Abstract: The present paper synthesizes data obtained during a multidisciplinary cruise carried out in June 2004 at the continental margin of the northern Bay of Biscay. The data-set allows to describe the different stages of a coccolithophore bloom dominated by Emiliania huxleyi. The cruise was carried out after the main spring phytoplankton bloom that started in mid-April and peaked in mid-May. Consequently, low phosphate (PO4 < 0.2 μM) and silicate (DSi < 2.0 μM) concentrations, low partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and high calcite saturation degree in surface waters combined with thermal stratification, probably favoured the blooming of coccolithophores. During the period of the year our cruise was carried out, internal tides induce enhanced vertical mixing at the continental shelf break leading to the injection of inorganic nutrients to surface waters that probably trigger the bloom. The bloom developed as the water-column stratified and as the water mass was advected over the continental shelf, following the general residual circulation in the area. The most developed phase of the bloom was sampled in a remote sensed high reflectance (HR) patch over the continental shelf that was characterized by low chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration in surface waters (<1.0 μg L−1), high particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) concentration (not, vert, similar8 μmol L−1) and coccolithophore abundance up to 57 × 106 cells L−1. Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) concentrations ranged between 15 and 75 μg C L−1 and carbon content of TEP represented up to 26% of the particulate organic carbon (POC; maximum concentration of 15.5 μmol L−1 in the upper 40 m). Integrated primary production (PP) ranged between 210 and 680 mg C m−2 d−1 and integrated calcification (CAL) ranged between 14 and 140 mg C m−2 d−1, within the range of PP and CAL values previously reported during coccolithophore blooms in open and shelf waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Bacterial protein production (BPP) measurements in surface waters (0.30.7 μg C L−1 h−1) were much higher than those reported during early phases of coccolithophore blooms in natural conditions, but similar to those during peak and declining coocolithophorid blooms reported in mesocosms. Total alkalinity anomalies with respect to conservative mixing (ΔTA) down to −49 μmol kg−1 are consistent with the occurrence of biogenic precipitation of calcite, while pCO2 remained 15107 μatm lower than atmospheric equilibrium (372 μatm). The correlation between ΔTA and pCO2 suggested that pCO2 increased in part due to calcification, but this increase was insufficient to overcome the background under-saturation of CO2. This is related to the biogeochemical history of the water masses due to net carbon fixation by the successive phytoplankton blooms in the area prior to the cruise, hence, the investigated area remained a sink for atmospheric CO2 despite calcification.

Abstract: Nearly 200 terms commonly used in radioanalytical chemistry are unambiguously defined. The list is partially based on an earlier IUPAC-glossary (Pure Appl. Chem. 54 (1982) 1533-1554), but some modifications have been made, terms related to nuclear physics and technology have not been reconsidered and numerous new entries from the realm of radiometric analysis, radioimmunoassay and related techniques have been included.

Abstract: Biomass is expected to play an increasingly significant role in the greening of energy supply. Nevertheless, concerns are rising about the sustainability of large-scale energy crop production. Impacts must be assessed carefully before deciding whether and how this industry should be developed, and what technologies, policies and investment strategies should be pursued. There is need for a comprehensive and reliable sustainability assessment tool to evaluate the environmental, social and economic performance of biomass energy production. This paper paves the way for such a tool by analysing and comparing the performance and applicability of a selection of existing tools that are potentially useful for sustainability assessment of bioenergy systems. The selected tools are: Criteria And Indicators (C&I), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Exergy Analysis (EA) and System Perturbation Analysis (SPA). To evaluate the tools, a framework was constructed that consists of four evaluation levels: sustainability issues, tool attributes, model structure, area of application. The tools were then evaluated using literature data and with the help of a Delphi panel of experts. Finally, a statistical analysis was performed on the resulting data matrix to detect significant differences between tools. It becomes clear that none of the selected tools is able to perform a comprehensive sustainability assessment of bioenergy systems. Every tool has its particular advantages and disadvantages, which means that trade-offs are inevitable and a balance must be found between scientific accuracy and pragmatic decision making. A good definition of the assessment objective is therefore crucial. It seems an interesting option to create a toolbox that combines procedural parts of C&I and EIA, supplemented with calculation algorithms of LCA and CBA for respectively environmental and economic sustainability indicators. Nevertheless, this would require a more comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to align the different tool characteristics and focuses.

Abstract: We sought to determine whether the pesticide-degrading performance of a multi-species bacterial biofilm is affected by co-occurrence of multiple nutrient sources Thus, the 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-l-methoxy-l-methyl urea (linuron)-degrading activity of a triple-species linuron-degrading consortium, cultivated in continuous flow biofilm systems, was monitored when exposed to mixed substrate feeds which contained, in addition to linuron, readily assimilated carbon (i e citrate and trypticase soy broth) and/or nitrogen (i e ammonium) sources The addition of alternative carbon sources at different concentrations resulted in diminished linuron degradation efficiency In addition, the efficiency of removal of the linuron metabolite 3,4-dichloroaniline was affected These effects might be attributed to catabolic repression of the linuron metabolic pathway in the presence of alternative carbon substrates Moreover, each nutrient condition resulted in a particular biofilm composition and a particular spatial and structural organization, which might also be related to the performance of the biofilm community Results show that the activity of pesticide-degrading biofilms strongly depends on prevailing nutrient conditions and that the ideal biofilm configuration and activity, as observed under selective conditions, does not exist in real-life environmental conditions where mixtures of substrates are often present (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved.

