Environmental digest

Legislation

Ministers review green CAP ‘menu’

EU governments would have a choice of three options for following a greener Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) under new policy proposals. The plans, drawn up by the Luxembourg Presidency, are intended to counter the original proposals put forward by the European Commission, which are widely viewed as too restrictive. The reforms would see almost one-third of EU agricultural subsidies under the CAP conditional on fulfilling certain green criteria.

Under the Luxembourg plan, Member States would be able to choose from one of three options: either reallocating at least 10% of funds under the CAP to finance 'targeted' agro-environmental measures; or requiring farmers to take stronger green measures; or setting new cross-compliance standards.

Under the second option, known as the 'menu approach', Member States would choose three of nine measures listed in the proposal, which include crop diversification, certified energy efficiency, and the protection of permanent grassland. Farmers considered 'green' would not be subject to this requirement. To fall within this category, they would have to meet one of five criteria listed, such as 'ecological' farming or farms with at least half of agricultural land in a Natura 2000 zone.

The Council of Ministers, representing EU governments, and the European Parliament generally favour this approach, which is seen as more flexible than the Commission's proposal. This is because it allows Member States to pick measures best suited to a local area and those most likely to have environmental benefits.

The Commission wants farmers to meet three conditions to receive 30% of direct payments under CAP's so-called ‘Pillar 1’: increasing crop diversity to at least three crops per farm, creating permanent pastures from 2014, and setting aside 7% of land. The Luxembourg proposals would establish certain actions as equivalent to meeting these three conditions for the purpose of receiving CAP payments.

At a recent meeting, agriculture ministers warned that, while backing greater alignment of agricultural subsidies with environmental aims, the reforms should not lead to more bureaucracy. They called for certain certification schemes to be added to the menu option. They also want to raise the threshold for requiring crop rotation, although opinion was divided on what the level should be. The 7% target for ecologically focused areas is generally seen as too ambitious and some governments want the figure to be applied regionally or among local farm groups, rather than to individual farms. Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has warned that any revisions could lead to patchy implementation and the risk of 'greenwashing'.

In a separate but related debate, Commission officials have stressed the importance of fully implementing the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to the greening of EU farming. The directive bans unauthorised water abstraction and wastewater discharges directly into watercourses and could significantly improve the water efficiency of the agricultural sector, noted Karl Falkenberg, the head of the Commission's Environment Directorate. “Our intention is not to create bureaucratic obligations that EU farmers do not understand and that national authorities cannot monitor,” Mr Falkenberg said. “These [WFD] provisions are clear, specific and verifiable.” Academics, however, have pointed to the WFD's effects on farm incomes and questioned whether the economic consequences for the countryside might be too great.¹

The European Parliament is due to vote on the CAP proposals in July or September, at which time discussions will then continue under the Danish Presidency of the EU, during the second half of the year.

European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cap-post-2013/index_en.htm

Opinions divided on EU soil protection

Sharp divisions on controversial proposals for an EU-wide law on soil protection were aired at a recent conference in Brussels.

Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos told the meeting that more EU action is needed to limit land take and tackle the loss of biodiversity in Europe. New proposals such as the planned reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (see above) will not be strong enough to deal with Europe's annual loss of 1000 square kilometres of land to degradation and urbanisation, said Mr Ciolos.

The Commission is keen to give fresh impetus to its draft soil protection directive, which has been stalled in the Council of Ministers for several years. An influential group of major countries, including Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France and Austria, has blocked its approval.^2,3

Pekka Pesonen of the Copa-Cogeca farmer's organisation, told the conference that his members remained against a soil directive. “We cannot see the point either from the farmer perspective or the EU perspective.” Member States already have enough relevant laws and the plans would mean more red tape, he added. Rather what farmers need is help in boosting soil productivity.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik described the farmer's opposition as inconsistent with their claimed interests in the long-term health of land. The directive has been misunderstood, he said, adding it would not be a burden and would allow governments to take account of local conditions and apply existing rules. Warnings about red tape were often abused by opponents of proposed legislation, Mr Potočnik said.

