Application of organotins in antifouling systems on ship hulls has been globally prohibited by the International Maritime Organization since September 2008. It is, therefore, anticipated that there is a recovery of imposex-affected gastropod populations worldwide. We studied the population dynamics of the rock shell Reishia clavigera in six locations around Hong Kong's coastal waters, covering different degrees of organotin contamination for 25months (2011−2013). Abundance and density of R. clavigera were higher in clean sites, while they tended to grow faster in polluted sites. Over time, we observed recruitments in clean sites while recruitments in polluted sites were limited. The results suggested that the lack of apparent recovery of the local R. clavigera populations was probably due to the prevalence of organotin contamination, especially triphenyltin, in this region. This study, therefore, calls for mitigation and long-term monitoring of organotin contamination in marine environments of Hong Kong and South China.

Coral reefs around the globe have been subjected to a wide range of stressors. In the present study, fish species were recorded across a pronounced in-to-offshore gradient in the Jakarta Bay-Pulau Seribu reef system. In addition to this, fish species traits were obtained from FishBase. RLQ analysis revealed a significant association between fish species traits and environmental variables. Fish species associated with perturbed, inshore waters were resilient to disturbance, had higher mortality rates, higher growth rates and mainly consumed animals. In contrast, fish species associated with less perturbed, mid- and offshore waters had greater life expectancy, higher age at maturity, greater life span, greater generation time and mainly fed on plants or plants and animals. Eutrophication, pollution and physical destruction of coral substrate in inshore waters has thus selected for a low biomass and depauperate fish community characterised by fast growing and short lived species.

Concentrations of metallic elements in kidney, liver and lung tissues of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus from coastal waters of Zanzibar were determined using inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectroscopy. Cadmium, chromium, copper, and zinc were quantifiable in all tissues at concentration ranges of 0.10–150, 0.08–3.2, 1.1–88 and 14–210μg/g dry mass, respectively. Copper and zinc was significantly higher in liver, and females had significantly higher Cd in liver, and chromium in lung. Generally, T. aduncus dolphins from coastal waters around Zanzibar carry low concentrations of metals compared with dolphins from other areas. Cadmium increased significantly with age in kidney and lung. Copper decreased significantly with age in liver, probably due to foetal metallothionein. This study supplied baseline data against which future trends in marine mammals in the Indian Ocean, the world's third largest, can be assessed.

4-t-Octylphenol (4-t-OP) has become a serious environmental concern due to the endocrine disruption in animals and humans. The biodegradation of 4-t-OP by pure cultures has been extensively investigated only in bacteria and wood-decaying fungi. In this study weisolated and identified 14 filamentous fungal strains from wastewater samples in Taiwan using 4-t-OP as a sole carbon and energy source. The isolates were identified based on sequences from different DNA regions. Of 14 fungal isolates, 10 strains grew effectively on solid medium with a wide variety of endocrine disrupting chemicals as the sole carbon andenergy source. As revealed by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, the most effective 4-t-OP degradation (>70%) in liquid medium was observed in Fusarium falciforme after 15days. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the degradation of 4-t-OP as a sole carbon and energy source by non-ligninolytic fungi.

In this study, the 16S rRNA-based Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to investigate the bacterial community structure and composition of intertidal biofilm taken along the Yangtze Estuary. The results showed that 680,721 valid sequences of seven samples were assigned to 147,239 operational taxonomic units, which belonged to 49 phyla, 246 family and 314 genera. Compared to other studies on water and sediments in the study area, biofilms showed highest index of bacterial diversity and abundances. At different taxonomic levels, both dominant taxa and their abundances varied among the seven samples, with Proteobacteria as the dominant phylum in general. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis revealed that bacterial communities at WSK differed from those at other sampling sites. Salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and nutrients were the vital environmental factors to influence the bacterial community structure of biofilms. These results may provide a new insight into the microbial ecology in estuarine environments.

