Search results for "POLLUTION"
showing 10 items of 2765 documents
Reducing the data-deficiency of threatened European habitats: Spatial variation of sabellariid worm reefs and associated fauna in the Sicily Channel,…
2017
Biogenic reefs, such as those produced by tube-dwelling polychaetes of the genus Sabellaria, are valuable marine habitats which are a focus of protection according to European legislation. The achievement of this goal is potentially hindered by the lack of essential empirical data, especially in the Mediterranean Sea. This study addresses some of the current knowledge gaps by quantifying and comparing multi-scale patterns of abundance and distribution of two habitat-forming species (Sabellaria alveolata and S. spinulosa) and their associated fauna along 190 km of coast on the Italian side of the Sicily Channel. While the abundance of the two sabellariids and the total number of associated t…
Distribution of sea urchins living near shallow water CO2 vents is dependent upon species acid-base and ion-regulatory abilities.
2013
To reduce the negative effect of climate change on Biodiversity, the use of geological CO2 sequestration has been proposed; however leakage from underwater storages may represent a risk to marine life. As extracellular homeostasis is important in determining species' ability to cope with elevated CO2, we investigated the acid-base and ion regulatory responses, as well as the density, of sea urchins living around CO2 vents at Vulcano, Italy. We conducted in situ transplantation and field-based laboratory exposures to different pCO2/pH regimes. Our results confirm that sea urchins have some ability to regulate their extracellular fluid under elevated pCO2. Furthermore, we show that even in cl…
Long-term effects of elevated CO2 on the population dynamics of the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa: Evidence from volcanic seeps
2021
Population reconstruction techniques was used to assess for the first time the population dynamics of a seagrass, Cymodocea nodosa, exposed to long-term elevated CO2 near three volcanic seeps and compared them with reference sites away from the seeps. Under high CO2, the density of shoots and of individuals (apical shoots), and the vertical and horizontal elongation and production rates, were higher than at the reference sites. Nitrogen limitation effects on rhizome elongation and production rates and on biomass were more evident than CO2 as these were highest at the location where the limitation of nitrogen was highest. At the seep where the availability of CO2 was highest and nitrogen low…
A meta-analysis on the ecological effects of aquaculture on the water column: dissolved nutrients
2007
Environmental effects of aquaculture loadings have often been reviewed descriptively, and thus have not provided quantitative estimates of the overall response in the water column. Meta-analytical reviewing techniques allow the contextualisation of quantitative effects in the domain of current literature. In the present paper, more than 50 peer-reviewed articles were analysed and about 425 study cases used to test whether worldwide cultivations have a differential effect on dissolved nutrient levels. Meta-analysis feasibility depends on obtaining an estimate of the effect size from every study and the most common measure of effect size (Hedges’ d) is the difference between means of controls…
Parasite communities in Boops boops (L.) (Sparidae) after the Prestige oil-spill: Detectable alterations
2007
Environmental pollution affects parasite populations and communities, both directly and through effects on intermediate and final hosts. In this work, we present a comparative study on the structure and composition of metazoan parasite communities in the bogue, Boops boops, from two localities (Galician coast, Spain) affected by the Prestige oil-spill (POS). We focus on the distribution of both individual parasite species and larger functional groupings by using both univariate and multivariate analyses. Our results indicate directional trends in community composition that might be related to the Prestige oil-spill disturbance of the natural coastal communities off Galicia. Endoparasite com…
Sucrose amendment enhances phytoaccumulation of the herbicide atrazine in Arabidopsis thaliana.
2006
International audience; Growth in the presence of sucrose was shown to confer to Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress or mustard weed) seedlings, under conditions of in vitro culture, a high level of tolerance to the herbicide atrazine and to other photosynthesis inhibitors. This tolerance was associated with root-to-shoot transfer and accumulation of atrazine in shoots, which resulted in significant decrease of herbicide levels in the growth medium. In soil microcosms, application of exogenous sucrose was found to confer tolerance and capacity to accumulate atrazine in Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown on atrazine-contaminated soil, and resulted in enhanced decontamination of the soil. Applic…
Co-inertia multivariate approach for the evaluation of anthropogenic impact on two commercial fish along Tyrrhenian coasts
2019
Abstract Aliphatic hydrocarbon levels were determined by the GC/MS technique in fish livers of Engraulis encrasicolus (Ee) and Trachurus trachurus (Tt), collected from a particular area of the Mediterranean Sea, called GSA 10, which is located exactly in Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania coast and North Sicily coast. The aim was to evaluate their potential use as specific bioindicators towards this class of contaminants. Both Tt and Ee are considered to be pollution monitoring bioindicators, due to their dominance in marine communities and economic fishing interest. Ee showed a higher tendency to bioaccumulate TAHs, due to the lower quantity of fatty acids in liver tissues with respect to Tt.…
Impact of eutrophication on the carbon stable-isotopic baseline of benthic invertebrates in two deep soft-water lakes
2017
International audience
Characterization of the biodegradation, bioremediation and detoxification capacity of a bacterial consortium able to degrade the fungicide thiabendaz…
2017
Thiabendazole (TBZ) is a persistent fungicide used in the post-harvest treatment of fruits. Its application results in the production of contaminated effluents which should be treated before their environmental discharge. In the absence of efficient treatment methods in place, biological systems based on microbial inocula with specialized degrading capacities against TBZ could be a feasible treatment approach. Only recently the first bacterial consortium able to rapidly transform TBZ was isolated. This study aimed to characterize its biodegradation, bioremediation and detoxification potential. The capacity of the consortium to mineralize 14C-benzyl-ring labelled TBZ was initially assessed. …
Microbial communities as ecological indicators of ecosystem recovery following chemical pollution
2017
International audience; ‘Ecosystem recovery’ is a concept that emerged from the need to preserve our environment against increasing contamination from human activity. However, ecological indicators of ecosystem recovery remain scarce, and it is still difficult to assess recovery of ecological processes at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Microbial communities hold key relevance as indicators of ecosystem recovery as they are ubiquitous among diverse ecosystems, respond rapidly to environmental changes, and support many ecosystem functions and services through taxonomic and functional biodiversity. This chapter summarizes the state-of-the-art in knowledge on the processes driving the st…