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Global biodiversity indices: used to inform policy decisions — but are they robust and accurate? (17/11/2021)
Global biodiversity indices are essential tools for summarising and communicating broad trends in environmental change (such as biodiversity loss), and to support global conservation policy decisions. However, few indices have been evaluated for their capacity to report on biodiversity change, such as declines in threatened species, which could result in misleading information for conservation policy. This study uses decision science to evaluate nine biodiversity indices.
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Toxic chemical pollutants: long-range air transport to remote European mountain ranges (17/11/2021)
Semi-volatile organic chemical pollutants (SOCs) accumulate and persist in the environment, particularly in cold environments such as polar and alpine regions. These pollutants (SOCs) include previously banned or restricted organochlorine compounds (OCs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are manmade chemicals that have been used widely in electrical equipment such as capacitors, as well as in paint, sealants and flame retardants. The semi-volatile nature of these pollutants mean that they can travel long distances by air. This study examines the processes of transport, deposition and degradation of SOCs in four alpine European sites.
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Seagrass meadows: policy recommendations for protection from shellfishing activities (17/11/2021)
Intertidal seagrasses (i.e. those living between the low- and high-water tide marks) are of high ecological and economic value, yet human pressures such as fishing for shell and leisure walking may have reduced their distribution globally1. In this study, researchers quantified the impact of shellfishing2 activities on seagrass meadows in the Oka estuary (Basque Country, northern Spain). The research highlights the risk that trampling and digging pose to seagrasses and proposes measures for their future conservation.
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Researchers call for inclusion of genetic diversity monitoring and conservation in global commitments (17/11/2021)
The key to successful adaptation of species — genetic variation — is under threat following anthropogenic pressures such as habitat loss. In a call to action, researchers have highlighted the need for greater explicit recognition of genetic diversity in global conservation policy. Knowledge gaps must be addressed with monitoring and concepts should be made accessible for policymakers.
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Researchers evaluate a ‘nitrogen-input hazard index tool’ in a Spanish groundwater basin declared a nitrate-vulnerable zone. The tool aids risk analyses of agricultural activities in vulnerable areas — where groundwater is susceptible to nitrate pollution — an environmental concern as it can endanger human water supply, and negatively impact aquatic ecosystems.
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Increasing levels of toxic metals in coastal sediments highlight the need — in the context of the developing blue economy — to address hidden sources of these contaminants (27/10/2021)
Regulation and improved waste treatment have reduced marine pollution; however, some contaminants persist in coastal sediments. An analysis of data on UK sediments has shown that concentrations of some, including copper and nickel, are rising. Identifying the hidden sources, such as shipping, say the researchers, is critical for maintaining healthy seas, which underpin a growing blue economy.
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To aid water-management policy, long-term drought risk modelling must couple detail with fast computation (27/10/2021)
The effects of climate change and other factors such as changes in water use on future droughts are uncertain. However, policymakers must conceive long-term strategies to mitigate the risk of water shortages. Integrated assessment models that simulate possible scenarios can support decision making. Yet, these models suffer a trade-off between timeliness and detailed output. Referring to the Netherlands' National Water Model, researchers have described this dilemma, along with suggestions for solving the problem.
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Carbon footprint of cardboard boxes outperforms plastic boxes when moving tomatoes internationally (14/10/2021)
Agricultural packaging impacts the environmental performance of food. This study compares the carbon footprint (CF), of two commonly used containers for international road transport of fruit and vegetables. The study assesses corrugated cardboard boxes (CCB) and polypropylene foldable boxes (PPB) in two different sizes, for a cradle-to-grave assessment of their environmental performance when used to transport tomatoes from Spain to Germany.
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The 'Dark Ecological Network': strategically tackling light pollution for biodiversity and people (14/10/2021)
Night-time light pollution from artificial sources can disrupt biological processes and fragment habitats. This study presents a new concept for addressing the problem: a 'dark ecological network'. Its development involves mapping a new system of connected functional zones and corridors where dark can be preserved to help birds, bats and other taxa, and gives people the chance to experience starry skies.
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Pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors: transfer from water to land ecosystems (14/10/2021)
Pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors increasingly contaminate the world’s freshwaters. New research provides direct evidence of their transfer from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems via the consumption of aquatic insects by terrestrial predators such as spiders, birds and bats. This exposure may have negative impacts on the physiology and population dynamics of predators, suggesting a need for improved risk-assessment guidelines and practices.
