Transfer of organisms with ships’ ballast water is recognized as a major pathway of non-indigenous species introduction and addressed in a few recent legislative initiatives. Among other they imply scientific and technical research and monitoring to be conducted in a efficient and reliable way. The recent development of DNA barcoding and metabarcoding technologies opens new opportunities for biodiversity and biosecurity surveillance. In the current study, the performance of metabarcoding approach was assessed in comparison to the conventional (visual) observations, during the en route experimental ballast water survey. Opportunities and limitations of the molecular method were identified from taxonomical datasets rendered by two molecular markers of different degree of universality – the universal cytochrome oxydase sub-unit I gene and a fragment of RuBisCO gene. The cost-efficacy and possible improvements of these methods are discussed for the further successful development and implementation of the approach in ballast water control and NIS surveillance.

Chelonia mydas is distributed in several regions of the world and they are common in coastal regions and around islands. Between August 2008 and July 2009, 20 specimens of C. mydas were found dead on the beaches of Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. The stomachs were removed and anthropogenic wastes were separated according their malleability and color. Of those animals, nine had ingested marine debris. Soft plastic was the most frequent among the samples and the majority of fragments was white or colorless and was between zero and five cm. Many studies have shown a high incidence of eating waste for some species of sea turtles. The record of ingestion of mostly transparent and white anthropogenic wastes in this study strengthens the hypothesis that these animals mistake them for jellyfish. Although the intake of anthropogenic waste causes impact on the lives of sea turtles, such studies are still scarce in Brazil.

Spatial distribution modeling of CO in Tehran can lead to better air pollution management and control, and it is also suitable for exposure assessment and epidemiological studies. In this study MARS (Multi–variate Adaptive Regression Splines) is compared with typical interpolation techniques for spatial distribution modeling of hourly and daily CO concentrations in Tehran, Iran. The measured CO data in 2008 by 16 monitoring stations were used in this study. The Generalized Cross Validation (GCV) and Cross Validation techniques were utilized for the parameter optimization in the MARS and other techniques, respectively. Then the optimized techniques were compared based on the mean absolute of percentage error (MAPE). Although the Cokriging technique presented less MAPE than the Inverse Distance Weighting, Thin Plate Smooth Splines and Kriging techniques, MARS exhibited the least MAPE. In addition, the MARS modeling procedure is easy. Therefore, MARS has merit to be introduced as an appropriate method for spatial distribution modeling. The number of air pollution monitoring stations is very low (16 stations for 22 zones) and the distribution of stations is not suitable for spatial estimation, hence the level of errors was relatively high (more than 60%). Consequently, hourly and daily mapping of CO provides a limited picture of spatial patterns of CO in Tehran, but it is suitable for estimation of relative CO levels in different zones of Tehran. Hence, the map of mean annual CO concentration was generated by averaging daily CO distributions in 2008. It showed that the most polluted regions in Tehran are the central, eastern and southeastern parts, and mean annual CO concentration in these parts (zones 6, 12, 13,14 and 15) is between 4.2 and 4.6 ppm.

The goal of this work was to understand the extent of mercury toxic effects in liver metabolism under an episode of acute contamination. Hence, the effects of in vitro mercuric chloride in liver mitochondria were assessed in two commercial marine fish: Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) and gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Liver mitochondria were exposed to 0.2mgL−1 of mercury, the average concentration found in fish inhabiting contaminated areas. Mercuric chloride depressed mitochondrial respiration state 3 and the maximal oxygen consumption in the presence of FCCP indicating inhibitory effects on the oxidative phosphorylation and on the electron transport chain, respectively. The inhibition of F1Fo-ATPase and succinate-dehydrogenase activities also corroborated the ability of mercury to inhibit ADP phosphorylation and the electron transport chain. This study brings new understanding on the mercury levels able to impair fish mitochondrial function, reinforcing the need for further assessing bioenergetics as a proxy for fish health status.

Intensive mariculture results in a rise in nutrient concentrations, then leads to serious eutrophication in coastal waters. Based on the sampling data obtained between August 2012 and July 2013, the eutrophication status in Yantian Bay was assessed, and the proportion of marine animals co-cultured with seaweeds was evaluated. The nutritional quality index (NQI) ranged from 4.37 to 13.20, indicating serious eutrophication conditions. The annual average ratio of nitrogen/phosphorus (N/P) was 25.19, indicating a nitrogen surplus in this system. DIN was selected as the best parameter to balance seaweed absorption and marine animal DIN production. Gracilaria lemaneiformis and Laminaria japonica were selected as co-cultured seaweeds. The optimal proportion of G. lemaneiformis production was assessed as 20074.14 tonnes. The optimal proportion of L. japonica production was evaluated as 15890.68 tonnes. High-temperature adapted seaweeds should be introduced for removing nutrients releasing by farmed aquatic animals in the summer in Yantian Bay.

