Monitoring and Assessment of Environmental Quality in Coastal Ecosystems

Coastal ecosystems are dynamic, complex, and often fragile transition environments between land and oceans. They are exclusive habitats for a broad range of living organisms, functioning as havens for biodiversity and providing several important ecological services that link terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. Humans living in coastal zones have been strongly dependent on these ecosystems as a source of food, physical protection against storms and advancing sea, and a range of human activities that generate economic income. Notwithstanding, the intensification of human activities in coastal areas of the recent decades, as well as the global climatic changes and coastal erosion processes of the present, have had detrimental impacts on these environments. Maintaining the structural and functional integrity of these environments and recovering an ecological balance or mitigating disturbances in systems under the influence of such stressors are complex tasks, only possible through the implementation of monitoring programs and by assessing their environmental quality. In this book, distinct approaches to environmental quality monitoring and assessment of coastal environments are presented, focused on abiotic and biotic compartments, and using tools that range from ecological levels of organization to the sub-organismal and the ecosystem levels

Bioanalytical Tools in Water Quality Assessment

The first edition of Bioanalytical Tools in Water Quality Assessment was released in 2012. The field has exploded since and the second edition updates and reviews the application of bioanalytical tools for water quality assessment including surveillance monitoring. The book focuses on applications to water quality assessment ranging from wastewater to drinking water, including recycled water, as well as treatment processes and advanced water treatment. Emerging applications for other environmental matrices are also included. Bioanalytical Tools in Water Quality Assessment, Second Edition, not only demonstrates applications but also fills in the background knowledge in toxicology/ecotoxicology needed to appreciate these applications. Each chapter summarises fundamental material in a targeted way so that information can be applied to better understand the use of bioanalytical tools in water quality assessment. The book can be used by lecturers teaching academic and professional courses and also by risk assessors, regulators, experts, consultants, researchers and managers working in the water sector. It can also be a reference manual for environmental engineers, analytical chemists and toxicologists. Detailed descriptions of dose-response assessment, data reporting, mixture modelling and quality assurance/quality control are complemented by a series of online resources and tools to apply some of the principles and data methods explained in this book. This supplementary information is available at www.ufz.de/bioanalytical-tools