Post-breeding migration in male great bustards: low tolerance of the heaviest Palaearctic bird to summer heat

Radio tracking of 142 males captured at 44 leks in Spain showed that partial migration of great bustard males in summer is a widespread behaviour in many Iberian populations, in contrast to their previously assumed sedentariness. A variable number of males migrated immediately after mating to summering areas with lower temperatures and human population densities and more trees and rainfall levels than the breeding sites. Birds selected there fields with trees and sunflower crops which provided shade during the hottest midday hours and protective cover against predators. Males breeding in areas with higher July temperatures had a higher tendency to migrate, and males from hotter, southern regions migrated longer distances than those from milder, northern regions and showed a preferred northward direction. These results confirmed various predictions from the weather sensitivity hypothesis, suggesting that summer migration of great bustard males represents primarily an adaptation to escape the summer heat of most breeding areas in central and southern Iberia. The hypothesis that males migrated to benefit from higher food availability at the summering areas could not be rejected by our results. Finally, migrating males also gained more tranquillity during the post-breeding moult due to the lower human population density at the summering areas. Summer migration of Iberian great bustard males may thus be interpreted as a form of behavioural thermoregulation which has not been described for other Palaearctic populations of this species or for other bird species breeding in temperate latitudes.     

Decision support in disinfection technologies for treated wastewater reuse

The environmental and social impact derived from treated wastewater reuse is an intrinsically complex multidimensional process, which involves multiple criteria and multiple stakeholders. This paper presents the use of multicriteria decision through the TOPSIS method, applied to six different methodologies concerning the disinfection of treated wastewater before reusing. Results have shown that the best disinfection technique for treated wastewater has been chlorination with 4 ppm, if this water is to be destined to an urban, agricultural or industrial use, due to a large weight given to cost and environmental criteria. Conversely, in recreational and environmental uses, the alternative of ultraviolet light disinfection was the chosen alternative. Economic criteria showed priority in the most entrepreneurial uses of the water, although social and political cost had a greater weight in the case of environmental or recreational uses. The inclusion of environmental and social assessment in the disinfection technique decision support clearly provides a cleaner and more sustainable production.     

Environmental practices and firm performance: an empirical analysis in the Spanish hotel industry

The impact of environmental practices on firm performance raises an ongoing debate in which the review of the existing literature yields no conclusive results. Different methods have been used to study this relationship and most of the analyses have focused on manufacturing companies. This paper examines the link between environmental practices and firm performance in the Spanish hotel industry using two methods: a cluster analysis and a regression analysis. First, three groups were defined according to their environmental proactivity, and hotels showing a stronger commitment to environmental practices proved to reach higher performance levels. Second, through the regression analysis, findings showed that environmental practices impact significantly on several performance variables.     

Comparison between EMINENT and other energy technology assessment tools

Currently, issues related with climate change, security of energy supply, energy efficiency and sustainability are at the core of all energy policies and strategies. The current technologies are not able to face this challenge; therefore, the development of new and more sustainable energy technologies must be supported.As part of this, energy technology assessment tools can help decision-makers in the identification and evaluation of sustainable energy solutions, in order to integrate them in long term energy strategies.The EMINENT tool was developed to assess the performance and market potential of early stage technologies (EST) in a pre-defined energy chain, under national conditions, in terms of financial, energy and environmental criteria.This paper presents a comparative study between EMINENT and other tools for energy technology assessment. The tools analysed were CO2DB, MARKAL, IKARUS and E3Database.Although there are many different energy technology assessment tools, EMINENT seems to be the only one targeting EST.     

Decisive factors in the creation and execution of municipal action plans in the field of sustainable development in the European Union

The process of raising public awareness around the world concerning the need to apply criteria of sustainable development was basically set in motion at the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992. There it was decided that the most suitable context for fostering the process is the local level, and the Local Action Plan forms a basic element in this process.Some preliminary studies have shown the evidence of great advancement in the creation of Local Action Plans in municipalities. However, their execution is frequently paralyzed by a lack of necessary resources and suitable State policies.The aim of this paper is to verify the effect that different factors might have on the degree of progress made by the Local Action Plan in the municipalities of the European Union.The results show that the public works policies of the EU and the governments of the member states fail to impact the level of commitment of municipal governments; however, when the supporting policy originates from administrations closer to the municipality and are made concrete in the form of economic support and technical advice, they prove to be relevant. Strictly political factors, such as stability, have a more limited yet significant effect on the execution of Local Action Plans.     

Carbon dioxide separation and capture by adsorption: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Rising adverse impact of climate change caused by anthropogenic activities is calling for advanced methods to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Here, we...     

Resource frontiers and agglomeration economies: The varied logics of transnational land-based investing in Southern and Eastern Africa

Actor-level data on large-scale commercial agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. The peculiar choice of transnational investing in African land has, therefore, been subject to conjecture. Addressing this gap, we reconstructed the underlying logics of investment location choices in a Bayesian network, using firm- and actor-level interview and spatial data from 37 transnational agriculture and forestry investments across 121 sites in Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. We distinguish four investment locations across gradients of resource frontiers and agglomeration economies to derive the preferred locations of different investors with varied skillsets and market reach (i.e., track record). In contrast to newcomers, investors with extensive track records are more likely to expand the land use frontier, but they are also likely to survive the high transaction costs of the pre-commercial frontier. We highlight key comparative advantages of Southern and Eastern African frontiers and map the most probable categories of investment locations.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01682-z.     

The evaluation of stability and maturity during the composting of cattle manure

We examined chemical, microbiological and biochemical parameters in order to assess their effectiveness as stability and maturity indicators during the composting process of cattle manure. The composting material obtained after 15 d in trenches and at different times during the maturation phase (i.e. 80, 180 and 270 d) were analyzed. We found that the material collected at the end of the active phase was inadequate to be applied to soil as organic amendment due to its high content of NH4+, its high level of phytotoxicity and the low degree of organic matter stability. After a maturation period of 80 d, the stability of the sample increased. This was shown by a reduction in the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content and NH4+ concentration and also by a reduction in the microbial activity and biomass; however, 180 d of composting were not sufficient to reduce the phytotoxicity to levels consistent for a safe soil application. Among the various parameters studied, the change in DOC with composting time gave a good indication of stability.