PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Pollution is now being varied with huge contaminants in wastewater especially with kind of recalcitrants that are emerging pollutants needed new advanced resolutions to mineralize them completely. Thus, the investigation of technology and technique processes is very important for research and development. Moreover, these manual, research, and application of the advanced oxidation processes especially using ozone for water and wastewater are concentrated and appreciated in over the world. Recently, nanoparticles have researched into subjects to enhance new, advanced technology for many domains such as environment, biology, agriculture, and medicine. Hence, the purpose of this review is to summarize the important role of nano-particulars as nano-catalysts in ozone-based advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment and evaluate how to contribute into ozone-based advance oxidation processes by nano-catalysts for wastewater treatment. RECENT FINDINGS: The advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for wastewater treatment nowadays are being appreciated in the twenty-first century when economy development day by day is concentrated extremely in industry, agriculture, and pharmacy leading to various pollutants in the environment. According to these developments, amount of various contaminants is discharged in wastewater; thus, investigation of advance technology based on nano-catalysts combining the ozonation will meet the demands for wastewater treatment. This review found potentials and prospects of nano-catalysts applied in the catalytic ozonation process for wastewater treatment. Efficiency of some well-known nano-catalysts with analytical properties for catalytic ozonation is also evaluated. Mechanisms of this process are identified to easily approach the catalytic ozonation using nano-materials for wastewater treatment in the future.

OSPAR, Rake and Flood accumulation zone methods were applied at 29 beaches of the German and Lithuanian Baltic Sea coast (2011–2018) to monitor cigarette butt pollution. Also, butt pollution prevention measure - ballot bin, was tested.The number of cigarette butts was significantly higher in Germany than in Lithuania, but the percent of butts from total litter items was similar. Rake method turned out to be suitable for cigarette butt assessment, while the OSPAR method underestimates the butt pollution.The visitor number on the beach had a significant effect on the cigarette butt number: in remote beaches, without visitors, usually, no butts were observed, while the highest number and the percent of butts were observed in beaches with the highest number of visitors.The ballot bin campaign may have increased the public awareness about pollution, but turned out to be in-efficient in reducing it.

Oil Spill Chemicals (OSCs) represent a risk to the environment and human health, especially in nearshore environments used for recreational purposes. Importantly, the starting point for human health risk assessment is to define the concentration of OSCs at nearshore locations. The objective of this study was to evaluate nearshore sampling data of OSC concentrations in different environmental matrices within time-space specific categories. The categories correspond to OSC concentration values for samples collected prior to nearshore oiling, post nearshore oiling and at no time impacted by oil as predicted by historic oil spill trajectories generated by an Oil Spill Trajectory Model. In general, concentration values for the post category were higher than prior which were higher than unimpacted. Results show differences in PAH concentration patterns within each matrix and for each category. Concentration frequency distributions for most chemicals in each category were log-normally distributed.

Antimicrobial resistance genes in aquaculture environments have attracted wide interest, since these genes pose a severe threat to human health. This study aimed to explore the possible mechanisms of the ciprofloxacin resistance of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolytiucs) in aquaculture environments, which may have been affected by the biofertilizer utilization in China. Plasmid-mediate quinolone resistance (PMQR) genes, representative (fluoro)quinolones (FNQs), and ciprofloxacin-resistance isolates in biofertilizer samples were analyzed. The significantly higher abundance of oqxB was alarming. The transferable experiments and Southern blot analysis indicated that oqxB could spread horizontally from biofertilizers to V. parahaemolyticus, and two (16.7%) trans-conjugants harboring oqxB were provided by 12 isolates that successfully produced OqxB. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report PMQR genes dissipation from biofertilizers to V. parahaemolyticus in aquaculture environments. The surveillance, monitoring and control of PMQR genes in biofertilizers are warranted for seafood safety and human health.

The application of chemical dispersants is one option of oil spill response (OSR). Here, Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) larvae were experimentally exposed for short periods (6 h and 1 h) to a realistic concentration of chemically dispersed oil (CDO) (~10 mg L⁻¹ THC), mechanically dispersed oil (MDO) (~7 mg L⁻¹ THC), and dispersant only (D). A control (C) with seawater served as reference. Short-term effects on survival and feeding were examined right after exposure and longer-term consequences on survival, feeding, growth and development following 30 days of recovery. Both exposure durations provoked long lasting effects on larval fitness, with 1 h exposure leading to minor effects on most of the selected endpoints. The 6 h exposure affected all endpoints with more adverse impacts after exposure to CDO. This study provides important data for assessing the best OSR option relevant to NEBA (Net Environmental Benefit Analysis).

This work provides the first spatial distribution report of micropollutants (MPs) in the entire Portuguese coast, comprising the ocean shore (sea water, SW) and whenever possible the nearest river discharging on it (estuarine water, EW). This surface water monitoring programme aimed to assess the spatial distribution of 37 MPs with a wide chemical nature, including some substances prioritized by the European Union Directive 39/2013/EU and contaminants of emerging concern targeted in the Watch List of Decisions 495/2015/EU and 840/2018/EU. The risk quotients were estimated in each sampling point for the detected MPs. High concentrations of diclofenac, tramadol and carbamazepine were determined, the latter with medium to high risk for algae. Some pharmaceuticals and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) were broadly distributed, maybe due to the direct discharge into the sea. Atrazine and alachlor were found in the majority of the samples, with alachlor levels often considered as medium to high risk.

The occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and their associated environmental factors in estuaries are poorly understood. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed ARGs in both water and sediments from inlet to outlet of the Yangtze Estuary, China. The relative abundances of ARGs were higher in the turbidity maximum zone (TMZ) than other sites, implying that suspended particulate matter (SPM) was the major reservoir for ARGs in water. ARGs showed an increasing trend from inlet to outlet in sediments. Positively correlation between intI1 and sul1 in both water and sediments indicated that sul1 may be regulated by intI1. Correlation analysis and redundancy analysis showed that the spatial variations of estuarine ARGs were positively correlated with sample properties (e.g., temperature, SPM, pH) and chemical pollutants (e.g., heavy metals and antibiotic residues), among which chemical pollutants were the major drivers for the ARG distribution in both water and sediments.

Plastic pollution has become a major environmental concern worldwide, and marine ecosystems have become polluted with ubiquitous microplastic particles (MP). MP can contain chemical additives and can also scavenge pollutants from the surrounding environment, and these co-contaminants may threaten the marine biota when MP become inadvertently ingested and transferred up the food chain. However, our understanding of the sorption-desorption kinetics of chemical compounds bound to MP remains limited. Moreover, whether MP are better transport vectors of co-contaminants than other natural particles (e.g. sediment) has not received much attention. Here, we used radiotracers to examine the partition coefficients (Kd) of three trace metals (¹⁰⁹Cd, ¹³⁴Cs, and ⁶⁵Zn) to virgin MP (32–75 μm polyethylene beads) and to natural sediment particles of a similar size (35–91 μm) in seawater. After 72 h, sediment particles adsorbed 2.5% of ¹⁰⁹Cd, 68.0% of ¹³⁴Cs, and 71.0% of ⁶⁵Zn, while MP adsorbed <0.8% of these three elements. Results highlight that under these experimental conditions, virgin polyethylene MP may not be effective transport vectors for these trace metals. Important variations in Kd were observed between elements, inciting for further studies to decipher how chemical characteristics, MP composition, and associated-biofilms, all interact in these biokinetic processes. These results demonstrate how radiotracers can allow us to address important knowledge gaps and broaden our understanding regarding the interactions between waterborne contaminants, naturally occurring particles and marine wildlife.

Globally, oxygen concentration in many coastal areas is depleting. River nutrient discharges may produce hypoxia events. The Southern Gulf of Mexico receives the discharges of the Grijalva-Usumacinta River System, the second largest in the Gulf of Mexico. To evaluate the influence of river discharges on dissolved oxygen concentrations in the receiving coastal ecosystem, we studied the variation of physicochemical variables in the water column. During the dry season, the influence of the river waters to the coastal area is scarce, but during the rainy season the river plume reached ~9 km offshore. The lowest concentration of dissolved oxygen (3.6 mg L⁻¹) was observed within the river plume. We concluded that, in the studied area, hypoxia events (oxygen concentrations ≤ 2 mg L⁻¹) would occur during the rainy season, low winds and in deeper waters (>80 m depth).

The coastal area of Suva, Fiji is exposed to high degree of metals input from different sources such as land-based industrial activities like metal fabrication and construction, paint manufacturing, petroleum storage and garment manufacturing, food processing and fish cannery as well as activities of bottling plants. It is therefore essential to have continuous monitoring and environmental management for the coastal area. Thus, to assess the degree of contamination of metals, selected metals (Cd, Zn, Pb, Cu and Ni) concentrations were analysed in seawater and sediment samples collected from ten sites in the coastal area of Suva, Fiji. The concentration of these metals in the samples was analysed using flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS). The concentrations of the metal in seawater were in the range: 0.23–0.80 mg/L, 0.08–1.45 mg/L, 0.15–0.25 mg/L, 0.88–1.77 mg/L and 0.88–10.29 mg/L for Ni, Zn, Cd, Pb and Cu, respectively. The corresponding concentrations of metal in the sediment samples in dry weight (dw) basis for Ni, Zn, Cd, Pb and Cu were in the range: 17.24–28.74 mg/kg, 18.55–68.78 mg/kg, 5.49–9.16 mg/kg, 116.96–233.92 mg/kg and 78.43–490.18 mg/kg, respectively. The quality of the seawater was evaluated with respect to WHO established guidelines while the quality of the sediments evaluated using internationally accepted Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs). The contamination of the sediments was also assessed in terms of geo-accumulation index (Igₑₒ), contamination factor (Cf) as well as pollution load index (PLI). Zn complied with the guidelines in all ten sites, Cu in eight sites was within the guidelines while Ni complied with the guideline in six sites. However, the levels of contamination recorded for Cd and Pb in all ten sites did not comply with the guidelines.