Abundances and composition of marine litter and seabirds were estimated in the central South Pacific (SP) Ocean between the Chilean continental coast and the Easter Island Ecoregion. Litter was dominated by plastics throughout the study area, but the proportion of plastics was higher at sea and on the oceanic islands than in coastal waters and on continental beaches. Litter densities were higher close to the center of the SP subtropical gyre compared to the continental coast. The seabird assemblage was diverse (28 species), and several endemic species were recorded. Seabird abundances were higher in the coastal waters and around Juan Fernández Islands off the continental coast than in the Oceanic and Polynesian sectors. Endangered species breeding on Salas & Gómez Island were observed in the Polynesian sector, which suggests a high potential for negative interactions between seabirds and floating litter, both occurring in high densities in this sector.

The concentrations of monosaccharide anhydrides (levoglucosan, mannosan, galactosan), monocarboxylic acids (alkanoic acids C7 – C20 and two unsaturated fatty acids, palmitoleic and oleic acids) and organic and elemental carbon in PM1 aerosol samples were measured in two cities of the Czech Republic (Brno and Šlapanice) in winter and summer seasons of 2009 and 2010.Mass concentrations of PM1 aerosols (determined by weighing filters with collected aerosol) were higher in winter than in summer in both 2009 and 2010, in Brno as well as in Šlapanice.Organic compounds were analysed by GC–MS. The sum of average atmospheric concentration of monosaccharide anhydrides (MAs) in PM1 aerosol in Brno and Šlapanice was 273 and 646 ng m−3 in winter and 20–42 ng m−3 in summer. The higher concentrations of MAs in PM1 aerosols in winter seasons indicate higher frequency of biomass combustion than in summer seasons. Levoglucosan was the most abundant monosaccharide anhydride. Contrary to MAs, the concentrations of majority monocarboxylic acids were higher in summer (153–221 ng m−3) than in winter (116–206 ng m−3) in both cities in 2009 and in 2010. Palmitic acid was the most abundant monocarboxylic acid.The concentrations of both organic (OC) and elemental (EC) carbon were higher in winter than in summer, which corresponds especially to higher biomass burning and coal combustion in the frame of residential heating within winter seasons. Mass concentrations of the analysed aerosol samples were counted, i.e., OCBB and ECBB (biomass burning), OCFF and ECFF (fossil fuel combustion), and OCBIO (biogenic sources).Higher concentrations of MAs and PM1, OC and EC in winter seasons, could be caused not only by larger emissions from biomass or coal combustion, but also by less dispersion due to different atmospheric conditions.

The mobilisation of sediments and related contaminants connected to dredging activities is one of the most critical issues to the environmental risk and exposure assessment of a dredging project. The aim of this paper was an investigation of the mobilisation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) due to the dredging of the Port of Genoa (Italy) to identify the temporal and spatial extent of the contaminant transport, and the influence of the dredging and the boundary conditions on it. The results showed relatively low background PAH concentrations in the water column and confirmed the dredging as the primary rising factor of concentrations in the water column, but also showed a complex scenario in which the different environmental and dredging factors forced the concentrations at different levels and moments. The post dredging phase showed PAH values close to the background conditions and the concentrations remained relatively high only for a few PAHs.

