Environmental management policy in a coastal tourism municipality: the case study of Cervia (Italy)

The sustainability concept applied to human activities implies the need to harmonise the protection of environment with a satisfactory economic and social development. This is particularly true for tourism development: a misuse of the natural resources can cause a degradation of the tourist appeal of the destination, bringing it finally to its economic decline. This problem is particularly important in coastal tourism destinations. The implementation of an environmental management system is a powerful way for progressing towards better environmental performances. In this paper, the main results obtained in applying the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme procedure to the municipality of Cervia, a well-known tourist destination located on the Adriatic coast of Italy are described. This research puts into evidence that the main environmental pressures in the summer season are related to the supply of potable water, the production of solid wastes and wastewater air pollution and noise, etc. However, if correctly planned and managed, tourism can also contribute to environmental protection, to the conservation of biodiversity and to a sustainable use of natural resources.     

Knowing the past to forecast the future: a case study on a relictual,endemic species of the SW Alps, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Berardia subacaulis</Emphasis>

Future climate change may lead to a substantial loss of biodiversity, particularly affecting mountain regions, including the Alps. Range-size reduction in high mountain plant species is predicted to be more pronounced for endemic species. Investigating the broad temporal spectrum of range shifts is important for the conservation of biodiversity, since learning how species responded to climate change in the past provides useful insights on how they might react to warming trends in the present and future. Using species distribution models and an ensemble forecasting approach, we explored how the distribution of Berardia subacaulis, a monospecific genus endemic of the south-west Alps, may be affected by past and future projected climate change. During the last interglacial, the habitat suitability of Berardia was lower than present and a progressive increase was observed from the last glacial maximum until now. In the future, Berardia appears to lose more than 80 % of its range, becoming endangered by 2050. Our results suggest that Berardia probably survived past warmer periods in situ, expanding its distributional range during cooler periods. The severe future range contraction predicted for Berardia reflects similar results for other endemic species. As Berardia represents an interesting model species to evaluate the effects of climate warming on range size and shifts, demographic and precise range monitoring may be undertaken on this species.     

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.     

An advanced study on the hydrometallurgical processing of waste computer printed circuit boards to extract their valuable content of metals

This study refers to two chemical leaching systems for the base and precious metals extraction from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs); sulfuric acid with hydrogen peroxide have been used for the first group of metals, meantime thiourea with the ferric ion in sulfuric acid medium were employed for the second one. The cementation process with zinc, copper and iron metal powders was attempted for solutions purification. The effects of hydrogen peroxide volume in rapport with sulfuric acid concentration and temperature were evaluated for oxidative leaching process. 2 M H₂SO₄ (98% w/v), 5% H₂O_2, 25 °C, 1/10 S/L ratio and 200 rpm were founded as optimal conditions for Cu extraction. Thiourea acid leaching process, performed on the solid filtrate obtained after three oxidative leaching steps, was carried out with 20 g/L of CS(NH₂)₂, 6 g/L of Fe³⁺, 0.5 M H₂SO₄, The cross-leaching method was applied by reusing of thiourea liquid suspension and immersing 5 g/L of this reagent for each other experiment material of leaching. This procedure has lead to the doubling and, respectively, tripling, of gold and silver concentrations into solution. These results reveal a very efficient, promising and environmental friendly method for WPCBs processing.     

Sediment organic matter and meiofauna community response to long-term fish-farm impact in the Ligurian Sea (Western Mediterranean)

Quantitative and qualitative changes in meiofauna community structure were investigated to assess the impact of a fish farm, which was operating continuously for 15 years (La Spezia Gulf, W Mediterranean). Sediment samples were collected in June, July, September, October 2000 and February 2001 for the analysis of phytopigments (chlorophyll-a and phaeopigments), the biochemical composition of organic matter (proteins, carbohydrates and lipids) and related to meiofaunal parameters.

Sediment organic matter reached extremely high concentrations beneath the fish cages when compared to the control. Particularly lipids, carbohydrates and chlorophyll-a were significantly higher in fish-farm sediments. On a long-term basis meiofauna displayed adaptations in sediments beneath the cages resulting in an increase of density. Organic impact on meiofaunal community structure was evident in terms of an increase of the nematodes to copepods (Ne/Co) and nauplius to copepods (Na/Co) ratios in fish farm sediments. Cumaceans and kinorhynchs were encountered in control sediments, but disappeared in fish-farm samples. These data suggest that meiofauna is a sensitive tool for evaluating the effects of organic enrichment in fish farm impacted areas.     

Antenatal manifestation of congenital pancreatoblastoma in a fetus with Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome

An Erratum has been published for this article in Prenatal Diagnosis 23(9) 2003, 771 Antenatal detection of an isolated abdominal cyst was found to be a pancreatoblastoma in a female fetus with Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome. Prenatal and post-natal features and management of this very rare tumour are discussed. Molecular investigation disclosed a mosaic paternal 11p15 uniparental disomy in the tumoral cells. The prognosis of a congenital pancreatoblastoma is good if complete surgical excision is achieved. However, the association with Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome requires a prolonged follow-up because of the increased risk of developing malignant tumours. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Genotoxic Effect of Phenol on the Cells of Onion (Allium cepa) Roots

The roots of onion (Allium cepa) stand out for having cells with large size and small number of chromosomes.These characteristics make them useful in bioassays for the measurement of a variety of cytogenetic and morphological parameters , in which they can be used as toxicity indicators of the induction and formation of micronuclei and chromosomal aberrations.Based on this background , the potential genotoxic effect of phenol concentration on cells of A.ceparoots was investigated either in terms of induced aberrations or micronuclei formation.The results demonstrated that the higher the concentration of phenol , the higher the incidence of abnormalities , thus confirming the genotoxicity of this pollutant.     

Assessment of the environmental significance of heavy metal pollution in surficial sediments of the River Po

The magnitude and ecological relevance of metal pollution of the middle Po river deriving from the River Lambro tributary was investigated by applying different (complementary) sediment quality assessment approaches: (1) comparisons of concentrations with regional reference data, and (2) comparisons with consensus-based sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), as well as by investigations of the partitioning patterns of target heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn). Total metal concentrations in the surficial sediments revealed significant pollution inputs on the whole river stretch investigated, with a distinct peak at the inlet of the River Lambro. Based on the geoaccumulation index of target heavy metals, the middle reach of River Po has to be considered as moderately polluted with Cd (1相似文献