Estuaries are highly complex and productive ecosystems subject to stresses from various natural and anthropogenic conditions. Increased human activities significantly impact the water quality, habitats, and biotic communities in estuaries. With the population growth, urbanization, and development in the coastal watersheds, by the year 2025, the coastal population worldwide is expected to approach six billion people. Meanwhile, more than 150 million compounds are currently listed in Chemical Abstract Service. Around 15,000 substances are added each day. The amounts and types of chemicals of concern to be discharged into estuarine environments are expected to continuously increase. As a result, the occurrence and potential toxicological impacts of many emerging contaminants remain unknown. However, traditional approaches for identifying these contaminants and determining their toxicity are poorly equipped to address their rapid and continual introduction, which might compromise the risk assessments of these emerging contaminants in estuarine ecosystems that receive intensive anthropogenic impacts.
This Research Topic is looking for studies that advance the comprehensive understanding of emerging chemicals of concern found in the estuary environment. Particularly, we are looking for the science-based research to identify and prioritize the emerging chemicals of concern that exist in the estuarine environment and encompass both environmental effects and interactions across different disciplines including experimental, lab- or field-based research; target, suspect, and non-target screening; (eco)toxicology; environmental chemistry, transformation, and fate; risk assessment; and chemo-informatics. We wish this Research Topic can improve our understanding of human impacts on estuarine ecosystems, and contribute to comprehensive risk management and regulation of emerging chemicals of concern found in estuarine environments.
• Advancing analytical and experimental approaches in the detection, monitoring, and fate of emerging contaminants in the estuarine environment
• The occurrence, source, transportation, and fate of emerging chemicals of concern in the estuarine environment
• The impacts and toxic mechanisms of emerging chemicals of concern on the aquatic organisms living in the estuarine/brackish/coastal waters
• Emerging contaminants discharged from the urban environment (e.g., microplastics, tire wears) into the estuary/brackish/coastal waters and their ecotoxicological impacts
• The impacts of other factors (e.g., salinity, eutrophication, climate change, pandemic, etc.) on the release, distribution, transformation, and ecological risk of emerging contaminants in the estuarine ecosystems
Estuaries are highly complex and productive ecosystems subject to stresses from various natural and anthropogenic conditions. Increased human activities significantly impact the water quality, habitats, and biotic communities in estuaries. With the population growth, urbanization, and development in the coastal watersheds, by the year 2025, the coastal population worldwide is expected to approach six billion people. Meanwhile, more than 150 million compounds are currently listed in Chemical Abstract Service. Around 15,000 substances are added each day. The amounts and types of chemicals of concern to be discharged into estuarine environments are expected to continuously increase. As a result, the occurrence and potential toxicological impacts of many emerging contaminants remain unknown. However, traditional approaches for identifying these contaminants and determining their toxicity are poorly equipped to address their rapid and continual introduction, which might compromise the risk assessments of these emerging contaminants in estuarine ecosystems that receive intensive anthropogenic impacts.
This Research Topic is looking for studies that advance the comprehensive understanding of emerging chemicals of concern found in the estuary environment. Particularly, we are looking for the science-based research to identify and prioritize the emerging chemicals of concern that exist in the estuarine environment and encompass both environmental effects and interactions across different disciplines including experimental, lab- or field-based research; target, suspect, and non-target screening; (eco)toxicology; environmental chemistry, transformation, and fate; risk assessment; and chemo-informatics. We wish this Research Topic can improve our understanding of human impacts on estuarine ecosystems, and contribute to comprehensive risk management and regulation of emerging chemicals of concern found in estuarine environments.
• Advancing analytical and experimental approaches in the detection, monitoring, and fate of emerging contaminants in the estuarine environment
• The occurrence, source, transportation, and fate of emerging chemicals of concern in the estuarine environment
• The impacts and toxic mechanisms of emerging chemicals of concern on the aquatic organisms living in the estuarine/brackish/coastal waters
• Emerging contaminants discharged from the urban environment (e.g., microplastics, tire wears) into the estuary/brackish/coastal waters and their ecotoxicological impacts
• The impacts of other factors (e.g., salinity, eutrophication, climate change, pandemic, etc.) on the release, distribution, transformation, and ecological risk of emerging contaminants in the estuarine ecosystems