Luisa Patrolecco

• Chemistry
• Researcher at Italian National Research Council

In September 2021, as part of the Italian Arctic research programme, a multidisciplinary cruise along the 75th parallel north through the Greenland Sea Gyre was conducted aboard the Italian icebreaker Laura Bassi as part of the CASSANDRA project, which also contributed to the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) 2020/22. The cruise took place during the pe...

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a waste-to-energy strategy that leverages natural microbiological processes. It is increasingly used in farms to treat manure, resulting in biogas for energy production and digestate as fertiliser. However, animal manure often contains antibiotic (AB) residues, raising concerns about their impact on AD efficiency and the...

In recent decades, the world has experienced the detrimental effects of the unchecked growth of various human activities, including industrialization, transportation, agriculture, and urbanization [...]

Cattle manure or its digestate, which often contains antibiotic residues, can be used as an organic fertilizer and copper (Cu) as a fungicide in agriculture. Consequently, both antibiotics and Cu are considered soil contaminants. In this work, microcosms were performed with soil amended with either manure or digestate with Cu and an antibiotic (sul...

The Aliivibrio fischeri bioassay was successfully applied in order to evaluate the acute effect of sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), chlortetracycline (CTC) and copper (Cu), alone or in binary, ternary, and overall mixture. The toxicity results are reported in terms of both effective concentrations, which inhibited 50% of the bacterium b...

The production and consumption of surfactants are constantly increasing, and huge amounts are found in the environment as contaminants. Surfactants are widely used in domestic and industrial applications, including in tunnel-mechanized excavation of large-scale infrastructures (e.g. highways and railways). In the latter case, the commercial product...

The degradation and bioaccumulation of selected antibiotics such as the sulfonamide sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and the fluoroquinolones enrofloxacin (ENR) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) were investigated in soil microcosm experiments where Lactuca sativa was grown with manure or digestate (1%) and spiked with a mixture of the three antibiotics (7.5 mg/kg each...

Some livestock farms rely on anaerobic digestion (AD) technology for manure disposal, thus obtaining energy (biogas) and fertilizer (digestate). Mixtures of antibiotics used for animal health often occur in organic waste and their possible synergistic/antagonistic effects on microorganisms involved in AD are still poorly studied. This work focuses...

Purpose The present work aimed to fill some knowledge gaps on the effects on non-target natural soil microbial communities of the sulfamethoxazole (SMX) antibiotic potentially found in cattle manure digestate. Both soil prokaryotic and fungal community under different conditions were analyzed using molecular ecology methods. Methods A previous mic...

The present work aimed at investigating the occurrence and distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and phenolic endocrine‐disrupting compounds (PEDCs), including bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol (4‐NPs) and its mono‐ (NP1EO) and di‐ (NP2EO) ethoxylate precursors in marine sediments in an Arctic fjord (Svalbard, Norway). The contributi...

In recent decades, the innovative practice of management and valorization of agrozootechnical waste as energy through anaerobic digestion (AD) has been rapidly growing. However, whether applying digestate to soil as biofertilizer can be a source of antibiotics (ABs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) has not been fully investigated so far. In t...

River contamination is due to a chemical mixture of point and diffuse pollution, which can compromise water quality. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and emerging compounds such as pharmaceuticals and antibiotics are frequently found in rivers flowing through big cities. This work evaluated the presence of fifteen priority PAHs, eight pharma...

Natural ecosystems are frequently exposed to complex mixtures of different chemicals. However, the environmental risk assessment is mainly based on data from individual substances. In this study, the individual and combined effects on the terrestrial earthworm E. fetida exposed to the anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) and the p...

The anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) is the main component of most commercial foaming agents (FAs) used in the excavation of highway and railway tunnels with Earth pressure balance-tunnel boring machines (EPB-TBMs). Several hundreds of millions of tons of spoil material, consisting of soil mixed with FAs, are produced worldwide...

