Plastic resin pellets collected at Minh Chau island and Ba Lat estuary between 2007 and 2014 in Vietnam were analyzed for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethanes (DDTs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs). The study was carried out as part of the International Pellet Watch program for monitoring the global distribution of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Higher levels of DDTs compared to PCBs indicated agricultural inputs rather than industrial discharges in the region. Most POP concentrations on both beaches decreased over the period, with the exception of HCH isomers. Though the concentration of DDTs showed a drastic decline on both beaches between 2007/2008 and 2014, DDTs accounted for 60–80% of total DDTs, suggesting that there is still a fresh input of these chemicals in the region. This study strongly recommends further investigations to track temporal and spatial patterns of POP levels in the marine environment using plastic resin pellets.

This study aimed to investigate microbial responses to nitrate stimulation in oiled mangrove mesocosm. Both supplementary oil and nitrate changed the water and sediment chemical properties contributing to the shift of microbial communities. Denitrifying genes nirS and nirK were increased several times by the interaction of oil spiking and nitrate addition. Bacterial chao1 was reduced by oil spiking and further by nitrate stimulation, whereas archaeal chao1 was only inhibited by oil pollution on early time. Sampling depth explained most of variation and significantly impacted bacterial and archaeal communities, while oil pollution only significantly impacted bacterial communities (p<0.05). Despite explaining less variation, nitrate addition coupled with oil spiking enhanced the growth of hydrocarbon degraders in mangrove. The findings demonstrate the impacts of environmental factors and their interactions in shaping microbial communities during nitrate stimulation. Our study suggests introducing genera Desulfotignum and Marinobacter into oiled mangrove for bioaugmentation.

Sediment samples from the coastal lagoons and estuaries of New York and New Jersey were used to investigate the influence of contaminants on diatom assemblages. Multivariate analyses demonstrated correspondence between composition of diatom assemblages and concentrations of several metals and total PAH. The effects of the individual contaminants were difficult to disentangle because of the considerable correlations between their concentrations. The most conspicuous trend was the increase in the relative abundance of small centric planktonic diatoms in response to contamination and the corresponding decrease in the benthic flora. The high relative abundance of planktonic species on contaminated sediments apparently resulted not so much from their tolerance to pollution, but from the paucity of benthic species. A comparison of the assemblages on the surface and at the depth of approximately 8–10cm revealed a statistically significant temporal change in community composition towards planktonic diatoms.

To assess the potential impact of the industrial activity on food safety and risk for consumers, the aim of the study was to evaluate the levels of 14 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in 69 samples of wild and farm Mytilus galloprovincialis, collected in sites of coast of Gulf of Naples, Tyrrhenian Sea.All hydrocarbons were found in samples. Higher levels of pyrolytic PAHs were in wild than in farm mussels. Benzo(a)pyrene exceeded the Regulation (EC) n.835/11 levels of 1μg/kg in 15 samples (71.42%) of wild and 25 samples (65.79%) of farm mussels. System of sum of 4 hydrocarbons exceeded the law level in 15 samples (71.42%) of wild and 21 samples (55.26%) of farm mussels. Wild mussel levels showed a potential impact of pyrolytic sources of PAH on food safety. Occurrence of carcinogenic PAHs should be a cause for concern, in areas where the mussels are being farmed for human consumption.

In the UK, most marine benthic monitoring is carried out in a piecemeal fashion, funded by different sectors of industry that utilise the marine environment under licence. Monitoring requirements are imposed by licence conditions, which can vary considerably between licences. The UK Government also conducts marine environmental surveys in support of its legislative commitments. The present investigation reviews these different monitoring approaches to highlight whether synergies between them could be developed into an integrated approach to marine benthic monitoring. An integrated approach would have ecological benefits, as greater consistency in sampling and analytical protocols would reduce uncertainty in the predictions of impact, and facilitate the assessment of Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The same approach would also be of financial benefit, as spatio-temporal duplication in sampling would be reduced, and the value of acquired data would be maximised, resulting in a more efficient and cost-effective approach.

To date, the longevity of plastic litter at the sea floor is poorly constrained. The present study compares colonization and biodegradation of plastic bags by aerobic and anaerobic benthic microbes in temperate fine-grained organic-rich marine sediments. Samples of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic carrier bags were incubated in natural oxic and anoxic sediments from Eckernförde Bay (Western Baltic Sea) for 98days. Analyses included (1) microbial colonization rates on the bags, (2) examination of the surface structure, wettability, and chemistry, and (3) mass loss of the samples during incubation. On average, biodegradable plastic bags were colonized five times higher by aerobic and eight times higher by anaerobic microbes than polyethylene bags. Both types of bags showed no sign of biodegradation during this study. Therefore, marine sediment in temperate coastal zones may represent a long-term sink for plastic litter and also supposedly compostable material.

