How Microalgae Combat Antibiotic Resistance in Wastewater

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Microalgae-based wastewater treatment

Our new study, now published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, reveals promising insights into using microalgae to tackle one of agriculture’s most pressing environmental challenges: the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in livestock wastewater.

The Challenge

Nearly 55% of antibiotics used in China are applied in livestock farming, creating a major pathway for antibiotic resistance genes to enter the environment through farm wastewater. These genes pose serious risks to ecosystems and human health, making their removal from wastewater a critical priority. Similar risks are emerging in aquaculture, where high-nutrient effluents containing antibiotic residues and resistance genes threaten surrounding waters, highlighting the need for robust, nature-based treatment solutions across both terrestrial and aquatic production systems.

An Innovative Approach

Our international research team, including collaborators from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and China’s Agro-Environmental Protection Institute (AEPI) under China´s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), investigated how the microalga Chlorella pyrenoidosa responds to environmental stressors while treating dairy farm wastewater. Specifically, we examined the combined effects of lead stress and gibberellin (a plant hormone) stimulation on microalgal performance, bacterial communities, and ARG removal.

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From Text to Networks: How AntConc and InfraNodus Map the AI-Policy-Governance Nexus

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  This article reports a methods-focused reading of a curated policy corpus that examines how artificial intelligence (AI), when situated within sustainability-oriented regulation, may be associated with shifts in corporate governance toward stakeholder accountability. The analysis combines corpus linguistics (AntConc) with semantic network techniques (InfraNodus) to move from dense legal language toward a transparent account of recurring concepts and their relations. While any single method has limits, the combined approach is intended to provide both textual evidence and a system-level view, so that substantive claims remain cautious and testable.

Methodology: AntConc and InfraNodus complementarities

  The corpus comprises six (+1 text annex) open-access instruments that, taken together, appear to structure contemporary discussions of AI and sustainability governance across jurisdictions: the EU AI Act, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the U.S. SEC Climate-Related Disclosure Rule, the EU Green Deal, the OECD AI Principles, and the ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics. Source PDFs were converted to UTF-8 text, running headers and pagination were removed, article and annex references were preserved, hyphenation was normalized, and domain acronyms (AI, ESRS, SEC, CSRD) were retained to reduce semantic loss.

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Wings, Wetlands, and Soil: The Urdaibai Bird Centre and the Hidden Connections of Ecosystem Health

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Photo and Text © Gorka Nadal and C.M. Cordeiro 2025.

October 9, 2025 | Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, Spain

During the second day of the iCOSHELLs annual meeting in Bilbao, consortium members visited the Urdaibai Bird Centre, a world-class facility dedicated to avian conservation and environmental education. This visit, expertly organized by our host partner GAIA, revealed the intricate connections between bird populations, wetland ecosystems, and the soil health initiatives at the heart of our project.

The Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve: A Conservation Success Story

Designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1984, the Urdaibai region represents a remarkable example of how protected areas can balance environmental conservation with human well-being and economic development. Spanning the coastal and inland areas of Biscay in Northern Spain, this reserve encompasses diverse ecosystems, from coastal marshlands and estuaries to native broadleaf forests and traditional agricultural landscapes.

Research by Castillo-Eguskitza and colleagues (2017) demonstrates that the biosphere reserve designation has yielded tangible conservation benefits while supporting local communities. The study found that compared to adjacent non-protected areas, Urdaibai has achieved better conservation of native forests and rural landscapes, slowed the abandonment of traditional agricultural and forestry practices, and maintained higher employment in the primary sector. The designation has also limited large-scale urban development while supporting sustainable economic growth and preserving the biodiversity and ecosystem services crucial for local well-being.

These findings challenge the narrative that conservation necessarily restricts economic development, instead demonstrating that well-managed protected areas can foster sustainable prosperity.

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Discovering Laida Beach: Where Soil Health Meets Coastal Conservation in the iCOSHELLs Basque Living Lab

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Photo and Text © Gorka Nadal and C.M. Cordeiro 2025.

October 9, 2025 | Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, Spain

As part of the iCOSHELLs project’s second annual meeting in Bilbao, participants from across Europe embarked on a field visit to one of Spain’s most remarkable coastal landscapes: Laida Beach in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. Hosted by our partner GAIA in Bilbao, Spain, this excursion highlighted the critical connections between soil health, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable land management in coastal ecosystems.

About iCOSHELLs

The INNOVATIVE CO-CREATION SOIL HEALTH LIVING LABs (iCOSHELLs) project, led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, represents a groundbreaking EU Horizon Europe initiative dedicated to restoring Europe’s degraded soils. With 60–70% of European soils classified as unhealthy due to pollution, urbanization, and intensive agriculture exacerbated by climate change, the €12 million project brings together 36 partners across Europe to develop, test, and scale innovative soil recovery solutions through six Soil Health Living Labs.

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Europe Forum Insights 2024/5: Security, Competitiveness, Sustainability

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Photo and Text © C.M. Cordeiro 2025.