Diffuse environmental antibiotic and antibiotic resistance gene contamination is increasing human and animal exposure to these emerging compounds with a consequent risk of reduction in antibiotic effectiveness. The present work investigated the effect of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on growth and antibiotic resistance genes of a microbial...

Anaerobic digestion is one of the best ways to re-use animal manure and agricultural residues, through the production of combustible biogas and digestate. However, the use of antibiotics for preventing and treating animal diseases and, consequently, their residual concentrations in manure, could introduce them into anaerobic digesters. If the diges...

This work investigates the occurrence of OCPs, such as hexachlorocyclohexane (α-, β-, γ- and δ-HCH) isomers, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (p,p’-DDT) and its metabolite dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE), endosulfan (α- and β-EDS) isomers, chlorpyrifos (CPF), dacthal (DAC) and phenolic compounds, such as 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) and its prec...

Fagus sylvatica L. is widely distributed across Europe thanks to its high adaptability in a wide variety of soils and climate. Microbial communities are essential for maintaining forest soil quality and are responsible for forest ecosystem functioning; the ability of soil microorganisms to respond to abiotic stressors (e.g., organic carbon losses,...

The anionic surfactant SLES (sodium lauryl ether sulfate) is an emerging contaminant, being the main component of foaming agents that are increasingly used by the tunnel construction industry. To fill the gap of knowledge about the potential SLES toxicity on plants, acute and chronic effects were assessed under controlled conditions. The acute ecot...

Mechanized excavation of tunnels with Earth Pressure Balance-Tunnel Boring Machines requires the use of foaming agents. The latter contain the anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) as the main compound. The re-use as a by-product of excavated soil containing foaming agents (spoil material) can pose a risk for soil and particularly...

This work aimed to study the contaminant pattern in Kongsfjorden marine environment (Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, 79°N 12°E) and to disentangle the trend and seasonality in the contamination. The results obtained within two surface water sampling campaigns in two different seasons are shown. GC-MS and LC-MS/MS determinations revealed the occurrence of pol...

Anaerobic digestion (AD) treatment of cattle manure and slurry makes it possible to produce biogas, a renewable and storable biofuel, as well as digestate, a residual organic matter that can be used to replace chemical fertilizers. On the other hand, the intense use of antibiotics (e.g., sulfamethoxazole) in animal husbandry practices is showing in...

Sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) is the main chemical component in several lubricant products used for soil conditioning in the mechanized excavation industry using Earth Pressure Balance-Tunnel Boring Machines. During the tunnelling process, huge amounts of excavated soil are produced and the SLES presence can affect the subsequent re-use of th...

There is a growing concern about the simultaneous presence in the environment of different kinds of pollutants, because of the possible synergic or additive effects of chemical mixtures on ecosystems. Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an organophosphate insecticide extensively used in agricultural practices. The anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate...

The rapid development of mechanized tunneling in current decades has raised serious concerns about the environmental impact of large quantities of the muck. EPB-TBMs require the use of foaming agents for optimizing the soil conditioning. These agents could contain some chemicals (e.g., sodium lauryl ether sulfate – SLES) that are not included in th...

A wide use of foaming agents as lubricants is required in mechanized tunneling. Their main component, the anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES), can remain in residual concentrations in soil debris, influencing their potential reuse as by-product. This study aimed at evaluating the environmental fate and effects of a foaming produc...

The anionic surfactant Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES) is the principal component of several commercial foaming products for soil conditioning in the tunneling industry. Huge amounts of spoil material are produced during the excavation process and the presence of SLES can affect its re-use as a by-product. Anionic surfactants can be a risk for e...

Huge amounts of antibiotics are currently being used in both human and veterinary medicine. Moreover, most are recalcitrant to biodegradation and can persist in the environment. In fact these compounds have been increasingly found as micro-contaminants in natural ecosystems and cause particular concern because of the development of multi-resistant...

Lagoons in river deltas are highly productive systems that receive high loads of organic matter and nutrients. Among the major environmental stress factors and human health-related issues, the anthropogenic contamination is of particular concern, since coastal lagoons are intensively exploited for aquaculture activities. Although microbial communit...