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Managing Asian hornet incursions with nest dissection and microsatellite marker analysis (14/10/2021)
The yellow-legged Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) is an invasive species that poses a particular threat to the European honey bee (Apis mellifera). This study reports on the management of Asian hornet incursions in the UK, including the use of nest dissection and microsatellite marker analysis (a form of genetic testing) to determine the relatedness and reproductive status of detected nests and hornets.
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A new resource-efficiency framework for bridge design highlights that adaptability is key to circularity (14/10/2021)
Increasing resource efficiency in the construction industry, in line with circular economy principles, could greatly reduce waste and increase sustainability. Focusing on bridges — often demolished when requirements change — this study presents a way to rate the circularity of different design options. The new framework could help decision making at the procurement stage of infrastructure projects.Click here to read more
Extreme coastal water levels will increase considerably due to climate change, posing an increasing threat of coastal floods due to ‘overtopping’ — a cause of flooding (14/10/2021)
Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are widely expected to exacerbate hazards such as coastal flooding. One process that could contribute to this is overtopping which occurs when the extreme coastal water level exceeds the maximum elevation of the coastal system (such as dunes, dykes or cliffs). A new global analysis — using satellite-derived models of coastlines — estimates that under a high emissions scenario, the incidence of overtopping, globally, will accelerate faster than the global mean sea-level.Click here to read more
Climate change may be a significant threat to world’s fresh-water fish (05/10/2021)
Climate change poses a major threat to global biodiversity, yet fresh-water fish have been largely overlooked in climate-change
assessments. This study presents a comprehensive appraisal of the threat from potential climate extremes, covering both water flow and temperature, to the world’s fresh-water fish. The results highlight a need to intensify national and international commitments to limit global warming.
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Regulate lead-based hunting ammunition to reduce risk to large raptors, urges study (05/10/2021)
Eagles and vultures in southern European mountain ranges are heavily exposed to lead, finds a new study. Analysing tissues from four
large species, researchers revealed that nearly half those sampled contained above background levels, with golden eagles and griffon vultures particularly affected. Lead-based hunting ammunition, the main source of contamination, should be banned to protect these birds from its toxic effects, they say.
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Home is where the heat is: novel model simulates uptake of renewable heating technologies from behaviour and choice at a household level (05/10/2021)
Researchers have applied a novel approach to modelling the uptake and replacement of heating technologies. By focusing on the micro-level
of households in individual EU Member States, the bottom-up model (a data-first approach) is able to assess how decisions and choices are made in the real world, rather than assuming rationality. On this basis, the study estimates which policy scenarios would be needed to meet targets for renewable heat set by the Renewable Energy Directive.
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A new approach for simulating potential impacts of fungal, insect and mammal pests on European forest ecosystems (21/09/2021)
Global forest disturbance patterns — or events which disrupt the structure and composition of forests — are altering as a result of climate change. Changes, such as more severe insect outbreaks, can negatively impact forests and the ecosystem services they provide to society. This study presents a new model that simulates the impacts of forest disturbance from biotic agents such as fungi, insects or large mammals.
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Food waste: new model helps estimate current levels in all EU countries (21/09/2021)
Food waste has serious economic, environmental, and social impacts. To meet the EU’s commitment to reduce food waste by 2030 — accurate, baseline data are needed for all Member States (MS). This study considers two models for estimating food waste to assist the EU in identifying a consistent methodology for collating food-waste data by 2022 — to help defining mandatory targets outlined in the Farm to Fork Strategy.
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Progress made on European air quality since 2000: most pollutants falling, but further action needed (21/09/2021)
In a new overview of air quality in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK), researchers have revealed downward trends in key pollutant emissions from 2000 to 2017. Despite significant progress, they found that urban exposure to fine particulate matter and ozone — which have some of the greatest health impacts — still exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) limit values in 2017, suggesting that intensified actions are urgently needed.
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New dual screening method for emerging pollutant chemicals in urban wastewater, Lyon, France (22/09/2021)
Urban wastewaters contain a number of chemical contaminants —
including plasticisers, flame retardants, pharmaceuticals and pesticides.
These chemicals are often ecotoxic — for example, those which disrupt hormones in
organisms — and are a potential threat to aquatic life. This study aimed to establish
a large-scale, environmental risk assessment (ERA) on emerging chemical pollutants
continually released in effluent into local watercourses from 10 urban waste-water
treatment plants (WWTP) in France.
