Assessment of heavy metal pollution in surface sediments of the Montenegrin coast: a 10-year review

Study of Microplastics and Inorganic Contaminants in Mussels from the Montenegrin Coast, Adriatic Sea

“…On the other hand, wastewater from some local sewage systems in the areas without adequate municipal system enters seawater, often untreated, which significantly affects its properties and contributes to pollution [30]. Additionally, trade and passenger ports, increasing marine traffic, ship repair facilities, aquaculture, and domestic and agricultural waste pose a threat to the marine life in this area [31].…”

“…Additionally, in the past, a military shipyard was in the town of Tivat. It is now replaced with a luxury marina, but the consequences of that specific industrial activity still highly influence the pollution level in Tivat Bay [31]. However, the location Sveta Nedelja is not so close to the town of Tivat and Tivat Bay is characterized by lower seawater dynamics, so the pollution from past industrial activities cannot be attributed to this location.…”

A Contribution to the Sustainable Development of Maritime Transport in the Context of Blue Economy: The Case of Montenegro

“…Finally, they demonstrated some advances in collecting data methodology. Joksimović et al [41] completed the study on the ecosystem risk identifying the concentration of individual metals and metalloids for the ten years at precise locations along the Montenegrin coast.…”

Challenges in Harmonized Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas

“…Despite these differences, the whole Adriatic-Ionian basin suffers from pollution of marine and coastal environment due to human activities such as the exploitation of various resources, agriculture (land runoff), urban development in the coastal area and activities related to maritime transport (harbor activities, ballast water management etc.). In particular, heavy metal pollution in ADRION Region originates from sources such as land mining activities, like mercury mine of Idrija, Slovenia (Horvat et al, 2014;Gallmetzer et al, 2017), metallurgic industries, like Taranto industrial plants (Di Leo et al, 2013), oil refinery plants (Cukrov et al, 2011;Traven et al, 2015), old-type chlor-alkali plants (Mikac et al, 2006;Kljaković-Gašpić et al, 2006;Acquavita et al, 2012), municipal-sewage outflows (Cozzi et al, 2008;Cukrov et al, 2011;Joksimovic et al, 2020), harbors (container terminals, Cukrov et al, 2011), cruise tourism (Carić and Mackelworth, 2014;Joksimovic et al, 2019), by means of produced water discharge in offshore oil and gas extraction plants (Igwe et al, 2013). The presence of metals in the coastal environment of the Adriatic-Ionian basin is also due to natural, geogenic sources: the metals contained in the eroded rocky material are transported through rivers, as observed, for example, in the case of nickel in Koper Bay, Slovenia (Rogan Šmuc et al, 2018), or in the case of chromium and nickel in the lagoon area of Amvrakikos Gulf, Greece (Vasileiadou et al, 2016).…”

“…For such a scope, information on sampling procedures, analytical methodologies and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures were collected for a list of selected pollutants in water, sediment and biota, by a questionnaire submitted to the project partners, located in 6 countries bordering the ADRION Region (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece). Among the various contaminants selected for the investigation, heavy metals represent a group of particular importance, considering their introduction into the environment from widespread sources, such as atmospheric fall out, riverine input and point sources pollution from coastal cities and industrial plants (Gallmetzer et al, 2017;Joksimovic et al, 2020;Cukrov et al, 2011;Igwe et al, 2013). In fact the Directive 2013/39/EU, 2013 and amended Directive 2008/105/EC, 2008and Directive 2000/60/Ec (2000, imposed environmental quality standards (EQS -the concentration of a contaminant that should not be exceeded to protect human health and environment) for cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) and their compounds in water.…”