Waste-to-energy systems can provide a functional demonstration of the economic and environmental benefits of circularity, innovation, and reimagining existing systems. This study offers a robust quantification of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction potential of the adoption of anaerobic digestion (AD) technology on applicable large-scale dairy farms in the contiguous United States. GHG reduction estimates were developed through a robust life cycle modeling framework paired with sensitivity and uncertainty analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Reef 2050 Plan has identified a range of measures aimed at reducing end-of-catchment loads of sediment and nutrient and recognizes the role that freshwater wetlands may have in achieving this. However, quantitative information on the potential for tropical wetlands to filter agricultural runoff is scarce, so this paper describes a study that combines field data from a 10 ha wetland constructed on land previously used for sugar cane near Babinda, north Queensland with a water balance and denitrification model. During the 12-month monitoring period (from October 2017 to September 2018) we estimate that the nitrogen filtering capacity of the wetland was 52% (26% lost as gaseous denitrification from the water and soil, and 26% as sedimentation of particulate nitrogen, PN).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe shallow tidal and freshwater coastal wetlands adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon provide a vital nursery and feeding complex that supports the life cycles of marine and freshwater fish, important native vegetation and vital bird habitat. Urban and agricultural development threaten these wetlands, with many of the coastal wetlands becoming lost or changed due to the construction of artificial barriers (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe characterize temporal pathway dynamics of differentiation in an in vitro neurotoxicity model with the aim of informing design and interpretation of toxicological assays. Human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) were cultured in differentiation conditions up to 21 days. Genes significantly changed through time were identified and grouped according to temporal dynamics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuch of the sediment and nutrient load to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon happens during over bank floods, when discharge can be significantly underestimated by standard river gauges. This paper assesses the potential need for a flood load correction for 28 coastal rivers that discharge into the GBR lagoon. For each river, daily discharge was divided into flows above and below a 'flood' threshold to calculate the mean annual percentage flow above this threshold.
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