Search Results (71)

Biofouling, the accumulation of marine organisms on submerged surfaces, presents a significant challenge to the design, performance, and maintenance of offshore wind turbines (OWTs). This work synthesizes current knowledge on the physical and operational impacts of biofouling on OWT marine substructures, with a particular focus on how it alters hydrodynamic loading, increases drag and mass, and affects fatigue and structural response. Drawing from experimental studies, computational modeling, and real-world observations, this paper highlights the critical need to integrate biofouling effects into design practices. Additionally, emerging mitigation strategies are explored, including advanced antifouling materials and AI-driven monitoring systems, which offer promising solutions for long-term biofouling management. By addressing both engineering and ecological perspectives, this paper underscores the importance of developing robust, adaptive approaches to biofouling that can support the durability, reliability, and environmental sustainability of the offshore wind industry. Full article

A new integrated multi-user monitoring system for Brazilian Jurisdictional Waters (BJW), developed by Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) with participation from leading universities and research centers in Brazil, proposes a national approach to address oil spills in the South Atlantic. The system incorporates a range of technologies, such as satellite data, AI algorithms, autonomous sensors, and high-resolution modeling, to detect and respond to oil spills and maritime threats. This initiative not only aims to strengthen Brazil’s readiness to address the oil spills but also contribute to the protection of BJW resources and ecosystems. This opinion paper presents third-party viewpoints on SisMOM, analyzing both the positive and negative aspects of the project. It also explores some expectations for SisMOM, including some main and alternative methodologies. This article only reflects the authors’ perspectives, interpretations, points of view, opinions, and discussions about SisMOM’s propositions. This paper does NOT represent an official communication of the program, nor its methodologies and developments. Full article

Marine oil spills have caused significant environmental problems. Among the array of clean-up methods, the utilization of sorbents emerges as promising for removing and recovering oil from spills. Developing cost-effective, reliable, and eco-friendly material that efficiently and sustainably removes oil from water is increasingly seen as crucial and pressing. In the present study, we report the development of coco-polyurethane (PU) foam (CCF) through the conventional foaming process using varying amounts of coconut-oil-derived polyol (CODP) in a PU matrix. Characterization of the foams showed an increased ester band with the incorporation of COPD into the polyurethane networks and no direct influence of the cell size distribution on the surface morphology. Furthermore, this study highlighted the increasing CODP in every CCF formulation, showing high oil sorption and low water uptake due to its porous structure. The experimental results revealed that CCF is a potential candidate sorbent for the recovery of spilled oil. This signifies a significant leap towards reducing the dependency on petroleum in developing sorbent materials and advancing sustainable responses to oil spills in marine environments. Full article

The environmental condition of surface sediments in Sepetiba Bay is influenced by trace metals derived from human activities. Four sediment cores were collected from both the inner (Coroa Grande and Enseada das Garças) and outer (Guaratiba and Marambaia) areas of the bay. Trace metals content varied considerably, with the highest values recorded at Enseada das Garças (e.g., Cd: 2.4 mg kg⁻¹; Zn: 393 mg kg⁻¹), and lowest at Marambaia Barrier Island (e.g., Cd: <0.001 mg kg⁻¹; Zn: 3.35 mg kg⁻¹). Mean annual metal fluxes have increased since the 1950s, especially for Cd (from 8 × 10⁻⁵ to 0.4 g m⁻⁵ y⁻¹) and Zn (from 4.0 to 68.7 g m⁻² y⁻¹). However, a decreasing trend has been observed since the 2000s. Pollution indexes indicated that Cd poses the highest contamination and ecological risk in recent layers of the inner bay, and moderate risk at the Marambaia Barrier Island (maximum values of Cd: 0.67 mg kg⁻¹ and Zn: 94.9 mg kg⁻¹). Metal distribution patterns are influenced by mineral phases and sediment dynamics. Findings emphasize the need to monitor other metals like Cu and Pb, besides the historical heavy loadings of Cd and Zn, considering recent industrial and port expansions in the Sepetiba Bay region. Full article

