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Under the EU Air Quality Directive (AQD) 2008/50/EC member states are required to undertake routine monitoring of PM2.5 composition at background stations. The AQD states for PM2.5 speciation this should include at least: nitrate (NO3−), sulfate (SO42−), chloride (Cl−), ammonium (NH4+), sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+), calcium (Ca2+), elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC). Until 2017, it was the responsibility of each country to determine the methodology used to report the composition for the inorganic components of PM2.5. In August 2017 a European standard method of measurement of PM2.5 inorganic chemical components (NO3−, SO42−, Cl−, NH4+, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+) as deposited on filters (EN16913:2017) was published. From August 2019 this then became the European standard method. This filter method is labour-intensive and provides limited time resolution and is prone to losses of volatile compounds. There is therefore increasing interest in the use of alternative automated methods. For example, the UK reports hourly PM2.5 chemical composition using the Monitor for AeRosols and Gases in Ambient air (MARGA, Metrohm, NL). This study is a pre-assessment review of available data to demonstrate if or to what extent equivalence is possible using either the MARGA or other available automatic methods, including the Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM, Aerodyne Research Inc. US) and the Ambient Ion Monitor (AIM, URG, US). To demonstrate equivalence three objectives were to be met. The first two objectives focused on data capture and were met by all three instruments. The third objective was to have less than a 50% expanded uncertainty compared to the reference method for each species. Analysis of this objective was carried out using existing paired datasets available from different regions around the world. It was found that the MARGA (2006–2019 model) had the potential to demonstrate equivalence for all species in the standard, though it was only through a combination of case studies that it passed uncertainty criteria. The ACSM has the potential to demonstrate equivalence for NH4+, SO42−, and in some conditions NO3−, but did not for Cl− due to its inability to quantify refractory aerosol such as sea salt. The AIM has the potential for NH4+, NO3−, SO42−, Cl− and Mg2+. Future investigations are required to determine if the AIM could be optimised to meet the expanded uncertainty criterion for Na+, K+ and Ca2+. The recommendation is that a second stage to demonstrate equivalence is required which would include both laboratory and field studies of the three candidate methods and any other technologies identified with the potential to report the required species. The authors would like to thank the UK Environment Agency who funded this study. The measurements in this study were funded by the following bodies: - All the UK datasets were funded by UK Environment Agency under the UK Eutrophying and Acidifying Pollutant Network and the UKs Particle Numbers and Concentrations Network. The Auchencorth Moss measurements are supported by NERC UK Status, change and Projections of the Environment UK-SCaPE (NE/R016429/1). - The Revin fieldsite is coordinated by IMT Nord Europe in collaboration with the regional monitoring network (Atmo Grand-Est) and the National Reference Laboratory for Air Quality Monitoring (LCSQA) and funded by the French Ministry of Environment. ACSM measurements were supported by the Labex CaPPA project, which is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) through the PIA (Programme d’Investissement d’Avenir) under contract ANR-11-LABX-0005-01, and were part of the COST COLOSSAL Action CA16109. - Measurements in Barcelona Palau Reial were funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through CAIAC project (PID2019-108990RB-I00) and FEDER funds, through EQC2018-004598-P. - Measurements at the Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station are supported by the EPA-Ireland and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. - The Germany Federal Environment Agency (UBA) provided the financial support of this study and the deployment of the MARGA at the research station Melpitz under contracts No: 351 01 093 and 351 01 070. - The data from Kumpula was supported by the Academy of Finland as part of the Centre of Excellence program (project no 1118615). - US EPA gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Battelle and Wood (formerly Amec, Foster Wheeler) to the Research Triangle Park study. - The data from the San Pietro Capofiume was funded by the PEGASOS EU FP7 project. Peer reviewed

