Pangasius production in Vietnam is widely known as a success story in aquaculture, the fastest growing global food system because of its tremendous expansion by volume, value and the number of international markets to which Pangasius has been exported in recent years. While certification schemes are becoming significant features of international fish trade and marketing, an increasing number of Pangasius producers have followed at least one of the certification schemes recognised by international markets to incorporate environmental and social sustainability practices in aquaculture, typically the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue (PAD) scheme certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). An assessment of the environmental benefit of applying certification schemes on Pangasius production, however, is still needed. This article compared the environmental impact of ASC-certified versus non-ASC certified intensive Pangasius aquaculture, using a statistically supported LCA. We focused on both resource-related (water, land and total resources) and emissions-related (global warming, acidification, freshwater and marine eutrophication) categories. The ASC certification scheme was shown to be a good approach for determining adequate environmental sustainability, especially concerning emissions-related categories, in Pangasius production. However, the non-ASC certified farms, due to the large spread, the impact (e.g., water resources and freshwater eutrophication) was possibly lower for a certain farm. However, this result was not generally prominent. Further improvements in intensive Pangasius production to inspire certification schemes are proposed, e.g., making the implementation of certification schemes more affordable, well-oriented and facilitated; reducing consumed feed amounts and of the incorporated share in fishmeal, especially domestic fishmeal, etc. However, their implementation should be vetted with key stakeholders to assess their feasibility.

