Water Remediation: PVA-Based Magnetic Gels as Efficient Devices to Heavy Metal Removal

Scientific and technological researches are devoted to obtain materials capable of retaining different kinds of pollutants, contributing to contamination solutions. In this context, hydrogels have emerged as great candidates because of their excellent absorption properties as well as good mechanical, thermal and chemical properties. More specifically, ferrogels (magnetic gels) present the extra advantage of being easily manipulated by a permanent magnet. Here, we present the results derived from the application of ferrogels as efficient tools to extract heavy metal pollutants from wastewater samples. The gels were prepared following the method of freezing and thawing of a polyvinyl alcohol aqueous solution with magnetic nanoparticles coated with polyacrylic acid. Ferrogels were fully characterized and their ability to retain Cu²⁺ and Cd²⁺, as model heavy metals, was studied. Thus kinetics and mechanisms of adsorption were evaluated and modeled. The concentration of MNPs on the PVA matrix was key to improve the adsorption capability (approximately the double of retention is improved by the MNPs addition). The adsorption kinetics was determined as pseudo-second order model, whereas the Langmuir model was the most appropriate to explain the behavior of the gels. Finally reuse ability was evaluated to determine the real potential of these materials, the ferrogels demonstrated high efficiency up to about five cycles, retaining about 80–90% of their initial adsorption capability. All the results indicated that the materials are promising candidates able to compete with the commercial technology regarding to water remediation.     

Adaptive Management and Climate Change Adaptation: Two Mutually Beneficial Areas of Practice

Adaptive management (AM) is a rigorous approach to implementing, monitoring, and evaluating actions, so as to learn and adjust those actions. Existing AM projects are at risk from climate change, and current AM guidance does not provide adequate methods to deal with this risk. Climate change adaptation (CCA) is an approach to plan and implement actions to reduce risks from climate variability and climate change, and to exploit beneficial opportunities. AM projects could be made more resilient to extreme climate events by applying the principles and procedures of CCA. To test this idea, we analyze the effects of extreme climatic events on five existing AM projects focused on ecosystem restoration and species recovery, in the Russian, Trinity, Okanagan, Platte, and Missouri River Basins. We examine these five case studies together to generate insights on how integrating CCA principles and practices into their design and implementation could improve their sustainability, despite significant technical and institutional challenges, particularly at larger scales. Although climate change brings substantial risks to AM projects, it may also provide opportunities, including creating new habitats, increasing the ability to quickly test flow‐habitat hypotheses, stimulating improvements in watershed management and water conservation, expanding the use of real‐time tools for flow management, and catalyzing creative application of CCA principles and procedures.     

Rareness and specialization in plant-pollinator networks

Most rare species appear to be specialists in plant-pollinator networks. This observation could result either from real ecological processes or from sampling artifacts. Several methods have been proposed to overcome these artifacts, but they have the limitation of being based on visitation data, causing interactions involving rare visitor species to remain undersampled. We propose the analysis of food composition in bee trap nests to assess the reliability of network specialization estimates. We compared data from a plant-pollinator network in the Monte Desert of Villavicencio Nature Reserve, Argentina, sampled by visit observation, and data from trap nests sampled at the same time and location. Our study shows that trap nest sampling was good for estimating rare species degree. The rare species in the networks appear to be more specialized than they really are, and the bias in the estimation of the species degree increases with the rareness. The low species degree of these rare species in the visitation networks results from insufficient sampling of the rare interactions, which could have important consequences for network structure.     

Multidimensional trade-offs in species responses to disturbance: implications for diversity in a subtropical forest

Species employ diverse strategies to cope with natural disturbance, but the importance of these strategies for maintaining tree species diversity in forests has been debated. Mechanisms that have the potential to promote tree species coexistence in the context of repeated disturbance include life history trade-offs in colonization and competitive ability or in species' ability to survive at low resource conditions and exploit the temporary resource-rich conditions often generated in the wake of disturbance (successional niche). Quantifying these trade-offs requires long-term forest monitoring and modeling. We developed a hierarchical Bayes model to investigate the strategies tree species employ to withstand and recover from hurricane disturbance and the life history trade-offs that may facilitate species coexistence in forests subject to repeated hurricane disturbance. Unlike previous approaches, our model accommodates temporal variation in process error and observations from multiple sources. We parameterized the model using growth and mortality data from four censuses of a 16-ha plot taken every five years (1990-2005), together with damage data collected after two hurricanes and annual seed production data (1992-2005). Species' susceptibilities to hurricane damage as reflected by changes in diameter growth and fecundity immediately following a storm were weak, highly variable, and unpredictable using traditional life history groupings. The lower crowding conditions (e.g., high light) generated in the wake of storms, however, led to greater gains in growth and fecundity for pioneer and secondary-forest species than for shade-tolerant species, in accordance with expectation of life history. We found moderate trade-offs between survival in high crowding conditions, a metric of competitive ability, and long-distance colonization. We also uncovered a strong trade-off between mean species fecundity in low crowding conditions, a metric of recovery potential, and competitive ability. Trade-offs in competitive and colonization ability, in addition to successional niche processes, are likely to contribute to species persistence in these hurricane-impacted forests. The strategies species employ to cope with hurricane damage depend on the degree to which species rely on sprouting, repair of adult damage, changes in demographic rates in response to enhanced resource availability after storms, or long-distance dispersal as recovery mechanisms.     

