Accepted Manuscript The Yellow Sea Ecosystem: Pollution, Ecosystem Threats, and Environmental Health Jong Seong Khim, Guest editor, Tieyu Wang, Guest editor, Shane Snyder, Co-Editorin-Chief PII:
S0045-6535(17)30754-3
DOI:
10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.05.052
Reference:
CHEM 19267
To appear in:
ECSN
Please cite this article as: Khim, J.S., Wang, T., Snyder, S., The Yellow Sea Ecosystem: Pollution, Ecosystem Threats, and Environmental Health, Chemosphere (2017), doi: 10.1016/ j.chemosphere.2017.05.052. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Editorial
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The Yellow Sea Ecosystem:
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Pollution, Ecosystem Threats, and Environmental Health
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1. Socio-ecological importance of the Yellow Sea
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Coastal ecosystems have been contaminated by various pollutants, mainly from human activities.
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burgeoning East Asian countries has resulted in increasing pollution of coastal, marine sediments.
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Concerns about contamination of the Yellow Sea between Korea and China are acute because of
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the restricted nature of circulation and flushing, very heavy development of industry and
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transportation that can adversely affect ecosystem services of economic importance provided in
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the region. More recently, multiple stressors through continuing coastal development including
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large scale reclamation projects, land-based coastal pollution, and sometimes accidental spills,
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including oil, have resulted in threats to ecosystems and potential negative effects on well-being
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of humans.
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over-exploitation, introduction of invasive species, and pollution of coastal environments by
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litter, primarily with micro and macro plastics.
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marine ecosystem services being provided by coastal ecosystems of the Yellow Sea, efforts to
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control contamination were in general delayed and often limited to specific areas of concern.
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Recent reports have also emphasized deterioration of ecosystem services due to
Despite the socio-ecological importance and
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In particular, during the past half century continuing heavy industrialization in
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2. Brief history of the Yellow Sea study Since the middle 2000s, there have been increasing scientific assessments of
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environmental pollution and health of Yellow Sea ecosystems.
A first international survey
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along coastal areas of the Yellow Sea was conducted from April to May of 2008 by the joint
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program between two laboratories of Professors John P. Giesy from the University of 1
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Saskatchewan, Canada and Yonglong Lu from the Chinese Academy of Science, China. Twelve
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individuals from those laboratories participated in surveys conducted in Korea and China
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covering more than 50 sampling locations, along 8,500 km of coastline during a 20 day period.
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Profs. Jong Seong Khim and Tieyu Wang led the first international survey of the Yellow Sea
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coast and further developed an international, joint program that has been continued annual
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monitoring of the region.
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Since the early 2010s, former students of Profs. Giesy and Lu and additional collaborators
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in Korea and China have participated in the Yellow Sea Research Network and their support and
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contributions have resulted in strong, synergistic outcomes cross the integrated fields of marine
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pollution science. The major scientific fields involved in research on the Yellow Sea include
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environmental chemistry, environmental toxicology, terrestrial and marine ecology, and marine
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and environmental policy.
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The integrated and combined approach to solving issues of marine pollution around the
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Yellow Sea coastal areas have benefited government agencies and industries and allowed them to
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address issues of pollution of ecosystems, including developing systems of valuation of the
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Yellow Sea, which has been instrumental in protecting valuable economic resources including
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natural aesthetic beauty.
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of Korea and China have demonstrated what can be done toward solving pollution of the Yellow
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Sea region which both countries share geographically, but also have joint socio-economic
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interests and responsibilities.
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3. Scientific platform for the Yellow Sea study
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Cooperation between scientists, government agencies and the public
Due to increasing needs for integrated scientific information for use in understanding
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pollution around the Yellow Sea, in 2015, we initiated regular gatherings of professionals to
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provide a platform focusing on scientific investigations of the Yellow Sea ecosystem.
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Yellow Sea Ecosystem Symposium (YES), which was held at Nanjing University in 2015, was
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chaired by Prof. Xiaowei Zhang was attended by 50 persons. The 2nd symposium of YES 2016,
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which was held at Seoul National University in 2016 and chaired by Prof. Khim, was attended by
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150 participants. The goal of the YES is to providing a platform for the next generation of
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researchers to share scientific knowledge and improvement of our understanding on the Yellow
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The 1st
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Sea ecosystem.
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The present special issue entitled “The Yellow Sea Ecosystem: Pollution, Ecosystem
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Threats, and Environmental Health” is the result of the 2nd YES in March of 2016 (official title:
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2nd Korea-China Symposium on Environmental Health and Ecotoxicology).
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was quite successful with a total of 150 participants including two excellent keynote
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presentations.
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speech entitled “Status and trends of contaminants in the Yellow Sea: An international
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perspective”, as an overview of our 15 years of studies of the Yellow Sea.
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speech, which was given by the well-known marine ecologist, Prof. Shing Yip Lee from the
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Griffith University, Australia, was entitled: “The role of ecology in the era of restoration”.
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set the stage for the other papers in the special issue, those two keynote presentations are
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presented as review chapters.
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The symposium
First Prof. Giesy, the world’s top environmental toxicologist, gave a keynote
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To
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The second keynote
The set of other chapters included in the proceedings come from a total of 14 invited oral
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presentations from Korean and Chinese scientists that were presented in the contributed sessions.
