Browsing by Author "Almeida, C. Marisa R."
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- Assembly of bacterial consortium for the biodegradation of PFAS and related subproductsPublication . Neves, David M. B.; Pinto, Ana Sofia; Mucha, Ana Paula; Almeida, C. Marisa R.; Alexandrino, Diogo A. M.; Carvalho, Maria F.; Alexandrino, DiogoPer- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals with wide application in consumer products since the 1950s. A recent revision of the PFAS definition has also introduced several polyfluorinated pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals into this class, further exacerbating the urgency of any PFAS-related pollution scenario. Their many favourable properties, including improved persistence and lipophilicity, has caused PFAS to be considered mobile pollutants with the capacity to accumulate in the environment for various decades. In fact, their increased presence in the aquatic environment has negative effects on the environment and human health, so it is of great importance to develop and improve remediation techniques to remove PFAS and other related subproducts from aquatic matrices. This work aims to create a synthetic bacterial consortium and study its capacity to degrade different PFAS and/or their subproducts. To achieve this, different fluoroorganic-degrading bacterial strains are currently being screened. Among them, a fluoroaliphatic (Delftia acidovorans MFA5) and a fluoroaromatic-degrading strains (Labrys portucalensis F11) have already been preselected to be included in the consortium. Soon, when a final selection of prospective fluoroorganic-degrading strains is achieved, their co-cultivation compatibility will be investigated through growth inhibition tests (cross-streak and diffusion disc activity assays). Strains with favourable co-cultivation dynamics will then be assembled in a synthetic bacterial consortium and tested for its ability to degrade different PFAS (individually) and related subproducts, based on bacterial growth analysis and on defluorination efficiency. This work will contribute to the ongoing effort of designing an efficient PFAS bioremediation unit to outfit a novel hybrid water treatment technology that combines nanophotocatalysis and bioremediation for the mitigation of PFAS aquatic pollution.
- Assessment of Constructed Wetlands’ Potential for the Removal of Cyanobacteria and Microcystins (MC-LR)Publication . Bavithra, Guna; Azevedo, Joana; Oliveira, Flávio; Morais, João; Pinto, Edgar; Ferreira, Isabel M. P. L.V. O.; Vasconcelos, Vítor; Campos, Alexandre; Almeida, C. Marisa R.Microcystis blooms and the subsequent release of hepatotoxic microcystins (MCs) pose a serious threat to the safety of water for human and livestock consumption, agriculture irrigation, and aquaculture worldwide. Microcystin-LR (MC-LR), the most toxic variant of MCs, has been widely detected in a variety of environments such as water, sediments, plants, and many aquatic organisms.
- Development of a bioremediation system for the removal of PFAS from aquatic environmentsPublication . Pinto, Ana Sofia; Neves, David M. B.; Maia, Tiago; Mucha, Ana Paula; Almeida, C. Marisa R.; Martins, Pedro; Lanceros-Mendez, Senetxu; Alexandrino, Diogo A. M.; Alexandrino, DiogoAmong the many pollutants that afflict aquatic ecosystems, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) stand out due to their distribution, environmental persistence and ecotoxicity. Currently, there are no suitable remediation technologies capable of mitigating PFAS-related pollution in these ecosystems. Yet, the combination of nanophotocatalysis (NPC) and bioremediation (BRMD) may prove useful in combating PFAS aquatic pollution. NPC has shown promising results for the breakdown of persistent pollutants, while BRMD processes can benefit from the high degree of redundancy and promiscuity of bacterial catabolism to efficiently degrade various pollutants and their sub-products. As such, this work aims to develop an efficient BRMD unit, based on a synthetic bacterial consortium with orthogonal defluorination capacity, and explore its potential to act as a secondary water treatment step in tandem with a TiO2-based NPC treatment, to remove PFAS from aquatic matrices. The first development step, currently ongoing, is set on screening different bacterial strains enriched with fluorinated pollutants, petroleum hydrocarbons or cyanotoxins. This sorting is being achieved by validating the degradative capabilities of the strains based on their bacterial growth and defluorination performances. So far, these preliminary tests led to the selection of two prospective consortium members, Delftia acidovorans MFA5 and Labrys portucalensis F11, based on their capacity to defluorinate 50 mgL-1 of fluoroacetate and fluorobenzene in 8 days, respectively. Once all strains are selected and their co-cultivation dynamics are ascertained, a synthetic bacterial consortium will be assembled and tested as a BRMD step coupled to a primary NPC treatment against two different PFAS in quasi-real aquatic matrices.
- MarinEye – A tool for marine monitoringPublication . Martins, Alfredo; Dias, André; Silva, Eduardo; Ferreira, Hugo; Dias, Ireneu; Almeida, José Miguel; Torgo, Luís; Gonçalves, Marco; Guedes, Maurício; Dias, Nuno; Jorge, Pedro; Mucha, Ana Paula; Magalhães, Catarina; Carvalho, Maria de Fátima; Ribeiro, Hugo; Almeida, C. Marisa R.; Azevedo, Isabel; Ramos, Sandra; Borges, Teresa; Leandro, Sérgio Miguel; Maranhão, Paulo; Mouga, Teresa; Gamboa, Roberto; Lemos, Marco; Santos, Antonina dos; Silva, Alexandra; Teixeira, Bárbara Frazão e; Bartilotti, Cátia; Marques, Raquel; Cotrim, SóniaThis work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological monitoring – the MarinEye system. It comprises a set of sensors providing diverse and relevant information for oceanic environment characterization and marine biology studies. It is constituted by a physical-chemical water properties sensor suite, a water filtration and sampling system for DNA collection, a plankton imaging system and biomass assessment acoustic system. The MarinEye system has onboard computational and logging capabilities allowing it either for autonomous operation or for integration in other marine observing systems (such as Observatories or robotic vehicles. It was designed in order to collect integrated multi-trophic monitoring data. The validation in operational environment on 3 marine observatories: RAIA, BerlengasWatch and Cascais on the coast of Portugal is also discussed.