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A comprehensive assessment of the potential adverse effects on environment and human health generated by the inputs of chemicals from the most important Libyan petrochemical plant is presented. Ecotoxicological risk associated with the presence of As, Hg, Ni, Zn and PAHs in marine sediments is low or moderate, with a probability of toxicity for ecosystem <9% and <20% for heavy metals and PAHs respectively. However, surface sediments result strongly enriched in Hg and As of anthropogenic origin. Investigation of metals in fish allowed to assess potential risks for human populations via fish intake. Target hazard quotients values indicate potential risk associated to toxic metals exposure by fish consumption and lifetime cancer risk (TR) values highlight a potential carcinogen risk associated to As intake. Noteworthy, the presented results provide an unprecedented environmental dataset in an area where the availability of field data is very scant, for a better understanding of anthropogenic impacts at Mediterranean scale., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hazard from shipwrecks on communities by a holistic approach taking into account different effects on biological communities. Multibeam and Remotely Operated Vehicles surveys recorded ecological assessment of fish and benthic species on three shipwrecks flooded during the Second World War on Maërl beds habitats in the strait of Sicily. Pollution levels of a wide range of chemicals of ecotoxicological concern were also measured in sediments and in fish species from different trophic levels. Statistical analysis evidenced significant differences among pollutant levels between both sediments and fish collected in shipwreck sites and controls. Concerning fish, significant effects due to the vessel's cargo type and flooding position are recorded. In spite of that, our results underline that shipwrecks are also a hotspots of biodiversity and a habitat for preservation strategies in marine ecosystems that need to be monitored., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study investigates living benthic foraminiferal assemblages as bio-indicators of anthropogenic activities in a coastal area within the Gulf of Palermo (Sicily, Italy), affected by industrial and urban activities, and evaluates the environmental quality through the calibration of a Tolerant Species index (%TS std ). Sediments from 6 stations were sampled along a bathymetric transect from the coast to offshore. Sediment grain size, TOC, major, minor and trace elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were compared to benthic foraminiferal assemblages and species at each station. Diversity and density of benthic foraminiferal assemblages were not affected by the presence of pollutants, while tolerant species increased with organic (TOC and PAHs) or chemical (As and Pb) concentrations. Moreover, the calibration of the %TS std formula to >125μm foraminiferal assemblage, gives a detailed description of environmental quality along the transect, representing a good and sensitive tool to evaluate marine coastal environment., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Concentrations of trace elements (Cd, Pb, As, V, Cr, Ni, Cu and Zn) were determined in superficial sediments and in muscle and hepatopancreas tissues of the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii from Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi Natural Reserve (SW Sicily). In particular, hepatopancreas showed a decidedly higher content of all analysed trace elements with respect to muscles (two- to threefold higher for Cd, Cu, As, Zn and V; four- to fivefold higher for Pb and Cr and seven times higher for Ni). However, no statistically reliable differential accumulation pattern emerged with regard to length and weight for trace elements (except for Cd for which significant positive correlations with length were recorded). Trace element concentrations found in crayfish tissues were in the range considered harmful to human health (except for Cd and Cr). Moreover, the As and Pb concentrations, either in sediment or crayfish tissues, are clearly related to intense agricultural activities, with extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides, that significantly affect the levels of these toxic metals in the study area.

Sources of anthropogenic pollution were categorised by combining elemental and isotopic techniques (C/N ratios and δ(13)C, δ(15)N) on samples of surficial sediments in the harbour of Naples (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). The study area, due to the intense and diversified industrial and commercial activities, is an appropriate natural laboratory to verify reliability and relevance of geochemical methodologies applied to exploration of sources, pathways and fate of contaminants in highly polluted coastal marine systems. Application of cluster analysis to the whole dataset and resolution of a δ(13)C and δ(15)N Moore-Penrose system equation provided information to reliably discriminate and identify anthropogenic point sources in the studied sediments. In particular, effects of oil spilling and wastewater discharge within the area of the harbour of Naples were clearly discriminated thus suggesting high-potential of the two numerical techniques, applied to the C and N elemental and isotopic values, to explore effects of anthropogenic impact in marginal and confined coastal basins. The δ(15)N values showed high sensitivity to discriminate sewage discharges (treated or untreated organic matter), clearly indicating the point of emissions. The δ(13)C shows indirect capability of discriminating crude oil and petroleum products.

