Assessment of contaminant concentrations in sediments, fish and mussels sampled from the North Atlantic and European regional seas within the ICON project

Understanding the status of contaminants in the marine environment is a requirement of European Union Directives and the Regional Seas Conventions, so that measures to reduce pollution can be identified and their efficacy assessed. The international ICON workshop (Hylland et al., 2017) was developed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Environmental Research
Main Authors: Robinson, C.D. (Craig David), Webster, L. (Lynda), Martínez-Gómez, C. (Concepción), Burgeot, T. (Thierry), Gubbins, M.J. (Matthew J.), Thain, J.E. (John E.), Vethaak, A.D. (André Dirk), McIntosh, A.D. (Alistair), Hylland, K. (Ketil)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Centro Oceanográfico de Murcia 2017
Subjects:
North Sea
Baltic Sea
Mediterranean Sea
North Atlantic
Marine pollution
sediment
fish
mussels
contaminants
environmental assessment criteria
biomonitoring
integrated assessment
Iceland
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10508/11577
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2016.04.005
Description
Summary:Understanding the status of contaminants in the marine environment is a requirement of European Union Directives and the Regional Seas Conventions, so that measures to reduce pollution can be identified and their efficacy assessed. The international ICON workshop (Hylland et al., 2017) was developed in order to test an integrated approach to assessing both contaminant concentrations and their effects. This paper describes and assesses the concentrations of trace metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments, mussels, and fish collected from estuarine, coastal and offshore waters from Iceland to the Mediterranean Sea. For organic contaminants, concentrations progressively increased from Iceland, to the offshore North Sea, to the coastal seas, and were highest in estuaries. Metals had a more complex distribution, reflecting local anthropogenic inputs, natural sources and hydrological conditions. Use of internationally recognised assessment criteria indicated that at no site were concentrations of all contaminants at background and that concentrations of some contaminants were of significant concern in all areas, except the central North Sea. Postprint 1,953

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