Railway lines affect spatial turnover of pollinator communities in an agricultural landscape

Aim: Landscape composition and spatial configuration of habitat patches are important determinants of biodiversity in fragmented semi-natural habitats spread across agricultural landscapes. However, little attention has been paid to man-made structures that can moderate spatial processes affecting pollinator communities. In a large-scale study, we explored the importance of railway embankments for the turnover of pollinator species in agricultural landscapes. Because species differ in vulnerability to landscape composition and patch configuration, we also accounted for body size as well as food specialization of pollinators. Location: Kraków area, Poland. Methods: We sampled pollinating insects (bees, butterflies and hoverflies), at 25 study sites located along railway lines in the region of Kraków, Poland. Control grasslands for the embankments included 19 patches, located among crop fields, in which pollinators were sampled. We assessed the relationships between dissimilarity and distance for bee, butterfly and hoverfly trait groups on embankments and grasslands using Moran's Eigenvector Maps. Results: The dissimilarity for food-non-specialized bees on embankments was spatially structured: sites that were closer together were also less dissimilar in their community composition than more distant ones. Dissimilarity was also spatially aligned for large-bodied butterflies and hoverflies on embankments. The species dissimilarity of pollinators divided into trait-based groups was not spatially structured on grasslands. Main conclusion: Our study highlights the potential function of railway embankments as corridors for at least some pollinator populations. Landscape managers should include railways in green networks to improve spatial processes linked with the distribution and turnover of pollinator species in agricultural landscapes. Thus, railway embankments and their correct management may be a good example of man-made alterations in the environment that meet the demands of both civilization and biodiversity conservation

The Problems in Achieving Sustainable Development in the Tannery Industry in Regard to Sewage Sludge Management

The paper discusses the issue of tannery sewage sludge management as one of the barriers in reaching sustainable development in the tanning industry. The Authors present the main characteristics, and its origins, of tannery sludge limiting the possibilities of their treatment and review the proposed solutions found in literature. The paper focuses on identifying the strong and weak points of the most commonly used methods used for sewage sludge treatment as well as presents some novel approaches which remain at laboratory stage

The Problems in Achieving Sustainable Development in the Tannery Industry in Regard to Sewage Sludge Management

The paper discusses the issue of tannery sewage sludge management as one of the barriers in reaching sustainable development in the tanning industry. The Authors present the main characteristics, and its origins, of tannery sludge limiting the possibilities of their treatment and review the proposed solutions found in literature. The paper focuses on identifying the strong and weak points of the most commonly used methods used for sewage sludge treatment as well as presents some novel approaches which remain at laboratory stage

Treatment of Landfill Leachate Using Ultrasound Assisted SBR Reactor

The article investigated the effects of ultrasound pretreatment on biological treatment of landfill leachate. Leachates with and without conditioning were combined with municipal wastewater at different ratios. The study showed that the implementation of a pretreatment step prior to biological treatment not only results in higher pollutant removal efficiency but may also allow for an increased leachate volume share in the influent stream entering the reactor by up to 20% (quality of effluents meets national regulation requirements) which in scenarios without pretreatment cannot exceed 5% due to poor quality of the effluents