Differences in the structure and functioning of intensively urbanized vs. less human-affected systems are reported, but such evidence is available for a much larger extent in terrestrial than in marine systems. We examined the hypotheses that (i) urbanization was associated to different patterns of variation of intertidal assemblages between urban and extra-urban environments; (ii) such patterns were consistent across mainland and insular systems, spatial scales from 10scm to 100skm, and a three months period. Several trends emerged: (i) a more homogeneous distribution of most algal groups in the urban compared to the extra-urban condition and the opposite pattern of most invertebrates; (ii) smaller/larger variances of most organisms where these were, respectively, less/more abundant; (iii) largest variability of most response variables at small scale; (iv) no facilitation of invasive species by urbanization and larger cover of canopy-forming algae in the insular extra-urban condition. Present findings confirm the acknowledged notion that future management strategies will require to include representative assemblages and their relevant scales of variation associated to urbanization gradients on both the mainland and the islands.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are dispersed all over the world while polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are released into the environment from pyrogenic and petrogenic sources and are not very mobile or persistent. The aim of this study was to identify POPs and PAHs from eggs of Least and Sooty Terns nesting in two protected marine areas with different anthropogenic impacts in the southern Gulf of Mexico. ΣHCHs were higher in Terminos in 2010 and higher in Alacranes in 2011. ΣDienes and ΣDDTs were higher in 2011 in both study sites. ΣEndosulfan was higher in Terminos than in Alacranes in both years. ΣDienes, ΣDDT and ΣHeptachlor were the highest in both species both years. Acenaphtylene and Fluoranthene were higher in Terminos while Pyrene was higher in Alacranes. No differences were present within species between years. In 2011 PAHs in eggs could have reflected the BP oil spill input.

Surface sediment samples collected from the South Yellow Sea and northern part of the East China Sea during spring and autumn, respectively, were analyzed for grain size, aluminum, and heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb) to evaluate heavy metal levels and the contamination status. The results showed that all of the heavy metal concentrations met the standard criteria of the Chinese National Standard Criteria for Marine Sediment Quality. Both the EFs and a multivariate analysis (PCA) indicated that Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn were mainly from natural contributions, while Pb was influenced by anthropogenic inputs, especially during autumn. The geoaccumulation index of Pb near the mouth of the Yangtze River suggested that the pollution degree in autumn was heavier than that in spring, which might be caused by the greater river discharge in summer and more heavy metal adsorption with finer grain sizes.

The paper presents comparison of outdoor and indoor air pollution by means of magnetic characteristics of dust settled on the floor indoors (ID) and particulate matter (PM) gathered outdoor on air filters. Samples were collected for one year period in three different locations in Warsaw, Poland. PM was collected in samplers placed at the yard of buildings and ID was collected inside these buildings using a vacuum cleaner. The magnetic methods supplemented by chemical elements analysis and microscope observations were applied to identification of magnetic mineralogy, concentration and grain-size of magnetic fraction and morphology and shape of particles.The results demonstrated differences in magnetic mineralogy and in grain-size distribution between PM and ID. The magnetite was the main magnetic phase in PM and magnetite with metallic iron in ID. The ratios of hysteresis parameters for PM and ID were located in different areas on Day-Dunlop diagram; PM data in the area for PSD magnetite and fine SP grains and ID data around SD + MD mixing curves for magnetite.The difference in magnetic mineralogy, especially the lack of metallic iron in PM, can be explained by the limitation of dust samplers that cannot collect grains larger than roughly 50 μm due to our microscopic observations. PM samplers collect population of dust with smaller grain size than vacuum cleaner or simple sweeping of a floor. The difference in granulometry and outdoor/indoor sources could be one of the reasons for which we did not observed the simple relation between magnetic susceptibility of ID and PM.

Excess nitrogen deposition is a matter of concern for sensitive ecosystems. However, understanding the sources and transport of Nr species has been a challenge due to limited observations of atmospheric deposition of the key Nr species across India. In this study, wet deposition of atmospheric inorganic Nr species was investigated during the year 2013 at two regionally representative sites: Delhi (an urban site) and Jaunpur (a rural site). These sites are located in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region, which is one of the most populated and fertile regions of India. The average NH4+ concentrations in rain water were found to be 25.4 μeql−1 and 98.5 μeql−1 at the rural and urban sites, respectively, whereas average NO3− concentrations were 12.4 μeql−1 and 28.7 μeql−1 at the rural and urban sites (respectively). The annual average wet deposition fluxes of NH4+ and NO3− at Delhi were calculated as 10.45 and 3.05 kgN ha−1 yr−1 respectively, whereas at Jaunpur the fluxes were 3.19 and 1.56 kgN ha−1 yr−1 respectively. In order to assess the Nr deposition, our estimates showed 486% increase in NO3− (from 0.52 to 3.05 kgN ha−1 yr−1) while 283% NH4+ (2.72–10.44 kgN ha−1 yr−1) between 1994 and 2013 at Delhi, clearly indicating the effect of urbanization and Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change. Reduced versus oxidized N deposition contribution was also estimated. This study provides key quantitative information to support regional nitrogen budget estimates in south Asia.