Cistus monspeliensis L. as a potential species for rehabilitation of soils with multielemental contamination under Mediterranean conditions

Conservation Biolog

Pension systems compared : a polarised perspective, a diverse reality

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004Globalisation and international competition have a spillover effect on the reforms of pension systems that imposes a similar pattern of dismantling, hardening access to pensions, reducing expenditure and retrenchment in said reforms. The comparative analysis of four countries with different pension systems: two liberal (United Kingdom and Chile) and another two with contributory-proportional systems (Spain and Argentina) serves to determine the details of the reform processes, which discursively seem to have a shared pattern recommended by the international financial and economic institutions. But the reality of the four case studies shows considerable differences in the implementation of the pension reform policies. The reforms depend on the societal context, institutions, history, the role of unions, the government in power, demographic factors and economic perspectives, among other matters. Many countries need to sustain pension systems because they are associated with many pensioners' political vote. Therefore, the spillover effect of globalisation and the convergence in certain uniform patterns of reforms is far from reality in the four countries, and as such, the measures adopted are specific for each country

Cobalt, chromium and nickel contents in soils and plants from a serpentinite quarry

The former serpentinite quarry of Penas Albas (Moeche, Galicia, NW Spain) left behind a large amount of waste material scattered over the surrounding area, as well as tailing areas. In this area several soils were studied together with the vegetation growing spontaneously over them with the aim of identifying the bioavailability of heavy metals. The potential of spontaneous vegetation for phytoremediation and/or phytostabilization was evaluated. The pH of the soils ranges from neutral to basic, with very low organic matter and nitrogen contents. There are imbalances between exchangeable cations like potassium (K) and calcium (Ca), mainly due to high magnesium (Mg) content that can strongly limit plant production. Moreover, in all of the studied soils there are high levels of cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) (>70, >1300 and >1300 mg kg−1, respectively). They exceed the intervention limits indicated by soil guideline values. Different soil extractions were performed in order to evaluate bioavailability. CaCl2 0.01 M is the most effective extraction reagent, although the reagent that best predicts plant availability is a mixture of low molecular weight organic acids. Festuca rubra, L. is the spontaneous plant growing in the soils that accumulates the highest amount of the metals, both in shoot and roots. Festuca also has the highest translocation factor values, although they are only >1 for Cr. The bioconcentration factor is >1 in all of the cases, except in the shoot of Juncus sp. for Co and Ni. The results indicate that Festuca is a phytostabilizer of Co and Ni and an accumulator of Cr, while Juncus sp. is suitable for phytostabilization

A dose metrics perspective on the association of gold nanomaterials with algal cells.

A single-cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique was used to explore the influence of particle properties on the association of nanomaterials (NMs) with algal cells. We investigated the effect of particle size, shape, and surface chemistry [citrate and natural organic matter (NOM) coating] on the association of gold (Au) NMs with algal cells using particle mass, particle number, surface area (SA), and volume-specific surface area (VSSA) as dose metrics. Particle number was found to be a better dose metric than particle mass, SA, and VSSA in view of the strong correlation obtained between the number of associated Au NMs with cells and the number of Au NMs in the exposure medium. When particle number was used as the dose metric, there was no selectivity of Au NM cellular association irrespective of particle size and shape, and the cellular association was proportional to the effective number of particles to which the cells were exposed. The surface chemistry of the Au NMs, however, decreased the level of cellular association of some NMs (60 nm spheres). Particle number is the main element used for the classification of NMs according to the recommended definition for NM by the European Commission. The key finding of our study supports the implementation of this definition for safety purposes.Environmental Biolog

Compositional and functional responses of bacterial community to titanium dioxide nanoparticles varied with soil heterogeneity and exposure duration.

Environmental Biolog

Interaction between a nano-formulation of atrazine and rhizosphere bacterial communities: atrazine degradation and bacterial community alterations.

Environmental Biolog