MEP Sandrine Bélier, a member of the Parliament's Environment Committee, hoped the election of a new President in France would lead to a rethink of its opposition to the directive. “We need to have this directive adopted,” she said, adding that it was supported by the Parliament. She reiterated that under European Commission forecasts soil degradation could cost the EU about €38bn over the next decade. NGOs argue the benefits of the directive far outweigh its costs.⁴

The Commission believes the problem of land loss and sealing is a critical one. It recently issued guidelines to help Member States limit further loss of soils to urban development. It is also planning to address this issue in a review of the environmental impact assessment directive and future rules on emissions from land use.

High-Level Conference on Soil Remediation and Soil Sealing: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/conference_may2012.htm

Europe backs new Gothenburg targets

EU Member States have agreed to meet stricter emissions ceilings for four air pollutants from 2020 under revisions to the 1999 Gothenburg protocol. New limits on fine particulates (PM_2.5) have also been introduced.

The targets are slightly more ambitious than those put forward previously.⁵ They require the EU as a whole to cut SO₂ emissions by 59% below 2005 levels by 2020, NO₂ by 42%, VOCs by 28% and PM_2.5 emissions by 22%. Ammonia will have to be cut by a comparatively modest 6% but emissions are mostly agricultural and difficult to constrain.

Individual targets vary between EU states, with the biggest variations in SO₂ goals. Cyprus has an 83% target for SO₂ and Latvia an 8% goal. The extension of the protocol is being carried out in a piecemeal fashion, with only four non-EU countries (Belarus, Croatia, Norway and Switzerland) adopting targets at this stage. The new EU goals will form the basis of revisions to the national emission ceilings (NEC) directive, to be proposed in 2013.⁶ But several countries are already struggling to meet NOx limits under the existing NEC.⁷

Green group EEB said the new goals would only deliver reductions in line with a business-as-usual scenario. But a spokesman for the European Commission said their attainment would still require significant effort, including the full implementation of the industrial emissions directive and the EU's climate and energy package.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik welcomed an agreement to act on black carbon, which has a significant impact on the climate and is a component of PM_2.5. However, there are no dedicated targets for its reduction at this stage.

In another development targeting black carbon, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the UK have agreed to join the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. This initiative was set up in February by the US and six other countries to curb emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), which include black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons.⁸ The announcement, made at the recent G8 meeting in Maryland, brings the number of coalition partners to 15 countries, plus the European Commission, UN Environment Programme and World Bank. Current targets include emissions from diesel engines, inefficient brick kilns and methane from landfills. The move reflects increasing recognition that effective air pollution control can be an ‘easy win’ in the fight against climate change.⁹

UNECE: http://www.unece.org; EEB: http://www.eeb.org; Climate and Clean Air Coalition: http://hqweb.unep.org/ccac/

Environmental quality

‘Blue carbon’ key to tackling climate change

Reversing the degradation of coastal ecosystems can play an important role in tackling climate change, while bringing additional benefits to biodiversity and the economies of coastal communities. This was the central message delivered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at an international meeting in Montréal.

Coastal ecosystems store high levels of carbon in their soil. This so-called “Blue Carbon” is found in tidal salt marshes, grassy meadows subject to the rise and fall of ocean tides, and their tropical cousins, mangrove swamps. Meadows of seagrasses, permanently submerged by shallow ocean waters, are also important Blue Carbon sinks. All these ecosystems can store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for millennia, making an important contribution to efforts to tackle climate change. However, if these ecosystems are degraded, the stored carbon risks being released into the atmosphere.

Despite Canada's cold climate, the country's salt marshes store as much carbon as in warmer climes, explained Dr Gail Chmura, a coastal researcher at McGill University. But much of the marsh area in eastern Canada, including the coasts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec has been drained for use in agriculture. Studies by her research group show that ecological functions of drained marshes can be restored, along with the carbon sink.

