Journal: Journal of Environmental Management

Abbreviation

J. environ. manag.

Publisher

Elsevier

Journal Volumes

ISSN

0301-4797
1095-8630

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Publications 1 - 10 of 89
  • An open-source method for spatially and temporally explicit herbivory monitoring in semi-arid savannas
    Item type: Journal Article
    Weber, Manuel; Strijbis, Jonathan; Osner, Nicholas; et al. (2025)
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Effective management of protected areas is crucial for addressing the global biodiversity crisis. In water-limited savannas, altered herbivory regimes contribute to ecosystem degradation, creating a need for tools to track herbivore impact on vegetation. Here, we present the Spatially and Temporally Explicit Herbivory Monitoring (STEHM) tool, a novel methodology for monitoring herbivory pressure in near real-time. This approach combines herbivore abundance estimates, derived using a detection algorithm (YOLO v10) performed on imagery collected with camera traps placed at waterpoints across protected areas, with satellite imagery (Sentinel-2) to classify vegetation cover. STEHM enables weekly herbivory assessments, facilitating adaptive herbivore management at scales down to a few square kilometers. By linking herbivore dynamics to surface water availability—a primary factor influencing large herbivore distributions—STEHM provides a framework to disentangle ecological drivers of plant-herbivore interactions. Over one year, we collected and applied STEHM to a total of 2,275,309 individual camera trap images across two case study sites in northern Namibia, leading to the detection of 100,826 waterpoint visits by ten focal species. These observations revealed consistent differences in herbivory pressure between waterpoints, with some areas experiencing concentrated pressure, and a seasonal decline in less water-dependent species during the rainy season, while water-dependent species remained present. Findings indicate that water availability manipulation can alleviate pressure in high-impact areas as non-selective grazers shift to other waterpoints. This refined monitoring capability supports adaptive conservation strategies, providing spatially explicit, near real-time data on herbivore densities to enable targeted management and promote savanna restoration.
  • Exchangeable Sodium Percentage decrease in saline sodic soil after Basic Oxygen Furnace Slag application in a lysimeter trial
    Item type: Journal Article
    Pistocchi, Chiara; Ragaglini, Giorgio; Colla, Valentina; et al. (2017)
    Journal of Environmental Management
  • Application of biological early warning systems in wastewater treatment plants: Introducing a promising approach to monitor changing wastewater composition
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kizgin, Ali; Schmidt, Danina; Joss, Adriano; et al. (2023)
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a major source of micropollutants to surface waters. Currently, their chemical or biological monitoring is realized by using grab or composite samples, which provides only snapshots of the current wastewater composition. Especially in WWTPs with industrial input, the wastewater composition can be highly variable and a continuous assessment would be advantageous, but very labor and cost intensive. A promising concept are automated real-time biological early warning systems (BEWS), where living organisms are constantly exposed to the water and an alarm is triggered if the organism's responses exceed a harmful threshold of acute toxicity. Currently, BEWS are established for drinking water and surface water but are seldom applied to monitor wastewater. This study demonstrates that a battery of BEWS using algae (Chlorella vulgaris in the Algae Toximeter, bbe Moldaenke), water flea (Daphnia magna in the DaphTox II, bbe Moldaenke) and gammarids (Gammarus pulex in the Sensaguard, REMONDIS Aqua) can be adapted for wastewater surveillance. For continuous low-maintenance operation, a back-washable membrane filtration system is indispensable for adequate preparation of treated wastewater. Only minor deviations in the reaction of the organisms towards treated and filtered wastewater compared to surface waters were detected. After spiking treated wastewater with two concentrations of the model compounds diuron, chlorpyrifos methyl, and sertraline, the organisms in the different BEWS showed clear responses depending on the respective compound, concentration and mode of action. Immediate effects on photosynthetic activity of algae were detected for diuron exposure, and strong behavioral changes in water flea and gammarids after exposure to chlorpyrifos methyl or sertraline were observed, which triggered automated alarms. Different types of data analysis were applied to extract more information out of the specific behavioral traits, than only provided by the vendors algorithms. To investigate, whether behavioral movement changes can be linked to impact other endpoints, the effects on feeding activity of G. pulex were evaluated and results indicated significant differences between the exposures. Overall, these findings provide an important basis indicating that BEWS have the potential to act as alarm systems for pollution events in the wastewater sector.
