Towards an environmental quality standard (EQS) for lithium in fresh water.

Lithium (Li), because of its widespread and increasing use in Li-ion batteries, is an element of vital importance to the energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable energy (green energy). Extraction and refining operations, as well as utilisation in a growing number of applications, are expanding and thus increasing the environmental releases of Li. In order to evaluate consequences of such releases, and to risk assess the accumulation of Li in aquatic ecosystems, environmental quality standards (EQS) are needed so that measured concentrations can be evaluated.

Evaluating models of expert judgment to inform assessment of ecosystem viability and collapse.

Expert judgment underpins assessment of threatened ecosystems. However, experts are often narrowly defined, and variability in their judgments may be substantial. Models built from structured elicitation with large diverse expert panels can contribute to more consistent and transparent decision-making.

A Security Framework for Increasing Data and Device Integrity in Internet of Things Systems.

The trustworthiness of a system is not just about proving the identity or integrity of the hardware but also extends to the data, control, and management planes of communication between devices and the software they are running. This trust in data and device integrity is desirable for Internet of Things (IoT) systems, especially in critical environments. In this study, we developed a security framework, IoTAttest, for building IoT systems that leverage the Trusted Platform Module 2.

Microbial genome (Illumina MiSeq) sequencing of drinking water treatment residuals to evaluate compatibility with environmental applications.

The clarification of drinking water leads to the production of large quantities of water treatment residuals (WTRs). DNA was extracted from six WTR samples collected from water treatment plants within the UK to compare their bacterial communities and examine whether factors such as coagulant usage (aluminium versus iron salt), the type of water source (reservoir or river), or leachable chemical composition influence these communities. Bacterial 16S variable region 4 (V4) was amplified and sequenced using Illumina MiSeq sequencing.

The importance of expert selection when identifying threatened ecosystems.

Identifying threatened ecosystem types is fundamental to conservation and management decision-making. When identification relies on expert judgment, decisions are vulnerable to inconsistent outcomes and can lack transparency. We elicited judgements of the occurrence of a widespread, critically endangered Australian ecosystem from a diverse pool of 83 experts.

Evaluating land application of pulp and paper mill sludge: A review.

It is estimated that >400 Mt of board and paper are produced globally per year, and that 4.3-40 kg (dw) of sludge like material, pulp and paper mill sludge (PPMS), is generated for every tonne of product. PPMS are now more widely reused in agriculture as a soil amendment due to their high organic content of 40-50% by weight, perceived low toxicity and possible liming capabilities.

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of heavy metal contamination in church graveyards with contrasting soil types.

Human remains have been interred in burial grounds since historic times. Although the re-use of graveyards differs from one country, region or time period to another, over time, graveyard soil may become contaminated or enriched with heavy metal elements. This paper presents heavy metal element soil analysis from two UK church graveyard study sites with contrasting necrosols, but similar burial densities and known burial ages dating back to the sixteenth century and some possibly older than 1,000 years.

Assessing the Impacts of Land Spreading Water-Treatment Residuals on the Anecic Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris, Soil Microbial Activity, and Porewater Chemistry.

Water-treatment residuals (WTRs), by-products of drinking water clarification, are increasingly recycled to land to promote circular economy and reduce disposal costs, yet there is a lack of published literature on their effects on soil ecology. In the present study, the effects of WTRs on earthworm growth, soil respiration, and soil porewater chemistry were investigated throughout a 7-wk outdoor mesocosm trial. We derived WTRs from both aluminum and iron coagulants and applied them to a loam soil at 0 to 20% (w/w).

Reference state and benchmark concepts for better biodiversity conservation in contemporary ecosystems.

Measuring the status and trends of biodiversity is critical for making informed decisions about the conservation, management or restoration of species, habitats and ecosystems. Defining the reference state against which status and change are measured is essential. Typically, reference states describe historical conditions, yet historical conditions are challenging to quantify, may be difficult to falsify, and may no longer be an attainable target in a contemporary ecosystem.

