The topic of this work was based on the assessment of aquatic systems quality related to the persistent metal pollution. The use of aquatic organisms as bioindicators of metal pollution allowed the obtaining of valuable information about the acute and chronic toxicity on common Romanian aquatic species and the estimation of the environment quality. Laboratory toxicity results showed that Cd, "s, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Zr, and Ti have toxic to very toxic efects on Cyprinus carpio, and this observation could raise concerns because of its importance as a ishery resource. The benthic invertebrates' analysis showed that bioaccumulation level depends on species, type of metals, and sampling sites. The metal analysis from the shells of three mollusk species showed that the metals involved in the metabolic processes (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Mg) were more accumulated than the toxic ones (Pb, Cd). The bioaccumulation factors of metals in benthic invertebrates were subunitary, which indicated a slow bioaccumulation process in the studied aquatic ecosystems. The preliminary aquatic risk assessment of Ni, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, "s, and Zn on C. carpio revealed insigniicant to moderate risk considering the measured environmental concentrations, acute and long-term efects and environmental compartment.Keywords: metals, ish, crustaceans, benthic invertebrates, toxicity, LC 0, M"TC, bioaccumulation, risk © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. . IntroductionMetals are constantly released in aquatic systems from natural and anthropic sources such as industrial and domestic sewage discharges, mining, farming, electronic waste, anthropic accidents, navigation traic as well as climate change events like loods (Figure ) [1, 2]. Moreover, metals are easily dissolved in water and are subsequently absorbed by aquatic organisms such as ish and invertebrates inducing a wide range of biological efects, from being essential for living organisms to being lethal, respectively. In spite of the fact that some metals are essential at low concentrations for living organisms, such as (i) micronutrients (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Mo, Cr, and Se) and (ii) macronutrients (Ca, Mg, Na, P, and S) at higher concentrations, they could induce toxic efects disturbing organisms' growth, metabolism, or reproduction with consequences to the entire trophic chain, including on humans [3]. In addition, the nonessential metals such as Pb, Cd, Ni, "s, and Hg enhance the overall toxic efect on organisms even at very low concentrations. ...

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The soils situated near the abandoned mines are highly polluted with metals due to the discharge and dispersion of mine waste into nearby air, water (surface and groundwater) and soil. Heavy metals may be transferred to humans through ingestion, inhalation or dermal absorption and can produce serious health problems affect the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, hematopoietic function and cellular metabolism. This paper investigates the presence of metallic elements from fourteen soil samples (seven sampling points) and thirty-six vegetation samples (different types of leaves, plants, roots and tree barks). The samples were collected from six different sites located in an abandoned mining area and from a point (blank sample) located 5 km in the SV direction of the quarry. The results obtained for soil samples show an overrun of the alert and / or intervention threshold for the following metals: arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, lead and zinc. The analytical investigation for vegetation samples indicated that concentration for calcium, magnesium, cadmium, chromium, manganese, nickel, lead, zinc were situated over the normal range in some samples. The analytical investigations were performed by optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The study�s conclusion indicates that, as result of soil acidic pH and high mobility of some metals, metallic elements migrate from soil to vegetation.

Water quality is assessed through the biological, physical and chemical parameters. The limits of these parameters that are harmful to human health have been established at national or international level (WHO, EPA, MECC) by various laws, regulations, normative. An efficient and simplified to express the quality of water for consumption is given by the water quality index. It reflects the quality of water in a single value by comparing data obtained from the investigation of a number of physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters with existing limits. This number is placed on a relative scale to justify the quality of water in categories ranging from very poor to excellent. In this study are discussed various water quality indices used to assess the quality of drinking water (surface water). National and international agencies involved in assessing water quality and pollution control defines different quality criteria used for drinking water which is why there are many water quality specific indices for each region or area. In this context, it will present a comparative study of the most important quality indices used to assess water quality worldwide.

The presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic ecosystem has received great attention from the scientific community in the last decades, due to their potential impact on living organisms. This paper presents a short review of the results of investigations performed by INCD-ECOIND concerning the occurrence of 32 pharmaceutical compounds belonging to important therapeutic classes and 2 disinfectants along the Danube River and its tributaries. Grab water samples were collected from multiple points along the River (10 sites) and from 2 locations for each of the tributaries Jiu, Olt and Argeș, upstream and downstream of large cities. All samples were quantified via solid phase extraction, followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results of these studies show that various pharmaceutical compounds are present in the dissolved water phase of the Danube River and its tributaries in low to moderate amounts with variation due to season and location.