International audience; The collective economic and environmental interest of the whole dairy sheep sector is to reduce feedcosts and the negative impact of milk production on the environment. Thus, this study focused on thecharacterisation and genetic selection potential of feed efficiency in the Lacaune breed. Estimates for feedefficiency in dairy ewes are limited, mainly due to a lack of individual feed intake measurements in thesheepfold or in the pasture. We estimated the genetic parameters for two approximated (not entirelybased on individual data) feed efficiency traits (lactation feed conversion ratio (LFCR) and residual energyintake (REI)) and daily milk yield (DMY) at different stages of lactation and throughout lactation. Theaccuracy of the efficiency traits was first evaluated on samples from Lacaune dairy ewes that were mon-itored individually, especially for their feed intake. Then, feed efficiency estimation methods were appliedon eight commercial farms corresponding to 4 680 Lacaune dairy ewes over two milk lactations (30 854records). Animals were collectively (for a large part of feed intake) or individually (for milk performanceand dynamics of body fat reserves) monitored at different lactation stages. The heritabilities of LFCR andREI were estimated over lactations at 0.10 ± 0.01 and 0.11 ± 0.01, respectively. High genetic correlationswere observed between the two efficiency traits and milk production traits, with a genetic correlationbetween LFCR and DMY of 0.74 ± 0.04 and between REI and DMY of 0.79 ± 0.04. A strong influenceof environmental factors such as farm, year of milk production and lactation stage affected the geneticlink between REI and milk production traits. Efficiency values observed in early lactation when animalswere bred in the sheepfold were less genetically correlated with values obtained later in lactation whenanimals were grass-fed. However, individual characterisation of feed efficiency remains difficult due tothe collective feeding context in dairy ewe farms.

International audience; BACKGROUND: Exceptional episodes of exposure to high levels of persistent organic pollutants have already been associated with developmental defects of enamel among children, but knowledge is still scarce concerning the contribution of background levels of environmental contamination. METHODS: Children of the French PELAGIE mother-child cohort were followed from birth, with collection of medical data and cord blood samples that were used to measure polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCs), and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs). At 12 years of age, molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH) and other enamel defects (EDs) were recorded for 498 children. Associations were studied using logistic regression models adjusted for potential prenatal confounders. RESULTS: An increasing log-concentration of β-HCH was associated with a reduced risk of MIH and EDs (OR = 0.55; 95% CI, 0.32-0.95, and OR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.43-0.98, respectively). Among girls, intermediate levels of p,p’-DDE were associated with a reduced risk of MIH. Among boys, we observed an increased risk of EDs in association with intermediate levels of PCB 138, PCB 153, PCB 187, and an increased risk of MIH with intermediate levels of PFOA and PFOS. CONCLUSIONS: Two OCs were associated with a reduced risk of dental defects, whereas the associations between PCBs and PFASs and EDs or MIH were generally close to null or sex-specific, with an increased risk of dental defects in boys. These results suggest that POPs could impact amelogenesis. Replication of this study is required and the possible underlying mechanisms need to be explored.

European traditional tomato varieties have been selected by farmers given their consistent performance and adaptation to local growing conditions. Here we developed a multipurpose core collection, comprising 226 accessions representative of the genotypic, phenotypic, and geographical diversity present in European traditional tomatoes, to investigate the basis of their phenotypic variation, gene×environment interactions, and stability for 33 agro-morphological traits. Comparison of the traditional varieties with a modern reference panel revealed that some traditional varieties displayed excellent agronomic performance and high trait stability, as good as or better than that of their modern counterparts. We conducted genome-wide association and genome-wide environment interaction studies and detected 141 quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Out of those, 47 QTLs were associated with the phenotype mean (meanQTLs), 41 with stability (stbQTLs), and 53 QTL-by-environment interactions (QTIs). Most QTLs displayed additive gene actions, with the exception of stbQTLs, which were mostly recessive and overdominant QTLs. Both common and specific loci controlled the phenotype mean and stability variation in traditional tomato; however, a larger proportion of specific QTLs was observed, indicating that the stability gene regulatory model is the predominant one. Developmental genes tended to map close to meanQTLs, while genes involved in stress response, hormone metabolism, and signalling were found within regions affecting stability. A total of 137 marker–trait associations for phenotypic means and stability were novel, and therefore our study enhances the understanding of the genetic basis of valuable agronomic traits and opens up a new avenue for an exploitation of the allelic diversity available within European traditional tomato germplasm This work was supported by European Commission H2020 research and innovation program through TRADITOM grant agreement no. 634561, G2P-SOL, grant agreement no. 677379, and HARNESSTOM grant agreement no. 101000716. Networking activities were funded by COST Actions “EUROCAROTEN CA15136 and ‘RoxyCOST’ CA18210 ‘RoxyCOST

