Monitoring a Marine Coastal Area: Use of Mytilus galloprovincialis and Mullus barbatus as Bioindicators     

Ilaria Corsi  Michela Mariottini  Valentina Menchi  Christiana Sensini  Cristiana Balocchi  Silvano Focardi 《Marine Ecology》2002,23(S1):138-153

Abstract. Samples of Mytilus galloprovincialis and Mullus barbatus were collected in eight coastal sites along the South Adriatic and Ionic coasts of Italy in spring 2000 for a survey of coastal pollution in the Mediterranean basin. Specimens were analysed using an integrated approach based on residue analysis of common aquatic pollutants like organochlorines such as hexachlorobenzene (HCB), DDTs and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals and nonylphenols (NPnE) and biomarker responses such as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, and the two specific P450 activities benzo(a)pyrene monooxygenase (BPMO) and 7-ethoxyre-sorufin-(9-deethylase (EROD). Biological and morphological parameters like somatic liver index (SLI), gonadosomatic index (GSI) and gonadal and gamete histology (eggs and sperms) were also evaluated in red mullet samples. A contamination gradient in which several hot spots occur were revealed in this study. The hot spots account for high levels of organochlorines in both species near incinerators and of PAHs in harbour areas. Levels of both NPnE and AChE activity were highest in two protected marine areas and were within detectable limits in others. This finding was confirmed by P450 activities, in which maximum levels were detected in harbours and protected marine areas. No morphological alterations of male and female gonads were observed on the histological level.  相似文献   

Comparison of wind and wave measurements and models in the Western Mediterranean Sea   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Fabrice Ardhuin  Luciana Bertotti  Jean-Raymond Bidlot  Luigi Cavaleri  Valentina Filipetto  Jean-Michel Lefevre  Paul Wittmann 《Ocean Engineering》2007,34(3-4):526-541

We have hindcast the wind and wave conditions in the Mediterranean Sea for two one month periods. Four different meteorological models and three different wave models have been used. The results have been compared with satellite and buoy wind and wave observations.Several conclusions concerning both the instruments and the models have been derived. The quality of both wind and wave results has been assessed. Close to the coasts high resolution, nested wave models are required for sufficient reliability.A wave threshold analysis suggests a sufficient reliability only off the coast, with a substantial decrease for low wave heights.  相似文献   

Influence of topsoil of pyroclastic origin on microbial contamination of groundwater in fractured carbonate aquifers   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Gino Naclerio  Emma Petrella  Valentina Nerone  Vincenzo Allocca  Pantaleone De Vita  Fulvio Celico 《Hydrogeology Journal》2008,16(6):1057-1064

The aim of the research was to analyse the influence of a topsoil of pyroclastic origin on microbial contamination of groundwater in a carbonate aquifer and verify the reliability of thermotolerant coliforms and fecal enterococci as bacterial indicators. The research was carried out through hydrogeological and microbiological monitoring at an experimental field site in Italy during two hydrologic years and through column tests in a laboratory. The taxonomic classification of fecal indicators detected in spring water samples was performed using API20 galleries. Fecal enterococci were also identified by means of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The topsoil of pyroclastic origin significantly retains both thermotolerant coliforms and fecal enterococci. Results of column tests carried out in soil blocks collected randomly within the test site suggest that Escherichia coli was more retained than Enterococcus faecalis, even though this difference is statistically significant in only two out of six soil samples. Thus, a non-uniform difference in retention is expected at field scale. This suggestion is in agreement with the results of the microbiological monitoring. In fact, fecal enterococci were a more reliable indicator than thermotolerant coliforms for detecting contamination at both seasonal springs of the aquifer system, while no significant differences were observed at the perennial spring.  相似文献   

Expert views - and disagreements - about the potential of energy technology R&D     

Laura Diaz Anadon  Erin Baker  Valentina Bosetti  Lara Aleluia Reis 《Climatic change》2016,136(3-4):677-691

Mitigating climate change will require innovation in energy technologies. Policy makers are faced with the question of how to promote this innovation, and whether to focus on a few technologies or to spread their bets. We present results on the extent to which public R&D might shape the future cost of energy technologies by 2030. We bring together three major expert elicitation efforts carried out by researchers at UMass Amherst, Harvard, and FEEM, covering nuclear, solar, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), bioelectricity, and biofuels. The results show experts believe that there will be cost reductions resulting from R&D and report median cost reductions around 20 % for most of the technologies at the R&D budgets considered. Although the improvements associated to solar and CCS R&D show some promise, the lack of consensus across studies, and the larger magnitude of the R&D investment involved in these technologies, calls for caution when defining what technologies would benefit the most from additional public R&D. In order to make R&D funding decisions to meet particular goals, such as mitigating climate change or improving energy security, or to estimate the social returns to R&D, policy makers need to combine the information provided in this study on cost reduction potentials with an analysis of the macroeconomic implications of these technological changes. We conclude with recommendations for future directions on energy expert elicitations.  相似文献   

