Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Marine Ecosystems
under Toxic Pressure
1.1. Introduction
In terms of the pressures of anthropogenic origin to which marine
ecosystems are subjected, the ideas that spring to mind are intensive
fishing, indirect forms of destruction, the destruction of habitats - by
fishing equipment during the exploitation of the deep sea, the
development of ports - eutrophication, plastic macrowaste, etc. On the
subject of toxic pressure, we can also mention the incidents of
accidental pollution, of which the explosion of the oil-rig Deepwater
Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico in February 2013, recently gave us a
sad example, or even, chemical shipwrecks, such as that of the Ievoli
Sun in October 2000.
These events are indeed particularly striking because of the extent
of the immediate mortalities that they cause, which are generally
short-lived. However, the toxic pressures that marine ecosystems
undergo due to the chronic and ubiquitous contamination of the
environment by multiple contaminants are less well known and
understood by the general public.
The first research on metallic trace elements in marine
environments dates from the 1970s, and belongs mostly to the studies
