Publications

Wind power has gained attention as a vital renewable energy source capable of reducing emissions and serving as an effective alternative to fossil fuels. Floating wind farms could significantly enhance the energy capacities of Mediterranean countries. However, location selection for offshore wind farms (OWFs) is a challenge for renewable energy policy and marine spatial planning (MSP). To address these issues, this study considers the marine space of Greece to propose a GIS-based multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework employing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify suitable sites for OWFs. The approach assesses 19 exclusion criteria encompassing legislative, environmental, safety, and technical constraints to determine the eligible areas. Subsequently, 10 evaluation criteria are weighted to determine the selected areas’ level of suitability. The study considers baseline conditions (1981–2010) and future climate scenarios based on RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 for two horizons (2011–2040 and 2041–2070), integrating projected wind velocities and sea level rise to evaluate potential shifts in suitable areas. Results indicate the central and southeastern Aegean Sea as the most suitable areas for OWF deployment. Climate projections indicate a modest increase in suitable areas. The findings serve as input for climate-resilient MSP seeking to promote sustainable energy development.

O desafio contínuo da Hemoterapia, é a busca por uma transfusão segura e, isto depende, diretamente de cada etapa do ciclo do sangue. As novas técnicas laboratoriais permitiram uma triagem sorológica mais efetiva em seus resultados que nos traz maior confiabilidade, porém, não exclui a etapa da triagem clínica que é fundamental na busca de um doador saudável. As pandemias modificam as atitudes e posturas da humanidade, o que gera impacto direto na necessidade de adaptação da abordagem clínica da triagem na doação de sangue. A habilidade do profissional de triagem é essencial para a exclusão subjetiva, a orientação adequada do doador sobre sua inaptidão e a captação de doadores com o perfil adequado para as diferentes modalidades de doação. Descrever as principais causas de inaptidão clínica na triagem no período pós-pandemia por COVID-19, comparando com período anterior já analisado no BSST. Avaliamos retrospectivamente, o período de janeiro a junho dos anos de 2021 e 2022, assim como o mesmo perído em 2012 e 2013. O levantamento foi realizado através da análise do banco de dados eletrônico do BSST. Observou-se o índice de inaptidão, as frequências e as principais causa de inaptidão temporária encontradas na triagem clínica. A média de candidatos/mês do BSST nos períodos analisados: 2012 = 1032; 2013= 1161,5; 2021 = 1990 e 1707 em 2022. O índice de inaptidão total (definitiva e temporária): 2012 = 13%; 2013 = 12,5%; 2021 = 7,98% e 2022 = 6,81% (872/6969). Os inaptos em definitivo representaram 3,3% do total em 2012; 3,8% em 2013; 2,9% em 2021 e 3,1% em 2022. A principal causa de inaptidão obervada foi a mesma nos anos de 2012, 2013 e 2021: Hematócrito baixo (23,5% / 14% / 21%),com predomínio entre mulheres: 92,5%, assim como a segunda causa que é a utilização de medicamentos (10% / 10% / 17,7%). No ano de 2022 observa-se como principal causa o uso de medicação: 27,2%; seguido de 12% por cirurgia recente e 8% de tatuagem e piercing, que também estavam entre as 5 principais causas nos anos anteriores. As relações sexuais desprotegidas ou promíscuas tiveram um aumento em 2013, representando 12,1%, sendo 85% em homens com < 40 anos. Em 2021 e 2022 o contato com pessoas vítimas do COVID 19 esteve em torno de 3, 1%. Observa-se uma redução no número geral de inaptidão, porém não atribuída a pandemia por COVID-19, mesmo com a incorporação desta entre as causas de inaptidão. A diminuição do número geral de inaptidão clínica ao longo dos anos, é interpretada por várias ações de melhorias na tentativa de encontrar o doador ideal e também na disseminação da informação para que gere vindas desnecessárias de doadores inaptos ao Banco de sangue. O desenvolvimento e curso de projeto elaborado no BSST para melhoria da experiência do doador no BSST, descrito como Encantamento, levou entre suas ações a entrega de um cartão com texto elaborado de agradecimento com uma bala, aonde é descrito a data de possível retorno da inaptidão temporária. Esta pode ser a principal razão de aumento do retorno desses doadores (30% nos anos anteriores para 57% após essa implementação). A utilização de banner na entrada do BSST com esclarecimentos sobre a realização de piercing e tatuagem também gerou um impacto nessas causa de inaptidão (em média de 8,5% em período anterior para 6,5% no período atual). Apesar de 10 anos de intervalo entre as análises, observa-se que a melhora dos indíces estão atribuídas as ações descritas na unidade, demonstrando a importância da análise sistemática dessas causas para elaboração de projetos que gerem impacto de melhoria.

