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The Working Group on Biological Effects of Contaminants (WGBEC) investigates the biological effects of contaminants in the marine environment. The group provides research and increases the understanding of contaminant interactions and effects, including the development of inte-grated biological effects monitoring strategies, which are used to support international research and monitoring. The WGBEC has contributed significantly to the implementation and harmonization of tech-niques that can be used to evaluate the biological effects of pollutants in national monitoring programmes. An overview of national effect-based monitoring programmes of Member States is provided with the aim to support European countries and Regional Seas Conventions on their implementation. A summary of the national effects-based monitoring programmes has been pro-vided by twelve European countries represented at the WGBEC meetings. The adoption of bio-logical effects monitoring can differ widely and comparisons between approaches and the choice of biological effects methods used acts as an important tool. A summary of the main findings is presented. Furthermore, OSPAR's Hazardous Substances and Eutrophication Committee (HASEC) has en-couraged contracting parties to perform targeted biological effects monitoring to enhance the assessment of contaminants in sediment and biota towards the OSPAR QSR2023. WGBEC mem-bers contributed to the integrated biological effects approach assessment by providing data from their national monitoring activities to produce maps and figures to enable interpretations. Revision of the biological effects methods, including new techniques and developments, and the quality assurance of existing methods are core activities for the WGBEC, which require continu-ous discussion and evaluation by the group. Activities include the production of new ICES TIMES documents as well as intercalibration exercises to ensure Member States are providing comparable data for national monitoring. To this end, intercalibration exercises were performed under the BEQUALM programme for two of the more commonly used biological effects meth-ods, including micronucleus formation in mussel haemocytes and PAH metabolites in fish bile. These intercalibrations were successful despite identifying some variation in reported values be-tween laboratories. Further intercalibration exercises are planned and the WGBEC strongly sup-port the need for such quality assurance. In addition to the national monitoring activities and the different methods and approaches for determining the effects of contaminants on biological systems, the WGBEC was interested in discussing some key questions related to the potential impacts of contaminants to marine life. These questions included: the direct and indirect effects of natural and synthetic particles; how climate change and acidification parameters can interact with contaminants and influence bioa-vailability and effect; whether the structure of marine communities can be used to indicate con-taminant exposure; to provide guidance on performing risk assessments for contaminants of emerging concern; and to evaluate the effects of contaminants in marine sediments and whether current sediment toxicity tests are adequate. In addition, and as a wider concept, the linkages between contaminants in the marine environment and human health were also described., SI

The aim of this work was to estimate the risk of the combined effect of global warming factors and microplastic (MP) pollution on the development of the sea urchin P. lividus. Embryo-larval bioassays were conducted to determine growth and morphology after 48 h of incubation with MP (1000 and 3000 particles/mL); with filtered sea water at pH = 7.6; and with their combinations. A second experiment was conducted to study the effect of pH and MP in combination with a temperature increase of 4 °C compared to control (20 °C). We found that the inhibition of growth in embryos reared at pH = 7.6 was 75 %. Larvae incubated at 3000 MP particles/mL showed a 20 % decrease in growth compared to controls. The exposure to MPs also induced an increase in the postoral arm separation or rounded vertices. The combined exposure to a pH 7.6 and MPs caused a significant decrease of larval growth compared to control and to pH 7.6 treatments. Morphological alterations were observed in these treatments, including the development of only two arms. Increasing the temperature from 20 °C to 24 °C resulted in an increase of growth that was also observed in the pH 7.6 and pH 7.6 + MP3000 treatments, but the relative stomach volume decreased. In this work we demonstrated that MP could aggravate the effect of a decreased pH and increased temperature in P. lividus larvae, causing a lower growth and an altered development. Therefore, the combined stress caused by ocean warming and acidification, and microplastic pollution, could threaten sea urchin populations leading to an impact on coastal ecosystems.

