Research: Countries in violation of Baltic Sea Convention, polluting marine environment
The countries around the Baltic Sea do not respect their binding international agreement to reduce agricultural pollution of the marine environment.
2021-05-28
(Press-News.org) The countries around the Baltic Sea do not respect their binding international agreement to reduce agricultural pollution of the marine environment. Despite farming activities being the single most important source of nutrient pollution to the Baltic Sea.
An international research team presents evidence on these circumstances in a recent scientific article in the journal Ambio, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The countries made a commitment 20 years ago to implement 10 specific reduction measures in their national legislation on agricultural pollution - e.g. featuring minimum storage capacity for manure and regulations on animal densities.
Now the researchers' study of legislations and regulations in place at national level, to address nutrients, finds that none of the nine signatories to the Convention is respecting fully the legally binding agreement. Hence, nutrients are leaching to the marine environment in excess of the Baltic Sea's tolerance limits, causing excess algae growth and eutrophication even in the open sea (see photo).
The larger countries, Poland, Germany and Russia, have the weakest record of implementing the reduction measures in their national legislation. Performance is especially poor in Russia and Poland, but also Germany, despite a ruling by the European Court, lags behind. The best performing countries are Sweden and Estonia. Nevertheless, in all nine countries the study identifies shortcomings in compliance with important reduction measures of the Convention.
"Although the Convention specifies ceilings on the amounts of nutrients that farmers may apply to their crops, ceilings are not implemented fully by any country. Either nutrient ceilings are too generous, apply to part of the territory only or are entirely absent. Notably the ceiling of 25 kg phosphorus per hectare is absent in most places, even if the reduction needs are now most pressing with regard to phosphorus" says Mikael Skou Andersen, professor of environmental science at Aarhus University. He is part of the research authors' team.
The reduction measures were adopted under the Convention in anticipation of financial transfers from the EU to farmers in Poland and the Baltic countries. Yet, the researchers find that the eastern countries only to a very limited extent have put to use the economic support available as part of the Common Agricultural Policy, to provide support for reducing nutrient pollution of the marine environment.
The Baltic Sea Action Plan is up for revision every seven years. During the current German Presidency of HELCOM an update and revision is expected to be concluded at the Ministerial meeting October 20.th in Lübeck.
The study was conducted by a research team with participants from Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Sweden, with financial support from the BONUS research program and the Swedish research council FORMAS.
INFORMATION:
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-05-28
AMES, Iowa - Researchers have developed new types of materials that combines two or three types of nanoparticles into structures that display fundamental new properties such as superfluorescence.
"The whole goal of this research is to make new materials with new properties and/or exotic new structures," said Alex Travesset, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy and an associate scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. "Those materials are made of very tiny materials, nanoparticles, and lead to properties not shared by more traditional materials made of atoms and molecules."
In this case, an international research team is combining perovskite nanocubes - tiny crystals with useful electrical or optical properties ...
2021-05-28
Metal-organic framework compounds (MOFs) consist of inorganic and organic groups and are characterised by a large number of pores into which other molecules can be incorporated. MOFs are therefore interesting for many applications, for example for the storage of gases, but also for substance separation, sensor technology or catalysis. Some of these MOF structures react to different guest molecules by changing their structures. They are thus considered switchable.
One of these is "DUT-8", a material that has now been studied at the MX beamlines of BESSY II. "MOF crystals can be analysed very well at the MX beamlines," says HZB expert Dr. Manfred Weiss, who heads the MX team. ...
2021-05-28
A breast cancer therapy that requires just one shot of radiotherapy is as effective as traditional radiotherapy, and avoids potential damage to nearby organs, according to a paper by UCL experts.
The results, published in the British Journal of Cancer, mean that eight out of ten patients who receive the treatment, TARGIT-IORT, will not need a long course of post-operative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). These results strengthen and expand previously published outcomes.
Patients who received the treatment are less likely to go on to experience fatal cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, lung problems or other cancers. As well as avoiding scattered radiation from EBRT that can damage nearby vital organs, delivering TARGIT-IORT during the lumpectomy procedure seems to ...
