In the European Mediterranean environment the risk of land degradation and
desertification is already felt under the present climatic regime and human activities. As a matter
of fact, until the early seventies this risk was considered of minor importance for most of the
countries of the region. It was pointed out that the traditional agricultural systems were well
capable of keeping those processes in check. 
In the eighties and early nineties the impact of agricultural systems introduced in the cultivated
sloping areas of the region in the previous decades was presented as a serious factor causing land degradation. In addition, a new threat had appeared, in the shape of global warming
generated by enhanced greenhouse effect. Climatic variation and drought are intrinsic
characteristics of arid and semiarid environments, and the Mediterranean Basin is no exception. 
By examining present pattern and possible future trends of climate over the region, it has been
possible to investigate the relationship between the global warming and the drought
phenomenon and assess the changing risk of the land degradation and desertification
processes. To this end, the UK Hadley Centre’s Global Climate Model was run on monthly basis
for the Mediterranean countries to predict the percent change in rainfall and temperatures with
respect to monthly values for the time horizon 2050. The model comprises several layers into
the atmosphere and below both the soil and sea surfaces and accounts for most of the
essential/dominant hydrological processes. The model runs at spatial scale of 2.5° x 3.75° grid
squares for rainfall precipitations and 0.5° x 0.5° grid squares for temperature and accounts only
for CO2 impact. Results show that for the dry season (April to September), by the year 2050
rainfall is likely to decrease over much of the Mediterranean countries, particularly in the
southern parts, where it could decrease by up to 25%. This trend in rainfall is accompanied by
temperature rise between 1.5 to 2.75° C in the northern part and between 1.75° and 3.0°C in
the southern part of the Mediterranean. 
The above-outlined changing climate patterns are expected to lead to environmental conditions
even more conducive to land degradation and desertification over the region. 
To combat these problems, the European Community (EC), in collaboration with other
international organizations, funded different programs and projects for mitigating droughts and
assessing and preventing land degradation and desertification.
 
With reference to afore-stated issues, the paper describes the main features and characteristics
of some of these programs and projects – ESD (European Soil Database), CORINE (COoRdination
INformation Environment), MEDALUS (MEditerranean Desertification And Land
USe), UNEP (United Nation Environmental Program), EFEDA (European Field Experiment in
Desertification – threatened Areas) and proposes new approaches for environmental policies in
order to: assess, forecast and mitigate adverse impacts of droughts; better understand soil erosion, land degradation and desertification processes; identify preventive, protective and curative measures; address quantity and quality of natural resources in an integrated context; support innovation and participatory strategies. 
The importance and role of institutional strengthening, sound financial and managerial
frameworks, availability of human resources involved, research thrust, technology transfer and
networking improvement are also highlighted.

Climate Change Drought Mitigation and Desertification Prevention in the Mediterranean Environment

Microplastics are widely distributed in the environment and pose potential ecological risks, increasing to be one of the most important environmental pollutants. However, when assessing the characteristics of microplastic contamination in environmental samples, inadequate quality control measures for the working solutions may introduce additional microplastic contamination and lead to an overestimation of microplastic abundance in the samples. In this study, we evaluated the microplastic contamination characteristics in commonly used flotation and digestion reagents to assess errors caused by microplastics in the reagents. The results showed that the abundance of microplastics in the reagents ranged from 0.8 to 43.4 items/g, with the abundance of microplastics in flotation reagents being lower than that in digestion reagents. The shapes of the detected microplastics included particles, fibers, and fragments, and their size and outline were generally small, with most being below 100 µm. The most common types of polymers detected were polyethylene and polypropylene. In order to improve the universality and readability of the results, the detected microplastic abundances were converted into the actual application concentration of the working fluid. It was found that the potential contamination of microplastics in untreated flotation solutions ranged from 1.5 to 30.8 items/mL, while in digestion solutions ranged from 0.1 to 2.3 items/mL. Our study emphasizes the need for quality control measures, such as suction filtration, when evaluating microplastics in environmental samples or conducting chemical and biological tests related to microplastics.

Microplastics are overestimated due to poor quality control of reagents

espanolSe evaluo el Indice Sintetizado de Sequia en el Valle de Cauca, aplicando un Analisis de Componentes Principales sobre imagenes satelitales que describen: Temperatura Superficial Terrestre, Indice Vegetacion Diferencia Normalizada y Precipitacion. La magnitud de sequia que representa este indice, se identifico en la primera componente y valido con el Indice Estandarizado de Precipitacion Trimestral (SPI-3), obtenido de 78 estaciones meteorologicas, que alcanzaron correlaciones entre 0.55 y 0.71 durante eventos calidos ENOS, caracterizando la sequia integral sobre el departamento, exhibiendo zonas de no sequia en el suroccidente, al centro-sur una fase de transicion de humedo a extremadamente seco, el Valle interandino mostro sectores con sequia severa y al oriente zonas extremadamente secas. Ademas, en un municipio piloto de la zona mas seca del departamento, se empleo un modelo de susceptibilidad para detectar zonas afectadas por la sequia, aplicando un Proceso de Analisis Jerarquico EnglishThe Synthesized Drought Index in the Valle del Cauca was evaluated, applying Principal Component Analysis to satellite images that described: Land Surface Temperature, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Precipitation. The magnitude of drought represented by this index was identified in the first component and validated with the Quarterly Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI - 3), obtained from 78 weather stations, which achieved correlations of between 0.55 and 0.71 during warm ENSO events. Comprehensive drought in the department was characterized by exhibiting areas of non-drought in the southwest, in the center-south a transition phase from wet to extremely dry, the Inter-Andean Valley showed sectors of severe drought, and to the east, extremely dry areas. Additionally, in a pilot municipality in the driest area of the department, a susceptibility model was implemented to detect areas affected by drought, applying the Analytical Hierarchical Process.

