National audience

Rising concern about agricultural non-print water pollution has led to the proposal of many regulatory measures. Agri-environmental programmes have been implemented in the different EU Member States according to the Commission regulation 2078/92. Best management practices, one of the most popular tools, have rarely been assessed in a fully satisfying way. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to provide planners in charge of the implementation of BMPs in the field of combating diffusion pollution either at a national or local scale, with both a guideline allowing the definition of critical areas on which efforts should be place in priority, and a selection grid permitting the assessment of BMPs in a three-dimensional space defined by environmental effectiveness, associated economic costs and social acceptability by farmers and land managers. Expectedd results should contribute to help Member States choosing the most appropriate measures and ways for an efficient implementation of BMPs, with the support of scientifically validated technical and economic recommendations. | Le principal objectif de ce projet est de procurer aux acteurs responsables de la lutte contre la pollution diffuse grâce aux meilleures pratiques de gestion une échelle nationale ou locale qui indique les zones prioritaires et l'évaluation des méthodes par l'efficacité environnementale, les coûts économiques associés et l'acceptation sociale de la part des agriculteurs et des gestionnaires des terres.

The treatment of polluted air by passing it through biological filters is proving more effective and less expensive than conventional physical and chemical technologies. This book overviews the major bioreactor designs currently available on the market. The first part explains the principles of the different techniques, followed by descriptions of full-scale bioreactor applications for each system. Topics of the 14 chapters include biotrickling filters, membrane bioreactors, rotating biological contactors, activated sludge, biofiltration of waste gases from a dairy industry, and a bioscrubber for cleaning waste gases from wastewater treatment plants. c. Book News Inc.

Marine pollution causes significant damage to fisheries and other economically productive uses of the ocean. The value of that damage can be quantified by economists, but the meanings of those valuations and how they are derived are often obscure to noneconomists. Economic Losses from Marine Pollution brings a fuller understanding of the variety and extent of marine losses and how they are assessed to scientists, lawyers, and environmentalists by systematically identifying and classifying marine losses and relating them to models and methods of economic valuation. The authors use a step-by-step approach to show how economists have used these methods and how they approach the problem of assessing economic damage. The book begins by describing the importance of economic valuation of marine damages, the history of concern over marine pollution, and the development of economic methodologies to assess damage from it. Following that, the book: considers types of marine pollution and their effects on organisms, ecosystems, and humans, and the corresponding economic effects of those biological impacts introduces the economic principles and methods needed to understand and to assess economic damages expresses losses from water quality impairments in terms of economic value introduces the basic economic techniques that have been developed and used to measure changes in economic value discusses how to apply those economic techniques, and presents a variety of practical examples explores limitations and problems that can arise in such applied work. Economic Losses from Marine Pollution includes all of the relevant economic theory together with specific examples of how that theory has been and can be applied. It offers environmental professionals with little or no background in economics the basic economic tools needed to understand economic valuations of environmental damage. --Publisher.

The odor emissions from three types of biosolidsfrom King County, WA, were measured usingdilution-to-threshold olfactometry and mass spectralanalyses. This article describes thermal desorption andcryogenic GC/MS methods developed to characterizeodorant emissions from biosolids application to forestsoil. The major odorous compounds volatilized from twoanaerobically digested biosolids were ammonia anddimethyl disulfide, with lesser quantities of carbondisulfide, dimethyl sulfide, trimethyl amine, acetoneand methyl ethyl ketone. A third type of biosolidswas formed by centrifuge and drying one of the otherbiosolids at 190 °C. This dry biosolids producedmore odor and volatilized a more complex array ofvolatile compounds including: dimethyl disulfide,dimethyl sulfide, carbon disulfide, methylethyldisulfide, methane thiol, trimethyl amine, aceticacid, propionic acid, and butyric acid. Odor unitemissions were not found to correlate with microbialactivity, initial biosolids ammonium, organicnitrogen, and total sulfur. Variability in odoremission were explained by the number of odorouscompounds volatilized from each material, surface areaof biosolids and drying of the biosolids.