The effects of polystyrene microbeads (micro-PS; mix of 2 and 6 μm; final concentration: 32 μg L−1) alone or in combination with fluoranthene (30 μg L−1) on marine mussels Mytilus spp. were investigated after 7 days of exposure and 7 days of depuration under controlled laboratory conditions. Overall, fluoranthene was mostly associated to algae Chaetoceros muelleri (partition coefficient Log Kp = 4.8) used as a food source for mussels during the experiment. When micro-PS were added in the system, a fraction of FLU transferred from the algae to the microbeads as suggested by the higher partition coefficient of micro-PS (Log Kp = 6.6), which confirmed a high affinity of fluoranthene for polystyrene microparticles. However, this did not lead to a modification of fluoranthene bioaccumulation in exposed individuals, suggesting that micro-PS had a minor role in transferring fluoranthene to mussels tissues in comparison with waterborne and foodborne exposures. After depuration, a higher fluoranthene concentration was detected in mussels exposed to micro-PS and fluoranthene, as compared to mussels exposed to fluoranthene alone. This may be related to direct effect of micro-PS on detoxification mechanisms, as suggested by a down regulation of a P-glycoprotein involved in pollutant excretion, but other factors such as an impairment of the filtration activity or presence of remaining beads in the gut cannot be excluded. Micro-PS alone led to an increase in hemocyte mortality and triggered substantial modulation of cellular oxidative balance: increase in reactive oxygen species production in hemocytes and enhancement of anti-oxidant and glutathione-related enzymes in mussel tissues. Highest histopathological damages and levels of anti-oxidant markers were observed in mussels exposed to micro-PS together with fluoranthene. Overall these results suggest that under the experimental conditions of our study micro-PS led to direct toxic effects at tissue, cellular and molecular levels, and modulated fluoranthene kinetics and toxicity in marine mussels.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Ecotechnologies [TR1_IRSTEA]TED | International audience | The German guidelinefor the dimensioning, construction, and operation of constructed wetlands for biological treatment of domestic and municipal wastewater, which last published in March 2006, has recently been revised. The guideline applies to small wastewater treatment systems of less than 50 Person Equivalents (PE), municipal treatment plants up to 1.000 – 3.000 PE (with combined or separated sewers), treatment systems which use constructed wetlands as a polishing step, and small wastewater treatment systems which are operated seasonally (summer months only).The revision is based on a wide range of experience gained in recent years in the use of treatment wetlands in Germany and in Europe. Previous to the revisions, the proposed changes were discussed in a public hearing in Potsdam, Germany in January 2014. The final revisions were released for public review in October 2015. The finalized document is anticipated to be put into effect in April, 2016. A number of constructed wetland designs appear for the first time in the new guideline. Two-stage unsaturated vertical flow gravel filters which receive raw wastewater in the first stage (based on experience in France) as well as two-stage unsaturated vertical flow filters receiving primarytreated wastewater (based on experience in Austria) are now included. The revisions also include new dimensioning for unsaturated vertical flow filters with lava sand as the main treatment media, as well as aerated treatment wetlands, both as secondary treatment steps. Recommendations are also provided for seasonally operated constructed wetlands, as well as constructed wetlands for graywater treatment. With the publication of the new guideline, horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands are no longer supported as a secondary treatment stage in Germany, and are recommended only as a tertiary or polishing stage. Existing horizontal subsurface flow wetlands are allowed to continue operation, provided the systems are not hydraulically or organically overloaded, and that they continue to receive routine operations and maintenance. This presentation will outline the key points of the newly revised DWA-A 262 German constructed wetland guideline.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Ecotechnologies [TR1_IRSTEA]TED | International audience | Constructed wetlands for combined sewer overflow treatment (CSO CWs) are variably saturated vertical flow filters in France. The design-support software Orage aims to facilitate engineering work by optimizing filter area and material sitespecifically which was otherwise encumbered by the stochasticity of CSO flows and concentrations. The optimization process relies on measured or simulated CSO series and a low number of input parameters. The iterative shell calls the core model repetitively. During the process, effluent flows and concentrations are simulated from a range of CW domains and compared to legislative thresholds. The iterative shell was tested both with measured and simulated inflows. First, key parameters of the hydraulic optimization were fixed. Large and underscaled designs are excluded this way and succeeding optimizations for pollutant removal are more efficient. Then, the optimization functions were verified using inflow and available land from an existing CSO CW. At third, the automatizations were used to test model predictions in the function of legislative thresholds. Zeolite-enriched media ensures high NH4-N removal at hydraulic loads exceeding the recommendations of present guidelines, marking clogging as an issue for further research. In summary, the demonstrated simulation experiments verified the optimization approach of the dynamic design tool Orage.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Ecotechnologies [TR1_IRSTEA]TED | International audience | The French Overseas Territories experience big sanitations problems and have to comply with both French and EU regulations. Vertical flow constructed wetland (VFCW) appear well adapted to the context of these regions, but their adaptation to tropical climate requires new guidelines to be defined (area needed, number of filters, species of plants, material to be used …). To this end ATTENTIVE project was build up in the French Antilles with local water offices and supported by the national water authorities. Three different VFCW fed with raw wastewater were built in Martinique and Guadeloupe and are now under monitoring. While the 3 plants are actually in operation, this paper will focus on Taupinière plant (Martinique), sized for 900 p.e., in operation since October 2014. The treatment plant is composed of aunsaturated/saturated vertical flow constructed wetland, receiving raw domestic wastewaters, followed by a simplified trickling filter.The first stage is 0,8m²/p.e. with two filters in parallel (360 m² each), with a 40 cm unsaturated first layer of 2/4 mm gravel, a 15 cm transition layer of 11/22 with intermediate passive aeration pipes and a 60 cm saturated layer at the bottom made of 20/40 pea gravel. The trickling filter(116 m²)is composed of 150 cm of pumice stones. The sludge accumulated at the bottom of the trickling filter is sent back to the first stage.A recirculation loop is implemented on the trickling filter. Before the outlet, effluent passes through UV. The regulationobjectives is to achieve 90% removal for COD, BOD5 and TSS, 80% for TKN, and less than 1000 unit per 100 mL for E.coli and intestinal streptococcus. Nevertheless, the monitoring look after optimal operation to increase TN removal rates as well as the maximum loads that can be treated. The monitoring consists on classical daily composite samples at each treatment stages (30 campaigns) as well as online measurements. The later aim at measuring flows, climatic conditions, and COD, BOD5, and Nitrate (UV/visible analysis) at each treatment stages. Three different loading phases has been implemented from 30 % of the nominal load to 150 %. The paper will present performances of this compact (less than 1 m²/p.e.) treatment system in both dry and rainy season and discuss the optimization of TN removal as well as the footprint reduction with the high loads that can be implemented.

International audience | In estuarine ecosystems, metallic and organic contaminants are mainly associated with fine grain sediments which settle on mudflats. Over time, the layers of sediment accumulate and are then transformed by diagenetic processes mainly controlled by microbial activity, recording the history of the estuary's chemical contamination. In an environment of this specific type, we investigated the evolution of the chemical contamination and the structure of both total and active microbial communities, based on PhyloChip analysis of a 4.6-m core corresponding to a 40-year sedimentary record. While the archaeal abundance remained constant along the core, a decrease by one order of magnitude in the bacterial abundance was observed with depth. Both total and active microbial communities were dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes in all sediment samples. Among Proteobacteria, alpha-Proteobacteria dominated both total (from 37 to 60 %) and metabolically active (from 19.7 to 34.6 %) communities, including the Rhizobiales, Rhodobacter, Caulobacterales, and Sphingomonadales orders. Co-inertia analysis revealed a relationship between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, zinc and some polychlorobiphenyls concentrations, and the structure of total and active microbial communities in the oldest and most contaminated sediments (from 1970 to 1975), suggesting that long-term exposure to chemicals shaped the structure of the microbial community.

