environmental

Environmental studies 2022

Authors: Alessandro Lambertini, Massimiliano Menghini, Jacopo Cimini, Angelo Odetti, Gabriele Bruzzone, Marco Bibuli, Emanuele Mandanici, Luca Vittuari, Paolo Castaldi, Massimo Caccia, and Luca De Marchi. The ability to observe the world has seen significant developments in the last few decades, alongside the techniques and methodologies to derive accurate digital replicas of observed envi- ronments. Underwater ecosystems present greater challenges and remain largely unexplored, but the need for reliable and up-to-date information motivated the birth of the Interreg Italy–Croatia SUSHI DROP Project (Sustainable fisheries wIth DROnes data Processing). The aim of the project is to map ecosystems for sustainable fishing and to achieve this goal a prototype of an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV), named Blucy, has been designed and developed.

Authors: Stephanie M. BilodeauI, Austin W. H. Schwartz, Binfeng Xu, V. Pau´l Pauca, Miles R. Silman. Abstract: Understanding long-term trends in marine ecosystems requires accurate and repeatable counts of fishes and other aquatic organisms on spatial and temporal scales that are difficult or impossible to achieve with diver-based surveys. Long-term, spatially distributed cameras, like those used in terrestrial camera trapping, have not been successfully applied in marine systems due to limitations of the aquatic environment. in this paper, the authors develop a methodology for a system of low-cost, long- term camera traps (Dispersed Environment Aquatic Cameras), deployable over large spatial scales in remote marine environments.

The Energy Transition Index (ETI) has benchmarked the progress of countries’ energy transition for a decade on the three dimensions of the energy triangle – economic development and growth, energy security and access, and environmental sustainability – and on the enabling environment for transition. In view of the current volatile macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, however, a trend analysis from historical energy data can currently provide only limited insights. Hence, instead of the annual country energy transition benchmarking report, this special 2022 edition builds on the ETI trends observed in recent years to provide a perspective on the current challenges affecting the transition, and highlights priorities to supercharge it.

Authors: Lakshman R. T. Pedamallu, Ramiro J. J. Neves, Nelson E. V. Rodrigues, & J. V. Cruz. Offshore Geothermal Energy can be considered as a non- polluting source of renewable energy, in relation to harmful emissions that are associated with burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. The geothermal brines of the mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vents are believed to be potential sources of offshore geothermal energy. These fluids represent one of the most abundant energy resources worldwide, due to their enormous quantity, infinite recharge, and high temperatures. However, all forms of electricity generation impact the environment in some way. The ecological and biological importance of the vents restricts the number of areas that can be utilized to produce electricity.

Authors: Gregory S. Schorr, M. Bradley Hanson, Erin A. Falcone, Candice K. Emmons, Susan M. Jarvis, Russel D. Andrews, and Eric M. Keen. The Pacific Offshore killer whale population is currently listed as data deficient on the IUCN Red List and Threatened in Canada. The population is estimated at 300 individuals, extending from Southern California to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. To better understand trends, habitat use, and diving behavior, The authors deployed seven dart-attached satellite tags during two encounters with Offshores off California and one meeting off Washington State in 2013.

Authors: Rachel D. Moseley, Justyna J. Hampel, Rachel L. Mugge and Leila J. Hamdan The studies described in this document aimed to investigate how historic wooden-hulled shipwrecks impact the dispersal of wood-colonizing microbial biofilms. They addressed how proximity to wooden shipwrecks shapes diversity, richness, and community composition in the surrounding environment. Study sites included two historic shipwrecks in the northern Gulf of Mexico identified as wooden-hulled sailing vessels dating to the late 19th century.

Authors: Michael G. Bertram, Jake M. Martin, Erin S. McCallum , Lesley A. Alton, Jack A. Brand, Bryan W. Brooks, Daniel Cerveny, Jerker Fick, Alex T. Ford, Gustav Hellström, Marcus Michelangeli, Shinichi Nakagawa, Giovanni Polverino, Minna Saaristo, Andrew Sih, Hung Tan, Charles R. Tyler, Bob B.M. Wong, and Tomas Brodin The aim of this review is to guide the rapidly developing field of behavioural ecotoxicology towards increased environmental realism, ecological complexity, and mechanistic understanding.

