A Review of the Current Practices of Bioeconomy Education and Training in the EU

This study conducts a review of the current practices of bioeconomy education and training in the EU; as well as the associated methodologies; techniques and approaches. In recent years; considerable efforts have been made towards developing appropriate bioeconomy education and training programs in order to support a transition towards a circular bioeconomy. This review separates bioeconomy education approaches along: higher education and academic approaches, vocational education and training (VET) and practical approaches, short-term training and education approaches, and other approaches. A range of training methodologies and techniques and pedagogical approaches are identified. The main commonalities found amongst these approaches are that they are generally problem based and interdisciplinary, and combine academic and experiential. Higher education approaches are generally based on traditional lecture/campus-based formats with some experiential approaches integrated. In contrast, VET approaches often combine academic and practical learning methods while focusing on developing practical skills. A range of short-term courses and other approaches to bioeconomy education are also reviewed

More than 2500 years of oil exposure shape sediment microbiomes with the potential for syntrophic degradation of hydrocarbons linked to methanogenesis

Background: Natural oil seeps offer the opportunity to study the adaptation of ecosystems and the associated microbiota to long-term oil exposure. In the current study, we investigated a land-to-sea transition ecosystem called “Keri Lake” in Zakynthos Island, Greece. This ecosystem is unique due to asphalt oil springs found at several sites, a phenomenon already reported 2500 years ago. Sediment microbiomes at Keri Lake were studied, and their structure and functional potential were compared to other ecosystems with oil exposure histories of various time periods. Results: Replicate sediment cores (up to 3-m depth) were retrieved from one site exposed to oil as well as a nonexposed control site. Samples from three different depths were subjected to chemical analysis and metagenomic shotgun sequencing. At the oil-exposed site, we observed high amounts of asphalt oil compounds and a depletion of sulfate compared to the non-exposed control site. The numbers of reads assigned to genes involved in the anaerobic degradation of hydrocarbons were similar between the two sites. The numbers of denitrifiers and sulfate reducers were clearly lower in the samples from the oil-exposed site, while a higher abundance of methanogens was detected compared to the non-exposed site. Higher abundances of the genes of methanogenesis were also observed in the metagenomes from other ecosystems with a long history of oil exposure, compared to short-term exposed environments. Conclusions: The analysis of Keri Lake metagenomes revealed that microbiomes in the oil-exposed sediment have a higher potential for methanogenesis over denitrification/sulfate reduction, compared to those in the non-exposed site. Comparison with metagenomes from various oil-impacted environments suggests that syntrophic interactions of hydrocarbon degraders with methanogens are favored in the ecosystems with a long-term presence of oil

Additional file 8: Figure S5. of More than 2500Â years of oil exposure shape sediment microbiomes with the potential for syntrophic degradation of hydrocarbons linked to methanogenesis

Rarefaction curves of the functional analysis in Keri Lake metagenomic samples (A) for the detected KEGG Orthology numbers of the 10 most abundant phyla and (B) for the 68 genes of interest. The deep sequenced samples are presented after normalization by subsampling to ~2.12 million reads. (PDF 46 kb

Additional file 7: Figure S4. of More than 2500 years of oil exposure shape sediment microbiomes with the potential for syntrophic degradation of hydrocarbons linked to methanogenesis

Distribution and abundance of prokaryotic taxa at different depths of the NE and HE sites. The ten most abundant phyla are depicted as distinct colors. Individual data points represent different orders; the size indicates the order’s abundance while the position on the plot shows the proportion in the three depths. (PDF 42 kb