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For millennia, human societies have viewed the ocean as a dumping ground for waste products of all kinds. The sources of marine pollution are extensive, including oil spills, sewage, fertilizers, pesticides, industrial wastes, heavy metals, ocean acidification, plastics, and even invasive species, considered biological pollution. Yet, the solutions are not as clear. Updated to reflect recent research, this book discusses the sources of marine pollutants, their effects on marine organisms and humans, and how to reduce or eliminate them. Weis covers the aftermath of oil spills in addition to'emerging'topics like flame retardants, pharmaceuticals, noise pollution, and PFAS. A new chapter examines the prevalence of microplastics and how they rise through the food chain into human beings, along with their associated toxic chemicals. Additional chapters address the deadly effects of climate change in the ocean but also focus on actions that all people can take, citing recent environmental improvements as a cause for hope.

This book presents an integrated and holistic discussion on cadmium, lead and mercury toxicity in aquatic environments, expanding general concepts on chemical speciation effects and exploring specific environmental toxicological issues, exposure routes, and bioanalytical approaches for their determination and assessments on their intracellular deleterious effects. It contains worldwide and regional aspects on cadmium, lead and mercury occurrence, fate, and toxicity, addressing key environmental exposure and health risk concerns to both humans and aquatic organisms. Our book is of interest to anyone conducting research in the broad fields of oceanography, geochemistry, ecotoxicology, and environmental and public health.

Au milieu des années 1960, le monde scientifique découvre que des substances toxiques de fabrication industrielle se retrouvent dans des organismes marins. Dix ans plus tard, les spécialistes des sciences marines tentent de déterminer l'ampleur du problème de la contamination des environnements marins et d'en comprendre les conséquences pour les écosystèmes : l'écotoxicologie marine, une discipline qui étudie le comportement et les effets néfastes des composés chimiques anthropiques sur les organismes marins et leurs écosystèmes, était née. Cet ouvrage fait la synthèse des connaissances sur la pollution marine. Après des chapitres généraux rappelant les notions de base en océanographie, la biogéochimie des agents toxiques, le développement et l'application des biomarqueurs et un survol des mécanismes de toxicité, sont présentées les grandes familles de polluants marins : les métaux, les polluants organiques persistants, les hydrocarbures pétroliers et les plastiques. Un chapitre est consacré aux nanoparticules qui forment un groupe à part à cause de leurs propriétés physico-chimiques et toxicologiques tout à fait spécifiques à leur taille infime. Les grands enjeux des changements climatiques – désoxygénation et acidification des océans – sont analysés. L'ouvrage s'achève sur une note optimiste avec les avancées récentes en restauration des milieux côtiers fragilisés et le développement rapide des aires marines protégées, signes évidents de la prise de conscience de la communauté internationale face à la dégradation des mers et des océans.

Oceans and Human Health: Opportunities and Impacts, Second Edition explores the inextricably interconnected and complex relationship between oceans and humans. Through the lens of the expanding oceans and human health meta-discipline, this work examines the many invaluable ecosystem services offered by oceans as well as the global anthropogenic impacts, and explores the associated risks and benefits to human health. Written and edited by an interdisciplinary team of experts, the book features international perspectives on the resources available to address these benefits and risks, including enhanced research, policy, and community engagement. The book concludes by examining the future of ocean stewardship and how global populations can unite to nurture and promote our life-enhancing relationship with oceans. This is an indispensable resource for students, researchers, communities, and industry specialists in marine sciences, public health, and international policy. - Addresses benefits, opportunities, risks, and impacts resulting from the relationship between oceans and humans, informed by more than 100 international authors - Identifies and links necessary tools to relevant disciplines for action, and provides illustrative international case studies - Covers scientific, socioeconomic, political, and ethical analyses behind the latest ocean and human health research - Provides study questions and horizon scans at the end of each chapter to encourage individual thought and action, offering a resource for course instructors, students, and communities

Plastic Pollution and Marine Conservation: Approaches to Protect Biodiversity and Marine Life provides comprehensive knowledge on the consequences of plastic waste in marine environments at different levels, ranging from ecological and biological, to social, economic and political. The book synthesizes historical information, gaps in current knowledge, and recent discoveries by illustrating the main stages that made plastics a global issue for ocean ecosystems and their wildlife. Written by international experts on marine pollution, marine biology, and management of environmental resources, this book explores the main topics of marine plastic pollution such as input quantification, polluting sources, ultimate fate, ecological consequences, and more. This an important resource for a wide audience, including marine conservationists, environmental managers, decision-makers, NGOs, private companies, and activists working to combat plastics in our seas and oceans. - Illustrates the evolution of plastics, from revolutionary materials to global environmental emergency - Discusses marine plastic pollution with scientific rigor and easy language that is supported by graphics and tables - Led by a team of editors with expertise in biology, pollution, conservation and policies of marine wildlife, biodiversity and ecosystems