2021-05-28
Much of human invention and innovation has been the result of our discovery and replication of natural phenomena, from birds serving to inspire human flight, to whales allowing us to dive deep into the ocean with submarines. For the first time ever, researchers have captured at the nanometer level the gliding machinery of the bacterium Mycoplasma mobile. Their findings were published in mBio. This brings us closer to understanding the origin and operating principle of motility, which could serve as a basis for the next generation of nanoscale devices and pharmaceuticals.
"My lab has been studying the molecular nature of bacteria from the Mycoplasma genus for years", ...
2021-05-28
(Bethesda, MD - May 25, 2021) A new study published in Nature Scientific Reports has found that Methylene Blue, a century old medicine, has the potential to be a highly effective, broad-spectrum UV irradiation protector that absorbs UVA and UVB, repairs ROS and UV irradiation induced DNA damages, and is safe for coral reefs. The study suggests that Methylene Blue could become an alternative sunscreen ingredient that supports the environment and protects human skin health.80% of today's sunscreens use Oxybenzone as a chemical UV blocker, despite multiple studies that have shown it expedites the destruction of coral reefs. Several states and countries have now banned the use of Oxybenzone and its derivatives to stop the devastating ...
2021-05-28
Viruses are perfect molecular machines. Their only goal is to insert their genetic material into healthy cells and thus multiply. With deadly precision, they thereby can cause diseases that cost millions of lives and keep the world on edge. One example for such a virus, although currently less discussed, is HIV that causes the ongoing global AIDS-epidemic. Despite the progress made in recent years, 690 000 people died in 2019 alone as a result of the virus infection. "If you want to know the enemy, you have to know all its friends," says Martin Obr, postdoc at the Schur group at IST Austria. Together with his colleagues, he therefore studies a virus belonging to the same ...
2021-05-28
A new study exploits the characteristic epigenetic signatures of childhood tumors to detect, classify and monitor the disease. The scientists analyzed short fragments of tumor DNA that are circulating in the blood. These "liquid biopsy" analyses exploit the unique epigenetic landscape of bone tumors and do not depend on any genetic alterations, which are rare in childhood cancers. This approach promises to improve personalized diagnostics and, possibly, future therapies of childhood tumors such as Ewing sarcoma. The study has been published in Nature Communications.
A study led by scientists from St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute (St. Anna CCRI) in collaboration with CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences provides an innovative ...
2021-05-28
The technology using DNA-based genealogy that solved a double murder in Linköping opens completely new possibilities in investigating serious crime. LiU researchers are now involved in spreading new knowledge about the technology, which brings hope to police forces and has aroused major international interest.
"We want to tell others about the problems that we faced when working with this pilot case, and how we dealt with them. We can prevent others reinventing the wheel, and make sure that the knowledge available is extended and improved", says Andreas Tillmar.
He is forensic geneticist at the National Board of Forensic Medicine, and adjunct senior lecturer ...
2021-05-28
People living in deprived, less affluent neighborhoods spent less time indoors at home during lockdown, according to a study that tracked data from millions of mobile phone users across the United States.
The study, published in the journal Annals of the American Association of Geographers, adds to growing evidence that low earners are less likely to comply with stay-at-home orders, either because they simply can't afford to, or because they work in professions in which working from home is not possible.
The finding is concerning given the fact that vulnerable groups are already at greater risk from COVID.
In March 2020, the US like many countries in the world entered a state of lockdown, with its citizens advised to stay at home to curb the spread of Coronavirus. Non-essential ...
2021-05-28
Plastic pollution has been found in seawater, on beaches and inside marine animals at the Galapagos Islands.
A new study - by the University of Exeter, Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT) and the Galapagos Science Center - found plastic in all marine habitats at the island of San Cristobal, where Charles Darwin first landed in Galapagos.
At the worst "hotspots" - including a beach used by the rare "Godzilla" marine iguana - more than 400 plastic particles were found per square metre of beach.
Plastic was also found inside more than half of the marine invertebrates (such as barnacles and urchins) studied, and on the seabed.
The findings suggest most plastic pollution in Galapagos - a world-famous biodiversity haven - arrives on ocean currents.
The study also ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Research: Countries in violation of Baltic Sea Convention, polluting marine environment
The countries around the Baltic Sea do not respect their binding international agreement to reduce agricultural pollution of the marine environment.