  • Characterization of the dynamic aging and leached dissolved organic carbon from biodegradable and conventional plastics under photooxidation
    Item type: Journal Article
    Yu, Yue; Yao, Yu; Adyel, Tanveer Mehedi; et al. (2024)
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Biodegradable plastics have been regarded as promising candidates in the struggle against plastic pollution. However, the aging and dynamic leaching process of biodegradable and conventional plastics under photooxidation is still unclear. Herein, three types of non-biodegradable plastics (polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyethylene terephthalate), and two types of biodegradable plastics (polylactic acid and cornstarch-based plastics) were treated with 21 days of photooxidation followed by 13 days of dark conditions. Scanning electron microscopy was applied to display the morphological changes. Also, the carbonyl index, oxygen-to-carbon ratio, and contact angle were utilized to characterize the aging degree of the plastic surface. Unexpectedly, biodegradable plastics did not always display a greater aging degree than non-biodegradable plastics. Moreover, the dissolved organic carbon during the leaching process was identified using excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy. The findings suggested that biodegradable plastics showed the potential to release more dissolved organic carbon. Particularly, the polylactic acid plastic displayed higher concentrations and more types of dissolved organic carbon release than that of conventional plastics in our experiment. This research highlights the necessity for monitoring the aging process of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastics and the non-negligible ecological risk of leached organic pollutants due to plastic degradation.
  • Physical properties of food waste influence the efficiency of black soldier fly larvae bioconversion via microbial activity
    Item type: Journal Article
    Fuhrmann, Adrian Julius; Gold, Moritz; Loh Ker, Rebecca; et al. (2025)
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Black soldier fly larvae bioconversion is an emerging industrial technology for more sustainable waste management and feed production. Recycling heterogenous food waste using the larvae can present challenges, including excessive heat production, variable CO2 emissions, and low bioconversion efficiency. This study investigated how ascending levels of food waste bulk density affect microbial activity, temperature, CO2 emissions, and bioconversion efficiency. A 7-day feeding trial was conducted, using industrial rearing crates (10,800 larvae, 25 mg dry food waste larva−1 day−1) in respiration chambers. Three food waste bulk densities were created with cocopeat (0.8 g cm−3, 0.6 g cm−3, 0.5 g cm−3), while keeping food waste quantity and moisture constant. Substrate temperature, larval and microbial CO2 production, dry larval mass, and microbial abundance (quantitative PCR) were monitored. Food waste bulk density impacted the bioconversion strongly. With the lowest bulk density, the bioconversion rate dropped by 19 percentage-points, the average temperature rose by 8.8 °C, and microbial CO2 increased by up to 229 %. An initial spike in microbial CO2 coincided with fungal growth that was replaced by bacterial growth after day 2. The results suggested that food waste with a lower bulk density is better aerated, promoting CO2 emissions and heat generation through microbial activity. These findings demonstrate how modifications of the bulk density can regulate CO2 emissions, heat production and the bioconversion efficiency of black soldier fly larvae systems. We discuss the resulting potential solutions towards a more sustainable and efficient industrial waste management.
  • Bioavailability and phyto-extractability of metals in a peat-amended agricultural soil under climate stress
    Item type: Journal Article
    Sánchez , Natalia; Merbach , Ines; Drabesch , Sören; et al. (2025)
