Temporal evolution of a seismic sequence induced by a gas injection in the Eastern coast of Spain

Induced seismicity associated with energy production is becoming an increasingly important issue worldwide for the hazard it poses to the exposed population and structures. We analyze one of the rare cases of induced seismicity associated with the underwater gas storage operations observed in the Castor platform, located in the Valencia gulf, east Spain, near a complex and important geological structure. In September 2013, some gas injection operations started at Castor, producing a series of seismic events around the reservoir area. The larger magnitude events (up to 4.2) took place some days after the end of the injection, with EMS intensities in coastal towns up to degree III. In this work, the seismic sequence is analyzed with the aim of detecting changes in statistical parameters describing the earthquake occurrence before and after the injection and identifying possible proxies to be used for monitoring the sequence evolution. Moreover, we explore the potential predictability of these statistical parameters which can be used to control the field operations in injection/storage fluid reservoirs. We firstly perform a retrospective approach and next a perspective analysis. We use different techniques for estimating the value of the expected maximum magnitude that can occur due to antropogenic activities in Castor.Published29012T. Sorgente SismicaJCR Journa

The effects of human disturbance and climatic conditions on breeding Cassin’s auklets

Human disturbance has been observed to have effects on wildlife. These effects can be either positive or negative, depending on the study species; however, most of the research done to date has demonstrated negative effects that are reflective in the behaviour and reproductive biologyof the organisms. I focused on Cassin’s auklet, a burrow-nester species to study the effects of increasing tourism on the islands along the peninsula of Baja California, Mexico. I also studied the effects of adverse climatological conditions on breeding success of this species. First, using some biometrics of the individuals captured, I tested a method for aging Cassin’s auklet based on the iris colour. My results corroborate what was proposed before, juveniles have a dark-brown iris that shades into a complete white as they become adults. I also used morphometrics to determine the sex of the individual. When making intra-pair comparisons, it is possible to estimate the sex of the individual based on bill measurements. In 100% of the cases, individuals were correctly sexed using bill depth and width, as corroborated with DNA analysis. Second, using distance as a measure of disturbance, I looked onto the effects of people walking around the island. In general, breeding success was lower in those sites closer to the path or the village; older and more experienced individuals represented the vast majority of the burrows further away from the disturbance source. After that, using an experimental approach, I manipulated the amount of disturbance received by the chicks and recorded growth rate, as well as fledging weight, that may influence the possibility of survival for the chicks. I found that at the early stages of development, chicks grew at the same rate; however, chicks in the experimental groups reached a lower peak weight, compared to chick in the control group, and once fully feathered, chicks in the experimental group had a higher rate of weight loss, fledging lighter and earlier than control chicks. I also had the opportunity to explore the effects of adverse climatic conditions on breeding success. My results show that under a warming of the upper layer of the ocean, as was registered in 2005, Cassin’s auklets struggle to maintain a good body condition and, although attempting to breed, abandon the nest later on, to guarantee survival and another attempt to breed the following season should the condition improve. Breeding success decreased from nearly 70% in 2004 to less than 10% in 2005. Body condition was also lower in 2005, with a slight improvement the following year

The circular economy approach to improving CNP ratio in inland fishery wastewater for increasing algal biomass production

In this work, the capacity of wastewater from an inland fishery system in Colombia (Norte de Santander) was tested as culture medium for Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus sp. Due to insufficient N and P concentrations for successful algae growth, the effect of wastewater replenishment with NO3, PO4, and Na2CO3 or NaHCO3 as a carbon source was analyzed using a three-factor nonfactorial response surface design. The results showed that the addition of NaNO3 (0.125 g/L), K2HPO4 (0.075 g/L), KH2PO4 (0.75 g/L), and NaHCO3 (0.5 and 2 g/L for Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus sp. respectively) significantly increased the biomass of Chlorella sp. (0.87 g/L) and Scenedesmus sp. (0.83 g/L). Although these results show that the addition of other nutrients is not necessary (Na, Mg, SO4, Ca, etc.), it is still essential to determine the quality of the biomass produced in terms of its application as a feed supplement for fish production

Fisheries wastewater as a sustainable media for the production of algae-based products

