| 1. |
- Ferrans, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Life Cycle Assessment of Management Scenarios for Dredged Sediments : Environmental Impacts Caused during Landfilling and Soil Conditioning
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI. - 2071-1050. ; 14:20, s. 13139-13139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The management of dredged sediments is a challenging issue since it involves the interconnection of complex economic, social, technical and environmental aspects. The EU LIFE SUREproject aimed to apply a more sustainable dredging technique to Malmfjärden Bay in Kalmar/Sweden(a shallow urban water body with a high content of nutrients) and, additionally, it involved beneficial uses for the dredged material, in line with the circular economy concept. To achieve this, a life cycle assessment (LCA) study was carried out to assess the potential environmental impacts associated with two scenarios: sediment landfilling (S1) and soil conditioning (S2). This LCA study also aimed to evaluate and compare the costs related to each scenario. S1 contemplated the construction and operation of the landfill for 100 years, including the collection and discharge of leachate and biogas. S2 included the use of sediments in soils and the avoidance of producing and using fertilisers. Results showed that (S2) soil conditioning (total impact: −6.4 PE) was the scenario with fewer environmental impacts and the best economic evaluation. The S2 scenario was mainly related to the positive environmental savings produced by reducing fertiliser consumption (which also avoided purchase costs). However, S2 was also linked to potential negative effects associated with eutrophication and toxicity categories of impacts due to the possible spread of nutrients and pollutants in terrestrial and aquatic environments. In order to mitigate this problem, the sediments could be pre-treated to reduce their risk of pollution. Moreover, the main impact of the landfilling scenario(S1, total impact: 1.6 PE) was the emission of global warming-contributing gases during the operation of the facility. Implementing the soil conditioning scenario was therefore recommended, in line with the aim of the LIFE SURE project. Finally, it was recommended that LCA studies should be applied more often in the future when selecting beneficial uses for dredged sediments. The decision-making process is facilitated when the positive and negative impacts produced by each handling option are considered.
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| 2. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Gas hydrate dissociation linked to contemporary ocean warming in the southern hemisphere
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 11:1, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ocean warming related to climate change has been proposed to cause the dissociation of gas hydrate deposits and methane leakage on the seafloor. This process occurs in places where the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone in sediments meets the overlying warmer oceans in upper slope settings. Here we present new evidence based on the analysis of a large multi-disciplinary and multi-scale dataset from such a location in the western South Atlantic, which records massive gas release to the ocean. The results provide a unique opportunity to examine ocean-hydrate interactions over millennial and decadal scales, and the first evidence from the southern hemisphere for the effects of contemporary ocean warming on gas hydrate stability. Widespread hydrate dissociation results in a highly focused advective methane flux that is not fully accessible to anaerobic oxidation, challenging the assumption that it is mostly consumed by sulfate reduction before reaching the seafloor.
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| 3. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Gravity complexes as a focus of seafloor fluid seepage : the Rio Grande Cone, SE Brazil
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Seafloor methane emissions can affect Earth’s climate and ocean chemistry. Vast quantities of methane formed by microbial decomposition of organic matter are locked within gas hydrate and free gas on continental slopes, particularly in large areas with high sediment accumulations such as deep-sea fans. The release of methane in slope environments has frequently been associated with dissociation of gas hydrates near the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone on the upper slope, with discharges in greater water depths less understood. Here we show, using data from the Rio Grande Cone (western South Atlantic), that the intrinsic, gravity-induced downslope collapse of thick slope sediment accumulations creates structures that serve as pathways for gas migration, unlocking methane and causing seafloor emissions via giant gas flares in the water column. The observed emissions in the study region (up to 310 Mg year−1) are three times greater than estimates for the entire US North Atlantic margin and reveal the importance of collapsing sediment accumulations for ocean carbon cycling. Similar outgassing systems on the Amazon and Niger fans suggest that gravity tectonics on passive margins is a common yet overlooked mechanism driving massive seafloor methane emissions in sediment-laden continental slopes. © 2023, The Author(s).
