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An integrated assessment of pollution and biological effects in flounder, mussels and sediment in the southern Baltic Sea coastal area

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Abstract

Organic and metal contaminants and biological effects were investigated in flounder, mussels, and sediments in the southern Baltic Sea coastal area in order to assess environmental quality status in that area. Four sites were selected, including two within the Gulf of Gdańsk (GoG). In biota and sediment at each site, DDTs dominated over PCBs and PBDEs were the least abundant among organic contaminants. Their concentrations decreased progressively outward from GoG. Among metal contaminants, the levels of Hg, Pb, and Cd were elevated in GoG. Biomarkers in flounder, EROD activity and DNA SB, showed moderate positive correlations with organic and metal contaminants. In flounder, the integrated biomarker index (IBR/n) presented a spatial trend coherent with chemical pollution index (CPI), but there was no clear spatial correspondence between IBR/n and CPI in mussels nor between sediment toxicity index (STI) and sediment CPI. The integrated assessment of contaminant and biological effect data against available assessment criteria indicated that in biota, the contaminant assessment thresholds were most often exceeded by CB-118, heptachlor, PBDE, and Hg (in the GoG sediments by p,p′-DDT, Hg and Cd), while of the biological determinants, the threshold was breeched by AChE activity in mussels in GoG. Applying the ICES/OSPAR traffic-light approach showed that of the 50 parameters assessed at each site, there were 18% of determinants in the red color category in the two GoG sites and 8% of determinants in the two sites outside GoG, which indicated that none of the four investigated sites attained good environmental status (GES).

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Acknowledgements

The research received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013) under grant agreement number 217246 made with the Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme BONUS+ (BEAST project) and from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The authors thank Agnieszka Góra (NMFRI) for assistance with organic chemical analysis and Lucyna Polak-Juszczak (NMFRI) for metal analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Marine Fisheries Research Institute (NMFRI), Gdynia, Poland

    Henryka Dabrowska, Orest Kopko & Ilona Waszak

  2. Marine Research Centre, Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Kari K. Lehtonen

  3. Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute/Institute of Fisheries Ecology, Cuxhaven, Germany

    Thomas Lang

  4. Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Riga, Latvia

    Maija Balode & Evita Strode

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  1. Henryka Dabrowska
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  2. Orest Kopko
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  3. Kari K. Lehtonen
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  4. Thomas Lang
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  5. Ilona Waszak
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  6. Maija Balode
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  7. Evita Strode
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Correspondence to Henryka Dabrowska.

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Dabrowska, H., Kopko, O., Lehtonen, K.K. et al. An integrated assessment of pollution and biological effects in flounder, mussels and sediment in the southern Baltic Sea coastal area. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 3626–3639 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-8117-8

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