Levels and trends in marine contaminants and their biological effects - CEMP Assessment report 2017
The full assessment is available online at: http://ices.dk/data/assessment-tools/Pages/ospar-cat-app.aspx and through the interactive map below.
The 2017-2018 MIME roll-over assessment assessed 8203 time series (of three years or more) in biota, of which 5597 were assessed for trends and 7806 for status, and 4562 time series in sediment, of which 3258 were assessed for trends and 4016 for status. A breakdown of trends and status by region and determinand is given in Tables 1-4. The assessment methodology is described in the help files that accompany the assessment.
Organo-bromine concentrations have been assessed for status for the first time. Canadian Federal Environmental Quality Guidelines (FEQGs) were used as EAC equivalents for biota and sediment. Background Assessment Concentrations (BACs) were developed for BDE47 in biota and sediment and trialled. More work is required to develop BACs for other organo-bromines, and the BACs for BDE47 might need to be revised as part of that process. The development of the BACs and the use of the FEQGs are described at http://dome.ices.dk/osparmime2017/help_ac_development_organo-bromines.html .
Full Report
Time series of contaminant concentrations in water were assessed for the first time. To keep things simple, attention was restricted to concentrations of CD, PB and NI in filtered samples, and BAP, TBTIN and PFOS in unfiltered samples. The fitted mean concentration in the final year was compared to the Annual Average Environmental Quality Standard (AA-EQS) for ‘other surface waters’. There were 94 time series (of three years or more), of which 50 were assessed for trends and all of which were assessed for status.
The regional assessments that underpinned the contaminant and imposex components of the 2017 Intermediate Assessment have been updated.
Heat maps showing the estimated (a) time to reach the Background Concentration (BC) and (b) current distance from the BC will be produced for metals and PAHs (i.e. the naturally occurring substances) in biota and sediment. These will be made available in the CEMP tool as separate html documents.