Colombian intensive fish production is concentrated mainly in the departments of the Andean Region, Amazon, and Orinoquía. These systems were characterized for being exploited mainly by family farming nuclei, which are dedicated exclusively to breeding and others with mixed systems. Currently, the sustainable development of this economic line depends on two factors: global warming and the consumption of resources (energy, fresh water, and protein). The rapid growth of this socio-economic line has led to the development of 3 critical restrictions: the demand for food for fish production, the high volume of fresh water needed and the high concentration of wastewater which must be disposed of safely. Sewage from closed fish farming systems has high levels of nitrogen and inorganic phosphorus dissolved in the systems. The primary responsibility for these high contents is the feed which contributes to the sustained increase in the concentration of organic waste and toxic compounds in aquatic systems. To make use of this wastewater, the use of these as a culture medium for microalgal production has been studied in order to generate metabolites of industrial interest from a low-cost culture medium. In this work, the necessary culture conditions for the biomass production of Scenedesmus obliquus, Chlorella vulgaris, Spirulina maxima, and Oscillatoria sp. in fish farming wastewater to produce pigments and total biomass are evaluated. The wastewater was obtained from an intensive fish farming company in El Zulia (Norte de Santander, Colombia). The medium was UV-sterilized (4 Lamps of 15W, 5 minutes). In order to optimize the production of biomass and pigments, the wastewater was adjusted with the addition of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon (K2HPO4 + NaNO3 + NaHCO3) According to the results, the residual water enriched with K2HPO4, NaNO3 and NaHCO3 presented the best culture conditions for obtaining carotenoids (in C. vulgaris and S. obliquus with values of 2.6 and 1.7% p/p respectively) and Phycobiliproteins in Spirulina maxima and Oscillatoria sp (10.9 and 11% p/p respectively). These results allow concluding that the residual water of fish systems is outlined as a suitable culture medium that can be used to produce metabolites of interest. Also, this culture medium must be enriched in order to increase the productivity of the system

A simulation analysis of a microalgal-production plant for the transformation of inland-fisheries wastewater in sustainable feed

The present research evaluates the simulation of a system for transforming inland-fisheries wastewater into sustainable fish feed using Designer® software. The data required were obtained from the experimental cultivation of Chlorella sp. in wastewater supplemented with N and P. According to the results, it is possible to produce up to 11,875 kg/year (31.3 kg/d) with a production cost of up to 18 (USD/kg) for dry biomass and 0.19 (USD/bottle) for concentrated biomass. Similarly, it was possible to establish the kinetics of growth of substrate-dependent biomass with a maximum production of 1.25 g/L after 15 days and 98% removal of available N coupled with 20% of P. It is essential to note the final production efficiency may vary depending on uncontrollable variables such as climate and quality of wastewater, among others

Wildlife strike risk assessment in several Italian airports: lessons from BRI and a new methodology implementation

The presence of wildlife in airport areas poses substantial hazards to aviation. Wildlife aircraft collisions (hereafter wildlife strikes) cause losses in terms of human lives and direct monetary losses for the aviation industry. In recent years, wildlife strikes have increased in parallel with air traffic increase and species habituation to anthropic areas. In this paper, we used an ecological approach to wildlife strike risk assessment to eight Italian international airports. The main achievement is a site-specific analysis that avoids flattening wildlife strike events on a large scale while maintaining comparable airport risk assessments. This second version of the Birdstrike Risk Index (BRI2) is a sensitive tool that provides different time scale results allowing appropriate management planning. The methodology applied has been developed in accordance with the Italian Civil Aviation Authority, which recognizes it as a national standard implemented in the advisory circular ENAC APT-01B

Joint modelling of multi-scale animal movement data using hierarchical hidden Markov models