Dr Chmura and colleagues have calculated that the restoration of Canada's drained agricultural marshes will provide ‘ecosystem services’ worth $14 535 per hectare and a renewed sink for carbon dioxide equivalent to 6% of Canada's original commitment for reductions under the Kyoto Protocol.

The degradation of coastal ecosystems means more than just a reduction in the amount of carbon they store. Other ecosystem services provided by seagrasses and mangroves, such as protection from storms and tsunamis, habitat for fish and wildlife, support of coastal fisheries, and local livelihoods of coastal inhabitants, are also adversely affected by their decline.

UNEP's Blue Carbon Initiative supports scientific research into blue carbon in coastal ecosystems as well as the valuable ecosystem services they provide.

UNEP: http://www.unep.org; Blue Carbon Blog: http://bluecarbonblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Industrial emissions on the rise

Emissions of many industrial pollutants, including heavy metals, rebounded in 2010 as much of Europe began recovering from economic recession, according to the latest figures compiled by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Atmospheric emissions of chromium and lead reported by major emitters rose by about 20% compared with 2009. Reported emissions of arsenic were 10% higher. Carbon monoxide releases grew by 7% – the first increase in emissions since 2008 – and transboundary movements of hazardous wastes rose 13%. But reported emissions of methane fell by almost 6% to 2.1 million tonnes in 2010.

The figures are taken from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), which draws on data gathered by the national authorities of the European Economic Area, Switzerland and Serbia. The E-PRTR should be interpreted with caution, however. Installations are only obliged to report emissions and waste transfers above certain thresholds and compliance with reporting obligations is not universal, although it is improving.

Global emissions generally have resumed an upward trend after the dampening effect of the global financial crisis.^10,11

E-PRTR: http://prtr.ec.europa.eu/

Bathing waters get clean bill of health

Athletes going for a swim in the Serpentine Lake at this summer's London Olympics – the venue for the Open Water Marathon Swim and the swimming section of the triathlon – can rest easy. It is one of the 92.1% of bathing waters in the EU meeting the minimum water quality standards set by the Bathing Water Directive.

The latest annual report by the European Environment Agency – covering the 2011 season – found that 77.1% of sites had excellent quality, i.e. complying with the most stringent guide values, an improvement of 3.5 percentage points on last year's data. Some 93.1% of coastal bathing waters were classified as ‘sufficient’, or complying with the less stringent mandatory values – a 1% increase. Less than 2% of bathing waters were non-compliant.

Cyprus, Croatia, Malta and Greece all had more than 90% of bathing water sites meeting the most stringent guide values (excellent quality), and the remainder complying with the mandatory values. At the opposite end of the scale, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia, Luxemburg and Belgium had relatively low proportions of sites meeting the strict guide values, especially as regards inland waters.

The report describes water quality in more than 22 000 bathing sites at beaches, rivers and lakes across Europe. The overall quality of bathing waters in the EU has improved markedly since 1990. The number of coastal bathing waters not complying with the Bathing Water Directive's provisions fell from 9.2% of sites in 1990 to 1.5% in 2011, and there have been similar improvements in inland waters.

EEA: http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/

Hudson cleanup achieving results

In New York state, a third season of dredging has begun to remove PCB-contaminated sediment from a 40-mile stretch of the Hudson River. As well as protecting public health and the environment, the Hudson River PCB cleanup is expected to create 500 new jobs.

Over a 30 year period, ending in the late 1970s, at least 1.3 million pounds of PCBs were discharged into the Hudson from two General Electric (GE) capacitor manufacturing plants located in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls. In May, dredging of the River began south of the village of Fort Edward and will continue approximately three miles downriver through the area of Griffin Island.

An estimated 350 000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment is expected to be removed this year, out of around 2.4 million cubic yards targeted under this second phase. In 2011, about 363 000 cubic yards were removed from a one and one-half mile section of river, while meeting the EPA's strict limits for re-suspended sediment and the amount of area allowed to be capped.

The dredging project is being conducted by GE under the terms of a 2006 legal agreement and is overseen by EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The entire second phase of the project is expected to take another four to six years to complete.