To characterize the chemical composition, size distributions, and fractional Fe solubility of atmospheric particles over Asian marginal seas, South Indian Ocean and Australian coast, selected water–soluble inorganic and organic species in aerosols and precipitation, trace metals and soluble Fe in aerosols were analyzed by multi–instruments. Results showed that sea salt and non–sea–salt sulfate (nss–SO42–) were the main components in aerosols. Over Asian marginal seas, Cl– and Na+ were the dominant ions in precipitation, accounting for ˜;72% of the total ions. Both SO42– and NO3– accounted for −26% of the total anions, controlling the acidity of the precipitation. Non–sea–salt Ca2+ (nss–Ca2+) accounted for 6.9% of the total cations, dominating the neutralizing component in rainwater. Observed methane sulfonate (MSA) concentrations and MSA/nss–SO42– increased southward. The concentrations of sea salt were affected by wind speeds, which was mainly accumulated in particle size >10μm. Particle size distributions of nss–SO42– and NH4+ mainly peaked in the fine mode, while NO3– was mainly accumulated in the coarse mode. Oxalate presented a bimodal size distribution pattern in both fine and coarse modes. Based on the air mass back trajectories, enrichment factors and Fe/Al, V/Al ratios, aerosol samples collected over Asian marginal seas could be affected by both long–range transported dust and anthropogenic emissions. Good relationship was found between total dissolved iron and nss–SO42–, indicating that acid processing during long–range transport could play an important role in fractional iron solubility in aerosols. The inverse relationship between atmospheric total Fe and fractional Fe solubility fitted in the global–scale trend. This study implicates that dust and acidic air pollutants from continental sources can interact and affect iron solubility in aerosols in the marine atmosphere. However, due to the small size of samples in this study, more investigations need to be conducted in future.

Disinfection of microbes is of importance to prevent the spread of pathogens and non-indigenous species in the environment. Here we test the applicability of using flow cytometry (FCM) to evaluate inactivation of the phytoplankter Tetraselmis suecica after UV irradiation and labeling with the esterase substrate 5-carboxyfluorescein diacetate acetoxymethyl ester (CFDA-AM). Non-irradiated and UV irradiated samples were analyzed with the plate count technique and FCM for 24days. The numbers of colony forming units were used as a standard to develop a FCM protocol. Our protocol readily distinguishes live and dead cells, but challenges were encountered when determining whether UV damaged cells are dying or repairable. As damaged cells can represent a risk to aquatic organisms and/or humans, this was taken into account when developing the FCM protocol. In spite of the above mentioned challenges we argue that FCM represents an accurate and rapid method to analyze T. suecica samples.

Aerosol haze degrades visibility by the process of absorption and scattering of aerosols. In the present study an attempt has been made to characterize the physical and optical properties of aerosols during a haze event on 29 March 2012 and assess its implication on radiative forcing. In this context representative clear (2 March 2012) and normal (19 March 2012) days were identified in terms of their Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) loading over Hyderabad. On the hazy day, a huge spread of haze was observed over the eastern part of India by MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board Terra satellite which is represented by high Aerosol Optical Depth at 550nm. In-situ observations on hazy day showed an enhancement of columnar AOD500 respectively by 4.5 and 1.8 fold in comparison to clear and normal days. Significant increase in the scattering coefficient and a moderate enhancement of Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) are observed on hazy day compared to normal day. Study also showed that Diffuse-to-Direct- beam irradiance Ratio (DDR) had increased 4.5 times at 496.6nm spectral band on hazy day. LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) observations on hazy night showed a threefold increase in aerosol backscattering below the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) compared to normal representative night. The hazy day is characterized by large negative surface forcing (−87.82W m−2) when compared to normal day (−53.90W m−2). A large positive enhancement of atmospheric forcing of 30.56W m−2 is observed on hazy day compared to normal day.

546 Vibrio isolates from rearing seawater (292 strains) and intestines of abalone (254 strains) were tested to ten antibiotics using Kirby–Bauer diffusion method. Resistant rates of abalone-derived Vibrio isolates to chloramphenicol (C), enrofloxacin (ENX) and norfloxacin (NOR) were <28%, whereas those from seawater showed large fluctuations in resistance to each of the tested antibiotics. Many strains showed higher resistant rates (>40%) to kanamycin (KNA), furazolidone (F), tetracycline (TE), gentamicin (GM) and rifampin (RA). 332 isolates from seawater (n=258) and abalone (n=74) were resistant to more than three antibiotics. Peaked resistant rates of seawater-derived isolates to multiple antibiotics were overlapped in May and August. Statistical analysis showed that pH had an important effect on resistant rates of abalone-derived Vibrio isolates to RA, NOR, and ENX. Salinity and dissolved oxygen were negatively correlated with resistant rates of seawater-derived Vibrio isolates to KNA, RA, and PG.

