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Food Waste Governance Architectures in Europe: Actors, Steering Modes, and Harmonization Trends
Full text linkThe scale of food waste across Europe is alarming, and its reduction is becoming an important public policy and governance issue. Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 constitutes a global attempt to galvanize system-level reductions. In response, layers of varied regulation and governance at regional and national levels have emerged. This paper studies the types of governance architectures visible across Europe, what policy interventions they bring, and whether responses to the food waste challenge are converging. It looks at four leading food waste jurisdictions—France, England, Norway, and Italy—and investigates the hidden realities obscured by the simplistic division of legislative/top-down versus voluntary/bottom-up approaches. It applies a governance matrix to understand the variety of food waste “steering modes”, exploring both the extent to which a regime is hierarchical and/or non-hierarchical and why. Notably, the paper also identifies some general tendencies in food waste governance, including legislative threats, challenges in distributing responsibility across the actors, focus on “low hanging fruits”, and an overall harmonization of policy responses in a neoliberal paradigm, with redistribution often pursued as a panacea for the food waste crisis.publishedVersio
Microplastic fate in Arctic coastal waters: accumulation hotspots and role of rivers in Svalbard
Full text linkLittle is known about the role of remote and sparsely populated Arctic coastal zones in the microplastic cycle. Distribution of microplastics was studied in the Svalbard fjords in June – July 2022 with the main goal of assessing rivers’ role in the fate of microplastic in Arctic coastal waters. Surface microplastics (0 – 20 cm depth, 500 – 5000 µm size) were sampled with a neuston net in triplicate per study site in parallel with sampling of subsurface microplastics with a pump system (1.5 m depth, 100 – 5000 µm size). The central part of Isfjorden and its several branches covering populated and unpopulated fjords were studied; the sampling was conducted during an intense riverine discharge in all studied sites. Maximum abundance of surface microplastics (71,400 items/km2 or 0.19 iterms/m3, 0.19 mg/m3) was found along the river plume border in the middle of populated Adventfjorden indicating importance of both local sources and surface hydrodynamics in the formation of microplastics accumulation hotspots. All other unpopulated fjords were free of the floating on the sea surface microplastics as river discharge prevented transport of microplastics inside the fjords. The highest concentration of subsurface microplastics was found in the central part of Isfjorden and the lowest – in river plume waters, which also indicates the removal of microplastics from the inner part of fjords during an intensive river discharge. Our results may suggest that Arctic rivers flowing through unpopulated areas bring clean water and thereby reduce level of microplastic pollution in the coastal waters. In contrast to the rest of the world’s ocean, rivers are not the main source of microplastic pollution in the Arctic Ocean.publishedVersio
SOLA: dissecting dose-response patterns in multi-omics data using a semi-supervised workflow
Full text linkAn increasing number of ecotoxicological studies have used omics-data to understand the dose-response patterns of environmental stressors. However, very few have investigated complex non-monotonic dose-response patterns with multi-omics data. In the present study, we developed a novel semi-supervised network analysis workflow as an alternative to benchmark dose (BMD) modelling. We utilised a previously published multi-omics dataset generated from Daphnia magna after chronic gamma radiation exposure to obtain novel knowledge on the dose-dependent effects of radiation. Our approach combines 1) unsupervised co-expression network analysis to group genes with similar dose responses into modules; 2) supervised classification of these modules by relevant response patterns; 3) reconstruction of regulatory networks based on transcription factor binding motifs to reveal the mechanistic underpinning of the modules; 4) differential co-expression network analysis to compare the discovered modules across two datasets with different exposure periods; and 5) pathway enrichment analysis to integrate transcriptomics and metabolomics data. Our method unveiled both known and novel effects of gamma radiation, provide insight into shifts in responses from low to high dose rates, and can be used as an alternative approach for multi-omics dose-response analysis in future. The workflow SOLA (Semi-supervised Omics Landscape Analysis) is available at https://gitlab.com/wanxin.lai/SOLA.git.publishedVersio