Authors: Roman Ekhlakov, Ekaterina Romanova, Elena Dogadin, Sergey Korchagin, Sergey Gataullin, Józef Mosiej, Timur Gataullin, and Petr Nikitin A significant group of industrial facilities can be classified as chemically hazardous facilities (CHFs). To predict the spread of harmful impurities in the programs being developed, Gaussian and Lagrangian probabilistic models are actively used, on the basis of which the complexes used both in the EMERCOM of Russia and in research organizations are being implemented.

Authors: Marissa B. Kosnik, Michael Zwicky Hauschild, and Peter Fantke This paper proposes an absolute environmental sustainability framework for chemical pollution where the chemical pressure on ecosystems is quantified, the ability of ecosystems to withstand chemical pressure is determined, and the “ safe space is derived, wherein chemical pressure is within the carrying capacity and hence does not lead to irreversible adverse ecological effects.

Authors: Adrian Lee, Benny Jiang, Ingrid Zeng, Michal Aibin This paper explores the possibility of using computer vision and underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to detect medical waste, such as masks and gloves in oceans. The authors use a single-stage detector to train the machine learning approach and then validate the results using the video feed from the tethered ROV.

34 - Combining functional diversity of lotic fish communities with river health assessment based on multi-metric chemical pollution and biological integrity index models

Authors: Namsrai Jargal, Md Mamun, Chang-Yun Choi, and Kwang-Guk An Clarifying how functional traits of aquatic organisms depend on ecological conditions can facilitate aquatic conservation and management, but determining the importance of these traits to ecological river health requires further investigation. As fish play a vital role in the assessment of environmental conditions, the authors examined the relevance of the functional diversity of lotic fish to the river health assessment using multi-metric models of water pollution and fish-based biological integrity.

Authors: Ticiana Fettermann, Lorenzo Fiori, Len Gillman, Karen A. Stockin, and Barbara Bollard Generating accurate estimates of group sizes or behaviours of cetaceans from boat-based surveys can be challenging because much of their activity occurs below the water surface and observations are distorted by horizontal perspectives. Automated observation using drones is an emerging research tool for animal behavioural investigations. However, drone-based and boat-based survey methods have not been quantitatively compared for small, highly mobile cetaceans, such as Delphinidae. The authors conducted paired concurrent boat-based and drone-based surveys, measuring the number of individuals in 21 groups of bottlenose dolphin.

Authors: Aleksandra Koroza, and Peter G. H. Evans Levels of boat traffic in coastal seas have been steadily increasing in many parts of the world, introducing pressures on marine wildlife through disturbance. The appropriate management of human activities is important not only to preserve wildlife, but also for the local communities that depend on ecotourism for employment and their economy. This study presents further insight into bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) responses to boats in New Quay Bay (West Wales) within the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation.

Authors: Israa Ibrahim Lazim, Samar Jasim Mohammed, Neran Adran al Naqeeb, and Mohamed I A Fayed. This study illustrates the importance of some aquatic plants as bio-indicators of contamination with hydrocarbons and heavy elements. Aquatic plants have many applications in treating contamination with hydrocarbons and heavy components due to their much lower cost and higher efficiency. Aquatic plants have been proved in numerous studies to be sinks for heavy metals and hydrocarbons in aquatic ecosystems, and it is also used in the treatment process and to reduce or limit contamination.

Authors: Mihaela Marilena Stancu The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain to tolerate and degrade aliphatic petroleum hydrocarbons.

Publisher: US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Office of Renewable Energy Programs The potential effects of wind energy development on marine fisheries resources have gained attention due to the ecological and economic importance of the fisheries and the repercussions to fishing communities. Fisheries are exposed to impact from offshore wind energy development due to port location, the overlap of fishing grounds and wind energy areas, and the nature of the gear and vessels used. The impact of excluding fishing and survey efforts from wind energy areas was examined using a modeling tool.

