Port Sediments: Problem or Resource? A Review Concerning the Treatment and Decontamination of Port Sediments by Fungi and Bacteria

Contamination of marine sediments by organic and/or inorganic compounds represents one of the most critical problems in marine environments. This issue affects not only biodiversity but also ecosystems, with negative impacts on sea water quality. The scientific community and the European Commission have recently discussed marine environment and ecosystem protection and restoration by sustainable green technologies among the main objectives of their scientific programmes. One of the primary goals of sustainable restoration and remediation of contaminated marine sediments is research regarding new biotechnologies employable in the decontamination of marine sediments, to consider sediments as a resource in many fields such as industry. In this context, microorganisms—in particular, fungi and bacteria—play a central and crucial role as the best tools of sustainable and green remediation processes. This review, carried out in the framework of the Interreg IT-FR Maritime GEREMIA Project, collects and shows the bioremediation and mycoremediation studies carried out on marine sediments contaminated with ecotoxic metals and organic pollutants. This work evidences the potentialities and limiting factors of these biotechnologies and outlines the possible future scenarios of the bioremediation of marine sediments, and also highlights the opportunities of an integrated approach that involves fungi and bacteria together.

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POTENTIALS AND OBSTRUCTION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL TOURISM OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA

Knowledge International Journal ◽

10.35120/kij28062179s ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (6) ◽

pp. 2179-2184

Author(s):

Sandra Rover ◽

Milan Tomic

Keyword(s):

Integrated Approach ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Rural Tourism ◽

Limiting Factors ◽

Original Form ◽

Rural Space ◽

Non Governmental Organizations ◽

The Republic ◽

Rural Destinations ◽

Tourism Services

The aim of this paper is to examine potentials and obstacles for the development of rural tourism in the Republic of Srpska. The analysis of both the potential and the integration of the entities crucial for the development of rural tourism, as well as the limiting factors that lead to stagnation in the development of rural tourism, is covered. Also, the goal is to explore the views of users and providers of rural tourism services and institutions dealing with the tourism industry on the state of the tourist offer and the limiting factors of its development. Rural destinations are becoming more attractive and more visited by tourists due to the natural environment, clean air, manifestations, possibilities of consuming traditional food and beverages, sports and various other activities. However, the ruin of rural tourism is reflected in the fact that it can violate the original form of rural space through various forms of environmental pollution of space, water and air. Preservation of existing resources is a necessity because the preserved environment is a prerequisite for the development of rural tourism. Republic of Srpska has seen a steady growth in the tourist visit in recent years, but there are still limiting factors for the development of rural tourism, which are most often seen in the poorly developed infrastructure of certain rural destinations, lack of accommodation capacities and the lack of qualified labor force, cooperation of several actors. It cannot be developed without the cooperation of regional and local authorities, non-governmental organizations, tourist organizations and businesses with local people. These actors should help the development of rural tourism through various subsidies, incentives, infrastructure construction and marketing.Republika Srpska faces the problem of insufficient promotion of tourism products, which reflects on the bad image of the entire tourism. The strong competition from the countries of the region, primarily Croatia and Montenegro, draws a large number of tourists, which points to the fact that the consumers of tourism services of the Republic of Srpska are in the highest estimate domestic guests of a poor standard of living. The development of rural tourism should be based on an integrated approach to development and care for resources. Only preserved resources can be a condition for the development of rural tourism now and in the future.

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Constructive Distributed Work: An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Collaboration and Research for Distributed Teams

Journal of Business and Technical Communication ◽

10.1177/10506519211021467 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 105065192110214

Author(s):

Michelle McMullin ◽

Bradley Dilger

Keyword(s):

Best Practices ◽

Team Building ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Interdisciplinary Teams ◽

Digital Tools ◽

Distributed Teams ◽

Distributed Work ◽

Team Members ◽

Negative Impacts

Academic work increasingly involves creating digital tools with interdisciplinary teams distributed across institutions and roles. The negative impacts of distributed work are described at length in technical communication scholarship, but such impacts have not yet been realized in collaborative practices. By integrating attention to their core ethical principles, best practices, and work patterns, the authors are developing an ethical, sustainable approach to team building that they call constructive distributed work. This article describes their integrated approach, documents the best practices that guide their research team, and models the three-dimensional thinking that helps them develop sustainable digital tools and ensure the consistent professional development of all team members.

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Bacterial population and biodegradation potential in chronically crude oil-contaminated marine sediments are strongly linked to temperature

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/srep11651 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 68

Author(s):

Rafael Bargiela ◽

Francesca Mapelli ◽

David Rojo ◽

Bessem Chouaia ◽

Jesús Tornés ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Crude Oil ◽

Marine Sediments ◽

Bacterial Population ◽

Contaminated Marine Sediments

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Highly Contaminated Marine Sediments Can Host Rare Bacterial Taxa Potentially Useful for Bioremediation

Frontiers in Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fmicb.2021.584850 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Filippo Dell’Anno ◽

Eugenio Rastelli ◽

Michael Tangherlini ◽

Cinzia Corinaldesi ◽

Clementina Sansone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marine Sediments ◽

High Throughput Sequencing ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Aliphatic Hydrocarbons ◽

Chemical Contamination ◽

Bacterial Strains ◽

Anthropogenic Pressures ◽

Sediment Grain Size ◽

Gulf Of Naples ◽

Mixed Contaminants

Coastal areas impacted by high anthropogenic pressures typically display sediment contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (HMs). Microbial-based bioremediation represents a promising strategy for sediment reclamation, yet it frequently fails due to poor knowledge of the diversity and dynamics of the autochthonous microbial assemblages and to the inhibition of the target microbes in the contaminated matrix. In the present study, we used an integrated approach including a detailed environmental characterization, high-throughput sequencing and culturing to identify autochthonous bacteria with bioremediation potential in the sediments of Bagnoli-Coroglio (Gulf of Naples, Mediterranean Sea), a coastal area highly contaminated by PAHs, aliphatic hydrocarbons and HMs. The analysis of the benthic prokaryotic diversity showed that the distribution of the dominant taxon (Gammaproteobacteria) was mainly influenced by PAHs, As, and Cd concentrations. The other abundant taxa (including Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, NB1-j, Desulfobacterota, and Myxococcota) were mainly driven by sediment grain size and by Cu and Cr concentrations, while the rare taxa (i.e., each contributing <1%) by As and aliphatic hydrocarbons concentrations and by sediment redox potential. These results suggest a differential response of bacterial taxa to environmental features and chemical contamination and those different bacterial groups may be inhibited or promoted by different contaminants. This hypothesis was confirmed by culturing and isolating 80 bacterial strains using media highly enriched in PAHs, only nine of which were contextually resistant to high HM concentrations. Such resistant isolates represented novel Gammaproteobacteria strains affiliated to Vibrio, Pseudoalteromonas, and Agarivorans, which were only scarcely represented in their original assemblages. These findings suggest that rare but culturable bacterial strains resistant/tolerant to high levels of mixed contaminants can be promising candidates useful for the reclamation by bioaugmentation strategies of marine sediments that are highly contaminated with PAHs and HMs.

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