Warning system for potential releases of chemical warfare agents from dumped munition in the Baltic Sea.

The research aimed to determine the scale of the potential contamination of the southern Baltic by substances from dumped chemical weapons, in the context of applying a strategy for detecting the potential releases of toxic materials. The research included the analysis of total arsenic in sediments, macrophytobenthos, fish, and yperite with derivatives and arsenoorganic compounds in sediments and as an integral part of the warning system the threshold values for arsenic in these matrices were set. Arsenic concentrations in sediments ranged from 11 to 18 mg kg-1 with an increase to 30 mg kg-1 in layers dated to 1940-1960, what was accompanied by the detection of triphenylarsine (600 mg kg-1). The presence of yperite or arsenoorganic-related chemical warfare agents was not confirmed in other areas. Arsenic ranged from 0.14 to 1.46 mg kg-1 in fish and from 0.8 to 3 mg kg-1 in macrophytobenthos.

Marine environment status assessment based on macrophytobenthic plants as bio-indicators of heavy metals pollution.

The main aim of study was to develop the environmental quality standards (EQSMP) for selected heavy metals: Pb, Cd, Hg and Ni bioaccumulated in the tissues of marine macrophytobenthic plants: Chara baltica, Cladophora spp., Coccotylus truncatus, Furcellaria lumbricalis, Polysiphonia fucoides, Stuckenia pectinata and Zanichellia palustris, collected in designated areas of the southern Baltic Sea in period 2008-2015. The calculated concentration ratios (CR), which attained very high values: 104Lkg-1 for lead, 103Lkg-1 for nickel and mercury and even 105Lkg-1 for cadmium formed the basis for the determination of EQSMP values. The EQSMP values were: 26mgkg-1d.w. for Pb, 33mgkg-1d.w. for Cd, 32mgkg-1d.w. for Ni and 0.4mgkg-1d.w. for Hg. The application of macrophytobenthic plants as bioindicators in marine environment status assessment of certain areas of the Baltic Sea is also described in the paper.