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The biotechnological development has traditionally focused on the compliance with regulatory demands rather than optimising the processes or analysing their sustainability. This work proposes the combination of available tools for the comprehensive sustainability assessment of a blue biotechnology process based on the cultivation of the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. The work aims to include environmental, economic and social dimensions to measure the sustainability of the production of a carotenoid with potential applications in food, nutraceutical, cosmetics and eventually pharmaceutical industries. Electricity for cultivation was identified as the major contributor to the environmental impacts, which depended significantly on the production scale. Social benefits were mainly related to workers and consumers, while the economic assessment suggested a profitable process with a relatively short period to recover the initial investment.

Acid–base disturbances caused by environmental factors and physiological events including feeding have been well documented in several fish species, but little is known about the impact of dietary electrolyte balance (dEB). In the present study, we investigated the effect of feeding diets differing in dEB ( − 100, 200, 500 or 800 mEq/kg diet) on the growth, nutrient digestibility and energy balance of Nile tilapia. After 5 weeks on the test diet, the growth of the fish was linearly affected by the dEB levels (P< 0·001), with the lowest growth being observed in the fish fed the 800 dEB diet. The apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) of fat was unaffected by dEB, whereas the ADC of DM and protein were curvilinearly related to the dEB levels, being lowest and highest in the 200 and 800 dEB diets, respectively. Stomach chyme pH at 3 h after feeding was linearly related to the dEB levels (P< 0·05). At the same time, blood pH of the heart (P< 0·05) and caudal vein (P< 0·01) was curvilinearly related to the dEB levels, suggesting the influence of dEB on postprandial metabolic alkalosis. Consequently, maintenance energy expenditure (MEm) was curvilinearly related to the dEB levels (P< 0·001), being 54 % higher in the 800 dEB group (88 kJ/kg0·8per d) than in the 200 dEB group (57 kJ/kg0·8per d). These results suggest that varying dEB levels in a diet have both positive and negative effects on fish. On the one hand, they improve nutrient digestibility; on the other hand, they challenge the acid–base homeostasis (pH) of fish, causing an increase in MEm, and thereby reduce the energy required for growth.

Recent assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have highlighted the risks to humanity arising from the unsustainable use of natural resources. Thus far, land, freshwater, and ocean exploitation have been the chief causes of biodiversity loss. Climate change is projected to be a rapidly increasing additional driver for biodiversity loss. Since climate change and biodiversity loss impact human societies everywhere, bold solutions are required that integrate environmental and societal objectives. As yet, most existing international biodiversity targets have overlooked climate change impacts. At the same time, climate change mitigation measures themselves may harm biodiversity directly. The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 framework offers the important opportunity to address the interactions between climate change and biodiversity and revise biodiversity targets accordingly by better aligning these with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. We identify the considerable number of existing and proposed post-2020 biodiversity targets that risk being severely compromised due to climate change, even if other barriers to their achievement were removed. Our analysis suggests that the next set of biodiversity targets explicitly addresses climate change-related risks since many aspirational goals will not be feasible under even lower-end projections of future warming. Adopting more flexible and dynamic approaches to conservation, rather than static goals, would allow us to respond flexibly to changes in habitats, genetic resources, species composition, and ecosystem functioning and leverage biodiversity’s capacity to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The membrane-embedded FtsH proteases found in bacteria, chloroplasts, and mitochondria are involved in diverse cellular processes including protein quality control and regulation. The genome of the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 encodes four FtsH homologs designated FtsH1 to FtsH4. The FtsH3 homolog is present in two hetero-oligomeric complexes: FtsH2/3, which is responsible for photosystem II quality control, and the essential FtsH1/3 complex, which helps maintain Fe homeostasis by regulating the level of the transcription factor Fur. To gain a more comprehensive insight into the physiological roles of FtsH hetero-complexes, we performed genome-wide expression profiling and global proteomic analyses of Synechocystis mutants conditionally depleted of FtsH3 or FtsH1 grown under various nutrient conditions. We show that the lack of FtsH1/3 leads to a drastic reduction in the transcriptional response to nutrient stress of not only Fur but also the Pho, NdhR, and NtcA regulons. In addition, this effect is accompanied by the accumulation of the respective transcription factors. Thus, the FtsH1/3 complex is of critical importance for acclimation to iron, phosphate, carbon, and nitrogen starvation in Synechocystis.plantcell;31/12/2912/FX1F1fx1.

