Assessing Mineral Content and Heavy Metal Exposure in Abruzzo Honey and Bee Pollen from Different Anthropic Areas.

Honey and bee pollen offer potential health benefits due to their nutrient and bioactive molecules, but they may also harbor contaminants such as heavy metals. This study aimed to assess the content of different metals, including Mg, Al, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Cu, As, Rb, Sr, Cd, Cs, Tl, Pb and U, in honey and bee pollen collected from different Abruzzo region (Italy) areas (A1, A2, A3, A4), characterized by different anthropic influences described by Corine Land Cover maps. Differences were observed in the mineral and heavy metal content associated with the influence of biotic and abiotic factors. Honeys were found to be safe in regard to non-carcinogenic risk in all the consumer categories (THQm < 1). A particular carcinogenic risk concern was identified for toddlers associated with Cr (LCTR > 1 × 10-4) in A1, A2 and A3 apiaries. Pb and Ni represent potential non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks in children and adults due to bee pollen consumption, showing high values of THQm and LCTR. The results suggest the advantages of utilizing bee products to screen mineral and heavy metal content, providing valuable insights into environmental quality and potential health risks.

The Introduction of Allochthonous Olive Variety and Super High-Density System in the Abruzzo Region: A Study on Olive Oil Quality.

The transition to a sustainable economic and environmental management of olive oil sector needs to be implemented in both national and regional territories through the introduction and development of innovative growing systems and variety. In this study, the olive oil quality parameters of local and allochthonous varieties cultivated in different orchards located in the Abruzzo region (Italy), using traditional and super high-density systems, were analyzed. Frantene, Lecciana, Koroneiki, and a mix of Arbequina and Lecciana provided olive oils rich in flavonoids and secoiridoids compounds with respect to the local varieties Frantoio, Leccino, and a mix of Dritta, Leccino, and Pendolino. Oleic/linoleic ratio was influenced by cultivar and training systems with super high-density olive oils rich in oleic acid. Frantene showed a peculiar fatty acid profile different from cultivars grown in the same location; moreover, interesting similarities were found between Frantene and the mix of Dritta, Leccino, and Pendolino in terms of health-related compounds. The potential development of innovative sustainable training system to improve olive oil quality was highlighted. The study's results identify olive varieties suitable for super high-density systems spread in the Abruzzo region, representing a valid alternative for the olive growers to improve both the quality of the olive oil, as well as the company's income.

Rare Earth Element Variability in Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oils from Abruzzo Region.

Extra virgin olive oil is a food product from the Mediterranean area that is particularly and continuously experiencing to increasing instances of fraudulent geographical labeling. Therefore, origin protection must be improved, mainly based on its intrinsic chemical composition. This study aimed to perform a preliminary chemical characterization of Abruzzo extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs) using rare earth elements (REEs). REEs were evaluated in EVOO samples of different varieties produced in different geographical origins within the Abruzzo region (Italy) in three harvest years using ICP-MS chemometric techniques. Principal component, discriminant, and hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted to verify the influence of the variety, origin, and vintage of the REE composition. The results of a three-year study showed a uniform REE pattern and a strong correlation in most EVOOs, in particular for Y, La, Ce, and Nd. However, europium and erbium were also found in some oil samples. Compared with cultivar and origin, only the harvest year slightly influenced the REE composition, highlighting the interactions of the olive system with the climate and soil chemistry that could affect the multielement composition of EVOOs.

Regional rainfall threshold maps drawn through multivariate geostatistical techniques for shallow landslide hazard zonation.

The Empirical Rainfall Thresholds (ERTs) for shallow landslide initiation are commonly devised worldwide mostly to be implemented within landslide early warning systems. Nonetheless, since the pioneering works on ERTs in the 1980s, only meteorological variables - that are cumulated E or intensity I and duration D values of rainfalls that are likely to trigger landslides - have been used to predict landslide occurrence, even though they are characterized by a large uncertainty. Over time, many efforts have been devoted to constrain ERT to geo-morphological characters of the landslide locations but, since nowadays, they did not get to a sound new method to derive ERT and strengthen its ability to forecast future rainfall-induced landslide. In this study, local geo-morphological characters have been taken into account by means of the co-kriging technique to constrain the E and D mean values of a regional ERT and their confidence intervals. The study area, where the proposed method was trained, is the hilly side of the Abruzzo region (Italy). Here, 62 shallow landslides have been analyzed in the time span of 2013-2017 by collecting 62 (D,E) pairs related to the rainfalls that were likely to trigger them. The relevant geo-morphological features for the considered territory have been selected through the principal component analysis. Then, the Multi-Collocated Co-Kriging technique, through ISATIS Geovariances software, has been applied to derive the spatial variability structures of E and D values conditioned by the selected geo-morphological parameters. Therefore, threshold values of E and D and their confidence intervals have been calculated generating a new shape of regional ERT, consisting of maps of continuous estimated threshold values of (D,E) and confidence interval values suitable for being used in early warning systems for shallow landslide initiation.

The snow and rainfall impact on the Verde spring behavior: A statistical approach on hydrodynamic and hydrochemical daily time-series.

The wide regional aquifer system springs are one of the most important sources of freshwater, especially because of the ever-increasing global water demand. Thus, these springs must be protected and managed in a sustainable manner. To this purpose, a detailed knowledge about the corresponding aquifer systems hydrodynamic is vital. In this general framework, the Majella carbonate aquifer is one of the most important as well as heterogenous aquifer systems in Central Italy. It is characterized by high elevation, a heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity distribution and groundwater flow, and its recharge is mainly due to both rainfall and snowmelt. Its most important spring is the Verde spring, located in the eastern side, exploited for drinking and hydroelectric purposes. The main objectives of this research are (1) to get a deeper insight into the hydrogeological conceptual model of the Verde spring, combining multiparameter input and output time-series, and (2) to quantify each inflow effect on the Verde spring parameters by a methodological approach that is quite uncommon in literature: comparing univariate and bivariate statistical analyses of both raw and residual (non-systematic component) time-series. The results obtained highlighted that the snowmelt is the most important inflow of the Majella aquifer system. The snow cover melting leaks slowly large amount of water into the aquifer and creates smoothly significative modifications to the spring discharge, electrical conductivity and temperature, in terms of groundwater volume increase and dilution. Contrariwise, although the rainfall inflow volume and the corresponding spring parameters changes are very limited, the transient behavior of the rainfall inflow allowed identifying different recharge modes. These recharge modes depend on several flow paths in the unsaturated zone, characterized by different water volumes brought toward the saturated zone, sizes, hydraulic conductivities, and distances from the Verde spring.