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| 4. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Near seafloor methane flux in the world's largest human-induced dead zone is regulated by sediment accumulation rate
- 2024
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Ingår i: Marine Geology. - : Elsevier. - 0025-3227 .- 1872-6151. ; 468
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The vast oxygen-depleted area of the central Baltic Sea is the largest human-induced dead zone in the world with 70,000 km(2) or approximately three times the second largest one in the Gulf of Mexico. Methane occurs in high concentrations in bottom waters (3200 nM) and sediments (30 mM), and its dynamics is better constrained for the water column, but still poorly understood on sediments. Here we show that sediment accumulation rate plays a major role in regulating the quantity of organic matter and its residence time in the sulphate reduction and methanogenesis zones and, therefore, affects methane generation, consumption, and diffusive flux in sediments near the seafloor (< 1 m). High fluxes found in high sediment accumulation rate areas and competition for substrate (organoclastic sulphate reduction vs. anaerobic oxidation of methane with sulphate), compromise the ability of the thin microbial filter to consume and prevent methane diffusion through the seafloor.
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| 5. |
- Rahmati-Abkenar, Mahboubeh, et al.
(författare)
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A New Dynamic Modeling Approach to Predict Microbial Methane Generation and Consumption in Marine Sediments
- 2021
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 14:18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Methane, as a clean energy source and a potent greenhouse gas, is produced in marine sediments by microbes via complex biogeochemical processes associated with the mineralization of organic matter. Quantitative modeling of biogeochemical processes is a crucial way to advance the understanding of the global carbon cycle and the past, present, and future of climate change. Here, we present a new approach of dynamic transport-reaction model combined with sediment deposition. Compared to other studies, since the model does not need the methane concentration in the bottom of sediments and predicts that value, it provides us with a robust carbon budget estimation tool in the sediment. We applied the model to the Blake Ridge region (Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 164, site 997). Based on seafloor data as input, our model remarkably reproduces measured values of total organic carbon, dissolved inorganic carbon, sulfate, calcium, and magnesium concentration in pore waters and the in situ methane presented in three phases: dissolved in pore water, trapped in gas hydrate, and as free gas. Kinetically, we examined the coexistence of free gas and hydrate, and demonstrated how it might affect methane gas migration in marine sediment within the gas hydrate stability zone.
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| 6. |
- Rahmati-Abkenar, Mahboubeh, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of silver nanoparticles on the solubility of methane and ethane in water
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering. - : Elsevier. - 1875-5100 .- 2212-3865. ; 82, s. 1-5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this work, the solubility of methane and ethane were studied in aqueous dispersion of silver nanoparticles (1, 5, and 10 ppm) at temperatures of 1, 2.5, 10, and 11.5 degrees C for methane and 2.5, 5, 10, 15.5 degrees C for ethane and at initial pressures 1 to 5.5 and 0.35-2.15 MPa for methane and ethane, respectively. The nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized through UV-vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image. The results demonstrated that silver nanoparticles increased the solubility of methane and ethane up to 13 and 16% compared with pure water, respectively. The solubility of methane and ethane were enhanced by increasing the nanoparticles mass loading. The effect of nanoparticles on ethane solubility was more significant than methane solubility.
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| 7. |
- Seidel, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Weakened resilience of benthic microbial communities in the face of climate change
- 2022
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Ingår i: ISME Communications. - : Springer Nature. - 2730-6151. ; 2:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increased ocean temperature associated with climate change is especially intensified in coastal areas and its influence on microbialcommunities and biogeochemical cycling is poorly understood. In this study, we sampled a Baltic Sea bay that has undergone 50years of warmer temperatures similar to RCP5-8.5 predictions due to cooling water release from a nuclear power plant. The systemdemonstrated reduced oxygen concentrations, decreased anaerobic electron acceptors, and higher rates of sulfate reduction.Chemical analyses, 16S rRNA gene amplicons, and RNA transcripts all supported sediment anaerobic reactions occurring closer tothe sediment-water interface. This resulted in higher microbial diversities and raised sulfate reduction and methanogenesistranscripts, also supporting increased production of toxic sulfide and the greenhouse gas methane closer to the sediment surface,with possible release to oxygen deficient waters. RNA transcripts supported prolonged periods of cyanobacterial bloom that mayresult in increased climate change related coastal anoxia. Finally, while metatranscriptomics suggested increased energyproduction in the heated bay, a large number of stress transcripts indicated the communities had not adapted to the increasedtemperature and had weakened resilience. The results point to a potential feedback loop, whereby increased temperatures mayamplify negative effects at the base of coastal biochemical cycling.
