Disposal of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent into sea, a typical anthropogenic disturbance, may influence many environmental factors and change the coastal microbial community structure. In this study, by setting up coastal sediment microcosms perturbed by WWTP effluent, the changes of microbial community structure under different degree of disturbances were investigated. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) were used to analyzed the biomass and biodiversity. High throughput sequencing analysis was used to identify the classification of the microorganisms. Our study suggested that low ratio of WWTP effluent may stimulate dominant species, which increase the biomass but decrease the biodiversity; while high ratio of WWTP effluent may depress all species, which decrease the biomass but increase the biodiversity. In other words, the impact was dose-dependent. The changes of microbial community structure may provide a metric for water environmental assessment and pollution control.

A geographically extensive investigation was carried out to analyze the concentrations of heavy metals, PCBs and OCPs in the sediments and marine organisms collected from the Liaohe Estuary. In order to determine the spatial distribution and potential ecological risk of heavy metals, the surface sediments were collected from 44 sites in the Liaohe Estuary. The results showed that the heavy metal contents in the sediments were observed in the following order: Cr (11.2–84.8mg/kg)>Cu (1.7–47.9mg/kg)>Pb (4.3–28.3mg/kg)>As (1.61–12.77mg/kg)>Cd (0.06–0.47mg/kg)>Hg (0.005–0.113mg/kg). In comparison with the concentrations of heavy metals and POPs in other regions, the concentrations of As, Pb and DDTs in the Liaohe Estuary were generally low, and other pollutant concentrations were inconsistent with those reported in other regions. The contamination factor (CF), the pollution load index (PLI), the geoaccumulation index and the potential ecological risk index were used to analyze the pollution situation, which showed that the heavy metal pollution in Liaohe Estuary is mainly dominated by Cd and Hg. The concentrations of the four heavy metals varied significantly in the three kinds of tested organisms (fish, mollusk and crustacean), indicating the different accumulative abilities of the species. The results obtained in this study provide useful information background information for further ecology investigation and management in this region.

This paper studied the kinetics, isotherm and thermodynamics of phosphorus sorption onto the sediments of the Yangtze River estuary and its adjacent waters, as well as the sediments' compositions and physicochemical properties. The process could be described well by a two-compartment first order equation. The sorbed phosphorus mainly consisted of Ex-P and Fe-P, with Ex-P being the dominant. The equilibrium isotherms could be fitted well with a modified Langmuir equation. The calculations of the thermodynamic parameters indicated that the process was spontaneous and exothermic. The CEC and the fractions of clay, calcite and organic matter were correlated with the sorption parameters, while the surface proton charge of the sediments was significantly negatively correlated with them. Considering the kinetics and phosphorus forms changes during the process, the sorption in our study could be considered that the physical process plays an important role.

Particulate matter (PM10) is the pollutant causing exceedances of ambient air quality thresholds, and the key indicator of air quality index in Brunei Darussalam for haze related episodes caused by the recurrent biomass fires in Southeast Asia. The present study aims at providing suitable forecasts for PM10 exceedances to aid in health advisory during haze episodes at the four administrative districts of the country. A framework based on random forests (RFs), genetic algorithm (GA) and back propagation neural networks (BPNN) computational intelligence techniques has been proposed in which the final prediction is made by the BPNN model. A hybrid combination of GA and RFs is initially applied to determine optimal set of inputs from the initial data sets of largely available meteorological, persistency of high pollution levels, short and long term variations of emissions rates parameters. The inputs selection procedure does not depend on the back propagation training algorithm. The numerical results presented in this paper show that the proposed model not only produced satisfactory forecasts but also consistently performed better via several statistical performance indicators when compared with the standard BPNN and GA optimisation based on back propagation training algorithm. The model also showed satisfactory threshold exceedances forecasts achieving for instance best true predicted rate of 0.800, false positive rate of 0.014, false alarm rate of 0.333 and success index of 0.786 at Brunei-Muara district monitoring station. Overall, the current study has profound implications on future studies to develop a real-time air quality forecasting system to support haze management.

Information on the occurrence of organobrominated compounds in bivalves from Tunisia is scarce. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of these compounds in clams from Tunisia. The aim of this study is to measure natural and synthetic organobrominated compound concentrations and evaluate congener distribution and pollution sources in a clam species (Ruditapes decussatus) from three sites of the Bizerte Lagoon. Total synthetic organobrominated pollutant levels in clam ranged from 34.8 to 188ngg−1lw. For natural organobrominated compounds, concentrations varied from 18.2 to 49.5ngg−1lw. Total PBDE and MeO-PBDE concentrations in clams from the Bizerte Lagoon were similar or slightly lower than those reported for other species from other locations around the world. The health risks associated with the consumption of this species were assessed and posed no threat to public health concerning PBDE intakes.

