We measured the concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons in 405 wetland sediment samples immediately before the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster led to their broad-scale oiling, and on nine trips afterwards. The average concentrations of alkanes and PAHs were 604 and 186 times the pre-spill baseline values, respectively. Oil was distributed with some attenuation up to 100m inland from the shoreline for alkanes, but increased for aromatics, and was not well-circumscribed by the rapid shoreline assessments (a.k.a. SCAT) of relative oiling. The concentrations of target alkanes and PAHs in June 2013 were about 1% and 5%, respectively, of the February 2011 concentrations, but remained at 3.7 and 33 times higher, respectively, than in May 2010. A recovery to baseline conditions suggests that the concentration of alkanes may be near baseline values by the end of 2015, but that it may take decades for the PAH concentrations to be that low.

Over 1.3 billion people live on tropical coasts, primarily in developing countries. Many depend on adjacent coastal seas for food, and livelihoods. We show how trends in demography and in several local and global anthropogenic stressors are progressively degrading capacity of coastal waters to sustain these people. Far more effective approaches to environmental management are needed if the loss in provision of ecosystem goods and services is to be stemmed. We propose expanded use of marine spatial planning as a framework for more effective, pragmatic management based on ocean zones to accommodate conflicting uses. This would force the holistic, regional-scale reconciliation of food security, livelihoods, and conservation that is needed. Transforming how countries manage coastal resources will require major change in policy and politics, implemented with sufficient flexibility to accommodate societal variations. Achieving this change is a major challenge – one that affects the lives of one fifth of humanity.

Aerial Bay is one of the harbor towns of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory of India. Nevertheless, it is least studied marine environment, particularly for physico-chemical assessment. Therefore, to evaluate the annual spatiotemporal variations of physico-chemical parameters, seawater samples collected from 20 sampling stations covering three seasons were analyzed. Multivariate statistics is applied to the investigated data in an attempt to understand the causes of variation in physico-chemical parameters. Cluster analysis distinguished mangrove and open sea stations from other areas by considering distinctive physico-chemical characteristics. Factor analysis revealed 79.5% of total variance in physico-chemical parameters. Strong loading included transparency, TSS, DO, BOD, salinity, nitrate, nitrite, inorganic phosphate, total phosphorus and silicate. In addition, box-whisker plots and Geographical Information System based land use data further facilitated and supported multivariate results.

Ipomoea nil (L.) Roth. cv. ‘Scarlett O’Hara’ was evaluated as a tropical bioindicator species sensitive to ozone (O3). A total of nine field experiments were performed, with 28 days of exposure each. Visible leaf injuries, carbon assimilation (Asat) and stomatal conductance (gs) were quantified and correlated to oscillations in environmental conditions and accumulated ozone exposure over a threshold of 40 ppb h (AOT40). The values of gas exchange and leaf injury continuously varied throughout the study period. Asat and leaf injury (chlorosis) were higher in spring than in others seasons. The gs was higher in autumn. The analyses of the abiotic and biotic variables revealed an opposing trend between the Asat and both leaf injury and AOT40. Ozone levels were moderate and its relationship with gs was inverse. This may be the cause of the moderate injury. ‘Scarlett O’Hara’ is sensitive to O3 and has potential as an O3 bioindicator in sub–tropical regions.

Ecological effects and quality status of sediments in the Bohai Bay (North China) were studied by incorporating the traditional chemical analysis and benthic community structure. In the present study, paired sediments from 20 stations were sampled for chemical analysis and benthic assemblages. The overall results demonstrated that sediment impairment mainly appeared in the southern part of the Bay. The results obtained from the principal component analysis regarding benthic data and potential explanatory factors indicated that As, Hg and petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs) were responsible for the distribution of macrofaunal assemblages. Canonical correspondence analysis further showed As was significantly correlated to the benthic alteration, which provided evidence of ecological relevance to chemical substances of concern. Overall, this study revealed the metal contamination in the Bohai Bay was not as severe as previously regarded. Yet, further investigation is still needed considering the complexity of sediment matrices.

The potential effects of exposing marine mammals to military sonar is a current concern. Dose–response relationships are useful for predicting potential environmental impacts of specific operations. To reveal behavioral response thresholds of exposure to sonar, we conducted 18 exposure/control approaches to 6 long-finned pilot whales. Source level and proximity of sonar transmitting one of two frequency bands (1–2kHz and 6–7kHz) were increased during exposure sessions. The 2-dimensional movement tracks were analyzed using a changepoint method to identify the avoidance response thresholds which were used to estimate dose–response relationships. No support for an effect of sonar frequency or previous exposures on the probability of response was found. Estimated response thresholds at which 50% of population show avoidance (SPLmax=170dB re 1μPa, SELcum=173dB re 1μPa2s) were higher than previously found for other cetaceans. The US Navy currently uses a generic dose–response relationship to predict the responses of cetaceans to naval active sonar, which has been found to underestimate behavioural impacts on killer whales and beaked whales. The navy curve appears to match more closely our results with long-finned pilot whales, though it might underestimate the probability of avoidance for pilot-whales at long distances from sonar sources.

The current study aimed to examine the relationship between metals in sediments and metal bioaccumulation in oyster tissue in a highly-modified estuary (Sydney estuary, Australia). While extensive metal contamination was observed in surficial sediments, suspended particulate matter and oyster tissue, a significant relationship between these media could not be established. No relationship was determined between sediment quality guidelines and oyster size or weight, nor with human consumption levels for metals in oyster tissue. Moreover, oyster tissue metal concentrations varied greatly at a single locality over temporal scales of years. Oyster tissue at all 19 study sites exceeded consumptions levels for Cu. Bioaccumulation of metals in oyster tissue is a useful dynamic indicator of anthropogenic influence within estuaries, however oysters cannot be used in Sydney estuary as a valid biomonitor due to overriding internal regulation (homoestasis) by the animal, or by external natural (sediment resuspension) and anthropogenic (sewer/stormwater discharges) pressures, or both.

Mangrove sediment has long been recognized as being important in restricting the mobility of contaminants in estuarine environments. To investigate the role of rhizosphere processes in the accumulation of trace metals in mangrove fine nutritive roots, the mangrove sediments and associated fine nutritive roots are collected from five major embayments of Sydney estuary (Australia) for geochemical studies. In this estuary Avicennia marina sediments are accumulating large quantities of trace metals due to presence of abundant fine sediment (<62.5μm) and organic matter as well as anthropogenic input. Accumulation of trace metals in fine nutritive roots responds to total sediment chemistry mainly due to rhizosphere sediment geochemical processes resulting in a strong linear correlation between metal concentrations in fine nutritive roots vs. total and bio-available contents in sediments. Accumulation of trace metals in fine nutritive roots is almost always exceeds rhizosphere total sediment metal concentrations.

Identifying the baseline or natural state of an ecosystem is a critical step in effective conservation and restoration. Like most marine ecosystems, coral reefs are being degraded by human activities: corals and fish have declined in abundance and seaweeds, or macroalgae, have become more prevalent. The challenge for resource managers is to reverse these trends, but by how much? Based on surveys of Caribbean reefs in the 1970s, some reef scientists believe that the average cover of seaweed was very low in the natural state: perhaps less than 3%. On the other hand, evidence from remote Pacific reefs, ecological theory, and impacts of over-harvesting in other systems all suggest that, historically, macroalgal biomass may have been higher than assumed. Uncertainties about the natural state of coral reefs illustrate the difficulty of determining the baseline condition of even well studied systems.