AUTHOR=Liang Jian , Ma Chae-Woo , Kim Kwang-Bae 

TITLE=Comparing the environmental impacts of pollution from two types of industrial zones on the coast

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2024.1433536

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2024.1433536

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=The construction of coastal industrial zones has significantly impacted the marine environment, with varying effects depending on the type of industrial activity. In our study, we compared two types of industrial zones widely distributed along South Korea's coast: ironworks and shipyards. We utilized the Pollution Load Index (PLI) and Nemerow Pollution Index (Pn) to assess heavy metal pollution near these zones.Additionally, we employed redundancy Analysis (RDA) and Spearman correlation analysis to evaluate the impact of heavy metals and organic matter on macrobenthic communities. Our findings indicated that the biodiversity and abundance of species near shipyards were significantly lower than those near ironworks.Results of PLI and Pn revealed that the ecological risk posed by heavy metals from shipyard activities was significantly higher than from ironworks. The AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI), Multivariate AMBI (M-AMBI), and Benthic Pollution Index (BPI) demonstrated that the ecological quality of Asan Bay (ironworks) is better than that of Dangdong Bay (shipyard). RDA analysis identified Lumbrineris longifolia, Ancistrosyllis hanaokai, and Theora fragilis as biological indicators for assessing heavy metal and organic matter pollution. Spearman correlation analysis indicated that BPI and species richness index are effective indicators for evaluating such pollution. Overall, the negative impact of shipyards on the marine environment was significantly more significant than that of ironworks. Our study provides valuable insights for the South Korean government in managing coastal industrial zones and formulating relevant policies.