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/hudson

Chemical hazards

Study urges action on REACH overlaps

The European Commission should act to close gaps in the EU's REACH regulations and overlaps with other legislation, a consultancy report recommends. But consultancy Milieu says the EU regime for regulating chemicals generally works well and any changes are relatively minor. The report is one of a series conducted as part of the Commission's review of REACH, which is due to conclude shortly.¹²

Fifteen areas are identified where there are clashes with other legislation, including the treatment of pesticides and ozone-depleting substances, and the industrial emissions directive. The toy directive, for example, prohibits the use of carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMR) substances while REACH permits the use of benzene, a known CMR, in toys subject to a concentration limit. Such issues could be resolved by establishing a searchable database showing all the restrictions in place for particular substances, the report suggests. The gaps identified include regulation of the manufacturing, formulation and waste management of substances with blanket exclusions from REACH like medicinal products, pesticides and cosmetics.

But the gaps in the REACH legislation are much larger, according to Swedish NGO ChemSec. It points out that many hazardous chemicals that were still commonly used a few years ago have not been registered under the REACH regime, raising serious questions about compliance levels. ChemSec admits the chemicals might have been used less since 2010 – the latest date for which figures are available – making registration unnecessary, but believes this unlikely. Although the data come from Sweden, this could reflect a wider European problem, it adds.

ChemSec says hundreds of CMRs pre-registered in 2008 were not subsequently registered in the registration exercise that closed in 2010. Chasing the status of individual chemicals is difficult at present because the names of registrants and pre-registrants are not publicly available. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) plans to start releasing registrant names later this year.

European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/chemicals/index_en.html; ChemSec: http://www.chemsec.org

Chemical industry launches sustainability drive

Europe's chemical industry is to make a new push on sustainability, with a series of targets for 2020 and beyond. The targets are currently under discussion and will be released towards the end of the year. An end to sending plastics to landfill and CO₂ reductions are likely to be among the headline commitments.

Isabelle Chaput, Sustainable Development Director at industry association CEFIC, said the targets would come out of a “cocktail of big projects” on sustainability that industry will either launch or contribute to in months to come.

One such project is SPIRE, a public-private partnership on resource efficiency which has been developed by industrial groups including Eurometaux, Cembureau and the SusChem technology platform on sustainable chemistry. CEFIC is also working on long-term CO₂ reduction commitments and climate targets as part of the industry's low-carbon roadmap, which should be ready within a year. Other industry groups, such as paper association CEPI and power sector trade body Eurelectric, have published roadmaps for their sectors. The chemical sector will also participate in the ‘Resource Efficiency Transition Platform’, a new stakeholder group being launched by the European Commission to identify the best resource efficiency policies.

A sustainability report released by CEFIC shows that fuel and power consumption, emissions of acidifying gases and water discharges were down in 2009. The report is based on E-PRTR data for that year and complementary information supplied by the association's members.

Eight new candidates for SVHCs

The REACH list of substances of very high concern (SVHC) could again be extended following a decision by Germany and Sweden to recommend the addition of a further eight substances to the candidate list, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has announced.

ECHA's registry of intentions shows Germany is preparing dossiers on four perfluorinated acids classified as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT). Sweden's notifications relate to cadmium and two cadmium compounds, plus methoxy acetic acid, a metabolite of methoxyethanol which is already on the candidate list.

Last year, Austria said it would nominate diisopentyl phthalate for listing this summer. There are currently 73 substances on the candidate list and 13 more under consideration. However, ECHA has admitted that the European Commission's target of 136 substances by the end of this year is likely to be missed.¹³

Also, ECHA is to tighten up on its approach to dossier evaluation so as to improve quality. The revised approach will involve more targeted checks and give greater weight to possible safety concerns, delegates to the Agency's annual stakeholder forum in Helsinki were told. ECHA is required to check 5% of the dossiers submitted in each tonnage band.

ECHA: http://echa.europa.eu/web/guest/registry-of-current-svhc-intentions

NAS to review IRIS development

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is to undertake a further review of the process by which assessments under the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program are developed.