The Working Group on Biological Effects of Contaminants (WGBEC) investigates the biological effects of contaminants in the marine environment. The group provides research and increases the understanding of contaminant interactions and effects, including the development of inte- grated biological effects monitoring strategies, which are used to support international research and monitoring. The WGBEC has contributed significantly to the implementation and harmonization of tech- niques that can be used to evaluate the biological effects of pollutants in national monitoring programmes. An overview of national effect-based monitoring programmes of Member States is provided with the aim to support European countries and Regional Seas Conventions on their implementation. A summary of the national effects-based monitoring programmes has been pro- vided by twelve European countries represented at the WGBEC meetings. The adoption of bio- logical effects monitoring can differ widely and comparisons between approaches and the choice of biological effects methods used acts as an important tool. A summary of the main findings is presented. Furthermore, OSPAR's Hazardous Substances and Eutrophication Committee (HASEC) has en- couraged contracting parties to perform targeted biological effects monitoring to enhance the assessment of contaminants in sediment and biota towards the OSPAR QSR2023. WGBEC mem- bers contributed to the integrated biological effects approach assessment by providing data from their national monitoring activities to produce maps and figures to enable interpretations. Revision of the biological effects methods, including new techniques and developments, and the quality assurance of existing methods are core activities for the WGBEC, which require continu- ous discussion and evaluation by the group. Activities include the production of new ICES TIMES documents as well as intercalibration exercises to ensure Member States are providing comparable data for national monitoring. To this end, intercalibration exercises were performed under the BEQUALM programme for two of the more commonly used biological effects meth- ods, including micronucleus formation in mussel haemocytes and PAH metabolites in fish bile. These intercalibrations were successful despite identifying some variation in reported values be- tween laboratories. Further intercalibration exercises are planned and the WGBEC strongly sup- port the need for such quality assurance. In addition to the national monitoring activities and the different methods and approaches for determining the effects of contaminants on biological systems, the WGBEC was interested in discussing some key questions related to the potential impacts of contaminants to marine life. These questions included: the direct and indirect effects of natural and synthetic particles; how climate change and acidification parameters can interact with contaminants and influence bioa- vailability and effect; whether the structure of marine communities can be used to indicate con- taminant exposure; to provide guidance on performing risk assessments for contaminants of emerging concern; and to evaluate the effects of contaminants in marine sediments and whether current sediment toxicity tests are adequate. In addition, and as a wider concept, the linkages between contaminants in the marine environment and human health were also described.

According to Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), EU Member States (MS) shall consider, in their Descriptor 8 primary criterion (D8C1) assessments, the WFD Priority Substances (PS) and River Basin Specific Pollutants (RBSP) within coastal and territorial waters and also beyond territorial waters if these still may give rise to pollution effects. Some WFD PS might not be relevant for the marine environment in the open sea and, consequently, might be excluded from MSFD monitoring beyond the territorial waters. MS have expressed the need for a framework for the deselection of WFD PS from monitoring under the MSFD, in order to save resources. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), collaborating within the MSFD Expert Network on Contaminants, has developed a pragmatic approach to identify the WFD PS that can be excluded from MSFD monitoring in the open sea beyond territorial waters without reducing protection of European Seas. This should preempt the need for individual MS to provide rationales for such exclusions, support comparable monitoring and assessments across national boundaries, and enable MS to focus their monitoring efforts on other (including emerging) substances that require attention.