The groundwater behavior at a municipal solid waste disposal dump, located in Central Italy, was studied using a multi-parameter monitoring over 1 year consisting of 4 seasonal samples. The hydrological and hydrogeological dynamics of water circulation, microbiological parameters (microbial abundance and cell viability of the autochthonous microbia...

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is a sulfonamide antibiotic commonly used in human and veterinary medicine and frequently detected in surface water as a micro-contaminant. The presence of this antibiotic and its main transformation product N4-acetyl-sulfamethoxazole (Ac-SMX) was evaluated in an Italian river water by Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and subsequ...

Huge amounts of soil debris are produced during the underground excavation with Earth Pressure Balance-Tunnel Boring Machines (EPB-TBM). Soil debris may contain residual concentrations of the anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES), the main component in some foaming agents used as excavation additives. The reuse of this debris or it...

The application of anaerobically digested cattle manure on agricultural land for both improving its quality and recycling a farm waste is an increasingly frequent practice in line with the circular economy. However, knowledge on the potential risk of spreading antibiotic resistance through this specific practice is quite scarce. The antibiotic sulf...

The EPB-TBM performance relies on the selection of the appropriate conditioning additives. The anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) is the main component of several foaming agents. Consequently, tunneling spoil material can contain SLES residual concentrations. Owing to the lack of SLES threshold limits in soil in both European an...

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs)and pharmaceutical residues are environmental ubiquitous contaminants of particular concern due to their possible ecotoxicological effects on aquatic ecosystems. In this work, the occurrence and fate of six antibiotics (amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, tylosin, erithromycin, sulfamethoxazole and chlortetracycline)and...

The EPB-TBM performance relies on the selection of the appropriate conditioning additives. The anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) is the main component of several foaming agents. Consequently, tunneling spoil material can contain SLES residual concentrations. Owing to the lack of SLES threshold limits in soil in both European an...

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) regulates freshwater and coastal water quality assessment in Europe. Chemical and ecological water quality status is based on measurements of chemical pollutants in water and biota together with other indicators such as temperature, nutrients, species compositions (phytoplankton, microalgae, benthos and fish) and...

River pollution from different sources can affect ecosystems in different ways with consequences on water quality for both biota and human health. The River Danube was selected to perform chemical and biological analyses. The river was sampled at three different points, one inside Budapest and two just outside. Water samples were collected twice in...

Coastal systems represent primary receptors of land-derived nutrients and pollutants, thus playing a crucial role in carbon burial and marine productivity processes. A closer look into potential effects of river floods and following seawater quality modifications is fundamental to specifically explore the links between the marine contamination patt...

Gli scavi meccanizzati in sotterraneo per la realizzazione di gallerie e tunnel effettuati con fresa TBM-EPB (Tunnel Boring Machine- Earth Pressure Balance), necessitano dell’utilizzo di prodotti schiumogeni lubrificanti per coadiuvare il processo di scavo. Il componente principale di diversi prodotti presenti in commercio è il tensioattivo anionic...

Sulfamethoxazole and ciprofloxacin are among the most prescribed antibiotics and are frequently detected in surface water ecosystems. The aim of this study was to assess the role of a riverine natural microbial community in sulfamethoxazole (SMX) degradation in presence and absence of ciprofloxacin (CIP). River samples were collected from a stretch...

The anionic surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) is the main component in most foaming agents used for mechanized tunneling excavation. The process produces huge amounts of soil debris that can have a potential impact on ecosystems. The lack of accurate information about SLES persistence in excavated soil has aroused increasing concern ab...

An interdisciplinary collaboration between pharmacology and environmental sciences to assess drug occurrence in the environment by using chemical and biological methods made it possible to perform a joint research on river water collected from the Danube river in different points in a river stretch in correspondence of the Budapest city. A prelimin...

In the coming years, due to the numerous tunnelling projects planned in Europe and worldwide, several hundreds of millions of tons of spoil material will be produced. Tunnel debris is composed of soil and rock treated during excavation processes with different chemical products (e.g., foaming agents and polymers) used for soil conditioning. While t...