Authors: Ismail, Grema, M. A. Allamin, Bukar, Adamu, and Fardami. Petroleum hydrocarbons are among the major driving forces of advancement in the last Century. However, some hydrocarbons are leading to adverse health and ecosystem stability effects. Environmental pollution with petroleum and petrochemical products has been recognized as a significant and severe problem. Most oil components are toxic to humans and wildlife, as they are easily incorporated into the food chain. This fact has increased scientific interest in examining the distribution, fate, and behaviour of oil and its derivatives in the environment.

Authors: Central mediterranean Sea - Threatened by Anthropogenic Impacts (Michela Angiolillo, Michela Giusti, Lorenzo Rossi, and Leonardo Tunesi This study reports the first attempt to quantitatively describe a Dendrophyllia ramea population on the Apollo bank (Ionian Sea), revealed in summer 2021 through a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey. The habitat description, bathymetric distribution, population density, and structure of the species were assessed by image analysis.

Authors: M. Riedel, M. Scherwath, M. Römer, C. K. Paull, E. M. Lundsten, D. Caress, P. G. Brewer, J. W. Pohlman, L. L. Lapham, N. R. Chapman, M. J. Whiticar, G. D. Spence, R. J. Enkin, and K. Douglas Barkley Canyon is off the west coast off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The authors combined repeat remotely operated vehicle (ROV) sea floor video observations, mapping with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), ship-, ROV-, and AUV- based identification of gas flares, as well as seismic and Chirp data to investigate the distribution of fluid migration pathways.

Authors: O. V. Soloveva, E. A. Tikhonova, K. I. Gurov, E. A. Kotelyanets The present environmental problems of Balaklava Bay (Black Sea), which has an increased anthropogenic load for a long time, are of growing interest. It is known that high concentrations of hydrocarbons (HCs) negatively affect the life processes of hydrobionts. The purpose of this work is to determine the content and spatial distribution of HCs as well as to assess the possible sources of their input in the bottom sediments of Balaklava Bay.

40 - Fish surveys on the move: Adapting automated fish detection and classification frameworks for videos on a remotely operated vehicle in shallow marine waters

Authors: Rod M. Connolly, Kristin I. Jinks, Cesar Herrera, and Sebastian Lopez-Marcano Mobile underwater cameras, diver-operated or on underwater vehicles, have become popular for monitoring fisheries. Replacing divers with cameras has clear advantages, such as creating permanent records and accessing waters unavailable to divers. The use of cameras, however, typically produces large quantities of video that are time-consuming to process manually. Automated analysis of underwater videos from stationary cameras using deep learning techniques has advanced considerably in recent years, but the use of mobile cameras potentially raises new challenges for existing methods.

Authors: Maria Bollinger, Keir J. Macartney, Erin E. Easton, and David W. Hicks On the continental shelf off the coast of South Texas lie a series of natural hard-bottom structures (rocky outcrops and relic coral-algal reefs) known as the South Texas Banks (STB), which provide critical habitat for benthic organisms and pelagic fish. The depth of the banks, a persistent nepheloid layer, and strong currents have resulted in few studies that provide quantitative biodiversity data on the STB. Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), video surveys were conducted to quantitatively describe the mesophotic coral communities and assess habitat suitability of fiveve STB

47 - Deep-sea biology in undergraduate classrooms: Open access data from remotely operated vehicles provide impactful research experiences.

Authors: Mackenzie E. Gerringer, Yumna Ismail, Kayla A. Cannon, Arline Camilo Hernandez, Franchesca Gonzales Peralta, Ryan Bohen, Joseph C. Cartwright, Austin Feasley, Lydia Fregosi, Hannah Lehman, Hailey Niles, Jillian Quay, Nima Sherpa, Brett H. Woodworth, and Kasey Cantwell Access to deep-sea systems has been expanded by programs such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Exploration (NOAA Ocean Exploration), which uses telepresence to bring deep-sea exploration to a global audience. The authors of this paper present an example of how remotely operated vehicles can engage students in original research.

