Early to Middle Devonian granitic and volcanic rocks from the central Gulf of Maine

Cashes Ledge igneous suite in the central Gulf of Maine is represented by 10 granitic and two felsic tuff samples collected from bedrock outcrops using the submersible Alvin in 1971–1972 and archived at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Laser ablation ICP-MS analyses of zircon grains yielded crystallization ages of 414.9 ± 1.1 Ma and 399.7 ± 1.5 Ma for two alkali feldspar granite samples, 407.0 ± 1.9 Ma for a syenogranite sample, and 384.4 ± 2.3 Ma and 383.9 ± 1.6 Ma for two felsic tuff samples. The samples contain iron-rich mafic minerals, including aegirine-augite, grunerite/ferroedenite, and annite. Most of the samples are alkaline to slightly peralkaline, with high concentrations of SiO₂, Y, Zr, Nb, and REE, strong negative Eu anomalies, and positive epsilon Nd values (1.8 to 3.7). The suite resembles part of a belt of similar Silurian–Devonian rocks with ages between 426 and 370 Ma now recognized in the central part of Avalonia in southeastern New England. They formed in a long-lived, likely extensional regime linked to subduction and subsequent complex transcurrent motions among Ganderia, Avalonia, and Meguma, culminating in the closure of the Rheic Ocean.     

Metal distribution in sediment cores from São Paulo State Coast, Brazil

Ten sediment core samples with lengths ranging from 35 to 100 cm were collected in the Baixada Santista region and analyzed to determine As, Br, Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Rb, Sb, Ta, Th, U, Zn and rare earths (Sc, Ce, Eu, La, Lu, Nd, Sm, Tb and Yb) level concentrations using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The studied region is located in the southeastern coast of São Paulo State and is comprised of a densely urbanized area, the largest industrial complex of the country, with a predominance of petrochemical and fertilizer plants. It is also home to Brazil’s most important and busiest port. The conclusions found that the As, La, Sm, Ne, Ce, Eu, Hf, Ta, Th, and U elements have a high background level in the region and that Fe and Zn were the main indicators of anthropogenic contribution in the sediments.     

The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerging research needs

The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.     

Spatial variation of biological and pedological properties in an area affected by a metallurgical mercury plant: Almadenejos (Spain)

Almadén, Spain, has the most important known cinnabar deposits, which have provided a third of the entire world production of Hg, and has been the scene for numerous studies on Hg. This mining district includes several mines where cinnabar has been extracted in the past two millennia as well as facilities related to the production of primary Hg. The aim of the work is to evaluate the spatial distribution of Hg in the soil-plant system within an area where intense activity occurred over a long period. An abandoned metallurgical plant from the 17th-18th centuries was chosen as the study area, situated in Almadenejos a distance of 12 km from Almadén. Nowadays, this plot is covered with cinnabar mine tailings and it is used by village inhabitants for livestock grazing. The area has elevated Hg concentrations of natural origin and from human activities. Soil parameters are similar within the study area; however, data reveal high variability in total and available Hg concentrations in soils, making it difficult to establish a trend. Marrubium vulgare L. has been studied due to its abundance in the plot, and there is no evidence of phenological toxicity. In spite of elevated Hg concentrations, high biological activity is found in the sampled soils. All these characteristics, spatial variation, high Hg concentration, good biological activity, make this a particularly good area for studies involving Hg.     

Groundwater salinization in the Azores archipelago (Portugal)

Groundwater salinization in coastal regions causes severe constraints to water supply and economic losses to society worldwide. In the Azores archipelago, groundwater abstraction in wells drilled in coastal aquifers is very important for water supply, and quality problems have been reported. Therefore, a groundwater chemistry dataset from wells was compiled to study groundwater salinization in these aquifers. Waters are mainly of the Na–Cl type, presenting a slightly acidic to slightly alkaline character, with a pH between 5.63 and 8.50 (median 7.40). Electrical conductivity measurements range from 127 to 9,670 μS/cm (median 862), suggesting highly variable mineralization, with higher values observed on Santa Maria, São Miguel, Pico, Graciosa, and São Jorge islands. The major-ion composition reflects the contribution of seawater to the groundwater compositional evolution, which is essentially explained by seawater intrusion into wells. In many samples, exchange reactions of Na⁺ + K⁺ for Ca²⁺ + Mg²⁺ are associated with salinization. The seawater fraction in groundwater composition reaches a maximum of 22.5%. These results are extremely challenging to water managers in the Azores because failure to comply with national water quality regulations and with European Union groundwater directive requirements often occurs.     

