A cumulative impact assessment on the marine capacity to supply ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services link the status of biodiversity and its functioning to societal goods and benefits contributing to human wellbeing. As such, they can play a key role in preserving the environment and managing natural resources and ecosystems to conserve nature's contributions to people. Identification of the main threats acting on the natural environment, and how these may impact its capacity to supply ecosystem services, is fundamental to the maintenance of these services.

A roadmap towards quantitative cumulative impact assessments: Every step of the way.

Currently most Cumulative Impacts Assessments (CIAs) are risk-based approaches that assess the potential impact of human activities and their pressures on the ecosystem thereby compromising the achievement of policy objectives. While some of these CIAs apply actual data (usually spatial distributions) they often have to rely on categorical scores based on expert judgement if they actually assess impact which is often expressed as a relative measure that is difficult to interpret in absolute terms. Here we present a first step-wise approach to conduct a fully quantitative CIA based on the selection and subsequent application of the best information available.

Leaching of Metals from Steel Slag and Their Ecological Effects on a Marine Ecosystem: Validating Field Data with Mesocosm Observations.

Steel slag is being used worldwide for a variety of applications, among which is underwater dyke reinforcement. In the present study the leaching and bioaccumulation of 18 inorganic compounds from basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag were monitored in marine experimental ecosystems (mesocosms) for 12 wk. Triplicate mesocosms were installed at 2 refreshment rates, one reflecting the situation in the Oosterschelde estuary where BOF steel slag was applied and the other at a 35 times lower rate.

High-rate ethanol production at low pH using the anaerobic granular sludge process.

In this study, we investigated the operational performance and product spectrum of glucose-fermenting anaerobic granular sludge reactor at pH 4. A selective environment for the growth of granules was implemented by the introduction of a 2 min settling phase, a hydraulic retention time of 6 h and a solid retention time of 12 ± 3 days. The fermentation products were ethanol, lactate, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) with yields of 0.

MZ1T Identified as a Polyhydroxyalkanoate-Producing Bacterium within a Mixed Microbial Consortium.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) form a highly promising class of bioplastics for the transition from fossil fuel-based plastics to bio-renewable and biodegradable plastics. Mixed microbial consortia (MMC) are known to be able to produce PHAs from organic waste streams. Knowledge of key-microbes and their characteristics in PHA-producing consortia is necessary for further process optimization and direction towards synthesis of specific types of PHAs.