Metal concentrations in fish, crabs, and bivalve molluscs from marine waters adjacent to a multi-metals smelter and refinery.

Metal concentrations were determined in tissues of finfish, crabs, and bivalve molluscs collected from marine waters near Port Pirie, South Australia, the site of a long-standing multi-metals smelter and refinery. A general trend of tissue metal concentrations in order of highest to lowest was observed in bivalves > crabs > finfish. A lead concentration of 158 ± 6.

Seagrass soils sequester up to half the metal emissions of one of the world's largest smelters.

One of the world's largest smelters has been operating in South Australia since 1889, affecting environment and human health. Here we quantified the magnitude of Pb, Zn and Cd emissions from the smelter sequestered in the soil of an adjacent 110 kmPosidonia australis seagrass meadows. Seagrass core records show that the smelter contaminated the entire area with decreasing sequestration with increasing distance from contamination points.

Landsat historical records reveal large-scale dynamics and enduring recovery of seagrasses in an impacted seascape.

Seagrasses are considered indicators of anthropogenic impact but surprisingly little is known about their temporal and spatial dynamics in impacted seascapes. In this study, we used three decades of Landsat imagery (1988-2018) off the coast of Adelaide, South Australia, to investigate how seagrass cover over 501 km responds to changes in land-based inputs, including breakpoints in system trajectory and associated timelags, and the identification of vulnerable meadows. Field data was used to help train benthic classification of summer imagery and define its accuracy.

Evaluation of a popular spatial cumulative impact assessment method for marine systems: A seagrass case study.

Human activities put stress on our oceans and with a growing global population, the impact is increasing. Stressors rarely act in isolation, with the majority of marine areas being impacted by multiple, concurrent stressors. Marine spatial cumulative impact assessments attempt to estimate the collective impact of multiple stressors on marine environments.