[Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]DTAM [Axe_IRSTEA]DTAM2-ACPUB | International audience | Diffuse pollution is a major cause for the degradation of water quality also in the French context. Nitrates and pesticides, mostly from agricultural sources, are the main pollutants. To a lesser extent, diffuse pollution has domestic and collective sources. Nitrate rates remain high in surface waters, despite an improvement of water quality in areas where livestock farming is responsible for nitrate pollution. The contamination of groundwater by nitrates and pesticides has been worsening in the last years. The EU Nitrate Directive is the main regulatory tool for the control of nitrate diffuse pollution. Farmers in designated vulnerable zones have to comply with measures included in action programs. The implementation of the ND in France was evaluated as incomplete relating to insufficient designation of vulnerable zones and non-conformity of action programs. Two other constraints are a low awareness of requirements by farmers and difficulties in controlling and enforcing compliance. As a consequence, the implementation process of the ND was redefined in France, with an extension of vulnerable zones, now covering 55% of agricultural area. While action programs were mainly defined at the district level, now a core program defined at the national level is completed by regional programs established by State regional authorities on the basis of the work of regional technical groups. The development of action plans to protect drinking water catchments relies on cooperation between water suppliers and agricultural stakeholders. A first step is the definition of protection zone(s) in the water catchment. Then, agricultural and non-agricultural pressures are identified. Finally, an action plan is defined to be implemented voluntary by farmers. In the French context, the involvement of water suppliers is fostered by financial incentives provided by Water Agencies. Also the “Grenelle” regulation imposes the definition and implementation of action plans in priority water catchments. The participation of farmers is targeted by a number of tools: (1) mostly agri-environmental schemes funded by EU rural development policy, (2) environmental land leases, (3) the development of market outlets such as local organic supply chains. Research shows that the success of this approach depends on a number of factors. The main success factors identified are: The scale of collective action. With regard with the governance of collective action, the definition of the role of stakeholders involved the involvement of farm leaders and farm organizations and the involvement of agricultural cooperatives and agro-industries. Finally, technical support to local stakeholders (water suppliers, farmers) was identified as a crucial success factor.

Environmental Pollution, in press | International audience | Organisms are regularly subjected to abiotic stressors related to increasing anthropogenic activities, including chemicals and climatic changes that induce major stresses. Based on various key taxa involved in ecosystem functioning (photosynthetic microorganisms, plants, invertebrates), we review how organisms respond and adapt to chemical- and temperature-induced stresses from molecular to population level. Using field-realistic studies, our integrative analysis aims to compare i) how molecular and physiological mechanisms related to protection, repair and energy allocation can impact life history traits of stressed organisms, and ii) to what extent trait responses influence individual and population responses. Common response mechanisms are evident at molecular and cellular scales but become rather difficult to define at higher levels due to evolutionary distance and environmental complexity. We provide new insights into the understanding of the impact of molecular and cellular responses on individual and population dynamics and assess the potential related effects on communities and ecosystem functioning.

