ALBERT

Description: Highlights • Coupled geomicrobiology and geomechanics to investigate alterations in shales. • Microbial process can alter the mechanics, mineralogy, and microstructure of shales. • Biogeomechanical alterations reduced permeability by 93% and porosity by 38%. • Microfractures in shales can be sealed during biogeomechanical alterations. • Biogeomechanical alterations can enhance CO2 storage security and caprock integrity. Shales have been a major focus of the energy industry over the past few decades. Recently, there is a paradigm shift in the energy industry to low-carbon solutions, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), to mitigate global warming caused by carbon footprint. The problem of long-term safe and efficient geological CO2 storage (GCS) and caprock integrity are some of the major challenges impeding large-scale CCS application. Here, we investigated how localized and bulk biogeomechanical alterations could potentially impact caprock integrity and CO2 storage in depleted shale reservoirs. We cultivated the shale core samples (containing both artificial-induced and pre-existing natural fractures) with a cultured microbial solution at specific temperature, time, and growth conditions. Subsequently, we obtain the properties of the fractured shale rock samples impacted by this microbial process. We investigate the impact of the mechanical responses due to the microbial process, on the long-term integrity and storage potentials of CO2 in shale reservoirs. Our results suggest that in Eagle Ford, Marcellus, and Niobrara shale formations, microbially-altered local and bulk mechanical properties can enhance the long-term caprock integrity and CO2 storage security by: (1.) Increasing the localized (+19% unconfined compressive strength, −20% Poisson’s ratio, +35% fracture toughness) and bulk (+50% unconfined compressive strength, −13% Poisson’s ratio) mechanical integrity; (2.) Decreasing permeability (−93%) and porosity (−38%); (3.) Altering the clay mineral content (−56%), calcite content (+21%), and morphology; (4.) Occluding microfractures; and (5.) Mitigating any potential leakage to the atmosphere through the caprock. This study considers the heterogeneity of shales, and provide valuable insights and viable assessment in solving the long-term GCS application in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Description: Highlights • Internal diffusion often controls the releases of flame retardants from microplastics. • Fick's law can describe the releases of additive flame retardants from microplastics. • Effects of temperature, plastic matrix, and particle size can be predicted by models. • Weathering of plastic matrix can greatly accelerate the releases of flame retardants. • Low fluxes of flame retardants released from microplastics pose no risk to ecosystem. The widely occurring debris of plastic materials, particularly microplastics, can be an important source of flame retardants, which are one of the main groups of chemicals added in the production of plastics from polymers. This review provides an overview on the use of flame retardants in plastic manufacturing, the kinetics of their releases from microplastics, the factors affecting their releases, and the potential environmental and ecosystem risk of the released flame retardants. The releases of flame retardants from microplastics typically involve three major steps: internal diffusion, mass transfer across the plastic-medium boundary layer, and diffusion in the environmental medium, while the overall mass transfer rate is commonly controlled by diffusion within the plastic matrix. The overall release rates of additive flame retardants from microplastics, which are dependent on the particle's geometry, can often be described by the Fick's Law. The physicochemical properties of flame retardant and plastic matrix, and ambient temperature all affect the release rate, which can be predicted with empirical and semi-empirical models. Weathering of microplastics, which reduces their particle sizes and likely disrupts their polymeric structures, can greatly accelerate the releases of flame retardants. Flame retardants could also be released directly from the microplastics ingested by aquatic organisms and seabirds, with physical and chemical digestion in the bodies significantly enhancing their release rates. Limited by the extremely slow diffusion in plastic matrices, the fluxes of flame retardants released from microplastics are very low, and are unlikely to pose significant risk to the ecosystem in general. More research is needed to characterize the mechanical, chemical, and biological processes that degrade microplastics and accelerate the releases of flame retardants and to model their release kinetics from microplastics, while efforts should also be made to develop environmentally benign flame retardants to ultimately minimize their risk to the environment and ecosystem.

