enhancement compared to bare or polyanionic stabilized nZVI.     

Can ornamental potted plants remove volatile organic compounds from indoor air? — a review

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are found in indoor air, and many of these can affect human health (e.g. formaldehyde and benzene are carcinogenic). Plants affect the levels of VOCs in indoor environments, thus they represent a potential green solution for improving indoor air quality that at the same time can improve human health. This article reviews scientific studies of plants’ ability to remove VOCs from indoor air. The focus of the review is on pathways of VOC removal by the plants and factors affecting the efficiency and rate of VOC removal by plants. Laboratory based studies indicate that plant induced removal of VOCs is a combination of direct (e.g. absorption) and indirect (e.g. biotransformation by microorganisms) mechanisms. They also demonstrate that plants’ rate of reducing the level of VOCs is influenced by a number of factors such as plant species, light intensity and VOC concentration. For instance, an increase in light intensity has in some studies been shown to lead to an increase in removal of a pollutant. Studies conducted in real-life settings such as offices and homes are few and show mixed results.     

Dissolved phosphorus transport from soil to surface water in catchments with different land use

Diffuse phosphorus (P) export from agricultural land to surface waters is a significant environmental problem. It is critical to determine the natural background P losses from diffuse sources, but their identification and quantification is difficult. In this study, three headwater catchments with differing land use (arable, pasture and forest) were monitored for 3 years to quantify exports of dissolved (<0.45 µm) reactive P and total dissolved P. Mean total P exports from the arable catchment ranged between 0.08 and 0.28 kg ha^?1 year^?1. Compared with the reference condition (forest), arable land and pasture exported up to 11-fold more dissolved P. The contribution of dissolved (<0.45 µm) unreactive P was low to negligible in every catchment. Agricultural practices can exert large pressures on surface waters that are controlled by hydrological factors. Adapting policy to cope with these factors is needed for lowering these pressures in the future.     

Forest Die-Back Modified Plankton Recovery from Acidic Stress

We examined long-term data on water chemistry of Lake Rachelsee (Germany) following the changes in acidic depositions in central Europe since 1980s. Despite gradual chemical recovery of Rachelsee, its biological recovery was delayed. In 1999, lake recovery was abruptly reversed by a coincident forest die-back, which resulted in elevated terrestrial export of nitrate and ionic aluminum lasting ~5 years. This re-acidification episode provided unique opportunity to study plankton recovery in the rapidly recovering lake water after the abrupt decline in nitrate leaching from the catchment. There were sudden changes both in lake water chemistry and in plankton biomass structure, such as decreased bacterial filaments, increased phytoplankton biomass, and rotifer abundance. The shift from dominance of heterotrophic to autotrophic organisms suggested their substantial release from severe phosphorus stress. Such a rapid change in plankton structure in a lake recovering from acidity has, to the best of our knowledge, not been previously documented.     

Indoor Nitrogen Dioxide Exposure and Children’s Pulmonary Function

Elevated concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) are produced in the home by the use of unvented gas appliances. In studies on potential health effects of Indoor exposure to NO₂, exposure has mostly been estimated from the presence or absence of sources like gas cookers in the home. This leads to misclassification of exposure, as NO₂ concentrations in the home depend also on source use, ventilation habits, time budgets, etc. The availability of cheap, passive monitoring devices has made it possible to measure Indoor concentrations of NO₂ directly in health effects studies, albeit with averaging times of one to several days. So far, it has not been evaluated whether this increases the sensitivity of a study to detect health effects of NO₂. In this paper, a comparison is made between NO₂ sources and weekly average indoor NO₂ measurements, as predictors of pulmonary function in a study among children aged 6–12 years.

The relationship between exposure and lung functions was found to be generally non-significant in this study. The results further suggested that in this study, measuring Indoor NO₂ concentrations with passive monitors offered no advantage over the simple use of source presence as exposure variable.