Coastal and marine pollution and ecotoxicology

Abstract

Our planet is under increasing stress from human activities of exploitation of natural resources and biogeochemical processes as well as industrial refinery and production. This is evident by the observations of hypoxia in coastal ocean and also by decrease in biodiversity. As industrialization and urbanization in the developing countries including China, India and Brazil intensify further, more serious deterioration and pollution of the natural ecosystems can be more strongly pronounced than before for air, soil, water and also the biodiversity (Cao et al. 2012(Cao et al. , 2013Han and Gu 2015) . Relevant results from different directions of research focus are reported before on chemical pollutants and ecotoxicological data (Ford and Cheng 2009; Ford et al. 2012; Wang 2012, 2013a;Zhao et al. 2013), continuous investigations with new research tools available are also necessary to further document the changes for better understanding, and also forecasting the changes and trends in the future to better serve our society for regulation and legislative action. Oceans and coastal ecosystems are both important to humans, and protection and conservation will allow future sustainable development and also the human long-term survival (Mitchell and Gu 2010;Shen et al. 2010; Wang 2012, 2013a). The changes documented and reported in China today can be very useful information and mirror images for the changes to be observed in other developing countries, if not now but in the near future.Pollution as a phenomenon closely associated with human society has distinctive phases over time of the history and it includes sewage, toxic chemicals of metals and metalloids and also persistent organic compounds, harmful organisms from toxic algae including dinoflagellates, bacteria and viruses, and more recently the emerging new chemicals of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (Gu and Wang 2013b; Mitchell and Gu 2010;Jiang et al. 2015). This changing trend of different chemicals over time illustrates not only the technological advances in our society and analytical chemistry driving the environmental understanding and study, but also the consumer attitude and habits of our society altering the pollutant types. Synthetic plastics and composite materials are more important than traditional metals and steel, industries associated with manufacturing of them become the major contributors to the new sources of pollutants and types. Because of this, research and technological innovation has also been conducted in a similar pattern over time in developed countries first and then developing ones. It is apparent that chemical analysis yields specific information on the individual chemicals, their forms, bioavailability, but (eco)toxicology combines the information of chemicals and organisms to make the connection between toxic effects and implications on humans (Han et al. 2011; Li et al. 2011a, b). From this, our capability in analysis has been advanced far better than toxicology and further enhancement on organism-based analysis of chem...

Mechanism of the Synergistic Toxicity of Ampicillin and Cefazoline on Selenastrum capricornutum

“…Concerns regarding the potential contamination of water resources by various emerging organic contaminants are growing globally (EOCs) [ 1 ]. Pharmaceuticals are a fundamental group of EOCs, including antibiotics, antidiabetics, antiepileptics, antimalarial, analgesics, and anti-inflammatories, which are frequently reported in freshwater and marine environments [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Many of these drugs are not biodegraded during wastewater treatment and are discharged to aquatic environments in an active form [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

Microbial community succession during crude oil-degrading bacterial enrichment cultivation and construction of a degrading consortium

“…Crude oil is one of the essential compounds in both the energy and chemical industries (Li et al, 2016). However, crude oil leakage caused by natural or human factors results in serious environmental pollution and sustainability problems worldwide (Gu and Wang, 2015;Muthukumar et al, 2022). Most of the components in crude oil can be stored and bioaccumulated in animals and humans, causing serious health issues (Elumalai et al, 2021).…”

Application of Microalgae Assemblages’ Parameters for Ecological Monitoring in Mangrove Forest

“…Generally, the eutrophication phenomenon has led to ecosystem imbalance, establishment of tolerance species, and disappearance of sensitive taxa (Gu and Wang, 2015). Meanwhile, the application of microalgae for ecosystem monitoring has a long history (Lepisto, 1999) where numerous indices have been developed but none have become widely accepted.…”