Increased industrialization and urbanization has polluted the marine environment, the largest ecosystem. Hence, sincere efforts must be made to decontaminate marine ecosystem for sustainable use of oceans and their bioresources. Microbial population in the marine environment plays a very crucial role in degrading, transforming and detoxifying the pollutants. This book presents contributions from leading scientists across the globe who have worked extensively on polluted marine ecosystem in removal of pollutants, mycoremediation of salinity ingressed soils, etc. This book will be useful to the scientific community, stake holders and policy makers involved in research related to environmental microbiology and marine microbiology in particular. The book will also be of benefit to the student community interested in marine microbial bioremediation.

Marine Environments: Diversity, Threats and Conservation presents important challenges and advances in the field of marine bioindicators in recent years, which could be relevant for integrative monitoring purposes and the development of new approaches and technologies in marine pollution monitoring. The authors describe history of the development of organophosphorus pesticides, their behavior, currents concentrations in marine environments, and effects on marine biota. The environmental behavior of organochlorine pesticides is reviewed, along with their effects on biota in global marine coastal environments, noting that these compounds are still detectable and potentially harmful. In one study, stranded cetaceans and Pacific cods are used as indicator species to compare the contamination levels of radiocesium in three seas shortly after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident in 2011. A comparison between different extraction and detection techniques used for the determination of organic and inorganic pollutants in environmental matrices such as biota, water, and sediment is investigated. Additionally, the authors address the influence of plastic pollution on marine environments through continental water bodies. The potential application of the UV/persulfate process for the degradation of emerging organic pollutants in seawater is discussed, using chlorazol black as a substrate model. The implications of atmospheric transport in the circulation of organochlorine pesticides are considered, presenting the relevance of atmospheric deposition to the oceans as a key process that affects marine environments. The penultimate chapter assesses the health of Black Sea fish species belonging to different ecological groups. In particular, the hystopathological and biochemical biomarkers of the blood, spleen and liver are studied. In closing, the authors propose a Containerized Marine Knowledge System by means of IoT-Cloud and LoRaWAN to improve marine environment monitoring.

Marine debris is a persistent problem in many coastal areas of the United States. There are a variety of potential economic losses associated with marine debris, including effects on commercial fisheries, effects on waterfront property values, costs incurred by local governments and volunteer organizations to remove and dispose of marine debris, and more general “existence” values reflecting the public's preference for a clean environment. This book discusses marine debris and steps to mitigate its effects.

During the recent decades, social, political and academic endeavours have been made to improve environmental quality and reduce pollution. In particular, the ocean, sea and coastal areas show varying degrees of impact from the multiple human activities carried out in the terrestrial as well as in the aquatic environment. Ecology is a science which studies the relationship between organisms and the surrounding environment and in the modern era, the marine world is getting increasing attention. For centuries it has been the final reservoir of human garbage; later it became an oil farm with a concomitant increase of coastal population growth and unplanned growth of the fishing industry and the increasing use of sea routes for cargo transport and recreational uses (cruises). All this led to rising contamination with negative effects on biota and even human health. It is then imperative to know the current situation of the world's oceans: that is the main purpose of this book, to document at a glance the latest research in the field of ocean pollution.

Plastics have transformed every aspect of our lives. Yet the very properties that make them attractive—they are cheap to make, light, and durable—spell disaster when trash makes its way into the environment. Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution is a beautifully-illustrated survey of the plastics clogging our seas, their impacts on wildlife and people around the world, and inspirational initiatives designed to tackle the problem. In Plastic Soup, Michiel Roscam Abbing of the Plastic Soup Foundation reveals the scope of the issue: plastic trash now lurks on every corner of the planet. With striking photography and graphics, Plastic Soup brings this challenge to brilliant life for readers. Yet it also sends a message of hope; although the scale of the problem is massive, so is the dedication of activists working to check it. Plastic Soup highlights a diverse array of projects to curb plastic waste and raise awareness, from plastic-free grocery stores to innovative laws and art installations. According to some estimates, if we continue on our current path, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by the year 2050. Created to inform and inspire readers, Plastic Soup is a critical tool in the fight to reverse this trend.