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were measured in young-of-the-year (YOY) winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, collected from several Rhode Island, USA estuarine systems. These included three coastal lagoons, an estuarine river and Narragansett Bay. The δ13C trends observed along transects in several systems showed isotopically depleted terrestrial signals in the upper reaches of the estuaries. Significant differences (P<0.05) in δ15N were observed among all estuarine systems and these differences correlated (P<0.01) with human population densities in the watersheds. Although Narragansett Bay has a strong north–south gradient in nutrient concentrations this trend was not reflected in flounder δ15N. The northernmost station with the highest nutrient concentrations unexpectedly had significantly lower δ15N values. Depleted δ15N values at this nutrient-rich station may indicate that concentration-dependent fractionation needs to be considered when using nitrogen isotope ratios in biota to monitor anthropogenic nitrogen inputs in systems with high nitrogen loadings.

Since the 1980’s, within the Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, European countries have joined their efforts to abate atmospheric acid pollution. Nevertheless, nitrogen emissions and depositions remain significant under ongoing climate change. Nitrogen atmospheric deposition is known to severely impact ecosystem functioning by influencing soil biogeochemistry, nutrients balance and, consequently, tree growth, forest health and biodiversity. The concept of “critical loads” was used and models were improved to mitigate the impacts of N deposition, by considering conjointly effects of climate change and N atmospheric deposition, to assess the evolution of forest ecosystem status over time. The purpose of this study is to predict forest vegetation response to the combine effects of nitrogen atmospheric deposition and climate change by using a dynamic coupled biogeochemical-ecological model (ForSAFE-Veg). The Veg module is composed of 476 understory plant species representative of the main French forest ecosystems, and parameterized for a set of environmental factors based on expert advices. In this study, we propose a new parameterization for six main factors using statistical regressions models based on measured data for about 4000 forest sites. After validation using another independent set of vegetation relevés, the biogeochemical model ForSAFE-Veg was run using the most appropriate Veg module, on three forest sites from the french ICP Forest network. Changes in biodiversity were estimated by analysing the evolution of plants cover over100 years, and considering the impacts of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition scenarios separately and conjointly. The modelling outputs were considered at both species and ecological functional groups scales, to evaluate their relevance in characterizing nitrogen deposition influence on biodiversity. This will allow generalizing this approach to other species for which environmental factors are not easy to parameterize.

Pollutants via run-off into the ocean represent a potential threat to marine organisms, especially bivalves such as oysters living in coastal environments. These organisms filter large volumes of seawater and may accumulate contaminants within their tissues. Pesticide contamination in water could have a direct or indirect toxic action on tissues or cells and could induce alteration of immune system. Bivalve immunity is mainly supported by hemocytes and participates directly by phagocytosis to eliminate pathogens. Some studies have shown that pesticides can reduce immune defences and/or modify genomes in vertebrates and invertebrates. Metaldehyde is used to kill slugs, snails and other terrestrial gastropods. Although metaldehyde has been detected in surface waters, its effects on marine bivalves including the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, have never been studied. Given the mode of action of this molecule and its targets (molluscs), it could be potentially more toxic to oysters than other pesticides (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, etc.). Effects of metaldehyde on oyster hemocyte parameters were thus monitored through in vivo experiments based on a short-term exposure. In this work, metaldehyde at 0.1 μg/L, which corresponds to an average concentration detected in the environment, modulated hemocyte activities of Pacific oysters after an in vivo short-term contact. Individuals belonging to two families showed different behaviours for some hemocyte activities after contamination by metaldehyde. These results suggested that effects of pollutants on oysters may differ from an individual to another in relation to genetic diversity. Finally, it appears essential to take an interest in the effects of metaldehyde on a wide variety of aquatic invertebrates including those that have a significant economic impact.