Marine Pollution Bulletin 91 (2015) 401–402
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul
Editorial
Marine pollution and assessment of marine status in Latin America
Oceans, seas and coastal areas provide a source of ecosystem goods and services, which include among others food, nutrients and pollutants cycling, disturbance and natural hazard prevention, reproduction and nursery grounds, and recreation and cultural inspiration (Costanza et al., 1997). These services result in employment, trade and economic benefit for millions of people around the world. Fishing and aquaculture provide to about 4300 million people 15% of the average per capita intake of animal protein and generate, directly or indirectly, more than 200 million jobs worldwide. Otherwise, marine aquaculture is quickly expanding from the coast to the open sea, but also, shipping, tourism, harbors and associated infrastructures, mining activities, new technologies and energy production are also sectors that use oceans and seas to create jobs, economic and social benefits in the so-called blue growth (European Commission, 2012). Nowadays the oceans absorbed more than 26% of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by human activities (e.g. cattle breeding, industrial emissions, traffic). The oceans play a fundamental role in atmospheric and climate regulation, while the coastal areas offer protection against flooding and erosion for those communities living in coastal lowlands. During the last centuries, and especially along the 20th Century, several threats have diminished the capacity of the oceans to sustain the benefits they can provide for present and future generations (Lotze, 2010). In addition, bad managed human activities have undermining the recovery capacity and resilience of the oceans, mainly against the effects of climate change. While the vulnerability of marine ecosystems increase, demographic growth, especially along the coasts, has increased the dependency of a greater number of people on the services provided by marine ecosystems. Nature has a vast capacity to recover from minor environmental modifications, which have been characteristic of the development of our civilization during most of the recorded history. Due to this capacity for recovery, humans have fallen into a false sense of security, feeling that human being could continue to use the oceans as an unlimited resource for exploitation and for waste disposal. However, there is a limit capacity of nature to recover from continuous perturbations. Due to our scarce knowledge of the fundamental laws that control and govern the ability of natural populations, communities and ecosystems to survive in adverse conditions, we are now faced with heavily perturbed ecosystems worldwide, among which oceans and coastal marine and estuarine systems are not an exception. A clean marine environment should be recognized as one of the rights of the humanity, not only because of the food resources of the sea but for the recreational benefits and many other ecosystem http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.12.057 0025-326X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
services. This cannot be provided without costs. Since the benefits of an environment are widespread, the costs cannot be assessed against the producer of the pollution (or perturbation). The population that enjoys the benefits of a clean environment should be willing to support financially the development and maintenance of its quality. Today it is widely accepted that the better approach to evaluate and amend the impacts of human activities on the environment is that which considers a whole ecosystem as an integral unit, leaving behind compartmentalized or partial approaches. This is the socalled ecosystem-based approach to management (Christensen et al., 1996). Latin-America has not been invulnerable to this trend or evolution in environmental assessment, however, it is occurring more slowly than in other continents. The scope of the COLACMAR (Spanish acronym for the Latin– American Congress of Marine Sciences) for more than thirty years, through the ALICMAR (Spanish acronym for the Latin-American Association of Marine Science Researchers) has been to join the scientific community of this continent to discuss and interchange knowledge and experience about marine science topics. The participation in these every two-years meetings of recognized scientists from inside and outside our continent is very relevant to discuss the state, the perspectives and the challenges of marine sciences in a broader context. In 2013, Punta del Este (Uruguay) hosted the XV COLACMAR and the Faculty of Sciences, University of the Republic (Uruguay), together with the ALICMAR, had the honor of organizing this edition. More than 1000 researchers met during 5 days of intense scientific exchange about diverse topics related to marine sciences of continental and global interest. Among the more than 16 thematic symposia and 40 plenary talks, more than 1000 