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A distinction between contamination and pollution is useful when we wish to consider what strategies to adopt in researching the impact of anthropogenic activities on the marine environment. Contamination strictly refers to the chemical burden imposed on the system and is evaluated in terms of the concentrations of chemical compounds in various abiotic (e. g water, suspended particulate matter, sediments) and biotic (plant and animal, pelagic and benthic) components. The concept of pollution, on the other hand, infers an assessment of biological response to the measured levels of contamination. This response may be measured at various levels of biological organisation, from molecular events within the cell to changes in such ecosystem properties as nutrient flux and biological productivity. Such measures of biological response need not infer any value judgements regarding putative damage or disturbance to the natural systems, although the biologist will usually have in mind a reference point of normality with which to compare the measured response; departure from this "normality" may then provide a quantitiative index of disturbance. The challenge to scientists engaged in research into marine contamination and pollution is to weld the chemical and biological elements together (always with reference also to the physical features of the environment) so as to provide a coherent framework for the quantitative evaluation of environmental response.
List of contents
- The Assimilative Capacity of the Oceans for Wastes.- - Information Systems and Scientometric Study of Chemical Oceanography.- - Strategies and Approaches to Marine Pollution Research.- - Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy: A New Analytical Tool for Analysis of Environmental Pollutants.- - High Resolution Emission Spectroscopy (Shpolskii Effect): A New Analytical Technique for the Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) in Marine Samples.- - Marine Analysis Using a Rapid Scanning Multichannel Fluorometer.- - Analyses of Yellow Substance in the Coastal Water of the Adriatic Sea.- - Fossil Fuel Aromatic Hydrocarbon Biogeochemistry in the Marine Environment: Research Challenges.- - The Importance of Intercalibration in the Marine Pollution Studies.- - Strategies of Sampling and Analysis for Studying the Hydrocarbon Pollution at the Water-Atmosphere Interface.- - Assessing the Contribution of the Atmospheric Transport to the Total Pollution Load of the Mediterranean Sea: Facts and Models.- - Site Specific Studies of Petroleum Operations in the Marine Environment.- - Sampling Organic Compounds for Marine Pollution Studies.- - Organic Pollutants in the Sea: Consequences, Evaluation and Sampling Strategies in the Pelagic Area.- - Sources of Organic Contaminants in the Marine Environment: Ocean Disposal and Accidental Spills.- - Useful and Easy to Apply Indicators of Petroleum Pollution in the Marine Environment.- - Our Changing View of Contamination.- - Environmental Impact Studies of Refinery Effluents: A Challenge to the Analytical Chemist.- - Evolution of the Amoco-Cadiz Hydrocarbons in the River Aber-Benoit.- - Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons.- - Ecotoxicological Testing for the Marine Environment.- - Molecular and Cellular Indices of Pollutant Effects.- - Remarks on the Problem of Station Selection in Ecotoxicological Studies in the Case of Oil Spills.- - The Sea Urchin Bioassay in Testing Pollutants.- Metabolic Pathways of a Naphtenic Hydrocarbon (Dodecylcyclohexane) in the Rainbow Trout.- - Induction of Ultrastructural Alterations in the Digestive Gland of Mytilus Galloprovincialis (Lamarck) by Crude Oil.- - Effects of Water Soluble Petroleum Compounds on the Fatty Acids Composition of Phytoplankton.- List of Participants.- Cumulative Index.- Table of Authors.
