ALBERT

Description: This study provides empirical evidence related to the “it pays to be green” hypothesis. Based on information from panel data approximately 42 industrial companies during an 8-year period, we determine some of the factors and contingences that affect the fulfilment of that hypothesis. We find that a certain level of proactivity in environmental strategy design is one of the conditions that favors a positive relationship between environmental investment and financial performance. We also provide empirical evidence on how some external conditions affect this positive relationship, such as regulatory pressure from the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the financial crisis.

Description: Abstract Coastal back‐barrier perched lakes are freshwater bodies that are elevated over sea‐level and are not directly subjected to the inflow of seawater. This study provides a detailed reconstruction of the Doniños back‐barrier perched lake that developed at the end of a small river valley in the rocky coast of the north‐west Iberian Peninsula during the Holocene transgression. Its sequence stratigraphy was reconstructed based on a core transect across the system, the analyses of its lithofacies and microfossil assemblages, and a high‐resolution radiocarbon‐based chronology. The Doniños perched lake was formed ca 4·5 ka bp. The setting of the perched lake was favoured by Late Holocene sea‐level stabilization and the formation of a barrier and back‐barrier basin, which was contemporaneous with the high systems tract period. This basin developed over marine and lagoonal sediments deposited between 10·2 ka bp and 8·0 ka bp, during rapidly rising sea‐level characteristic of the transgressive systems track period. At 1·1 ka bp, the barrier was breached and the perched lake was partially emptied, causing the erosion of the back‐barrier basin sediments and a significant sedimentary hiatus. Both enhanced storminess and human intervention were likely to be responsible for this event. After 1 ka bp, the barrier reclosed and the present‐day lake was reformed, with the water level reaching as high as 5 m above mean sea‐level. The depositional evolution of the Doniños system serves as a model of coastal back‐barrier perched lakes in coastal clastic systems that have developed over gently seaward‐dipping rugged substrates at small distances from the shoreline and under conditions of rising sea‐level and high sediment supply. A review of estuaries, back‐barrier lagoons, pocket beaches and back‐barrier perched lakes in the rocky coast of north‐west Spain shows that the elevation of the bedrock is the main factor controlling the origin and evolution of these systems.

Description: Abstract The Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) is a pre‐industrial phase of pronounced natural climate variability with a core period from 1000 to 1200 CE. The paper presents a synthesis that integrates palaeotemperature records from the Greater Mediterranean Region encompassing the past 1500 years based on multiproxy data from 79 published land and marine sites. MCA warming dominated the Western Mediterranean (Iberia, NW Africa) as well as the northern land areas of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean region. MCA cooling prevailed in the Canary Current Upwelling System, southern Levant and some sea areas of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Previous palaeoreconstructions suggest persistent positive Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO+) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO+) conditions during the MCA, whilst the LIA was dominated by an AMO‐ and NAO‐ regime. During the past 150 years, AMO+ conditions are typically associated with warming episodes in the Mediterranean area. A similar relationship appears to have also been established during the MCA as the majority of all Mediterranean land sites experienced warm climate conditions. In contrast, the NAO typically leads to a characteristic west‐east temperature dipole pattern in the basin, as documented for the last decades. During NAO+ conditions the Western Mediterranean is generally warm (and dry), whilst large parts of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean are cold. Similar trends seem to have been developed during the MCA when the NAO+ regime led to consistent warming in the Western Mediterranean, whilst a significant number of sites with MCA cooling existed in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.

Description: The Circular Economy is a paradigm shift attempting to replace the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and to slow down, close and narrow material and power loops. This concept is much discussed in the academic literature, but limited progress has been accomplished so far regarding its empirical analysis. The objective of this work is to study circular economy practices and analyze in depth the circular economy behavior in European firms. We find that firms’ circular economy behavior is a gradual process where measures are implemented gradually, starting with activities involving control measures and ending with putting preventive practices in place. We discovered also that the most proactive companies in implementing circular economy measures generally come across certain common barriers such as administrative processes, regulations and a lack of human resources to perform these practices, while firms that have not implemented circular economy measures view financing, investment and cost–benefit barriers as the most significant. Significant efforts need to be undertaken by firms to accomplished circular economy. Also circular economy regulation should be improved to make it easier for companies to implement strategies that will make them more sustainable.