In order to cope with the extremely difficult challenges of water pollution control, China has widely implemented the river chief system. The water quality monitoring of surface water environment, as a solid defense line to safeguard human health and ecosystem balance, is of great importance in the river chief system. As a well-known island county in China, Yuhuan City holds even more precious water resources. Leveraging machine learning technology to develop water quality prediction models is of great significance for enhancing the monitoring and evaluation of surface water environment quality. This case study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of six machine learning models in predicting water quality index (CWQI) and uses SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlans) as an interpretability analysis method to deeply analyze the contribution of each variable to the model’s prediction results. The research results show that all models exhibited good performance in predicting CWQI, and as the number of significantly correlated variables in the input variables increased, the prediction accuracy of the models also showed a gradual improvement trend. Under the optimal input variable combination, the Extreme Gradient Boosting model demonstrated the best prediction performance, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.7081, a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.4702, and an adjusted coefficient of determination (Adj.R²) of 0.6400. Through SHAP analysis, we found that the concentrations of TP (total phosphorus), NH3-N (ammonia nitrogen), and CODCr (chemical oxygen demand) have a significant impact on the prediction of CWQI in Yuhuan City. The implementation of the river chief system not only enhances the pertinence and effectiveness of water quality management, but also provides richer and more accurate data support for machine learning models, further improving the accuracy and reliability of water quality prediction models. Full article

Deep learning-based SAR oil spill detection faces significant challenges due to limited labeled training data. To address this, we propose SinGAN-Labeler, an enhanced framework that generates high-quality synthetic SAR oil spill images and their labels from minimal input. The model integrates an adaptive module to automate scale parameter optimization, accelerating training, and a hybrid attention module combining spatial, channel, and global contextual mechanisms to enhance feature extraction. By leveraging multi-scale training with diverse receptive fields, the generated images retain critical structural details while ensuring diversity. Experiments demonstrate that detection models trained on synthetic data achieve performance comparable to those using real images. Notably, expanding data sets by fivefold (from 5, 10, and 15 baseline images) improves the UNet++ model’s IoU by 78.2%, 58.5%, and 22.5%, respectively. These results validate SinGAN-Labeler’s capability to mitigate data scarcity and enhance oil spill detection accuracy, particularly under extreme sample limitations. Full article

Harmful blooms of the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides (Margalefidinium polykrikoides) had detrimental aquacultural and economic effects globally, and to reduce the damage caused by these blooms, early biomonitoring and quantitative analysis of C. polykrikoides are of the utmost importance. Here, for the detection of C. polykrikoides using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions, we developed specific primers targeting the large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU rDNA) and evaluated their applicability in the field during the occurrence of a C. polykrikoides bloom. The specific primers not only accurately detected C. polykirkoides but also had a detection performance comparable with that obtained using microscopic observations. Accordingly, we developed a system that can be used in the field and applied when red tides occur, with accurate results being obtained more than five times more rapidly than those obtained based on microscopic analysis. Collectively, our findings indicate that the C. polykrikoides bloom detection system developed in this study can be applied to rapidly detect and accurately quantify C. polykrikoides in environmental samples. Data obtained using this system could be used as a basis for developing prompt monitoring and warning systems for the early detection of C. polykrikoides blooms in the field. Full article

Tyre wear particles are a significant source of primary microplastics in the natural environment with the potential to accumulate in aquatic sediments, yet our understanding of the ecological impact of these particles is limited. Using mesocosms of estuarine sediment containing a model macrofauna community (Scrobicularia plana and Hediste diversicolor), meiofauna, and microphytobenthos, we investigated the impact of exposure to sedimentary tyre particles (0.2, 1, and 5% kg sediment(dw)⁻¹) upon meiofauna community structure, primary production, secondary production, and nutrient fluxes. Under the conditions (13 °C) and timescale (31 days) investigated, exposure to sedimentary tyre particles did not lead to any significant differences in nutrients for primary productivity, with limited impact on meiofaunal secondary productivity. An increase in Tanaidacea was observed in 1% and 5% tyre particle treatments, putatively due to reduced macrofaunal predation. Previous studies have highlighted the ecotoxicity of tyre wear particles. The limited impacts on meiofauna may be due to our experimental particles being too large for meiofauna to ingest or the timescale of the experiment being too short to witness changes at the community scale. Impacts from tyre particle leachates were likely limited due to dilution in the partial recirculation system. Leachate dilution will occur naturally in marine systems and should be a consideration in the design of future studies. Full article

