Best Environmental Management Practice in the Tourism Sector

The tourism sector has a large potential to reduce its environmental impacts and many measures are already effectively implemented by companies of this sector. This document describes what are the best practices employed by frontrunners in all aspects under their direct control or on which they have a considerable influence. They cover cross-cutting issues, destination management, tour operators and travel agents, water and energy consumption and waste production in accommodation, restaurant and hotel kitchens, and campsites management. The document also contains sector-specific environmental performance indicators and benchmarks of excellence. These can be used by all the actors involved in the tourism sector to monitor their environmental performance and to benchmark it against the performance of frontrunners in each given specific area. Overall, this document aims at supporting all actors in the tourism sector who intend to improve their environmental performance and seek for reliable and proven information on how best to do it.JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumptio

XXXV Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists, Groundwater and Ecosystems – Abstract Book

Resumos das comunicações do XXXV Congresso da Associação Internacional de Hidrogeólogos (IAH

3rd Conference on Ecology of Soil Microorganisms

We are pleased to welcome you to the 3rd conference on the Ecology of Soil Microorganisms in Helsinki, Finland. The two previous meetings were organized in Prague in 2011 and 2015 by Petr Baldrian. We are delighted to see that as many participants, 400 are joining us also under the midnight sun. During the meeting, soil science will be linked with traditional microbiology and modern genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic analysis tools, extending from the soil-microbe interphase to their interactions with plants. Indeed, one important goal of the conference is to inspire us to bring forward new dimensions in the characterization of the interplay between soil microbial ecology and larger-scale processes in various ecosystems. In this meeting we will cover not only the role of soil microbiota but also their viruses. We hope that you take a moment to think of recent studies that have begun to unearth relationships found between soil microbes, plant performance and even human health. Sustainability of soils and their role in mitigation of climate change are key challenges for preserving life on Earth. As microbes are living functional components of soils, our focus during the week could not be timelier. The organizers and the host organization Natural Resources Institute Finland wish you a fruitful and invigorating conference. We are excited that you have joined us here in Helsinki to promote state-of-the-art research in soil ecology under the northern midsummer madness!201

Effects of softwood biochars on soil biota in medium-term field experiments in Finland

Biochar soil amendment could be used to sequester carbon, enhance soil fertility and potentially increase crop yields. It can have significant impacts on soil organic carbon levels and physicochemical conditions, which consequently affect soil micro- and macro-biota. It is therefore important to understand how key biological components in the soil such as microbial and earthworm communities response to biochar application in the long-term. This study was conducted in Southern Finland in a fertile Stagnosol and a nutrient deficient Umbrisol, four and five years after biochar amendment, respectively. Biochars were produced from spruce (Picea abies (L.) H.Karst.) and pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and applied at the rates of 10 and 30 t ha-1, respectively. Earthworms and soil samples for microbial analyses were collected in September 2015. Soil microbial communities were studied by using phospholipid fatty acid profiling and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Casts from the sampled earthworms were collected to investigate the consumption of biochar and the potential of earthworm bioturbation to affect biochar distribution. Additionally, greenhouse gas emissions from soil were measured. Biochar and fertilizer treatments or their interaction had no statistically significant effects on the earthworm abundance, community composition or greenhouse gas emissions in either field. Earthworms had ingested biochar as earthworm casts from biochar treated-plots contained significantly more black carbon than those in the control plots, demonstrating that earthworm bioturbation is a potentially important factor in the translocation of applied biochar in the soil profile. Microbial community structure data will be presented in the final presentation.Non peer reviewe

Towards a GIS-Based Decision Support System on the Amazon Cloud for the Modelling of Domestic Wastewater Treatment Solutions in Wexford, Ireland

The work presented in this paper highlights the development of a web based intelligent Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial decision support tool. Engineered over the Amazon cloud computing environment, the GIS system has been designed to enable local authorities in Ireland to identify solutions for the treatment of domestic waste water in areas of low permeability subsoil. The data used in the geo-spatial modelling includes the XY coordinates of existing treatment systems, topography, soils and subsoil, and road networks. Spatial modelling is performed through ESRI's ArcMap and published as a web service on ArcGIS Server 10.1. This decision support system is made available to the remote user over Amazon's EC2 as a GIS based web service, through Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. The tool will assist local authorities to better manage domestic wastewater in low permeability areas, thereby reducing the likelihood of pollution of local surface waters. Wexford is the test area

The First Global Integrated Marine Assessment: World Ocean Assessment I

We used satellite-derived sea-surface-temperature (SST) data along with in-situ data collected along a meridional transect between 18.85 and 20.25°N along 69.2°E to describe the evolution of an SST filament and front during 25 November to 1 December in the northeastern Arabian Sea (NEAS). Both features were ∼ 100 km long, lasted about a week and were associated with weak temperature gradients (∼ 0.07°C km⁻¹). The in-situ data were collected first using a suite of surface sensors during a north–south mapping of this transect and showed the existence of a chlorophyll maximum within the filament. This surface data acquisition was followed by a high-resolution south–north CTD (conductivity–temperature–depth) sampling along the transect. In the two days that elapsed between the two in-situ measurements, the filament had shrunk in size and moved northward. In general, the current direction was northwestward and advected these mesoscale features. The CTD data also showed an SST front towards the northern end of the transect. In both these features, the chlorophyll concentration was higher than in the surrounding waters. The temperature and salinity data from the CTD suggest upward mixing or pumping of water from the base of the mixed layer, where a chlorophyll maximum was present, into the mixed layer that was about 60 m thick. A striking diurnal cycle was evident in the chlorophyll concentration, with higher values tending to occur closer to the surface during the night. The in-situ data from both surface sensors and CTD, and so also satellite-derived chlorophyll data, showed higher chlorophyll concentration, particularly at sub-surface levels, between the filament and the front, but there was no corresponding signature in the temperature and salinity data. Analysis of the SST fronts in the satellite data shows that fronts weaker than those associated with the filament and the front had crossed the transect in this region a day or two preceding the sampling of the front