Mercury in the Mediterranean,part I: spatial and temporal trends

The present paper provides an overview of mercury studies performed in the Mediterranean Sea region in the framework of several research projects funded by the European Commission and on-going national programmes carried out during the last 15 years. These studies investigated the temporal and spatial distribution of mercury species in air, in the water column and sediments, and the transport mechanisms connecting them. It was found that atmospheric concentrations of Hg compounds, particularly oxidised Hg species observed at five coastal sites in the Mediterranean Sea Basin, are significantly higher compared with those recorded at five coastal sites distributed across N Europe, most probably due to natural emissions. Hg levels in water are comparable to other oceans. Anthropogenic and natural point sources show locally limited enrichments, while natural diffusive sources influence Hg speciation over larger areas. Results and statistic comparison of mercury species concentrations within Mediterranean compartments will be presented and discussed.     

Genotoxic potential of selected cytostatic drugs in human and zebrafish cells

Due to their increasing use, the residues of anti-neoplastic drugs have become emerging pollutants in aquatic environments. Most of them directly or indirectly interfere with the cell’s genome, which classifies them into a group of particularly dangerous compounds. The aim of the present study was to conduct a comparative in vitro toxicological characterisation of three commonly used cytostatics with different mechanisms of action (5-fluorouracil [5-FU], cisplatin [CDDP] and etoposide [ET]) towards zebrafish liver (ZFL) cell line, human hepatoma (HepG2) cells and human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBLs). Cytotoxicity was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining. All three drugs induced time- and dose-dependent decreases in cell viability. The sensitivity of ZFL and HepG2 cells towards the cytotoxicity of 5-FU was comparable (half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) 5.3 to 10.4 μg/mL). ZFL cells were more sensitive towards ET- (IC₅₀ 0.4 μg/mL) and HepG2 towards CDDP- (IC₅₀ 1.4 μg/mL) induced cytotoxicity. Genotoxicity was determined by comet assay and cytokinesis block micronucleus (CBMN) assay. ZFL cells were the most sensitive, and HPBLs were the least sensitive. In ZFL cells, induction of DNA strand breaks was a more sensitive genotoxicity endpoint than micronuclei (MNi) induction; the lowest effective concentration (LOEC) for DNA strand break induction was 0.001 μg/mL for ET, 0.01 μg/mL for 5-FU and 0.1 μg/mL for CDDP. In HepG2 cells, MNi induction was a more sensitive genotoxicity endpoint. The LOEC values were 0.01 μg/mL for ET, 0.1 μg/mL for 5-FU and 1 μg/mL for CDDP. The higher sensitivity of ZFL cells to cytostatic drugs raises the question of the impact of such compounds in aquatic ecosystem. Since little is known on the effect of such drugs on aquatic organisms, our results demonstrate that ZFL cells provide a relevant and sensitive tool to screen genotoxic potential of environmental pollutant in the frame of hazard assessment.     

Accumulation of organochlorine contaminants in loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta, from the eastern Adriatic Sea

We analyzed 15 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and five organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in fat tissue of 27 loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) from eastern Adriatic Sea with the curved carapace length ranging from 25.0 to 84.5 cm. The PCB profile was dominated by hexa- and hepta-chlorinated congeners, with PCB-153 (median: 114.9 ng g⁻¹ wet mass), PCB-138 (80.0 ng g⁻¹ w.m.), and PCB-180 (26.7 ng g⁻¹ w.m.) detected with the highest levels. Toxic mono-ortho congeners PCB-118, PCB-105 and PCB-180 with dioxin-like toxicity were found in >70% samples. 4,4′-DDE (81.0 ng g⁻¹ w.m.) prevailed the OCP signature, accounting for 80% of the total DDTs. A significant increasing trend in accumulation with size was found for PCB-52 (r_s = 0.512, p < 0.01) and PCB-114 (r_s = 0.421, p < 0.05). Comparison of our results with organochlorine contaminant (OC) pattern in some prey taxa suggest that contamination occurs primarily through the food web, with biomagnification factors of 0.14-6.99 which were positively correlated with the octanol-water partition coefficient (log K_ow; p < 0.05). This study, based upon a fairly large sample size collected mostly from incidentally captured animals over a short time period (June 2001-November 2002), present a temporal snapshot of OC contamination in wild, free-ranging loggerheads from Adriatic feeding grounds and provide a baseline for monitoring the regional OC trends in this endangered species.     