This latest exercise will review current methods for weight of evidence analyses and recommend approaches for weighing scientific evidence for chemical hazard identification. It will also report on how the changes recommended in NAS's previous review in April 2011 are being implemented.

IRIS is used by the EPA and other federal agencies to assess the health risks from chemicals in the environment. NAS's 2011 review recommended several ways to improve the development of IRIS assessments. These are currently being taken up by EPA and will be reflected in future draft IRIS assessments released for public comment and peer review.

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/iris

NPE: the alternatives

The use of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) in detergents could soon be a thing of the past, according to a state-of-the-art review released by EPA. The report, produced under EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE) Alternatives Assessment Program, identifies eight safer alternatives to NPEs that meet US criteria for safer surfactants.

NPEs are widely used surfactants with a range of industrial applications and are commonly found in consumer products, such as laundry detergents. When released into the environment, they can be persistent and highly toxic to aquatic organisms. The report provides information on the availability of safer alternatives, DfE's hazard evaluation method for surfactants, and the progress being made in adopting safer surfactants. Using rigorous hazard-based criteria, EPA evaluated hundreds of chemicals for their biodegradability and their potential effects to aquatic organisms.

“I applaud the product manufacturers who have stopped using NPEs and switched to safer alternatives and the chemical manufacturers who have made the safer alternatives available,” said Jim Jones, acting Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). “This report shows the important strides that have been made to identify safer alternatives and the progress being made to phase out NPEs in detergents and reduce its use in other applications.”

DfE's Alternatives Assessment Program helps industries switch to safer chemicals by providing a detailed comparison of the potential human health and environmental effects of chemical alternatives. To date, more than 2700 safer products have been assessed, including detergents that contain only safer surfactants and other chemicals. All companies participating in the DfE Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative have eliminated NPEs from their product lines to meet DfE criteria.

The EU is to impose an almost total ban on phosphates in laundry detergents from 2013.¹⁴

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/npe/index.htm

Public and occupational health

Beijing study confirms health risks of air pollution

As the world's athletes assemble in London for the 2012 Olympic Games, results have emerged of a ground-breaking study undertaken around the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Focusing on the air pollution control measures taken by the Chinese authorities around the games, researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) found biological evidence that even a short-term reduction in air pollution exposure improves cardiovascular health.

Beijing, plagued by chronic air pollution, was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics after promising to improve air quality for the duration of the event. Spending $17 billion on environmental cleanup, the government shut down factories and limited automobile traffic for an eight-week period covering the Olympic and Paralympic games. Pollution control measures were then relaxed. “We wanted to take advantage of such a huge intervention and look at what happens to people biologically”, noted Prof. Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, of USC's Keck School of Medicine of Zhang's team, which included US and Chinese scientists, recruited 125 male and female resident doctors who worked at a central Beijing hospital, all of whom were never-smokers and disease-free. The researchers examined biomarkers for systemic inflammation and blood clotting, as well as heart rate and blood pressure. During the Olympics, they observed statistically significant reductions in Von Willebrand factor and soluble CD62P levels, both of which are associated with blood coagulation, among the study participants. Soluble CD62P and systolic blood pressure levels also increased significantly after the Olympics.

These changes indicate that exposure to higher air pollution levels are associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular problems. Changes among other measured indicators that support this association were also observed, although not statistically significant. “We believe this is the first major study to clearly demonstrate that changes in air pollution exposure affect cardiovascular disease mechanisms in healthy, young people” said Prof. Zhang.

This is the latest of a growing body of research suggesting cardiovascular risks are highly sensitive to air quality over short frames. A recent study showed stroke risk rises rapidly within hours of an air pollution episode.¹⁵

Keck School of Medicine: http://keck.usc.edu

EFSA reviews pesticide's impact on bees

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a state-of-the-art scientific review of the risks posed by pesticides to honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees. The work will support the development of scientific guidance for European policymakers on the possible risks to bees from the use of plant protection products.