High rate GPS data on active volcanoes: an application to the 2005–2006 Mt. Augustine (Alaska,USA) eruption     

Mario Mattia  Mimmo Palano  Marco Aloisi  Valentina Bruno  Yehuda Bock 《地学学报》2008,20(2):134-140

Volcanic eruptions are usually preceded by measurable signals of growing unrest, the most evident of which are the increase in seismicity and ground deformation. It is also important to identify precursors of a possible renewal of the volcanic activity and to distinguish between an eruptive activity characterized by an intrusion (with the related destructive power) and a migration of magma stored in the main conduits. The 2005–2006 eruption at Mt. Augustine (Alaska, USA) is a good example of a massive migration of magmatic fluids from depth (about 1 km b.s.l.) under the effect of gas overpressure. The movements, recorded by High Rate GPS (HRGPS) data (15 s of sampling and processing rate) from the stations deployed on the volcano, define the dimensions and the characteristics of the shallow plumbing system. In this study, we propose a model of the different stages preceding the effusive phase (the ‘precursory phase’), where gas overpressure in the body of the volcano opens the terminal conduit.  相似文献   

Drivers of interannual and intra‐annual variability of dissolved organic carbon concentration in the River Thames between 1884 and 2013     

Valentina Noacco  Christopher J. Duffy  Thorsten Wagener  Fred Worrall  Matteo Fasiolo  Nicholas J.K. Howden 《水文研究》2019,33(6):994-1012

The world's longest record of river water quality (River Thames—130 years) provides a unique opportunity to understand fluvial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations dynamics. Understanding riverine DOC variability through long‐term studies is crucial to capture patterns and drivers influencing sources of DOC at scales relevant for decision making. The Thames basin (United Kingdom) has undergone massive land‐use change, as well as increased urbanisation and population during the period considered. We aimed to investigate the drivers of intra‐annual to interannual DOC variability, assess the variability due to natural and anthropogenic factors, and understand the causes for the increased DOC variability over the period. Two approaches were used to achieve these aims. The first method was singular spectrum analysis, which was used to reconstruct the major oscillatory modes of DOC, hydroclimatic variables, and atmospheric circulation patterns and to visualise the interaction between these variables. The second approach used was generalised additive modelling, which was used to investigate other non‐natural drivers of DOC variability. Our study shows that DOC variability increased by 80% over the data period, with the greatest increase occurring from the beginning of World War II onwards. The primary driver of the increase in DOC variability was the increase in the average value of fluvial DOC over the period of record, which was itself linked to the increase in basin population and diffuse DOC sources to the river due to land‐use and land‐management changes. Seasonal DOC variability was linked to streamflow and temperature. Our study allows to identify drivers of fluvial intra‐annual and interannual DOC variability and therefore empowers actions to reduce high DOC concentrations.  相似文献   

Users’ perception analysis for sustainable beach management in Italy     

Valentina Marin  Francesca Palmisani  Roberta Ivaldi  Rosanna Dursi  Mauro Fabiano 《Ocean & Coastal Management》2009,52(5):268-277

It is generally accepted that end-users’ perception is likely to play a pivotal role for planning and policy consideration. Beach user analysis is thus an important component defining beach management policies. In the framework of a wider project on beaches management, an investigation on residents and tourists was conducted. A survey conducted through questionnaires and interviews was carried out in six coastal municipalities. Results allowed obtaining a clear picture about user profile, perception of the beaches, awareness and attitude about themes related to beach management (i.e. Blue Flag award and beach nourishment practices). Their integration with the “expert knowledge” based analysis allowed to support the definition of beach management interventions.  相似文献   

Environmental impacts of household appliances in Europe and scenarios for their impact reduction     

Roland Hischier  Francesca Reale  Valentina Castellani  Serenella Sala 《Chemie der Erde / Geochemistry》2012

Assessing the environmental impact due to consumption of goods and services is a pivotal step towards achieving the sustainable development goal related to responsible production and consumption (i.e. SDG 12). Household appliances plays a crucial role and should be assessed in a systemic manner, namely considering all life cycle stages, technological efficiency, and affluence aspects. The present study assess the impact of such household appliances used in Europe, and tests scenarios of potential impact reduction at various scales. Life cycle assessment is applied to 14 different household appliances (ranging from dishwashers to television devices) selected to build a set of representative products, based on their economic value and diffusion in households in Europe. Related impacts are calculated with the Environmental Footprint method for calculating a Consumer Footprint “appliances” for the baseline year 2010. A number of scenarios encompassing eco-solutions on a technical level, changes in consumption pattern, behavioral changes, as well as the combination of all these aspects are run to estimate the Consumer Footprint related to household appliances for the year 2030, compared against this baseline scenario. The baseline Consumer Footprint is confirming the importance of the use phase in leading the impacts in almost all impact categories. Testing different scenarios concludes that there is a reduction of the impact for most of the categories (with up to 67% for the ozone depletion potential, and still around 35% for the global warming potential), while two of the here examined impact categories (i.e. land-use and mineral resource depletion) show an overall potential that is even negative – i.e. the results of all scenarios are higher than the ones of the 2010 baseline scenario. The increase in purchase and use of such appliances may offset energy efficiency benefits in some of the examined categories. Hence, the assessment of sustainability of appliances consumption should always include several scales, from the efficiency of the products (micro scale), to the improvement of the energy mix (meso scale), up to accounting for socio-economic drivers and patterns of consumption affecting the overall appliances stock (macro scale).  相似文献   