Abstract Aim The interactive effects of increased temperature and ultraviolet‐B (UV‐B) radiation on terrestrial and aquatic biota remain poorly understood. Our goal is to increase knowledge by providing a comprehensive assessment of the combined effects of warming and increased UV‐B on organisms across these domains. Location Global. Time period 1995–2016. Major taxa studied Terrestrial plants and animals, and marine and freshwater microalgae, macroalgae and animals. Methods We examined, using a meta‐analysis based on 1,139 published experimental assessments, the combined effects of temperature and UV‐B across terrestrial, freshwater and marine biota. We characterized the prevailing mode of combined effects (additive, synergistic or antagonistic), and assessed whether these were dose‐dependent or differed between terrestrial, freshwater and marine species, or between organisms growing in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Results Our results show that the two stressors generally acted opposingly, with a significant positive effect of increased temperature and a significant adverse effect of elevated UV‐B radiation. Regarding their interactive impact, additive interactions (84%) appeared to be much more common compared with multiplicative (16%) effects. The frequencies of interaction types differed significantly among the three habitats and different plant functional groups. The proportion of both synergistic and antagonistic effects increased with increasing magnitude of temperature and UV‐B changes, suggesting that additivity is constrained by an organism's thermal and physiological limits. Main conclusions Our analysis demonstrates that due to their mostly opposing nature, elevated temperature, within the thermal limits of organisms, tends to compensate for the negative impact of UV‐B radiation when acting together, while their additive interaction is likely to assist impact prognosis. Our study, therefore, provides new insights into the predictions of the interactive effects of global change drivers across different habitats.

Seaweed aquaculture, the fastest-growing component of global food production, offers a slate of opportunities to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Seaweed farms release carbon that maybe buried in sediments or exported to the deep sea, therefore acting as a CO2 sink. The crop can also be used, in total or in part, for biofuel production, with a potential CO2 mitigation capacity, in terms of avoided emissions from fossil fuels, of about 1500 tons CO2 km-2 year-1. Seaweed aquaculture can also help reduce the emissions from agriculture, by improving soil quality substituting synthetic fertilizer and, when included in cattle fed, lowering methane emissions from cattle. Seaweed aquaculture contributes to climate change adaptation by damping wave energy and protecting shorelines, and by elevating pH and supplying oxygen to the waters, thereby locally reducing the effects of ocean acidification and de-oxygenation. The scope to expand seaweed aquaculture is, however, limited by the availability of suitable areas and competition for suitable areas with other uses, engineering systems capable of coping with rough conditions offshore and an increasing market demand for seaweed products, among other factors. Despite these limitations, seaweed farming practices can be optimized to maximize climate benefits, which may, if economically compensated, improve the income of seaweed farmers.

Global potential distribution of benthic and intertidal macroalgae (Rhodophyta and Phaeophyceae) inferred with mechanistic and correlative niche modelling. Data is provided as georeferenced high-resolution tif files.

We examined the retention of nitrogen associated with sedimented planktonic material trapped within a Mediterranean seagrass ( Posidonia oceanica ) meadow with the use of 15 N‐enriched algal material injected into vegetated and nonvegetated sediment as a tracer. The retention of labeled nitrogen material in the sediment and the appearance in P. oceanica leaves, rhizomes, and roots was examined 3, 5, 9, and 21 d after injection. More than 80% of the label material added to the bare sediment was lost within 5 d. Labeled material was retained better in vegetated sediments. Labeled material from the sediment was taken up rapidly by the roots, translocated through the rhizomes, and accumulated in the new leaves. The amount of 15 N recovered during the experiment in P. oceanica meadow was fourfold higher than that recovered in unvegetated sediment, demonstrating that the P. oceanica meadow was more efficient in retaining the nitrogen deposited as algal material than unvegetated sediments. Enhanced trapping of sestonic particles by seagrass canopies can be an efficient nutrient acquisition strategy in the oligotrophic environments that seagrasses inhabit.