Using multi-objective classification to model communities of soil microarthropods

In agricultural soil, a suite of anthropogenic events shape the ecosystem processes and populations. However, the impact from anthropogenic sources on the soil environment is almost exclusively assessed for chemicals, although other factors like crop and tillage practices have an important impact as well. Thus, the farming system as a whole should be evaluated and ranked according to its environmental benefits and impacts. Our starting point is a data set describing agricultural events and soil biological parameters. Using machine learning methods for inducing regression and model trees, we produce empirical models able to predict the soil quality from agricultural measures in terms of quantities describing the soil microarthropod community. We are also interested in discovering additional higher level knowledge. In particular, we have identified the most important factors influencing the population densities of springtails and mites and their biodiversity. We also identify to which agricultural actions different microarthropods react distinctly. To obtain this higher level knowledge, we employ multi-objective regression trees.     

Mercury in the Mediterranean. Part 2: processes and mass balance

Mass balance of contaminants can provide useful information on the processes that influence their concentrations in various environmental compartments. The most important sources, sinks and the equilibrium or non-equilibrium state of the contaminant in individual environmental compartments can also be identified. Using the latest mercury speciation data, the results of numerical models and the results of recent studies on mercury transport and transformation processes in the marine environment, we have re-evaluated the total mercury (HgT) mass balance in the Mediterranean Sea. New calculations have been performed employing three distinct marine layers: the surface layer, the thermocline and the deep sea. New transport mechanisms, deep water formation and density-driven sinking and upwelling, were included in the mass balance calculations. The most recent data have even enabled the calculation of an approximate methylmercury (MeHg) mass balance. HgT is well balanced in the entire Mediterranean, and the discrepancies between inputs and outputs in individual layers do not exceed 20 %. The MeHg balance shows larger discrepancies between gains and losses due to measurement uncertainties and gaps in our knowledge of Hg species transformation processes. Nonetheless, the main sources and sinks of HgT (deposition and evasion) and MeHg (fluxes from sediment, outflow through the Gibraltar Strait) are in accordance with previous studies on mercury in the Mediterranean Basin. Mercury in the Mediterranean fish harvest is the second largest MeHg sink; about 300 kg of this toxic substance is consumed annually with sea food.     

Mass predicts web asymmetry in Nephila spiders

The architecture of vertical aerial orb webs may be affected by spider size and gravity or by the available web space, in addition to phylogenetic and/or developmental factors. Vertical orb web asymmetry measured by hub displacement has been shown to increase in bigger and heavier spiders; however, previous studies have mostly focused on adult and subadult spiders or on several size classes with measured size parameters but no mass. Both estimations are suboptimal because (1) adult orb web spiders may not invest heavily in optimal web construction, whereas juveniles do; (2) size class/developmental stage is difficult to estimate in the field and is thus subjective, and (3) mass scales differently to size and is therefore more important in predicting aerial foraging success due to gravity. We studied vertical web asymmetry in a giant orb web spider, Nephila pilipes, across a wide range of size classes/developmental stages and tested the hypothesis that vertical web asymmetry (measured as hub displacement) is affected by gravity. On a sample of 100 webs, we found that hubs were more displaced in heavier and larger juveniles and that spider mass explained vertical web asymmetry better than other measures of spider size (carapace and leg lengths, developmental stage). Quantifying web shape via the ladder index suggested that, unlike in other nephilid taxa, growing Nephila orbs do not become vertically elongated. We conclude that the ontogenetic pattern of progressive vertical web asymmetry in Nephila can be explained by optimal foraging due to gravity, to which the opposing selective force may be high web-building costs in the lower orb. Recent literature finds little support for alternative explanations of ontogenetic orb web allometry such as the size limitation hypothesis and the biogenetic law.     

The forecasting of municipal waste generation using artificial neural networks and sustainability indicators

The feasibility of modeling municipal waste generation (MWG) for countries at different levels of development using artificial neural networks (ANN) and selected generic indicators of sustainability was investigated. The main goals of this research were to develop ANN-based models for predicting MWG, to overcome the problem of incomplete MWG data, which is notable in developing countries, and to provide a new method for the planning of municipal solid waste management systems as well as for the simulation of various other scenarios. Data from 26 European countries was used in this study as training, test and validation datasets for the developing of ANN models. Since this kind of modeling is particularly important for developing countries where MWG data is missing or incomplete, emphasis was placed on modeling of MWG for Bulgaria and Serbia. Based on a comparison of actual MWG data with predictions given by the model, we show that ANNs can be applied successfully to modeling and forecasting MWG on a national scale. Moreover, the scope for possible application of the model is broad, since it uses generic indicators of sustainability such as gross domestic product, domestic material consumption and resource productivity, and performs well for countries with highly diversified levels of economic development, industrial structure, productivity and output.     

Levels and risks of surface contamination by thirteen antineoplastic drugs in the Czech and Slovak hospitals and pharmacies

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The consumption of hazardous antineoplastic drugs (ADs) used in anticancer chemotherapies is steadily increasing representing thus risks to both human...