International audience | Crossed effects between climate change and chemical pollutions were identified on community structure and ecosystem functioning. Temperature rising affects the toxic properties of pollutants and the sensitiveness of organisms to chemicals stress. Inversely, chemical exposure may decrease the capacity of organisms to respond to environmental changes. The aim of our study was to assess the individual and crossed effects of temperature rising and pesticide contamination on fish. Goldfish, Carassius auratus, were exposed during 96 h at two temperatures (22 and 32 °C) to a mixture of common pesticides (S-metolachlor, isoproturon, linuron, atrazine- desethyl, aclonifen, pendimethalin, and tebuconazol) at two environmentally relevant concentrations (total concentrations MIX1=8.4 μg L−1 and MIX2=42 μg L−1). We investigated the sediment reworking behavior, which has a major ecological functional role. We also focused on three physiological traits from the cellular up to the whole individual level showing metabolic status of fish (protein concentration in liver and muscle, hepatosomatic index, and Fulton’s condition factor). Individual thermal stress and low concentrations of pesticides decreased the sediment reworking activity of fish and entrained metabolic compensation with global depletion in energy stores. We found that combined chemical and thermal stresses impaired the capacity of fish to set up an efficient adaptive response. Our results strongly suggest that temperature will make fish more sensitive to water contamination by pesticides, raising concerns about wild fish conservation submitted to global changes.

Adding fertiliser to sediments is an established way of studying the effects of eutrophication but a lack of consistent methodology, reporting on enrichment levels, or guidance on application rates precludes rigorous synthesis and meta-analysis. We developed a simple enrichment technique then applied it to 28 sites across an intertidal sandflat. Fertiliser application rates of 150 and 600 g N m−2 resulted in pore water ammonium concentrations respectively 1–110 and 4–580 × ambient, with greater elevations observed in deeper (5–7 cm) than surface (0–2 cm) sediments. These enrichment levels were similar to eutrophic estuaries and were maintained for at least seven weeks. The high between-site variability could be partially explained by the sedimentary environment and macrofaunal community (42%), but only at the high application rate. We suggest future enrichment studies should be conducted in situ across large environmental gradients to incorporate real world complexity and increase generality of conclusions.

Passive sampling devices (PS) are widely used for pollutant monitoring in water, but estimation of measurement uncertainties by PS has seldom been undertaken. The aim of this work was to identify key parameters governing PS measurements of metals and their dispersion. We report the results of an in situ intercomparison exercise on diffusive gradient in thin films (DGT) in surface waters. Interlaboratory uncertainties of time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations were satisfactory (from 28% to 112%) given the number of participating laboratories (10) and ultra-trace metal concentrations involved. Data dispersion of TWA concentrations was mainly explained by uncertainties generated during DGT handling and analytical procedure steps. We highlight that DGT handling is critical for metals such as Cd, Cr and Zn, implying that DGT assembly/dismantling should be performed in very clean conditions. Using a unique dataset, we demonstrated that DGT markedly lowered the LOQ in comparison to spot sampling and stressed the need for accurate data calculation.

Although nanoparticles are increasingly investigated, their impact on the availability of food (i.e., algae) at the bottom of food chains remains unclear. It is, however, assumed that algae, which form heteroagglomerates with nanoparticles, sediment quickly limiting the availability of food for primary consumers such as Daphnia magna. As a consequence, it may be hypothesized that this scenario – in case of fundamental importance for the nanoparticles impact on primary consumers – induces a similar pattern in the life history strategy of daphnids relative to situations of food depletion. To test this hypothesis, the present study compared the life-history strategy of D. magna experiencing different degrees of food limitation as a consequence of variable algal density with daphnids fed with heteroagglomerates composed of algae and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nTiO2). In contrast to the hypothesis, daphnids’ body length, weight, and reproduction increased when fed with these heteroagglomerates, while the opposite pattern was observed under food limitation scenarios. Moreover, juvenile body mass, and partly length, was affected negatively irrespective of the scenarios. This suggests that daphnids experienced – besides a limitation in the food availability – additional stress when fed with heteroagglomerates composed of algae and nTiO2. Potential explanations include modifications in the nutritious quality of algae but also an early exposure of juveniles to nTiO2.