Authors: Tadamichi Morisaka, Tomo Furuichi, Kazunobu Kogi, Motoi Yoshioka The authors propose a group definition for underwater observations after comparing 234 group transitions from 44 surveys of simultaneous boat-based and underwater observations targeting the resident Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins around Mikura Island, Japan.

Authors: Carlotta Sacco Perasso, Federica Antonelli, Barbara Calcinai, Edoardo Casoli, Maria Flavia Gravina, and Sandra Ricci Bioerosion is the destruction of hard substrates resulting from biological activity, and plays a relevant role in the ecological interactions and coastal dynamics processes. Several organisms have evolved structures and behaviors allowing them to perforate biotic and abiotic surfaces, transforming hard surfaces into particles, and contributing significantly to sediment production in the coastal and marine environment. Due to the large geographical diffusion of marine borers, bioerosion is relevant in many scientific and applied fields of interest.

23 - Short-Term Response of Deep-Water Benthic Megafauna to Installation of a Pipeline Over a Depth Gradient on the Angolan Slope

Authors: Virginia Biede, Andrew R. Gates, Simone Pfeifer, Jane E. Collins, Carmen Santos, and Daniel O. B. Jones Large structures are introduced into deep-water marine environments by several industrial activities, including hydrocarbon exploitation. Anthropogenic structures can alter ecosystem structure and functioning in many marine ecosystems but the responses on continental margins are poorly known. The authors investigated the short-term response of benthic megafauna to the installation of a 56 km-long 30 cm diameter pipeline on the Angolan Margin (Block 31) from 700 to 1800 m water depth using remotely operated vehicle imager

Authors: Hailey L. Davies, Shane Gross, Dana R. Haggarty, Francis Juanes Rockfishes are a diverse group of fish in the order Scorpaeniformes that are distributed globally but concentrated in the North Pacific. Recognizable by their large eyes and distinct dorsal spines, the genus is united by shared characteristics including live births, head spines, a highly spinous dorsal fin succeeded by a soft- rayed portion, and musculature attached to a closed (physoclistous) swim bladder.

Authors: Maciej Liro, Tim H.M. van Emmerik, Anna Zielonka, Luca Gallitelli, Florin-Constantin Mihai Mountain rivers are typically seen as relatively pristine ecosystems, supporting numerous benefits for human populations living not only in the mountain regions but also downstream from them. However, recent evidence suggests that mountain river valleys in populated areas can be substantially polluted by macroplastics (plastic items >25 mm). To stimulate future work on this gap, the authors present a conceptual model of macroplastic transport pathways through mountain rivers.

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Publisher: European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency This study was commissioned by the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). It focuses on underwater unexploded munitions and aims to improve cooperation between Member States' authorities, private bodies, and regional organizations in dealing with accidental recovery or encounters with unexploded ordnances and chemical munitions dumped at sea, enhance coordination in monitoring and systematically removing these munitions, and increase awareness among Member States' authorities about issues related to underwater unexploded munitions.

Authors: Kaustubha Raghukumar, Chris Chartrand, Grace Chang, Lawrence Cheung, & Jesse Roberts This study quantifies the changes in wind fields at the sea surface resulting from the deployment of offshore wind turbines in California's offshore waters. It uses an atmospheric model to simulate these changes and assesses the impact on wind speeds and ocean circulation, particularly focusing on the implications for upwelling and primary productivity in the region.

Authors: Cassandra L. Everett, Oscar Williams, Emma Ruggiero, Michael Larner, Rachel Schaefer, Matt Malej, Fengyan Shi, Jules Bruck, & Jack A. Puleo This study investigated the effectiveness of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) in protecting shorelines from ship wake. It focused on a specific installation using coir logs and wooden staking in a T-head groin configuration along a low-sloping estuarine shoreline to evaluate the energy dissipation and velocity attenuation capabilities of the NNBF installation and to highlight the potential benefits and limitations of such nature-based solutions in mitigating the impact of ship wakes on shorelines.