Early life stages of fish under ocean alkalinity enhancement in coastal plankton communities
Full text linkOcean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) stands as a promising carbon dioxide removal technology. Yet, this solu- tion to climate change entails shifts in environmental drivers with unknown consequences for marine fish that are critical to ecosystem health and food security. Fish and their sup- porting food webs may be stressed by the novel carbonate chemistry or the nutrients contained in the deployed miner- als. With a mesocosm experiment on natural plankton com- munities, we studied early life stages of fish under alkalin- ity (+600 μmol kg−1) and silicate (+75 μmol L−1) addition. Larvae and young juveniles of temperate coastal species, in- cluding Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) and cod (Gadus morhua), were exposed to direct physiological and indirect food-web-mediated effects of OAE for 49 d. Neither in the shorter nor in the longer term did we find an impairment of fish growth and survival. Alkalization even led to an in- crease in fish biomass. This resistance to OAE was despite using non-CO2-equilibrated deployment that induces more severe perturbations in carbonate chemistry (1pH = +0.7, pCO2 = 75 μatm) compared to alternative scenarios. Over- all, our community-level study suggests that some fish pop- ulations, including key fisheries’ species, may be resilient to the water chemistry changes under OAE. Whilst these results give cause for optimism regarding the large-scale applica- tion of OAE, other life history stages (embryos) and habitats (open ocean) may prove more vulnerable.publishedVersio
Recapturing sludge from Atlantic salmon production in closed containment systems in the sea
Full text linkThe ability to collect waste feed and faeces from closed aquaculture systems in the sea (CCS) has been highlighted as an environmental advantage. Theoretical sludge collection efficiencies are available, yet efficiencies during commercial scale CCS production are almost nonexistent. Therefore, this was scientifically studied at a production site using parallel Ecomerd CCS systems connected to a sludge separator. The collection system utilizes a particle trap combined with mechanical filtration for separation of water and particles. Based on the analyzed concentrations in the sludge it was calculated that the system recaptures ~ 11% of the solids, 3 % of the nitrogen, 9 % of the phosphorous and 8% of the organic carbon from the produced waste. The collected sludge was classified as low in heavy metals, hence there are no restrictions in the agricultural/green areas where it could be used as a fertilizer. The study shows that CCS with sludge collection can reduce discharge to the recipient.publishedVersio
Overvåking av Vestvannet og Borredalsdammen i Viken, 2023, NIVA-rapport 7935-2024
No full textProsjektleder: Andreas BallotNIVA og FREVAR har gjennomført overvåking av vannkvaliteten i Vestvannet i Sarpsborg og Borredalsdammen i Fredrikstad i 2023, med fokus på utvalgte fysisk-kjemiske parametere og planteplankton. Gjennomsnittlig konsentrasjon av totalt fosfor og totalt nitrogen gikk opp i Vestvannet-B og Borredalsdammen i 2023 sammenlignet med 2022. Algebiomassen og klorofyll a-konsentrasjonene var høyere i Vestvannet-B og Borredalsdammen i 2023 sammenlignet med 2022. Algesamfunnet var hovedsakelig sammensatt av arter som er vanlige i lavlandsinnsjøer. I noen måneder ble det registrert lave mengder av potensielt toksinproduserende cyanobakterier Microcystis, Planktothrix og Dolichospermum, men microcystin (det mest produserte toksinet) ble ikke påvist. Generelt var det lite cyanobakterier i både Vestvannet-B og Borredalsdammen sammenlignet med total algebiomasse. Vestvannet-B og Borredalsdammen havnet i svært god økologisk tilstand iht. vannforskriften. Vestvannet-B og Borredalsdammen vurderes som godt egnet til drikkevann med hensyn til microcystin. I en totalvurdering av vannenes egnethet som drikkevann vurderes derimot begge vannene til ikke egnet grunnet høye fargetall, men siden FREVAR utfører omfattende behandling av vannet vil det likevel kunne leveres drikkevann av god kvalitet.Fredrikstad Vann, Avløp og Renovasjonsforetak (FREVAR KF)publishedVersio
No additional stress of sublethal gas supersaturation in a landlocked population of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) exposed to environmental acidification