scientific contributions were presented as oral or posters. As the result of the joint effort of the organizers and colleagues that participate in the symposia, emerged the idea to edit a special issue in a scientific journal of high international impact in coastal and marine pollution topics. This unprecedented fact within the COLACMAR frame arisen from the need to give a higher visibility to the investigations performed in Latin America and the Caribbean about coastal and marine pollution. In this sense, this special issue of the Marine Pollution Bulletin, entitled Marine pollution and assessment of marine status in Latin America bring together the most relevant scientific works of those participants who were encouraged to disclose the results of their investigations. Manuscripts here selected deal with applied and experimental science and the results can be compared to species and aquatic systems outside of Latin America in a broader context. The special issue consists of 19 papers (80 authors, from 10 different countries) that can be organized in different groups: (i) manuscripts dealing
402
Editorial / Marine Pollution Bulletin 91 (2015) 401–402
with baseline studies and/or levels of contaminants, such as metals and organic pollutants, in some ecologically important areas, such as Marine Protected Areas, coastal zones heavily urbanized, remote and estuarine environments (Hoff et al., 2015; Calle et al., 2015; Pinto et al., 2015; de Paula Filho et al., 2015; Loaiza et al., 2015); (ii) Hutton et al. (2015) and Brauko et al. (2015) assessed the environmental quality of specific regions through integrated assessments, using novel approaches and testing the usefulness of biotic indices in South American estuaries, integrating biota, biological indices, organic and inorganic pollutants; (iii) Venturini et al. (2015) addressed the state of organic pollutants in one of the largest estuaries of South America through the use of different and novel molecular markers; (iv) Piccini and García-Alonso (2015), Segnini et al. (2015) and Spetter et al. (2015) deal with microbiological aspects and bacterial diversity of polluted/unpolluted zones from temperate and tropical regions; (v) Castro et al. (2015), Camargo et al. (2015), Gutiérrez et al. (2015) and Lezcano et al. (2015) tested the applicability of different toxicity tests in flora and fauna, and also measured DNA damage in estuarine fishes and the effects of pollution in Brachyurans; (vi) Elías et al. (2015) described the huge effects of an alien polychaete in the community structure of macrobenthic assemblages in a temperate oceanic coastal zone; (vii) Guenther et al. (2015) showed the effects of eutrophication on the size-fractioned biomass and production of phytoplankton in a tropical estuary; and (viii) Possatto et al. (2015) deal with the importance of marine debris in an temperate estuary and Kopprio et al. (2015) brought a mini-review about the global change effects on biogeochemical processes in Argentinian estuaries. We would like to thank those who offered their contribution to this special issue. First of all to the authors, who believed in this project and, like us, felt the need for major international divulgation of Latin–American research results. To the reviewers, who greatly contributed to the improvement of the manuscripts and demonstrated their commitment with the peer review process. On behalf of the organizing committee, we thank all the participants of the XV COLACMAR and expect this special issue represents the first step to forthcoming editions. Finally, we want to express our gratitude to Charles Sheppard, Editor in Chief of Marine Pollution Bulletin, because he appreciated and encouraged our efforts from the beginning and gave us this opportunity. References Brauko, K.M., Souza, F.M.d., Muniz, P., Camargo, M.G.d., Lana, P.d.C., 2015. Spatial variability of three benthic indices for marine quality assessment in a subtropical estuary of Southern Brazil. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 454–460. Calle, P., Alvarado, O., Monserrate, L., Cevallos, J.M., Calle, N., Alava, J.J., 2015. Mercury accumulation in sediments and seabird feathers from the Antarctic Peninsula. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 410–417. Camargo, J.B.D.A., Cruz, A.C.F., Campos, B.G., Araújo, G.S., Fonseca, T.G., Abessa, D.M.S., 2015. Use, development and improvements in the protocol of wholesediment toxicity identification evaluation using benthic copepods. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 511–517. Castro, A.d.J.V., Colares, I.G., Franco, T.C.R.d.S., Cutrim, M.V.J., Luvizotto-Santos, R., 2015. Using a toxicity test with Ruppia maritima (Linnaeus) to assess the effects of Roundup. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 506–510. Christensen, N.L., Bartuska, A.M., Brown, J.H., Carpenter, S., D’Antonio, C., et al, 1996. The report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the scientific basis for ecosystem management. Ecol. Appl. 6, 665–691.
Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O’Neill, R.V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R.G., Sutton, P., van den Belt, M., 1997. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253–260. de Paula Filho, F.J., Marins, R.V., de Lacerda, L.D., Aguiar, J.E., Peres, T.F., 2015. Background values for evaluation of heavy metal contamination in sediments in the Parnaíba River Delta estuary, NE/Brazil. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 424–428. Elías, R., Jaubet, M.L., Llanos, E.N., Sanchez, M.A., Rivero, M.S., Garaffo, G.V., SandriniNeto, L., 2015. Effect of the invader Boccardia proboscidea (Polychaeta: Spionidae) on richness, diversity and structure of SW Atlantic epilithic intertidal community. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 530–536. European Commission, 2012. Blue Growth – Opportunities for Marine and Maritime Sustainable Growth, COM(2012) 494 Final. Brussels; 13.9.2012. Guenther, M., Araújo, M., Flores-Montes, M., Gonzalez-Rodriguez, E., NeumannLeitão, S., 2015. Eutrophication effects on phytoplankton size-fractioned biomass and production at a tropical estuary. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 537–547. Gutiérrez, J.M., Villar, S., Acuña Plavan, A., 2015. Micronucleus test in fishes as indicators of environmental quality in subestuaries of the Río de la Plata (Uruguay). Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 518–523. Hoff, N.T., Figueira, R.C.L., Abessa, D.M.S., 2015. Levels of metals, arsenic and phosphorus in sediments from two sectors of a Brazilian Marine Protected Area (Tupinambás Ecological Station). Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 403–409. Hutton, M., Venturini, N., García-Rodríguez, F., Brugnoli, E., Muniz, P., 2015. Assessing the ecological quality status of a temperate urban estuary by means of benthic biotic indices. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 441–453. Kopprio, G.A., Biancalana, F., Fricke, A., Garzón Cardona, J.E., Martínez, A., Lara, R.J., 2015. Global change effects on biogeochemical processes of Argentinian estuaries: An overview of vulnerabilities and ecohydrological adaptive outlooks. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 554–562. Lezcano, A.H., Rojas Quiroga, M.L., Liberoff, A.L., Van der Molen, S., 2015. Marine pollution effects on the southern surf crab Ovalipes trimaculatus (Crustacea: Brachyura: Polybiidae) in Patagonia Argentina. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 524– 529. Loaiza, I., Hurtado, D., Miglio, M., Orrego, H., Mendo, J., 2015. Tissue-specific Cd and Pb accumulation in Peruvian scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) transplanted to a suspended and bottom culture at Sechura Bay, Peru. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 429–440. Lotze, H.K., 2010. Historical reconstruction of human-induced changes in U.S. estuaries. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol.: Annu. Rev. 48, 267–338. Piccini, C., García-Alonso, J., 2015. Bacterial diversity patterns of the intertidal biofilm in urban beaches of Río de la Plata. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 476–482. Pinto, R., Acosta, V., Segnini, M.I., Brito, L., Martínez, G., 2015. Temporal variations of heavy metals levels in Pernaviridis, on the Chacopata-Bocaripo lagoon axis, Sucre State, Venezuela. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 418–423. Possatto, F.E., Spach, H.L., Cattani, A.P., Lamour, M.R., Santos, L.O., Cordeiro, N.M.A., Broadhurst, M.K., 2015. Marine debris in a World Heritage Listed Brazilian estuary. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 548–553. Segnini de B, M.I., Gómez, I., Brito, L., Acosta, V., Troccoli, L., 2015. Microbial activity in surface sediments of Chacopata-Bocaripo lagoon axis, Sucre State, Venezuela. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 483–490. Spetter, C.V., Buzzi, N.S., Fernández, E.M., Cuadrado, D.G., Marcovecchio, J.E., 2015. Assessment of the physicochemical conditions sediments in a polluted tidal flat colonized by microbial mats in Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina). Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 491–505. Venturini, N., Bícego, M.C., Taniguchi, S., Sasaki, S.T., García-Rodríguez, F., Brugnoli, E., Muniz, P., 2015. A multi-molecular marker assessment of organic pollution in shore sediments from the Río de la Plata Estuary, SW Atlantic. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 461–475.