Authors: Oihane Fernandez-Betelu, Isla M. Graham and Paul M. Thompson This document discusses the impact of offshore structures on the behavior of marine predators, specifically harbour porpoises, to understand how these structures influence the occurrence and foraging activity of porpoises, particularly in relation to the time of day. The research highlights that porpoises are attracted to man-made structures and that their diel patterns of occurrence and foraging activity change in the presence of these structures. The findings are intended to inform considerations and planning for the decommissioning of offshore structures.

Authors: Fenghua Zhou, Rongwang Zhang, Shaowei Zhang This document describes the design, implementation, and functionality of a low-cost directional inertial wave sensor, the DWS19-2. It outlines the integration of the sensor with specific hardware components, its ability to measure various parameters related to buoy motion, and its application in calculating wave parameters and spectra. It also discusses the processing of this data for real-time transmission and provides details of the electrical design, on-board processing algorithms, and validation tests.

Authors: Miles J. G. Parsons, Tzu-Hao Lin, T. Aran Mooney, Christine Erbe, Francis Juanes, Marc Lammers, Songhai Li, Simon Linke, Audrey Looby, Sophie L. Nedelec, Ilse Van Opzeeland, Craig Radford, Aaron N. Rice, Laela Sayigh, Jenni Stanley, Edward Urban, and Lucia Di Iorio This text advocates for developing a comprehensive, web- based, open-access platform for passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of aquatic environments, highlighting the importance of such a platform in documenting and understanding underwater soundscapes, especially in the context of declining biodiversity and anthropogenic impacts. It outlines the potential components of the platform, including a reference library, data repository, AI training platform, and citizen science application.

Authors: Mauricio Silva, Camilo Roa, Nizar Bel Haj Ali, Carrie O’ Reilly, Tarek Abichou, and Ian R. MacDonald This document is a detailed report on the environmental impact and response to an oil and gas discharge in the Gulf of Mexico initiated by the destruction of an oil platform by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. It describes the ongoing discharge, the methods used to quantify the release of oil and gas, and the subsequent containment efforts. The text also highlights the measurement of methane emissions into the atmosphere and the effectiveness of the containment system installed in 2019.

Authors: Mario La Mesa, Simonepietro Canese, Paolo Montagna, and Stefano Schiaparelli This study focused on understanding the inshore fish community of Terra Nova Bay in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, to provide new insights into the spatial distribution and habitat relationships of fish species in this area, using an underwater photographic survey conducted with remotely operated vehicles, highlighting the identification of twelve notothenioid species, their depth distribution, and associations with benthic macrofauna, as well as documenting nesting behavior in two species. The study also underscores the ecological importance of inshore waters for fish activities such as settling, foraging, and spawning.

39 - Warship wrecks and their munitions cargo as a threat to the marine environment and humans: the V 1302 "JOHN MAHN” from World War II

Authors: Edmund Maser, Tobias H. Bünning, Matthias Brenner, Sven Van Haelst, Maarten De Rijcke, Patrick Müller, Uwe Wichert, Jennifer S. Strehse This paper raises awareness about the environmental and health risks posed by sunken warship wrecks, particularly those with dangerous cargo such as munitions. It discusses the potential contamination of the marine ecosystem and food chain by toxic compounds like TNT, and presents findings from a specific study (the North Sea Wrecks project) that investigates these risks. It also suggests that wrecks should be evaluated not only based on their impact on sea traffic and infrastructure but also on their environmental and health threats.

50 - The Influence of Sociodemographic Characteristics and the Experience of Recreational Divers on the Preference for Diving Sites

Authors: Ke Zhang, Anson T. H. Ma, Theresa W. L. Lam, Wei Fang, and Lewis T. O. Cheung This study explores the preferences of scuba divers in Hong Kong and how sociodemographic characteristics and diving experiences influence these preferences to provide insights for authorities and service providers to develop effective management plans and offer diverse recreational opportunities that promote industrial sustainability and enhance diver satisfaction.