There is abundant evidence that anthropogenic activities have polluted all compartments of the oceans, from the poles to the tropics, by different physical, chemical, and biological stressors. Chemical pollution is particularly tackled here with focus on legacy pollutants and newly emerging man-made compounds (xenobiotics) or anthropogenic forcing in the increase of natural chemical substances. It has been estimated that more than 100,000 chemicals are currently on the market [ECHA (European Chemicals Agency), 2017], and thousands of new substances are being introduced every year due to industrialization, intensive agriculture, and urban development. This has led to a continuous flow of chemical products to the oceans that have the potential to alter the structure of ecosystems by causing changes in the biotic communities that constitute them. Traditionally, the assessment of marine chemical pollution would exclusively be based on chemical analysis of a limited set of potential pollutants in selected environmental matrices, and a comparison between their levels with those found in pristine areas not being subjected to direct human pressures. However, such chemical assessment of pollution only offers a partially suitable approach to the question of how marine organisms and ecosystem functioning are affected by pollutants. This can only be answered by means of an integrated assessment including both chemical analyses and biological tools that quantitatively link the levels of pollutants with their ecological effects, including new contaminants for which no analytical techniques have yet been developed. Ideally, we aim to detect disturbances caused by pollutants before ecosystems are affected. So we need sensitive indications for pollution effects that provide an early warning to allow taking measures to avoid ecological damage. As for this concern a unique effort based on a European consensus, has been developed by ICES/OSPAR (Davies and Vethaak, 2012). A new challenge in marine pollution monitoring is also based on the harmonization of two European Union directives for the protection of the marine environment, the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/CE) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/CE). The latter established a legislative context demanding the use of effect-based tools for the assessment of pollution. These two directives were constructed according to two different strategies to assess the status of continental and coastal water ecosystems, following either a risk assessment approach (WFD) or an ecosystem approach (MSFD), Sí

Presentación del contexto legal y la perspectiva ecotoxicológica de los contaminantes emergentes en el medio marino resaltando la relevancia y utilidad de las herramientas biológicas (bioensayos) para evaluar la contaminación derivada de un grupo tan complejo de sustancias. Elaboración de un árbol de decisiones tentativo para priorizar actuaciones sobre la base de los datos de su monitorización, la información ecotoxicológica y la capacidad analítica. Se discute la importancia de realizar una evaluación integral de la contaminación a través de los resultados del estudio de investigación de los compuestos emergentes presentes en las Rías Gallegas y en la Bahía de Santander, que permitió identificar los principales compuestos, describir los patrones espaciales de la fracción biodisponible mediante análisis químicos de elutriados, sedimentos costeros por análisis y bioensayos de toxicidad con erizos de mar y comparar los análisis químicos y los datos ecotoxicológicos. La falta de correlación observada entre concentraciones medidas y resultados de toxicidad indica que otros contaminantes (metales, contaminantes orgánicos no medidos) y/o otros factores (p. ej. biodisponibilidad) pueden ser responsables de la toxicidad observada en dicho estudio.

Data about the toxicological interactions of MPs and heavy metals in biota is limited, particularly in fish early life stages. This study aimed to evaluate the toxicological effects of MPs and copper (Cu), alone or combined, in zebrafish early life stages. Embryos were exposed from 2 until 96-h post-fertilization (hpf) to MPs (2 mg/L), three sub-lethal concentrations of Cu (15, 60 and 125 μg/L) and binary mixtures containing Cu and MPs (Cu15+MPs, Cu60+MPs, Cu125+MPs). Lethal and sub-lethal parameters, histopathological changes, biochemical biomarkers, gene expression and behavior were assessed. Our findings showed that Cu and Cu + MPs decreased embryos survival and hatching rate. Increased ROS levels were observed in larvae exposed to the two lowest Cu and Cu + MPs groups, suggesting an induction of oxidative stress. An increased CAT and GPx activities were observed in Cu and Cu + MPs, implying a response of the antioxidant defense system to overcome the metal and MPs stress. The sod1 expression was downregulated in all Cu groups and in the two highest Cu + MPs exposed groups. AChE was significantly inhibited in Cu and Cu + MPs groups, indicating neurotoxicity. A disruption of avoidance and social behaviors were also noticed in the Cu125 and Cu125+MPs exposed larvae. Evidences of Cu-toxicity modulation by MPs were observed in some endpoints. Overall, the findings of this study highlight that Cu alone or co-exposed with MPs lead to oxidative stress, neurotoxicity and ultimately behavioral alterations in early life stages of zebrafish, while MPs alone do not produce significant effects on zebrafish larvae.