Marine litter is a critical environmental issue, with beach litter being its most visible indicator. Despite severe pollution on Mediterranean beaches, Tunisia currently lacks a national beach litter monitoring program. To address this gap and support the development of such a program, particularly at pollution hotspots like urban beaches, we conducted a one-year study on six Tunisian beaches. We employed an innovative, accelerated multiple 10 m transect method tailored to highly polluted beaches, focusing on macro-litter (>2.5 cm). This method significantly reduces survey time compared to the standard 100 m approach while maintaining comparable pollution metrics, offering a practical and efficient solution for areas with high litter density. Our findings reveal an average litter density of 1.01 ± 1.08 pieces/m², with higher pollution in urban areas. Based on the Clean Coast Index (CCI), two beaches were classified as extremely dirty, one as dirty, two as moderately clean, and one as clean. Plastics (59.2%) and cigarette butts (21.1%) were the most prevalent pollutants, with single-use plastics comprising 52.5% ± 5.3% of total litter. Most of the litter (60.6%) originated from shoreline activities and poor waste management. These findings underscore the urgent need for a long-term national beach litter monitoring program. The integration of our accelerated transect method would enable efficient, effective surveys on highly polluted beaches, providing critical data to address litter sources and support targeted strategies for mitigating pollution and protecting Tunisia’s coastal ecosystems. Full article

Since 2015, the invasive seaweed Rugulopteryx okamurae has triggered the most serious marine macrophyte invasion in Europe. Its huge coastal biomass dumped on beaches generates health problems, strong odors, impacts on tourism, and high clean-up costs, but it also constitutes a new potential marine resource that offers significant prospects for exploitation. In this sense, as a circular economy strategy, seaweed bioremediation with isopods (Isopoda, Crustacea, Arthropoda) was experimented on for the first time. Specimens of Porcellio laevis (native terrestrial isopod) were obtained from urban parks and kept in terrariums with adequate humidity and temperature control. A sample of 150 adult specimens was divided into six batches of 25 animals. Three batches were fed with 100 g of mulch of Quercus pyrenaica leaves (control) and three with a diet composed of 100 g of mulch of algae (treatment). P. laevis consumed up to 1.5 times their weight per day on the algae diet, with little or no weight loss and adequate reproduction rates. The weight of the isopods averaged 1.6 g in the seaweed group and 2.5 g in the control group. However, high mortality was observed in both mancas and adults in the treatment group. In this sense, the average number of mancas per cm² was 0 in the algae group and 325 in the control group. Despite this, the results are promising, and consequently, we propose to encourage research with isopods due to their high voracity, high prolificacy, and resistance to invasive algal recycling. Future work should explore what percentage of R. okamurae prevents diterpene mortality of isopods and other invertebrates. This is a preliminary step towards the massive bioremediation of spring and summer blooms of R. okamurae. This work contributes to highlighting this abundant marine resource. Full article

Seagrass meadows provide ecosystem services (ES) that are critical for humanity. Southeast Asia (SEA) is a hotspot of seagrass diversity, and the region’s seagrass-derived ES have been valued at over $100 billion annually; however, the health and extent of seagrass meadows are in decline. Marine plastic pollution (MPP) is an escalating problem and a concern for vulnerable marine habitats such as seagrass meadows. To understand the impacts that MPP has on seagrass ecosystems and their provision of ES, we conducted a mixed methodology study that involved a systematic search of the literature and the synthesis of the results with a risk assessment. The results indicated that MPP negatively impacts seagrass through factors such as spatial competition, chemical leaching, and reduced rates of photosynthesis and rhizome growth. This can lead to a reduction in seagrass biomass, triggering the degradation of all seagrass-derived ES. A risk assessment of the microplastic impact results indicated that seagrass-derived ES are at high risk of decline from the current microplastic concentrations, which in turn indicates a potential threat to the well-being of those dependent on them. Full article

