Conservation value of an exotic species: the case of coconuts on the Kayapo indigenous lands, south-eastern Amazonia

In a meeting between FUNAI (the Brazilian Indian National Foundation) and the Kayapo in the Kayapo village of Aukre, in October 2005, the Kayapo Indians requested support to increase the culture of coconuts (Cocos nucifera) in their lands. The introduction of exotic species is a cause of biological diversity loss throughout the world. However, this is by no means applicable to all kinds of exotic species. We argue that the culture of coconuts may actually be a useful tool for the conservation of this country’s indigenous lands, despite criticism to the contrary. It may also be useful as source for raw material for the indigenous people who are presently experiencing a population boom. For the Kayapo of south-eastern Amazonia, such a demographic explosion, coupled with their increasing dependence on money to purchase industrialized goods, tend to substantially increase the pressure on their lands, which still contain a substantial amount of well-preserved seasonally-dry Amazonian forests. We investigated the actual economic relevance of coconuts for the Kayapo by measuring human and coconut populations and found that this exotic palm is not important for the subsistence of these Indians, due to coconut scarcity, and that such importance is not forthcoming. In the Amazon, coconuts may be particularly useful for the Indians’ nutrition due to the high energetic value of the solid endosperm of the mature fruit. Therefore, given the importance of indigenous lands for the conservation of the Amazonian forests, the encouragement of subsistence coconut cultures in indigenous lands is defensible as a measure for the conservation of biodiversity.     

Study of a surface coating present on a Renaissance Piety from the Museum of Ancient Art (Castello Sforzesco,Milan)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The surface coating present on a marble Piety dating to the Renaissance period and stored at the Castello Sforzesco-Museum of Ancient Art (Milan,...     

Geochemistry of street dust in Tyumen,Russia: influence of traffic load

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study investigates the elemental composition, organic carbon content, pH values, and particle size characteristics in 50 road dust samples...     

Removal of copper,chromium and arsenic from preservative-treated wood by chemical extraction-fungal bioleaching

Large volumes of preservative-treated wood containing toxic Cr, Cu and As salts are decommissioned worldwide. This study investigated the effectiveness of solid-state fermentation with copper-tolerant brown-rot fungi for the remediation of wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and acid copper chromate (ACC) formulations. Treatment of CCA- and ACC-wood with the most effective strain, Antrodia vaillantii FRLP-14G, attained extensive leaching of As and/or Cr, but Cu elimination was poor (<18%). Additional research showed that a variety of organic acids, including citrate, are effective Cu extractants. Based on these findings, a process combining chemical extraction and subsequent fungal treatment was developed that proved highly effective in removing inorganic pollutants from CCA-wood. Extraction of CCA-wood with citric acid (30 mM, pH 3.10) followed by a 28-day solid-state fermentation period removed 87% Cu, 80% Cr, and 100% As. These results indicate the potential of the two-stage process for the remediation of preservative-treated wood.     

Energy efficiency during conventional and novel sintering processes: the case of Ti–Al2O3–TiC composites

The conventional (hot pressing or HP) and the novel (spark plasma sintering or SPS) consolidation techniques were compared when processing Ti–Al₂O₃–TiC powders obtained by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). It was found that the two different methods are able to produce similar materials, in some cases (Vickers hardness and wear rate) slightly better for SPSed samples. However, SPS does not need sintering temperatures as high as HP to obtain fully dense products. Most significantly, processing times were strongly reduced when adopting the SPS technique instead of HP, i.e. 4–7 min and about 5 h, respectively. Finally, when the total energies required during each SPS or HP experiment were compared, it was found that the use of the SPS technology allowed for an energy saving in the order of 90–95%. This fact makes SPS significantly advantageous from environmental and economical points of view compared to HP.     

Water and wastewater eco-efficiency indicators for the sugar cane industry

The consumption of large volumes of water and the generation of organic compounds as liquid effluents are major environmental problems in sugar cane processing industry. The volume of freshwater required by this industry can be significantly reduced by recovering the intrinsic water present in sugar cane. This amount of freshwater will depend on the process technology. Three new indices for sugar cane plants are introduced in this work: WIN, which indicates the efficiency of water use, and EIN1 and EIN2, which quantify Chemical Oxygen Demand of wastewater. Selected case studies illustrate the advantages of employing these indices as guides for the selection among process design alternatives that account for environmental performance.     

A field trial to assess the performance of CO2-supersaturated water injection for residual volatile LNAPL recovery

A pilot scale field trial was conducted to evaluate the recovery of volatile, light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) using a novel remediation method termed supersaturated water injection (SWI). SWI uses a patented technology to efficiently dissolve high concentrations of CO₂ into water at elevated pressures. This water is injected into the subsurface resulting in the nucleation of CO₂ bubbles at and away from the injection point. The nucleating bubbles coalesce, rise and volatilize residual LNAPL ganglia. In this study, an LNAPL composed of 103 kg of volatile pentane and hexane, and 30 kg of non-volatile Soltrol was emplaced below the water table at residual saturation. The SWI technology removed 78% of the pentane and 50% of the less volatile hexane. Contaminant mass was still being removed when the system was shut down for practical reasons. The mass removed is comparable to that expected for air sparging but a much smaller volume of gas was injected using the SWI system.     

Azo dye biodegradation by microbial cultures immobilized in alginate beads

Microbial degradation of azo dyes usually starts in anaerobic conditions with a reductive cleavage of the azo bond, followed by an aerobic step necessary for the degradation of the aromatic amines formed. Because some reductive processes take place also in presence of molecular oxygen, a one-step azo dye degrading process has been investigated. A microbial consortium able to degrade ethyl orange in aerobic conditions has been selected and immobilized in alginate beads coated with polyacrylamide resin. Different concentrations of ethyl orange have been completely degraded in the presence of 1% glucose or starch as cosubstrates, and different beads preparation procedures have been studied to determine the best condition for microbial degradation. The catalytic activity of the immobilized consortium improved during five serial processes carried out for 30 days at room temperature. Three pure cultures were then isolated from the consortium. The one with the greatest degrading activity, a filamentous fungus, had a degradative capacity similar to that of the whole consortium.