Since the beginning of the 19th century humans have increasingly fixed atmospheric nitrogen as ammonia to be used as fertilizer. The fertilizers are necessary to create amino acids and carbohydrates in plants to feed animals and humans. The efficiency with which the fertilizers eventually reach humans is very small: 5-15%, with much of the remainder lost to the environment. The global industrial production of ammonia amounts to 117 Mton NH3-N year-1 (for 2004). By comparison, we calculate that anthropogenic emissions of NH3 to the atmosphere over the lifecycle of industrial NH3 in agriculture are 45.3 Mton NH3-N year-1, about half the industrial production. Once emitted ammonia has a central role in many environmental issues. We expect an increase in fertilizer use through increasing demands for food and biofuels as population increases. Therefore, management of ammonia or abatement is necessary. Half of industrial ammonia production is eventually lost to the global environment with significant effects.

A multiplicative and a semi-mechanistic, BWB-type [Ball, J.T., Woodrow, I.E., Berry, J.A., 1987. A model predicting stomatal conductance and its contribution to the control of photosynthesis under different environmental conditions. In: Biggens, J. (Ed.), Progress in Photosynthesis Research, vol. IV. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp. 221-224.] algorithm for calculating stomatal conductance (gs) at the leaf level have been parameterised for two crop and two tree species to test their use in regional scale ozone deposition modelling. The algorithms were tested against measured, site-specific data for durum wheat, grapevine, beech and birch of different European provenances. A direct comparison of both algorithms showed a similar performance in predicting hourly means and daily time-courses of gs, whereas the multiplicative algorithm outperformed the BWB-type algorithm in modelling seasonal time-courses due to the inclusion of a phenology function. The re-parameterisation of the algorithms for local conditions in order to validate ozone deposition modelling on a European scale reveals the higher input requirements of the BWB-type algorithm as compared to the multiplicative algorithm because of the need of the former to model net photosynthesis (An).

Trends were found for increasing surface ozone concentrations during April-September in northern Sweden over the period 1990-2006 as well as for an earlier onset of vegetation growing season. The highest ozone concentrations in northern Sweden occurred in April and the ozone concentrations in April showed a strong increasing trend. A model simulation of ozone flux for Norway spruce indicated that the provisional ozone flux based critical level for forests in Europe is exceeded in northern Sweden. Future climate change would have counteracting effects on the stomatal conductance and needle ozone uptake, mediated on the one hand by direct effect of increasing air temperatures and on the other through increasing water vapour pressure difference between the needles and air. Thus, there is a substantial and increasing risk for negative impacts of ozone on vegetation in northern Sweden, related mainly to increasing ozone concentrations and an earlier onset of the growing season. Increasing risks for ozone impacts on vegetation in northern Sweden.

