Ten sediment core samples with lengths ranging from 35 to 100cm were collected in the Baixada Santista region and analyzed to determine As, Br, Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Rb, Sb, Ta, Th, U, Zn and rare earths (Sc, Ce, Eu, La, Lu, Nd, Sm, Tb and Yb) level concentrations using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The studied region is located in the southeastern coast of São Paulo State and is comprised of a densely urbanized area, the largest industrial complex of the country, with a predominance of petrochemical and fertilizer plants. It is also home to Brazil’s most important and busiest port. The conclusions found that the As, La, Sm, Ne, Ce, Eu, Hf, Ta, Th, and U elements have a high background level in the region and that Fe and Zn were the main indicators of anthropogenic contribution in the sediments.

This study evaluated the contamination status and distribution of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) between Xinghua Bay and adjacent watersheds in Putian region, southeast China. Twenty-five surface soil samples and two sediment cores were collected from two watersheds and the Xinghua Bay, respectively. Results showed that the concentrations of OCPs in samples of the Mulan River Watershed (MRW), the Qiulu River Watershed (QRW), the inner bay core (IBC) and the open bay core (OBC) were in the range of 4.96–38.20ng/g, 4.62–22.80ng/g, 1.84–80.46ng/g and 1.87–23.43ng/g, respectively. The mean concentration of OCPs was in an order: IBC>MRW>QRW>OBC. The higher concentration of OCPs in recent periods may suggest that a certain amount of OCPs were still input to this area.

Coral community structure is often governed by a suite of processes that are becoming increasingly influenced by land-use changes and related terrestrial discharges. We studied sites along a watershed gradient to examine both the physical environment and the associated biological communities. Transplanted corals showed no differences in growth rates and mortality along the watershed gradient. However, coral cover, coral richness, and coral colony density increased with increasing distance from the mouth of the bay. There was a negative relationship between coral cover and mean suspended solids concentration. Negative relationships were also found between terrigenous sedimentation rates and the richness of adult and juvenile corals. These results have major implications not only for Pacific islands but for all countries with reef systems downstream of rivers. Land development very often leads to increases in river runoff and suspended solids concentrations that reduce coral cover and coral diversity on adjacent reefs.

Heavy oil (HO) on the sea surface penetrates into fish eggs and prevents the normal morphogenesis. To identify the toxicological effects of HO in the context of the egg types, we performed exposure experiments using floating eggs and sinking eggs. In the course of development, HO-exposed embryos of floating eggs showed abnormal morphology, whereas early larva of the sinking eggs had almost normal morphology. However, the developing peripheral nervous system of sinking eggs showed abnormal projections. These findings suggest that HO exposed fishes have problems in the developing neurons, although they have no morphological malformations. Through these observations, we conclude that HO is strongly toxic to floating eggs in the morphogenesis, and also affect the neuron development in both floating and sinking eggs.

Data on shipping traffic in one of the busiest seaports in the world, the Port of Kaohsiung, were analyzed to evaluate the implications for ballast water management. Results show that 67% of the arriving vessels were registered to a flag of convenience, which typically have a lower degree of environmental records. The top five donor countries historically suffer from harmful algal bloom problems. The short journey and busy trading between these countries and Taiwan lead to a higher risk of inoculation. In addition, only 1.4% of all vessels visited more than once every year during the 9-year span, indicating that the port authority encounters many new vessels each year. These findings could influence the design and application of ballast water management strategies as well as highlight the challenges in their implementation. We suggest that an analysis of vessel traffic patterns should be coupled with other useful vessel information to make risk assessment successful.