Selected trace elements (As, Cr, Zn, Cu, Cd, Co, Pb and Ni) in 76 surface sediment samples collected from the rivers and the intertidal zone of Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) were evaluated to assess their environmental background values in the JZB catchment. Overall, the sediment quality in the area meets the China Marine Sediment Quality criteria. The background values (ranges) of the elements As, Cr, Zn, Cu, Cd, Co, Pb and Ni were, respectively, 8.28 (4.10–12.46), 67.96 (38.40–97.52), 56.80 (16.42–196.51), 19.13 (5.71–64.06), 0.10 (0.02–0.42), 6.51 (2.08–20.40), 17.97 (12.26–55.84) and 20.69 (10.43–30.95)mg/kg. The background values of most of the trace elements were lower than those in Chinese soil, the upper continental crust, global shales and global preindustrial sediments. The results may assist in defining future coastal and river management measures specifically targeted at monitoring trace element contamination in the JZB catchment.

Increasing sediment inputs are recognised as an important factor leading to coral reef degradation. However, the role of sediments in ecological processes is poorly understood. This study used paired-choice trials to quantify the effects of sediment grain size and chemical composition on feeding by the abundant detritivorous reef fish, Ctenochaetus striatus. The size of sediments from algal turfs were also compared to those ingested by reef-dwelling C. striatus. Algal turfs containing coarser sediments were preferred by C. striatus, while sediment composition (reefal carbonates vs. riverine silicates) had little effect. On the reef, C. striatus ingested finer sediments than those present in algal turfs. C. striatus appears to prefer algal turfs with coarser sediments as this facilitates ingestion of fine detrital particles, while finer sediments prevent selective feeding on detritus. These findings suggest that fine sediments from terrestrial runoff or dredging may be detrimental to feeding by detritivorous species.

Marine debris (litter) is a complex problem that affects human activities and the marine environment worldwide. The Clean Coast Program in Israel has had some success in keeping most of the coasts clean most of the time, but without understanding the mechanisms of accumulation of marine debris on the coasts of Israel. In 2012, we initiated a study to characterize the types of marine debris, its origins and spatial distribution. Nineteen surveys were done from June 2012 to March 2015 on eight beaches that spanned the coast of Israel. Average debris density was 12.1 items per 100m2 and 90% of the items were plastic. The top debris categories were food wrappers and disposables, plastic bags and cigarette butts. However, there was variation in the top debris categories among the beaches indicating that a flexible approach with multiple options will be important when addressing the marine debris problem.

Plans to exploit an offshore source of iron sand in South Taranaki Bight (STB), New Zealand, caused concerns that such exploitation may expose benthic and pelagic biota to elevated trace metal concentrations. We conducted dilute-acid extractions and standard elutriate tests to investigate the potential of this exploitation to (1) create a new seafloor with elevated trace metal content, (2) mobilise trace metals during iron sand extraction and, (3) enrich the returning process seawater, which feeds iron sand through mills, with trace metals. We found that recruits of freshly uncovered sediment may encounter higher-than-natural concentrations of cadmium, nickel and chromium (but not of copper, lead, and zinc) and propose to investigate the bioavailability of these metals. Elutriate test with raw and milled iron sand revealed that, for nickel and copper, dilution of the process seawater may be required to meet the local water quality guideline. We argue that this dilution can be achieved by adjustment of the mass and seawater balance of the offshore extraction process.

This study investigated Enterobacteriales and their antimicrobial resistance in green sea turtles captured adjacent to the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and proximate to urban development. Cloacal swabs were taken from 73 green turtles between 2015 and 2016. A total of 154 out of 341 Gram-negative bacterial isolates were identified as Enterobacteriales that represent 16 different species from 9 different genera. The dominant isolates were Citrobacter (30.52%), Edwardsiella (21.43%) and Escherichia (12.34%). The resistance against 12 antibiotics belonging to 6 different classes was determined. The isolates showed highest resistance to β-lactam antibiotics (78.57%) followed by quinolone (50%) and tetracycline classes (46.1%). Approximately one-third (37.7%) of the isolates identified exhibited multidrug-resistance. Isolates recovered from rehabilitated turtles were significantly multidrug resistant (p<0.009) compared to isolates from other study sites. These results provide baseline information on antimicrobial resistance while revealing gaps for further research to evaluate the level of pollution in the GBR.