Description: The ubiquitous use of microplastics and their release into the environment especially the water bodies by anthropogenic/industrial activities are the major resources for microplastic contamination. The widespread and often injudicious use of antimicrobial drugs or antibiotics in various sectors including human health and hygiene, agriculture, animal husbandry and food industries are leading to the release of antibiotics into the wastewater/sewage and other water bodies, particularly in urban setups and thus leads to the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the microbes. Microplastics are emerging as the hubs as well as effective carriers of these microbial pathogens beside their AMR-genes (ARGs) in marine, freshwater, sewage/wastewater, and urban river ecosystems. These drug resistant bacteria interact with microplastics forming synthetic plastispheres, the ideal niche for biofilm formations which in turn facilitates the transfer of ARGs via horizontal gene transfer and further escalates the occurrence and levels of AMR. Microplastic-associated AMR is an emerging threat for human health and healthcare besides being a challenge for the research community for effective management/address of this menace. In this review, we encompass the increasing prevalence of microplastics in environment, emphasizing mainly on water environments, how they act as centers and vectors of microbial pathogens with their associated bacterial assemblage compositions and ultimately lead to AMR. It further discusses the mechanistic insights on how microplastics act as hosts of biofilms (creating the plastisphere). We have also presented the modern toolbox used for microplastic-biofilm analyses. A review on potential strategies for addressing microplastic-associated AMR is given with recent success stories, challenges and future prospects.

Description: In the present work, an untargeted metabolomic approach based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–HRMS) was performed for the discrimination of 25 accessions of white quinoa from main production zones of Peru. From the fingerprint analysis, a total of eighty-four metabolites were tentatively identified based on their accurate mass measurements and MS/MS data. Among them, forty-six compounds are reported here for the first time in C. quinoa (eight phenolics, one ecdysteroid, and thirty-seven saponins), twenty-four of them would correspond to new structures. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to analyze the metabolomic data. As a result, the samples were distributed into two groups. The compounds contributing to the differences between these groups were identified by S-plot analysis.

Description: Microplastic particles are ubiquitous in the environment, from the air we breathe to the food we eat. The key question with respect to these particles is to what extent they cause risks for the environment and human health. There is no risk assessment framework that takes into account the multidimensionality of microplastic particles against the background of numerous natural particles, which together encompass an infinite combination of sizes, shapes, densities and chemical signatures. We review the current tenets in defining microplastic characteristics and effects, emphasizing advances in the analysis of the diversity of microplastic particles. We summarize the unique characteristics of microplastic compared with those of other environmental particles, the main mechanisms of microplastic particle effects and the relevant dose metrics for these effects. To characterize risks consistently, we propose how exposure and effect thresholds can be aligned and quantified using probability density functions describing microplastic particle diversity.

Description: Highlights • UAV-based thermal imaging allows precise mapping of diffusive thermal water discharge. • High tidal ranges affect fluid flow and promote larger thermal anomaly. • The La Jolla thermal anomaly is caused by a discharge of 330 ± 44 L s−1 of thermal water. • The La Jolla advective heat output (40.5 ± 5.2 MWt) can power a desalinization plant. The exploration of unexploited geothermal resources is required to encourage the use of renewable energy. This study focuses on La Jolla beach, Ensenada, Mexico. The beach hosts a thermal anomaly with temperatures of up to 52 °C at the surface and up to 93 °C at 20 cm depth. The objectives were to: map the thermal anomaly, understand the impact of tides, quantify the thermal water discharge rate and heat output, and discuss a direct use of the energy. The mapping was performed with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles equipped with optical and thermal cameras at two different dates. Additional temperature measurements were performed with a thermocouple, while the total fluid discharge was estimated from flow measurements. A comparison between the campaigns indicated that the highest surface temperature area was more than three times larger in 2019 than in 2018 (259 m2 vs. 69 m2). Such change was due to the tidal range and associated hydrostatic pressure variations. The total thermal water discharge is 330 ± 44 L s−1, which corresponds to an advective heat output of 40.5 ± 5.2 MWt. The use of this energy in a Multi-Effect Distillation desalinization plant can contribute to cover the shortage of freshwater in Ensenada.

