Unravelling large-scale patterns and drivers of biodiversity in dry rivers.

More than half of the world's rivers dry up periodically, but our understanding of the biological communities in dry riverbeds remains limited. Specifically, the roles of dispersal, environmental filtering and biotic interactions in driving biodiversity in dry rivers are poorly understood. Here, we conduct a large-scale coordinated survey of patterns and drivers of biodiversity in dry riverbeds.

Disentangling natural and anthropogenic impacts on groundwater by hydrogeochemical, isotopic and microbiological data: Hints from a municipal solid waste landfill.

Within human-impacted areas, high levels of inorganic compounds in groundwater are broadly and preventively attributed to local anthropogenic pollution, thoroughly disregarding geogenic natural background levels. Particularly in landfills, a proper evaluation of the significant adverse environmental effects should be completed through a detailed groundwater characterization, and appropriate reference values established prior to landfill onset. However, the monitoring network may lack a full hydrogeological representativeness of the site and of the background conditions of groundwater.

Simulating rewetting events in intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: A global analysis of leached nutrients and organic matter.

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and the extent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico-chemical changes (preconditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulses of dissolved nutrients and organic matter (OM). However, there are no estimates of the amounts and quality of leached substances, nor is there information on the underlying environmental constraints operating at the global scale.

Distribution patterns of organic pollutants and microbial processes in marine sediments across a gradient of anthropogenic impact.

Marine sediments are part of the hydrological cycle and the ultimate storage compartment of land-derived organic matter, including pollutants. Since relevant microbially-driven processes occurring at benthic level may affect the quality of the overall aquatic system, the necessity for incorporating information about microbial communities functioning for ecosystem modelling is arising. The aim of this field study was to explore the links occurring between sediment contamination patterns by three selected class of organic pollutants (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, PAHs, Nonylphenols, NPs, Bisphenol A, BPA) and major microbial properties (Prokaryotic Biomass, PB; total living biomass, C-ATP; Prokaryotic C Production rate, PCP; Community Respiration rate, CR) across a gradient of anthropogenic pollution.

Microbial assemblages for environmental quality assessment: Knowledge, gaps and usefulness in the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD) defines a framework for Community actions in the field of marine environmental policy in order to achieve and/or maintain the Good Environmental Status (GES) of the European seas by 2020. Microbial assemblages (from viruses to microbial-sized metazoa) provide a major contribution to global biodiversity and play a crucial role in the functioning of marine ecosystems, but are largely ignored by the MSFD. Prokaryotes are only seen as "microbial pathogens," without defining their role in GES indicators.