Marine Pollution

Sources, Fate and Effects of Pollutants in Coastal Ecosystems

Ricardo Beiras

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780128137376
• Topic: Naturwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Meeresforschung

Marine Pollution: Sources, Fate and Effects of Pollutants in Coastal Ecosystems bring together the theoretical background on common and emerging marine pollutants and their effects on organisms (ecotoxicology). Written by a renowned expert in the field who is a researcher, teacher and advisor of national and international institutions on issues such as oil spills, water quality assessment and plastic pollution, this book offers a thorough account of the effects of pollutants on marine organisms, the relevant environmental regulations, and the public health implications, along with the biological tools advocated by the international institutions for marine pollution monitoring. Marine Pollution: Sources, Fate and Effects of Pollutants in Coastal Ecosystems presents information in a detailed and didactic manner, reviewing the latest scientific knowledge alongside examples of practical applications.

• Provides an in-depth analysis of the uptake, accumulation and fate of pollutants in the marine compartments
• Delivers a critical appraisal on biological tools for the practical monitoring of marine pollution
• Presents key concepts and case studies to provide a comprehensive study of the different categories of marine pollution and its effects

Part I

Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems

Outline

1. Chapter 1. Basic Concepts
2. Chapter 2. Nonpersistent Organic Pollution
3. Chapter 3. Nonpersistent Inorganic Pollution
4. Chapter 4. Microbial Pollution
5. Chapter 5. Liquid Wastes: From Self-purification to Waste Water Treatment
6. Chapter 6. Plastics and Other Solid Wastes
7. Chapter 7. Hydrocarbons and Oil Spills
8. Chapter 8. Persistent Organic Xenobiotics
9. Chapter 9. Trace Metals and Organometallic Compounds

Chapter 1

Basic Concepts

Abstract

Marine pollution is the introduction of substances or energy from humans into the marine environment resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities including fishing, impairment of quality for use of seawater, and reduction of amenities. The first inherent part of pollution is its human origin, i.e., pollution is an anthropogenic process derived from human activities. Pollution is a function of human population density (N), directly related to the degree of industrialization (i), and inversely related to cultural level (c): P = N×i/c. The second aspect inherent to pollution is the deleterious effects caused to organisms or humans. The most feared pollutants are the persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances. From shorter to longer environmental half-life pollutants can be dissipating, such as heat or nutrients; biodegradable, such as organic matter; or persistent, such as trace metals or organochlorines. The enrichment factor or ratio of the measured concentration by the background level quantifies pollution from a purely chemical standpoint, but exceedance above an ecotoxicologically based environmental quality criteria (EQC) provides a more sound indication of pollution. EQC values are derived from toxicity thresholds obtained from laboratory toxicity tests using organisms representative of the ecosystem to be protected. The overall degree of pollution of a site can be described by the chemical pollution index, defined as CPI = ∑_i log (C_i/EQC_i), were C_i is the measured concentration of the substance i and EQC_i is the respective criterion applicable for that matrix. Coastal ecosystems are more polluted than oceanic waters because of the proximity to point sources. Estuaries, and particularly their sediments, concentrate pollutants coming from continental waters due to geochemical processes such as precipitation and sedimentation.

Keywords

Chemical pollution index; Enrichment factor; Environmental quality criteria; Marine pollution; PBT chemicals

1.1. Pollution, an Anthropogenic Process

A formal definition of marine pollution

We normally understand as pollution the unwanted presence in the environment of diverse classes of toxic substances generated by human activities. As we will soon discuss, because of the main circulation pathways of matter in the environment, those inputs frequently end up in the sea. In the context of marine science, a more formal definition provided by a United Nations advisory board, though strongly anthropocentric, was very successful and quoted in the scientific literature. Marine pollution, according to that group of experts, is “the introduction by man of substances into the marine environment resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities including fishing, impairment of quality for use of seawater and reduction of amenities” (GESAMP 1969).¹ Latter developments of this definition added the introduction of energy to make clear that heat and radioactivity, already contemplated in the original definition, could also be considered pollutants, and specified that the introduction into the sea might also be indirect via riverine or atmospheric pathways.

In the context of maritime transportation, the same board² produced a list of 166 substances of major concern (Category 1), and their escape into the marine environment should universally be prevented because they may cause long-term or permanent damage, and 231 additional substances (Category 2) that because of their short-term effects represented a hazard only in certain scenarios. From this seminal report stems the many lists of so-called priority pollutants subsequently identified by agencies and institutions committed to environmental protection worldwide.

Pollution is quantitatively related to population density and energy consumption

The first aspect inherent to pollution thus is its human origin, i.e., pollution is an anthropogenic process derived from human activities. Climatic, geological, or oceanographic natural events (floods, earthquakes, red tides, etc.), even when they can be extremely harmful for the environment, are specifically excluded from the definition of pollution. Therefore, it is not surprising that the most polluted places were those supporting the highest human population densities. But not all human societies pollute the same. Since many physical and chemical pollutants are originated by industrial activities, industrialization is also quantitatively related to pollution. A good quantitative subrogate for the degree of industrialization is energy consumption. As illustrated in Fig. 1.1, the per capita ener...