Challenges in Marine Pollution Diagnosis

The degradation of coastal areas due to pollution by chemical compounds (toxic as well as nutritive or essential in excess), has an associated risk for human and ecosystem health as well as for socio-economic development. For this reason, an accurate diagnosis of pollution is essential in order to make good management decisions across the globe. This type of diagnosis involves an intrinsic complexity since the transport and fate of pollutants not only depend on their own characteristics and origin, but also on the specific attributes of the receiving ecosystem and on the other multiple stressors to which it may be subject. A holistic understanding of the problem is then required.

Since the last century, behavioral patterns of legacy pollutants introduced in the environment (derived from industrialization, wars, mining, agriculture and urban expansion), as well as natural pollutants potentially favored by anthropogenic action, have been modified. This is not only due to the influence of climate change, but also because of the onset of the so-called emerging pollutants, whose behavior and risks are still scarcely known or even unknown. Taken together with the advances in available technology for detection, the result has been a reshaping in the way pollution diagnosis is addressed. 

This Research Topic welcomes contributions mainly related to (but not restricted to):
Novel tools for diagnosis of marine pollution
Legacy, emerging and natural biogenic pollutants
Transport, behavior, fate and toxicity of pollutants in the marine environment
Innovative sampling technology
New methods for detection and quantification of marine pollutants (analytical methods, biosensors, remote sensors)
Risk assessment
Environmental threats to ecosystems