Pharmaceutical and transformation products during unplanned water reuse: Insights into natural attenuation, plant uptake and human health impact under field conditions.

In urban and periurban areas, agricultural soils are often irrigated with surface water containing a complex mixture of contaminants due to wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent discharges. The unplanned water reuse of these resources for crop irrigation can represent a pathway for contaminant propagation and a potential health risk due to their introduction in the food chain. The aim of this study is to provide data about the magnitude of attenuation processes and plant uptake, allowing for a reliable assessment of contaminant transfer among compartments and of the human health risk derived from unplanned water reuse activities.

Sustainable soil amendments to improve nature-based solutions for wastewater treatment and resource recovery.

Vegetation Filters (VFs) can be a sustainable solution to treat wastewater and to recover resources such as nutrients, water and biomass from small municipalities and isolated dwellings. However, under certain conditions, the leakage of nutrients, especially of nitrate, can represent a limitation. The addition of two sustainable soil amendments, woodchips and biochar, has been tested as a strategy to improve nutrient attenuation in VFs increasing sorption sites and microbial activity.

Pharmaceuticals and trace metals in the surface water used for crop irrigation: Risk to health or natural attenuation?

The use of surface water impacted by wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents for crop irrigation is a form of unplanned water reuse. Natural attenuation processes can buffer contamination spreading. However, this practice can promote the exposure of crops to contaminants of emerging concern, such as pharmaceuticals, trace metals (TMs) and metalloids, posing a risk to health.

Enzyme activity indicates soil functionality affectation with low levels of trace elements.

The use of the soil can alter its functionality and influence the (bio)availability of any contaminants present. Our study considers two types of agricultural soils, rainfed and olive soils, managed according to conventional practices that apply contaminants directly to the soil (fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, etc.) and receive contaminants from the atmosphere (traffic, industry, etc.

Phytodesalinization potential of Typha angustifolia, Juncus maritimus, and Eleocharis palustris for removal of de-icing salts from runoff water.

Typha angustifolia, Juncus maritimus, and Eleocharis palustris were evaluated for de-icing salt removal from runoff water. Plants were exposed to a range of de-icing salt levels (0.2, 0.

Impact of vineyard abandonment and natural recolonization on metal content and availability in Mediterranean soils.

Abandonment of vineyards after uprooting has dramatically increased in last decades in Mediterranean countries, often followed by vegetation expansion processes. Inadequate management strategies can have negative consequences on soil quality. We studied how the age and type of vegetation cover and several environmental characteristics (lithology, soil properties, vineyard slope and so on) after vineyard uprooting and abandonment contribute to the variation patterns in total, HAc (acetic acid-method, HAc) and EDTA-extractable (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-method) concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in soils.

Improving the relationship between soil characteristics and metal bioavailability by using reactive fractions of soil parameters in calcareous soils.

The contribution of the nature instead of the total content of soil parameters relevant to metal bioavailability in lettuce was tested using a series of low-polluted Mediterranean agricultural calcareous soils offering natural gradients in the content and composition of carbonate, organic, and oxide fractions. Two datasets were compared by canonical ordination based on redundancy analysis: total concentrations (TC dataset) of main soil parameters (constituents, phases, or elements) involved in metal retention and bioavailability; and chemically defined reactive fractions of these parameters (RF dataset). The metal bioavailability patterns were satisfactorily explained only when the RF dataset was used, and the results showed that the proportion of crystalline Fe oxides, dissolved organic C, diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic acid (DTPA)-extractable Cu and Zn, and a labile organic pool accounted for 76% of the variance.

Biological activity in metal-contaminated calcareous agricultural soils: the role of the organic matter composition and the particle size distribution.

Organic matter (OM) plays a key role in microbial response to soil metal contamination, yet little is known about how the composition of the OM affects this response in Mediterranean calcareous agricultural soils. A set of Mediterranean soils, with different contents and compositions of OM and carbonate and fine mineral fractions, was spiked with a mixture of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn and incubated for 12 months for aging. Microbial (Biolog Ecoplates) and enzyme activities (dehydrogenase, DHA; β-galactosidase, BGAL; phosphatase, PHOS; and urease, URE) were assessed and related to metal availability and soil physicochemical parameters.

Metal extractability patterns to evaluate (potentially) mobile fractions in periurban calcareous agricultural soils in the Mediterranean area-analytical and mineralogical approaches.

A set of periurban calcareous agricultural Mediterranean soils was spiked with a mixture of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn at two levels within the limit values proposed by current European legislation, incubated for up to 12 months, and subjected to various one-step extraction procedures to estimate mobile (neutral salts) and potentially mobile metal fractions (complexing and acidic extraction methods). The results obtained were used to study metal extractability patterns according to the soil characteristics. The analytical data were coupled with mineralogical investigations and speciation modelling using the Visual Minteq model.

Metal contamination disturbs biochemical and microbial properties of calcareous agricultural soils of the Mediterranean area.

Mediterranean climate characteristics and carbonate are key factors governing soil heavy-metal accumulation, and low organic matter (OM) content could limit the ability of microbial populations to cope with resulting stress. We studied the effects of metal contamination on a combination of biological parameters in soils having these characteristics. With this aim, soils were spiked with a mixture of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, at the two limit values proposed by current European legislation, and incubated for ≤12 months.