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Topics relating to the Yellow Sea ecosystem were in four major scientific fields, including: 1)
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Environmental Chemistry; 2) Ecotoxicology; 3) Ecology and 4) Integrated Assessment &
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Management.
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or themes, were presented by graduate students, postdocs, or other researchers. The present
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special issue includes 30 selected, outstanding, original articles under the following three themes;
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In addition, during the symposium, approximately 50 posters, with various topics
1) Environmental Chemistry,
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2) Toxicology and Human Health,
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3) Ecology and Integrated Assessment.
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During the 2nd YES, Prof. Giesy, not only gave a keynote presentation that provided an
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overview of the history of the program, but also through a less formal discussion, through a
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“Science Talk Concert for Prof. John P. Giesy” which was chaired by Profs. Khim and Kyungho
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Choi, with students and faculty provided his vision of what can be accomplished when people
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come together to achieve a common goal.
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respect, have been the foundation upon which the YES has been based.
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principles have been the reason for the extraordinary success of the program over the last 15
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years.
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His vision of collaboration, sharing and mutual No doubt these
As Prof. Giesy is fond of saying: While we do socially relevant research, results of 3
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which hopefully have benefits to society, the real products of our collaborations are students and
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post docs that we mentor.
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so many excellent students have been conducting joint studies between Korea and China.
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beyond the science the YES program has resulted in more and more effective contacts between
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people in Korea and China and better social understanding through communication and deeper
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mutual understanding and respect, through which researchers and scholars have grown beyond
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collaborations to become friends.
That has certainly been the case over the last 15 years, during which
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3.1. Environmental Chemistry (13 Chapters)
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The articles in “Environmental Chemistry” mainly deal with occurrence, distribution and sources, behavior, transport, and fate of traditional and new persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
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as well as heavy metals.
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soils and organisms of rivers, estuaries, and coastal areas in the Yellow Sea.
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first chapter serves as an introductory review summarizing the long-term research on
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contaminations of chlorinated, brominated, and fluorinated POPs in Bohai Bay and the greater
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Yellow Sea during the last 20 years.
Based on that information areas of concern considered to
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be “hotspots” have been identified.
This chapter sets the stage so that a discussion of status and
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trends of contamination can be assessed.
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Target environments and media encompass surface water, sediments, In particular, the
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3.2. Toxicology and Human Health (8 Chapters) The section entitled “Toxicology and Human Health” includes original research articles
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relating to in vitro and in vivo toxic effects and potential risk to human health associated with
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chemical contamination and/or marine oil spill.
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monitoring and assessment of, the Hebei Spirit oil spill which occurred in 2007 and is the largest
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and longest lasting spill of oil that has occurred on the west coast of Korea.
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present long-term ecological effects and potential remaining toxicities in coastal sediments
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contaminated by oil. Several chapters emphasized the importance and significant use of multiple
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lines of evidences to assess and integrate potential effects of multiple stressors.
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Several chapters document long-term
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3.3. Ecology and Integrated Assessment (9 Chapters) 4
These papers
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The section of “Ecology and Integrated Assessment” contains articles on various topics,
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including identification of priority pollutants in coastal ecosystem, benthic community responses
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against to the chemical contaminations, and current status of soil environmental quality and
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management strategies.
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sediment intertidal habitats in burgeoning East Asia” serves as a conclusion chapter, that
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identifies gaps in current knowledge to facilitate science-based restoration of soft sediment
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habitats with four representative case studies in China (Mai Po, Hong Kong and Yunxiao
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wetlands, Fujian) and Korea (Lake Sihwa and Saemangeum tidal flats).
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The last chapter entitled “Hard science is essential to restoring soft-
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4. Contribution of the VSI to Korea and China cooperation for the Yellow Sea
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Overall, the 30 research articles provide scientific advances in understanding of
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pollution of coastal environments, potential toxic effects, community responses, integrated
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assessment, and environmental management of the Yellow Sea.
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international audience will find our long-term efforts and challenges towards sustainability of the
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Yellow Sea and its ecosystem services through compact review and various case studies in the
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field and laboratory.
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symposium, YES 2017 (official title: 3rd Sino-Korea Symposium on Environmental Health and
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Ecological Safety, co-chaired by Professors Wang and Khim), in the series to further
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improvement of ecosystem assessment and management through joint efforts between Korea and
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China, which will be held in China, in July of 2017.
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Built upon the success of YES 2016, we look forward to the next
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We believe that the
Acknowledgements
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Substantial financial support of YES 2016 was provided by projects entitled: “Integrated
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Management of Marine Environment and Ecosystems around Saemangeum”, “Development of
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Integrated Estuarine Management System”, “Oil Spill Environmental Impact Assessment and
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Environmental Restoration”, and “Development of Techniques for Assessment and Management
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of Hazardous Chemicals in the Marine Environment” funded by the Ministry of Oceans and
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Fisheries of Korea.
We would like to thank all participants of the YES 2016, all contributing 5
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authors, anonymous reviewers, and editorial staff of Chemosphere and Elsevier for this Virtual
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Special Issue.
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Jong Seong Khim Guest editor Seoul National University, Republic of Korea E-mail address: [email protected] (Corresponding editor) Tieyu Wang Guest editor Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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Shane Snyder Co-Editor-in-Chief University of Arizona, USA
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