Pablo Muniz Natalia Venturini Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales (IECA), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Montevideo, Uruguay E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P. Muniz), [email protected] (N. Venturini) Angel Borja AZTI Tecnalia, Spain E-mail addresses: [email protected]
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul
Editorial
Marine pollution and assessment of marine status in Latin America
Oceans, seas and coastal areas provide a source of ecosystem goods and services, which include among others food, nutrients and pollutants cycling, disturbance and natural hazard prevention, reproduction and nursery grounds, and recreation and cultural inspiration (Costanza et al., 1997). These services result in employment, trade and economic benefit for millions of people around the world. Fishing and aquaculture provide to about 4300 million people 15% of the average per capita intake of animal protein and generate, directly or indirectly, more than 200 million jobs worldwide. Otherwise, marine aquaculture is quickly expanding from the coast to the open sea, but also, shipping, tourism, harbors and associated infrastructures, mining activities, new technologies and energy production are also sectors that use oceans and seas to create jobs, economic and social benefits in the so-called blue growth (European Commission, 2012). Nowadays the oceans absorbed more than 26% of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by human activities (e.g. cattle breeding, industrial emissions, traffic). The oceans play a fundamental role in atmospheric and climate regulation, while the coastal areas offer protection against flooding and erosion for those communities living in coastal lowlands. During the last centuries, and especially along the 20th Century, several threats have diminished the capacity of the oceans to sustain the benefits they can provide for present and future generations (Lotze, 2010). In addition, bad managed human activities have undermining the recovery capacity and resilience of the oceans, mainly against the effects of climate change. While the vulnerability of marine ecosystems increase, demographic growth, especially along the coasts, has increased the dependency of a greater number of people on the services provided by marine ecosystems. Nature has a vast capacity to recover from minor environmental modifications, which have been characteristic of the development of our civilization during most of the recorded history. Due to this capacity for recovery, humans have fallen into a false sense of security, feeling that human being could continue to use the oceans as an unlimited resource for exploitation and for waste disposal. However, there is a limit capacity of nature to recover from continuous perturbations. Due to our scarce knowledge of the fundamental laws that control and govern the ability of natural populations, communities and ecosystems to survive in adverse conditions, we are now faced with heavily perturbed ecosystems worldwide, among which oceans and coastal marine and estuarine systems are not an exception. A clean marine environment should be recognized as one of the rights of the humanity, not only because of the food resources of the sea but for the recreational benefits and many other ecosystem http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.12.057 0025-326X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
services. This cannot be provided without costs. Since the benefits of an environment are widespread, the costs cannot be assessed against the producer of the pollution (or perturbation). The population that enjoys the benefits of a clean environment should be willing to support financially the development and maintenance of its quality. Today it is widely accepted that the better approach to evaluate and amend the impacts of human activities on the environment is that which considers a whole ecosystem as an integral unit, leaving behind compartmentalized or partial approaches. This is the socalled ecosystem-based approach to management (Christensen et al., 1996). Latin-America has not been invulnerable to this trend or evolution in environmental assessment, however, it is occurring more slowly than in other continents. The scope of the COLACMAR (Spanish acronym for the Latin– American Congress of Marine Sciences) for more than thirty years, through the ALICMAR (Spanish acronym for the Latin-American Association of Marine Science Researchers) has been to join the scientific community of this continent to discuss and interchange knowledge and experience about marine science topics. The participation in these every two-years meetings of recognized scientists from inside and outside our continent is very relevant to discuss the state, the perspectives and the challenges of marine sciences in a broader context. In 2013, Punta del Este (Uruguay) hosted the XV COLACMAR and the Faculty of Sciences, University of the Republic (Uruguay), together with the ALICMAR, had the honor of organizing this edition. More than 1000 researchers met during 5 days of intense scientific exchange about diverse