The biomarker approach has been used for 25 years to study the environmental quality of marine, brackish and freshwater ecosystems. Biomarkers may indicate health status and can be applied to organisms of all zoological phyla by destructive or non destructive methods. For 5 years we have been using this approach in zooplankton to detect ecotoxicological alterations at low levels of the food chain due to contaminants. Here we review our approach to validate and apply biomarker techniques in zooplankton. We discuss advantages, limitations, some results and future research. We indicate that biomarkers in zooplankton can be used as new indices of trophic status and ecological integrity of Italian marine coastal and lagoon environments, to be included among the tools specified by Italian law D.Lgs. 152/2006. 相似文献
The spatial and temporal variability of transparency measured for 15 years at 7 stations near the San Diego sewage outfall has been investigated and compared to the temporal variability of sewage suspended solid discharge and flow rate. the purpose of the time-series analyses was to distinguish natural from human (sewage discharge) causes of temporal changes in transparency. the results show that: 1) variations in transparency are highly correlated over the entire area, but there is a gradient in means and variability in the direction perpendicular to the coast; 2) there are no long term trends for increase or decrease in the water clarity at any of the stations; 3) most of the variance of transparency is contained in the seasonal frequency band; 4) over the same time period sewage discharge has significantly increased and suspended solids decreased; 5) most of the variance of these human-caused properties is in the interannual frequency band; (6) there is no correlation at any time-lag between water clarity and suspended solid discharge or flow. These results lead to the conclusion that these anthropogenic properties are not affecting transparency, while natural factors such as seasonality and distance from coast do. 相似文献
The paper demonstrates why it is necessary to take the restoration of marine coastal ecosystem health as a new goal for integrated catchment management, in coastal area of the Tolo Harbour. The present goal of integrated catchment management (ICM) in the Tolo Harbour is to meet with Water Quality Objectives. The performance of an ICM plan, Tolo Harbour Action Plan (THAP), is evaluated by using marine coastal ecosystem health indicators including stress indicators and responses indicators. Since the implementation of THAP in 1988, some significant reduction in pollution loading has been observed - reduction of 83 % of BOD load and 82 % of TN between 1988 and 1999. There has been an improvement in the health state of Tolo Harbour marine coastal ecosystem as evidenced in the trends of the physical, chemical and biological indicators, although some reverse fluctuations in some periods exist. However, this can only be considered as the first sign of the ecosystem health restoration, since ecosystem health co 相似文献