Thematic integration of spatial data sets to delineate favourable zones for uranium exploration in Gangpur basin and parts of Kunjar and Darjing basins,Odisha     

A. K. Chaturvedi  M. Sridhar  R. Murlidharan  K. Shrivastava  R. Pavan Guru 《Journal of the Geological Society of India》2014,84(4):385-396

Surface exploration techniques have been key contributors in discovering mineral deposits over the past three decades. However, in the last decade there has been a growing emphasis on integrating remote sensing, geological, geophysical and geochemical exploration techniques to compliment them in identifying concealed deposits. Successful integrated exploration requires putting mappable petrophysical property contrasts in terms of geological and geochemical process that could be associated with different mineralisation environment. The Precambrian Gangpur basin comprising volcanic free sedimentary sequence is considered as a potential geological setting for hosting uranium mineralisation. The Gangpur basin with metasediments of low to medium metamorphic grade classified as the Gangpur Group are known for hosting manganese, limestone and lead-zinc deposits. Uranium mineralization is reported in limonitic carbonaceous phyllite and sheared quartzite of Kumarmunda Formation at Jhamankele-Bhalulata areas. Several uranium anomalies have been associated with gossan at Kaedarpani, Jamdra and in ferruginised laterite at Badekachar, Jarmal, Jhagarpur, Kadorpani, Karamabahal, Tetelkela & Kumtinunda. In the present study geological, geophysical and remote sensing data sets are processed and integrated with other available data to delineate target zones for uranium exploration. Even though direct detection of uranium mineralisation remains unresolved in exploration strategy, instead it is becoming increasingly instructive to focus on mapping suitable depositional environments. The enhanced satellite imagery is interpreted in terms of thematic layers viz. trend lines, lineaments, faults and geological contacts. The aeromagnetic data is processed and interpreted thematic layers of magnetic breaks and linears from total magnetic intensity (TMI), the reduced to pole (RTP), tilt derivative and amplitude of analytical signal grid images. The radiometric data is processed based on their broad lithology and radio-elemental distribution maps viz. count maps, ratio maps, ternary (%K-eTh-eU) and eU/K ? eU/eTh ? eU images are generated to aid in mapping uranium favourability zones. The favourability image zones with high eU/K, eU/eTh and eU counts zones are classified into class based on statistics and anomalous high zones are picked up as uranium favourable locales. The thematic layers of geological contacts, lineaments and faults interpreted from satellite imagery, magnetic linears interpreted from aeromagnetic data and uranium favourability zone extracted from Airborne Gamma Ray Spectrometric (AGRS) data are overlaid. Based on spatial association of favourable features few locals are delineated for uranium exploration.  相似文献   

Optical Counterparts of Undetermined Type <Emphasis Type="Italic">γ</Emphasis>-Ray Active Galactic Nuclei with Blazar-Like Spectral Energy Distributions     

Giovanni?La?Mura  Graziano?Chiaro  Stefano?Ciroi  Piero?Rafanelli  David?Salvetti  Marco?Berton  Valentina?Cracco 《Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy》2015,36(4)

During its first four years of scientific observations, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) detected 3033 γ-ray sources above a 4 σ significance level. Although most of the extra-galactic sources are active galactic nuclei (AGN) of the blazar class, other families of AGNs are observed too, while a still high fraction of detections (～30%) remains with uncertain association or classification. According to the currently accepted interpretation, the AGN γ-ray emission arises from inverse Compton (IC) scattering of low energy photons by relativistic particles confined in a jet, which, in the case of blazars, is oriented very close to our line-of-sight. Taking advantage of data from radio and X-ray wavelengths, which we expect to be produced together with γ-rays, providing a much better source localization potential, we focused our attention on a sample of γ-ray Blazar Candidates of Undetermined type (BCUs), starting a campaign of optical spectroscopic observations. The main aims of our investigation include a census of the AGN families that contribute to γ-ray emission and a study of their redshift distribution, with the subsequent implications on the intrinsic source power. We furthermore analyze which γ-ray properties can better constrain the nature of the source, thus helping in the study of objects not yet associated with a reliable low frequency counterpart. Here we report on the instruments and techniques used to identify the optical counterparts of γ-ray sources, we give an overview on the status of our work, and we discuss the implications of a large scale study of γ-ray emitting AGNs.  相似文献