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[ES] Los Lodos Rojos son el residuo insoluble de la extracción de alúmina a partir de la bauxita por el proceso Bayer. En Galicia se producen más de 400.000 toneladas anuales de este residuo industrial, constituido fundamentalmente por una mezcla de óxidos e hidróxidos de hierro, óxidos de titanio, cuarzo, con cantidades menores de, arcillas, y otros minerales. El presente trabajo describe el proceso de aprovechamiento industrial de los Lodos Rojos, para obtener ladrillos densos para acumuladores de calor, áridos para carreteras y otros productos cerámicos. Este tipo de materiales, hasta ahora fabricados de forma experimental en el Instituto de Cerámica de Galicia han dado lugar a la creación de una nueva empresa y a la actual construcción y puesta en funcionamiento, de una planta piloto valorada en 200.000.000 Ptas. ubicada en el norte de la Provincia de Lugo. Dicha planta permitirá la fabricación de 20 Tm/día de material para su estudio y comercialización. [EN] The Red Mud is the insoluble residue of the alumina extraction starting from the bauxite for the process Bayer. In Galicia they take place more than 400.000 annual tons of this industrial residue, constituted fundamentally by a mixture of oxides and iron hydroxides, titanium oxides, quartz, and small quantities of clays and other minerals. The present work describes the process of industrial use of the Red Mud, to obtain dense bricks used in heat accumulators, arid for highways and other ceramic products. This type of materials, up to now manufactured in an experimental way in the Institute of Ceramic of Galicia have given place to the creation of a new company and the current construction and setting in operation, of a pilot plant valued in 200.000.000 Ptas. Located in the north of the Province of Lugo, this plant will allow the production of 20 Tm/day of material for its study and commercialisation. Peer reviewed

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract, please click on HTML or PDF.

13 páginas, 7 figuras, 7 tablas. The trace elements (As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, Ge, Hg, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Ta, Th, Tl, U, V, W, Y, Zn, Zr and REE) in a subbituminous coal and their behaviour during combustion in a large power station were characterized by their content and distribution in the fuel (organic and/or inorganic affinities) and in the combustion wastes (partition and volatility). Samples were fractionated by density and magnetic separations and cascade impactors. Quantitative analyses were performed by X-ray diffraction, ICP-MS, ICP-AES, AAS and ICP-AES with hydride generation. Among the findings is the important role of anhydrite (CaSO4) in the sorption of trace elements such as As, B, Ge, Se, Pb, Mo, Zn and Tl from flue gas and in the reduction of emissions of these potentially toxic elements. Calcium oxide has a high sorption capacity for some of the elements studied. This sorption phenomenon and the condensation, mainly as fine fly ash particles, of important fractions of the trace elements during the cooling of flue gas significantly reduce the gaseous emissions of potentially toxic trace elements from coal combustion in the power station studied. The present study has been supported by the European Coal and Steel Community Contract 7220-ED/014 and the Spanish Research Project NAT91-0571. Peer reviewed

Due to its biennual life cycle Brassica oleracea is especially exposed to seasonal changes in temperature that could limit its growth and fitness. Thermal stress could limit plant growth, leaf development and photosynthesis. We evaluated the performance of two local populations of B. oleracea: one population of cabbage (B. oleracea capitata group) and one population of kale (B. oleracea acephala group) under limiting low and high temperatures.There were differences between crops and how they responded to high and low temperature stress. Low temperatures especially affect photosynthesis and fresh weight. Stomatal conductance and the leaf water content were dramatically reduced and plants produce smaller and thicker leaves. Under high temperatures there was a reduction of the weight that could be associated to a general impairment of the photosynthetic activity.Although high temperatures significantly reduced the dry weight of seedlings, in general terms, low temperature had a higher impact in B. oleracea physiology than high temperature. Interestingly, our results suggest that the capitata population is less sensitive to changes in air temperature than the acephala population.

Global change is striking harder and faster in the Mediterranean Sea than elsewhere, where high levels of human pressure and proneness to climate change interact in modifying the structure and disrupting regulative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. Rocky reefs are particularly exposed to such environmental changes with ongoing trends of degradation being impressive. Due to the variety of habitat types and associated marine biodiversity, rocky reefs are critical for the functioning of marine ecosystems, and their decline could profoundly affect the provision of essential goods and services which human populations in coastal areas rely upon. Here, we provide an up-to-date overview of the status of rocky reefs, trends in human-driven changes undermining their integrity, and current and upcoming management and conservation strategies, attempting a projection on what could be the future of this essential component of Mediterranean marine ecosystems.

AbstractParapatry is a biogeographical term used to refer to organisms whose ranges do not overlap, but are immediately adjacent to each other; they only co‐occur – if at all – in a narrow contact zone. Often there are no environmental barriers in the contact zones, hence competitive interaction is usually advocated as the factor that modulates species distribution ranges. Even though the effects of climate change on species distribution have been widely studied, few studies have explored these effects on the biogeographical relationships between closely related, parapatric, species. We modelled environmental favourability for three parapatric hare species in Europe – Lepus granatensis, L. europaeus and L. timidus – using ecogeographical variables and projected the models into the future according to the IPCC A2 emissions scenario. Favourabilities for present and future scenarios were combined using fuzzy logic with the following aims: (i) to determine the biogeographical relationships between hare species in parapatry, that is L. granatensis/L. europaeus and L. europaeus/L. timidus and (ii) to assess the effects of climate change on each species as well as on their interspecific interactions. In their contact area L. granatensis achieved higher favourability values than L. europaeus, suggesting that if both species have a similar population status, the former species may have some advantages over the latter if competitive relationships are established. Climate change had the most striking effect on the distribution of L. timidus, especially when interspecific interactions with L. europaeus were taken into account, which may compromise the co‐existence of L. timidus. The results of this study are relevant not only for understanding the distribution patterns of the hares studied and the effects of climate change on these patterns, but also for improving the general application of species distribution models to the prediction of the effects of climate change on biodiversity.

While the physical dimensions of climate change are now routinely assessed through multimodel intercomparisons, projected impacts on the global ocean ecosystem generally rely on individual models with a specific set of assumptions. To address these single-model limitations, we present standardized ensemble projections from six global marine ecosystem models forced with two Earth system models and four emission scenarios with and without fishing. We derive average biomass trends and associated uncertainties across the marine food web. Without fishing, mean global animal biomass decreased by 5% (±4% SD) under low emissions and 17% (±11% SD) under high emissions by 2100, with an average 5% decline for every 1 °C of warming. Projected biomass declines were primarily driven by increasing temperature and decreasing primary production, and were more pronounced at higher trophic levels, a process known as trophic amplification. Fishing did not substantially alter the effects of climate change. Considerable regional variation featured strong biomass increases at high latitudes and decreases at middle to low latitudes, with good model agreement on the direction of change but variable magnitude. Uncertainties due to variations in marine ecosystem and Earth system models were similar. Ensemble projections performed well compared with empirical data, emphasizing the benefits of multimodel inference to project future outcomes. Our results indicate that global ocean animal biomass consistently declines with climate change, and that these impacts are amplified at higher trophic levels. Next steps for model development include dynamic scenarios of fishing, cumulative human impacts, and the effects of management measures on future ocean biomass trends.