The Chagos Archipelago was designated a no-take marine protected area (MPA) in 2010; it covers 550 000 km2, with more than 60 000 km2 shallow limestone platform and reefs. This has doubled the global cover of such MPAs.It contains 25–50% of the Indian Ocean reef area remaining in excellent condition, as well as the world’s largest contiguous undamaged reef area. It has suffered from warming episodes, but after the most severe mortality event of 1998, coral cover was restored after 10 years.Coral reef fishes are orders of magnitude more abundant than in other Indian Ocean locations, regardless of whether the latter are fished or protected.Coral diseases are extremely low, and no invasive marine species are known.Genetically, Chagos marine species are part of the Western Indian Ocean, and Chagos serves as a ‘stepping-stone’ in the ocean.The no-take MPA extends to the 200 nm boundary, and. includes 86 unfished seamounts and 243 deep knolls as well as encompassing important pelagic species.On the larger islands, native plants, coconut crabs, bird and turtle colonies were largely destroyed in plantation times, but several smaller islands are in relatively undamaged state.There are now 10 ‘important bird areas’, coconut crab density is high and numbers of green and hawksbill turtles are recovering.Diego Garcia atoll contains a military facility; this atoll contains one Ramsar site and several ‘strict nature reserves’. Pollutant monitoring shows it to be the least polluted inhabited atoll in the world. Today, strict environmental regulations are enforced.Shoreline erosion is significant in many places. Its economic cost in the inhabited part of Diego Garcia is very high, but all islands are vulnerable.Chagos is ideally situated for several monitoring programmes, and use is increasingly being made of the archipelago for this purpose.

of the original manuscript:Wang, R.; Tang, J.; Xie, Z.; Mi, W.; Chen, Y.; Wolschke, H.; Tian, C.; Pan, X.; Luo, Y., Ebinghaus, R.:Occurrence and spatial distribution of organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers in 40 rivers draining into the Bohai Sea, north China

In 2030, the World Health Organization estimates that more than 350 million people will be diagnosed with diabetes. Consequently, Metformin - the biguanide drug of choice orally administered for diabetes type II - is anticipated to see a spike in production. Unlike many pharmaceutical drugs, Metformin (Met) is not metabolized by humans but passes through the body unchanged. Entering aquatic compartments, such as in sewage, it can be bacterially transformed to the ultimate transformation product Guanylurea (Gua). Sampling over one week (n=5) from a Southern German sewage treatment plant revealed very high average (AV) concentrations in influent (AVMet=111,800ng/L, AVGua=1300ng/L) and effluent samples (AVMet=4800ng/L, AVGua=44,000ng/L). To provide a more complete picture of the distribution and potential persistence of these compounds in the German water cycle, a new, efficient and highly sensitive liquid chromatography mass spectrometric method with direct injection was used for the measurement of Metformin and Guanylurea in drinking, surface, sewage and seawater. Limits of quantification (LOQ) ranging from 2-10ng/L allowed the detection of Metformin and Guanylurea in different locations such as: Lake Constance (n=11: AVMet=102ng/L, AVGua=16ng/L), river Elbe (n=12: AVMet=472ng/L, AVGua=9ng/L), river Weser (n=6: AVMet=349ng/L, AVGua=137ng/L) and for the first time in marine North Sea water (n=14: AVMet=13ng/L, AVGua=11ng/L). Based on daily water discharges, Metformin loads of 15.2kg/d (Elbe) and 6.4kg/d (Weser) into the North Sea were calculated. Lake Constance is used to abstract potable water which is further purified to be used as drinking water. A first screening of two tap water samples contained 2ng/L and 61ng/L of Metformin, respectively. The results of this study suggest that Metformin and Guanylurea could be distributed over a large fraction of the world's potable water sources and oceans. With no natural degradation processes, these compounds can be easily reintroduced to humans as they enter the food chain.

Gas-particle partitioning is one of the key factors that affect the environmental fate of semivolatile organic chemicals. Many organophosphate esters (OPEs) have been reported to primarily partition to particles in the atmosphere. However, because of the wide range of their physicochemical properties, it is unlikely that OPEs are mainly in the particle phase "as a class". We compared gas-particle partitioning predictions for 32 OPEs made by the commonly used OECD POV and LRTP Screening Tool ("the Tool") with the partitioning models of Junge-Pankow (J-P) and Harner-Bidleman (H-B), as well as recently measured data on OPE gas-particle partitioning. The results indicate that half of the tested OPEs partition into the gas phase. Partitioning into the gas phase seems to be determined by an octanol-air partition coefficient (log KOA) < 10 and a subcooled liquid vapor pressure (log PL) > -5 (PL in Pa), as well as the total suspended particle concentration (TSP) in the sampling area. The uncertainty of the physicochemical property data of the OPEs did not change this estimate. Furthermore, the predictions by the Tool, J-P- and H-B-models agreed with recently measured OPE gas-particle partitioning.

