Prison? A question instead of a statement

The study concerns the prison space and tries to investigate the main issues related to the detention space and concerning the social, philosophical, territorial, spatial and sensorial aspects of prison

Comparative assessment of autochthonous bacterial and fungal communities and microbial biomarkers of polluted agricultural soils of the Terra dei Fuochi

Organic and inorganic xenobiotic compounds can affect the potential ecological function of the soil, altering its biodiversity. Therefore, the response of microbial communities to environmental pollution is a critical issue in soil ecology. Here, a high-throughput sequencing approach was used to investigate the indigenous bacterial and fungal community structure as well as the impact of pollutants on their diversity and richness in contaminated and noncontaminated soils of a National Interest Priority Site of Campania Region (Italy) called “Terra dei Fuochi”. The microbial populations shifted in the polluted soils via their mechanism of adaptation to contamination, establishing a new balance among prokaryotic and eukaryotic populations. Statistical analyses showed that the indigenous microbial communities were most strongly affected by contamination rather than by site of origin. Overabundant taxa and Actinobacteria were identified as sensitive biomarkers for assessing soil pollution and could provide general information on the health of the environment. This study has important implications for microbial ecology in contaminated environments, increasing our knowledge of the capacity of natural ecosystems to develop microbiota adapted to polluted soil in sites with high agricultural potential and providing a possible approach for modeling pollution indicators for bioremediation purposes

Compost and microbial biostimulant applications improve plant growth and soil biological fertility of a grass-based phytostabilization system

In this work, a grass-based phytoremediation system integrated with an organic amendment and biostimulants was evaluated for remediating contaminated sites. Plant growth and biological fertility were monitored to assess the efficacy of a vegetative cap used as a safety measure to reduce sanitary and environmental risks of industrially contaminated soils and soil-washing sludges. Both matrices were potentially contaminated with Pb and Zn with an ecological risk index from low to moderate. According to potentially toxic elements (PTEs) bioaccessibility tests, the exposure to the released fine particulate matter may cause serious risks to human beings, in particular to children. The grass mixture was well adapted to both the substrates and a low PTEs mobility was detected, thus, reducing the leaching risk to ground water sources. Compost addition augmented significantly nitrogenase reductase (nifH) and ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) gene expression abundance in both substrates. Furthermore, a positive interaction between compost fertilization and a Trichoderma-based biostimulant inoculation was recorded in sludges resulting in a significant stimulation of nitrogen-fixing and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. The application of compost and biostimulant increased soil fertility and plant growth. Furthermore, there was a slight reduction in PTE bioaccessibility, thus, improving the efficiency of the phytostabilization, limiting the resuspension and dispersion of the health-risk soil particulate

Bio-Based Succinate Production from Arundo donax Hydrolysate with the New Natural Succinic Acid-Producing Strain Basfia succiniciproducens BPP7

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Feeding the nature. Heterotopy and landscape in a post-industrial site

L'eterotopia è un posto reale che si erge al di fuori dello spazio conosciuto.(Foucault). Il sito strategico di Barreiro è una piattaforma di eterotopie. La nostra volontà per Barreiro è quella di assecondare e migliorare le eterotopie esistenti, e le eterotopie hanno bisogno di confini.Come integrare i siti vacanti nello sviluppo urbano? Non ci sono formule esatte. Quello che possiamo fare è fornire una struttura e gli strumenti a uno spazio indefinito per consentirgli di evolvere in una nuova parte della città

Biomass accumulation and heavy metal uptake of giant reed on polluted soil in southern Italy.