Mine spoil remediation via biochar addition to immobilise potentially toxic elements and promote plant growth for phytostabilisation.

There are thousands of disused and abandoned mining sites around the world with substantial accumulations of exposed mine spoil materials that pose a direct threat to their surrounding environment. Management of such sites, and neutralisation of the environmental threats they pose, is therefore extremely important and is an issue of global significance. Low cost management and remediation strategies need to be developed because many abandoned mine sites are in remote and/or economically challenged areas.

Trialling Water-Treatment Residuals in the Remediation of Former Mine Site Soils: Investigating Improvements Achieved for Plants, Earthworms, and Soil Solution.

During clarification processes of raw water, a vast amount of by-product known as "drinking water-treatment residuals" (WTRs) are produced, being principally composed of hydroxides of the Al or Fe salts added during water treatment plus the impurities they remove. Aluminum-based (Al-WTR) and iron-based (Fe-WTR) materials were applied at 10% w/w to degraded, bare (unvegetated) soils from a restored coal mining site in central England (pH <3.9) to study their potential amelioration effects on earthworm mortality, biomass yield of seedling plants, and element concentrations in plant tissues, earthworm tissues, and soil solutions.

Modeling biodiversity benchmarks in variable environments.

Effective environmental assessment and management requires quantifiable biodiversity targets. Biodiversity benchmarks define these targets by focusing on specific biodiversity metrics, such as species richness. However, setting fixed targets can be challenging because many biodiversity metrics are highly variable, both spatially and temporally.

Expert predictions of changes in vegetation condition reveal perceived risks in biodiversity offsetting.

Biodiversity offsetting typically involves the trade of certain losses of habitat with uncertain future conservation benefits. Predicting the latter requires estimates of two outcomes; the biodiversity losses without conservation management (averted loss), and the biodiversity gains with conservation management (management gain). However, because empirical data to inform these estimates are limited, they are normally guided by expert opinion, often derived via unstructured methods without consideration of uncertainty.

Ecotoxicological assessments of biochar additions to soil employing earthworm species Eisenia fetida and Lumbricus terrestris.

Biochar is the degradation-resistant product generated by the pyrolysis of organic materials and is produced for the intended use of land application in order to promote carbon sequestration and soil improvement. However, despite the many potential benefits biochar application offers, it is important to quantify any ecological impacts that may result from soil amendment in order to avoid potentially causing negative effects upon soil biota which are crucial in the many ecosystem services provided by soil. Any impacts on earthworms in particular are important to evaluate because of their pivotal role in organic matter breakdown, nutrient cycling and soil formation.

Aridity and land use negatively influence a dominant species' upper critical thermal limits.

Understanding the physiological tolerances of ectotherms, such as thermal limits, is important in predicting biotic responses to climate change. However, it is even more important to examine these impacts alongside those from other landscape changes: such as the reduction of native vegetation cover, landscape fragmentation and changes in land use intensity (LUI). Here, we integrate the observed thermal limits of the dominant and ubiquitous meat ant across climate (aridity), land cover and land use gradients spanning 270 km in length and 840 m in altitude across northern New South Wales, Australia.

Water treatment residuals as soil amendments: Examining element extractability, soil porewater concentrations and effects on earthworm behaviour and survival.

Drinking water treatment residuals (WTRs), the by-product of water clarification processes, are routinely disposed of via landfill however there is a growing body of research that demonstrates the material has great potential for beneficial use in environmental applications. Application to agricultural land is one option showing great promise (i.e.

Effects of climate legacies on above- and belowground community assembly.

The role of climatic legacies in regulating community assembly of above- and belowground species in terrestrial ecosystems remains largely unexplored and poorly understood. Here, we report on two separate regional and continental empirical studies, including >500 locations, aiming to identify the relative importance of climatic legacies (climatic anomaly over the last 20,000 years) compared to current climates in predicting the relative abundance of ecological clusters formed by species strongly co-occurring within two independent above- and belowground networks. Climatic legacies explained a significant portion of the variation in the current community assembly of terrestrial ecosystems (up to 15.

