Screening ecological risk assessment of persistent organic pollutants in Mediterranean sea sediments
| Autor: | Anna Gómez-Gutiérrez, Joan Albaigés, Josep M. Bayona, Eva Garnacho |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: |
Mediterranean climate
Geologic Sediments Risk Assessment Mediterranean Basin DDT Sediments Mediterranean sea Environmental protection Hydrocarbons Chlorinated Mediterranean Sea DDTs Hot spots PCBs HCB Ecological risk assessment lcsh:Environmental sciences General Environmental Science Pollutant lcsh:GE1-350 geography Persistent organic pollutant geography.geographical_feature_category Ecology Geography Continental shelf Polychlorinated Biphenyls Fishery Benthic zone Environmental science Environmental Pollutants Sediment quality guidelines Environmental Pollution Literature survey Water Pollutants Chemical Environmental Monitoring |
| Zdroj: | Environment International, Vol 33, Iss 7, Pp 867-876 (2007) Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| ISSN: | 0160-4120 2003-5055 |
| Popis: | 10 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures.-- PMID: 17499359 [PubMed].-- Printed version published Oct 2007. A screening ecological risk assessment (ERA) was conducted for the first time in the Mediterranean basin in order to assess the toxicity posed to the benthic community by PCBs, DDTs and HCB in marine sediments. The characterization of the exposure was conducted by means of an extensive literature survey, generating a database with more than 2000 samples. The effects were assessed by the adoption of guidelines previously developed in the literature, because ecotoxicological information about persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the Mediterranean sediments was lacking. Existing sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) for the target pollutants were compiled and consensus values were calculated for three different categories of toxicity, namely threshold effect concentration (TEC), probable effect concentration (PEC) and extreme effect concentration (EEC). The combination of exposure and effects characterization enabled the identification of some areas of concern in the vicinity of industrial and urban locations and in the mouths of the main Mediterranean rivers. Beyond the Mediterranean continental shelf, the level of toxicity for the benthic community was generally low. The evaluation of the toxicity induced by the mixture of the target pollutants spotted the importance of DDT contamination in the Mediterranean sediments, despite the fact that main inputs to the sea have been significantly reduced during the last decades. The European Commission (Research Directorate General-Environment Program) supported this study through the ELME project "European Lifestyles and Marine Ecosystems" (Contr. No. GOCE-CT-2003-505576). One of us (A.G.) wishes to acknowledge the Government of Catalonia for awarding her a PhD fellowship. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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