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The CARBO-ACID research cruise (EUROFLEETS+ SEA02_10) was carried out on the RV Ramón Margalef between August 2nd and August 11st, with departing from Vigo – Spain and ending in Lisbon – Portugal. The main objective of this cruise was to collect data and samples to study the potential effects of ocean acidification on carbonate marine organisms (coccolithophores, pteropods, planktonic and benthic foraminifera, and corals) along the Iberian margin. With this objective, oceanographic data and water samples, plankton, cold-water corals and sediment samples were collected during an upwelling season, along two transects coinciding with the two persistent upwelling filaments off the Iberia Margin: the Cape Finisterra and the Cape Roca. In this dataset is guiven all the acquired data recollected onboad. During the CARBO-ACID cruise we did a total of 7 stations, 4 stations along the Cape Finisterra transect (from W to E: CA3, CA2, CA7, CA8) and 3 stations at the Cape Roca (from W to E: CA6, CA5, CA4) transect (Fig). At each station we usually started with a multibeam survey, a CTD and Rosette cast. These initial operations allowed to identify the different water masses present in this area, characterize their physical properties and to recover seawater samples at specific depth levels. The seawater samples were onboard subsampled, preserved in cold conditions or with chemicals and/ or filtered for several further analysis in the shore-based laboratories: DNA, chlorophyll, fitoplankton, coccolithophores, pH, alkalinity, stable isotopic composition, trace elements concentration and Suspend Particulate Matter. Subsequently to these operations, at each station, two vertical tows with a plankton multinet (with 5 nets) were done on the top 700 m of the water column to sample the planktonic communities of the different water depths. After this, sediment samples were recovered with a box-corer to study the past oceanographic conditions, between the pre-industrial Era and the Present, with multi-proxies used in paleoceanography and sedimentology. A total of 10 box-cores were recollected and each of them was onboard sub-sampled for eDNA, enzymes and benthic foraminifera. Fifteen shipek grab samples were recollected at the Fontanelas seamount (Estremadura Spur), station CA6, to characterize the sedimentary cover and to evaluate the presence of deep cold-water corals. Preliminary results show that the stations CA7, CA8 and CA4, located close to the coast, as expected, are the most influenced by the coastal upwelling, exhibiting colder surface water, higher values of fluorescence, and more zooplankton content reflecting higher phyto-zooplankton concentrations, as typical of the upwelling waters. At station CA4 temperature was higher and fluorescence showed lower values, indicative of less phytoplankton, and interpreted as indicating a different upwelling source water from that upwelled further north. Based on the CTD data, the Cape Roca transect is more influenced by the subtropical East North Atlantic Central Water (ENACWst), while the Cape Finisterra transect is more under the influence of the subpolar branch (ENACWsp). Seafloor sediment samples showed significant differences between the stations. Along the northern transect (Cape Finisterra) the seafloor sediments show an increase in grain size from the offshore to the coast. The offshore stations CA3 and CA2 revealed finer grained sediments, CA8 were composed of coarser sand and the station CA7, the shallowest station 77 m, presented the sediment composed mainly of shell fragments and coarse grain sand. Along the southern transect (Cape Roca), the offshore station CA6 (Fontanelas seamount) has coarser sandy sediments with rock clasts and cold-water coral fragments, and the stations CA5 and CA4 with fine sand to muddy sediments. The detailed CA6 bathymetry allowed to verify the existence of small plateaus on the slope of the Fontanelas seamount, where the fossil cold-water corals fragments were found, suggesting that this area is a very interesting system deserving further study with a ROV, and to characterize the corals fields and verify if there are live corals. These recollected data and samples will allow not only to reconstruct the pH variability under different environmental conditions, but also to estimate the biogeochemical changes along the coastal ocean waters as the anthropogenic influence increases. These results will contribute to better understand and model the effects on the biota under the future expected oceans pH changes.

The growing search for alternative energy sources is not only due to the present shortage of non-renewable energy sources, but also due to their negative environmental impacts. Therefore, a lot of attention is drawn to the use of biomass as a renewable energy source. However, using biomass in its natural state has not proven to be an efficient technique, giving rise to a wide range of processing treatments that enhance the properties of biomass as an energy source. Torrefaction is a thermal process that enhances the properties of biomass through its thermal decomposition at temperatures between 200 and 300 °C. The torrefaction process is defined by several parameters, which also have impacts on the final quality of the torrefied biomass. The final quality is measured by considering parameters, such as humidity, heating value (HV), and grindability. Studies have focused on maximizing the torrefied biomass’ quality using the best possible combination for the different parameters. The main objective of this article is to present new information regarding the conventional torrefaction process, as well as study the innovative techniques that have been in development for the improvement of the torrefied biomass qualities. With this study, conclusions were made regarding the importance of torrefaction in the energy field, after considering the economic status of this renewable resource. The importance of the torrefaction parameters on the final properties of torrefied biomass was also highly considered, as well as the importance of the reactor scales for the definition of ideal protocols.

Local development is a subject that arouses significant interest in the international scientific community in general, and in the Ibero-American one, in particular. The process of globalization has transformed the management of local development, altering the role that is played by local and regional entities, and it is the object of an important follow-up and analysis by academia. This research uses a bibliometric methodology and a fractional counting method, reviewing the 738 articles from the Scopus database in order to understand the state of Ibero-American research on local development, and analyze the scientific literature on the topic. The results show a significant increase in the number of publications in the 21st century, with Spain and Brazil leading the way. In addition, this research provides interesting results regarding the most influential authors on this topic, the most relevant journals, and the most important institutions and funding organizations. There are several areas of knowledge involved since local development is a transversal field, such as Social Science, environment, business, economics, and agriculture. A deep analysis of authors’ keywords identified new trends, linking local development with tourism, education, geotourism, climate change, local sustainable development, social innovation, and creativity, which provides academia with potential new lines of research.

Integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) is a versatile technology emerging as an ecological and sustainable solution for traditional monoculture aquacultures in terms of effluent treatment. Nevertheless, IMTA is still poorly applied in aquaculture industry due to, among other reasons, the lack of effective, low-investment and low-maintenance solutions. In this study, one has developed a practical and low maintenance IMTA-pilot system, settled in a semi-intensive coastal aquaculture. The optimisation and performance of the system was validated using Ulva spp., a macroalgae that naturally grows in the fishponds of the local aquaculture. Several cultivation experiments were performed at lab-scale and in the IMTA-pilot system, in static mode. The specific growth rate (SGR), yield, nutrient removal, N and C enrichment, protein and pigment content were monitored. Ulva spp. successfully thrived in effluent from the fish species sea bream (Sparus aurata) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) production tanks and significantly reduced inorganic nutrient load in the effluent, particularly, NH4+, PO43− and NO3−. The enrichment of nitrogen in Ulva spp.’s tissues indicated nitrogen assimilation by the algae, though, the cultivated Ulva spp. showed lower amounts of protein and pigments in comparison to the wild type. This study indicates that the designed IMTA-pilot system is an efficient solution for fish effluent treatment and Ulva spp., a suitable effluent remediator.

East Lisbon is being exposed to large-scale urban regeneration processes, where luxury residential projects and mixed-use spatial developments are already underway. Thus, it is a living laboratory for “smart”, “creative” and “green” projects, as well as related urban public space interventions. Braço de Prata is an urban space overlooked by developers, being surrounded by obsolete industrial buildings. Concerning the recent interest in international investments in brownfield regeneration and greenfield developments, it represents an attractive urban terrain as a post-industrial working-class neighbourhood, where “smart” and “green” suggest transforming space so that both new and old residents can live and work together and share public space regardless of analysis on their environmental recognitions. The aim of this paper is to present an empirical evaluation model that examines the possible impacts of environmental negligence through the reorganisation of the physical and social fabric. The analyses focus on dwellers’ moral understanding of their changing environment as site-specific domains to address the unique conditions that affect transiently defined presumptions about the collective needs. Taking an evaluative approach in the Braço de Prata case, this paper demonstrates the specific socio-ecological implications of urban inequality in post-industrial neighbourhoods that could be threatened by new decisions, both through urban planning approaches and instruments.

The connection between Earth’s global temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is one of the highest challenges in climate change science since there is some controversy about the real impact of CO2 emissions on the increase of global temperature. This work contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the relationship between CO2 emissions and the Earth’s global temperature for 61 years, providing a recent review of the emerging literature as well. Through a statistical approach based on maximum entropy, this study supports the results of other techniques that identify a positive impact of CO2 in the increase of the Earth’s global temperature. Given the well-known difficulties in the measurement of global temperature and CO2 emissions with high precision, this statistical approach is particularly appealing around climate change science, as it allows the replication of the original time series with the subsequent construction of confidence intervals for the model parameters. To prevent future risks, besides the present urgent decrease of greenhouse gas emissions, it is necessary to stop using the planet and nature as if resources were infinite.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the threshold effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental degradation. In empirical analysis, FDI and environmental degradation are jointly determined under the given threshold variable and other exogenous variables. Using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita as a proxy for environmental degradation, the results show that increasing FDI worsens CO2 emissions after a threshold level of corruption has been reached. Our results demonstrate that increasing FDI will increase CO2 emissions when the degree of corruptibility is relatively high. The study suggests that further FDI and improved environmental quality are competing rather than compatible objectives in high-corruption countries and are compatible rather than competing objectives in low-corruption countries. Higher trade liberalization in low-corruption countries could contribute to negative environmental consequences because of the increased output or economic activity which results from increased trade. The robustness estimation confirms the evidence that pollution and economic development increase together up to a certain income level, after which the trend reverses.

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD), a new regulation aiming to achieve and maintain a clean and well-managed water environment, refers to phytoplankton as one of the biological quality elements that should be regularly monitored, and upon which the reference conditions of water quality should be established. However, the use of phytoplankton as a biological quality element will result in several constraints, which are analyzed in this article with examples from Portuguese waters. Specifically, the establishment of reference conditions of water quality may be difficult in some water bodies for which no historical data exists. The sampling frequency proposed for phytoplankton monitoring does not seem suitable to assess phytoplankton succession, and may preclude the detection of algal blooms. Finally, the use of chlorophyll a as a proxy of phytoplankton biomass and abundance has been proposed by some authors, but it may overlook blooms of pico- and small nanophytoplankton, and overestimate the importance of large microphytoplankton. Furthermore, most studies in Portugal have used only inverted microscopy for phytoplankton observation and quantification; this method does not permit the distinction between autotrophic and heterotrophic cells, especially in samples preserved with Lugol's solution, and does not allow the observation of smaller-sized cells. Finally, some techniques, such as remote sensing and chemotaxonomic analysis, are proposed to be used as supplements in phytoplankton monitoring programs.