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 36:227-237 (2004) - doi:10.3354/ame036227 Carbon cycling and bacterial carbon sources in pristine and impacted Mediterranean seagrass sediments M. Holmer1,*, C. M. Duarte2, H. T. S. Boschker3, C. Barrón2 1Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark 2IMEDEA (CSIC-UiB), Grupo de Oceanografia Interdisciplinar, Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, C/Miquel Marqués 21, 07190 Esporles (Islas Baleares), Spain 3Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), PO Box 140, 4400 AC Yerseke, The Netherlands *Email: holmer@biology.sdu.dk ABSTRACT: Stable carbon-isotope ratios of bacterial biomarkers were studied in Mediterranean seagrass meadows and macroalgae communities to identify the sources of organic carbon used by the sediment bacteria. Bacteria δ13C ratios in pristine sediments vegetated by the seagrass Posidonia oceanica were either similar to the seagrass signal or slightly enriched, suggesting that seagrass detritus was of major importance as a bacterial carbon source. There was a shift in bacterial carbon sources in anthropogenic impacted P. oceanica meadows towards seston and macroalgae. The net primary productivity was reduced in these meadows, whereas the rates of mineralization as measured by sulfate reduction rates were enhanced in the sediments. This effect on mineralization was probably due to the input of less refractory organic matter compared to seagrass detritus, which enhances the bacterial decomposition of organic matter. In the fast growing seagrass Cymodocea nodosa meadow, the bacterial carbon sources consisted of a mixture of seagrass detritus and seston, and the mineralization rates were much higher compared to the P. oceanica meadows, indicating that these carbon sources were more labile and easily decomposed by the bacteria. A similar pattern was found in the macroalgae bed with Caulerpa prolifera, where the rates of mineralization were high, similar to findings in organic impacted fish farm sediments. Here C. prolifera detritus was the most important carbon source and accounted for an increase in sediment organic content. The possible impacts of a shift in bacterial carbon sources due to nutrient loading are discussed in relation to the performance of P. oceanica in carbonate sediments. KEY WORDS: Seagrass · Sediments · Carbon cycling · δ13C · Bacterial substrates · Sulfate reduction Full article in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 36, No. 3. Online publication date: September 14, 2004 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2004 Inter-Research.

The osmolyte glycine betaine (GB) ranks among the few widespread biomolecules in all three domains of life. In corals, tissue concentrations of GB are substantially higher than in the ambient seawater. However, the synthetic routes remain unresolved, questioning whether intracellular GB originates from de novo synthesis or heterotrophic input. Here we show that the genomic blueprint of coral metaorganisms encode the biosynthetic and degradation machinery for GB. Member organisms also adopted the prokaryotic high-affinity carrier-mediated uptake of exogenous GB, rendering coral reefs potential sinks of marine dissolved GB. The machinery metabolizing GB is highly expressed in the coral model Aiptasia and its microalgal symbionts, signifying GB's role in the cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis. We estimate that corals store between 106–109 grams of GB globally, representing about 16% of their nitrogen biomass. Our findings provide a framework for further mechanistic studies addressing GB's role in coral biology and reef ecosystem nitrogen cycling.

A ventilacao natural e uma das estrategias mais eficientes para remover a carga termica acumulada no interior dos ambientes e tambem e importante para a renovacao do ar interior. O objetivo principal do artigo e analisar o comportamento do usuario em relacao a operacao de janelas em dois apartamentos residenciais localizados na cidade de Pelotas-RS. Tambem tem como objetivo analisar a influencia da abertura de janelas no desempenho termoenergetico dos apartamentos e comparar o uso real as configuracoes preconizadas no RTQ-R, realizada atraves de simulacao computacional com o software Energy Plus . Com a analise observou-se que durante o periodo de inverno nao e frequente a abertura de janelas pelos usuarios e, quando ocorre, nao interfere significativamente na temperatura interior. Devido a edificacao ser pouco estanque e com alta transmitância termica os ambientes permanecem com temperaturas baixas. Comparando os as temperaturas do edificio real com o modelo do Energy Plus , observa-se que o edificio real apresenta temperaturas inferiores de, em media, 0,7oC.