Heavy metals concentrations (Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co, Pb, and Cd) were scrutinized during two monitoring years (2001 and 2011) in the coastal sediment of Pakistan. The status of metal contamination in coastal sediment was interpreted using sediment quality guidelines, and single and combined metal pollution indices. Ni, Cr, and Cd were recognized for their significant (p<0.05) intensification in the sediment during the last decade. Sediment quality guidelines recognized the frequent adverse biological effect of Ni and the occasional adverse biological effect of Cu, Cr, Pb and Cd. Single metal pollution indices (Igeo, EF, CF, and ER) revealed that sediment pollution is predominantly caused by Pb and Cd. Low to moderate contamination was appraised along the coast by multi-metal pollution indices (CD and PERI). Correlation study specifies that heavy metals were presented diverse affiliations and carriers for distribution in the sediment during the last decade.

Jakarta is an Indonesian coastal megacity with over 10 million inhabitants. The rivers flowing through the city receive enormous amounts of untreated wastewaters and discharge their pollutant loads into Jakarta Bay. We utilized a screening approach to identify those site-specific compounds that represent the major contamination of the cities' water resources, and detected a total number of 71 organic contaminants in Jakarta river water samples. Especially contaminants originating from municipal wastewater discharges were detected in high concentrations, including flame retardants, personal care products and pharmaceutical drugs.A flame retardant, a synthetic fragrance and caffeine were used as marker compounds to trace the riverine transport of municipal wastewaters into Jakarta Bay. These markers are also appropriate to trace municipal wastewater discharges to other tropical coastal ecosystems. This application is in particular useful to evaluate wastewater inputs from land-based sources to habitats which are sensitive to changing water quality, like coral reefs.

Fly ash, flue gas, ambient air, and soil samples were collected to investigate concentrations, profiles, gas–particle partitioning, and air–soil exchange of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in the vicinity of two municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) in Harbin in northeastern China. The PCDD/F concentrations were 11 600–12 300 pg g−1 (597–615 pg WHO-TEQ g−1) in fly ash and 873–1120 fg m−3 (51.2–61.9 fg WHO-TEQ m−3) in air. The results of gas–particle partitioning possibly indicated the equilibrium state of PCDD/F during sampling period. For soil samples, both Enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) and high-resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) were used. Significant correlations between the results from these two methods indicated that both methods are useful for PCDD/Fs analysis in soil. PCDD/Fs concentrations in soil samples ranged from 17.2 to 157 pg g−1 (0.59–8.81 pg WHO-TEQ g−1). Both Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) suggested the sources of the emission from MSWIs and the historical emission from a petroleum refinery to PCDD/Fs in adjacent soils. The air–soil exchange analysis showed a net flux of PCDD/F from air to soil at all soil-sampling sites.

One of the main challenges of bioremediation is to define efficient protocols having a low environmental impact. We have investigated the effect of three treatments in oily-seawater after a real oil-spill occurred in the Gulf of Taranto (Italy). Biostimulation with inorganic nutrients allowed the biodegradation of the 73±2.4% of hydrocarbons, bioaugmentation with a selected hydrocarbonoclastic consortium consisting of Alcanivorax borkumensis, Alcanivorax dieselolei, Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus, Cycloclasticus sp. 78-ME and Thalassolituus oleivorans degraded 79±3.2%, while the addition of nutrients and a washing agent has allowed the degradation of the 69±2.6%. On the other hand, microbial community was severely affected by the addition of the washing agent and the same product seemed to inhibit the growth of the majority of strains composing the selected consortium at the tested concentration. The use of dispersant should be accurately evaluated also considering its effect on the principal actors of biodegradation.

A contingent valuation study is conducted in three locations in Turkey using a total of 1362 observations to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid the acute respiratory illness (three days of severe coughing and throat pain). This is the first research of this kind in Turkey, and also one of a few studies conducted in developing countries. Median WTPs are estimated as 65, 51, and 83 PPP-adjusted 2012 USD for Afsin-Elbistan, Kutahya-Tavsanli and Ankara, respectively. Income elasticities of WTP are derived as 0.8 for Afsin-Elbistan and tested statistically indifferent from 1.0 for Kutahya-Tavsanli, and Ankara, and are found to be greater than the cases in existing studies conducted both in developed and developing countries. We also find that 60 to 90 percent of WTP are devoted for avoiding pain and discomfort/restricted activity days, and much less weights are given for avoiding possible financial losses. As for the determinants of WTP, university graduates, those who have experienced coughing within one month, have spent out-of-pocket medical expenses and actually lost some part of their income due the last experienced minor symptoms are willing to pay more to avoid the future acute respiratory illness while women and the household using coal as the main source of home-heating are willing to pay less in one or more study areas. New air quality standard for PM10 (transition from 150 μg/m3 to 40 μg/m3 by 2019) causes the reductions in minor respiratory symptoms by 11, 8, and 4.4 per person, and the resulting welfare gains are calculated as 157 million, 123 million, and 1464 million PPP-adjusted 2012 USD for Afsin-Elbistan, Kutahya-Tavsanli and Ankara, respectively.

