Dangerous Risk Factors to be Considered for Proper Management of Agroecosystems

Our work aims to identify the main risks existing in the agroecosystems of southern Italy, providing, at the same time, information about innovative and fast methodologies. The goal is to understand the magnitude of the phenomena that could compromise them if no action is taken for water and soil matrices. Regarding the former we will consider plant protection product residues in water bodies and the importance of agroecosystems as source of microplastic pollution and their role as a vector of pollutants; regarding the latter, we will present a rapid and low-cost methodology to detect asbestos-containing materials and significantly transformed areas. Furthermore, indications are provided on how to implement effective monitoring plans in order to certainly identify the problem affecting one or more matrices and provide practical instructions to the administrators to implement the appropriate remediation strategies

Do Freshwater Fish Eat Microplastics? A Review with A Focus on Effects on Fish Health and Predictive Traits of MPs Ingestion

Microplastics (MPs) have received increasing attention in the last decade and are now considered among the most concerning emerging pollutants in natural environments. Here, the current knowledge on microplastic ingestion by wild freshwater fish is reviewed with a focus on the identification of possible factors leading to the ingestion of MPs and the consequences on fish health. Within the literature, 257 species of freshwater fishes from 32 countries have been documented to ingest MPs. MPs ingestion was found to increase with rising level of urbanization, although a direct correlation with MPs concentration in the surrounding water has not been identified. MPs ingestion was detected in all the published articles, with MPs presence in more than 50% of the specimens analyzed in one study out of two. Together with the digestive tract, MPs were also found in the gills, and there is evidence that MPs can translocate to different tissues of the organism. Strong evidence, therefore, exists that MPs may represent a serious risk for ecosystems, and are a direct danger for human health. Moreover, toxicological effects have also been highlighted in wild catches, demonstrating the importance of this problem and suggesting the need for laboratory experiments more representative of the environmental situation

Artificial Intelligence and Water Cycle Management

Artificial intelligence applications play a crucial role in improving environmental quality from all points of view. Digital technologies have revolutionized our way of life as they are permeated to a capillary level in our daily life. On the other hand, the data produced every second cannot be managed by a human mind due to a certain physical and temporal impossibility, so artificial intelligence, algorithms written by men to perform human reasoning, they can accomplish this arduous task. In this chapter we will address the potential of artificial intelligence to process important amounts of data and analyze existing relationships also through a focus on the conservation capacity of one of the most precious resources: water

The monitoring of pesticides in water matrices and the analytical criticalities: A review

Abstract In this review, we examined the European legislative context on water protection concerning pesticide residues monitoring and the relevant National Action Plans and strategies that were undertaken in European countries to better identify and manage the problem in water bodies. Furthermore, we illustrated the development of analytical methodologies and criticalities connected to determine pesticide residues in water matrices, including sampling, sample preparation approaches, instrumental analyses and specific applications emphasising those works published after 2015. Details about sampling strategies, analytical feasibility, official methods, degradation products and behaviour in the environment for a subset of 160 pesticides are also provided

Monitoring of Temporary Ponds as Indicators of Environmental Quality

Temporary ponds represent a specific type of ecosystem extensively widespread worldwide. They are better known as copular pools, ephemeral waters, karst sinkholes, seasonal wetlands, and vernal pools. Among these, Mediterranean Temporary Ponds (MTPs) represent a priority habitat according to the Natura 2000 network of the European Union. Their main characteristic is represented by their depth of only a few centimeters and lack of communication with permanent water bodies. MTPs habitats are vulnerable to human activities, especially agriculture, and they are considered priority habitats to safeguard. Threats affecting this habitat are various and many and depend on specific site conditions, including intensive agriculture, tree planting, abandonment of traditional land use, and excessive grazing. In the present manuscript, we report the results of monitoring activity of some of these sites in Southern Italy aimed at understanding the ecological status of these ephemeral ecosystems with a specially developed methodology based on data integration

visual observations of floating macro litter around italy mediterranean sea

We report the results of a visual survey of floating natural (NML) and anthropogenic (AML) macro-litter (>2.5 cm) performed in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea during a dual-use campaign onboard the Italian Navy tall ship "Amerigo Vespucci" which circumnavigated the Italian peninsula during May-June 2016. The distribution, abundance and composition of floating marine litter were assessed using a 10 m fixed-width strip transect method. Over 88 h of transect counts were performed, for a total of 168 transects, covering an overall survey length of 1026.35 km. 4756 anthropogenic litter items were counted during the transects, 96.9 % of which were classified as plastic items. Floating litter was found throughout the entire study area with densities ranging from 0 to 9205 items/km2 and with a mean abundance of 492 AML items/km2 and 77 NML items/km2 across all surveyed locations. Maximum AML densities (>3500 items/km2) were recorded in the Adriatic Sea, while the lowest densities (<50 items/km2) were found along the coastline of Sardinia and in the Strait of Messina. Our results document the ubiquitous presence of floating plastic litter around the Italian peninsula and underline the need to expand our knowledge about the main sources, transport, accumulation and fate of marine litter in the entire Mediterranean region