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| 8. |
- Shahabi-Ghahfarokhi, Sina, et al.
(författare)
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Removal and potential recovery of dissolved metals from acid sulfate soil drainage by spent coffee-grounds and dissolved organic carbon
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Advances. - : Elsevier. - 2666-7657. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores the reuse of spent coffee-grounds (SCGs) and the use of dissolved humic acid (DHA) to remediate acid sulfate (AS) soil drainage using adsorption and precipitation experiments, with changing pH,weight/volume, and concentrations (mg/L of dissolved organic carbon). In addition, this study aims to extend the usability of the SCGs, after being reacted with AS soil drainage, by identifying the potential recovery of incinerated SCGs from the ash of the SCGs produced incineration. As compared to DHA, the SCGs had greater efficiency in removing metals, such as Al (98%), Ca (96%), Co (94%), Fe (88%), Mn (100%), Ni (93%), and Zn (96%). However, the removal of Fe was significantly reduced when higher weight/volume of SCGs were introduced. In addition, SCGs could not bind sulfur, while DHA had removed up to 25% of S from the solution.This suggests the simultaneous use of SCGs and DHA could restrict the formation of problematic Fe(III) secondary compounds (e.g., schwertmannite/akaganeite) which are problematic in some AS soil settings. The results show that Co (69%), Ni (58%), Mn (60%), Fe (59%), Zn (55%), and Al (34%) had the highest recovery percentage by sequential chemical extraction, respectively. The recovery of metals, as well as the removal of dissolved metals from the drainage water, illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach for SCGs reuse.
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| 9. |
- Shahabi-Ghahfarokhi, Sina, et al.
(författare)
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The response of metal mobilization and redistribution to reoxygenation in Baltic Sea anoxic sediments
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 837
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To bring life back to anoxic coastal and sea basins, reoxygenation of anoxic/hypoxic zones has been proposed. This research focuses on the metals released during the oxidization of sediments from two locations in the anoxic Eastern Gotland Basin under a laboratory-scale study. Triplicate experimental cores and reference cores were collected from the North and South Eastern Gotland Basins. The oxygenation of the water column took place over a 96-hour experiment in a dark and 5 °C environment. In 12 and 24 hour intervals, the surface waters were exchanged and, over time, analyzed for pH, electroconductivity (EC), total organic carbon (TOC), soluble metal concentrations, and the top samples (0–10 cm) were analyzed with 3-step (E1: water-soluble, E2: exchangeable, and E3: organic-bound) sequential chemical extraction (SCE). Results show stable pH and decreasing EC in the column waters. The EC indicates that metals are released in the initial phases (12 h) of reoxygenation for both sites. Arsenic, Ba, Co, Mn, Rb, U, K, Sr, and Mo are released into the water column during the 96 hour experiment, and based on the calculations for the entire East Gotland Basin, would mean 8, 50, 0.55, 734, 53, 27, 347,178, 3468, and 156 μg L−1 are released, respectively. Elements Mn, Mo, U, and As are released in higher concentrations during the experiment than previously measured in the Eastern Gotland Basin, which provides vital information for future proposed remediation and natural geochemical processes with their known environmental impacts. The SCE results show that redox-sensitive metals (Mn, U, and Mo) are released in the highest concentrations into the solution. The relationship between the highest released metals (beside redox-sensitive) into solution over the oxygenation and their initial abundant phase is noticed, where the smallest released concentrations belong to K < Rb < Sr in E2, and As
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