Introduction: Recent climate changes are much faster than previous long-term ones, causing stress on polar marine ecosystems resulting in changes in atmosphere/ocean exchanges, ocean properties, sea ice cover and thickness. These phenomena, associated to anthropogenic emissions, are triggering shifts in global biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosy...

Livestock and aquaculture activities involve the use of antibiotics. The use of manure and digestate in agricul-tural practices can introduce antibiotics and promote resistant bacteria into terrestrial and aquatic environ-ments. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is one of the most commonly prescribed and consumed sulfonamide antibiotic for its ability to inhi...

Marine sediments are part of the hydrological cycle and the ultimate storage compartment of land-derived organic matter, including pollutants. Since relevant microbially-driven processes occurring at benthic level may affect the quality of the overall aquatic system, the necessity for incorporating information about microbial communities functionin...

Dear Colleagues, Since the end of the 20th century, the very fast development of mass spectrometric techniques hyphenated to liquid chromatography opened the possibility to explore the fate and distribution of new classes of polar, and not yet regulated, compounds, which were collected under the generic name of emerging contaminants. Aer about twen...

Benthic communities inhabiting river lagoons are subjected to both natural fluctuations (e.g. flood and lean-season alternation, tides, daily variations of temperature and irradiance due to the shallow depth) and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. organic enrichment and loads of contaminants due to urban and industrial discharges). Among them, meiofa...

Alkylethoxysulfate (AES) surfactants are the main component of most commercial products used for soil conditioning in the excavation industry, in particular as lubricants for mechanized tunnelling. Huge amounts of soil debris are produced during the excavation process and their possible re-use as by-products (e.g. land covering) or discharge as was...

Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors (BSAFs) of nonylphenols (NPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Ruditapes philippinarum from the Venice Lagoon (Italy) were determined with the aim to verify whether the routine biomonitoring studies are reliable in contaminated sites. Clams and sediments were collected in field campaigns (October 20...

Promotion of the agricultural production constitutes a main challenge for Morocco. This goal often results in an increased use of pesticides and fertilizers compromising soils and waters. Moreover, in addition to large stocks of pesticides, the invasion by locusts from southern countries requiring massive use of insecticides remains a potential thr...

The widespread detection of antibiotics in terrestrial and aquatic systems has engendered significant scientific and regulatory concern. Overall, knowledge concerning the ecotoxicology and sub-lethal effects in water is scarce, but some experimental studies show that antibiotics can induce pathogen resistance and they can also have detrimental effe...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are harmful, xenobiotic compounds requiring a multi-tiered analytical approach for a reliable management. Although worth efforts worldwide, comprehensive EDCs monitoring and risk-assessment still require improvements. This article covers possible risks for public health due to EDCs exposure, and revises the mat...

The coastal systems act as receptors basins of nutrients and pollutants generated by human activities. Microbial communities play an important role in the biogeochemical processes and in the pollutant biodegradation. Surface water samples were analyzed for physical, chemical and microbial properties during a high intensity flood event along three t...

The directive 2008/105/EC suggests the use of sediment or biota matrix for long-term monitoring of specific priority pollutants that tend to accumulate. But, the intermittent nature of flow in the majority of the Mediterranean rivers results in large variability of biological communities and especially fish, making advantageous the examination of p...

Temporary rivers are characterized by dry–wet phases and represent an important water resource in semi-arid regions worldwide. The fate and effect of contaminants have not been firmly established in temporary rivers such as in other aquatic environments. In this study, we assessed the effects of sediment amendment with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarb...

According to the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, nonylphenol (NP) has been included in the list of priority hazardous substances and subject to cessation or phasing out of discharges, emissions and losses within an appropriate timetable not exceeding 20 years. The present work analyzed monitoring data on NP and their precursors (mono- and di-...