Sludge from a wastewater treatment plant can be applied to soil to make use of its fertilizing properties, neverthelessit is necessary to study all the effects of this deposition to ascertain any possible hazardous properties. Interactions among the soil, the water, and a lime-stabilized waste watersludge were studied, both in batch experiments, and in columnpercolation experiments. Firstly a physico-chemical characterization of the soil and the sludge used for the experiments was carried out. This analysis included pH, organic matter, cation exchange capacity, metals and cations.The kinetics and equilibrium of the sludge-water and leachate-soil systems were studied in batch experiments; thekinetics were fitted to a first order differential equation and distribution coefficients were found for the equilibrium.Experiments in columns (10 cm diameter × 50 cm height) were carried out with a bed of sludge over a bed of soil usingdifferent sludge/soil ratios and then 6 L of water (rainfall)was poured over the beds. Results showed good adsorption of Ca and a complete leaching of the aqueous phase of this ion afterpassing a volume of water equivalent to three volumes of the column. The concentration of heavy metals (Zn, Ni, Hg, Cd, Pb and Cr) in the leachates did not reach the admissible legal limits (Spanish and European regulations) in any case.

This research was done on the effectof high concentration of negative ions in the air onchlorophyll contents and photosynthetic efficiency in leavesof Zea mays L. In vivo reflectance and chlorophyllfluorescence were measured in intact maize leaves before andafter exposing to the high concentration of negative ions inthe air. Reflectance, yield of chlorophyll fluorescence, redshift in chlorophyll fluorescence and blue shift inreflectance are observed in exposed species. These resultsindicate that high concentrations of negative ions inair cause significant change in: a) chlorophyll content andb) photosynthetic efficiency.

The effects of urea, (NH₄)₂SO₄, KNO₃, and NH₄NO₃ on nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission from soil at field capacity and submerged condition were studied during 120 days in the laboratory. Soils in both moisture regimes gave higher emissions in the beginning, which were reduced later. Total emission of N₂O was higher at submergence as compared to field capacity regardless of fertilizer type. At field capacity soil fertilized with ureaemitted the highest amount of N₂O (1903 μg N₂O-N kg⁻¹ soil) during 120 days while at submerged condition, soil with NH₄NO₃ gave the highest emission (4843 μg N₂O-N kg⁻¹ soil). In another study, the efficacy of seven nitrification inhibitors in reducing the emission of N₂O-N from soil fertilized with urea was tested in the laboratory. Nitrapyrin, 2-amino-4-chloro-6-methylpyrimidine (AM), and dicyandiamide (DCD) reduced the emission to 12, 24, and 63% that of urea, respectively, whereas sodium thiosulphate, sulphur, acetylene,and thiourea had no effect on emission of N₂O. In submerged conditions none of the inhibitors reduced the emission.

An elaborate cloud chemistry box model hasdeveloped in which gaseous-phase photochemistry iscoupled with aqueous-phase chemistry to investigate thevariation of ozone concentration and its distributionfeatures above and below cloud, and in its upper andlower part, with results compared to observations. Thecloud chemistry model is composed of three parts:gaseous-phase chemistry, aqueous-phase chemistry, andscavenging of soluble gases. The cloud influence on theozone concentration can be separated into three portions:1) the change of solar radiation flux by cloud which isresponsible for decreasing or increasing of photochemicalreaction in the troposphere and thus reducing orenhancing the concentration; 2) direct absorption ofozone and its precursors (NO ₓ, NMHC,free radicals, etc.) by in-cloud liquid water; 3)aqueous-phase chemical reaction happening to speciesabsorbed by cloud, responsible for the change in gaseous-phase ozone concentration. Numerical simulations showsubstantial difference in the importance regarding theeffect of these factors on ozone between these levels anda close relation of cloud physical structure to thefactors. The results agree well with the observations.