A Cultural Journey to the Agro-Food Crisis: Policy Discourses in the EU

The agro-food domain in Europe is characterized by the appearance of recurrent unwanted surprises. These events, although causing obvious physical consequences, in essence depart from the expectations of the society. We argue that this unstable situation is best understood as an identity crisis of agriculture rather than as a contingent crisis of a specific economic sector. Thus the present agro-food crisis is in fact a crisis of identity. This is clearly reflected by the cohabitation within the agro-food policy domain of different, often contradictory, policy discourses, namely: free tradism, multifunctionality, and agroecology. All of them try to impose their particular visions. All of them struggle to issue the policy measures they conceive as appropriate.     

Multiple sex-chromosome system and other karyological characterizations of Pterotrachea hippocampus (Mollusca: Mesogastropoda)

Two modal diploid numbers of chromosomes were found for Pterotraches hippocampus Philippi (Mollusca: Mesogastropoda) collected from the Gulf of Palermo in 1990: 2n=31 and 32 for males and females, respectively. This, along with other karyological characteristics such as the occurrence of a trivalent configuration at diakinesis and two types of metaphase-II spreads in spermatocytes, supports the notion that a X₁X₂Y/X₁X₁X₂X₂ sex mechanism operates in the species investigated here. Silver nitrate procedure revealed an intraindividual variation in the Ag-staining pattern occurring in this species. The majority of the chromosome pair displayed terminal and/or interstitial heterochromatic blocks after C-banding.     

A Sensitivity Analysis of Ozone Formation to Ambient Air Composition by Means of Photochemical Models

The prediction of the atmospheric concentration of ozoneand of other photochemical pollutants represents one of themajor scientific challenges in the study of urban airquality. To this aim, photochemical models are widelyapplied as support tools for regulatory purposes, but theirresults are known to be affected by several uncertainties,in boundary conditions, geographical and meteorologicaldata and the chemical composition of emission and ambientair as well. Also the mechanism selected to describe theurban chemistry may lead to large differences in the modelresults. In this work, the influence of ambient air composition onthe results of photochemical model has been studied using a simple Lagrangian trajectory model coupled with different chemical sub-models (CB-IV and a simplified version of EMEP). To this aim a parametric sensitivity study of ozone with respect to its precursors' concentration was performed withreference to the same meteorological conditions and by simulatingdifferent scenarios characterized by specific emitted pollutantsconcentration. Rather than analyzing sensitivity by changing initial composition, an analytical local sensitivity concept has been applied; this allowed evaluation the influence of initial concentration on the predicted ozone concentration andto discriminate between VOC-sensitive and NOx-sensitive kineticregimes. Finally, these results have been successfully comparedwith those obtained applying the concept of photochemical indicators (i.e. O₃/NOy and H₂O₂/HNO₃ ratios).     

Occurrence of currently used pesticides in ambient air of Centre Region (France)

Ambient air samples were collected, from 2006 to 2008 at three rural and two urban sites in Centre Region (France) and analyzed for 56 currently used pesticides (CUPs), of which 41 were detected. The four CUPs most frequently detected were the herbicides trifluralin, acetochlor and pendimethalin and the fungicide chlorothalonil, which were found with frequencies ranging between 52 and 78%, and with average concentrations of 1.93, 1.32, 1.84 and 12.15 ng m^?3, respectively. Among the detected pesticides, concentrations of eight fungicides (spiroxamine, fenpropimorph, cyprodinil, tolyfluanid, epoxiconazole, vinchlozolin, fluazinam, fludioxinil), two insecticides (propargite, ethoprophos), and one herbicide (oxyfluorfen) are, to our knowledge, reported for the first time in the literature.The majority of the CUPs showed a seasonal trend, with most of the detections and the highest concentrations occurring during the spring and early summer. The most important pesticides detected were related to arable crops and fruit orchards, the main cultures in this region, highlighting the fact that the main sources come from local applications. Minor differences were found in the profiles of pesticides within rural areas and between rural and urban areas.     

