Marine water quality monitoring is performed for compliance with regulatory issues, trend detection, model validation and assessment of the effectiveness of adopted policies. As the end users are managers and policy makers, the objectives should be of practical interest and the answers should reduce the uncertainty concerning environmental impact, supporting planning and decision making. Simple and clearcut answers on environmental issues require synthesis of the field information using statistics, simulation models and multiple criteria analysis (MCA). Statistics is easy to apply whereas simulation models enable researchers to forecast future trends as well as test different scenarios. MCA allows the co-estimation of socio-economic variables providing a compromise between scientists’ and policy makers’ priorities. In addition, stakeholders and the public have the right to know and participate. This article reviews marine water quality monitoring principles, design and data analysis procedures. A brief review of international conventions of regional seas is also included.

Present study provides results of trace metal distribution in mangrove sediment cores collected from macro-tidal Khonda and Dudh creeks of Northern Maharashtra coast, India. Most of the metals showed significant higher addition in Dudh creek (core DC) as compared to Khonda creek (core KC). However, Khonda creek sediments did show anthropogenic enrichment of Mn, Zn and Ni, while Dudh creek sediments showed anthropogenic enrichment of almost all the studied metals. Large difference in metal concentration between the two creeks was attributed to their proximity to industries. The higher Mn, Zn and Ni content in Khonda creek was mainly attributed to addition from domestic and agricultural wastes. While high deterioration of Dudh creek sediments was the outcome of addition from industrial effluents.

The possibility of current-driven propagation of contaminants released along a major fairway polluting the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, is examined using a 3D circulation model, a Lagrangian transport model and statistics. Not surprisingly, the number of hits to the MPA decreases almost linearly with its distance from the fairway. In addition, the potential pollution released during a ship accident with the pollutants carried by currents may affect MPAs at very large distances. Typically, a fairway section approximately 125km long (covering about 1/3 of the approximate 400-km-long gulf) may serve as a source of pollution for each MPA. The largest MPA (in the Eastern Gulf of Finland) may receive pollution from an approximately 210-km-long section (covering about 1/2 of the entire length of the gulf). This information may be useful in assisting maritime management.

This study evaluated the efficiency of Avicennia schaueriana in the implementation of phytoremediation compared with intrinsic bioremediation in mangrove sediments contaminated by total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). The experiment was conducted for 3months at a pilot scale under conditions similar to a mangrove: the dynamics of the tides were simulated, and physical, chemical, microbiological and biogeochemical parameters were monitored. After the 90days, it was found that the phytoremediation was more efficient in the degradation of the TPHs compared to bioremediation, reducing the initial concentration of 32.2–4.2mg/g. A. schaueriana was also more efficient in mediating the degradation of different fractions of hydrocarbons, achieving a removal efficiency of 87%. The microbiological results consisted of a higher growth in the model with the plants, demonstrating the phytostimulation ability of the plants. Finally, the experiment showed that phytoremediation is a promising alternative in mangrove impacted by oil.

We present a global dioxin model that simulates one year of atmospheric emissions, transport processes, and depositions to the earth’s terrestrial and marine habitats. We map starting emission levels for each land area, and we also map the resulting deposits to terrestrial and marine environments. This model confirms that ‘hot spots’ of deposition are likely to be in northern Europe, eastern North America, and in parts of Asia with the highest marine dioxin depositions being the northeast and northwest Atlantic, western Pacific, northern Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. It also reveals that approximately 40% of airborne dioxin emissions are deposited to marine environments and that many countries in Africa receive more dioxin than they produce, which results in these countries being disproportionately impacted. Since human exposure to dioxin is largely through diet, this work highlights food producing areas that receive higher atmospheric deposits of dioxin than others.

Although present in a low concentration in the atmosphere, mercury in particulate matter (PHg) plays an important role in the biogeochemical process of mercury. In this study, the mercury concentrations in three size fractions of airborne particulate matters collected from 14 sites (12 urban sites, 1 rural site and 1 remote site) in the southeast coastal cities of China during different seasons in 2010–2011 were investigated. Most of PHg (46.8–71.9%) was concentrated in the finer particles, i.e. PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter). The average mercury concentrations in PM2.5 were 141.2±128.1 (range of 7.6–956.5), 37.0±19.2 (5.6–89.4), and 24.0±14.6 (3.2– 59.9) pg m–3 at urban, rural, and remote sites during the whole sampling period, respectively. The PHg concentrations were almost at the same level in spring, autumn, and winter, approximately two times of that in summer. PHg concentrations in the atmosphere displayed a significant spatial variation with far higher values in urban areas than those at rural and remote sites. The dry deposition fluxes of total PHg estimated by a theoretical model were 38.3, 47.7, and 58.7 µg m–2 y–1 at Ji’an (JA), Jimei (JM), and Longwen (LW), respectively. The backward air trajectory analysis revealed that the atmospheric PHg concentrations were mainly influenced by air masses from ocean sources that diluted PHg in summer and on contrary from continental sources in other seasons.

In this paper, we develop a bi–level transferable air pollutant price (TAPP) model, and use the model to find ways to mitigate China’s interprovincial air pollution control problem. In this model, the leader is China’s central government and the followers consist of China’s 31 provinces. The leader aims to decrease the nation’s total pollutant control costs, whereas each province attempts to minimize its pollution control costs by balancing its own pollutant reduction cost with transfer payments to or from other provinces, in the context of a transfer price set by the leader. We chose a Karush–Kuhn–Tucker approach with an embedded bisection algorithm to solve the model. We then applied the TAPP model to the seriously polluted Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area of China. Compared with the current command–and–control regulation approach, the TAPP model for the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area decreased the total environmental cost by US$ 3 964.61×103 (10.5% of the current command–and–control regulation cost). This demonstrated that the TAPP model was superior because it both mitigated the problem of air pollution transport across regional boundaries and utilized the available resources of the study area more efficiently.