Alu insertion polymorphisms shared by Papio baboons and Theropithecus gelada reveal an intertwined common ancestry

© 2019 The Author(s). Background: Baboons (genus Papio) and geladas (Theropithecus gelada) are now generally recognized as close phylogenetic relatives, though morphologically quite distinct and generally classified in separate genera. Primate specific Alu retrotransposons are well-established genomic markers for the study of phylogenetic and population genetic relationships. We previously reported a computational reconstruction of Papio phylogeny using large-scale whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis of Alu insertion polymorphisms. Recently, high coverage WGS was generated for Theropithecus gelada. The objective of this study was to apply the high-Throughput poly-Detect method to computationally determine the number of Alu insertion polymorphisms shared by T. gelada and Papio, and vice versa, by each individual Papio species and T. gelada. Secondly, we performed locus-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays on a diverse DNA panel to complement the computational data. Results: We identified 27,700 Alu insertions from T. gelada WGS that were also present among six Papio species, with nearly half (12,956) remaining unfixed among 12 Papio individuals. Similarly, each of the six Papio species had species-indicative Alu insertions that were also present in T. gelada. In general, P. kindae shared more insertion polymorphisms with T. gelada than did any of the other five Papio species. PCR-based genotype data provided additional support for the computational findings. Conclusions: Our discovery that several thousand Alu insertion polymorphisms are shared by T. gelada and Papio baboons suggests a much more permeable reproductive barrier between the two genera then previously suspected. Their intertwined evolution likely involves a long history of admixture, gene flow and incomplete lineage sorting

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to Assess the Degree of Alteration of Artificially Aged and Environmentally Weathered Microplastics

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) is a spectroscopy technique widely used to identify organic materials. It has recently gained popularity in microplastic (MP) pollution research to determine the chemical composition of unknown plastic fragments. However, it could also be used to evaluate the degree of ageing of MPs collected from the environment. In this context, the principal aim of our research has been to qualitatively evaluate the natural weathering of environmental MPs collected in an Italian freshwater body (the Ofanto River) using ATR-FTIR technology. Furthermore, we compared environmental particles to weathered artificial MPs under controlled light and temperature conditions and to unaltered pristine materials to assess the results. FTIR spectra were acquired using a Nicolet Summit FTIR (ThermoFisher Scientific) equipped with an Everest ATR with a diamond Crystal plate and a DTGS KBr detector (wavenumber range 4000&ndash;500 cm&minus;1, 32 scans per spectrum, spectral resolution of 4 cm&minus;1). The degree of ageing was assessed using three different indexes known to be related to changes in MPs: Carbonyl Index (CI), Hydroxyl Index (HI), and Carbon-Oxygen Index (COI). The overall results showed that the regions reflecting changes (hydroxyl groups, peaks from 3100 to 3700 cm&minus;1, alkenes or carbon double bonds, 1600 and 1680 cm&minus;1, and carbonyl groups, 1690 and 1810 cm&minus;1) appeared significantly modified in artificial and natural weathered particles compared to the pristine materials. The indexes calculated for polymers degraded under the artificial photo and thermo ageing conditions displayed a general tendency to increase with the time in contact with irradiation time. Particular enhancements of CI of PS fragment and PE pellet, HI of PE and PS fragments and PE pellet, and COI of PS fragment were observed. Otherwise, the following incubation of the same particles at a constant temperature of 45 &deg;C did not further affect the chemical composition of the particles. Moreover, new unique peaks were also observed in the freshwater particles, almost all in the fingerprint region (1500&ndash;500 cm&minus;1). Differences in CI, HI, and COI were evidenced among the different morphological MP shapes. On the one hand, the CI calculated for the environmental PE pellets showed values ranging from 0.05 to 0.26 with a mean value of 0.17 &plusmn; 0.10. Most samples (57%) presented a CI with values between 0.16 and 0.30. On the other hand, fragments presented slicer modifications in the carbonyl region with CI values lower than pellets (0.05 &plusmn; 0.05). This index helps evaluate the degradation of PE MPs by UV light, increasing with enhancing residence time in the environment. Conversely, fragments showed greater values of HI (5.90 &plusmn; 2.57) and COI (1.04 &plusmn; 0.48) than pellets, as well as lines, which presented the maximum value of HI (11.51). HI is attributed to the bond vibrations of hydroxyl, carboxyl, or phenol groups. In contrast, COI is frequently attributed to the vibrations of C_O bonds found in carbohydrates, alkanes, secondary alcohols, and ketones. In conclusion, our results showed characteristics spectra acquired from environmental particles compared to pristine and artificial aged ones. The interpretation of our main results emphasizes the need to conduct ecotoxicological experimental studies using naturally weathered particles due to the unicity of their properties, which are more helpful for understanding microplastic pollution effects