EFSA's Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) looked in detail at four key areas: the acute and chronic effects of pesticides on bees, particularly colony survival and development; how to estimate the long-term effects of exposure to low concentrations; the need to take into account the cumulative and combined effects of different pesticides; and existing test protocols and possible new protocols that take account of the exposure of bees to pesticides through nectar and pollen.

The document proposes two separate assessment schemes: one for honey bees, and one for bumble bees and solitary bees. In the initial stage it is suggested to include toxicity testing that covers an exposure period of seven to ten days for adult bees and larvae. Both life stages can involve exposure of longer than one day, a risk that is not covered by standard tests. EFSA's pesticides experts also recommend improvements to existing laboratory, semi-field (cages, tunnels and tents) and field testing procedures.

EFSA's scientific experts are currently developing a dedicated and co-ordinated work programme in this area. They are also preparing a statement on two articles published recently in the journal Science which suggest links between neonicotinoids and bee colony survival.¹⁶

EFSA: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/120523a.htm

Prenatal exposure to insecticide linked to brain abnormalities

Even low to moderate levels of exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos during pregnancy may lead to long-term, potentially irreversible changes in the brain structure of the child, according to a new brain imaging study by US researchers. While no longer registered for household use in the US, the insecticide is widely used around the world and in US agriculture. The observed changes in brain structure are consistent with cognitive deficits found in children exposed to this chemical, the scientists say.

The new study is the first to use MRI to identify the structural evidence for these cognitive deficits in humans, confirming earlier findings in animals. Changes were visible across the surface of the brain, with abnormal enlargement of some areas and thinning in others. The disturbances in brain structure are consistent with the IQ deficits previously reported in the children with high exposure levels of chlorpyrifos, or CPF, suggesting a link between prenatal exposure to CPF and deficits in IQ and working memory at age 7.

“The study provides evidence that the prenatal period is a vulnerable time for the developing child, and that toxic exposure during this critical period can have far-reaching effects on brain development and behavioral functioning”, noted Virginia Rauh, lead author on the study and Deputy Director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

Further study is needed to determine the consequences of these changes before and after puberty, the researchers say. Notably, the brain abnormalities appeared to occur at exposure levels below the current EPA threshold for toxicity, which is based on exposures high enough to inhibit the action of the key neurological enzyme cholinesterase. The findings suggest that the mechanism underlying structural changes in the brain may involve other pathways.

Columbia University: http://www.mailman.columbia.edu

Research activities

The Arctic's hidden mercury source

Researchers at Harvard University claim the accumulation of toxic mercury in the Arctic environment is more complex than previously thought.

The build up of mercury in the Arctic region is known to be caused by both atmospheric forces and the flow of circumpolar rivers that carry the element north into the Arctic Ocean. While the atmospheric source was previously recognized, it now appears that twice as much mercury actually comes from the rivers. When converted to methylmercury by microbial processes in the ocean, it can accumulate in fish and wildlife. The revelation implies that concentrations of the toxin may further increase as climate change continues to modify the region's hydrological cycle and release mercury from warming Arctic soils.

“The Arctic is a unique environment because it's so remote from most anthropogenic sources of mercury, yet we know that the concentrations of mercury in Arctic marine mammals are among the highest in the world,” said lead author J. A. Fisher, of Harvard's Atmospheric Chemistry Modelling Group. “This is dangerous to both marine life and humans. The question from a scientific standpoint is, where does that mercury come from?”

“Indigenous people in the Arctic are particularly susceptible to the effects of methylmercury exposure because they consume large amounts of fish and marine mammals as part of their traditional diet,” explained Harvard's Prof. Elsie Sunderland. “Understanding the sources of mercury to the Arctic Ocean and how these levels are expected to change in the future is therefore key to protecting the health of northern populations.”

The results of the study, which was led jointly by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), have been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: http://www.seas.harvard.edu; J.A. Fisher et al., “Riverine source of Arctic Ocean mercury inferred from atmospheric observations,” Nature Geoscience (2012) DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1478.