Let’s play transformations! Performative methods for sustainability

Coping with global environmental change demands new forms of civic engagement and interaction able to transform passive audiences attending to the drama of unsustainability into committed actors for sustainability. This entails linking diverse sources of scientific knowledge with personal experiences, emotion and ethical judgments. In this paper, we assess the potential as well as the limitations of innovative theatre-based participatory tools and methods aimed at supporting sustainability learning and agent transformation. To this aim, we first review a series of experiences using theatrical performance and introduce the notion of performative methods. Second, we assess to what extent these new approaches can be of relevance in environmental action research and sustainability science, practice and learning. Finally, we list a series of key research questions to further guide methodological innovation in this promising area of sustainability science and practice. Our findings show a growing and successful use of such methodologies worldwide, both in academia and in implementation-oriented approaches. An increasing number of topics and complexity is being embraced by these methods, offering a fertile ground for innovation in participatory sustainability science.     

Effect-Directed Analysis of Key Toxicants in European River Basins. A Review (9 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Extensive monitoring programs on chemical contamination are run in many European river basins. With respect to the implementation of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD), these programs are increasingly accompanied by monitoring the ecological status of the river basins. Assuming an impact of chemical contamination on the ecological status, the assignment of effects in aquatic ecosystems to those stressors that cause the effects is a prerequisite for taking political or technical measures to achieve the goals of the WFD. Thus, one focus of present European research is on toxicant identification in European river basins in order to allow for a reduction of toxic pressure on aquatic ecosystems according to the WFD. Main Features: An overview is presented on studies that were performed to link chemical pollution in European river basins to measurable ecotoxic effects. This includes correlation-based approaches as well as investigations that apply effect-directed analysis (EDA) integrating toxicity testing, fractionation and non-target chemical analysis. Effect-based key toxicants that were identified in European surface waters are compiled and compared to EU priority pollutants. Further needs for research are identified. Results: Studies on the identification of effect-based key toxicants focused on mutagenicity, aryl hydrocarbon receptor-mediated effects, endocrine disruption, green algae, and invertebrates. The identified pollutants include priority pollutants and other well-known environmental pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, furans, and biphenyls, nonylphenol, some pesticides and tributyltin, but also other compounds that were neither considered as environmental pollutants before nor regulated such as substituted phenols, natural or synthetic estrogens and androgens, dinaphthofurans, 2-(2-naphthalenyl)benzothiophene, and N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. Discussion: Individual studies at specific sites in a European river basin demonstrated the power of combined biological and chemical analytical approaches and, particularly, of effect-directed analysis. However, the available information on effect-based key toxicants is very limited with respect to the entirety of rivers possibly at risk due to chemical contamination and with respect to toxicological endpoints considered at a specific site. A relatively broad basis of information exists only for estrogenicity and aryl hydrocarbon, receptor-mediated effects. Conclusions: The development of tools and strategies for an identification of key toxicants on a broader scale are a challenging task for the next years. Since investigations dealing with toxicant identification are too labor and cost-intensive for monitoring purposes, they have to be focused on the key sites in a river basin. These should include hot spots of contamination, particularly if there is evidence that they might pose a risk for downstream areas, but may also involve accumulation zones in the lower reach of a river in order to get an integrated picture on the contamination of the basin. Perspectives: While EDA is almost exclusively based on measurable effects in in vitro and in vivo biotests to date, an increasing focus in the future should be on the integration of EDA into Ecological Risk Assessment and on the development of tools to confirm EDA-determined key toxicants as stressors in populations, communities and ecosystems. Considering these requirements and applied in a focused way, toxicant identification may significantly help to implement the Water Framework Directive by providing evidence on the main stressors and possible mitigation measures in order to improve the ecological status of a river ecosystem.     

Tipping Elements in the Arctic Marine Ecosystem

The Arctic marine ecosystem contains multiple elements that present alternative states. The most obvious of which is an Arctic Ocean largely covered by an ice sheet in summer versus one largely devoid of such cover. Ecosystems under pressure typically shift between such alternative states in an abrupt, rather than smooth manner, with the level of forcing required for shifting this status termed threshold or tipping point. Loss of Arctic ice due to anthropogenic climate change is accelerating, with the extent of Arctic sea ice displaying increased variance at present, a leading indicator of the proximity of a possible tipping point. Reduced ice extent is expected, in turn, to trigger a number of additional tipping elements, physical, chemical, and biological, in motion, with potentially large impacts on the Arctic marine ecosystem.