A new and straightforward protocol for microplastic's DNA extraction from freshwater environments

Microplastics (< 5 mm particles) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants, capable of providing an artificial substrate for the development of microbial aggregates distinguished between water column, seston, and sediments distinct in taxonomic composition from those on natural surfaces such as water column, seston, and sediment. These complex communities, constituted by prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms, represent a peculiar micro-ecosystem, identified only recently as "plastisphere". The microbial composition of the plastisphere associated with microplastics in surface waters is poorly known. Therefore, there is a need for a thorough investigation into the possible role of microplastics as a transport vector for biological contaminants of hygienic-sanitary interest. Several studies have described molecular techniques used to extract nucleic acids from aquatic environments and environmental matrices. However, little is known about the DNA extraction methods used for plastic. This study's main objective is to develop a protocol for microplastic's DNA extraction, improving the genetic material’s quantity and quality necessary for future applications such as gene amplification and sequencing. DNA was extracted from microplastic and environmental samples of a freshwater ecosystem. Two different microplastics were analyzed: a) environmental particles collected from an Italian river (Ofanto river) composed prevalently by black and transparent fragments of 5-1mm in size, b) virgin microplastics purchased by local industry used as controls and composed by PE transparent pellets of 5mm and green PE particles of 100µm. DNA extraction was also performed from superficial river water, suspended organic matter (OM), and sediment of the river taking care to process three replicates for each type. Starting from the commercial DNeasy PowerSoil Kit, the method was optimized testing the minimum microplastic's amount, incubation parameters, time of cell lysis, and final elution volumes. We collected material with forceps from the glass containers for the environmental microplastics and OM, placing about 250mg of each replicate into 2-mL microcentrifuge tubes. We separated the 5 L water samples into three 500 mL aliquots and filtered each one with Whatman 0.2-μm filters. The filters were cut with sterilized forceps and placed into 2-mL microcentrifuge tubes (Debeljak et al., 2017). The main modifications made to the extractive protocol have been a method alternative of cell lysis including a preliminary incubation at 60 °C for 20 minutes and a reduction of the final elution volume to 70 µl in order to concentrate the extracted DNA. The quantity and quality of the extracted DNA were obtained respectively through the use of Qubit™ dsDNA HS Assay Kit (ThermoFisher), and agarose gel electrophoresis. Our results showed that the minimum amount of microplastics useful to obtain a valid genomic extract is about 120 mg. The modifies applied to the commercial kit resulted in significantly improving the material extracted more than eight times. The nucleic acids extracted from environmental microplastics applying the improved protocol ranged from 7.97 to 14.1 ng µl-1 with a mean value of 10.5 ± 3.2 ng µl-1 respect a medium value of 1 ± 0.1 ng µl-1 of material extracted from the same samples using the unmodified protocol of the commercial kit. As expected, the virgin microplastic samples did not show a measurable amount of DNA (< 0.2 ng µl-1). Concentrations of DNA extracted from aqueous samples resulted in a mean value of 19.53 ± 6.47 ng µl-1, while the amount of genetic material attached to sediment and OM samples revealed a concentration of 35.1 ± 2.19ng µl-1 and a value above the detection limit of 100 ng µl-1 respectively

Custom Methodology to Improve Geospatial Interpolation at Regional Scale with Open-Source Software

This study shows a methodological approach to improve geospatial interpolation carried out with the Inverse Distance Weighted algorithm using distances and other parameters to which we attribute relative weights such as elevation. We also provide reliable information about better data output by elaborating a more realistic confidence interval with various percentages of reliability. We tested the methodology to monthly accumulated rainfall and temperatures recorded by multiple monitoring stations in the Puglia region in South Italy. The whole procedure has been called Augmented Inverse Distance Weighted and is tested with the ultimate goal of predicting missing values at a regional scale based on cross-validation techniques applied to a dataset consisting of ten years of precipitation data and five years of temperature data. The efficacy of this approach is evaluated using statistical scores regularly employed in the model&rsquo;s evaluation studies. Results show that the improvements over the classical approach are remarkable and that the &ldquo;augmented&rdquo; method provides more accurate measurements of environmental variables. The main application of this algorithm is the possibility to provide the spatialisation of values of precipitation and temperature, or any other based on its own needs, at every point of the territory, playing a very important role in agricultural decision support systems and letting us identify frosts, drought events, climatic trends, accidental events, cyclicality and seasonality