Production patterns of packaging waste categories generated at typical Mediterranean residential building worksites

The construction sector is responsible for around 28% of the total waste volume generated in Europe, which exceeds the amount of household waste. This has led to an increase of different research studies focusing on construction waste quantification. However, within the research studies made, packaging waste has been analyzed to a limited extent. This article focuses on the packaging waste stream generated in the construction sector. To this purpose current on-site waste packaging management has been assessed by monitoring ten Mediterranean residential building works. The findings of the experimental data collection revealed that the incentive measures implemented by the construction company to improve on-site waste sorting failed to achieve the intended purpose, showing low segregation ratios. Subsequently, through an analytical study the generation patterns for packaging waste are established, leading to the identification of the prevailing kinds of packaging and the products responsible for their generation. Results indicate that plastic waste generation maintains a constant trend throughout the whole construction process, while cardboard becomes predominant towards the end of the construction works with switches and sockets from the electricity stage. Understanding the production patterns of packaging waste will be beneficial for adapting waste management strategies to the identified patterns for the specific nature of packaging waste within the context of construction worksites.     

A vegetation management experiment: Goats grazing shrublands in Doñana Natural Park

We have studied the effect of goat grazing on the shrub understory of a pine forest situated in a protected area (Doñana Natural Park). Along three years we have studied the changes in phytovolume, flammability, species richness and diversity in a grazed shrubland and in a control area not grazed by the goats. We studied also food preferences of the goats and the ability of the goats to disperse the seeds of the plants they eat. Goat grazing significantly reduced shrub biomass and flammability, decreasing the risk of forest fire. Goats selected the species they eat, changing the pattern of selection throughout the year. Grazing reduced shrub diversity, but did not affected species richness. The goats can also potentially disperse the seeds of some of the species they eat, since the seeds were able to pass through the goat’s gut and germinated afterwards. Goat grazing on scrub vegetation can be used as an effective tool for the control of shrubs in protected forest areas, without losing biodiversity.     

Effects of thermobarical pretreatment of cattle waste as feedstock for anaerobic digestion

Lab-scale experiments were conducted to assess the impact of thermobarical treatment of cattle waste on anaerobic digestion. Treatment was at temperatures of 140–220 °C in 20 K steps for a 5-min duration. Methane yields could be increased by up to 58% at a treatment temperature of 180 °C. At 220 °C the abundance of inhibitors and other non-digestible substances led to lower methane yields than those obtained from untreated material. In an extended analysis it could be demonstrated that there is a functional correlation between the methane yields after 30 days and the formation rate and methane yield in the acceleration phase. It could be proved in a regression of these correlation values that the optimum treatment temperature is 164 °C and that the minimum treatment temperature should be above 115 °C.     

Low cost organic and inorganic sorbents to fight soil and water pollution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Liver alterations in Oreochromis niloticus (Pisces) induced by insecticide imidacloprid: Histopathology and heat shock protein in situ localization

Liver is very sensitive to environmental contaminants such as pesticides, it being the first target of toxicity of a substance. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible effects of the insecticide imidacloprid (IMI) on the liver of Oreochromis niloticus according concentrations used for growing sugarcane. A semi-quantitative analysis of histopathological alterations of IMI on liver was performed by light microscopy and cellular labeling of heat shock proteins (HSP70) by immunohistochemistry. The most common changes in liver at all concentrations of IMI were hydropic degeneration, pyknotic nuclei, and loss of cell limits. Steatosis and increased levels of HSP70 were detected in hepatocytes with the highest concentration of IMI. In conclusion, the tested concentrations of IMI induced histopathological changes in the liver of O. niloticus and active defence mechanisms to maintain the morphophysiological integrity of the liver. This insecticide has a toxicity potential for these fish, which is a non-target organism of its action.     

Rapid acquisition of antipredatory responses to new predators by an insular lizard

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology - Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism (Pre-SC), where females attack and consume courting males, is considered an extreme case of sexual conflict. Different...     

Anatomical and ultrastructural studies of chemical defence in the sponge Dysidea fragilis

The marine sponge Dysidea fragilis from El Mar Menor, a hypersaline coastal lagoon (Murcia, Spain), contains the furanosesquiterpenoid ent-furodysinin as the major secondary metabolite. D. fragilis emits a defensive white fluid when it is disturbed. Electron micrographs of this fluid revealed intact vesiculated cells together with other amorphous material. Dissociated cells are more rounded in shape but maintain the same ultrastructural features as cells observed in ultra-thin sections of the whole sponge. The defensive secretion is composed mainly of sponge cells with abundant light vesicles. Sometimes these light vesicles appear to open into the intercellular space; this correlates with surface blebs on these cells observed under scanning electron microscopy. The intracellular location of ent-furodysinin was confirmed by Erlich staining. In laboratory assays, we examined the role of ent-furodysinin as a feeding deterrent to generalist fish predators. It was isolated from D. fragilis and incorporated into a carrageenan-based artificial diet. The addition of ent-furodysinin to the artificial diet reduced feeding by the fish Thalassoma pavo. Similarly, fish did not feed on artificial diet above which defensive secretion of D. fragilis had been ejected with a small syringe. Received: 4 June 1997 / Accepted: 28 January 1998     

Are local extinctions and recolonizations continuing at the colder limits of marine fish distributions? Halobatrachus didactylus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801), a possible candidate

In this paper, we compare the populations of the Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus along the Portuguese shore, using a putative fragment of the mitochondrial control region and the first intron of the S7 ribosomal protein gene. This demersal species ranges from the tropical West African coast to the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean, having its northern limit in the Tagus River. For the putative control region, a single haplotype occurs in all fish from Tagus and Sado (the location immediately to the south) with a clear increase in diversity to the South, peaking at Algarve (south Portugal). The data seem to point to a very recent Holocenic colonization of Tagus and Sado from the South (possibly Algarve). We suggest that even small oscillations in sea surface temperature (SST) may cause local extinctions and subsequent recolonizations in populations of thermophilic fish that are at the cold limit of their distributions.     

The potential for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan livestock systems

Livestock systems play an important role in the livelihoods of many rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa while being responsible for an important share of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan livestock systems, related to the improvement in feed, animal husbandry, and grassland management. These practices present productivity and mitigation benefits and in some cases may also contribute to enhance resilience. In this study, we used a data set of 1538 farm households across nine Sub-Saharan countries. A mixed logit model was used to assess the influence on adoption and to estimate the probability of adoption. Our results show that there seems to be stronger influence of physical and financial capitals on adoption than the other capitals. Different types of capitals influence the uptake of different agricultural practices. Yet the probability of adoption would change across countries. The results of this study could help to refine adoption estimates calculated through global or regional modelling approaches and to inform the design of policies to better target investments in order to foster adoption.