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: 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: The European Union cap-and-trade emissions trading system (EU ETS) faces two challenges in the context of the European Green Deal. First, to meet the Paris temperature target, emissions in the energy and industrial sectors must fall to net-zero and then even become net-negative. Second, there is a concern that excessive CO2 price spikes and volatility on this path will jeopardize the political acceptance and support for emissions trading as a climate policy instrument. Conditional supply of carbon removal credits (CRCs) to support dynamic carbon price caps would make it possible to stabilize the market in the transition from positive to net-negative emissions trading while keeping the net-emissions path unchanged. CRCs would be assigned for carbon removal achieved for example with methods like Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage or Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage and would be used by companies under the EU ETS to compensate for their emissions. However, we suggest that there would be no direct exchange between emitting companies under the EU ETS and carbon removal companies, i.e., the demand and supply side of CRCs, during an initial phase. Instead, we suggest assigning an institutional mandate to for example a carbon central bank (CCB) to organize the supply of CRCs. Under this mandate, carbon removal would be procured, would be translated into a corresponding number of CRCs, and a fraction of it could be auctioned to the market at a later point in time, provided that market prices exceed a certain (dynamic) price cap.

Description: Algae synthesise structurally complex glycans to build a protective barrier, the extracellular matrix. One function of matrix glycans is to slow down microorganisms that try to enzymatically enter living algae and degrade and convert their organic carbon back to carbon dioxide. We propose that matrix glycans lock up carbon in the ocean by controlling degradation of organic carbon by bacteria and other microbes not only while algae are alive, but also after death. Data revised in this review shows accumulation of algal glycans in the ocean underscoring the challenge bacteria and other microbes face to breach the glycan barrier with carbohydrate active enzymes. Briefly we also update on methods required to certify the uncertain magnitude and unknown molecular causes of glycan-controlled carbon sequestration in a changing ocean.

Description: The depth of the Labrador Sea mixed layer during winter convection is a balance between atmospheric buoyancy loss and lateral buoyancy exchange, and is notoriously difficult to represent accurately in ocean and climate models. This study shows that lateral exchanges of heat and salt between the shelf and the interior are smaller in a regional coupled ocean–sea ice model at higher vertical resolution (75 levels compared with 50 levels), due in part to altered bathymetry along the Greenland shelf. Reduced lateral exchange results in a stronger stratification in the interior of the Labrador Sea, with stronger convection resistance which results in unrealistically shallow mixed layers. The westward fluxes of heat and salt associated with Irminger Water at Cape Farewell are 50 % and 33 % lower, respectively, with higher vertical resolution. Exchanges south of the Labrador Sea from the North Atlantic Current are also smaller, contributing to a reduction in salt and heat import into the Labrador Sea interior. When the high resolution model is forced with a stronger wintertime buoyancy loss at the ocean surface, this weakens the Labrador Sea stratification, allowing the forcing to break through the freshwater cap and increasing convection, bringing mixed layer depths back to observed values. A strong atmospheric forcing can therefore compensate for a reduction in lateral advection. The mixed layer depths, which are representative of convection and Labrador Sea water formation, will be the focus in this study. Therefore, this study suggests that convection and Labrador Sea Water formation is a complex interplay of surface and lateral fluxes, linked to stratification thresholds.

Description: Ongoing discoveries of terrestrial exoplanets and the desire to determine their habitability have created an increasing demand for studies of a wide range of climatic regimes and atmospheric circulations. These studies have, in turn, challenged our understanding of our own planet’s atmospheric dynamics and provided new frameworks with which we can further our understanding of planetary atmospheres. In this work, we use an idealized moist general circulation model in aquaplanet configuration to study the atmospheric circulation of terrestrial planets with high obliquities. With seasonally varying insolation forcing and a shallow slab ocean as a lower boundary, we emphasize seasonal phenomena that might not be captured in simulations with annual mean forcing and that might involve nonlinear behaviors. By progressively increasing obliquity, we explore the response of the large-scale atmospheric circulation to more extreme seasonal cycles and a reversed annual mean equator-to-pole insolation distribution, and its impact on the energy and water cycles. We show that for high obliquities, the large-scale atmospheric circulation and the meridional energy transport are dominated by seasonally reversing broad cross-equatorial Hadley cells that transport energy from the summer to the winter hemisphere and significantly mitigate temperature extremes. These overturning cells also play a major role in shaping the planet’s hydrological cycle, with the associated ascending branches and precipitation convergence zones becoming progressively broader and more poleward shifted into the summer hemisphere with higher obliquities. While not embedded within the Hadley cell ascending branches, the hot summer poles of high obliquity planets experience nonnegligible precipitation during and at the end of the warm season: during the summer, lower-level moist static energy maxima at the summer poles force locally enhanced convective activity. As temperatures rapidly drop at the end of the summer and convective activity decreases, the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere decreases and water vapor stored in the atmospheric column rapidly condenses out, extending the duration of the summer pole rainy season into the corresponding autumn. Our study reveals novel understanding of how atmospheric dynamics might influence a planet’s overall climate and its variability.