Author: Dong-Gyun Han and Jee Woong Choi Offshore wind power plants are being built globally, raising concerns about underwater noise's negative impact on marine life during construction. A study measured noise from impact pile driving at a wind farm in Korea and estimated sound levels. Predictions showed source levels of 183–184 dB at 1 m, decreasing with distance. The findings can help assess construction effects on marine ecosystems when combined with noise damage thresholds for marine life.

1 - Measurements and Spatial Distribution Simulation of Impact Pile Driving Underwater Noise Generated During the Construction of Offshore Wind Power Plant Off the Southwest Coast of Korea.

38 - 80 years later: Marine sediments still influenced by an old war ship

Author: Joseflen Van Landuyt, Kankana Kundu, Sven Van Haelst, Marijke Neyts, Koen Parmentier, Maarten De Rijcke, and Nico Boon Historic shipwrecks are important in marine environments, but their effects on local chemistry and microbiology are not well understood. This study examined sediment and steel samples from the V-1302 John Mahn shipwreck. Levels of PAHs, explosives, and heavy metals were measured and linked to microbial makeup, showing that the wreck still influences nearby sediments and microbial life even 80 years later.

45 - Potential of Small-wind Turbine for Power Generation on Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms in Malaysia

Authors: Chee Sze Yan, Siow Chun Lim, Chan Kah Yoong Offshore oil and gas platforms currently use generators, like gas turbines and diesel power generators. These generators are not very reliable, especially on unmanned platforms. Using renewable energy, such as wind turbines, could enhance energy security, economic development, and environmental protection. This paper studies small wind turbines for power generation on offshore platforms in Malaysia and examines models and their potential energy production, finding Kerteh, Terengganu to be the best location for harnessing wind power.

9 - A tradeoff between physical encounters and consumption determines an optimal droplet size for microbial degradation of dispersed oil

Authors: Vicente I. Fernandez, Roman Stocker, & Gabriel Juarez The study presents a mechanistic encounter-consumption model to predict the characteristic time for oil degradation by bacteria in natural marine environments, which predicts that the tradeoff between encounter time and consumption time leads to an optimal droplet size larger than the average size generated by dispersants. Reducing droplet size below this optimum can increase the persistence of oil droplets in the environment from weeks to years. This new perspective changes our understanding of biodegradation, particularly in deep ocean environments.

10 - Metagenomic and Metatranscriptomic Responses of Chemical Dispersant Application during a Marine Dilbit Spill.

Authors: YiqiCao, BaiyuZhang, CharlesW.Greer, Kenneth Lee, QinhongCai, XingSong, Julien Tremblay, ZhiwenZhu, GuihuaDong, Bing Chen The increasing marine transportation of dilbit increases spill risk, leading to the use of chemical dispersants. The authors set large-scale microcosms without nutrient addition to evaluate dispersant effects on dilbit biodegradation. They found that large-scale microcosms produced more reproducible community trajectories than small-scale ones. In the early stage, dispersant addition enriched Alteromonas, causing depressed degradation of aromatics. In the late stage, microbial communities showed high diversity and similar compositions, suggesting biotransformation of remaining compounds.

5 - Mesopelagic microbial community dynamics in response to increasing oil and Corexit 9500 concentrations

Author: Shahd Aljandal, Shawn M. Doyle, Gopal Bera, Terry L. Wade, Anthony H. Knap, Jason B. Sylvan Marine microbial communities are vital for breaking down oil from spills. The effects of chemical dispersants on these communities after oil spills are unclear. In this study, the microbial community was exposed to oil and different concentrations of dispersant. Results showed that lower oil concentrations led to more similar compositions to control seawater, while higher concentrations influenced microbe composition more strongly, highlighting the importance of both oil and dispersant concentrations in oil spill research.

18 - Bacterial Communities and Culturable Petroleum Hydrocarbon Degrading Bacteria in Marine Sediments in the Northeastern South China Sea

Authors: Wenhui Xu, Yanlu Qiao, Jinxiao Wei, Qing Jiang, and Jianliang Xue Marine oil spill pollution affects the nSCS marine ecology. This study found that 29 bacterial strains capable of degrading petroleum hydrocarbons were isolated from deep-sea sediments. Stenotrophomonas strains degraded petroleum hydrocarbons efficiently. This research provides insights into the distribution pattern of benthic microbial communities and validates the degradation potential of petroleum hydrocarbons by indigenous bacteria.

