Multiple ecosystem services from field margin vegetation for ecological sustainability in agriculture: scientific evidence and knowledge gaps

Background: Field margin and non-crop vegetation in agricultural systems are potential ecosystem services providers because they offer semi-natural habitats for both below and above ground animal groups such as soil organisms, small mammals, birds and arthropods that are service supplying units. They are considered as a target area for enhancing farm biodiversity. Methodology: To explore the multiple potential benefits of these semi-natural habitats and to identify research trends and knowledge gaps globally, a review was carried out following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A total of 235 publications from the year 2000 to 2016 in the Scopus and Web of Science databases were reviewed. Results: The literature showed an increasing trend in the number of published articles over time with European studies leading in the proportion of studies conducted, followed by North America, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. Several functional groups of organisms were studied from field margin and non-crop vegetation around agricultural lands including natural enemies (37%), insect pests (22%), birds (17%), pollinators (16%), soil macro fauna (4%) and small mammals (4%). Ecosystem services derived from the field margin included natural pest regulation, pollination, nutrient cycling and reduced offsite erosion. Some field margin plants were reported to host detrimental crop pests, a major ecosystem dis-service, potentially leading to increased pest infestation in the field. Conclusion: The majority of studies revealed the importance of field margin and non-crop vegetation around arable fields in enhancing ecosystem biodiversity. Promotion of field margin plants that selectively enhance the population of beneficial organisms would support sustainable food security rather than simply boosting plant diversity. Our analyses also highlight that agro-ecological studies remain largely overlooked in some regions

Compensation opportunities and waste to energy plants

Compensations are part of the pathway of design of a thermochemical plant. The evolution of the technology of this sector, integrated with adequate mitigations, can allow reaching a level of environmental impact that can be negligible locally. In spite of that, the local acceptance of modern plants is still critical. The global impact on the environment is more complex to define because of the variability of input of the plants. In this context, the role of compensations is very important, opening also to interesting opportunities for the territory, as demonstrated by the analysis reported in this article

Circular Economy and waste to energy

Waste management in European Union has long being regulated by the 4Rs principle, i.e. reduction, reuse, recycling, recovery, with landfill disposal as the last option. This vision recently led the European Union (especially since 2015) to the introduction of virtuous goals based on the rejection of linear economy in favour of circular economy strongly founded on materials recovery. In this scenario, landfill disposal option will disappear, while energy recovery may appear controversial when not applied to biogas production from anaerobic digestion. The present work aims to analyse the effects that circular economy principles introduced in the European Union context will have on the thermochemical waste treatment plants design. Results demonstrate that indirect combustion (gasification + combustion) along with integrated vitrification of the non-combustible fraction of treated waste will have a more relevant role in the field of waste treatment than in the past, thanks to the compliance of this option with the principles of circular economy

Estimation of available biodegradable substrate (ABS): Alternative method

The five days Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), when related to its COD concentration, is usually used to express the wastewater biodegradability. However, it does not allow to estimate the time required for its degradation and it does not distinguish between rapidly or slowly biodegradable substrates. The reference time for biodegradability assessment is also related to the retention time (hours) of the substrates within the biological reactor, which is very different from the BOD test duration (five days). Innovative methods were developed to improve the determination of the biodegradable and/or readily biodegradable wastewater fraction by comparison of the test response with known substrates. The present study provides an alternative and complementary method to the traditional BOD. The proposed method is based on the evaluation of the biomass oxygen consumption by degradation of the available biological substrate (ABS) into a wastewater, through respirometric tests simulating the biological reactor of the treatment plant at laboratory scale. This method also allows to obtain the actual oxygen consumption for the biodegradation of organic substrate and to evaluate the toxic effect of aqueous waste to biomass. The results obtained show an inverse relationship between the COD fraction that is biodegraded by the hydraulic retention time (HRT) that characterises the oxidative reactor and the organic load fed to biomass. Starting from oxygen uptake/COD ratio of 0.40, obtained with a low organic substrate concentration, 0.05 with high concentration is achieved

The production of sustainable concrete with the use of alternative aggregates: a review

The concrete industry is a core element of the building sector, but it has to deal with the increasing attention on the environmental issues related to the production process: increasing energy eciency and the adoption of alternative fuels or raw materials represent the most relevant solutions. The present work analyses physical, mechanical, and environmental performances of concrete incorporating residues derived from four main sources (construction and demolition waste, residues from waste treatment, metallurgical industry by-products, and others), as substitutes of either fine or coarse aggregates. Fine aggregates showed the highest number of alternatives and replacement level, with the relevant impact on concrete properties; coarse aggregates, however, always reach a complete replacement, with the exclusion of glass that highly aects the mechanical performance. Construction and metallurgical industry categories are the main sources of alternative materials for both the components, with ceramic and lead slag reaching a full replacement for fine and coarse aggregates

Effectiveness of dexmedetomidine as adjunctive therapy, compared to the standard of care in the treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome: a systematic review protocol

The purpose of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of dexmedetomidine as adjunctive therapy to the standard of care (benzodiazepines) compared to either the standard of care or adjunctive treatment approaches (e.g. benzodiazepines plus propofol) for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS)

The performance evaluation of wastewater service: a protocol based on performance indicators applied to sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants

This research aimed to identify a tool to objectively analyse the performance and the environmental contextualisation of sewer systems (SwSs) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This procedure performs assessment by calculating performance indices which could be subsequently applied to SwSs and WWTPs with different characteristics. The proposed tool can be applied conveniently over the years by managers of integrated urban water management systems for the analysis of different realities also allowing the evaluation of the effects of upgrades carried out during the management phases. The proposed analysis allows the optimisation of SwSs and can profitably guide the choice and the priority among possible interventions for the sewerage infrastructure and WWTPs providing a verification and evaluation protocol as well as a financial planning tool

The performance evaluation of wastewater service: A protocol based on performance indicators applied to sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants

This research aimed to identify a tool to objectively analyse the performance and the environmental contextualization of sewer systems (SwSs) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This procedure performs assessment by calculating performance indices which could be subsequently applied to SwSs and WWTPs with different characteristics. The proposed tool can be applied conveniently over the years by managers of integrated urban water management systems for the analysis of different realities also allowing the evaluation of the effects of upgrades carried out during the management phases. The proposed analysis allows the optimization of SwSs and can profitably guide the choice and the priority among possible interventions for the sewerage infrastructure and WWTPs providing a a verification and evaluation protocol as well as a financial planning tool