The use of nanoparticles in medicine, industrial, and other applications has triggered an interest in their potential. This book explores the use of nanoparticles related to their occurrence in the environment, their impact on biota in aquatic systems, application of new methodologies, and changes associated with new global scenarios. The book also covers the bioaccumulation and internalization of nanoparticles as key aspects to assess their uptake and discusses the methodologies for testing ENPs ecotoxicity at different trophic levels.

This book presents a broad overview of pollution issues facing climatic, economic, and legal globalization. Topics include changes in oceans from ancient times to the present, the importance of marine currents and changing climates, marine pollution linked to climate change (fossil fuels, global carbon dioxide, heavy metals, pesticides, plastics, emerging pollutants, and marine debris), global shipping and species invasion, global climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic environments, and regulatory responses to mitigate pollution and climate change in oceans.

As a society, we use more than 100,000 different industrial compounds to promote health and treat disease, to grow food and to access clean water. While technological developments have improved our lives, most of these compounds end up in our oceans where they threaten marine life and human health. The practice of ocean waste disposal has had a long history and was initially believed to have minimal associated costs. However, it is now clear that although we can use the oceans for cheap waste treatment, we do this at the expense of the other key benefits we derive from the sea, notably human food supplies as well as its aesthetic value (including opportunities for recreation and tourism). Many of the pollution problems of previous decades appear to have been solved in the developed world, or at least managed to minimise their environmental impacts. However, despite treatment being available for some waste products, a potent mixture of toxic compounds and other potentially harmful additions continue to enter the marine environment every day. So, have the problems of marine pollution really been solved or have we simply generated a suite of different and potentially more complex challenges? In this volume we consider marine pollution from the perspective of the historical problems that are now successfully managed or solved, the ongoing problems and the emerging challenges that we face. These include hormone mimics, the residues from pharmaceuticals, nanometre-sized particles added to new materials, the millimetric plastics added to shampoos and cosmetics, the artificial fibres in the clothes we wear, and the noise and light pollution from our expanding industries and cities. Marine Pollution is aimed at senior undergraduates, masters and graduate level students studying marine sciences. It will also serve as a useful reference for researchers and professionals working in the fields of environmental management, marine planning, marine environmental regulation and protection, as well as those working for government departments, environmental NGOs and marine environmental consultancies.

Our knowledge of the oceans is increasing rapidly, as more powerful tools for exploration and exploitation make it easier to locate valuable resources, such as fish stocks, oil and gas reserves, or sites for wind and hydropower schemes. At the same time competition for space has intensified, affecting marine life and people's livelihoods. Much has been written about marine management using marine protected areas, but MPAs are only a small subset of spatial management tools available. MPAs and MPA networks are better seen as starting points for more comprehensive spatial management, facilitated by ocean zoning. This logical scaling up from discreet piecemeal protected areas to larger and more systematic planning is happening around the world, but few are aware that we are entering a brave new world in ocean management with zoning at its core. This book provides guidance on using ocean zoning to improve marine management. It reviews the benefits of ocean zoning in theory, reviews progress made in zoning around the world through a wide range of case studies, and derives lessons learned to recommend a process by which future zoning can be maximally effective and efficient. Published with MARES, Forest Trends and UNEP

Written by experts in the field, Coastal and Estuarine Risk Assessment explores the science of exposure, effect, and risk. This is the first book to address the application of the current risk assessment paradigm from the National Research Council to coastal and estuarine environments. It provides the necessary applications for modifying the paradigm and shows how to use it to perform an effective assessment. Topics include: fate and bioavailability of organic compounds, emerging contaminants, effects of populations, effects to marine mammals, risk from multiple stressors, European approaches to risk assessment, effects of land use, and more.

This extensive handbook presents up-to-date coverage of significant developments in estuarine and marine pollution. Multidisciplinary in approach, Practical Handbook of Estuarine and Marine Pollution is an essential resource for anyone involved in the study or management of coastal and marine pollution problems. The book examines in detail anthropogenic effects on estuarine and marine ecosystems from local, regional, and global perspectives. A truly international collection of data is presented in an organized framework on a wide range of subject areas, including eutrophication, organic loading, oil pollution, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, trace metals, radioactive waste, dredging and dredged-spoil disposal, and effects of electric generating stations. Whether you are a student, a scientist, a policy maker, or an administrator, you no longer need to spend countless hours rounding up information and data - Practical Handbook of Estuarine and Marine Pollution has already done it for you.