27 - Hydrocarbons removal from synthetic bilge water by adsorption onto biochars of dead Posidonia oceanica

Authors: Salvatore Cataldo, Nicola Muratore, Francesco Giannici, David Bongiorno, Vitaliano Chiodo, Susanna Maisano, Alberto Pettignano Bilge waters, produced by boats during navigation, contain hydrocarbons and oils. OWS systems can remove these pollutants, but they cannot be released into the sea. Biochars, produced from pyrolysis of dead Posidonia oceanica, have been tested as hydrocarbon adsorbents. Adsorption experiments were conducted with aqueous dispersions, marine gas oil fuel, surfactant, and NaCl concentrations. The hydrocarbon concentrations were measured using reverse phase HPLC and GC-MS-MS techniques.

28 - Marine Debris Floating in Arctic and Temperate Northeast Atlantic Waters.

Authors: Mine B. Tekman, Lars Gutow, and Melanie Bergmann This survey of floating marine debris conducted between 2015 and 2020 in the Northeast Atlantic revealed that plastic accounted for 91% of all floating items. The median debris concentration was 11 items km-2, with the highest in the North Sea. The data showed a slight annual decrease and seasonal differences in debris concentrations, with higher levels observed during summer. Pollution levels were 500 times lower than those recorded on the seafloor, indicating the seafloor as a sink for marine debris. Arctic ecosystems face threats from plastic pollution, which adds to the effects of rapid climate change.

29 - Marine Sponges in a Snowstorm-Extreme Sensitivity of a Sponge Holobiont to Marine Oil Snow and Chemically Dispersed Oil Pollution.

Authors: Johanne Vad, Laura Duran Suja, Stephen Summers, Theodore B. Henry, and J. Murray Roberts Holobionts, crucial biological units in marine ecosystems, are vital for nutrient cycling. Spent sponges, like Halichondria panicea, host complex microbial communities and provide essential services. Exposure to oil, dispersants, and marine oil snow contaminated seawater revealed a bacterial symbiotic response, partly due to changes in the host environment. Symbionts changed their metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic pathways, possibly via quorum sensing. The study emphasizes the need for minimizing dispersant use and considering sponge holobiont vulnerability in environmental impact assessments.

44 - Benzene Exposure From Selected Work Tasks on Offshore Petroleum Installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, 2002–2018

Author: Hilde Ridderseth, Dagrun Slettebø Daltveit, Bjørg Eli Hollund, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Hans Kromhout, Kirsti Krüger, Kari Aasbø, and Magne Bråtveit This study on offshore petroleum installations in Norway highlighted that workers may be exposed to benzene, showing that the pipeline inspection gauge (PIG) operation task was associated with the highest exposure, followed by work on flotation cells and disassembling/assembling equipment. It also found that task-based benzene exposure declined annually by 10.2% from 2002 to 2018. The exposure was linked to the type of benzene source used. It concludes that despite the decline, technical measures should still be considered to reduce exposure.

2 - Underwater Photogrammetry Captures the Initial Recovery of a Coral Reef at Lalo Atoll - Published by MDPI - Diversity

Authors: Atsuko Fukunaga, Kailey H. Pascoe, Ashley R. Pugh, Randall K. Kosaki, and John H. R. Burns This document examines the recovery of a coral reef at Lalo Atoll, which was devastated by Hurricane Walaka in 2018. Utilizing underwater photogrammetry, researchers assessed the benthic cover and confirmed the colonization of coral, macroalgae, and sponges. Despite the reef being predominantly covered in rubble and sand, the return of 35 reef fish species indicates positive ecological signs. The study emphasizes the importance of continuous monitoring to determine whether the reef will revert to its original state dominated by Acropora coral or develop a new coral composition.