⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations in surface waters of the Sea of Japan (SOJ) decreased during the period of 1993–2010 with effective half-lives of 18 and 15 y, respectively. The longer effective half-life of ⁹⁰Sr in the SOJ may suggest a surplus of ⁹⁰Sr to SOJ surface waters, however, no clear evidence of possible ⁹⁰Sr source has been found. After the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, temporal variations of ¹³⁷Cs in the surface water of the SOJ have changed, while ⁹⁰Sr variations followed the pre-accident trends. The ⁹⁰Sr/¹³⁷Cs ratios reveal that increases of ¹³⁷Cs due to the FDNPP accident continued in surface waters of the SOJ until 2016.

The United Nations recognised the transfer of invasive species across natural barriers as one of the greatest pressures to the world's oceans and seas. The BWM Convention sets the global standards on ballast water management (BWM) requirements, while recognising that regional and local specifics have to be considered for its effective implementation. In the Adriatic Sea cross-border activities were conducted to provide for essential information/data and tools to support a regionally coordinated implementation of the BWM Convention. This special issue contains 18 publications that include results and recommendations from studying the ballast water and management issues through sampling of ballast water on vessels, risk assessment for exemptions and BWM, biological and chemical port baseline surveys and monitoring conducted in ports along the Adriatic Sea coast, oceanographic conditions, ballast water sediment issues and their management in ports, and the implementation options of the BWM Convention through the Adriatic States' environmental law and institutions cooperation. Essential data and tools to support a regional approach in the implementation of the BWM Convention were provided, and are therefore available to the administrations of the Adriatic countries to enable protection of the Adriatic Sea environment, human health property and resources from negative impacts of ballast water being discharged in the area. Data, approaches and tools provided here may be helpful in any other region to support an effective BWM Convention implementation.

The sorption behavior of phosphorus onto sediment was investigated with the addition of BC derived from incomplete biomass combustion (PC). The sorption kinetic curves of phosphorus onto PC and sediment could be described by a two-compartment first order equation, and the sorption isotherms fit the Freundlich model well. With increasing amounts of PC added, the sorption capacity increased while the HI did not change much. The distribution of phosphorus forms showed that CaP (ACa-P plus DAP) constituted the highest fraction in the sediment samples. Throughout the sorption process, CaP and OP changed very little, but the Ex-P and FeP increased obviously, and the presence of PC made this increase more significantly. The high specific area and the presence of iron and aluminum, as well as the modification of the sediments surface properties, make the addition of PC be favorable for the sorption of phosphorus onto sediments.

Although coastal dunes exhibit typical vegetation which involves species adapted to extreme environmental conditions, the mobilization and colonization by non-native species represents a challenge in its conservation and management. In this work, eight dune systems located along the Atlantico Department, Caribbean coast of Colombia were surveyed, finding within them the presence of two plant species recognized as invasive: Calotropis procera and Cryptostegia madagascariensis. The impacts of these two invasive plant species can be significant at all ecological levels in the dune systems. The above demands the implementation of urgent management actions. Eradication seems the optimal control alternative, however preventing invasive plant species from infesting new areas is more cost-effective and efficient than trying to restore the system after it is infested. Data presented in this paper is the first step in the future development of an early detection program in the study area.

Fifteen antibiotics, including seven sulfonamides (SAs); three macrolides (MLs); three quinolones (QNs); one lincosamide, lincomycin (LIN); and one tetracycline (TC), were detected in the surface water of the Xi'an section of the Weihe River by using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The detection rates were 12.50–100%, and the detected concentrations were in the range of nd-270.60 ng/L. The average detected concentrations of the SAs, MLs, QNs, LIN and TC were 113.68, 111.79, 20.55, 23.81 and 25.66 ng/L, respectively. Among these, SAs and MLs were the dominant antibiotics detected in the Weihe River. Compared with those in other water bodies in China and abroad, the antibiotic residues in the Weihe River were at a moderate contamination level. The SAs concentration distribution followed upstream > midstream > downstream, while the MLs concentration distribution was midstream < downstream < upstream. The correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that domestic sewage, livestock discharge, and aquaculture and pharmaceutical wastewater are the main sources of antibiotic residues in the Weihe River. In addition, the detected ciprofloxacin (CFX), ofloxacin (OFX) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) pose high ecological risk in the short and long term.

The Atlantic Goliath Grouper Epinephelus itajara is currently a protected species in the southeastern United States waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico and is considered vulnerable throughout its geographic range. In this study, I evaluated mercury concentrations in their tissues (muscle, liver), which revealed high concentrations (μg/g ww) of mercury (mean ± SE) in liver (6.18 ± 0.86) and muscle (1.12 ± 0.06) tissue that increased with size and age. Mercury concentrations were highest in fish caught off Florida's Atlantic coast, but varied on a finer regional scale. Mercury concentrations in muscle tissue were generally greater near urbanized areas with known mercury sources and environmental conditions appropriate for higher methylation rates. This suggests that management should consider improving the water quality in these areas to reduce the risk of health effects to human consumers and to the fish themselves.

The gastrointestinal tracts of 229 demersal fish belonging to two species (Mullus barbatus, Merluccius merluccius) were examined for microplastic ingestion. Samples were collected in 3 different FAO Geographical Sub-Areas (GSA-9, GSA-17, GSA-19) of the Mediterranean Sea. Ingested microplastics were characterized using a stereo-microscope: observed, photographed, measured and categorized according to size class, shape and colour. Plastic fragments (ranging from 0.10 to 6.6 mm) were detected in 23.3% of the total investigated fish; a total of 65 plastic particles (66% constituted by fibers) were recorded. The percentage of plastic ingestion shows high variability between the two species and among the different sampling area. The highest frequency (48%) was found in European hake from GSA-19. These preliminary results represent a baseline for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive descriptor 10 in Italy as well as an important step for detecting microplastics in bioindicator species from different GSAs.

Shipping is key to global trade, but is also a dominant source of anthropogenic noise in the ocean. Chronic noise from ships can affect acoustic quality of important whale habitats. Noise from ships has been identified as one of three main stressors–in addition to contaminants, and lack of Chinook salmon prey–in the recovery of the endangered southern resident killer whale (SRKW) population. Managers recognize existing noise levels as a threat to the acoustical integrity of SRKW critical habitat. There is an urgent need to identify practical ways to reduce ocean noise given projected increases in shipping in the SRKW's summertime critical habitat in the Salish Sea. We reviewed the literature to provide a qualitative description of mitigation approaches. We use an existing ship source level dataset to quantify how some mitigation approaches could readily reduce noise levels by 3–10 dB.

As a global pollutant, microplastics have attracted attention from the public and researchers. However, the lack of standard and time-saving methods for analysis has become one of the bottlenecks in microplastics research. Here, we demonstrate TGA coupled to FTIR to identify and quantify certain microplastics in environment. Samples were pyrolyzed in TGA and the pyrolysis gases were analyzed by FTIR. Combining TGA and FTIR data adds discriminatory power as temperature profiles and absorption spectra differ among several common plastics. To quantify on a mass basis, we calibrated on characteristic IR peaks at temperatures of maximum weight loss for individual polymers. The method can distinguish PVC, PS and was validated by spiking samples with known quantities of microplastics. The result of field sample experiments showed that TGA-FTIR can be used to identify and quantify PVC and PS in bivalves, seawater and soil. And the method may be applicable to environmental samples.