The banana tree circle as a nature-based solution for sustainable greywater management: A new design model.

The banana tree circle (BTC) is a low-cost system for local greywater management, using a natural treatment and disposal process, providing additional resource recovery benefits. However, there are no standard design criteria for BTC that would allow for quality control of its efficiency and sustainability, and little is currently known about the full-scale performance of BTC. Based on the scoping literature review of 31 documents in the scientific database and eight documents from grey literature, a standard design model was proposed for the BTC technology based on the concept of water balance, greywater flows, rain, infiltration, and evapotranspiration. The first two steps of the BTC design were determining the areas required for infiltration and evapotranspiration. A cylindrical form trench, the soil percolation rate, and the hydraulic loading rate were considered for the infiltration area. The banana trees' evapotranspiration rate was taken into consideration for the evapotranspiration area. The proposed model was applied in a case study where we used a trench with 0.8 m depth and 1.5 m diameter. This study proposes a standard design criterion for the BTC based on environmental factors, and the scoping of the literature provides the basis for future studies to evaluate its environmental sustainability.

Agroecological coffee management increases arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity.

Agroecology aims to maintain ecosystem services by minimizing the impact of agriculture and promoting the use of biological potential. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are elements which are key to improving crop productivity and soil quality. It is pertinent to understand how agricultural management in the tropics affects the AMF spatio-temporal community composition, especially in crops of global importance, such as coffee (Coffea arabica L.). Soil and root samples were collected from three localities under three management systems (agroecological, conventional and forest fragment), during the phenological stages of coffee (flowering, grain filling, harvesting). Spores were extracted for morphological identification and molecular community analysis by PCR-DGGE. Dendrograms were prepared and the bands were sequenced and analyzed by bioinformatics. No differences were observed in the richness of morphospecies between management systems, localities and period, but little is known about tropical species. Molecular analysis showed that the agroecological management system was similar to natural forest and with a higher diversity indices than conventional management. Locality and period of sample affect AMF community composition. It is necessary to associate classical taxonomic evaluations with molecular biological techniques because different approaches can lead to different outcomes. This study contributes to the understanding of the impact of agriculture management systems on AMF and provides evidence that agroecology is a management system applicable to sustainable coffee production.

Soil, water, and nutrient losses from management alternatives for degraded pasture in Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest biome.

The objective of this study was to evaluate sediment, water and nutrient losses from different pasture managements in the Atlantic Rainforest biome. A field study was carried out in Alegre Espiríto Santo, Brazil, on a Xanthic Ferralsol cultivated with braquiaria (Brachiaria brizantha). The six pasture managements studied were: control (CON), chisel (CHI), fertilizer (FER), burned (BUR), plowing and harrowing (PH), and integrated crop-livestock (iCL). Runoff and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), phosphorus (P) and organic carbon contents. Soil physical attributes and above and below biomass were also evaluated. The results indicated that higher water loss was observed for iCL (129.90mm) and CON (123.25mm) managements, and the sediment losses were higher for CON (10.24tha-1) and BUR (5.20tha-1) managements when compared to the other managements. Majority of the nutrients losses occurred in dissolved fraction (99% of Ca, 99% of Mg, 96% of K, and 65% of P), whereas a significant fraction of organic carbon (80%) loss occurred in a particulate form. Except for P, other nutrients (Ca, Mg and K) and organic carbon losses were higher in coarse sediment compared to fine sediment. The greater losses of sediment, organic carbon, and nutrients were observed for CON followed by BUR management (p<0.05). Our findings indicated that the traditional pasture management adopted in the Atlantic Rainforest needs to be rethought and burned management should be avoided. Based on the water, soil, and nutrient losses from various practices, to reduce pasture degradation, farmers should adopt edaphic practices by applying lime and fertilize to improve pasture growth and soil cover, and reducing soil erosion in the hilly Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest biome.

