Development of ecotoxicological instruments and their legal implementation for the marine ecological risk assessment of chemicals, pesticides and dredged material | Entwicklung von ökotoxikologischen Instrumenten und ihre rechtliche Implementierung zur marinen ökologischen Risikobewertung von Chemikalien, Pestiziden und Baggergut

Background, aim, and scope The marine environment is often the final sink for pollutants, especially for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and for persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) substances. The body burden of marine top predators in the Baltic Sea, in the North Sea and also in the Arctic seas is alarming.Thus, the question was investigated if the European environmental law considers a prospective marine ecological risk assessment of chemicals, pesticides and dredged material before they are launched on the market or disposed to the sea.Results The analysis of European environmental law showed that the European environmental protection goals demand a good quality status of coastal waters until 2015 (Waterframework Directive) and a good quality status of European seas until 2020 (Marine Strategy Directive), but a specific marine ecological risk assessment of chemicals and pesticides is not sufficiently required in current European legislation.Discussion It was shown that the ecological risk assessment for freshwater ecosystems is, due to the pecularities of pollutant impacts in the marine environment, not adequate to predict marine effects and to protect the marine environment sufficiently. A statistical analysis of international databases on the relative toxicity of narcotics revealed that marine organisms can be significantly more sensitive than freshwater organisms towards substances with an unspecific mode of action (narcotics). Approximately 60 % of the industrial chemicals are classified as narcotics by their mode of action. Thus, this substance class is of environmental importance. Due to the hydrophobic properties and the low solubility of narcotics in seawater, the ecotoxicological assessment of marine sediments was of interest. An estuarine and marine bioassay test set was established and further developed to assess the ecotoxicological potential of brackish and seawater sediments. It was important that the test procedures were adapted to brackish and marine conditions and were harmonised between each other as well as on the international level.Conclusions Beside two bioassays for the ecotoxicological assessment of elutriates of marine and brackish sediments (bacteria bioluminescence test and marine algae test), the implementation and further development of the whole sediment bioassay with the marine amphipod Corophium volutator was important for enhancing the risk assessment. In order to gain a more standardised, all-season available test organism, the marine amphipod was for the first time reproduced under laboratory conditions the whole year round (also in winter), which is the essential basis for the urgently needed chronic whole sediment bioassay. The results of this investigation were implemented in the international (ISO), European (EN) and national (DIN) standardisations. Therefore, a standardised test set is ready for the implementation in the marine ecological risk assessment of chemicals, pesticides and dredged material in international, European and national legislation.Recommendations and perspectives Recommendations to improve the implementation of a marine risk assessment in European regulations are given with the goal to reach the internationally required objective of a sustainable development of the seas.