Concentrations of rare earth elements (REE), Y, Th and Sc were recently determined in marine sediments collected using a box corer along two onshore-offshore transects located in the Strait of Sicily (Mediterranean Sea). The REE+Y were enriched in offshore fine-grained sediments where clay minerals are abundant, whereas the REE+Y contents were lower in onshore coarse-grained sediments with high carbonate fractions. Considering this distribution trend, the onshore sediments in front of the southwestern Sicilian coast represent an anomaly with high REE+Y concentrations (mean value 163.4 μg g(-1)) associated to high Th concentrations (mean value 7.9 μg g(-1)). Plot of shale-normalized REE+Y data of these coastal sediments showed Middle REE enrichments relative to Light REE and Heavy REE, manifested by a convexity around Sm-Gd-Eu elements. These anomalies in the fractionation patterns of the coastal sediments were attributed to phosphogypsum-contaminated effluents from an industrial plant, located in the southern Sicilian coast., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A systematic investigation evaluated the concentrations of a selected number of trace elements (Cd, Co, Cu, Li, Ni, Pb, V and Zn) in carbonates of the benthic foraminifera Ammonia tepida collected from surface sediments of the highly polluted harbour of Naples. Application of cleaning procedures, combined with Scanning Electron Microscopy investigation (SEM) of the analysed shells allowed reliable quantification of the elements in the carbonate lattice. Adoption of biogenic carbonate/seawater distribution coefficients reported in the literature provided the ranges of variability of total dissolved trace elements in the studied marine environment. Very high concentrations of Zn, Cd, and Cu calculated in seawater (from 100 to 10,000 times higher than those reported for uncontaminated Mediterranean seawaters) testify to intense effects of anthropogenic impact on the harbour mainly related to the industrial and commercial activities carried out in the neighbouring area. The ensemble of the obtained results emphasizes the high potential of measurements of trace elements in the biogenic carbonates of benthic foraminifera as tracers of anthopogenic pollution of seawater and reliable proxies of potentially bioavailable forms (as free ions and/or more labile organic complexes) of seawater dissolved metals.

We propose a detailed investigation on the distribution patterns of the benthic foraminiferal assemblage and their predominant species in the highly contaminated marine sediments of the Naples harbour. Combined use of multivariate canonical, cluster and principal component analysis in a proper geostatistic framework provided an appropriate approach to explore the role played by a number of contaminants (heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, heavy hydrocarbons, PCBs) and different physical parameters (grain size, pH, redox potential, total organic carbon) on the spatial distribution of the benthic foraminiferal assemblage and its single species. Obtained results provide evidence for a high and systematic non-linear response of the biota to the effects of contamination of the different classes of pollutants. The reduced number of specimens per sample, their small dimensions and low diversity, testify the negative effects of a highly contaminated environment. For this reason, it appears very difficult to clearly identify a differential sensitivity of different benthic species to single classes of contaminants. In particular, in addition to a number of case studies which invoked a key role of the heavy metals in the control of the distribution patterns of the benthic foraminifera in the marine environment, the results presented here underline an important effect of some classes of organic compounds (particularly the volatile organic compounds) on the distribution patterns of the benthic assemblage. However, the obtained results demonstrate that any kind of oversimplification would unquestionably cancel the strong complexity of the biotic response to combined effects of different coexisting contaminants.

The analysis of 90 surficial sediments from three docks of the Naples Harbour (Levante, Granili, and Diaz) permits to compare the distribution modes of heavy metals with grain sizes, total organic carbon content (TOC) and distribution patterns of benthic foraminifera. Foraminiferal density and species richness decrease with the increasing toxic elements concentrations from the Levante to the Diaz dock. Median concentrations of Ni, Pb, Zn, and Hg (medians of 21.43 mg/kg, 270.24 mg/kg, 489.65 mg/kg, and 1.18 mg/kg, respectively) were reported for the Diaz dock where foraminifera are absent, thus suggesting a possible impact of toxic elements on the benthic ecosystem balance. Compared to the unpolluted marine sediments of the Granili dock, the Levante area shows higher heavy metals levels and a quasi-oligotypic benthic assemblage. This is dominated by the tolerant species Ammonia tepida that may be used as bio-indicator of pollution of anthropised marine sediments.