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.     

Water-chemistry transfer functions for epiphytic diatoms in standing freshwaters and a comparison with models based on littoral sediment assemblages (Flanders, Belgium)

Quantitative inference models for water-chemistry variables are derived from epiphytic diatom assemblages in 186 lentic and mostly shallow freshwaters in lower Belgium (Flanders). When the complete pH range is considered (pH 3.4–9.3), robust transfer functions are obtained for median pH (jack-knifed r ² = 0.88, RMSEP = 0.38 pH units or 6.4% of the observed range) and dissolved inorganic carbon concentration (jack-knifed r ² = 0.86, RMSEP = 0.194 log₁₀ mg DIC l⁻¹ or 10.2% of the observed range) by means of weighted-averaging partial least squares regression (WA-PLS). For these variables, the calibration models are as reliable as those based on sedimentary diatom assemblages. Inferences of pH may be improved by combining estimates from epiphytic and sediment assemblages. In circumneutral and alkaline conditions, WA-PLS calibration of maximum or median total phosphorus is possible (log-transformed; jack-knifed r ² = 0.64 or 0.66 and RMSEP = 14% or 12.3% of the observed range, respectively). It makes little difference if taxa showing no response to TP are taken into consideration or not. These models considerably expand the prospects of using historical herbarium materials to hindcast environmental conditions and also allow more accurate interpretation of current compositional changes in epiphytic communities. Compared to littoral sediment assemblages, fewer water-column variables can be inferred reliably from epiphyton. This probably results from differences between the effective gradients in both habitats, together with lower in situ species diversity and less effective spatial integration (i.e. lower recruitment of phytoplankton) in the epiphyton. A comparison of the HOF response-model types and WA-optima of diatom taxa for epiphytic and sediment assemblages shows that the relationship to individual variables, and in particular to those related to trophic status, may differ with habitat. Thus, the combination of samples from both habitat types in the same calibration model is not recommended. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available and is accessible for authorised users in the online version of this article at     

Longitudinal variability of soils and structural response of sewer networks

A simple model which describes the soil–pipe interaction and accounts for the longitudinal soil variation has been developed. It is used for the analysis of the static response of a section of a buried sewer. A probabilistic analysis (Monte-Carlo method) enabling to quantify the influence of spatial variability of the geomechanical characteristics of the soil makes possible to study the parameters which can influence and drive the longitudinal response of a section of sewer. The system response is complex, soil–structure interaction depending on three different stiffnesses: soil stiffness, pipe components stiffness and joints stiffness. Various analyses have been performed to identify the parameters whose influence is the larger. A specific attention has been devoted to the fluctuation scale of the soil properties and to the stiffness of joints.     

Hydrogeological modeling as a tool supporting the interpretation of pollen proxies for palaeoclimate reconstitution: The Senegalese “niayes” case-study

The Niayes of Senegal are sahelian interdunal fens, that hosted an azonal subguinean vegetation during the Holocene thanks to the availability of fresh groundwater despite contrasted climatic conditions. Exploratory scenario-based modeling of the zonal hydrogeology has been conducted for different periods with the Cast3M code. The results show that the delay in the onset of humid vegetation ca. 10 ky cal. BP could be ecosystemic and denote a start of the African Humid Period (AHP) ca. 11.5 ky cal. BP. Alternatively, the AHP could have started earlier while its beneficial effects would have been canceled by low sea levels. Vegetation degradation around 7.5 ky cal. BP is shown to have resulted from a climate minoration, that possibly alleviated until 4 ky cal. BP. The rising watertable allowed the degraded forest to persist during that period however. The forest expansion that followed ca. 3.5 ky cal. BP had then clearly a climatic origin. The interpretation of pollens for climate research requires a careful filtering-out of local groundwater availability.     

Underground ecology in a Patagonian steppe: Root traits permit identification of graminoid species and classification into functional types

There is limited knowledge about root morphological differences at the species level. Consequently, plant ecological groups are largely defined on aboveground traits. Our hypothesis was that roots of graminoid species differ in morphological and functional attributes. In field and greenhouse studies, we measured morphological and functional root traits of eight dominant graminoids. Multivariate analyses of root traits arranged species into two groups. Species were unequivocally classified by either discriminant analysis or a taxonomic key. Traits that contributed most to identification were diameter, colour, and branching. Species from one group had large root diameters, more branching, and lower tensile strength, specific length, rate of new root generation, and RGR than the other group. The grouping by root traits matched previous classifications: one group had been described as more xerophytic, less preferred by livestock, and more delayed in phenology than the second group. Our study shows that (1) a set of root morphological traits may be reliably used to recognize species, and (2) root traits reflect the major ecological grouping of species, even when they all belong to the same growth form. For Patagonia and similar sites, our work will open the way to more detailed, specific-level studies on community underground organization.     

Constraining dark matter properties with SPI

Using the high-resolution spectrometer SPI on board the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory ( INTEGRAL ), we search for a spectral line produced by a dark matter (DM) particle with a mass in the range  40 keV < M _DM < 14 MeV  , decaying in the DM halo of the Milky Way. To distinguish the DM decay line from numerous instrumental lines found in the SPI background spectrum, we study the dependence of the intensity of the line signal on the offset of the SPI pointing from the direction toward the Galactic Centre. After a critical analysis of the uncertainties of the DM density profile in the inner Galaxy, we find that the intensity of the DM decay line should decrease by at least a factor of 3 when the offset from the Galactic Centre increases from 0° to 180°. We find that such a pronounced variation of the line flux across the sky is not observed for any line, detected with a significance higher than 3σ in the SPI background spectrum. Possible DM decay origin is not ruled out only for the unidentified spectral lines, having low (∼3σ) significance or coinciding in position with the instrumental ones. In the energy interval from 20 keV to 7 MeV, we derive restrictions on the DM decay line flux, implied by the (non-)detection of the DM decay line. For a particular DM candidate, the sterile neutrino of mass M _DM, we derive a bound on the mixing angle.