Evaluating cadmium bioavailability in contaminated rice paddy soils and assessing potential for contaminant immobilisation with biochar.

Cadmium (Cd) contaminated soils from the Mae Sot district in northwest Thailand, a region in which rice Cd concentrations often exceed health limits (0.4 mg/kg) set by the World Health Organisation, were examined for isotopically exchangeable Cd (Cd E values using a Cd spike) to determine how this rates as a predictor of rice grain Cd in comparison with soil total Cd and solution extractable Cd (using the commonly applied BCR scheme and, in an attempt to distinguish carbonate bound forms, the Tessier soil sequential extraction scheme reagents). Step 1 of the BCR scheme (0.

Competition drives the response of soil microbial diversity to increased grazing by vertebrate herbivores.

Scientists have largely neglected the effects of grazing on soil microbial communities despite their importance as drivers of ecosystem functions and services. We hypothesized that changes in soil properties resulting from grazing regulate the diversity of soil microbes by releasing/suppressing subordinate microbial taxa via competition. To test this, we examined how intensity of vertebrate herbivores influences the diversity and composition of soil bacteria and fungi at 216 soil samples from 54 sites across four microsites.

Lipid increases in European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in Scotland 1986-2008: an assessment of physical parameters and the influence of organic pollutants.

Recruitment of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has fallen steadily in recent decades, with current levels understood to be at around 5% of those in the 1970s, and the species is now widely recognised as being endangered. Changes in ocean currents, climate shifts, habitat loss, overfishing, barriers to migration, increased predation, plastic litter and exposure to chemicals have all been postulated as potential causative factors. Several studies have shown a general decline in eel quality (lower lipid content and body condition) over time that may be linked to reduced reproductive success.

Should a water colour parameter be included in lake total phosphorus prediction models used for the Water Framework Directive?

Under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) lakes are classified according to a variety of criteria. This classification facilitates state of the environment assessments and helps identify work needed to achieve the objectives of the WFD, which are broadly to maintain and/or restore water quality and ecological status at a level recognised as good or high. To achieve high or good status, lakes must meet a criterion for total phosphorus (TP) that is linked to a predicted reference condition value that is derived by various models.

Geochemical associations and availability of cadmium (Cd) in a paddy field system, northwestern Thailand.

The Mae Tao watershed, northwest Thailand, has become contaminated with cadmium (Cd) as a result of zinc ore extraction (Padaeng deposit) in the nearby Thanon-Thongchai mountains. Consumption of contaminated rice has led to documented human health impacts. The aim of this study was to elucidate transfer pathways from creek and canal waters to the paddy field soils near Baan Mae Tao Mai village and to determine the relationship between Cd speciation in the soil and uptake by rice plants.

Aging of nickel added to soils as predicted by soil pH and time.

Although aging processes are important in risk assessment for metals in soils, the aging of Ni added to soils has not been studied in detail. In this study, after addition of water soluble Ni to soils, the changes over time in isotopic exchangeability, total concentrations and free Ni(2+) activity in soil pore water, were investigated in 16 European soils incubated outdoors for 18 months. The results showed that after Ni addition, concentrations of Ni in soil pore water and isotopic exchangeability of Ni in soils initially decreased rapidly.

Investigating the significance of dissolved organic contaminants in aquatic environments: coupling passive sampling with in vitro bioassays.

We investigated the feasibility of coupling passive sampling and in vitro bioassay techniques for both chemical and ecotoxicological assessment of complex mixtures of organic contaminants in water. Silicone rubber passive sampling devices (SR-PSDs) were deployed for 8-9 weeks in four streams and an estuary of an agricultural catchment in North East (NE) Scotland. Extracts from the SR-PSDs were analysed for freely dissolved hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) and screened for wide range of pesticides.