Comprehending the decomposition process is crucial for our understanding of the mechanisms of carbon (C) sequestration in soils. The decomposition of plant biomass has been extensively studied. It revealed that extrinsic biomass properties that restrict its access to decomposers influence decomposition more than intrinsic ones that are only related to its chemical structure. Fungal biomass has been much less investigated, even though it contributes to a large extent to soil organic matter, and is characterized by specific biochemical properties. In this study, we investigated the extent to which decomposition of heathland fungal biomass was affected by its hydrophobicity (extrinsic property) and melanin content (intrinsic property). We hypothesized that, as for plant biomass, hydrophobicity would have a greater impact on decomposition than melanin content. Mineralization was determined as the mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC) into CO2 by headspace GC/MS after inoculation by a heathland soil microbial community. Results show that decomposition was not affected by hydrophobicity, but was negatively correlated with melanin content. We argue that it may indicate that either melanin content is both an intrinsic and extrinsic property, or that some soil decomposers evolved the ability to use surfactants to access to hydrophobic biomass. In the latter case, biomass hydrophobicity should not be considered as a crucial extrinsic factor. We also explored the ecology of decomposition, melanin content, and hydrophobicity, among heathland soil fungal guilds. Ascomycete black yeasts had the highest melanin content, and hyaline Basidiomycete yeasts the lowest. Hydrophobicity was an all-or-nothing trait, with most isolates being hydrophobic.

A Price of Civilization Large expanses of rainforests in parts of Central Africa were abruptly replaced by savannas around 3000 years ago, presumably because of climate change. However, that succession occurred at a time of expansion by Bantu tribes, from near the border of present-day Cameroon and Nigeria to the south and east, in a migration that brought with it agriculture and iron-smelting technologies. Bayon et al. (p. 1219 , published online 9 February; see the Perspective by Dupont ) analyzed the nearby marine sedimentary record and found that chemical weathering in Central Africa also increased markedly at this time. This increase in weathering could have been caused by forest clearing by the Bantu to create arable land and to fuel their smelters, rather than climate change alone.

Cold and heat waves are phenomenon that occurs in higher frequency and intensity due to global climate changes. Commonly cultivated crop species are crucially affected by extreme weather events, and therefore alternative crops - such as halophytes - gain in agricultural interest. While halophytes are potentially able to cope with temperature extremes on the long term exposure, effects of temporary events such as cold and heat waves are not yet described. In order to unveil the effects of these altered thermal environments, Aster tripolium plants were subjected to cold (9/5 °C) and heat (42/38 °C) waves regimes during 3 days and its photochemical and biochemical traits evaluated. In the potential cash crop A. tripolium cold waves induced the gene expression of dehydrins in order to counteract desiccation and thus to prevent oxidative stress. Regulatory proteins on the RNA maturation level (Maturase K) were highly expressed. Heat stress induced the gene expression of the cystein protease gene; most likely to degrade misfolded proteins temporary. Both thermal treatments decreased the photosynthetic efficiency and capacity, driven by a loss in the connectivity between PSII antennae. Nevertheless the light absorption capacity was unaffected due to an increased RC closure net rate. Cold wave-treated individuals showed a decrease in the carotenoid pigmentation, except auroxanthin. In cold wave treated individuals the overall peroxidase activity was significantly increased. Data suggest that exposure to both, cold and heat wave treatment decreased the ecophysiological capacity of A. tripolium.