Foraging for selenium: a comparison between hyperaccumulator and non-accumulator plant species.

Selenium (Se) hyperaccumulators are a unique group of plants that can accumulate this element in their aerial parts at concentrations exceeding 100 mg kgDW. These plants actively search for Se in the soil, a phenomenon known as root foraging, reported to date only by few studies. In this study, the effect of localized Se enrichment, in the form of selenite and selenate, was investigated on the root architecture of two Se-hyperaccumulators (Stanleya pinnata and Astragalus bisulcatus) and two non-accumulators (Brassica juncea and Medicago sativa).

Agricultural application of digestates derived from agricultural and municipal organic wastes: a health risk-assessment for heavy metals.

A Human-health Risk Assessment was performed for an agricultural site in North-East Italy undergone digestate application to (i) check the compliance of digestate land spreading with the Italian and European regulations on contaminated agricultural soils and (ii) evaluate how resulting risk estimations can be influenced by the applied modeling assumptions. The assessment estimated the risk related to adults and children intake of Heavy Metals (HM) contained in crops at concentrations estimated by a soil-plant transfer model based on the substance-specific soil-water partition coefficients. Eight different scenarios were investigated, according to different digestate type (from biowaste and agro-industrial byproducts), digestate application techniques and soil background concentrations.

A non-lethal method to assess element content in the endangered Pinna nobilis.

The fan shell Pinna nobilis is the largest bivalve endemic to the Mediterranean and is actually a strongly endangered species. Due to the biological, ecological, and historical relevance of this species, the research of a non-lethal method to relate the element content in organism's tissues and environment can provide information potentially useful to evaluate environmental pollution and organism physiological status. In this study, a screening on element concentration in the animal growing environment (seawater and sediments) and in four soft tissues (hepatopancreas, gills, mantle, and muscle), and two acellular tissues (calcite shell layer, and byssus) was performed.

Metal ion removal using waste byssus from aquaculture.

Byssus is a thread-like seafood waste that has a natural high efficiency in anchoring many metal ions thanks to its richness of diverse functional groups. It also has structural stability in extreme chemical, physical and mechanical conditions. The combination of these properties, absent in other waste materials, has novelty suggested its use as matrix for water remediation.

Fertilizing potential and CO emissions following the utilization of fresh and composted food-waste anaerobic digestates.

Wet and dry-batch anaerobic digestion, and composting are common technologies in food waste (FW) management, resulting in different outputs. However, the effects of composting on carbon dioxide (CO) emissions, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizing capacity in view of closing nutrient cycle are still poorly investigated. In this work, two FW anaerobic digestates from the wet (D) and dry-batch process (D), and their respective composts (C and C) were tested in a soil incubation (84 days at 25 °C) to assess CO emissions in comparison with a mixed (animal slurry/energy crop) digestate (BD) and a reference municipal solid waste compost (MSWC).