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Environmental Goals Addressed in Assessments of Contaminated Sediments.

ABSTRACT: Environmental management often aims at sustainability and at implementing goals such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Several of these goals rely upon healthy sediments, implying that contaminated sediments need to be addressed in environmental management. In Sweden, the SDGs and national environmental objectives are meant to be central in environmental management. However, in environmental risk assessment (ERA) for contaminated sediments, it is not clear to assessors or authorities in Sweden which goals to consider and how. In the present study, we explore which environmental goals ERAs of contaminated sediment should consider, according to representatives from Swedish regulatory and advisory authorities, and to what extent ERAs consider those goals in practice in Sweden. The identified goals indicated that protection of aquatic ecosystems and associated services is a main priority for the authorities. The ERAs analyzed showed that most identified goals were addressed, albeit not consistently. Furthermore, risk assessors seem to put less weight on ecological aspects than authorities do. This indicates that authorities need to stress the importance of environmental aspects and provide guidance on how to address them. Several environmental goals were found to be directly relevant to contaminated sediments and ERAs can contribute to their fulfillment, given that ERA is a basis for management decisions. However, practitioners need clearer guidance on which goals to address and how. Finally, there seems to be good potential for implementation of the SDGs in environmental management in Sweden, due to existing legislation based on sustainable development and well-anchored national environmental objectives that overlap with the SDGs. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;00:1-12. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

SUBMITTER: Bruce P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6973226 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental Goals Addressed in Assessments of Contaminated Sediments.

Bruce Peter P Ohlsson Yvonne Y

Integrated environmental assessment and management 20191219 1

Environmental management often aims at sustainability and at implementing goals such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Several of these goals rely upon healthy sediments, implying that contaminated sediments need to be addressed in environmental management. In Sweden, the SDGs and national environmental objectives are meant to be central in environmental management. However, in environmental risk assessment (ERA) for contaminated sediments, it is not clear to assessors ...[more]

PMID: 31674716

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Project description:We analyzed the transcriptional response of the actinomycete Rhodococcus aetherivorans I24 to biphenyl and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This species has not been extensively exposed to PCBs, as it was first isolated from a toluene contaminated aquifer, rather than a site contaminated with polychlorinated hydrocarbons. Using a microarray targeting 3524 genes, we assessed gene expression in minimal medium supplemented with various substrates (e.g. PCBs) and in both PCB-contaminated and non-contaminated sediment slurries. Relative to the reference condition (minimal medium supplemented with glucose), 408 genes were up-regulated in the various treatments. In medium and in sediment, PCBs elicited the up-regulation of a common set of 100 genes, including chaperones (groEL), a superoxide dismutase (sodA), alkyl hydroperoxide reductase protein C (ahpC), and a catalase/peroxidase (katG). Analysis of the R. aetherivorans I24 genome sequence identified orthologs of many of the genes in the canonical biphenyl pathway, but very few of these genes were up-regulated in response to PCBs or biphenyl. This study is one of the first which utilizes microarrays to assess the transcriptional response of a soil bacterium to a pollutant under conditions which more closely resemble the natural environment. Our results indicate that the transcriptional response of R. aetherivorans I24 to PCBs, in both medium and sediment, is primarily directed towards reducing oxidative stress, rather than catabolism. In addition, the identification of numerous genes expressed in contaminated soil specifically may have implications for the development of biosensors. Finally, comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses suggest that the mere presence of orthologs of the required enzymes may not be sufficient to confer a vigorous biphenyl/PCB metabolism. RNA was isolated from cells incubated in the following: sediment from a PCB-contaminated industrial site, uncontaminated sediment from a comparable site, and defined media supplemented with glucose (3 g/L), glucose and biphenyl (3 g/L, 4.5 Î¼M), or glucose and PCBs (3 g/L, 5 mg/L Aroclor 1254). In all cases, there were 3 biological replicates and 2 technical replicates (repeat hybridizations). A total of 3524 genes are represented on the arrays; of these, 41 and 176 are found on the plasmids pRA2 and pRA3, respectively. On average, there are 3 distinct 24nt probes per gene.

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Environmental Goals Addressed in Assessments of Contaminated Sediments.

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Environmental Goals Addressed in Assessments of Contaminated Sediments.

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