The efficiency of several lab scale treatments (aerobic, anaerobic and ozone or combination of these) was evaluated using two packaging board mill whitewaters. The effect of the different treatments on the elimination of the organic load, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the toxicity was tested as well as the relationship between these parameters. Biocides, phenolic compounds, surfactants, plasticiziers and wood extractives were identified in untreated and treated whitewaters by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) or gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A strong dependency on the water type and treatment efficiency was observed, being the combination of anaerobic and aerobic treatments the best option to reduce the organic contaminants in these waters, although in some cases, the toxicity did not decrease. However, ozone as post-treatment permitted a further reduction of organic compounds, toxicity and COD. Aerobic and anaerobic treatments remove organic compounds in paper mill effluents but toxicity remains.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were analysed in the muscle of various edible marine crustaceans (spider crab, edible crab, velvet swimming crab and Norway lobster) from the Brittany and Normandy coasts (France). The highest concentrations were measured in species collected from Antifer (Seine Bay). PCB and PBDE patterns in crustacean muscles were similar and independent of the geographical area with the predominance of the high chlorinated PCBs (CB 15 3, 138, 118 and 180), and of a few PBDE congeners (BDE47, BDE99, WE 100 and BDE28). Oppositely, dioxin contamination differed with site. The major component in crustaceans from the Seine Bay was 2378-TCDF, whereas specimens from cleaner areas had higher relative concentrations of OCDD. Finally, the comparison of the spider crab contaminant profiles to those measured in mussel and sea bass highlighted two different trends: decapod crustaceans possess relatively strong capacity to metabolise PCBs and PBDEs; however these species might be used as bioindicators for dioxin pollution monitoring in the marine coastal environment. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using recent indices developed, in part, for use under the European Water Framework Directive (AMBI, BENTIX, BOPA BQI, I2EC and the trophic index ITI), the ecological quality status of two highly contaminated environments-the Bay of Seine and the Seine estuary (Eastern English Channel)-was determined on several spatial and temporal scales. Data from 604 observations gathered over a 14-year period (1988-2002) were analyzed, and the results used to show the relationship between biotic indices, environmental variables and classic descriptors (e.g., number of species, total abundance, dominance index, ES(50) and Shannon/Brillouin diversities). Though the specific ecological quality (EcoQ) values calculated with the various indices were different, the overall trend of the results was similar. Synthesizing the values produced by the six indices used in the study allowed attribution of a high to good EcoQ status to the Bay of Seine and a moderate EcoQ to the estuary. The mesh size used when processing samples was proved to have no effect in winter on the EcoQ values for either body of water. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The life history of the European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) begins in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean where the Leptocephalus larvae drift with the gulf stream in order to reach European coastal waters. After their metamorphosis into transparent juveniles "glass" eels and an acclimatising phase in the estuaries, they migrate upstream into the rivers to become yellow eels (sub-adult stage). The yellow eels spend between 2 and 20 years of their lifetime in freshwater until they change into silver eels (adult stage) and finally migrate back to the Atlantic Ocean for spawning (Gomez-Mourelo, 2005). A. anguilla is thus an organism able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, such as variations in oxygen availability, different ranges of salinities and exposure to many anthropogenic compounds. In addition, it is a migratory, benthic and benthivorous species at the top of the food chain and is characterised by a high fat content (>30%). For all these reasons A. anguilla is prone to bioaccumulate a wide range of contaminants and it has been widely employed throughout the last years as a bioindicator of the pollution caused by metals (Batty et al., 1996; Has-Schön et al., 2006) and organic contaminants (Storelli et al., 2007; Yamaguchi et al., 2003). The environmental and toxicological impact of Hg bioaccumulation in fish is related to the methylation of inorganic mercury to form the more toxic methylmercury (MeHg) species. In this way, fish tend to concentrate in their tissues MeHg by a factor of 105-107, leading to dangerous levels even in areas with tolerable Hg concentrations (Mason et al. 1996). It has been reported that about 98% of the Hg present in aquatic systems is immobilised in the sediments (Stein et al., 1996) and that most of the MeHg is produced at the sediment water interface as a result of biotic or abiotic transformations caused by specific redox gradients and bacterial activity (Gilmour and Henry, 1998.). According to this, A. anguilla may be an effective biomagnificator and bioaccumulator of Hg due to its longevity during the continental development phase in freshwaters (where it forages and lives upwards 15 years) and its position at the top of the food chain as a carnivorous species feeding on the benthic fauna (Mancini et al., 2005).

On December 12th, 1999, the oil tanker Erika sank off the southern coast of Brittany (France), releasing 20 000–30 000 tons of heavy oil in the open sea. Among the affected coastal habitats were important nurseries for numerous flatfish species and particularly for the common sole, Solea solea. To investigate the potential impact of the spill on this economically significant resource, we employed Fry's concept of metabolic scope for activity to assess the deleterious effect of fuel exposure on the functional integrity of juvenile sole. Fish were captured from uncontaminated areas and experimentally exposed to contamination conditions mimicking those encountered during the weeks that followed the Erika spill. Using respirometry techniques we measured basal and active metabolic rates, and calculated aerobic metabolic scope, in control and fuel-exposed sole. We then compared the ability of control and fuel-exposed sole to face an episode of reduced oxygen availability. We found that whereas basal metabolic rate was not altered in fuel-exposed fish, active metabolic rate (−27%), and therefore aerobic metabolic scope, were impacted. These changes in metabolic scope were viewed as indicating changes in fishes' ability to face environmental contingencies. Finally the ability of sole to face an episode of reduced oxygen availability was found to be significantly altered following fuel exposure as indicated by a 65% increase in the critical oxygen level. It is concluded that fuel-exposed sole are functionally impaired and less able to face environmental challenges. The link between these results and the recently reported fall in the abundance of the year class that suffered the Erika oil spill is discussed.