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Los pesticidas y el cambio climático, entre las principales amenazas para los humedales del Mediterráneo
No full textModeling vadose zone hydrological processes in naturally occurring piezometric depressions: the Chari-Baguirmi region, southeastern of the Lake Chad Basin, Republic of Chad
No full textSCHEER (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks), Final Opinion on Draft Environmental Quality Standards for Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive - PBDEs, 24 January 2023
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Microbial photoelectrosynthesis: Feeding purple phototrophic bacteria electricity to produce bacterial biomass
No full textPurple phototrophic bacteria are one of the main actors in chemolithotrophic carbon fixation and, therefore, fundamental in the biogeochemical cycle. These microbes are capable of using insoluble electron donors such as ferrous minerals or even carbon-based electrodes. Carbon fixation through extracellular electron uptake places purple phototrophic bacteria in the field of microbial electrosynthesis as key carbon capturing microorganisms. In this work we demonstrate biomass production dominated by purple phototrophic bacteria with a cathode (−0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl) as electron donor. In addition, we compared the growth and microbial population structure with ferrous iron as the electron donor. We detect interaction between the cathode and the consortium showing a midpoint potential of 0.05 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Microbial community analyses revealed different microbial communities depending on the electron donor, indicating different metabolic interactions. Electrochemical measurements together with population analyses point to Rhodopseudomonas genus as the key genus in the extracellular electron uptake. Furthermore, the genera Azospira and Azospirillum could play a role in the photoelectrotrophic consortium
Membrane formation by thermally induced phase separation: Materials, involved parameters, modeling, current efforts and future directions
No full textUntargeted metabolomic analysis to explore the impact of soil amendments in a non-conventional wastewater treatment
No full textAs non-conventional wastewater treatment, vegetation filters make the most of the natural attenuation processes that occur in soil to remove contaminants, while providing several environmental benefits. However, this practice may introduce contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and their transformation products (TPs) into the environment. A potential improvement to the system was tested using column experiments containing soil (S) and soil amended with woodchips (SW) or biochar (SB) irrigated with synthetic wastewater that included 11 selected CECs. This study evaluated: i) known CECs attenuation and ii) unknown metabolites formation. Known CECs attenuation was assessed by total mass balance by considering both water and soil media. An untargeted metabolomic strategy was developed to assess the formation of unknown metabolites and to identify them in water samples. The results indicated that SB enhanced CECs attenuation and led to the formation of fewer metabolites. Sorption and biodegradation processes were favored by the bigger surface area of particles in SB column, especially for compounds with negative charges. Incorporating woodchips into soil shortened retention times in the column, which reduced attenuation phenomena and resulted in the formation of significantly more metabolites. Incomplete biodegradation reactions, fostered by shorter retention times in SW column could mainly explain these results
Changes in membrane fatty acids of a halo-psychrophile exposed to magnesium perchlorate and low temperatures: Implications for Mars habitability
No full textThe presence of perchlorate salts in aqueous solutions bears two opposite effects on habitability. On the one hand, perchlorate salts trigger a decrease in the freezing point of the aqueous solutions, resulting in stable aqueous solutions at subzero temperatures, thereby widening the habitable conditions for potential microbial life. On the other hand, the presence of perchlorates in solution imposes a significant osmotic stress that compromises the integrity of microbial cell membranes, thereby restricting the habitable conditions in the same aqueous environment. Here we investigated the survivability and the changes in the composition of membrane fatty acids (FAs) of the bacterium Rhodococcus sp. JG-3 cells under warm (20°C), cold (4°C), and subzero temperatures (−10°C and −16°C), and in the presence (8 wt% and 16 wt%) and absence of magnesium perchlorate (Mg(ClO4)2). Bacterial cell survivability decreased with decreasing temperature and presence of magnesium perchlorate. However, Rhodococcus sp. JG-3 was able to tolerate up to 8 wt% Mg(ClO4)2 at −16°C. The presence of magnesium perchlorate in the medium decreased the concentration of total FAs, likely due to a destabilization of the molecules by the chaotropic effect of the perchlorate anion. At the maximum stress (both subzero temperatures and 16 wt% magnesium perchlorate), the composition of FAs changed, i.e., Rhodococcus sp. JG-3 cells increased the relative abundance of saturated FAs (SFAs) over the unsaturated (UFAs) or branched (BFAs). These changes in the proportion of FAs types may be a physiological response during cooling, aimed to improve lipid membrane stability. Interestingly, the composition and relative abundance of fatty acid types (i.e., SFAs, UFAs and BFAs) of Rhodococcus sp. JG-3 when simultaneously exposed to subzero temperatures and 16 wt% magnesium perchlorate was similar to that following freezing stress alone, suggesting that either both conditions triggered a similar response or that one response dominated over the other. Our findings contribute to understand the survivability and adaptation of extremophilic microorganisms under polyextreme conditions, such as those existing in the Martian subsurface today and/or in the past, which include the documented presence of magnesium perchlorate salts in ancient sediments and global cold temperatures