1.Hidden Markov models are prevalent in animal movement modelling, where they are widely used to infer behavioural modes and their drivers from various types of telemetry data. To allow for meaningful inference, observations need to be equally spaced in time, or otherwise regularly sampled, where the corresponding temporal resolution strongly affects what kind of behaviours can be inferred from the data. 2.Recent advances in biologging technology have led to a variety of novel telemetry sensors which often collect data from the same individual simultaneously at different time scales, e.g. step lengths obtained from GPS tags every hour, dive depths obtained from time‐depth recorders once per dive, or accelerations obtained from accelerometers several times per second. However, to date, statistical machinery to address the corresponding complex multi‐stream and multi‐scale data is lacking. 3.We propose hierarchical hidden Markov models as a versatile statistical framework that naturally accounts for differing temporal resolutions across multiple variables. In these models, the observations are regarded as stemming from multiple, connected behavioural processes, each of which operates at the time scale at which the corresponding variables were observed. 4.By jointly modelling multiple data streams, collected at different temporal resolutions, corresponding models can be used to infer behavioural modes at multiple time scales, and in particular help to draw a much more comprehensive picture of an animal's movement patterns, e.g. with regard to long‐term vs. short‐term movement strategies. 5.The suggested approach is illustrated in two real‐data applications, where we jointly model i) coarse‐scale horizontal and fine‐scale vertical Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) movements throughout the English Channel, and ii) coarse‐scale horizontal movements and corresponding fine‐scale accelerations of a horn shark (Heterodontus francisci) tagged off the Californian coast

A novel combination of methods identifies priority conservation areas for an endemic California Current seabird

There are growing pressures on marine biodiversity. Seabirds in particular are one the most-threatened groups. The black-vented shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas) is endemic to Mexican islands and the only shearwater living its entire life cycle in the California Current System, one of the most productive large marine ecosystems in the world. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in this region, however, were designed without consideration of accurate data on seabird distributions. Here, 57 black-vented shearwaters were GPS-tracked from their main breeding colony (95% of the global population) over four seasons (2016–2019) to estimate their at-sea distribution. Two methods were applied to identify priority conservation areas: the approach developed by BirdLife International to identify marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and a method using expectation-maximization binary clustering to identify core foraging areas. One potential marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Area close to the breeding colony and five core foraging areas were identified. These priority conservation areas were largely beyond the bounds of the current MPA network in the region. Our results detail opportunities for improving the implementation of conservation and management measures in the California Current System region with respect to seabirds. The approach of combining site identification methods can be applied to other seabird species for which high-resolution tracking data are available and can help guide conservation action plans and MPA design.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Elovanoids counteract inflammatory signaling, autophagy, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and eenescence gene programming in human nasal epithelial cells exposed to allergens

To contribute to further understanding the cellular and molecular complexities of inflammatory-immune responses in allergic disorders, we have tested the pro-homeostatic elovanoids (ELV) in human nasal epithelial cells (HNEpC) in culture challenged by several allergens. ELV are novel bioactive lipid mediators synthesized from the omega-3 very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFA,n-3). We ask if: (a) several critical signaling events that sustain the integrity of the human nasal epithelium and other organ barriers are perturbed by house dust mites (HDM) and other allergens, and (b) if ELV would participate in beneficially modulating these events. HDM is a prevalent indoor allergen that frequently causes allergic respiratory diseases, including allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma, in HDM-sensitized individuals. Our study used HNEpC as an in vitro model to study the effects of ELV in counteracting HDM sensitization resulting in inflammation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy, and senescence. HNEpC were challenged with the following allergy inducers: LPS, poly(I:C), or Dermatophagoides farinae plus Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus extract (HDM) (30 µg/mL), with either phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (vehicle) or ELVN-34 (500 nM). Results show that ELVN-34 promotes cell viability and reduces cytotoxicity upon HDM sensitization of HNEpC. This lipid mediator remarkably reduces the abundance of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines IL-1β, IL-8, VEGF, IL-6, CXCL1, CCL2, and cell adhesion molecule ICAM1 and restores the levels of the pleiotropic anti-inflammatory IL-10. ELVN-34 also lessens the expression of senescence gene programming as well as of gene transcription engaged in pro-inflammatory responses. Our data also uncovered that HDM triggered the expression of key genes that drive autophagy, unfolded protein response (UPR), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP). ELVN-34 has been shown to counteract these effects effectively. Together, our data reveal a novel, pro-homeostatic, cell-protective lipid-signaling mechanism in HNEpC as potential therapeutic targets for allergies