Sediment metal enrichment and ecological risk assessment of ten ports and estuaries in the World Harbours Project

Birch, G.F.; Lee, J.-H.; Tanner, Edwina; Fortune, Julia; Munksgaard, Niels C.; Whitehead, Jason; Coughanowr, C.; Agius, Janelle T.; Chrispijn, J.; Taylor, Ursula; Wells, Fred E.; Bellas, Juan; Besada, V.; Viñas, Lucía; Soares-Gomes, Abı́lio; Cordeiro, R. C.; Machado, Wilson; Santelli, Ricardo Erthal; Vaughan, M.; Cameron, Marcus; Brooks, Paul R.; Crowe, Tasman P.; Ponti, Massimo; Airoldi, Laura; Guerra, Roberta; Puente, Araceli; Gómez, Alberto Luís; Zhou, Guang‐Jie; Leung, Kenneth M.Y.; Steinberg, Peter D.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111129

Cited by 54 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…The catchment (578.2 km 2 ) is heavily urbanized and industrialized (>21%) [11], and activities include shipbuilding, canning, and automobile and steel manufacturing. Metal pollution is restricted to the inner estuary as a result of urban and industrial discharges and because of intense activity of the Port of Vigo with chronic Pb pollution due to discharge from a ceramic factory located at the head of the estuary [12]. Other sources are natural, related to catchment and upwelling processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastline Levels of Dissolved Heavy Metals in the Estuarine Water–System of Vigo

Cid

Falqué

Simal-Gándara

2021

IJERPH

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Limited attention has been directed toward the effects of maritime traffic on heavy metals and metalloids in seawater. Water samples were collected from the estuary of Vigo Ría in the summer of 2018. The chemical distribution of ten dissolved trace metals and metalloids (Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Hg, and Pb) in water was determined from north to south (where the biggest city in the region is) and from east to west (where the maritime traffic is higher). Metal concentration in waters showed that most metals were below recommended water quality criteria by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One of the samples had a Cu concentration higher at the entrance of the Vigo estuary, where maritime traffic is very important. Cu and Zn concentrations were highly correlated between them, showing a similar pollution origin, probably due to anti-fouling paints. Mn and Fe are elements influenced by river sources.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastline Levels of Dissolved Heavy Metals in the Estuarine Water–System of Vigo

Cid

Falqué

Simal-Gándara

2021

IJERPH

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“…Our results regarding the concentrations of Pb and As were consistent with Tian et al's reports, which had higher concentrations in pore water than in upper water. These results further indicated the accumulation of heavy metals in sediment and the risk of sediment releasing heavy metals into the overlying water (Reddy et al, 2004;Birch et al, 2020). Wu et al claimed that the As in the pore water were from lithogenic sources, and Pb and Cr might originate from anthropogenic activities, including traffic pollution and residual effects of former industrial practices (Wu et al, 2014).…”

Section: Historical Water Quality Can Be Recorded In the Sediment And Reflected By Microbial Communitymentioning

confidence: 89%

Deciphering Historical Water-Quality Changes Recorded in Sediments Using eDNA

Sun

Chen

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Reservoir sediments harbor abundant bacterial communities that are sensitive to substances transferred from the water column and might record historic water quality in environmental DNA (eDNA). The unique bacterial community along the sediment profile were retrieved based on eDNA in a reservoir to investigate potential links between water quality and the microbial population on a long-time scale. Bacterial communities in sediment samples gathered into three clusters along the depth (depths of 18–38, 8–18, and 1–7 cm). These three sections accumulated during three periods in which water quality was recorded in history (the pristine stage, degraded stage and remediated stage). Sediment samples from the degraded stage had lower microbial community evenness and diversity and higher microgAMBI indices than the other two sections, suggesting that poor water quality during that period was recorded in sedimental eDNA. After decades of biogeochemical cycles, statistical analysis revealed that the main factors affecting the microbial community were bromine, chlorine, and high molecular-weight PAHs in sediments from the degraded stage. The relevant functional groups Dehalococcoidia, Gemmatimonadales, Sva0485, Burkholderiales and Xanthomonadales might be indicators of the historical loading of these pollutants. Amending the microgAMBI index with our functional group of pollution can better illustrate the significant long-term environmental changes caused by historic anthropogenic activities. In sediments from the pristine stage with less pollution input, DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon) from the karst landform was the dominant factor controlling microbial communities. Whereas, the surface sediments, which accumulated during the remediated stage, had more correlation with chemistry, such as sulfate and heavy metals, in the overlying water. Our research revealed that historical changes in the water condition, that can be affected by anthropogenic activities, can be depicted by changes in the bacterial communities stored in the sediment using sedimental eDNA. Assessments of the bacterial communities in the sediments, either by describing their biodiversity or using particular species as indicators, would be potential proxies to describe historical environmental development of microbial communities.

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“…As such, it is possible the range of variation induced by anthropogenic perturbation is not sufficient to severely impact benthic ecosystems. This is even more relevant when we compare these results to other industrial harbor areas worldwide, where human influence is more pronounced (e.g., Hewitt et al, 2005;Borja et al, 2006;Chan et al, 2016;Birch et al, 2020). Other hypotheses may explain this, such as (i) high community resilience and resistance, (ii) limitation of effective impacts of activities by the dynamic of the ecosystem (e.g., flushing from tidal currents), and (iii) perturbation effects may be more pronounced on other components (such as phytoplankton or pelagic species).…”

Section: Implications For Sept-îles and Canadian Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining the Ecological Status of Benthic Coastal Communities: A Case in an Anthropized Sub-Arctic Area

et al. 2021

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With the widespread influence of human activities on marine ecosystems, evaluation of ecological status provides valuable information for conservation initiatives and sustainable development. To this end, many environmental indicators have been developed worldwide and there is a growing need to evaluate their performance by calculating ecological status in a wide range of ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This study calculated and contrasted sixteen indicators of ecological status from three methodological categories: abundance measures, diversity parameters and characteristic species. This selection was applied to coastal benthic ecosystems at Sept-Îles (Québec, Canada), an important industrial harbor area in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and related to habitat parameters (organic matter, grain size fractions, and heavy metal concentrations). Nearly all indicators highlighted a generally good ecological status in the study area, where communities presented an unperturbed profile with high taxa and functional diversities and without the dominance of opportunistic taxa. Some correlations with habitat parameters were detected, especially with heavy metals, and bootstrap analyses indicated quite robust results. This study provides valuable information on the application of environmental indicators in Canadian coastal ecosystems, along with insights on their use for environmental assessments.

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Sediment metal enrichment and ecological risk assessment of ten ports and estuaries in the World Harbours Project

Cited by 54 publications

References 118 publications

Coastline Levels of Dissolved Heavy Metals in the Estuarine Water–System of Vigo

Coastline Levels of Dissolved Heavy Metals in the Estuarine Water–System of Vigo

Deciphering Historical Water-Quality Changes Recorded in Sediments Using eDNA

Determining the Ecological Status of Benthic Coastal Communities: A Case in an Anthropized Sub-Arctic Area

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