Many seabirds are impacted by marine debris through its presence in foraging and nesting areas. To determine the extent of this problem, marine debris use in nest material of the brown booby (Sula leucogaster) in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, was investigated. Nine cays were examined using beach and nest surveys. On average, four marine debris items were found per nest (n=96) with 58.3% of surveyed nests containing marine debris. The source of marine debris in nests and transects were primarily oceanic. Hard plastic items dominated both nest (56.8%) and surveyed beaches (72.8%), however only two item types were significantly correlated between these surveys. Nest surveys indicated higher levels of black and green items compared to beach transects. This selectivity for colours and items suggest these nests are not good indicators of environmental loads. This is the first study to examine S. leucogaster nests for marine debris in this location.

The world’s northernmost harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) population, which inhabits Svalbard, Norway, constitutes a genetically distinct population. The present study reports concentrations of 14 PCBs, 5 chlordanes, p,p′-DDT, p,p′-DDE, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, and, α-, β-and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) in blubber, and pentachlorophenol, 4-OH-heptachlorostyrene, 10 OH-PCBs and 14 perfluoroalkyl substances in plasma of live-captured harbor seals from this population (4 males, 4 females, 4 juveniles), sampled in 2009–2010. Concentrations of PCB 153, p,p′-DDE, oxychlordane, α-HCH and mirex and perfluoroalkyl sulfonates in Svalbard harbor seals were considerably lower than harbor seal from more southerly populations, while concentrations of HCB, OH-PCBs and perfluoroalkyl carboxylates were similar for harbor seals from Svalbard and southern areas. Concentrations of PCBs and pesticides in the Svalbard harbor seals were 60–90% lower than levels determined a decade ago in this same population. Current concentrations of legacy POPs are not considered a health risk to the harbor seals from Svalbard.

We present the first annually resolved record of biologically available Pb and Fe in the Greater North Sea and Iceland during 1040–2004 AD based on shells of the long-lived marine bivalve Arctica islandica. The iron content in pre-industrial shells from the North Sea largely remained below the detection limit. Only since 1830, shell Fe levels rose gradually reflecting the combined effect of increased terrestrial runoff of iron-bearing sediments and eutrophication. Although the lead gasoline peak of the 20th century was well recorded by the shells, bivalves that lived during the medieval heyday of metallurgy showed four-fold higher shell Pb levels than modern specimens. Presumably, pre-industrial bivalves were offered larger proportions of resuspended (Pb-enriched) organics, whereas modern specimens receive fresh increased amounts of (Pb-depleted) phytoplankton. As expected, metal loads in the shells from Iceland were much lower. Our study confirms that bivalve shells provide a powerful tool for retrospective environmental biomonitoring.

Plastic pollution is widespread in the marine environment, and plastic ingestion by seabirds is now widely reported for dozens of species. Beached Northern Fulmars, Great Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters and Cory’s Shearwaters are found on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada regularly, and they can be used to assess plastic pollution. All species except Cory’s Shearwaters contained plastic debris in their gastrointestinal tracts. Northern Fulmars, Sooty Shearwaters and Great Shearwaters all showed high prevalence of plastic ingestion (>72%), with Northern Fulmars having the highest number and mass of plastics among the species examined. There was no difference in plastic ingestion between sexes or age classes. In all species user plastics made up the majority of the pieces found, with industrial pellets representing only a small proportion in the samples. Sable Island could be an important monitoring site for plastic pollution in Atlantic Canada.

Seagrass meadows are valuable ecosystem service providers that are now being lost globally at an unprecedented rate, with water quality and other localised stressors putting their future viability in doubt. It is therefore critical that we learn more about the interactions between seagrass meadows and future environmental change in the anthropocene. This needs to be with particular reference to the consequences of poor water quality on ecosystem resilience and the effects of change on trophic interactions within the food web. Understanding and predicting the response of seagrass meadows to future environmental change requires an understanding of the natural long-term drivers of change and how these are currently influenced by anthropogenic stress. Conservation management of coastal and marine ecosystems now and in the future requires increased knowledge of how seagrass meadows respond to environmental change, and how they can be managed to be resilient to these changes. Finding solutions to such issues also requires recognising people as part of the social–ecological system. This special issue aims to further enhance this knowledge by bringing together global expertise across this field. The special issues considers issues such as ecosystem service delivery of seagrass meadows, the drivers of long-term seagrass change and the socio-economic consequences of environmental change to seagrass.