The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerging research needs

The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.     

Covariance-Based Variable Selection for Compositional Data

Omitting variables in compositional data analysis may lead to a substantial change in results from that of multivariate statistical analysis. In particular, this is the case for principal component analysis and the compositional biplot, where both the interpretation of loadings and scores of the remaining subcomposition are affected. A stepwise procedure is introduced that allows for a reduction of the original composition to a subcomposition by avoiding a substantial change of the information, like those carried by the compositional biplot. The subcomposition is easier to handle and interpret. Numerical results give evidence of the usefulness of the procedure.     

Population and distribution changes of two coexisting river amphipods after the closure of a new large dam

This study examined short-term changes of population size and distribution of two coexisting river amphipods after a major disturbance event – the closure of a new large dam on the Goja?ka Dobra River (Central Croatia) in June 2010. In the pre-disturbance period, coexistence of the two species, the endemic moss specialist Echinogammarus cari and the widespread microhabitat generalist Gammarus fossarum, was promoted by differential microdistribution between two dominating types of microhabitats, moss and stony substrate. E. cari was dominant in mosses and G. fossarum on stony substrate, representing an excellent case of spatial niche partitioning between two species of river amphipods. Drastic change in water quality and increased load of suspended particles that accumulated in mosses soon after the dam closure were the main factors that contributed to E. cari rapid population decline at sites downstream of the new dam. G. fossarum was much less affected by such changes, exhibiting no drastic population decline and even an increase in population size after disturbance event at three examined sites. Hence, specialization of E. cari for moss microhabitats which enabled stable coexistence of the two species before damming made it more vulnerable to disturbance and resulted in dominance shift in moss microhabitats in favour of G. fossarum after dam closure. This shift might reduce the probability of E. cari population recovery downstream from the new dam and change its current conservation status from endangered to critically endangered if it completely disappears downstream of the dam. Urgent measures aimed at conservation of this endemic species are proposed and discussed.     

Greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forest degradation: an underestimated source

Background

The degradation of forests in developing countries, particularly those within tropical and subtropical latitudes, is perceived to be an important contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the impacts of forest degradation are understudied and poorly understood, largely because international emission reduction programs have focused on deforestation, which is easier to detect and thus more readily monitored. To better understand and seize opportunities for addressing climate change it will be essential to improve knowledge of greenhouse gas emissions from forest degradation.

Results

Here we provide a consistent estimation of forest degradation emissions between 2005 and 2010 across 74 developing countries covering 2.2 billion hectares of forests. We estimated annual emissions of 2.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, of which 53% were derived from timber harvest, 30% from woodfuel harvest and 17% from forest fire. These percentages differed by region: timber harvest was as high as 69% in South and Central America and just 31% in Africa; woodfuel harvest was 35% in Asia, and just 10% in South and Central America; and fire ranged from 33% in Africa to only 5% in Asia. Of the total emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest degradation accounted for 25%. In 28 of the 74 countries, emissions from forest degradation exceeded those from deforestation.

Conclusions

The results of this study clearly demonstrate the importance of accounting greenhouse gases from forest degradation by human activities. The scale of emissions presented indicates that the exclusion of forest degradation from national and international GHG accounting is distorting. This work helps identify where emissions are likely significant, but policy developments are needed to guide when and how accounting should be undertaken. Furthermore, ongoing research is needed to create and enhance cost-effective accounting approaches.