Most harmful diatoms belong to the marine, planktonic genus Pseudo-nitzschia and are responsible for amnesic shellfish poisoning through the production of domoic acid. Fifteen Pseudo-nitzschia species, nine of them toxigenic (approximately 60% of the species found in our samples) were recovered from 185 ship ballast tanks (water and sediment) destined for Canadian ports. Our results demonstrate...

To assess the organochlorine contamination in the northeast coastal environment of Vietnam, a total of 41 surface sediments were collected from Ha Long Bay, Hai Phong Bay, and Ba Lat estuary, and analyzed for their organochlorine content. Organochlorine compounds (OCs) were widely distributed in the Vietnamese coastal environment. Among the OCs measured, DDT compounds predominated with concentr...

Seagrass bed ecosystems occupy the most important part of coastal shelf in the French West Indies. They also constitute nurseries for many invertebrates and fishes harvested by local fisheries. In Guadeloupe, coastal fish stocks are declining meanwhile several agroecosystems revealed to be heavily contaminated by pollutants (agricultural lands, rivers, mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs)...

The coastal zone represents varied and highly productive ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, sea grasses and sand dunes. These ecosystems are under pressure on account of increased anthropogenic activity on the coast, as a result of globalisation. It is necessary to protect these coastal ecosystems to ensure sustainable development. This requires information on habitats, landforms, coast...

Seagrass meadows are highly productive habitats that provide important ecosystem services in the coastal zone, including carbon and nutrient sequestration. Organic carbon in seagrass sediment, known as "blue carbon," accumulates from both in situ production and sedimentation of particulate carbon from the water column. Using a large-scale restoration (>1700 ha) in the Virginia coastal bays as a...

heavy metals in the surface sediments of the two coastal ecosystems of cochin, southwest india were assessed. the study intends to evaluate the degree of anthropogenic influence on heavy metal concentration in the sediments of the mangrove and adjacent estuarine stations using enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index. the inverse relationship of cd and zn with texture in the mangrove sedimen...

this study investigated the effects of sewage discharge on nutrient concentrations and bod5 levels in the coastal waters and sediments ofthe city of mombasa. the results indicated that nutrient concentrations in tudor, mtwapa and makupa creeks were elevated as compared to concentrations in gazi creek (mean ranges of 0.022-0.039mg/l, 0.038-0.163mg/l and 0.034-0.118mg/lphosphates, nitrates and a...

Distributions of arsenic and metals in surface sediments collected from the coastal and estuarine areas of the northern Bohai and Yellow Seas, China, were investigated. An ecological risk assessment of arsenic and metals in the sediments was evaluated by three approaches: the Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the degree of contamina...

Polychlorinated-dibenzo-p-dioxins and -dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were measured in soils and sediments from the Yellow Sea region. Korean soils and sediments mostly contained detectable PCDD/Fs and showed a widespread distribution among locations. Soil and sedimentary PCDD/Fs from China were comparable to or less than those in Korea. The patterns of relative concentrations of individual congeners ...