Special Issue on Contaminants in Coastal Environments: From the Sediment-Water Interface to the Trophic Chain

Rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to a decline in environmental quality, especially in coastal aquatic environments (i.e., lakes, estuaries, lagoons, bays, and harbors), which are subjected to several various form of pressure (i.e., industrial, agricultural and sewage effluents, shipping, oil spills, nutrient inputs in rivers and atmospheric depositions). In these environments, sediments represent the final sink and the potential secondary sources, for the water column and biota, of several contaminants. Thus, potential toxic elements (PTEs), nutrients, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) harm aquatic life, endanger human health, and often require expensive mitigation procedures. The solutions to prevent and to mitigate the harmful effects of contaminants upon the aquatic environments cannot ignore relevant investigations, the transport and mobility of contaminants and their interactions with sediments, the water column and biota. This Special Issue is aimed at examining both the local and large-scale effect interactions and management of potential contaminants in the coastal aquatic environment. Five research articles and one review article were collected which report on various approaches used to assess the bioavailability, fate, and transport of contaminants, along with the risk assessment and management of the contaminated material from various anthropogenic sources.