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Data Collection on Marine Litter Ingestion in Sea Turtles and Thresholds for Good Environmental Status
Published on: May 18, 2019
Determining Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Case study for descriptor 8
B P Lyons1, J P Bignell1, G D Stentiford1
1Cefas Weymouth Laboratory, Barrack Road, The Nothe, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8UB, UK.
Abstract:
The European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires individual member states to develop a robust set of tools for defining eleven qualitative descriptors of Good Environmental Status (GES), such as demonstrating that "Concentrations of contaminants are at levels not giving rise to pollution effects" (GES descriptor 8). Adopting the recommendations of the ICES/OSPAR Study Group for the Integrated Monitoring of Contaminants and Biological Effects (SGIMC), we present a case study demonstrating how the proposed approach, using chemical contaminant (metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls) and biological effects (EROD, bile metabolites and pathology) data in different matrices (sediment and biota), could be used to contribute to the determination of GES in a region of the North Sea region off the east coast of the UK.
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