The input of trace elements via atmospheric deposition towards industrial, urban, traffic, and rural areas is quite different and depends on the intensity of the anthropogenic activity. A comparative study between the element deposition fluxes in four sampling sites (industrial, urban, traffic, and rural) of the Cantabria region (northern Spain) has been performed. Sampling was carried out monthly using a bulk (funnel bottle) sampler. The trace elements, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Ti, Zn, and V, were determined in the water soluble and insoluble fractions of bulk deposition samples. The element deposition fluxes at the rural, urban, and traffic sites followed a similar order (Zn>Mn>>Cu=Ti>Pb>V=Cr>Ni>>As=Mo>Cd). The most enriched elements were Cd, Zn, and Cu, while V, Ni, and Cr were less enriched. An extremely high deposition of Mn was found at the industrial site, leading to high enrichment factor values, resulting from the presence of a ferro-manganese/silicomanganese production plant in the vicinity of the sampling site. Important differences were found in the element solubilities in the studied sites; the element solubilities were higher at the traffic and rural sites, and lower at the urban and industrial sites. For all sites, Zn and Cd were the most soluble elements, whereas Cr and Ti were less soluble. The inter-site correlation coefficients for each element were calculated to assess the differences between the sites. The rural and traffic sites showed some similarities in the sources of trace elements; however, the sources of these elements at the industrial and rural sites were quite different. Additionally, the element fluxes measured in the insoluble fraction of the bulk atmospheric deposition exhibited a good correlation with the daily traffic volume at the traffic site. | The authors are grateful for the financial support from the CTM 2010-16068 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and CTM 2013-43904 R (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) projects. The “Consejería de Medio Ambiente” from the Cantabria Government is also acknowledged for sending the report on the background levels of heavy metals and trace elements in soils in the Cantabria region. The authors are also grateful to “Ayuntamiento de Camargo” for helping us with the sampling site of Maliaño.

New approach to identify and categorize pesticide metabolites in soil combining suspect screening metabolomics with in silico molecular typology. 5th International Conference on Environmental Pollution and Remediation (ICEPR). 5th International Conference on Environmental Pollution and Remediation (ICEPR)

Posidonia oceanica is a marine angiosperm endemic from the Mediterranean. Despite their protection, its meadows are regressing. The economic valuation of ecosystem services (ES) assesses the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being and may provide local policy makers help in territorial development. To estimate the economic value of P. oceanica seagrass and the meadows that it forms to better account its presence in coastal development, identification and assessment of ES provided are first performed. Then goods and benefits (GB) and their economical values are estimated. In total, 25ES are identified and 7 GB are economically evaluated. The economic value of GB provided by P. oceanica ranges between 25.3 mil- lion and 45.9 million €/year which means 283–513 €/ha/year. Because of the lack of existing available data, only 7 GB linked to 11/25ES have been estimated. Despite this overall undervaluation, this study offers a value for coastal development policies to take into account.

peer reviewed | The present study investigates the relationships between copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) concentrations in sediment, pore water and their bioaccumulation in the polychaete Nereis (Alitta) virens, as well as the importance of site-specific sediment characteristics in that process. Sediment, pore water and N. virens were sampled from seven sites with different pollution histories along the English Channel coast. Results showed that site-specific metal levels and sediment characteristics were important in determining the bioavailability of metals to worms. Significant correlations were found between Cu in the sediment and in the pore water and between Zn in the pore water and in N. virens. Zn from the pore water was thus more readily available from a dissolved source to N. virens than Cu. Data also showed that metal concentrations in N. virens were lower than those found in other closely related polychaetes, indicating that it may regulate tissue concentrations of Cu and Zn. | Chronexpo, 3C

Se prevé que la deposición de nitrógeno (N) tendrá un impacto en la estructura y el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas mediterráneos. En este estudio, medimos la composición de las especies de plantas, la producción y la actividad de la fosfatasa de las raíces en un experimento de campo en el que se añadió N (0, 10, 20 y 50 kg N ha-1 año-1) desde octubre de 2007 a un matorral semiárido en la zona central. España. El elemento herbáceo anual característicamente dominante respondió negativamente al N después de ~2,5 y ~3,5 años. En contraste, el elemento nitrófilo (principalmente crucíferas) aumentó con el N después de ~2.5 y ~5.5 años, una respuesta controlada por las variaciones interanuales en las precipitaciones y la distribución heterogénea de la disponibilidad de P. También describimos una jerarquía de factores que impulsan la estructura y composición de la comunidad vegetal: la fertilidad del suelo fue el factor más importante, mientras que la calcárea/acidez de los suelos y la cubierta arbustiva desempeñaron un papel secundario; finalmente, la deposición de N contribuyó a explicar una fracción menor de la varianza total y sus efectos fueron predominantemente negativos, lo que se atribuyó a la toxicidad del amonio. La actividad fosfatasa de las raíces de tres especies no respondió al N después de ~2,5 años, pero hubo una relación negativa con el P del suelo en dos de ellas. Concluimos que el aumento de la deposición de N en los ecosistemas mediterráneos semiáridos de Europa puede contribuir a provocar un cambio en las comunidades vegetales asociado con un aumento del elemento nitrófilo y con una disminución en la abundancia de diversas especies herbáceas adaptadas a las condiciones locales.