Qualitative inferences and sparse bay-wide measurements suggest that shoreline erosion increased after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster, but quantifying the impacts has been elusive at the landscape scale. We quantified the shoreline erosion of 46 islands for before and after the DWH oil spill to determine how much shoreline was lost, if the losses were temporary, and if recovery/restoration occurred. The erosion rates at the oiled islands increased to 275% in the first six months after the oiling, were 200% of that of the unoiled islands for the first 2.5years after the oiling, and twelve times the average land loss in the deltaic plain of 0.4%y−1 from 1988 to 2011. These results support the hypothesis that oiling compromised the belowground biomass of the emergent vegetation. The islands are, in effect, sentinels of marsh stability already in decline before the oil spill.

Seawater monitoring and geochemical and benthic foraminiferal analysis of sediments were conducted to identify the effects of hypoxia created by a mussel farm on benthic foraminifera in a semi-closed bay. Extremely polluted reductive conditions with a high content of organic matter (OM) at >12.0% and oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) with dissolved oxygen (DO) <0.4mg∙L–1 were formed below the mussel farm in the northwest area of Gamak Bay, and gradually diffused toward the south. Highly similar patterns of variation were observed in species diversity, abundance frequency, and benthic foraminiferal assemblage distributed from Elphidium subarcticum–Ammonia beccarii in the northwest area through E. subarcticum–A. beccarii–Trochammina hadai, E. subarcticum–A. beccarii–Elphidiumclavatum, and E. clavatum–Ammonia ketienziensis in the southern area. These phenomena were caused by hydrodynamics in the current water mass. It was thought that E. subarcticum is a bioindicator of organic pollution caused by the mussel farm.

A bacterial consortium composed by four metagenomic clones and Bacillus subtilis strain CBMAI 707, all derived from petroleum reservoirs, was entrapped in chitosan beads and evaluated regarding hydrocarbon degradation capability. Experiments were carried out in mesocosm scale (3000L) with seawater artificially polluted with crude oil. At different time intervals, mesocosms were sampled and subjected to GC-FID and microbiological analyses, as total and heterotrophic culturable bacterial abundance (DAPI and CFU count), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and taxonomic diversity (massive sequencing of 16S rRNA genes). The results obtained showed that degradation of n-alkane hydrocarbons was similar between both treatments. However, aromatic compound degradation was more efficient in bioaugmentation treatment, with biodegradation percentages reaching up to 99% in 30days. Community dynamics was different between treatments and the consortium used in the bioaugmentation treatment contributed to a significant increase in aromatic hydrocarbon degradation.

Superficial sediments were taken at the port of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), which includes the oil terminal of one of the largest oil refineries in the Mediterranean. Significant trace metal concentrations were found in the whole port area. Sequential extraction of metals from the different sediment fractions (BCR method) showed a higher risk of remobilisation for Cd, which is mostly bound to the exchangeable fraction. Foraminiferal density and richness of species were variable across the study area. The living assemblages were characterized by low diversity in samples collected close to the port areas. Ammonia tepida and bolivinids, which were positively correlated with concentrations of heavy metals and organic matter content, appeared to show tolerance to the environmental disturbance. The sampling sites characterized by the highest values of biotic indices were located far from the port areas and present an epiphytic and epifaunal biocoenosis.

This study aimed to evaluate the degree of Phaseolus vulgaris L. (bean) leaf tissue injury caused by tropospheric ozone. To validate O3 symptoms at the microscopic level, Evans blue staining together with an image processing method for the removal of distortions and calculation of dead leaf areas was applied. Net photosynthetic rate (PN), stomatal conductance (gs) and intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) were determined to evaluate leaf physiological responses to ozone. It was found that both resistant and sensitive varieties of bean were damaged by ozone; however, the size of necrotic and partially destroyed leaf area in the sensitive genotype (S156) was bigger (1.18%, 2.18%) than in the resistant genotype (R123), i.e. 0.02% and 0.50%. Values of net photosynthetic rates were lower in the sensitive genotype in ambient air conditions, than in the resistant genotype in ambient air conditions. We further found that there was a correlation between physiological and anatomical injuries; net photosynthetic rate (PN) was negatively correlated with percentage of necrotic area of both genotypes, while stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) were positively correlated with percentage of necrotic tissue of both genotypes. Moreover, visible injures in both genotypes were positively correlated with percentage of anatomical injures. In conclusion, the presented combinations of morphological, anatomical and physiological markers allowed differential diagnosis of ozone injury.