Habitat-forming cold-water corals (CWCs) represent a key component of deep-sea benthic communities and a priority target for conservation. Although research efforts have been mounting to try and identify the drivers of CWC distributions, progress has been limited by the scarcity of ecological data. The present work employs habitat suitability models (HSMs) to estimate spatial distributions, environmental drivers and co-existence patterns of 14 habitat-forming CWCs in the Azores, an area considered a hotspot of coral diversity in the Atlantic. The modelled CWCs showed a strong bathymetric zonation, which seems to be determined by the vertical stratification of water masses in the region. In particular, the modelled CWCs can be clustered in four groups named after the isopycnal (vertical) layers in which Atlantic water masses are organized: species restricted to upper water masses, species extending down from upper water masses, species restricted to intermediate water masses and species extending up from deep water masses. Horizontal patterns further indicate that the Azores Current and different production regimes north and south of the archipelago likely influence the distribution of CWCs in sub-surface waters. Such results have important implications for the regional management of deep-sea benthic communities and, in particular, for the design of representative networks of protected areas. The combined habitat of all modelled species covered only 11%. Given that they all possess the characteristics of benthic foundation organisms and represent indicator taxa of vulnerable marine ecosystems all the modelled species should be viewed as important targets for conservation. The lace coral Errina dabneyi deserves particular attention since this species appears to be endemic to the Azores and has a very limited estimated distribution.

International audience

AbstractDuru et al. (Agron Sustain Dev 35:1259-1281, 2015) highlighted a missing tool for studying and improving the performance of cropping systems in the transition to highly diversified agriculture. In response, this paper proposes a concept for designing, modeling, monitoring, and auditing desired ecosystem services, in intercropping and agroforestry systems. We have labelled this concept ESSU (Ecosystem Services functional Spatial Unit). It delimits the smallest spatial unit encompassing all the interacting species and other functional components (e.g., crops, trees, livestock, spontaneous vegetation, semi-natural habitats such as hedges, ditches, forest patches, and animals) that together provide a specified set of ecosystem services. The novel ESSU concept allows representation of an entire diversified agroecosystem by the repetition of the spatial unit that provides the same sets of targeted ecosystem services as the agroecosystem it represents. It can then be used for various activities, such as the (i) design of more efficient agroecological systems according to the targeted ecosystem services; (ii) rapid audit of farming practices for biodiversity/resilience across large tracts of farmland as part of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 targets of sustainable food systems; and (iii) modeling such diversified agroecosystems using a motif adapted to represent the targeted ecosystem services and the species spacing design. We demonstrate that the ESSU concept is highly flexible and applicable to a wide range of diversified agroecosystems, like arable intercropping, crop-tree intercropping, tree-tree agroforestry, and agro-pastoralism. We also show its relevance and suitability for representing temporal changes over 1 year, across several years, and over decades, indicating its generalizability and flexibility. We argue that ESSU could open new theoretical and practical research avenues for the study of diversified agroecosystems. Considered with all the knowledge available on practices, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, ESSU might provide a learning-support tool to fill the knowledge gap about relationships among practices, biodiversity, and associated ecosystem services.

International audience

Assemblage thinking is an increasingly influential approach in critical studies of food and farming, and particularly in research on new agri-food technology such as precision agriculture (PA). This research is important in highlighting the distributed forms of power and agency through which farming worlds are assembled, and what these engender for more sustainable and equitable farming futures. However, to date, there has been limited attention to assembling PA from the perspective of farmers, what Legun and Burch (2021) refer to as ‘deliberative assembling’. This paper contributes to knowledge in this area by applying post actor network theoretical work to investigate across case studies in Australia, the Netherlands and France, the forms of tinkering by which farmers attempt to make PA workable, and what these engender for farmer agency. Through our analysis, we show that much of the tinkering by farmers is aimed at holding together their own priorities, routines, and experiences with practices inscribed in PA technology, such as dependence on commercial advice, data-driven knowledge, and commitment to a single technological platform/company. Integral to this tinkering work are support networks that include agronomists, advisors, machinery dealers and/or farmer discussion groups. We argue that whilst these support networks are critical to holding together different practices, and making PA workable, they also play a more diverse and nuanced role in PA implementation than what has previously been recognised. Our case studies provide insights into three key forms of tinkering used by farmers in navigating support networks to make PA workable – disconnection, experimentation and trial-and-error, and trade-offs and compromises – and the specific distributions of agency which these tinkering practices engender. In conclusion, we argue that a tinkering lens provides a valuable approach for enabling agri-food scholars to tease out in greater depth deliberative assembling practices and how these variously open-up or foreclose options for farmers in making PA workable.