topics related to marine sciences of continental and global interest. Among the more than 16 thematic symposia and 40 plenary talks, more than 1000 scientific contributions were presented as oral or posters. As the result of the joint effort of the organizers and colleagues that participate in the symposia, emerged the idea to edit a special issue in a scientific journal of high international impact in coastal and marine pollution topics. This unprecedented fact within the COLACMAR frame arisen from the need to give a higher visibility to the investigations performed in Latin America and the Caribbean about coastal and marine pollution. In this sense, this special issue of the Marine Pollution Bulletin, entitled Marine pollution and assessment of marine status in Latin America bring together the most relevant scientific works of those participants who were encouraged to disclose the results of their investigations. Manuscripts here selected deal with applied and experimental science and the results can be compared to species and aquatic systems outside of Latin America in a broader context. The special issue consists of 19 papers (80 authors, from 10 different countries) that can be organized in different groups: (i) manuscripts dealing
402
Editorial / Marine Pollution Bulletin 91 (2015) 401–402
with baseline studies and/or levels of contaminants, such as metals and organic pollutants, in some ecologically important areas, such as Marine Protected Areas, coastal zones heavily urbanized, remote and estuarine environments (Hoff et al., 2015; Calle et al., 2015; Pinto et al., 2015; de Paula Filho et al., 2015; Loaiza et al., 2015); (ii) Hutton et al. (2015) and Brauko et al. (2015) assessed the environmental quality of specific regions through integrated assessments, using novel approaches and testing the usefulness of biotic indices in South American estuaries, integrating biota, biological indices, organic and inorganic pollutants; (iii) Venturini et al. (2015) addressed the state of organic pollutants in one of the largest estuaries of South America through the use of different and novel molecular markers; (iv) Piccini and García-Alonso (2015), Segnini et al. (2015) and Spetter et al. (2015) deal with microbiological aspects and bacterial diversity of polluted/unpolluted zones from temperate and tropical regions; (v) Castro et al. (2015), Camargo et al. (2015), Gutiérrez et al. (2015) and Lezcano et al. (2015) tested the applicability of different toxicity tests in flora and fauna, and also measured DNA damage in estuarine fishes and the effects of pollution in Brachyurans; (vi) Elías et al. (2015) described the huge effects of an alien polychaete in the community structure of macrobenthic assemblages in a temperate oceanic coastal zone; (vii) Guenther et al. (2015) showed the effects of eutrophication on the size-fractioned biomass and production of phytoplankton in a tropical estuary; and (viii) Possatto et al. (2015) deal with the importance of marine debris in an temperate estuary and Kopprio et al. (2015) brought a mini-review about the global change effects on biogeochemical processes in Argentinian estuaries. We would like to thank those who offered their contribution to this special issue. First of all to the authors, who believed in this project and, like us, felt the need for major international divulgation of Latin–American research results. To the reviewers, who greatly contributed to the improvement of the manuscripts and demonstrated their commitment with the peer review process. On behalf of the organizing committee, we thank all the participants of the XV COLACMAR and expect this special issue represents the first step to forthcoming editions. Finally, we want to express our gratitude to Charles Sheppard, Editor in Chief of Marine Pollution Bulletin, because he appreciated and encouraged our efforts from the beginning and gave us this opportunity. References Brauko, K.M., Souza, F.M.d., Muniz, P., Camargo, M.G.d., Lana, P.d.C., 2015. Spatial variability of three benthic indices for marine quality assessment in a subtropical estuary of Southern Brazil. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 454–460. Calle, P., Alvarado, O., Monserrate, L., Cevallos, J.M., Calle, N., Alava, J.J., 2015. Mercury accumulation in sediments and seabird feathers from the Antarctic Peninsula. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 410–417. Camargo, J.B.D.A., Cruz, A.C.F., Campos, B.G., Araújo, G.S., Fonseca, T.G., Abessa, D.M.S., 2015. Use, development and improvements in the protocol of wholesediment toxicity identification evaluation using benthic copepods. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 511–517. Castro, A.d.J.V., Colares, I.G., Franco, T.C.R.d.S., Cutrim, M.V.J., Luvizotto-Santos, R., 2015. Using a toxicity test with Ruppia maritima (Linnaeus) to assess the effects of Roundup. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 506–510. Christensen, N.L., Bartuska, A.M., Brown, J.H., Carpenter, S., D’Antonio, C., et al, 1996. The report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the scientific basis for ecosystem management. Ecol. Appl. 6, 665–691.
Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O’Neill, R.V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R.G., Sutton, P., van den Belt, M., 1997. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253–260. de Paula Filho, F.J., Marins, R.V., de Lacerda, L.D., Aguiar, J.E., Peres, T.F., 2015. Background values for evaluation of heavy metal contamination in sediments in the Parnaíba River Delta estuary, NE/Brazil. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 424–428. Elías, R., Jaubet, M.L., Llanos, E.N., Sanchez, M.A., Rivero, M.S., Garaffo, G.V., SandriniNeto, L., 2015. Effect of the invader Boccardia proboscidea (Polychaeta: Spionidae) on richness, diversity and structure of SW Atlantic epilithic intertidal community. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 530–536. European Commission, 2012. Blue Growth – Opportunities for Marine and Maritime Sustainable Growth, COM(2012) 494 Final. Brussels; 13.9.2012. Guenther, M., Araújo, M., Flores-Montes, M., Gonzalez-Rodriguez, E., NeumannLeitão, S., 2015. Eutrophication effects on phytoplankton size-fractioned biomass and production at a tropical estuary. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 537–547. Gutiérrez, J.M., Villar, S., Acuña Plavan, A., 2015. Micronucleus test in fishes as indicators of environmental quality in subestuaries of the Río de la Plata (Uruguay). Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 518–523. Hoff, N.T., Figueira, R.C.L., Abessa, D.M.S., 2015. Levels of metals, arsenic and phosphorus in sediments from two sectors of a Brazilian Marine Protected Area (Tupinambás Ecological Station). Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 403–409. Hutton, M., Venturini, N., García-Rodríguez, F., Brugnoli, E., Muniz, P., 2015. Assessing the ecological quality status of a temperate urban estuary by means of benthic biotic indices. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 441–453. Kopprio, G.A., Biancalana, F., Fricke, A., Garzón Cardona, J.E., Martínez, A., Lara, R.J., 2015. Global change effects on biogeochemical processes of Argentinian estuaries: An overview of vulnerabilities and ecohydrological adaptive outlooks. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 554–562. Lezcano, A.H., Rojas Quiroga, M.L., Liberoff, A.L., Van der Molen, S., 2015. Marine pollution effects on the southern surf crab Ovalipes trimaculatus (Crustacea: Brachyura: Polybiidae) in Patagonia Argentina. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 524– 529. Loaiza, I., Hurtado, D., Miglio, M., Orrego, H., Mendo, J., 2015. Tissue-specific Cd and Pb accumulation in Peruvian scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) transplanted to a suspended and bottom culture at Sechura Bay, Peru. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 429–440. Lotze, H.K., 2010. Historical reconstruction of human-induced changes in U.S. estuaries. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol.: Annu. Rev. 48, 267–338. Piccini, C., García-Alonso, J., 2015. Bacterial diversity patterns of the intertidal biofilm in urban beaches of Río de la Plata. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 476–482. Pinto, R., Acosta, V., Segnini, M.I., Brito, L., Martínez, G., 2015. Temporal variations of heavy metals levels in Pernaviridis, on the Chacopata-Bocaripo lagoon axis, Sucre State, Venezuela. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 418–423. Possatto, F.E., Spach, H.L., Cattani, A.P., Lamour, M.R., Santos, L.O., Cordeiro, N.M.A., Broadhurst, M.K., 2015. Marine debris in a World Heritage Listed Brazilian estuary. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 548–553. Segnini de B, M.I., Gómez, I., Brito, L., Acosta, V., Troccoli, L., 2015. Microbial activity in surface sediments of Chacopata-Bocaripo lagoon axis, Sucre State, Venezuela. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 483–490. Spetter, C.V., Buzzi, N.S., Fernández, E.M., Cuadrado, D.G., Marcovecchio, J.E., 2015. Assessment of the physicochemical conditions sediments in a polluted tidal flat colonized by microbial mats in Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina). Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 491–505. Venturini, N., Bícego, M.C., Taniguchi, S., Sasaki, S.T., García-Rodríguez, F., Brugnoli, E., Muniz, P., 2015. A multi-molecular marker assessment of organic pollution in shore sediments from the Río de la Plata Estuary, SW Atlantic. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 91 (2), 461–475.
Pablo Muniz Natalia Venturini Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales (IECA), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Montevideo, Uruguay E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P. Muniz), [email protected] (N. Venturini) Angel Borja AZTI Tecnalia, Spain E-mail addresses: [email protected]