Metais pesados em amostras biológicas de bovinos / Heavy metals in cattle biological samples

O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar a concentração de metais pesados no sangue (Pb, Ni e Cd), soro (Cu e Zn), pelo e leite (Pb, Ni, Cd, Cu e Zn) de bovinos criados em área industrializada (com siderúrgicas) e não-industrial do Estado de Minas Gerais, em amostras coletadas em duas épocas (inverno e verão), buscando avaliar a contaminação em animais em função do ambiente de exposição e da estação do ano. O local de criação dos animais afetou significativamente somente a concentração de Cu obtida nas amostras de soro, com maiores valores determinados no grupo de bovinos da região industrializada. A época de amostragem afetou a concentração dos metais Cu (soro), Zn (soro e leite), Pb (sangue) e Cd (sangue e pelo), com as determinações efetuadas no verão proporcionando maiores teores do que as executadas no inverno, à exceção do Cd avaliado no pelo. Interações significativas (P<0,05) entre área de criação e época do ano foram verificadas para Cu (pelo e leite), Zn (pelo) e Ni (soro, pelo e leite). Os resultados obtidos indicam que a presença de siderúrgicas em determinada região não implica, necessariamente, incrementos nas concentrações de metais pesados em matrizes biológicas de bovinos. Pode haver influência da sazonalidade nas concentrações de metais pesados obtidas nessas matrizes, fato que deve ser considerado em programas de monitoramento ambiental.

The aim of this research was to determine the heavy metals concentration in blood (Pb, Ni and Cd), serum (Cu and Zn), hair and milk (Pb, Ni, Cd, Cu and Zn) of cattle raised in industrial (with steel mill) and non-industrial areas in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The samples were collected during summer and winter, aiming to verify animals contamination related to environment and year season. The environment significantly influenced the concentration of Cu obtained on serum samples, with higher values for cattle from the industrialized area. The sampling time affected the concentration of Cu (serum), Zn (serum and milk), Pb (blood) and Cd (blood and hair), with higher values for summer, except for Cd measured on hair. Meaningful interactions (P<0.05) between environment and year season were identified for Cu (hair and milk), Zn (hair) and Ni (serum, hair and milk). The results obtained show that the presence of steel mills in a determined area does not mean, necessarily that higher concentration of heavy metals will be found in cattle biological matrices. The seasonality can influence the heavy metal concentration obtained from these matrices, fact that should be considered in environment monitoring programs.

Zn(II) adsorption from synthetic solution and kaolin wastewater onto vermicompost.

The adsorption of Zn(II) from both synthetic solution and kaolin industry wastewater by cattle manure vermicompost was studied. The adsorption process was dependent on the various operating variables, viz., solution pH, particle size of the vermicompost, mass of vermicompost/volume of the Zn(II) solution ratio, contact time and temperature. The optimum conditions for Zn adsorption were pH 6.0, particle size of < or = 250 microm, 1 g per 10 mL adsorbent dose, contact time of 4h and temperature of 25 degrees C. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms fit well in the experimental data and their constants were evaluated, with R(2) values from 0.95 to 0.99. In synthetic solution, the maximum adsorption capacity of the vermicompost for Zn(2+) ions was 20.48 mg g(-1) at 25 degrees C when the vermicompost dose was 1 g 10 mL(-1) and the initial adjusted pH was 2. The batch adsorption studies of Zn(II) on vermicompost using kaolin wastewater have shown the maximum adsorption capacity was 2.49 mg g(-1) at pH 2 (natural pH of the wastewater). The small values of the constant related to the energy of adsorption (from 0.07 to 0.163 L mg(-1)) indicated that Zn(2+) ions were binded strongly to vermicompost. The values of the separation factor, R(L), which has been used to predict affinity between adsorbate and adsorbent were between 0 and 1, indicating that sorption was very favorable for Zn(II) in synthetic solution and kaolin wastewater. The thermodynamic parameter, the Gibbs free energy, was calculated for each system and the negative values obtained confirm that the adsorption processes are spontaneous. The DeltaG degrees values were -19.656 kJ mol(-1) and -16.849 kJ mol(-1) for Zn(II) adsorption on vermicompost in synthetic solution at pH 6 and 2, respectively, and -13.275 kJ mol(-1) in kaolin wastewater at pH 2.