Multiple biomarkers responses in Prochilodus lineatus allowed assessing changes in the water quality of Salado River basin (Santa Fe, Argentina)

This field study assessed water quality of Salado River basin by using a set of biomarkers in the fish Prochilodus lineatus. Multiple biomarkers were measured, including morphological indexes (condition factor, liver somatic index), hematological (red and white blood cells) and biochemical (glucose, total protein and cholinesterase activity) parameters. Besides, detoxication and oxidative stress markers (antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation) were measured in liver, gills and kidney. Despite water quality assessment did not show marked differences among sites, biomarkers responses indicate that fish are living under stressful environmental conditions. According to multivariate analysis glucose, glutathione S-transferase activity, lipid peroxidation levels and the count of white blood cells are key biomarkers to contribute to discrimination of sites. So, we suggest use those biomarkers in future monitoring of freshwater aquatic systems.     

Contribution of a New PCR assay to the prenatal diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay has been developed for the detection of Toxoplasma gondii. The target sequence (88 bp) is part of a rDNA repetitive gene. A signal can be observed with only one parasite. It is directly and rapidly detected by electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining. We report a prospective study of 80 documented cases of toxoplasmic seroconversions during pregnancy. The PCR assay of the amniotic fluids was compared with the current standard methods for diagnosis of fetal infection. Seventy specimens gave no PCR signal, and were negative according to prenatal tests and postnatal examinations. The presence of T. gondii was detected in ten specimens by PCR analysis. Four were confirmed by isolation of the parasite from the amniotic fluid; four by biological study of the fetal blood. For the remaining two, infection was diagnosed after birth. Together with ultrasonographic and biological data, this technique permits prenatal diagnosis within 1 day.     

Recovery of plasmatic cholinesterase activity in a neotropical fish Prochilodus lineatus (Pisces,Curimatidae) exposed to organophosphorous pesticides

The objective was to determine the plasmatic enzyme cholinesterase recovery, after being inhibited by an organophosphorous in juveniles of Prochilodus lineatus. Fish were exposed 12 h to a sublethal concentration of 1 mg/l of monocrotophos, and immediately placing in clean water during 12, 24, 48 and 96 h to detoxification. After this period, blood was extracted and plasma were used for the quantification of cholinesterase. The results showed a enzymatic inhibition of 91.9%, 55.1%, 50.4% and 33.4% with 12, 24, 48 and 96 h of recovery, respectively. The enzymatic activity spreads to be normalized with the course of hours and the degree of inhibition obtained initially was very high and sustained in the first 48 h.     

Integrated survey on toxic effects of lindane on neotropical fish: Corydoras paleatus and Jenynsia multidentata

We report the effect of lindane on fish experimentally exposed to lindane. Sublethal toxicity was assessed through (a) changes in histopathology; (b) the activity of GST in different organs; and (c) bioaccumulation in exposed fish. We present a survey on toxic effects of lindane at these three levels, proposing a sequence of dose-dependent effects. Physiological damage was reversible at lowest doses, but severe at the highest, including damage consistent with fibrosis in liver and karyolitic nucleus in brain of both studied species. Exposure of Jenynsia multidentata above 6 μg L⁻¹ caused activation a GST in liver and gills, followed by inhibition at 75 μg L⁻¹. Interestingly, the bioaccumulation rate was suddenly increased when GST was inhibited. Corydoras paleatus exposed to 6.0 μg L⁻¹ lindane did not present significant changes in GST activity; however, enzymatic inhibition was observed above 25 μg L⁻¹. The bioaccumulation rate in C. paleatus remained constant throughout the experiments. All in all, these results evidence that C. paleatus is more sensitive to lindane than J. multidentata.