Integrating Security, Competitiveness, and Sustainability: Insights from Europe Forum Debates 2024/5 and EU Projects

Introduction

Europe faces multiple, overlapping challenges: geopolitical instability, ecological pressures, and concerns over long-term economic competitiveness. These issues are often framed in policy debates as competing priorities. At the Europe Forum events in Turku (2024 and 2025), panelists frequently posed the question of whether EU resources should be directed toward defense and security or toward sustainable growth, cohesion, and agriculture [1]–[4]. This article explores how such framings may overstate the trade-offs. Drawing on Forum debates and ongoing EU projects, it examines the extent to which security, competitiveness, and sustainability can be understood as interdependent dimensions of a coherent European agenda.

1. Security as Competitiveness

At the 2024 Forum session on European competitiveness, it was emphasized that competitiveness is inseparable from security [1]. The upcoming EU Council Presidency was noted as placing emphasis on defense industry financing, border resilience, and energy independence. This reflects a growing recognition that secure borders, reliable energy systems, and resilient food and digital infrastructures underpin Europe’s ability to compete internationally.

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New publication: EU Water Directives through a Semiotic Lens: Framing Quality, Risk, and Circularity

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Published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, August 2025
Cordeiro, C.M. (2025). EU water directives through a semiotic lens: Framing quality, risk, and circularity. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 13:1590166.

The European Union’s water governance framework is widely recognized for its clear legal architecture, offering predictable compliance structures and harmonized standards across Member States. Yet, the language that enables this clarity and coordination may also influence how environmental concepts are interpreted and implemented. Understanding how such language constructs meaning is essential for evaluating both the strengths and limitations of EU water policy.

Beyond Compliance: The Power of Language in Policy

EU water law not only regulates environmental behavior; it also plays a constitutive role in shaping how key policy concepts such as quality, risk, and circularity, are defined and operationalized. This study applies a triadic semiotic framework, drawing on Greimassian structuralism, Social Semiotics, and Ecosemiotics, to examine 11 foundational EU water directives, including the Water Framework Directive, the Nitrates Directive, and the Water Reuse Regulation. Through this lens, the analysis explores how regulatory texts frame environmental priorities, assign agency, and embed specific worldviews that influence implementation and policy outcomes.

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Microalgae and EPS for Mitigating Antibiotic Resistance in Livestock Wastewater

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Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing challenges in both environmental and public health domains. A growing body of research is exploring nature-based solutions to mitigate the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), particularly in agricultural systems. A new study published in Bioresource Technology contributes to this field by examining the potential of microalgae and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) to reduce ARGs in livestock wastewater.

🔗 Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2025.132622

Overview of the Study

The research, led by Xiaoyu Xu and a multidisciplinary team from China and Sweden, investigates the interactions between algae and EPS and their role in mitigating the spread of ARGs in contaminated livestock water. As the agricultural sector is a known hotspot for antibiotic use and discharge, developing effective treatment strategies is both urgent and impactful.

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Circular Economy for Nutrients in the Baltic Sea Region

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Once in decline due to persecution and pollution, cormorants have rebounded across the Baltic Sea since the 1980s thanks to legal protection, cleaner waters, and healthier fish stocks, now breeding widely along the coasts of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland.

In our recent contribution to Baltic Rim Economies (BRE, Issue #2, April 2025), Erik Sindhøj and I outlined current challenges and opportunities in implementing a circular economy for nutrients in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The article, part of a series curated by The Centrum Balticum Foundation, reflects ongoing efforts within the Interreg-funded CiNURGi project and the broader framework of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR). Continue reading ”Circular Economy for Nutrients in the Baltic Sea Region” →

Reflections from the FERTITEC Kick-Off in Thessaloniki, Greece

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On 27 January 2025, the city of Thessaloniki, Greece became the meeting point for a shared vision of sustainable agriculture. It was there that we officially launched FERTITEC, an EU-funded Coordination and Support Action (CSA) bringing together seven international partners across Europe and Africa to advance innovation in circular fertiliser systems.

Now, three months on, we take a moment to reflect—not just on what was initiated, but on what was truly begun: a collaborative journey grounded in mutual learning, technical exchange, and a commitment to transformation.

More Than a Meeting—A Foundation for Collaboration

The Kick-Off Meeting (KoM) in Thessaloniki marked the formal start of the project, but it also marked something deeper: the forging of partnerships that bring together policy and practice, science and systems thinking, and knowledge and local context.

Thessaloniki, with its rich cultural heritage and welcoming atmosphere, provided more than a backdrop. It reminded us that building sustainable futures requires not only innovation, but also dialogue—across cultures, across sectors, and through shared experience. From structured sessions to informal conversations over meals, the KoM laid the groundwork for a collaborative ethos that continues to shape how we work.

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The Decline of Fertilizer Use in Europe: Policy, Markets, and the Shift to Sustainability

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Knowledge graph visualization for this blog was generated using InfraNodus, which mapped thematic clusters such as ”fertilizer”, ”nutrient”, ”agriculture”, and ”regulation” from EU forecast reports.

Fertilizers have long been essential for European agriculture, ensuring high yields and supporting food security. However, recent forecasts from Fertilizers Europe predict a steady decline in fertilizer use across the European Union (EU). This shift is influenced by evolving environmental policies, market conditions, and agricultural practices. Analyzing the Forecast of Food, Farming, and Fertilizer Use in the European Union reports from 2017 to 2031 reveals the multiple drivers behind this downward trend.

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