Coral bleaching a result of a chain reaction

Scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (IMM) in Bremen have identified a new mechanism to help explain coral bleaching. According to their findings, oxygen depletion as a result of sedimentation, together with an acidification of the environment, creates a chain reaction that leads to coral death.

In coastal areas with excessive soil erosion where rivers flush nutrients, organics and sediments to the sea, corals can die quickly when exposed to sedimentation. “Our idea was that a combination of enhanced deposition of sediments with elevated organic matter load and naturally occurring microorganisms can cause the sudden coral death”, explained IMM's Miriam Weber.

To get a handle on the diverse physical, chemical and biological parameters the team performed experiments at the Australian Institute for Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville under controlled conditions in large containers (mesocosms), mimicking the natural habitat.

They found a series of crucial steps. Firstly, when a two millimetre layer of sediment enriched with organic compounds covers the corals, the algae will stop photosynthesis, as the light is blocked. If the sediments are organically enriched, then digestion of the organic material by microbial activity reduces oxygen concentrations underneath the sediment film to zero. Other microbes take over digesting larger carbon compounds via fermentation and hydrolysis thereby lowering the pH. Lack of oxygen and acidic conditions harm small areas of coral tissue irreversibly. The dead material is digested by microbes producing hydrogen sulfide, a compound that is highly toxic for the remaining corals. The process gains momentum and the remainder of the sediment-covered coral surface is killed in less than 24 hours.

“First we thought that the toxic hydrogen sulfide is the killer”, explained Weber. “But after intensive studies in the lab and mathematical modelling we could demonstrate that the organic enrichment is the proximal cause, as it leads to lack of oxygen and acidification, kicking the corals out of their natural balance. Hydrogen sulfide just speeds up the spreading of the damage. We were amazed that a mere 1% organic matter in the sediments is enough to trigger this process.”

The extreme effect of the combination of oxygen depletion and acidification are of importance, given the increasing acidification of the oceans. “If we want to stop this destruction we need some political sanctions to protect coral reefs”, warned Weber.

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology: http://www.mpg.de/5810970/coral_death_chain_reaction

Water innovation platform takes shape

Plans for a stakeholder partnership to boost European research and innovation related to water were discussed at a recent meeting in Brussels. The initiative is one of a number of European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) designed to pool expertise in priority areas.¹⁷

The Water EIP will contribute to achieving EU water policy goals set out in the water framework directive (WFD) and resource efficiency roadmap. To help set the agenda, barriers to innovation in three main areas – urban, rural and industrial water management – will be identified in 2013 and an online marketplace offering solutions will be launched. Its strategic objectives will be set out in an implementation plan due this autumn and will be linked to the forthcoming blueprint on water protection in Europe.

In support of the Commission's proposal, two industry groups – the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) and the European Water supply and sanitation Technology Platform (WssTP) – announced they would deepen their cooperation on water management.

EIP: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/innovationpartnership/

Academic research available to all

Peer reviewed environmental and other research available to the developing world has been greatly expanded under a new partnership announced by Research4Life. Since 2011, this collaborative public-private partnership has dramatically increased to reach 17 000 peer reviewed scientific journals, books and databases.

Research4Life provides over 6000 institutions in more than 100 developing countries with free or low cost access to peer-reviewed online content from the world's leading scientific, technical and medical publishers. The recent sharp increase in content is primarily a result of Elsevier's contribution of 7000 books in 2011-2.

Publishers began pioneering the addition of ebooks to Research4Life in 2006, including contributions from American Psychiatric Publishing Inc., Oxford University Press, the Worldwatch Institute, CABI, and most recently, John Wiley and Sons who made their Current Protocol book series available through HINARI in 2011.

“The developing world benefits enormously from the online book collections made available by our publisher partners. The new content is a significant addition, more than doubling Research4Life's information resources previously accessible to researchers and practitioners in low- and middle-income countries,” said Kimberly Parker, HINARI Programme Manager.

Research4Life: http://www.research4life.org

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