A MSFD complementary approach for the assessment of pressures, knowledge and data gaps in Southern European Seas : the PERSEUS experience

PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES. 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.peer-reviewe

Dissolved and particulate trace metals in a wetland of international importance: Lake Mikri Prespa, Greece

This paper reports the dissolved and particulate trace metal distributions in Lake Mikri Prespa, wetland of NW Greece. The concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Al, Fe, Mn, Ni and Cr were determined in surface and hypolimnetic waters as well as in the inputs and the outflow. Trace metals were connected with two major populations of suspended particles, identified by using the recovery ratio for two different leaching reagents, namely 0.5 N HCl and 1:1 hot aqueous HNO3. The first group is land derived entering the lake through runoff and plays a rather restricted role in its geochemistry. The second group which is more important includes authigenic carbonates, Fe and Mn hydroxides and oxides and organic rich particulates. © 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

Biodegradation of lindane by Pleurotus ostreatus via central composite design. Environment International,

Abstract The degradation of lindane was studied in liquid-agitated cultures using a commercial strain of the fungus Pleurotus ostreatus as the biodegrading organism. The biodegradation was accomplished with the action of extracellular oxidative enzymes, produced by the fungus to decompose woody substrates. Enzyme activities of manganese peroxidase and laccase were measured in a liquid mineral medium. An orthogonal Central Composite Design of experiments was used to construct second-order response surfaces with the fungus growth, final pH and the lindane biodegradation as optimization parameters. The initial lindane concentration, the nitrogen content, the incubation time and the temperature were used as design factors. Optimal conditions found for all these parameters will be used for the continuation of this project aiming at the bioremediation of contaminated sites with persistent organic pollutants such as lindane.

Gas-particle concentration and characterization of sources of PAHs in the atmosphere of a suburban area in Athens, Greece

Atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were determined in two places in a suburban area of Athens greater area (AGA) during June and November 2003. Fourteen PAHs were quantified in the collected samples. The total concentration in the gas phase ranged between 6.89 and 124 ng m-3, while in the particulate phase between 0.44 and 13.2 ng m-3. Maximum concentrations of the total PAHs (gas and particulate phase) were observed during the cold period with an average of 40.7 ng m-3. PAHs were correlated with NO, NO2 and O3, wind speed, wind direction and temperature. Positive correlation was observed between PAHs and NO, NO2, while negative correlation was detected between PAHs and O3. The most abundant members were phenanthrene, anthracene, fluorene, fluoranthene and pyrene. Potential sources of PAHs in aerosols were investigated using molecular diagnostic ratios, which reflect sources such as diesel and gasoline engines, although other sources such as coal combustion and liquefied petroleum gas also contributed. © 2006

The Eurobulker oil spill: Mid-term changes of some ecosystem indicators

The sinking of the tanker Eurobulker in Southern Evoikos gulf (Aegean Sea, Greece) in September 2000 resulted in a spill of 700 tons of crude oil. The environmental impact of the spill was studied by the National Centre for Marine Research. The hydrocarbon concentrations in water, sediment and coastal benthic organisms were measured and the response of the benthic communities to the disturbance caused by the oil spill was studied along the direction to the coast and over three sampling seasons. The most severe and direct effects were evidenced on the muddy benthic communities of the accident site and the stations in the close vicinity sampled shortly after the spill. The effects included reduction of the species richness and community diversity, but the communities reached full recovery 8 months later. The impact of the spill was more indirect and delayed in the coastal stations, where as the hydrocarbon measurements indicated, the pollutants were transported later and induced their effects on the benthic communities 6 months after the accident. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Influence of pollution history on the response of coastal bacterial and nanoeukaryote communities to crude oil and biostimulation assays

International audiencePollution history has often been proposed to explain site-dependent bioremediation efficiencies, but this hypothesis has been poorly explored. Here, bacteria and their heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) predators originating from pristine and chronically oil-polluted coastal sites were subjected to crude oil ± nutrients or emulsifier amendments. The addition of crude oil had a more visible effect on bacteria originating from the pristine site with a higher increase in the activity of given OTU and inactivation of other petroleum-sensitive bacteria, as revealed by DNA and RNA-based comparison. Such changes resulted in a delay in microbial growth and in a lower bacterial degradation of the more complex hydrocarbons. Biostimulation provoked a selection of different bacterial community assemblages and stirred metabolically active bacteria. This resulted in a clear increase of the peak of bacteria and their HNF predators and higher oil degradation, irrespective of the pollution history of the site