Analyses of sediment core samples are primary sources of historical pollution trends in aquatic systems. Determining organic compounds, such as POPs, in the dated sediments enables the estimation of their temporal concentration changes and the identification of the contaminant origin in local regions. Wars, large-scale fires, economical transitions, and bans on certain chemicals are reflected in the sediment organic compound concentrations. The high POP concentrations in surficial sediments suggest that these chemicals, even after being banned, remain in the environment. Furthermore, vertical profiles can help in understanding the sedimentation process and in estimating effective countermeasures against pollution. Moreover, studies published during the period 1991–2013 on PAHs, PCBs, OCPs, dioxins and dioxin-like compound concentrations in sediment core samples are reviewed.

The water column from Dakar coast and Saint Louis estuary in Senegal, West Africa, was sampled in order to measure the contamination level by trace metals. The speciation of metals in water allowed performing a distribution between dissolved and particulate trace metals. For the dissolved metals, the metallic concentration and repartition between the organic fraction and the inorganic fraction were performed. The results show that the pollution of the estuary was more serious than in Dakar coast for Co, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn; while, Cd and Cu were higher in Dakar coast. A strong affinity between metals and suspended particles has been revealed. Dissolved metals that have a tendency to form organic metal complexes are in decreasing order: Cd, Zn, Pb, Co=Cr=Mn, Cu and Ni. The results showed that the mobility of trace metals in estuary is controlled by dissolved organic carbon, while in coast it depends on chlorides.

The successful protection and management of marine ecosystems depend on understanding the capability of biota for recovering after stressor mitigation actions are taken. Here we present long-term changes (1984–2012) in degraded subtidal assemblages following the implementation of the sewerage scheme for the metropolitan area of Bilbao (1 million inhabitants). Qualitative and quantitative species composition of disturbed vegetation shifted over time, making it more similar to that of the reference assemblages considered. Species density in the disturbed habitats increased, which is also a positive sign of recovery. However, eleven years after the clean-up was completed, canopy-forming macrophytes showed no signs of recovery. We argue that the ecological resilience of the ecosystem may have been eroded after a long-standing pollution perturbation and that underlying climate change could be influencing the recovery trajectory of the degraded assemblages. The implications of these conclusions for the implementation of European marine environmental legislation are discussed.

Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) discharges has caused eutrophication in coastal zones. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) convert ammonia to nitrite and play important roles in N transformation. Here, we used pyrosequencing based on the amoA gene to investigate the response of the sediment AOB community to an N pollution gradient in the East China Sea. The results showed that AOB assemblages were primarily affiliated with Nitrosospira-like lineages, and only 0.4% of those belonged to Nitrosomonas-like lineage. The Nitrosospira-like lineage was separated into four clusters that were most similar to the sediment AOB communities detected in adjacent marine regions. Additionally, one clade was out grouped from the AOB lineages, which shared the high similarities with pmoA gene. The AOB community structures substantially changed along the pollution gradient, which were primarily shaped by NH4+–N, NO3−–N, SO42−–S, TP and Eh. These results demonstrated that coastal pollution could dramatically influence AOB communities, which, in turn, may change ecosystem function.

This study aimed to evaluate airborne meso–and–thermophilic actinomycete concentrations and their types at a wastewater treatment plant and a biosolid landfill, in Egypt. Air samples were collected at 200m upwind, and onsite and 300m downwind by using liquid impinger sampler, calibrated to draw 12.5L/min, for 20 minutes. The concentrations ranged between 0.0–7 360CFU/m3 for mesophilic, and 106–586CFU/m3 for thermophilic actinomycetes. Airborne actinomycete concentrations exceeded the suggested occupational exposure limit value of 100CFU/m3. No significant correlations were found between actinomycete concentrations onsite and 300m downwind distance. At the biosolid landfill, upwind thermophilic actinomycetes significantly differed (p<0.05) from onsite and 300m downwind. A total of 40 and 69 airborne actinomycete isolates belonging to 8 genera were identified at the wastewater treatment plant and biosolid landfill. Streptomyces were the dominant actinomycete species. Streptomyces diastaticus, Pseudonocardia compacta and Catellatospora ferruginea were only detected at the biosolid landfill site. Meso–and–thermophilic actinomycetes positively associated with relative humidity, and wind speed positively correlated with onsite thermophilic actinomycetes (r=0.65) at the biosolid landfill. Temperature showed negative effect on survivability of mesophilic actinomycetes (r=-0.8) onsite of the wastewater treatment plant. Waste application facilities increase actinomycete concentrations onsite which may consequently deteriorate air quality in the nearby areas.