Abstract: Shifting from a linear to a circular economy has consequences on how the sustainability of products is assessed. This is the case for products recovered from resources such as sewage sludge. The “zero-burden” assumption is commonly used in Life Cycle Assessment and considers that waste streams are burden-free, which becomes debatable when comparing waste-based with virgin material-based products in the context of the growing circular economy. If waste streams are considered as resources rather than waste, upstream burdens should be partly allocated to all products to allow a fair comparison with their virgin material-based equivalents. In this paper, five allocation approaches are applied to allocate the resource use of upstream processes (consumer goods production) to products recovered from the processing of sewage sludge in the Netherlands, which produces biogas, (phosphorus-based) chemicals and building materials. Except for the approach which allocates 100% of the impact from resource recovery processes to the preceding consumer goods, the allocation approaches show a resource use 27 to 80% higher than with the “zero-burden” assumption. In this particular case, using these allocation approaches is likely to find little support from recyclers. The producers of household products, recyclers and policy makers should find a consensus to consider the shift from a linear to a circular economy in sustainability assessment studies while avoiding discouraging the implementation of recovery technologies. This paper suggests starting the discussion with the approach which allocates the impacts from upstream processes degressively to the downstream products as it best translates the industrial ecology principles.

Abstract: Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) strategies, such as reuse, recycling and energy recovery aim, to capture more of the embedded resource or material value in products and waste streams. Reuse, recycling and energy recovery are existing activities in every society but they are poorly reflected in official statistics. Reaching higher levels of reuse, recycling and energy recovery may provide economic and environmental opportunities (i.e., in terms of GDP, jobs, reduced impacts), but not all options will have a net win-win-win property in practice, as they reduce the need for producing new commodities. In open economies, many primary resources, components and products are imported from abroad, and many goods produced are exported abroad. This paper describes a top-down methodology for estimating the substitution potential of intensifying specific SMM-strategies and material efficiency strategies. We combined both regional and multi-regional EE-IO (environmentally extended input-output) models to link industrial sectors to SMM-strategies. Our method enables us to compare the different SMM and material efficiency strategies in terms of the maximum available budgets for reaching them on a break even basis, maximum savings in global warming emissions and substituted employment effects, both through a regional and global perspective. We add a case on Flanders (Northern region in Belgium) to illustrate the methodology. Flanders is currently developing a policy for SMM. Selecting new regional actions for a Sustainable Materials Management policy can benefit from a good understanding of the international entangled value chains. It is important to understand how much of the chain is within reach of domestic policies and also to assess the consequences in terms of potential winners and losers, regarding GDP, jobs and environmental impacts, both domestically and abroad. We illustrated the potential outcomes for Flanders from four generic SMM-strategies: energy recovery, food waste prevention, recycling and reuse. From a strict regional self-interest perspective, it is preferable to substitute foreign value chains with local economic activities. Reuse creates by far the largest budget for new activities to realize the strategy (31.2% of Flemish GDP compared to 8.3% for food waste prevention, 6.2% for energy recovery and 4.2% for recycling). All four strategies have similar and significant potentials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, food waste prevention and reuse have higher potentials to reduce Flemish territorial GHG-emissions. From a pure Flemish employment perspective, the energy recovery and recycling strategies could replace the fewest Flemish jobs, and from a global perspective, all strategies most likely imply losses of jobs abroad. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The Ricardian model has been employed frequently to study the impact of climate change on European agriculture. This paper contributes to this literature by using a panel data of FADN EU regions and the period 2004-2012 and by taking into account both individual heterogeneity as well as spatial autocorrelation among EU regions. We tested three hypotheses related to the degree days model. Our results show that climate outside the defined growing season matters for European agriculture, and excluding it could underestimate climate change impacts. Our results should support public policy decisions about efficient and effective mitigation and adaptation policy measures in EU agriculture.

Abstract: Immobilization of the enzymes plays a vital role in enhancing their applicability in a wide range of applications, thus ensuring the use of sustainable enzymatic processes over the conventional chemical processes on an industrial scale. This study provides the background information for the selection and screening of inorganic metal oxide (MO) powders for their use as fillers in mixed matrix membranes for enzyme immobilization as the future aim. A total of 13 MOs, ranging in size from 0.01 μm to <5 μm, were tested for their performance as a support for enzyme (β-galactosidase) immobilization via adsorption. Alumina appeared to be the best performing MO with the amount and activity of the immobilized enzyme being 64 mg g−1 and up to 288 U g−1, respectively. The amount of immobilized enzyme on alumina (α-Al2O3 C and γ-Al2O3) was >3 times higher than ZrO2 (used as a reference MO in this study). Upon heat treatment at 900 °C, up to 15%, 52% and 42% decline was observed in the amount of immobilized enzyme in case of alumina metal oxides (MOs), ZrO2 and TiO2, respectively. The results suggested that both isoelectric point and surface area of the MO influence the immobilization. The most important observation in this study was that the bonding of the enzyme to the MO surface seems to be mediated by the bonding/interaction of the buffer to the enzyme.