From the beginning of the IEOOS, linked to local oceanographic studies, the IEO has promoted initiatives in order to make them accessible for the wide researcher community and any other users. In 1968 the IEO had designed as National Oceanographic Data Center for safeguarding of marine data and its activities are aimed to favour the quality controlled data and metadata permanent archive and data reusing, as well as the development of aggregated data products

Significant reductions in CO2 emissions are required to limit the global temperature rise to\ud 2°C. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key enabling technology that can be applied to power\ud generation and industrial processes to lower their carbon intensity. There are, however, several\ud challenges that such a method of decarbonization poses when used in the context of natural gas\ud (gas-CCS), especially for solvent-based (predominantly amines) post-combustion capture. These are\ud related to: (i) the low CO2 partial pressure of the exhaust gases from gas-fired power plants (3-4%vol.\ud CO2), which substantially limits the driving force for the capture process; (ii) their high O2 concentration\ud (12-13%vol. O2), which can degrade the capture media via oxidative solvent degradation; and (iii)\ud their high volumetric flow rates, which means large capture plants are needed. Such post-combustion\ud gas-CCS features unavoidably lead to increased CO2 capture costs. This perspective aims to\ud summarize the key technologies used to overcome these as a priority, including supplementary firing,\ud humidified systems, exhaust gas recirculation and selective exhaust gas recirculation. These focus on\ud the maximum CO2 levels achievable for each, as well as the electrical efficiencies attainable when the\ud capture penalty is taken into account. Oxy-turbine cycles are also discussed as an alternative to\ud post-combustion gas-CCS, indicating the main advantages and limitations of these systems together\ud with the expected electrical efficiencies. Furthermore, we consider the challenges for scaling-up and\ud deployment of these technologies at a commercial level to enable gas-CCS to play a crucial role in a\ud low-carbon future.

Evaluation of the annual variability of biological parameters and physiological responses used as pollution biomarkers in mussels, in 5 different sites from the Spanish Marine Pollution Monitoring Program (Mediterranean Area) which differed in both, their natural ecology and their anthropogenic pressure

Sediments from Rías of A Coruña, Ferrol, Betanzos and Ares (n = 26) and the Bay of Santander (n = 11) were sampled. The concentration of organic contaminants in sediment elutriates (CBs, PAHs, pesticides and pharmaceutical drugs) and sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) embryotoxicity were assessed. The concentration of organic pollutants in the elutriates were relatively low (ΣContaminants < 400 ng/L) and their interpretation in terms of the observed toxicity was not straightforward. A clear gradient of toxicity from the inner part to the outer side of the Santander Bay was observed. Sediment elutriates from two stations situated close to the city of A Coruña showed moderate toxicity values, whereas sediment elutriates from the Rías of Ares and Betanzos showed no marked toxicity. Stations located close to the city of Ferrol showed moderate to high toxicity, which is indicative of a nearby source of contamination. On the contrary, the outer side of the Ría of Ferrol was classified as clean according to the calculated toxic units. These results allowed for an integrative assessment of the environmental quality in the studied areas, which highlights the usefulness of embryo-larval test to monitor the coastal pollution.

La presentación muestra la expresión de diferentes biomarcadores de contaminación en mejillones de diferentes edades y como su respuesta, tras la exposición a un hidrocarburo (fluoranteno), se ve condicionada con el envejecimiento del individuo.

Marine ecosystems are nowadays subjected to a massive input of synthetic chemicals from everywhere. Unfortunately only a small portion of them is being monitored, and it is necessary to identify which pollutants can produce adverse impacts in the marine environment. IMPACTA project (CTM2013-48194-C3) is characterizing the distribution of regulated and emerging contaminants and microplastics in marine sediments, and evaluating the biological effects that they can cause (sing sublethal embryotoxicity tests, endocrine disruption and biomarkers). Sensitive and selective analytical methods are being developed and validated for pharmaceuticals, perfluorinated compounds, organophosphorus pesticides, triazines, personal care products, nonylphenols and alkylated PAHs in sediments. Thus, relevant pollutants present in coastal and offshore areas will be identified. Furthermore potential toxic effects of the contaminants present in coastal sediments are being assessed through embryotoxicity bioassays and also the biological effects on different marine species as a consequence of their exposition to specific compounds. Another relevant contribution of this project will be the assessment of the impact of micro-plastics, first time in the Spanish coastal areas. Their potential toxic effects and their role in the transference of pollutants in the marine environment are being assessed. The concentration and composition of microplastics in sediments and demersal fish stomachs are being characterized, and their potential biological effects on marine invertebrates are also being investigated.

