Environmental Management Plan (EMP) is regarded as a guidance document to attain and measure compliance with the mitigation requirements and environmental protection of projects, which are normally requirements for project approvals. The study mainly aims to present an Environmental Management Plan for dams whose construction was suspended by opposing stakeholders for the harmful impacts on the environment in forested areas. As a case study, the Hyrcanian forests (Caspian forests) are located in western Asia and were inscribed on the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List in 2019. The construction of the hydropower Shafarood dam began in these forests in 1990. Because of budget deficits and the suspensions incurred by opposing activists in 2013, dam construction has only advanced by 23% ever since. To meet that aim, the research data was collected through analysis of documents, letters, articles, field visits to the construction site, and interviews. The semi-structured interviewing method was employed in holding interviews with governmental and environmental NGOs, local people, specialists, and academics because of their good cooperation. The results indicate that the most negative effects in the construction phase have been produced by deforestation and degradation of vegetation, source of material supply, settlement and livelihood of migrants impacted by dam impoundment, water, air and sound quality. Ultimately, an Environmental Management Plan was proposed for this dam and those under construction or suspended in forested areas to minimize the negative environmental effects of the Hydropower Shafarood dam, which technically concentrates on mitigating measures.

Fast fashion and our daily use of fibrous materials cause a massive release of microfibres (MF) into the oceans. Although MF pollution is commonly linked to plastics, the vast majority of collected MF are made from natural materials (e.g. cellulose). We investigated the effects of 96-h exposure to natural (wool, cotton, organic cotton) and synthetic (acrylic, nylon, polyester) textile MF and their associated chemical additives on the capacity of Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas to ingest MF and the effects of MF and their leachates on key molecular and cellular endpoints. Digestive and glycolytic enzyme activities and immune and detoxification responses were determined at cellular (haemocyte viability, ROS production, ABC pump activity) and molecular (Ikb1, Ikb2, caspase 1 and EcSOD expression) levels, considering environmentally relevant (10 MF L−1) and worst-case scenarios (10 000 MF L−1). Ingestion of natural MF perturbed oyster digestive and immune functions, but synthetic MF had few effects, supposedly related with fibers weaving rather than the material itself. No concentration effects were found, suggesting that an environmental dose of MF is sufficient to trigger these responses. Leachate exposure had minimal effects on oyster physiology. These results suggest that the manufacture of the fibres and their characteristics could be the major factors of MF toxicity and stress the need to consider both natural and synthetic particles and their leachates to thoroughly evaluate the impact of anthropogenic debris. Environmental Implication. Microfibres (MF) are omnipresent in the world oceans with around 2 million tons released every year, resulting in their ingestion by a wide array of marine organisms. In the ocean, a domination of natural MF- representing more than 80% of collected fibres-over synthetic ones was observed. Despite MF pervasiveness, research on their impact on marine organisms, is still in its infancy. The current study aims to investigate the effects of environmental concentrations of both synthetic and natural textile MF and their associated leachates on a model filter feeder.

International audience | Soil contamination by trace elements like copper (Cu) can affect soil functioning. Environmental policies with guidelines and soil survey measurements still refer to the total content of Cu in soils. However, Cu content in soil solution or free Cu content have been shown to be better proxies of risks of Cu mobility or (bio-)availability for soil organisms. Several empirical equations have been defined at the local scale to predict the amount of Cu in soil solution based on both total soil Cu content and main soil parameters involved in the soil/solution partitioning. Nevertheless, despite the relevance for risk assessment, these equations are not applied at a large spatial scale due to difficulties to perform changes from local to regional. To progress in this challenge, we collected several empirical equations from literature and selected those allowing estimation of the amount of Cu in solution, used as a proxy of available Cu, from the knowledge of both total soil Cu content and soil parameters. We did the same for the estimation of free Cu in solution, used as a proxy of bio-available Cu. These equations were used to provide European maps of (bio-)available Cu based on the one of total soil Cu over Europe. Results allowed comparing the maps of available and bio-available Cu at the European scale. This was done with respective median values of each form of Cu to identify specific areas of risks linked to these two proxies. Higher discrepancies were highlighted between the map of bio-available Cu and the map of soil total Cu compared to the Cu available map. Such results can be used to assess environmental-related issues for land use planning.

