Publications by authors named "Francesc Sabater"

In this work we aim to assess the impact of a WWTP effluent overland flow on properties and nutrient concentrations of a riparian soil, in order to explore the potential of this practice as a nature-based treatment. We set two study zones of 150 m on the field, one control and one that received the WWTP effluent on its surface for one month. Samples were taken before and after the effluent overland flow system, to test the impact of the effluent on soil properties through a BACI design, and after 17 months, to evaluate the recovery of the soil.

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Attractive p-wave one-dimensional fermions are studied in the fermionic Tonks-Girardeau regime in which the diagonal properties are shared with those of an ideal Bose gas. We study the off-diagonal properties and present analytical expressions for the eigenvalues of the one-body density matrix. One striking aspect is the universality of the occupation numbers which are independent of the specific shape of the external potential.

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Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems have gained attention for their potential impact on biodiversity. Rivers are complex and dynamic ecosystems that transport particles and organic matter from the headwaters through watersheds to the ocean. Changes in land use and the presence of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) increase the risk of plastic contamination.

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Differences in the elemental composition of plants, mainly C, N, and P, have been shown to be related to differences in their nutritional status, and their morphological and functional traits. The relationship between morphological traits and micronutrients and trace elements, however, has been much less studied. Additionally, in bryophytes, research devoted to investigating these relationships is still very scarce.

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Water quality and riparian communities are among the most affected stream components by agriculture. However, little is known about the effects of riparian management for both aquatic and terrestrial taxa at different spatial scales. Here, we surveyed aquatic (diatoms) and terrestrial taxa (bryophytes, vascular plants, litter-dwelling snails, and ground and volant arthropods), to compare the abundance and richness of riparian taxa and chemical quality between reference and exposed sites in two stream reaches each of c.

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Ecological stoichiometry and studies of biogeochemical niches have mainly focused on plankton and vascular plants, but the phenotypically closest modern relatives of early plants, bryophytes, have been largely neglected. We analysed C:N:P stoichiometries and elemental compositions (K, Na, Mg, Ca, S, Fe) of 35 widely distributed bryophyte species inhabiting springs. We estimated bryophyte C:N:P ratios and their biogeochemical niches, investigated how elementomes respond to the environment and determined whether they tend to diverge more for coexisting than non-coexisting individuals and species.

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Emergent macrophyte species selection is critical for the effectiveness of nature-based engineered solutions aiming to address excess nutrient concentrations in freshwater ecosystems. Yet, the mechanisms with which macrophytes enhance nutrient retention need to be further understood. Here, we compared nutrient retention among 12 artificial flumes fed with effluents from a wastewater treatment plant and subjected to four treatments: absence of macrophytes (control) and presence of three different macrophyte species ( L.

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Article Synopsis
  • In the Mediterranean region, water scarcity negatively impacts stream water quality, particularly below wastewater treatment plants (WWTP).
  • The study examined four helophyte species to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing dissolved inorganic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from WWTP effluents over an 11-month period.
  • Results showed that the highest concentrations of N and P occurred in different plant parts, with Iris pseudoacorus being the most efficient in retaining nutrients, suggesting helophytes could help improve water quality in ecosystems affected by wastewater.
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Bioengineering techniques are currently used  in a wide variety of wastewater treatment systems. Aquatic plants (i.e.

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Wastewater discharges into fluvial ecosystems represent a significant and continuous source of fine particles and nutrients that can severely modify stream community composition and functionality. Depending on both wastewater and stream features (e.g.

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Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents are sources of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and inorganic nitrogen (DIN) to receiving streams, which can eventually become saturated by excess of DIN. Aquatic plants (i.e.

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River ecosystems are subject to multiple stressors that affect their structure and functioning. Ecosystem structure refers to characteristics such as channel form, water quality or the composition of biological communities, whereas ecosystem functioning refers to processes such as metabolism, organic matter decomposition or secondary production. Structure and functioning respond in contrasting and complementary ways to environmental stressors.

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Background And Objectives: Previous studies showed good short-term Quality of life (QOL) after Transoral Laser Microsurgery (TLM) for laryngeal cancer. Here, we aimed to evaluate QOL after TLM in the long-term.

Methods: Prospective longitudinal study.

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Monitoring nutrient concentrations at fine-scale temporal resolution contributes to a better understanding of nutrient cycling in stream ecosystems. However, the mechanisms underlying fine-scale nutrient dynamics and its implications for budget catchent fluxes are still poorly understood. To gain understanding of patterns and controls of fine-scale stream nitrogen (N) dynamics and to assess how they affect hydrological N fluxes, we explored diel variation in stream nitrate (NO3-) concentration along a headwater stream with increasing riparian area and channel width.

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Leaf litter decomposition plays a major role in nutrient dynamics in forested streams. The chemical composition of litter affects its processing by microorganisms, which obtain nutrients from litter and from the water column. The balance of these fluxes is not well known, because they occur simultaneously and thus are difficult to quantify separately.

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Understanding the variability of the natural abundance in nitrogen stable isotopes (expressed as δ(15)N) of primary uptake compartments (PUCs; e.g., epilithon or macrophytes) is important due to the multiple applications of stable isotopes in freshwater research and can give insights into environmental and anthropogenic factors controlling N dynamics in streams.

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High variability in the natural abundance of nitrogen stable isotopes (δ(15)N) has been reported for primary uptake compartments (PUCs; e.g., epilithon, filamentous algae, bryophytes, macrophytes) in human-impacted aquatic ecosystems, but the origin of this variability is not yet well understood.

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We examined the effect of point-source inputs from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) on in-stream uptake of ammonium, nitrate and phosphate and compared it between two streams draining catchments with contrasting land use. The selected streams were La Tordera and Gurri (NE Spain), draining a forest- and an agriculture-dominated catchment, respectively. In each stream, we compared nutrient uptake metrics, estimated from nutrient additions, between two reaches located upstream and downstream of a WWTP input.

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We examined net changes in ammonium-Nitrogen (NH(4)(+)-N), nitrate-Nitrogen (NO(3)(-)-N), dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) chloride-corrected ambient concentrations along a reach located below a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) input in a non-agricultural (12 dates) and an agricultural (6 dates) stream. Based on those net changes, we estimated processing length (Snet) and mass transfer coefficient (Vf) of the cited nutrients. In the agricultural stream, results suggest that diffuse nutrient inputs from adjacent agricultural fields had a greater effect on water chemistry than the WWTP input, and probably overwhelmed the stream capacity to retain and transform nutrients.

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We tested the effect of nutrient inputs from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on stream nutrient retention efficiency by examining the longitudinal patterns of ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate concentrations downstream of WWTP effluents in 15 streams throughout Catalonia (Spain). We hypothesized that large nutrient loadings would saturate stream communities, lowering nutrient retention efficiency (i.e.

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