Marine organisms are highly seasonal animals in relation to their physiology which depends, among other factors, on their annual cycle of reproduction. In bivalves, reproductive cycle is regulated by two main environmental factors: temperature and food availability. Specifically, bivalves are undergoing high variable environmental conditions. Integrated pollution monitoring carried out by the IEO along the N-NW coast of Spain has evidenced that the variability of the environmental conditions produce spatial differences in mussel condition which seems to mask the biomarker responses to pollution. Thus, there is a need to study the natural variability of biological responses used as pollution biomarkers at different seasons and in different habitats in order to establish an adequate link between chemical pollution and biological responses. This study aims to assess the natural variability of some biomarker responses on the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis in 5 different sites from the Spanish Marine Pollution Monitoring Program which are differentiated in their natural ecology and their anthropogenic pressure. The potential influence of environmental and endogenous factors that can cause biomarker´s seasonal fluctuations was examined. Biomarkers analyzed in this study are considered among the most usefull biological tools applied in pollution monitoring programs, including exposure indicators (superoxide dismutase –SOD-, catalase –CAT-, glutathione reductase –GR-, glutathione peroxidase –GPx-, glutathione-s-transfersase –GST-) and a damage indicator (lipid peroxidation –LPO-). Mussel biological characterization from a histological and anatomical point of view was also performed. Results evidenced that biomarkers were clearly influenced by the annual cycle (all of them were affected by the season) but also significant differences between sites were found in some biomarkers (GR and GST). Thus, not only environmental but also endogenous factors must be considered in monitoring programs in the study of biomarkers responses. Society of Environmenta Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)

REVISADO: quedo a la espera de recibir la versión aceptada, no puede depositar la versión publicada

The Marine Strategy Framework (Directive 2008/56/EC, MSFD) came into force in 2008, confirming the increased political interest in the oceans observed in recent years, and the change in the philosophy of environmental management, which has resulted in the development of many initiatives to guide the conservation, protection and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. This Directive is the key environmental instrument of the European Union (EU) maritime policy, and establishes that Member States shall adopt the necessary measures to achieve or maintain the Good Environmental Status (GES) of the marine environment by 2020. The central part of the MSFD is formed by the ‘marine strategies’, which have to be developed by the Member States for the marine waters under their jurisdiction. The implementation of the MSFD represents a demanding task in the integrative assessment of marine ecosystems. The first three steps of the implementation cycle of marine strategies (initial assessment, GES definition and establishment of environmental targets) concluded in 2012. The next task to be addressed in order to implement marine strategies is the elaboration of the monitoring programs (Article 11, MSFD). The general aim of these monitoring programs is the continuous assessment of the status of the marine environment, and will be used to estimate the distance between the environmental status and the GES, based on the elements listed in Annex III and following the principles contained in Annex V of the MSFD. Here we describe the implementation process, and we discuss the institutional framework and the main difficulties and challenges encountered so far, with emphasis on the Spanish context. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO)

Mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis, showed a high bioaccumulation ability when exposed to waterborne tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47), with a bioconcentration factor of 10,900 L Kg-1 wet weight, and slow depuration rates in clean seawater. Kinetic and concentration– response experiments were performed measuring in the exposed mussel the activities of three molecular biomarkers: glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The long term (30 days) exposure of mussels to all concentrations (2–15 lg L-1) of BDE-47 significantly inhibited the AChE and GST activities, a result that supports the suitability of these biomarkers in marine pollution monitoring programs. However, GPx activity showed a less consistent pattern of response depending on the concentration and the duration of exposure., SI