International audience | Soil contamination by trace elements like copper (Cu) can affect soil functioning. Environmental policies with guidelines and soil survey measurements still refer to the total content of Cu in soils. However, Cu content in soil solution or free Cu content have been shown to be better proxies of risks of Cu mobility or (bio-)availability for soil organisms. Several empirical equations have been defined at the local scale to predict the amount of Cu in soil solution based on both total soil Cu content and main soil parameters involved in the soil/solution partitioning. Nevertheless, despite the relevance for risk assessment, these equations are not applied at a large spatial scale due to difficulties to perform changes from local to regional. To progress in this challenge, we collected several empirical equations from literature and selected those allowing estimation of the amount of Cu in solution, used as a proxy of available Cu, from the knowledge of both total soil Cu content and soil parameters. We did the same for the estimation of free Cu in solution, used as a proxy of bio-available Cu. These equations were used to provide European maps of (bio-)available Cu based on the one of total soil Cu over Europe. Results allowed comparing the maps of available and bio-available Cu at the European scale. This was done with respective median values of each form of Cu to identify specific areas of risks linked to these two proxies. Higher discrepancies were highlighted between the map of bio-available Cu and the map of soil total Cu compared to the Cu available map. Such results can be used to assess environmental-related issues for land use planning.

We analyzed plastic debris ingested by loggerheads from bycatch between 2007 and 2021 in the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO). We also analyzed plastic debris accumulated on beaches of the east coast of Madagascar as a proxy for ocean plastics to compare the characteristics of beached plastics and plastic ingested by turtles. We conducted a “brand audit” of the plastics to determine their country of origin. An oceanic circulation model was used to identify the most likely sources of plastics in the SWIO. In total, 202 of the 266 loggerheads analyzed had ingested plastics. Plastics categorized as “hard” and “white” were equally dominant in loggerheads and on beaches, suggesting no diet selectivity. Both the brand audit and circulation modeling demonstrated that Southeast Asia is the main source of plastic pollution in the region. This study demonstrates that loggerheads can be used as bioindicators of plastic pollution in the SWIO.

The Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project (MCRMP) aimed to map coral reefs worldwide at geomorphological thematic scales using Landsat satellite images at 30 m spatial resolution. The 5-level hierarchical classification scheme implemented by MCRMP identified at Level 2 ‘Atolls’ as one of the main types of coral reef complexes. In this review, the qualitative criteria used by MCRMP to identify atolls are presented. Then, we report on the global census of atolls, from which a consistent geomorphologic GIS database is provided. A total of 598 atolls are identified and mapped. The quantitative database provides surface areas for all geomorphologic units at Level 4 and 5 of the MCRMP classification scheme. It allows further work on atoll and coral reef classifications, regionally and globally, in order to identify geomorphic trends and outliers. It is also a convenient database to use in multivariate analyses with ancillary biodiversity, fishery, socio-economic or climate data.

Macroplastics are ubiquitous in aquaculture ecosystems. However, to date the potential role of plastics as a support for bacterial biofilm that can include potential human pathogenic bacteria (PHPB) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) has been largely overlooked. In this study, we used a combination of metabarcoding and standard antibiotic susceptibility testing to study the pathobiome and resistome of macroplastics, fish guts and the environment in a marine aquaculture farm in Mauritius. Aquaculture macroplastics were found to be higher in PHPB, dominated by the Vibrionaceae family (0.34 % of the total community), compared with environmental samples. Moreover, isolates from aquaculture plastics showed higher significant multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) compared to non-plastic samples of seawater, sediment and fish guts. These results suggest that plastics act as a reservoir and fomite of PHPB and ARB in aquaculture, potentially threatening the health of farmed fish and human consumers.