The oceanic scale occurrences of typical neutral poly/per-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the atmosphere across the Atlantic, as well as their air-snow exchange at the Antarctic Peninsula, were investigated. Total concentrations of the 12 PFASs (∑PFASs) in gas phase ranged from 2.8 to 68.8 pg m(-3) (mean: 23.5 pg m(-3)), and the levels in snow were from 125 to 303 pg L(-1) (mean: 209 pg L(-1)). Fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) were dominant in both air and snow. The differences of specific compounds to ∑PFASs were not significant between air and snow. ∑PFASs were higher above the northern Atlantic compared to the southern Atlantic, and the levels above the southern Atlantic <30°S was the lowest. High atmospheric PFAS levels around the Antarctic Peninsula were the results of a combination of air mass, weak elimination processes and air-snow exchange of PFASs. Higher ratios of 8:2 to 10:2 to 6:2 FTOH were observed in the southern hemisphere, especially around the Antarctic Peninsula, suggesting that PFASs in the region were mainly from the long-range atmospheric transport. No obvious decrease of PFASs was observed in the background marine atmosphere after 2005.

Levels of neutral poly-/perfluoroalkyl substances (nPFASs) in air and snow collected from Ny-Ålesund were measured and their air-snow exchange was determined to investigate whether they could re-volatilize into the atmosphere driven by means of air-snow exchange. The total concentration of 12 neutral PFASs ranged from 6.7 to 39 pg m−3 in air and from 330 to 690 pg L−1 in snow. A significant log-linear relationship was observed between the gas/particle partition coefficient and vapor pressure of the neutral PFASs. For fluorotelomer alcohol (FTOHs) and fluorotelomer acrylates (FTAs), the air-snow exchange fluxes were positive, indicating net evaporative from snow into air, while net deposition into snow was observed for perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanols (Me/EtFOSEs) in winter and spring of 2012. The air-snow exchange was snow-phase controlled for FTOHs and FTAs, and controlled by the air-phase for FOSEs. Air-snow exchange may significantly interfere with atmospheric concentrations of neutral PFASs in the Arctic.

Total 58 high volume air samples were collected in Busum, Germany, from August 2011 to October 2012 to investigate air concentrations of 12 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and their gas/particle partitioning. The total concentration (vapor plus particle phases) of the 12 PFASs (Sigma PFASs) ranged from 8.6 to 155 pg/m(3) (mean: 41 pg/m(3)) while fluorotelomer alcohols 8:2 (8:2 FTOH) dominated all samples accounting for 61.9% of Sigma PFASs and the next most species were 10:2 FTOH (12.7%). Air mass back trajectory analysis showed that atmospheric PFASs in most samples were from long range atmospheric transport processes and had higher ratios of 8:2 to 6:2 FTOH compared to the data obtained from urban/industrial sources. Small portion of particle PFASs in the atmosphere was observed and the average percent to Sigma PFASs was 2.0%. The particle-associated fractions of different PFASs decreased from perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanols (FOSEs) (15.5%) to fluorotelomer acrylates (FTAs) (7.6%) to perfluorooctane sulfonamides (FOSAs) (3.1%) and F10Hs (1.8%), indicating the functional group obviously influenced their gas/particle partitioning. For neutral compounds with acid dissociation constant (PKa) > 7.0 (i.e., FTOHs, FOSEs and FOSAs), a significant log-linear relationship was observed between their gas/particle partition coefficients (K-SP) and vapor pressures (p(L)(o)), suggesting the gas/particle partitioning of neutral PFASs agreed with the classical logK(SP)-logp(L)(o) relation. Due to the pK(a) values of 6:2 and 8:2 FTA below the typical environmental pH conditions, they mainly exist as ionic form in aerosols, and the corrected logK(SP) (neutral form) were considerably lower than those of FTOHs, FOSEs and FOSAs with similar vapor pressures. Considering the strong partitioning potential to aqueous phases for ionic PFASs at higher pH values, a need exists to develop a model taking account of the ad/absorption mechanism to the condensed phase of aerosols for ionizable PFASs (e.g., FTAs). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Pesticides and biocides (PaB) are ubiquitously present in aquatic ecosystems due to their widespread application and have been detected in rivers at concentrations that may cause distress to aquatic life. Many of these compounds accumulate in sediments acting as long-term source for aquatic ecosystems. However, data on sediment contamination with current-use PaB in Europe are scarce. Thus, in this study, we elucidated PaB patterns and associated risks in sediments of seven major European rivers focusing on their last stretch as an integrative sink of particles transported by these rivers. Sediments were extracted with pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) using a broad-spectrum method recovering many compound classes with a wide range of physicochemical properties. Altogether 126 compounds were analyzed and 81 of them were detected with LC-HRMS and GC-NCI-MS/MS at least in one of the sediments. The highest number of compounds was detected (59) in River Elbe sediments close to Cuxhaven with outstanding concentrations ranging from 0.8 to 1691 mg/g organic carbon. Multivariate analysis identified a cluster with 3 ubiquitous compounds (cyhalothrin, carbendazim, fenpropimorph) and three clusters of chemicals with higher variability within and between rivers. Risk assessment indicates an acute toxic risk to benthic crustaceans at all investigated sites with the pyrethroids tefluthrin and cyfluthrin together with the fungicide carbendazim as the main drivers. Risks to algae were driven at most sites almost exclusively by photosynthesis inhibitors with estuary-specific herbicide mixtures, while in the rivers Po and Gironde cell division inhibitors played an important role at some sites. Mixtures of specific concern have been defined and suggested for integration in future monitoring programs.