S. Polesello, V. Croce, L. Patrolecco, S. Valsecchi, (2003), Partition of nonylphenol and nonylphenolethoxylates between water and solid suspended matter (SPM) in river Lambro (Northern Italy) under different hydrological conditions, Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop Sednet Contaminant behaviour and fate, Berlin, 3-5 aprile 2003, 132-135

This paper provides data on the occurrence of se-lected human pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, clofibric acid, diclofenac, fenofibrate, fenoprofen, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen) including steroid hormones (17β-estradiol, 17α-ethinylestradiol, and estrone) in influents/ effluents to/from the four principal wastewater treatment pla...

The present work aims at evaluating the ability of the River Tiber natural microbial community to degrade naproxen in water samples collected downstream from a wastewater treatment plant. For this purpose, different water microcosms were set up (microbiologically active vs sterile ones) and treated with naproxen (100 μg/L) alone or in the co-presen...

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC) of the European Union provides protection from chemical pollutants through the Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) Directive (2008/105/EC), which sets EQSs for priority substances (PSs) and certain other pollutants, according to the requirements set out in Article 16(8) of the WFD. For organic PSs,...

In support of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), three intercomparison exercises were carried out on European rivers (Po, Danube and Meuse) in order to assess the current state of monitoring methodologies. Laboratories from European Union (EU) Member States (MSs) were invited to gather at the selected EU river an...

The presence of pharmaceutical active products (PPs) in the aquatic environment is principally due to insufficient removal at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Although PPs and their metabolites are often found in waters at trace levels, they can maintain a high biological activity with potential adverse effects on biotic communities. The develo...

Pharmaceuticals are nowadays generally recognized to be environmental micropollutants owing to their ubiquitous occurrence in water bodies at concentrations ranging from ng to μg/L. Since they are molecules designed to be biologically active at very low concentrations, their presence is a source of concern for both human and ecosystem health and th...

The present work aims to define the natural attenuation potential of a river ecosystem versus Naproxen and Gemfibrozil pharmaceutical contaminants, evaluating the role of the autochthonous bacterial community in their degradation. The biotic degradation (DT50) of Naproxen and Gemfibrozil were evaluated in microbiologically active versus steriliz...

Under climate-change conditions, temporary rivers will be the dominant surface-water bodies of the Mediterranean region. In order to manage this kind of water body appropriately, it is necessary to understand the chemical and ecological processes that involve hazardous substances in these environments. The processes during the dry phase have an imp...

This study investigated the occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), bed sediment and common eels (Anguilla anguilla) in the urban stretch of the River Tiber (Italy). The selected PAHs, fluoranthene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, indeno(1,...

Monitoring of chemical pollutants following the European Water Framework Directive gives only marginal attention to their partitioning among particulate, colloidal and truly dissolved phases, which is a crucial phenomenon in aquatic environments. Proper consideration of issues related to pollutant partitioning would increase both the quality of mon...

To investigate how particulate materials and the toxicity of a polluted river can affect biomass production of a particle feeding organism, monthly water samples of the River Lambro were collected upstream and downstream from major pollution sources. These samples were characterized for physical and chemical endpoints, and tested for acute and chro...

Nonylphenol (NP), nonylphenol mono- and di-ethoxylate (NP1EO, NP2EO) and bisphenol A (BPA) were determined in water, suspended particulate matter (s.p.m.) and bed sediment collected from the most polluted stretch of Tiber river (Italy) in the neighbourhood of Rome. Analytes were recovered from water samples by solid-phase extraction (SPE) on Si–C18...

In the present work, the oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus was exposed for 56 d to lake sediment spiked with 4-nonylphenol (4-NP), which is a breakdown product of alkylphenol polyethoxylates, an important class of nonionic surfactants. During the exposure period, the content of 4-NP was determined in the oligochaetes, sediment, overlying water, an...

A readily applicable method based on extraction by aqueous non-ionic surfactant solutions (Tween 80) and RP-HPLC coupled to fluorescence detection, has been developed for the simultaneous determination of the phenolic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) nonylphenol (NP), nonylphenol monoethoxylate (NP1EO) and nonylphenol diethoxylate (NP2EO) and...