Sea surface concentrations of plastics and their fluxes onto coastlines are simulated over 2009–2015. Calculations incorporate combinations of terrestrial and maritime litter inputs, the Lagrangian model MEDSLIK-II forced by AFS ocean current simulations, and ECMWF wind analyses. With a relatively short particle half-life of 43.7days, the Adriatic Sea is defined as a highly dissipative basin where the shoreline is, by construction, the main sink of floating debris. Our model results show that the coastline of the Po Delta receives a plastic flux of approximately 70kg(kmday)-1. The most polluted sea surface area (>10gkm-2 floating debris) is represented by an elongated band shifted to the Italian coastline and narrowed from northwest to southeast. Evident seasonality is found in the calculated plastic concentration fields and the coastline fluxes. Complex source–receptor relationships among the basin's subregions are quantified in impact matrices.

The blowout on the Ekofisk field in the North Sea in 1977 initiated R&D efforts in Norway focusing on improving oil spill contingency in general and more specifically on weathering processes and modeling drift and spreading of oil spills. Since 1978, approximately 40 experimental oil spills have been performed under controlled conditions in open and ice covered waters in Norway. The importance of these experimental oil spills for understanding oil spill behavior, development of oil spill and response models, and response technologies are discussed here. The large progress within oil spill R&D in Norway since the Ekofisk blowout has been possible through a combination of laboratory testing, basin studies, and experimental oil spills. However, it is the authors' recommendation that experimental oil spills still play an important role as a final validation for the extensive R&D presently going on in Norway, e.g. deep-water releases of oil and gas.

Large measurement networks of Black Carbon (BC) aerosol are important for understanding its impacts on climate and health. PM2.5 filter samples were collected at three urban US locations and one India urban location and were analyzed for Elemental Carbon (EC) and Organic Carbon (OC) concentrations using thermo-optical analysis (TO) following the IMPROVE protocol for US samples and NIOSH protocol for India samples. Site and season-specific calibrations of an inexpensive photo-reference (PR) method were created with TO EC measurements of the US filter samples whereas method-specific calibration was prepared using India filter samples. Piece-wise calibration based on filter loading was also explored. Calibrations were applied across different sites, seasons and methods to determine Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and average absolute error in each calibration by comparing with reference EC measurements. This paper investigates various calibrations of PR method to improve the agreement between PR method and TO EC measurements. Difference in BC estimated error remained within ±10% among three urban US site-specific calibrations, which suggests that site-specific calibrations are not necessary. Season based calibrations were found to perform best (least RMSE/Mean EC), when applied to same season test samples but resulted in large errors of up to 60% RMSE/Mean EC when applied to different seasons, thus warranting the use of season-specific calibrations of the PR method. RMSE relative to mean EC was 50% when calibration prepared from US samples (IMPROVE protocol) was used to test India samples (NIOSH protocol). However, method-specific calibration prepared from India samples reduced the error to 24%, showing the large dependency of PR method on reference BC measurement method. Calibration based on filter loading reduced the RMSE slightly for both US urban and India samples and indicated that filters with loadings higher than 20 μg cm−2 are not suitable for estimating BC by PR method.

The response of polyether-type polyurethane foam (PUF) passive samplers used to estimate the gaseous concentration of organic chemicals has been modelled using the COSMO-RS methodology. Experimental data for equilibrium partitioning ratios were used to evaluate several different oligomers as surrogates for polyurethane foam over a temperature range of 15–95 °C. Models were built with varying mole ratios of mono- or di-isocyanates and ether-based linkers derived from glycerol, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, styrene and oligomers of ethylene oxide. Several models were found to have comparable root-mean-square (RMS) error, and COSMO-RS results were generally consistent with the empirical data. A PUF model consisting of a 1:1 condensed pair of 2,4-toluene-diisocyanide and glycerol was found to have minimal RMS error for both aromatic organic molecules and a large set of organic molecules studied between 15 and 95 °C. This model was applied to a series of simple and heteroatom-substituted polycyclic aromatics, for which the temperature dependence of air-polymer partitioning was predicted between −5 and 40 °C. Log K(PUF-Air) is found to decrease by 1.5–2.5 log units over this range, reflecting the increased volatility of the compounds with temperature, demonstrating the need for accurate exposure temperatures for partitioning involving air. The model results support the application of the passive samplers for monitoring and research studies of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in air. The approach also illustrates an efficient strategy of selective acquisition of experimental data for COSMO-RS validation, coupled by theoretical prediction of a much larger number of chemicals at various temperatures.