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Climate-induced mobilization of harmful metals in soils with a pH below 7 threatens food safety through plant uptake. While organic amendments like peat are known to immobilize metals, it remains unclear how their immobilization effectiveness changes under future climate scenarios and whether there is an optimal amendment threshold before immobilization turns into re-mobilization. This study assessed how varying peat input levels (3, 5 and 8 %) and projected climatic conditions (+4 °C, +320 ppmv CO2) affect metal fractionation, bioavailability, and uptake by a metal-tolerant plant in historically contaminated soils. Intermediate 5 % peat levels enhanced metal immobilization via organic matter complexation, reducing exchangeable Zn and Cd ∼2-fold compared to 3 % peat, despite acidification. At high 8 % peat input, a 0.65-unit pH decline and increased dissolved organic matter reversed this trend, increasing exchangeable Zn and Cd > 2-fold relative to 5 % peat. Chemical equilibrium modeling (WHAM VII) confirmed greater metal complexation with dissolved organic matter at higher 5–8 % peat levels. Under future climatic conditions—elevated temperature and CO2—metal immobilization improved at low 3 % peat input, likely due to stable organic matter and functional group buffering. Nevertheless, metal re-mobilization occurred at higher peat inputs, likely due to enhanced peat decomposition. Despite these variations, plant Cd uptake remained low across peat and climate treatments. This emphasizes peat's protective role against Cd while maintaining the plant's nutritional status for Zn. This study highlights the dual effects of peat amendments: intermediate levels optimize metal immobilization, but excessive amendments may destabilize harmful metals, especially under future conditions.
  • A comparison study of two different control criteria for the real-time management of urban groundwater works
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bauser, Gero; Hendricks Franssen, Harrie-Jan; Stauffer, Fritz; et al. (2012)
    Journal of Environmental Management
  • Implementing Landscape Fragmentation as an Indicator in the Swiss Monitoring System of Sustainable Development (Monet)
    Item type: Journal Article
    Jaeger, Jochen A.G.; Bertiller, René; Schwick, Christian; et al. (2008)
    Journal of Environmental Management
  • Personal, social, and situational factors influencing the consumption of drinking water from arsenic-safe deep tubewells in Bangladesh
    Item type: Journal Article
    Mosler, Hans-Joachim; Blöchliger, Olivia R.; Inauen, Jennifer (2010)
    Journal of Environmental Management
  • Reconciling cities with nature: Identifying local Blue-Green Infrastructure interventions for regional biodiversity enhancement
    Item type: Journal Article
    Donati, Giulia F.A.; Bolliger, Janine; Psomas, Achilleas; et al. (2022)
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Increasing urbanization degrades quantity, quality, and the functionality of spatial cohesion of natural areas essential to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning worldwide. The uncontrolled pace of building activity and the erosion of blue (i.e., aquatic) and green (i.e., terrestrial) landscape elements threaten existing habitat ranges and movability of wildlife. Local scale measures, such as nature-inspired engineered Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) are emerging mitigation solutions. Originally planned to promote sustainable stormwater management, adaptation to climate change and improved human livability in cities, such instruments offer interesting synergies for biodiversity in support of existing ecological infrastructure. BGI are especially appealing for globally declining amphibians, a rich and diverse vertebrate assemblage sensitive to urbanization. We integrated biological and highly resolved urban-rural land-cover data, ensemble models of habitat suitability, and connectivity models based on circuit theory to improve multi-scale and multi-species protection of core habitats and ecological corridors in the Swiss lowlands. Considering a broad spectrum of amphibian biodiversity, we identified distributions of amphibian biodiversity hotspots and four landscape elements essential to amphibian movability at the regional scale, namely i) forest edges, ii) wet-forest habitats, iii) soils with variable moisture and iv) riparian zones. Our work shows that cities can make a substantial contribution (e.g., up to 15% of urban space in the study area) to wider landscape habitat connectivity. We highlight the importance of planning BGI locally in strategic locations across urban and peri-urban areas to promote the permeability and availability of ‘stepping stone’ habitats in densely populated landscapes, essential to the maintenance of regional habitat connectivity and thereby enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Publications 1 - 10 of 89