Ultrasound-Assisted Treatment of Landfill Leachate in a Sequencing Batch Reactor

Purification of leachates is currently a big challenge due to their high variability in composition and amount. The complexity of the medium, namely leachates, makes new solutions highly sought after and finds the existing ones in need of optimization. The effects of ultrasound pretreatment (20 kHz, 12 µm) on biological treatment of landfill leachates in the form of processes carried out in two sequencing batch reactors were investigated. The experiment was divided into two stages. In the first stage, leachate was treated by an ultrasonic field at different sonication times (0.5, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 min). Next, leachates with and without conditioning were combined with municipal wastewater in the following ratios: 5, 10, 15 and 25% v/v. For optimal processing time (3 min), 16% removal of COD was achieved. In turn, the BOD5/COD ratio was 0.3, which is higher by approximately 270% than that of the non-conditioned sample. Further elongation of sonication time did not significantly affect both parameters. Also, pretreatment of leachate resulted in a maximum increase noted in the study of specific oxygen uptake rate and dehydrogenase activity of approximately 21 and 2 times compared to the non-conditioned sample. The implementation of a pretreatment step prior to the biological treatment was shown to result in higher pollutant removal efficiency. Depending on the share of leachates in the mixture, the removal enhancements of BOD, COD, and ammonium nitrogen for conditioned samples ranged from 6–48.5%, 4–48% and 11–42%, respectively. Furthermore, pretreatment of leachate allows for an increased (by up to 20%) share of leachate volume in the influent stream entering the reactor, while maintaining the quality of effluents in accordance with national regulation requirements. However, in scenarios without pretreatment, the leachate ratio cannot exceed 5% of the total wastewater due to poor quality of the effluents. The operational cost of ultrasound pretreatment of leachate was 22.58 €/(m3·g removed COD)

Certified reference material for coal in accordance with the PN-EN ISO 17034:2017-03 standard and ISO GUIDE 35:2017

Due to an absence of domestic certified reference materials for coal on the Polish market, an attempt was made to manufacture a new and innovative product tailored to its needs. The chosen candidate material was hard coal acquired from Poland’s coal mines. A single reference material unit consisted of 50g of an analytical hard coal sample with a grain size below 0.2 mm. A manufacturing method was developed enabling production of matrix reference materials addressing the needs of the domestic solid fuel market, and was directed at research laboratories carrying out analyses of solid fuels for the energy and coking sectors. The adapted manufacturing scheme of a certified reference material for coal was presented with a description of the chosen critical steps of the process and discussion of the obtained results in terms of homogeneity, stability, characterisation of the reference material as well as assigned values to particular properties and their uncertainty budget. The results obtained during homogeneity, short-term and long-term stability assessments as well as reference material characterisation confirmed the feasibility of the investigated certified coal reference material manufacturing process. The obtained levels of relative expanded uncertainties of the measurements confirmed the feasibility of the manufactured certified reference material for establishing and maintaining metrological traceability of measurement results. The presented research establishes a base for planning out production of additional reference materials as well as providing the know-how for designing manufacturing schemes for reference materials for solid fuels, or waste related materials like fly ash, or furnace waste

Railway embankments as new habitat for pollinators in an agricultural landscape.

Pollinating insect populations, essential for maintaining wild plant diversity and agricultural productivity, rely on (semi)natural habitats. An increasing human population is encroaching upon and deteriorating pollinator habitats. Thus the population persistence of pollinating insects and their associated ecosystem services may depend upon on man-made novel habitats; however, their importance for ecosystem services is barely understood. We tested if man-made infrastructure (railway embankments) in an agricultural landscape establishes novel habitats that support large populations of pollinators (bees, butterflies, hoverflies) when compared to typical habitats for these insects, i.e., semi-natural grasslands. We also identified key environmental factors affecting the species richness and abundance of pollinators on embankments. Species richness and abundance of bees and butterflies were higher for railway embankments than for grasslands. The occurrence of bare (non-vegetated) ground on embankments positively affected bee species richness and abundance, but negatively affected butterfly populations. Species richness and abundance of butterflies positively depended on species richness of native plants on embankments, whereas bee species richness was positively affected by species richness of non-native flowering plants. The density of shrubs on embankments negatively affected the number of bee species and their abundance. Bee and hoverfly species richness were positively related to wood cover in a landscape surrounding embankments. This is the first study showing that railway embankments constitute valuable habitat for the conservation of pollinators in farmland. Specific conservation strategies involving embankments should focus on preventing habitat deterioration due to encroachment of dense shrubs and maintaining grassland vegetation with patches of bare ground

Independent variables measured on embankment sites.

<p>Mean ± standard deviation (SD) with minimum and maximum values are shown.</p

Mean (±SD) pollinator species richness (a) and abundance (b) on railway embankments (closed bars) and grasslands (open bars).

<p>***P<0.001.</p