Sediments quality assessment in terms of single and integrated indices from Romanian MONITOX network (2019 – 2020)

MONITOX international network for monitoring of environmental toxicants and risk assessment in the Black Sea basin: research and interdisciplinary cooperation dimensions

“…To achieve these plans, joint complex expeditions in target aquatic ecosystems were organized, sampling and laboratory analytical techniques were adapted, optimized and harmonized between partners and modeling of processes and evaluation of ecological and health risks was carried out. Collection of environmetal data in the periods before and after COVID-19 pandemic allowed the comparison of ecological state and evaluation of anthropogenic impacts [6,11,12].…”

Emerging and Persistent Pollutants in the Aquatic Ecosystems of the Lower Danube Basin and North West Black Sea Region—A Review

“…In a comprehensive study on the heavy metal pollution of sediments from a coastal area of the central western Adriatic Sea [143], average concentrations of 63 mg/kg was reported for Ni, 14.4 mg/kg for Cu, 61.5 mg/kg for Cr, and 12 mg/kg for Pb, which higher than the values reported for the Black Sea is as well. In a recent study [144], the assessment of sediments quality concerning the heavy metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn and Mn was carried out in 2019 and 2020 for the Romanian part of MONITOX Network (32 sampling points in the system of Danube river-Danube Delta-Black Sea: Lower Danube RO-BG, Lower Danube RO, Lower Prut RO-MD border, Danube Delta RO-UA border, Danube Delta-RO and Black-Sea area-RO) using both single indices and integrated indices. The research revealed that sediments from the Black Sea area were much less contaminated with heavy metals than those from the Lower Danube (Romania), attributed to the historical pollution resulting from anthropogenic activities [144].…”

“…Among 24 studies concerning CECs monitoring, tentative identification using HRMS-MS was carried out in one publication [26]. Multiresidue methods allowing targeted (quantitative) and non-targeted (qualitative) screening should become standard procedures for CECs analysis as well as combining analytical methods with metabolomics for the identification of uncommon chemicals, metabolites, and degradation product(s); -To determine and predict trends, multivariate statistical methods (factor analysis of principal component analysis (PCA) were applied as well as indicators of pollution status, as Hazard Quotient (HQ), Enrichment Factor (EF), Geo-accumulation index (Igeo), and Ecological risk index (RI) were determined in several papers concerning persistent pollutants as PAHs, OCPs, and metals [2,46,51,84,100,107,121,144]; -Regarding CECs, the basis for risk assessment was rarely discussed. Risk coefficients (RQ) value based on the ratio of the Predicted/Measured Environmental Concentration (PEC/MEC) and Predicted No-Effect Concentration (PNEC) was performed in three papers for endocrine disruptors [61,68,69] and in one for pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and other CECs [26]; the fate of pesticides in sediments and risk assessment according to their physico-chemical properties was discussed in one paper [44]; -Spatial distribution of the contaminants was highlighted in several publications [45,49,53,61,100]; -Pollution emission sources were investigated for PAHs [96], OPCs [94], pharmaceuticals [51,53], and heavy metals [106,126,128,156].…”

Characterization of soils around a former chemical plant in Braila, SE Romania, using high performance atomic techniques (EDXRF, AAS, ICP-MS)

“…The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) is used to measure the degree of anthropogenic influence on the individual concentration of heavy metals in soils [12][13][14][15]. It is calculated with the formula:…”

“…The pollution index (PI) is used to evaluate the degree of individual contamination with heavy metals in soils and sediments [12][13][14][15]. It is calculated using the formula:…”