Giant Reed (Arundo donax L.) is well known for its adaptability to different ecological conditions, growing spontaneously in different regions of Southern Europe. Due to its high biomass productivity, it is commonly used for the production of energy, paper pulp, and wooden building materials (Papazoglou et al., 2005). Giant Reed could also be a useful tool for soil bioremediation thanks to its high resistance to pollutants (Papazoglou, 2006) together with a high accumulation capability of heavy metals in plant tissues (especially in rhizomes). A field trial was established in Acerra (Southern Italy, Campania) to asses the potential productivity of Giant Reed on a soil with high concentration of heavy metals. Treatments resulted from a factorial combination of two levels of compost (treated and non treated soil) and Trichoderma (inoculated and non inoculated rhizome). Soil samples were collected at twodepths (0-20 and 20-40 cm)at transplanting and at harvest. Soil and rhizosphere samples from plots under the different treatments were sampled and the composition of total aerobic bacteria, fungi, actinobacteria and microbial groups involved in key processes of the nitrogen cycle (e.g. aerobic free-living N2-fixing bacteria and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria) was estimated and the structure of cultivable populations was assessed. Plant aboveground tissues and rhizomes were collected after one growing season. A two-way ANOVA was performed on data considering compost addiction as main factor and Trichoderma inoculation as sub-factor in a split-plot design. Means were separated by LSD test according to a p-value of 0.05. Compost addiction allowed highest biomass production (13.2 Mg ha-1 vs 11.9 Mg ha-1 DMof non fertilized plots) and consequently highest metal uptakes. No interaction between factors was found. These results show the possibility of use Giant Reed for energy production on contaminated soils allowing incomes to farmers and reducing the levels of contamination

Giancarlo De Carlo: an history of resistance and participation

Lo studio affronta quale sia oggi l’eredità da recuperare del pensiero di Giancarlo De Carlo e lo fa in occasione di un intervento del collettivo AutLab (composto da Natalia Agati, Daniele Burattini, Emanuele Caporrella, Olimpia Fiorentino, Daniele Presutti, Renzo Sgolacchia) alla First Istanbul Design Biennial - Adhocracy

Changes in soil mineral N content and abundances of bacterial communities involved in N reactions under laboratory conditions as predictors of soil N availability to maize under field conditions

Proper management of soil fertility requires specific tools for predicting N availability for crops as a consequence of different fertilization strategies. More information is required, especially for organic fertilizers, depending on their mineralization rate, composition, and processing (i.e., fresh or composted manure), as well as their effects on soil properties. Laboratory soil incubations were used as a proxy for understanding plant–soil N dynamics under field conditions. Chemical and microbiological measurements as contents of mineral N, potentially mineralizable N and the abundance of key genes regulating the overall N cycle were used as predictors of mineral N availability to maize in two contrasting pedoclimatic conditions. Our results showed that there was a good correlation between chemical and microbiological measurements from laboratory soil incubation experiments and soil–plant N dynamics of maize cropping systems. Mineralization patterns from soil incubation proved to be useful for optimizing fertilization management of maize under field conditions as long as incubation time is normalized over maize growth cycle, according to the simplified model of growth degree days. Average cumulative soil mineral N values calculated over a short incubation period (42 days) showed a significant correlation (R2 = 0.72, p < 0.05) with maize N uptake. The shape and kinetic parameters of net N mineralization from medium-term (112 days) soil incubation provided consistent information on the interaction between fertilizers and native fertility. The abundance of N fixation, nitrification, and denitrification genes (nifH, amoA, nirK, and nirS) was sensitive to soil characteristics and N fertilization. This work provides a suitable starting point for developing a crop-based approach for using incubation data to optimize maize fertilization. However, more studies with different maize cultivars and pedoclimatic conditions are needed to generalize this approach

Using soil incubations to interpret and predict soil-plant nitrogen dynamics under real field conditions

A proper management of Mediterranean agro-ecosystems should be aimed at building-up soil organic matter content, in order to cope with the decline of soil fertility due to high mineralization rates. Organic fertilization, like compost amendment, may be considered to reach this goal, but there is a need for specific tools to monitor N availability from fertilizers together with their effect on soil biological fertility. In this work, chemical and microbiological indices from soil incubations were evaluated as predictors of crop performance under real conditions. Results from field and laboratory experiments showed some discrepancies for organic fertilization, while mineral N availability and maize N uptake were found in accordance for non-fertilized soils and mineral fertilization. Cumulative mineral N from a 42-day incubation period was a good predictor of N availability to maize, showing that short-term incubations can be used to optimize fertilization management. Moreover, the dynamics of microbial populations involved in the N cycle were able to discriminate between soils with different N mineralization potential, highlighting the effect of fertilization and soil properties on biological fertility