A management proposal aims to partly remove a WWII military causeway at Palmyra Atoll to improve lagoon water circulation and alleviate sedimentation stress on the southeast backreef, an area of high coral cover and diversity. This action could result in a shift in sedimentation across reef sites. To provide management advice, we quantified the proximate environmental factors driving scleractinian coral cover and community patterns at Palmyra. The proportion of fine sedimentation was the optimal predictor of coral cover and changes in community structure, explaining 23.7% and 24.7% of the variation between sites, respectively. Scleractinian coral cover was negatively correlated with increases in fine sedimentation. Removing the causeway could negatively affect the Montipora corals that dominate the western reef terrace, as this genus was negatively correlated with levels of fine sedimentation. The tolerance limits of corals, and sediment re-distribution patterns, should be determined prior to complete removal of the causeway.

Hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) technique was used as a clean-up procedure for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) in fish tissue. In this study, eight OPPs were first extracted with acetone from fish sample, the organic extract after rotatory evaporation was then redissolved with water–methanol (95:5, v/v) solution, followed by polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) HF-LPME. Experimental HF-LPME and other sample preparation conditions were carefully investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, good linearity were observed in the range of 20–500ng/g, limits of detections (LODs) were in the range of 2.1–4.5ng/g. The repeatability and recovery of the method also showed satisfactory results. Compared with traditional sample preparation method for the determination of OPPs in fish tissue, the method developed in this study eliminated the solid phase extraction (SPE) step, simplified the sample preparation procedure and lowered the cost of analysis.

The newly introduced polychaete Linopherus canariensis Langerhans, 1881 was found in the Lake of Faro (NE Sicily), during a study comparing the macrobenthos in artificial modules with a neighboring sandy bottom assemblage. Of a total of 4465 specimens, almost 6% showed morphological variation related to branchial turfs and mean body size. The sandy bottom exhibited an average density of 41.86indL⁻¹ and a wet biomass of 30.35mgL⁻¹, whereas the artificial substratum reached levels of 205.29indL⁻¹ and 318.44mgL⁻¹. The highest estimated immigration rate was 3.7indL⁻¹d⁻¹ (5.8mgL⁻¹d⁻¹). In the artificial microhabitat, 0.4% of the population showed mid-anterior fragmentation, with anterior- (2%), mid- (<1%) and posterior- (1%) regenerating lineages, which contributed significantly to the dispersion ability of this species. L. canariensis was a selective micro-deposit feeder, even under conditions of reduced sediments. Linopherus was found to be a new potential invader of stressed environments that is probably tied to the import of oysters.

This study focuses on the necessary elements to implement strategic mitigation in order to avoid Cuvier’s beaked whale (CBW) strandings linked to intense sound sources, such as military active sonars, in the Mediterranean Sea. A careful review of stranding data and the analysis of existing survey results are required to highlight the main characters of the species regional distribution. Focused and repeated surveys are needed to confirm that possible favourable areas, such as the Balearic, Tyrrhenian or Aegean Seas, are really favourable CBW habitats. These surveys should be carried out with sea states 0 to 1 in order to minimize the risk of false absence data. Among the regions of interest, the central Tyrrhenian Sea was surveyed with a 12m sailboat in 2007 and 2008. With 907km of effective effort, a mean sighting rate of 1.9 CBW school/100km was obtained, which is amongst the highest densities recorded in the Mediterranean.

We examined Cu contamination effects on macrobenthic communities and Cu concentration in invertebrates within Shelter Island Yacht Basin, San Diego Bay, California. Results indicate that at some sites, Cu in sediment has exceeded a threshold for “self defense” mechanisms and highlight the potential negative impacts on benthic faunal communities where Cu accumulates and persists in sediments. At sites with elevated Cu levels in sediment, macrobenthic communities were not only less diverse but also their total biomass and body size (individual biomass) were reduced compared to sites with lower Cu. Cu concentration in tissue varied between species and within the same species, reflecting differing abilities to “regulate” their body load. The spatial complexity of Cu effects in a small marina such as SIYB emphasizes that sediment-quality criteria based solely on laboratory experiments should be used with caution, as they do not necessarily reflect the condition at the community and ecosystem levels.