Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Barnegat Bay, October, 29, 2012, damaging shorelines and infrastructure. Estuarine sediment chemistry and toxicity were investigated before and after to evaluate potential environmental health impacts and to establish post-event baseline sediment-quality conditions. Trace element concentrations increased throughout Barnegat Bay up to two orders of magnitude, especially north of Barnegat Inlet, consistent with northward redistribution of silt. Loss of organic compounds, clay, and organic carbon is consistent with sediment winnowing and transport through the inlets and sediment transport modeling results. The number of sites exceeding sediment quality guidance levels for trace elements tripled post-Sandy. Sediment toxicity post-Sandy was mostly unaffected relative to pre-Sandy conditions, but at the site with the greatest relative increase for trace elements, survival rate of the test amphipod decreased (indicating degradation). This study would not have been possible without comprehensive baseline data enabling the evaluation of storm-derived changes in sediment quality.

Climate change with human direct pressures represent significant threats to the resilience of shoreline habitats like mangroves. A rapid, whole-of-system assessment strategy is needed to evaluate such threats, better linking innovative remote sensing with essential on-ground evaluations. Using the Shoreline Video Assessment Method, we surveyed around 190km of the mostly mangrove-fringed (78%) coastline of Kien Giang Province, Vietnam. The aim was to identify anthropogenic drivers of degradation, establishing baseline for specific rehabilitation and protection strategies. Fish traps occupy at least 87% of shoreline mangroves, around which there were abundant human activities – like fishing, crabbing, farming, plus collecting firewood and foliage. Such livelihoods were associated with remnant, fringing mangrove that were largely degraded and threatened by erosion retreat, herbivory, and excessive cutting. Our assessment quantified associated threats to shoreline stability, along with previous rehabilitation intervention measures. The method offers key opportunities for effective conservation and management of vulnerable shoreline habitats.

One of the more important steps in understanding the ecosystem-level effects of anthropogenic disturbances on resident species is developing an accurate representation of the lethal and sub-lethal effects of these stressors. We develop methods for describing the impacts of oil on growth and mortality rates in fishes. We conducted a literature search to determine potential relationships between direct and indirect effects of exposure to oil, based on the frequency of lesions and body growth reduction. Data examining these effects with different exposure mediums were assessed and then input into four potential response models (a linear, step-wise, hockey-stick, and exponential model). We assessed the models using the Akaike Information Criterion. The most parsimonious and best fit model was the hockey-stick. This analysis will aid in identifying where future research on the impact of oil on fish should focus and also aid the development of ecosystem models on impacts of oil spills.

This paper discusses the combined use of tools from dynamical systems theory and remote sensing techniques and shows how they are effective instruments which may greatly contribute to the decision making protocols of the emergency services for the real-time management of oil spills. This work presents the successful interplay of these techniques for a recent situation, the sinking of the Oleg Naydenov fishing ship that took place in Spain, close to the Canary Islands, in April 2015.

Once non-biodegradable, microplastics remain on the environment absorbing toxic hydrophobic compounds making them a risk to biodiversity when ingested or filtered by organisms and entering in the food chain. To evaluate the potential of the contamination by microplastics in mussels cultivated in Jurujuba Cove, Niterói, RJ, waters of three stations were collected during a rain and dry seasons using a plankton net and later filtered. Microplastics were quantified and characterized morphologically and chemically. The results showed a high concentration of microplastics in both seasons with diversity of colors, types and sizes. Synthetic polymers were present in all samples. The presence of microplastics was probably due to a high and constant load of effluent that this area receives and to the mussel farming activity that use many plastic materials. Areas with high concentrations of microplastics could not be used for mussel cultivation due to the risk of contamination to consumers.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined in the surface sediments and in the sea cucumbers (Holothuria leucospilota and Stichopus hermanni) from around six Islands in the northern parts of Persian Gulf. The ranges of the average concentrations of PAHs in surface sediments, H. leucospilota and S. hermanni were 10.33–186.16ngg−1 dw, 12.49–505.44ngg−1 dw and 8.08–389.39ngg−1 dw, respectively. The spatial distribution of PAHs reveals that pollutant concentration is relatively higher at the western parts of Persian Gulf. International sedimentary quality guidelines (TEL-PEL) indicated a low probability of harmful effects to benthic organisms. PAH source identification showed that the PAHs in the sediments come from pyrogenic and mixed origin.

In this paper we determine whether a realistic mixture of hydrophobic chemicals affects the growth dynamics of a marine diatom and how this effect compares to the effect of temperature, light regime and nutrient conditions. To do so, we examine the specific growth rate of Phaeodactylum tricornutum in a 72h algal growth inhibition test using a full factorial design with three nutrient regimes, two test temperatures, three light intensities and three chemical exposures. Passive samplers were used to achieve exposure to realistic mixtures of organic chemicals close to ambient concentrations. Nutrient regime, temperature and time interval (24, 48 and 72h) explained 85% of the observed variability in the experimental data. The variability explained by chemical exposure was about 1%. Overall, ambient concentrations of hydrophobic compounds present in Belgian coastal waters, and for which the passive samplers have affinity, are too low to affect the intrinsic growth rate of P. tricornutum.

The dynamics of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) was studied in mariculture areas around Bolinao and Anda, Philippines to examine its possible link to recurring algal blooms, hypoxia and fish kills. They occur despite regulation on number of fish farm structures in Bolinao to improve water quality after 2002, following a massive fish kill in the area. Based on spatiotemporal surveys, coastal waters remained eutrophic a decade after imposing regulation, primarily due to decomposition of uneaten and undigested feeds, and fish excretions. Relative to Redfield ratio (16), these materials are enriched in P, resulting in low N/P ratios (~6.6) of regenerated nutrients. Dissolved inorganic P (DIP) in the water reached 4μM during the dry season, likely exacerbated by increase in fish farm structures in Anda. DIP enrichment created an N-limited condition that is highly susceptible to sporadic algal blooms whenever N is supplied from freshwater during the wet season.

Seasonal trend of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated with PM10 particles was assessed in an urban area in Cordoba, Argentina, during 2011–2013. In addition, we quantified the contribution of temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, atmospheric pressure and wind speed on total and individual PAH concentrations. Mean PAH concentrations were higher during autumn and winter. Temperature was the meteorological parameter that affected the most total and individual PAHs. Its influence was stronger in lightweight than in heavy PAHs, since they are more easily partitioned in the vapor phase. We found also that temperature has a lagged effect on PAHs concentration with the strongest association observed with 2-day lag temperature. Wind speed and relative humidity were also significant predictors for both light and heavy PAHs. Despite the fact that we observed a decreasing trend in the concentration levels of PAHs, they are still high enough to pose a risk to human health due to chronic exposure.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been reported to absorb ultraviolet (UV) light, resulting in enhanced toxicity. Early developmental stages of bivalves may be particularly susceptible to photo-enhanced toxicity during oil spills. In the current study, toxicity tests were conducted with sperm and three larval ages of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) to evaluate the photo-enhanced toxicity of low-energy water-accommodated fractions (WAFs) of two weathered Macondo crude oils collected from the Deepwater Horizon incident. Larvae exposed to oil WAFs under UV-filtered light demonstrated consistently higher survival and normal development than larvae exposed to WAFs under UV light. The phototoxicity of weathered Macondo oil increased as a function of increasing UV light intensity and dose. Early developing oyster larvae were the most sensitive to photo-enhanced toxicity, whereas later shelled prodissoconch larvae were insensitive. Comparisons between two weathered crude oils demonstrated that toxicity was dependent on phototoxic PAH concentration and UV light intensity.