Seabirds are amongst the most affected organisms by plastic pollution worldwide. Ingestion of marine debris has been reported in at least 122 species, and owing to the increasing global production and persistence of these anthropogenic materials within the marine environment, it is expected to be a growing problem to the marine fauna. Here we report evidence of an increasing frequency in marine debris ingestion and a decrease in the amount of plastic pellets ingested by White-chinned Petrels attending south Brazilian waters during the last three decades. Future studies comprising large temporal scales and large sample sizes are needed to better understand the trends of marine debris ingestion by seabirds. We expect our findings to highlight the need for prevention policies and mitigation measures to reduce the amount of solid litter in the oceans.

Microplastics [MPs], now a ubiquitous pollutant in the oceans, pose a serious potential threat to marine ecology and has justifiably encouraged focused biological and ecological research attention. But, their generation, fate, fragmentation and their propensity to sorb/release persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are determined by the characteristics of the polymers that constitutes them. Yet, physico-chemical characteristics of the polymers making up the MPs have not received detailed attention in published work. This review assesses the relevance of selected characteristics of plastics that composes the microplastics, to their role as a pollutant with potentially serious ecological impacts. Fragmentation leading to secondary microplastics is also discussed underlining the likelihood of a surface-ablation mechanism that can lead to preferential formation of smaller sized MPs.

Intense blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis have been a recurrent phenomenon along several Mediterranean coasts. Blooms have been associated with noxious effects on human health and mortality of marine organisms, due to the production of palytoxin-like compounds. We analyzed the toxin concentrations throughout an O. cf. ovata bloom to highlight their relationships with environmental parameters in the Conero Riviera, northern Adriatic Sea. High temperature and balanced nutrient conditions were the optimal environmental conditions to start and sustain blooms as well as to maximize toxin production. Ostreopsis showed a gradual decrease of toxin content throughout the bloom ascribed to the occurring of the same non-optimal conditions that led to the bloom decline. Moreover, our results suggest that toxin fraction released during bloom could be higher than that released in batch culture. Results from this study pointed out that the first bloom phase is potentially the most dangerous to human health.

Trophic-functional groupings are an important biological trait to summarize community structure in functional space. The heterogeneity of the tropic-functional pattern of protozoan communities and its environmental drivers were studied in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea during a 1-year cycle. Samples were collected using the glass slide method at four stations within a water pollution gradient. A second-stage matrix-based analysis was used to summarize spatial variation in the annual pattern of the functional structure. A clustering analysis revealed significant variability in the trophic-functional pattern among the four stations during the 1-year cycle. The heterogeneity in the trophic-functional pattern of the communities was significantly related to changes in environmental variables, particularly ammonium-nitrogen and nitrates, alone or in combination with dissolved oxygen. These results suggest that the heterogeneity in annual patterns of protozoan trophic-functional structure may reflect water quality status in coastal ecosystems.

Fish larvae of four SE Brazilian estuaries were investigated to assess if the larval fish assemblages reflect the ecological status of estuaries. All samples were collected in the same water mass to guarantee similar natural water parameters, assuring that major differences among estuaries were related to anthropogenic pressures. Water temperature, oxygen, pH, chlorophyll a, faecal coliforms, nutrient load and total particulate matter were obtained at each sampling area. A pressure index was used to assess the overall anthropogenic pressures acting in each estuary. Results showed that fish larvae were sensitive to water contamination, reducing the diversity and especially exhibiting a high dominance of few species. Furthermore, this study reinforced the idea that the high sensitivity of fish larvae can increase the accuracy of the environmental assessments when tackling short-time events of hydrological controls (physical barriers and control of the freshwater input), representing an advance in the water ecological quality assessments.

Particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10, and TSP), black carbon (BC), and PM constituent components were measured at a location in an urban residential neighborhood of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. PM2.5, TSP, and BC were measured during winter, and PM2.5, PM10, and their chemical composition was measured during the summer monsoon periods in 2014. Both indoor and outdoor measurements were collected during the winter season. There was a distinct seasonal profile of PM2.5 concentration, with the 24-hour mean larger during winter (76 ± 18 μg/m3) than monsoon (21 ± 8 μg/m3). This site was located approximately 15 m above the street, but was still influenced by roadway combustion sources indicated by large BC concentration (15 ± 3 μgC/m3 during winter) and large rush hour PM and BC peaks. Two rush hour peaks of PM and BC were observed during morning and evening. Indoor and outdoor PM2.5 and BC concentration measured during winter were similar suggesting the heavy influence of outdoor traffic activities on such indoor environments. Mean 24-hour TSP during winter and PM10 during monsoon was 109 μg/m3 and 34 μg/m3, respectively. PM2.5 accounted for 75% of TSP during winter and 61% of PM10 during monsoon indicating a high degree of influence by PM2.5 sources. Sulfate, ammonium, and calcium were the dominant components of water-soluble ions, and silica, iron, aluminum, and barium were the major elements in both PM10 and PM2.5 during monsoon indicating the most important emission sources as traffic emissions and road/soil/construction-related dust.

Continued growth of tourism has led to concerns about direct and indirect impacts on the ecology of coral reefs and ultimate sustainability of these environments under such pressure. This research assessed impacts of reef walking by tourists on a relatively pristine reef flat community associated with an ‘ecoresort’ on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Heavily walked areas had lower abundances of live hard coral but greater amounts of dead coral and sediment. Abundances of macroalgae were not affected between sites. Coral-associated butterflyfish were less abundant and less diverse in more trampled sites. A manipulative experiment showed handling holothurians on reef walks had lasting negative impacts. This is the first study to show potential impacts of such handling on holothurians. Ecological impacts of reef walking are weighed against sociocultural benefits of a first hand experience in nature.

Mobile monitoring is a strategy to characterize spatially and temporally variable air pollution in areas near sources. EPA's Geospatial Measurement of Air Pollution (GMAP) vehicle – an all-electric vehicle is outfitted with a number of measurement devices to record real-time concentrations of particulate matter and gaseous pollutants – was used to map air pollution levels near the Port of Charleston in South Carolina. High-resolution monitoring was performed along driving routes near several port terminals and rail yard facilities, recording geospatial coordinates and concentrations of pollutants including black carbon, size-resolved particle count ranging from ultrafine to coarse (6 nm–20 μm), carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Additionally, a portable meteorological station was used to characterize local conditions. The primary objective of this work was to characterize the impact of port facilities on local scale air quality. The study determined that elevated concentration measurements of black carbon and PM correlated to periods of increased port activity and a significant elevation in concentration was observed downwind of ports. However, limitations in study design prevented a more complete analysis of the port effect.

There is a critical knowledge gap regarding the impacts of seismic air gun signals on the physiology of adult crustaceans. We conducted four controlled field experiments to examine the impact of seismic acoustic signals on spiny lobster, Jasus edwardsii. Seismic air gun exposure suppressed total haemocyte count (THC) for up to 120days post-exposure, suggesting a chronic negative impact of immune competency. THC levels after 365days post-exposure, were elevated two fold, potentially indicating an immune response to infection. Haemolymph refractive index was reduced after 120days post exposure in one experiment, suggesting a chronic impairment of nutritional condition. There was no effect of air gun exposure on 24 haemolymph biochemical parameters, hepatopancreas index or survival. Collectively these results indicate that the biochemical haematological homeostasis of J. edwardsii is reasonably resilient to seismic acoustic signals, however, air gun exposure may negatively influence the lobster's nutritional condition and immunological capacity.