Oil spills pose significant environmental risks, particularly in cold seas. In the Baltic Sea, the low salinity (from 0 to 2 up to 18) affects the behaviour of the spilled oil as well as the efficiency and ecological impacts of oil spill response methods such as mechanical collection and the use of dispersants. In the present study, mussels (Mytilus trossulus) were exposed under winter conditions (5 °C) to the water-accommodated fraction (WAF) of Naphthenic North Atlantic crude oil prepared by mechanical dispersion or to the chemically enhanced fraction (CEWAF) obtained using the dispersant Finasol OSR 51 at salinities of 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent studies have found primary degradation products of phenylarsenic chemical warfare agents (CWAs) accumulating in fish tissues, while the potential effects of these dumped phenylarsenic CWAs, such as Clark I and II, in the Baltic Sea biota are poorly understood. In this study, the metabolism and cytotoxicity of diphenylarsinic acid (DPA), a primary degradation product of phenylarsenic CWA, was studied by incubating rainbow trout cell line RTL-W1 cells in media with 100 mg/L DPA. Previously undescribed metabolites were identified by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UPHLCHRMS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBaltic mussels (Mytilus spp.) were exposed to the explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT) for 96 h (0.31-10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently, sea-dumped chemical weapons (CWs) containing toxic chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have raised international attention. It is well known that CWAs are leaking from corroded munitions causing a risk to the surrounding marine environment, while the impact on marine biota is still unknown. In this study, cod (Gadus morhua) was used as a model species to study the possible bioaccumulation of phenylarsenic CWAs and their negative effects at multiple levels of biological organization on fish living in the vicinity of a major CWs dumpsite in the Bornholm Basin in the Baltic Sea.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurvival rate, frequency of malformed embryos, and antioxidant defense system responses in the benthic amphipod Gmelinoides fasciatus from the Baltic Sea were measured to examine the effects of toxic sediments, and to assess the usefulness of these endpoints in sediment toxicity biotesting. A highly contaminated sediment sample from the Baltic Sea was diluted with sediment from a clean site to come up with a series of 5 test sediments with dilutions from 1:32 to 1:1024, and the reference sediment. The 1:32 dilution of the test sediment was analyzed for organotins (2862 µg tin [Sn] kg dry wt ), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (6064 µg kg dry wt ), and selected trace metals (e.
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