/pdf/characterization-of-comprehensive-drought-events-associated-3g1rvuky07.pdf

Characterization of comprehensive drought events associated with the ENSO warm phase through satellite images in the Valle del Cauca Colombia

Las áreas naturales protegidas se encuentran atravesadas por los objetivos de conservación y las dinámicas de las poblaciones que habitan en ellas. En el Parque El Tromen (Neuquén, Argentina) 30 familias permanecen durante el verano criando sus animales. Este artículo se propone reconstruir las trayectorias y las estrategias de reproducción de estas familias crianceras y conocer la dinámica ambiental en el área y sus problemáticas. La identidad y trayectoria familiar están enraizadas en la historia socioproductiva del norte neuquino y sus formas de organización del trabajo se encuentran condicionadas por situarse en un espacio protegido. El análisis se realizó principalmente en base a 15 entrevistas semiestructuradas a familias crianceras y a informantes clave, y se complementó con revisión bibliográfica, recopilación de documentos oficiales e interpretación de imágenes satelitales.

/pdf/entre-la-conservacion-y-la-produccion-las-familias-2oogo9sd.pdf

Entre la conservación y la producción: las familias crianceras del Área Natural Protegida El Tromen (Neuquén, Argentina)

Microplastics (MPs) enter the global soil ecosystem in significant quantities, and in agricultural lands, interact with soil amendments (e.g, fertilisers, pesticides, biochar), pollutants (e.g., heavy metals and acid rain) and soil fauna (e.g., earthworms and microbial biomass) which impacts carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in soil in ways that are largely unexplored. Here, we analyzed the difference in the responses of soil C and N contents, greenhouse gas emissions and soil enzyme activities in experiments where MPs alone or MPs in combination with other soil amendments or soil fauna had been explored, by conducting a global meta‐analysis of 2543 observational data extracted from 84 published studies. The results show that MPs alone are associated with significantly increased soil C storage and altered soil N pool composition, increased soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, reduced soil ammonia (NH3) emissions, increased activity of one of the five major enzymes related to C cycle, and increased activity of three of the four major enzymes related to N cycling in soil. Experiments that explored the combined effects of MPs combined with fertilisers on soil C and N contents and enzyme activities indicated greater effects than MPs alone. However, the effects of MPs combined with soil fauna, heavy metals, acid rain, glyphosate, and carbon nanotubes on soil C and N cycling differed from findings of studies that considered the effects of MPs alone. The results of this meta‐analysis rovide a theoretical basis for further study of the effects of MPs on C and N cycling in fertilized agricultural soil, compound‐contaminated soil and acidified soil. We also show that, despite the global importance of MPs in soil, the number of studies of their effects on soil C and N cycling are relatively few, and further research on the mechanisms of interactions of MPs with multiple soil amendments in soil systems is urgently needed.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Effects of microplastics on soil C and N cycling with or without interactions with soil amendments or soil fauna

Resumen es: La variabilidad ambiental es una caracteristica de regiones pastoriles aridas y semiaridas, siendo la sequia uno de los principales problemas en sistemas...

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3983903.pdf

Una herramienta para monitorear sequías en regiones áridas y semiáridas de Patagonia Norte

The literature on the presence of microplastics (MPs) and their potential impact on terrestrial ecosystems is still scarce. Interestingly, soil MPs are detected as organic carbon (SOC) using traditional quantification methods (e.g., loss on ignition [LOI]), although its dynamics in the environment will be different. The objective of this study was to quantify the carbon (C) contribution of MPs to the SOC in superficial soil samples from a coastal urban wetland (Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, Argentina) with the features of a humid subtropical forest and compare with hydrocarbon contribution. Soil samples were split for analysis of moisture content; texture (sieve and pipet method); organic matter as a LOI (8 h at 450 °C); total hydrocarbons (THCs; gravimetry of solvent extractable matter); n‐alkanes (solvent extraction and gas chromatography‐flame ionization detection analysis); and extraction of MPs (floatation in NaClaq, filtration, H2O2 digestion, and visual sorting under a stereomicroscope). The superficial soil was a sandy clay loam with a large organic matter content (19%–30%). The THC averaged 2.5 ± 1.9 g kg and the marked predominance of odd‐numbered carbon n‐alkanes maximizing at C29 and C31 show the contribution of the terrestrial plant waxes. The average number of MPs was 587 ± 277 items kg of dry soil, predominantly fibers. Taking account of the C content, THCs and MPs add to the soil 1.23 ± 1.10 ton C ha and 0.10–0.97 ton C ha, respectively. Therefore, in this system with humid forest characteristics, the MPs represent between 0.12% and 1.25% of soil estimated carbon, in a magnitude similar to the C contribution of THCs (0.6%–4.2%). This preliminary study shows the relevance of discriminating MPs from other carbon sources and presents a description of their impact on soils to advance future research or tools for decision‐makers. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;19:698–705. © 2022 SETAC

Microplastics and hydrocarbons in soils: Quantification as an anthropic carbon source

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Una herramienta para monitorear sequías en regiones áridas y semiáridas de Patagonia Norte

Microplastics and hydrocarbons in soils: Quantification as an anthropic carbon source