The formation and distribution of oxygen-deficient water mass (ODW) in Jinhae Bay exhibited seasonal patterns similar to those of the summer thermocline, indicating a close mutual relationship, and the influence of ODW formation conditions appeared prominently in the bottom water. The principal factors analysis indicate that dissolved oxygen and NO2 in the bottom water during the time of ODW formation were highly correlated with NH3 and dissolved inorganic phosphorus. The findings clearly illustrate the effects on ODW of seasonal physical and chemical changes. ODW that formed in the bottom water of Jinhae Bay during summer produced high concentrations of nutrients in the bottom water; since the growth of phytoplankton was limited by the strong stratification and low concentrations of dissolved oxygen (<3mg/L) in the bottom layer, these nutrients (especially NH3 and DIP) were retained and accumulated, serving as a major source of nutrients during the dry winter.

Large plastic (>5mm) and microplastic (0.315–5mm) debris were collected from 25 beaches along the Hong Kong coastline. More than 90% consisted of microplastics. Among the three groups of microplastic debris, expanded polystyrene (EPS) represented 92%, fragments represented 5%, and pellets represented 3%. The mean microplastic abundance for Hong Kong was 5595items/m2. This number is higher than international averages, indicating that Hong Kong is a hotspot of marine plastic pollution. Microplastic abundance was significantly higher on the west coast than on the east coast, indicating that the Pearl River, which is west of Hong Kong, may be a potential source of plastic debris. The amounts of large plastic and microplastic debris of the same types (EPS and fragments) were positively correlated, suggesting that the fragmentation of large plastic material may increase the quantity of beach microplastic debris.

The intra-specific diversity and genetic structure within the Alexandrium pacificum Litaker (A. catenella – Group IV) populations along the Temperate Asian coasts, were studied among individuals isolated from Japan to China. The UPGMA dendrogram and FCA revealed the existence of 3 clusters. Assignment analysis suggested the occurrence of gene flows between the Japanese Pacific coast (cluster-1) and the Chinese Zhejiang coast (cluster-2). Human transportations are suspected to explain the lack of genetic difference between several pairs of distant Japanese samples, hardly explained by a natural dispersal mechanism. The genetic isolation of the population established in the Sea of Japan (cluster-3) suggested the existence of a strong ecological and geographical barrier. Along the Pacific coasts, the South–North current allows limited exchanges between Chinese and Japanese populations. The relationships between Temperate Asian and Mediterranean individuals suggested different scenario of large-scale dispersal mechanisms.

Small amounts (0.15wt%) of platinum and palladium were incorporated in porous, high surface area, ultra–stable H–USY–Zeolite by ion exchange method, and their catalytic activity was studied for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation reaction, under various conditions of industrial importance. The catalyst was characterized by p–XRD, chemical analysis, SEM, TEM, evaluated for catalytic activity using a steady state, fixed bed catalytic reactor. The catalysts show high CO oxidation activity and it was possible to convert 0.044 mmols of CO per gram of catalyst at 120 °C, at a space velocity of 60 000 h−1 and with 100 ppm CO concentration in feed gas. The high catalytic activity of this noble metal catalyst also appears to be a factor of porous structure of zeolite facilitating mass transfer; high surface area as well as highly dispersed catalyst sites of palladium and platinum on zeolite structure. Introduction of acidic sites in zeolites probably makes them more resistant towards SO2, while their surface area and pore characteristics make this catalyst efficient even under high space velocity conditions, thus suggesting the potential of larger pore size zeolites over conventional porous materials for industrial applications.

Diffuse pollution from oil spills is a widespread problem in port areas (as a result of fuel supply, navigation and loading/unloading activities). This article presents a method to assess the environmental risk of oil handling facilities in port areas. The method is based on (i) identification of environmental hazards, (ii) characterization of meteorological and oceanographic conditions, (iii) characterization of environmental risk scenarios, and (iv) assessment of environmental risk. The procedure has been tested by application to the Tarragona harbor. The results show that the method is capable of representing (i) specific local pollution cases (i.e., discriminating between products and quantities released by a discharge source), (ii) oceanographic and meteorological conditions (selecting a representative subset data), and (iii) potentially affected areas in probabilistic terms. Accordingly, it can inform the design of monitoring plans to study and control the environmental impact of these facilities, as well as the design of contingency plans.