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COVID-19 transmission risk via wastewater: a comprehensive review (10/08/2021)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoVs) appear to survive in wastewater for several days. Conventional waste-water treatment only partially removes these viruses during a pandemic outburst, highlighting the need for a risk-assessment and management framework tailored to SARS-CoV transmission — SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in particular. A review assesses the sources, detection, infectivity, survival and dispersal of SARS-CoVs in wastewater. The study also identifies promising technologies for finding and analysing the virus in wastewater and highlights knowledge gaps for the future.
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Solar energy expansion may increase carbon emissions due to land-use change — but mitigation is possible (26/07/2021)
To meet global emissions reductions targets, large-scale solar energy (SE) facilities will increase in number in the next 30 years. However, this could actually cause net emissions of up to 50 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilowatt-hour produced in the EU, due to land-use and cover change, finds a new study — but a net release of carbon could be avoided by managing expanded 'solar land' as pasture and regulating its siting.
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Ship coatings are the principal source of North Sea marine microplastics, finds study (26/07/2021)
Much discarded plastic enters our oceans via pathways such as littering, drainage, sewage systems, and mismanaged disposal, and fragments to form ‘microplastics’ — particles of under 5 millimetres (mm) in size. A study assesses the distribution, variation, composition, concentration and sources of microplastics in the German Bight. It finds different types of microplastics in coastal, central and estuarine areas, and suggests that antifouling coatings on ships are a prominent, but underestimated, source of microplastic pollution in the area.
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What are the short- and long-term impacts of eco-innovation on levels of CO2 emissions? (26/07/2021)
A new analysis of the relationship between new green technologies and CO2 emissions in 15 EU countries shows that environmental innovations lead to decreased emissions in the long-term. The opposite is true in the short-term, however, due to the 'rebound effect': as energy efficiencies are made available, people consume more. To avoid this behavioural response, the study suggests that policy should promote both innovation and energy-efficient lifestyles.
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Waste-water monitoring could help predict and prevent COVID-19 transmission (05/07/2021)
People suffering from COVID-19 — whether symptomatic or not — shed the SARS-CoV-2 virus into their faeces. Consequently, techniques to monitor untreated wastewater for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material are being trialled worldwide to note occurrence across communities. To find out more, Australian scientists implemented a waste-water-based COVID-19 detection technique in the city of Brisbane, Australia, in 2020, to help predict and prevent the spread of the disease.
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Microplastic pollution has soared in Spanish seagrass habitats over the last 40 years (05/07/2021)
Seagrass meadows are an important coastal habitat in the Mediterranean. However, these sites are accumulating tiny particles of plastic pollution (known as microplastic particles, or MPPs). A study explores soil-core samples to establish the amount of microplastic pollution present from 1930 to the present day in several seagrass meadows along the Spanish coast, some of which are close to suspected sources of agriculture-related plastic pollution.
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Trees at the edge: species respond differently to climate changes at hot and cold range edges (05/07/2021)
As our climate changes, concern is rising over how plant species will adapt in terms of their geographical distribution (or range). Research has identified conflicting patterns in species performance, especially at the outer edges of their ranges, casting doubt on our ability to accurately predict the impacts of climate change. A study assesses 27 European tree species to identify how populations’ performance can change at their range edges, and how this response differs between the ‘hot and dry versus the ‘cold and wet’ edges of each species.
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Sewer leakage: first nationwide estimate of pollution leaking from urban systems, Germany (05/07/2021)
Sewer systems are a potentially major source of urban groundwater pollution; water can leak through structural faults (or ‘exfiltration’ — i.e. through fractures or intruding tree roots) and be absorbed by surrounding soil, which can introduce nutrients, suspended solids and microbes into nearby water bodies. Estimating sewer leakage and exfiltration is important for effective management of urban waste-water systems, say the researchers of a new study that explores sewer leakage at the national scale in Germany.
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Towards sustainable agriculture: study identifies biodiversity-friendly alternatives to conventional wheat crop management, Germany (05/07/2021)
As intensive agriculture is associated with large-scale impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, food security and human health, it is important to shift to more sustainable, yet highly productive, farming practices. A study now assesses such practices in wheat, evaluating agricultural-management strategies at the field and landscape scales. The findings suggest that biodiversity-enhancing practices can support natural pest predation without use of agrochemicals — and that controlling pests and weeds by agrochemical means is less relevant than expected for final crop productivity.
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