Hazardous Substances Assessment in Black Sea Biota

Abstract

"The assessment of contaminants in biota is important, not only for biomonitoring of the marine pollution, but also in case of biota used for human consumption there are further implications with respect to public health reasons. Since data on this topic are rather limited in the Black Sea region, activities carried out in the framework of CBC Project “Assessing the vulnerability of the Black Sea marine ecosystem to human pressures” (ANEMONE) contributed at filling knowledge gaps identified for the region. Thus, new data on chemical contamination (heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls) of marine organisms (mussels, veined rapa whelk, pelagic and demersal fish), collected in 2019 during specific pilot studies in the selected study areas (open sea, and coastal – in front of river mouths, hot-spots) from Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey were obtained. The HELCOM integrated hazardous substances assessment tool (CHASE) developed by NIVA Denmark was tested in the Black Sea with contaminants in biota data set and the overall scores evinced sub-regional differences in the status results, with worse status predominating in the north-western part of the Black Sea (rivers influenced coastal areas and hotspots) and better status in the open sea area and in the southern part of the Black Sea. Across the investigated biota samples, the CHASE test assessment showed a range of status results from bad to high, almost half (46%) of biota samples being „unaffected by hazardous substances” state (good and high status), whereas the remaining 54 % of biota samples are „affected by hazardous substances” state (bad, poor and moderate). Key-Words: Black Sea, biota, heavy metals, organic pollutants, CHASE. "

Lysosomal Membrane Stability of Mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819) as a Biomarker of Cellular Stress for Environmental Contamination

“…The tissue concentrations of pollutants showed large variations across sampling sites. Low tissue levels of PAHs were measured at all sampling sites, in contrast with the results of previous studies carried out along the Black Sea coast [ 34 , 35 ] and in other seas [ 36 , 37 ].…”

“…Our study indicated the low-to-moderate HM contamination of mussels at all sampling sites. The results agreed with previous studies carried out along the Romanian Black Sea coast [ 31 , 35 , 41 ]. The HM levels found in our study were similar to those from the Turkish Black Sea coast [ 35 ] and Baltic Sea [ 9 ], higher than those from the southeastern Adriatic Sea [ 1 ], and relatively low compared with the results of other studies carried out in the Gulf of Biscay [ 37 ] and Mediterranean Sea [ 36 ].…”

“…Increased OCP and PCB values were measured at all sampling sites, particularly in port areas, indicating a high level of pollution in the shore waters. Our results were very high compared with other findings recorded in the deeper waters of the Black Sea [34,35]. Other studies carried out in different seas have reported lower tissue levels of OCPs and PCBs compared with our results [36][37][38].…”

Chemical status evaluation of the Romanian Black Sea marine environment based on benthic organisms’ contamination

“…In this respect, the use of living organisms to provide information on the quality of aquatic environments is nowadays a widely accepted methodology for assessing contaminants' bioavailability. Information related to the assessment of hazardous substances in biota is rather limited in the Black Sea region, thus in the recent years' activities carried out in the framework of regional or international projects, like FP7 "Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research for the Southern European Seas" (PERSEUS) (Oros et al, 2016), DG ENV "MSFD Guiding Improvements in the Black Sea Integrated Monitoring System" (MISIS) (Coatu et al, 2016) or CBC "Assessing the vulnerability of the Black Sea marine ecosystem to human pressures" (ANEMONE) (Coatu et al, 2020;Oros et al, 2021) aimed to fill knowledge gaps and to help focus future research efforts toward key domains, like the presence of hazardous substances in biota, impact of human pressures upon to the contamination status and trends, and biological effects monitoring.…”

“…For the Romanian marine waters, data on dangerous substances bioaccumulation in molluscs, fish, macroalgae, etc., are collected in the framework of national monitoring and various national research projects (Oros & Gomoiu, 2012;Coatu et al, 2013;Coatu et al, 2015;Abaza et al, 2016;Coatu et al, 2018;Oros, 2019;Marin et al, 2021), some of the information being also used for the national assessment of the Descriptors 8 and 9 during MSFD reporting cycles: Initial assessment (2012) (Boicenco et al, 2012), and updates of the MSFD Articles 8, 9 and 10 (2018) (Boicenco et al, 2018).…”