Description: The Neolithic Revolution began approximately 10,000 years ago and is characterized by the ultimate, nearly complete transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural food production on land. The Neolithic Revolution is thought to have been catalyzed by a combination of local population pressure, cultural diffusion, property rights and climate change. We undertake a thought experiment that examines trends in these key hypothesized catalysts of the Neolithic Revolution and patterns of today to explore whether society could be on a path towards another paradigm shift in food production: away from hunting of wild fish towards a transition to mostly fish farming. We find similar environmental and cultural pressures have driven the rapid rise of aquaculture, during a period that has now been coined the Blue Revolution, providing impetus for such a transition in coming decades to centuries (as opposed to millennia). However, we also highlight the interacting and often mutually reinforcing impacts of 1) technological and scientific advancements, 2) environmental awareness and collective action and 3) globalization and trade influencing the trajectory and momentum of the Blue Revolution from patterns and processes of the Neolithic Revolution. We present two qualitative narratives that broadly fall within two future trajectories of seafood production: 1) a ubiquitous aquaculture transition and 2) commercial aquaculture and fisheries coexistence. Each narrative contains two sub-narratives based on differing management and regulatory strategies for aquaculture and fisheries. This scenarios approach aims to encourage logical, forward thinking, and innovative solutions to complex systems’ dynamics. Scenario-based thought experiments are useful to explore large scale questions, increase the accessibility to a wider readership, and ideally catalyze discussion around proactive governance mechanisms. We argue the future is not fixed and society now has greater foresight and capacity to choose the workable balance between fisheries and aquaculture that supports economic, environmental, cultural and social objectives through combined planning, policies, and management.

Description: For a long time, fungal pathogens have been a threat to the health and diet of humans. Consequently, antimycotic agents have been developed, which are called fungicides in agriculture and antifungals in medicine. Because fungi constantly develop resistance to established modes of action and because of the need for reducing the required use rates/doses, immense research efforts are still being undertaken to discover novel antimycotics. The research-based agrochemical industry has proven that these requirements can be fulfilled by a constant flow of novel fungicidal modes of action, the expansion of agronomical scope and applicability of existing fungicidal mode of action classes, and the design of resistance-breaking active ingredients in an established fungicidal mode of action class, if the molecular structure of the mutated fungal strain is known. Such strategies could be also useful for the discovery of novel antifungals.

Description: Glacial isostatic adjustment is largely governed by the rheological properties of the Earth's mantle. Large mass redistributions in the ocean–cryosphere system and the subsequent response of the viscoelastic Earth have led to dramatic sea level changes in the past. This process is ongoing, and in order to understand and predict current and future sea level changes, the knowledge of mantle properties such as viscosity is essential. In this study, we present a method to obtain estimates of mantle viscosities by the assimilation of relative sea level rates of change into a viscoelastic model of the lithosphere and mantle. We set up a particle filter with probabilistic resampling. In an identical twin experiment, we show that mantle viscosities can be recovered in a glacial isostatic adjustment model of a simple three-layer Earth structure consisting of an elastic lithosphere and two mantle layers of different viscosity. We investigate the ensemble behaviour on different parameters in the following three set-ups: (1) global observations data set since last glacial maximum with different ensemble initialisations and observation uncertainties, (2) regional observations from Fennoscandia or Laurentide/Greenland only, and (3) limiting the observation period to 10 ka until the present. We show that the recovery is successful in all cases if the target parameter values are properly sampled by the initial ensemble probability distribution. This even includes cases in which the target viscosity values are located far in the tail of the initial ensemble probability distribution. Experiments show that the method is successful if enough near-field observations are available. This makes it work best for a period after substantial deglaciation until the present when the number of sea level indicators is relatively high.

Description: Controlled-source electromagnetic methods have the potential to be used in reservoir monitoring problems due to their sensitivity to subsurface resistivity distribution. For example, time-lapse electromagnetic (EM) measurements can help to determine reservoir changes during enhanced oil recovery processes, such as water/steam injection or CO2 sequestration. Although metal infrastructure, such as pipelines and casings, can strongly influence EM data and mask the underlying geologic response, these effects have not previously been quantified for time-lapse surveys. We have analyzed the effects of well casings on time-lapse surface-to-surface EM measurements using 1D and 3D modeling. First, using a synthetic example of an onshore 1D hydrocarbon reservoir, we quantified the effect of single and multiple casings at several source and receiver locations. We found that time-lapse responses are significantly distorted when a source or receiver is located near a casing. Next, we approximated a hydrocarbon reservoir as a thin bounded resistive sheet. We developed a method of moments algorithm to calculate the respective secondary currents and charges on a well casing and resistive sheet combination and validated the electric fields these secondary sources generate against finite-element modeling. Finally, we calculated and explicitly demonstrated time-lapse amplitude changes in the well casing-thin-sheet interaction matrix, secondary currents, charges, and surface electric fields. Our 3D modeling results indicated that the conductive casing reduces the ability of the resistive sheet to impede current flow and distorts time-lapse responses. Therefore, one cannot fully eliminate casing effects by subtraction of time-lapse data and must fully incorporate such infrastructure into forward models for time-lapse EM inversion.