Full text linkThe landlocked Atlantic salmon population “bleke” faces extinction due to environmental acidification (EA) and hydropower expansion in the Norwegian river Otra. Despite of restoration, unexpected mortality has been reported for this population, possibly due to gas bubble trauma (GBT) from gas supersaturation (GSS) downstream of hydroelectric plants, or EA induced aluminum toxicity. In this study, we applied the allostasis concept to investigate interactions between EA and GBT. This concept comprises additive effects of stressors, which can lead to allostatic overload. Stress coping mechanisms become maladaptive in such situations, which can be indicated by an inability to mount a proper cortisol response in fish. Fish were exposed to sublethal levels of simulated EA (SEA), GSS (a total gas pressure; TGP; of 110%) or a combination of these stressors for six days. Effects on allostatic load were subsequently investigated by assessing the cortisol response to an acute stress test. SEA increased cortisol responsiveness and GSS induced clinical signs of GBT, but no interacting effects between GSS and SEA were observed. This suggests that that 110% TGP did not have an additive effect on the allostatic load imposed by SEA.publishedVersio
Biological intercalibration: Invertebrates 2023
Full text linkProsjektleder: Kari AustnesThe ICP Waters biological intercalibration of invertebrates was executed to harmonise taxonomic work across countries and is of high value in programmes where the focus is on community analyses, e.g., for the classification of ecological status according to the EU Water Framework Directive. The 27th biological intercalibration of invertebrates in ICP Waters included four participants. A total 99.9 % of the species and 99.9 % of the genera were correctly identified in 2023. The mean Quality assurance index (Qi) ranged from 98.1 to 100.0. The results show that the average Qi has remained above 80% since 1992, suggesting skilled taxonomists in the laboratories affiliated to ICP Waters.Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)publishedVersio
Tiltaksorientert overvåking av Husnesfjorden 2024
Full text linkProsjektleder: Henrik JonssonNIVA har utført tiltaksorientert overvåking av Husnesfjorden i 2024 på oppdrag for Hydro Aluminium Husnes. Overvåkingsprogrammet er utarbeidet i henhold til vannforskriften og godkjent av Miljødirektoratet. I overvåkingen er det gjort analyser av tungmetaller (arsen, bly, kadmium, kobber, krom, kvikksølv, nikkel og sink) i utplasserte blåskjell fra seks stasjoner i Husnesfjorden, i tillegg til en referanseprøve fra Kvitsøy. Som markørstoffer for utslippet fra Hydro er det også analysert for fluorid og aluminium i blåskjellprøvene. Resultatene viser generelt lave konsentrasjoner av metaller inkl. kvikksølv i blåskjellene, alle blåskjellstasjonene er derfor klassifisert til «god» kjemisk tilstand. Øvrige analyserte tungmetaller ligger under høy referansekonsentrasjon (PROREF) på de tre blåskjellstasjonene nærmest utslippet fra Hydro. Som konklusjon påvirker ikke utslippet fra Hydro overflatelaget av Husnesfjorden.Hydro Aluminium HusnespublishedVersio
Passive sampling in support of biota monitoring of hydrophobic substances under the Water Framework Directive
Full text linkThis paper presents an approach to apply aquatic passive sampling (PS) in regulatory chemical water quality monitoring in Europe. Absorption-based passive sampling is well developed and suitable for the sampling of hydrophobic chemicals, some of which are European Water Framework Directive priority substances with Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) derived for biota. Considering a chemical activity approach to chemical risk assessment, we propose equilibrium concentration in lipids (from passive water sampling) as a reference value for measured concentrations in biota. Through existing PS-fish datasets, we show a growing body of evidence supporting the use of lipid-based contaminant concentrations at equilibrium with water derived from PS as a conservative proxy of levels of these chemicals in fish. We propose a procedure that includes PS as a first, animal-free screening step of a tiered approach, followed by more conventional fish analyses when PS indicates these are needed to confirm EQSbiota exceedance. This paper reviews fish-passive sampler datasets, provides a reasoning for the proposed procedure and discusses how to broadly put it into monitoring practice. PS offers the possibility of well-defined standardised monitoring approaches that can help overcome the natural variability challenges associated with measurements in biota across member states and simplify EQSbiota compliance.publishedVersio