Description: The evolution of individual and total capsaicinoids content in three pepper varieties of Capsicum chinense Jacq. (‘Bode’ (B), ‘Habanero’ (H), and ‘Habanero Roxo’ (Hr)) during fruit ripening was studied. The five major capsaicinoids (nordihydrocapsaicin, capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin, homocapsaicin, and homodihydrocapsaicin) were extracted using ultrasound-assisted extraction and the extracts were analysed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (UHPLC-Fl). The plants were grown in a glasshouse and sampled every 7 days until over-ripening. As expected, the results indicated that the total capsaicinoids content increases during the ripening of pepper fruits. The maximum contents of capsaicinoids were reached at different fruit development stages depending on the cultivar. The ‘Habanero Roxo’ pepper presented the greatest total capsaicinoids content (3.86 mg g−1 fresh weigh, F.W.), followed by the ‘Habanero’ pepper (1.33 mg g−1 F.W.) and ‘Bode’ pepper (1.00 mg g−1 F.W.). In all the samples, capsaicin represented more than 80% of the total capsaicinoids content. Due to the high variability observed in the evolution of capsaicinoids content over the ripening process, this work intends to contribute to the existing knowledge on this aspect in relation to the quality of peppers.

Description: ABSTRACT We present a source-to-sink environmental magnetic study of a sediment core from Lake Sanabria (north-west Iberian Peninsula) and rocks of its catchment. The results indicate the occurrence of magnetite, and probably also pyrrhotite, in sediments accumulated between ca. 26 and 13 cal ka BP in a proglacial lake environment. These minerals also appear to dominate the magnetic assemblage of Palaeozoic rocks from the lake catchment. This indicates that sedimentation was then driven by the erosion of glacial flour, which suffered minimal chemical transformation due to a rapid and short routing to the lake. A sharp change in magnetic properties observed in the lake sediments between 13 and 12.6 cal ka BP reflects the rapid retreat of glaciers from the lake catchment. Sediments from the upper half of the studied sequence, accumulated after 12.6 cal ka BP in a lacustrine environment with strong fluvial influence, contain magnetite and smaller amounts of maghemite and greigite. We suggest that greigite grew authigenically under anoxic conditions caused by enhanced accumulation of organic matter into the lake. The occurrence of maghemite in these sediments suggests pedogenic activity in the then deglaciated lake catchment before the erosion and transportation of detrital material into the lake.

Description: The February 2014 eruption of Kelud volcano (Indonesia) destroyed most of the instruments near it. We use remote seismic and infrasound sensors to reconstruct the eruptive sequence. The first explosions were relatively weak seismic and infrasound events. A major stratospheric ash injection occurred a few minutes later and produced long-lasting atmospheric and ground-coupled acoustic waves that were detected as far as 11,000 km by infrasound sensors, and up to 2,300 km away on seismometers. A seismic event followed ~12 minutes later and was recorded 7,000 km away by seismometers. We estimate a volcanic intensity [ Pyle , 2000] around 10.9, placing the 2014 Kelud eruption between the 1980 Mount St. Helens and 1991 Pinatubo eruptions intensities. We demonstrate how remote infrasound and seismic sensors are critical for the early detection of volcanic explosions, and how they can help to constrain and understand eruptive sequences

Description: Monitoring stations around the globe routinely detect microbarom signals with a dominant frequency of ∼0.2 Hz from regions of marine storminess. International Monitoring System (IMS) infrasound array IS59 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii recorded clear signals in close proximity of Hurricanes Felicia and Neki of 2009 for a first-hand investigation of the detailed source mechanism through a hindcast analysis. A spectral wave model describes the tropical cyclone and ambient sea states through a system of two-way nested grids with forcing from a blended data set of global, regional, and cyclonic winds. The computed wave conditions are validated with altimetry measurements and utilized in an acoustic model to estimate the intensity and spatial distribution of the microbarom source. The model results elucidate origins of infrasound signals from the tropical cyclone waves as well as their interactions with the ambient conditions consisting of swells, wind seas, and storm waves from nearby systems. The positive correlation between the IS59 observations and the theoretical microbarom estimates, and the saturation of recorded signals from high-energy sources support the use of infrasound signals for inference of tropical cyclone waves.

Description: Varied acoustic signals were recorded at Kīlauea Volcano in mid-2007, coincident with dramatic changes in the volcano's activity. Prior to this time period, Pu'u 'Ō'ō crater produced near-continuous infrasonic tremor and was the primary source of degassing and lava effusion at Kīlauea. Collapse and draining of Pu'u 'Ō'ō crater in mid-June produced impulsive infrasonic signals and fluctuations in infrasonic tremor. Fissure eruptions on 19 June and 21 July were clearly located spatially and temporally using infrasound arrays. The 19 June eruption from a fissure approximately mid-way between Kīlauea's summit and Pu'u 'Ō'ō produced infrasound for ∼30 minutes—the only observed geophysical signal associated with the fissure opening. The infrasound signal from the 21 July eruption just east of Pu'u 'Ō'ō shows a clear azimuthal progression over time, indicative of fissure propagation over 12.9 hours. The total fissure propagation rate is relatively slow at 164 m/hr, although the fissure system ruptured discontinuously. Individual fissure rupture times are estimated using the acoustic data combined with visual observations.