International audience | 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) is the molecular target of β-triketone herbicides in plants. This enzyme, involved in the tyrosine pathway, is also present in a wide range of living organisms, including microorganisms. Previous studies, focusing on a few strains and using high herbicide concentrations, showed that β-triketones are able to inhibit microbial HPPD. Here, we measured the effect of agronomical doses of β-triketone herbicides on soil bacterial strains. The HPPD activity of six bacterial strains was tested with 1× or 10× the recommended field dose of the herbicide sulcotrione. The selected strains were tested with 0.01× to 15× the recommended field dose of sulcotrione, mesotrione, and tembotrione. Molecular docking was also used to measure and model the binding mode of the three herbicides with the different bacterial HPPD. Our results show that responses to herbicides are strain-dependent with Pseudomonas fluorescens F113 HPPD activity not inhibited by any of the herbicide tested, when all three β-triketone herbicides inhibited HPPD in Bacillus cereus ATCC14579 and Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. These responses are also molecule-dependent with tembotrione harboring the strongest inhibitory effect. Molecular docking also reveals different binding potentials. This is the first time that the inhibitory effect of β-triketone herbicides is tested on environmental strains at agronomical doses, showing a potential effect of these molecules on the HPPD enzymatic activity of non-target microorganisms. The whole-cell assay developed in this study, coupled with molecular docking analysis, appears as an interesting way to have a first idea of the effect of herbicides on microbial communities, prior to setting up microcosm or even field experiments. This methodology could then largely be applied to other family of pesticides also targeting an enzyme present in microorganisms.

Aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (AHs and PAHs, respectively) were analyzed in the dissolved fraction (<0.7 μm) of surface water and in various particulate/planktonic size fractions (0.7–60, 60–200, 200–500 and 500–1000 μm) collected at the deep chlorophyll maximum, along a North-South transect in the Mediterranean Sea in spring 2019 (MERITE-HIPPOCAMPE campaign). Suspended particulate matter, biomass, total chlorophyll a, particulate organic carbon, C and N isotopic ratios, and lipid biomarkers were also determined to help characterizing the size-fractionated plankton and highlight the potential link with the content in AHs and PAHs in these size fractions. Ʃ28AH concentrations ranged 18–489 ng L−1 for water, 3.9–72 μg g−1 dry weight (dw) for the size fraction 0.7–60 μm, and 3.4–55 μg g−1 dw for the fractions 60–200, 200–500 and 500–1000 μm. AH molecular profiles revealed that they were mainly of biogenic origin. Ʃ14PAH concentrations were 0.9–16 ng L−1 for water, and Ʃ27PAH concentrations were 53–220 ng g−1 dw for the fraction 0.7–60 μm and 35–255 ng g−1 dw for the three higher fractions, phenanthrene being the most abundant compound in planktonic compartment. Two processes were evidenced concerning the PAH patterns, the bioreduction, i.e., the decrease in concentrations from the small size fractions (0.7–60 and 60–200 μm) to the higher ones (200–500 μm and 500–1000 μm), and the biodilution, i.e., the decrease in concentrations in plankton at higher suspended matter or biomass, especially for the 0.7–60 and 60–200-μm size fractions. We estimated the biological pump fluxes of Ʃ27PAHs below 100-m depth in the Western Mediterranean Sea at 15 ± 10 ng m−2 day−1, which is comparable to those previously reported in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Plankton plays a prominent role in the bioaccumulation of mercury (Hg). The MERITE-HIPPOCAMPE campaign was carried out in spring 2019 along a north-south transect including coastal and offshore areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Sampling of sea water and plankton by pumping and nets was carried out in the chlorophyll maximum layer. Two size-fractions of phytoplankton (0.7–2.7 and 2.7–20 μm) and five of zooplankton (between 60 and >2000 μm) were separated, and their total mercury (THg) and monomethylmercury (MMHg) contents were measured. Bioconcentration of THg was significantly higher in the smallest phytoplankton size-fraction dominated by Synechococcus spp. The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of MMHg in zooplankton was influenced by size, food sources, biochemical composition and trophic level. MMHg was biomagnified in the plankton food web, while THg decreased toward higher trophic levels. Higher MMHg concentrations were measured in oligotrophic areas. Plankton communities in the Southern Mediterranean Sea had lower MMHg concentrations than those in the Northern Mediterranean Sea. These results highlighted the influence of environmental conditions and trophodynamics on the transfer of Hg in Mediterranean plankton food webs, with implications for higher trophic level consumers.