Growing edible vegetables on Technosols, Firts results of the Agrotechnosol Project. 8th Sino-French Workshop on Soil Pollution and Remediation

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]BELCA | International audience | This study focuses on spatiotemporal variations in the type of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and copper binding ability both upstream and downstream of Paris. It also compares the relative influence of both natural DOM upstream of Paris and effluent dissolved organic matter (EfDOM) output from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) on trace metal speciation and bioavailability in aquatic systems. In addition to the typical high- and low-affinity binding sites, a third family of very high-affinity binding sites has been highlighted for EfDOM. In receiving waters downstream of Paris during low-flow periods, the percentage of high- and very high-affinity sites originating from EfDOM reaches nearly 60 %. According to the speciation computation, the free copper concentration upstream of Paris exceeds the downstream Paris concentration by a factor of 2 to 4. As regards copper bioavailability, the highest EC50<inf>tot</inf> values were observed for EfDOM and downstream DOM, with a very low aromaticity and low UV absorbance. This finding suggests that specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) is unlikely to be useful in assessing metal speciation and toxicity in aquatic systems subject to strong urban pressures. These results also highlight that the copper speciation computation for surface water exposed to considerable human pressures should include not only the humic and/or fulvic part of dissolved organic carbon but more hydrophilic fractions as well, originating for example from EfDOM. © 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

International audience | Paris conurbation is a heavily urbanized but weakly industrialized catchment. Recently, it has been shown at the scale of Paris that alkylphenols (AP) and phthalates (PAE) are not rejected by the industry, but they originate from domestic wastewater at more than 95 %. However, the contribution of the different types of greywater to the pollution by alkylphenols and phthalates was not addressed. This work aims at providing new insights on this particular point. Hence, the concentration of four phthalates (diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), and di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP)) and two alkylphenols (octylphenols (OP) and isomers of nonylphenol (NP)) were followed in greywater. For each sample, analyses were carried out on both the dissolved and particulate phases. Moreover, water quality parameters were also monitored, in order to find out whether or not any correlation exists between the concentration of the investigated contaminants and the quality of water. Water quality parameters studied are pH, total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved and particular organic carbon (DOC and POC), chemical and biochemical oxygen demands (COD and BOD5), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and anionic detergents (methylene blue active substance or MBAS). This paper presents the methodology used to monitor two greywater with the most important volumes: showers and washing machines. These greywater showed high variability with regard to water quality parameters. Moreover, AP and PAE concentrations are given for the first time for these two types of greywater. All compounds except OP were observed in almost all samples in at least one of the two monitored phases. The concentrations varied between limit of quantification for OP and 102 μg/l for DEHP. The levels measured in washing machines were higher than those for showers for all compounds. For instance, median NP concentration in washing machines was 3.59 μg/l against 1.09 μg/l in showers, DEHP was observed at 102 μg/l in washing machines against 16.6 μg/l in showers. Variability of the results was explained by habits of individuals (shower time, number of products used…) but also by differences in product composition. However, each type of water exhibited the same distribution. NP was the most abundant AP (about 85 % of the total amount) while DEHP represented the two thirds of the PAE compounds. The partition coefficients (Kd in l/kg) were evaluated. The results showed that log Kd ranged between 2.1 (DEP) and 4.8 (DEHP). Log Koc presented similar trends lying in the 2.4 (DEP)-5.0 (DEHP) range. Finally, with regard to greywater quality, the application for greywater reuse is discussed.