Marine debris (MD) causes significant threats to marine ecosystems. However, limited research addresses its transport of MD in tropical shallow semi-enclosed seas. This study applied a validated 3D hydrodynamic model and a particle tracking model to simulate the seasonal distribution of floating marine debris (FMD) originating from major river mouths in the vicinity of the Gulf of Thailand (GoT). The aim was to examine seasonal distribution patterns and variations influenced by sea surface circulation. Simulated particles were released every six hours from 12 river mouths and tracked over three years. Results revealed that seasonal currents drive the distribution of debris between the eastern and western regions, as well as its export and import across the gulf. The upper Gulf of Thailand (UGoT) exhibited the highest concentration of debris, with around 50% of the total released particles ending up onshore across the GoT, varying seasonally. An analysis showed that 74% of the debris released within the gulf remains there. Additionally, the GoT receives approximately 10% of the debris from rivers located outside its boundaries. Findings from this study suggest that the GoT, as an example of a tropical semi-enclosed sea, functions as both a sink and a source for FMD. These results could support the development of strategic seasonal cleanup frameworks, optimizing efforts during peak debris accumulation periods to enhance management efficiency. In addition, the mapping of debris distribution provides critical data for assessing and mitigating marine environmental impacts in the GoT. Full article

The accumulation of microplastics (MPs) in the environment has been a bottleneck for scientific society. Several approaches have been described as possibilities for reducing MPs in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems; however, most of them are not environmentally friendly. Filamentous fungi (Ff) cells are currently considered a promising solution as a treatment for MPs. Therefore, the present study reports the potential ability of Ff isolated from mangrove sediments to biodegrade low-density polyethylene MPs (LDPE_MPs). Six Ff strains were grown in batch cultures for 28 days, and one of them, Aspergillus sp. (AQ3A), showed the most prominent profile to biodegrade polymeric compounds. After morphological and molecular analysis, all strains were identified as belonging to the genera Aspergillus (MQ1C, AQ2A and AQ3A), Penicillium (MQ1A), and Trichoderma (MQ1B and MQ2A). The strain Aspergillus sp. (AQ3A) showed the most promising results with a LDPE_MPs reduction rate of 47% and biomass formation of 0.0890 g·mL⁻¹. Complementary studies with Aspergillus sp. (AQ3A) using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) highlighted changes in the molecular structure of LDPE_MPs. These results indicate that Ff can contribute to the biodegradation of LDPE_MPs. However, other parameters, mainly associated with the enzymes that are involved in this biodegradation process, need to be explored. Full article

The results of studies on the content of aluminum and heavy metals in benthic sediments and algae in the estuaries of the Arctic island Vaygach are presented. This island is located on the Barents and Kara Sea border, and it is part of the Pay-Khoi ridge which can be called a “continuation” of the Ural Mountains to the north. The observations were conducted in Krasnaya and Varkulyakha Rivers located in the island’s southern part and flow into the Yugorsky Shar Strait. Krasnaya River is located near a polymetallic ore deposit, which was developed in 1931–1934. Reconnaissance fieldwork was carried out in the river estuaries through measurements of salinity and water level. Measurements of the mass concentration of elements in the studied samples of sediments and algae were carried out by atomic emission spectrometry. The preparation of plant samples was by microwave decomposition, and that for samples of bottom sediments was carried out by acid decomposition in an open manner. The obtained concentration samples were compared using “Tukey exploratory data analysis (EDA)”. The presence of anomalies in the high content of copper, manganese, and zinc in filamentous algae at the control site in the Krasnaya River estuary was revealed. For some elements, the enrichment index was calculated relative to the upper part of the earth’s crust content. It is assumed that the occurrence of this situation is due to the long-term consequences of mining polymetallic ores. The accumulation of metals in river estuaries may be related to the observed warming of the climate in the western sector of the Arctic region. Full article

The need for an accurate inventory of ship emissions is vital for atmospheric scientists assessing the environmental impact of shipping and for policymakers aiming to regulate and incentivize emission reduction. This study used data from 189 international ports, related to ship arrivals and departures, to develop emissions inventories. Emission characteristics were examined in detail, classifying emissions by factors like ship type, month, and region. The analysis identified oil tankers and container ships as main emitters among ship categories. A detailed analysis of the monthly distribution of emissions from vessels at berth worldwide was conducted based on precise arrival and departure times. Singapore, Rotterdam, and Antwerp were the ports with the highest emissions from ships at berth. Overall, this study presents the spatial and temporal emission characteristics of ships at berth in 3912 ports around the world, which can support the development of emission reduction strategies in port management. Full article