scholarly journals Nutrients, trace metals and B-vitamin composition of the Moulouya River: A major North African river discharging into the Mediterranean Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Tovar-Sánchez ◽  
Gotzon Basterretxea ◽  
Mostapha Ben Omar ◽  
Antoni Jordi ◽  
David Sánchez-Quiles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Metals ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
North African ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
B Vitamin

scholarly journals Characterising the surface microlayer in the Mediterranean Sea: trace metals concentration and microbial plankton abundance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Tovar-Sánchez ◽  
Araceli Rodríguez-Romero ◽  
Anja Engel ◽  
Birthe Zäncker ◽  
Franck Fu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Metals ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Bacterial Community Composition ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Surface Microlayer ◽  
Dissolved Metals ◽  
Western Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Sea Surface Microlayer ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract. The Sea Surface Microlayer (SML) is known to be enriched in trace metals relative to the underlaying water and to harbor diverse microbial communities (i.e. neuston). However, the processes linking metals and biota in the SML are not yet fully understood. In this study, we analyzed the metal (Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Mo, V, Zn and Pb) concentrations in aerosol samples, SML (dissolved and total fractions) and in subsurface waters (SSW; dissolved fraction at ~ 1 m depth) from the Western Mediterranean Sea during a cruise in May–June 2017. The bacterial community composition and abundance in the SML and SSW, and the primary production and Chl-a in the SSW were measured simultaneously at all stations during the cruise. Residence times of particulate metals derived from aerosols deposition ranged from a couple of minutes for Co (2.7 ± 0.9 min; more affected by wind conditions) to a few hours for Cu (3.0 ± 1.9 h). Concentration of most dissolved metals in both, the SML and SSW, were well correlated with the salinity gradient and showed the characteristic eastward increase in surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea (MS). Contrarily, the total fraction of some reactive metals in the SML (i.e. Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn) showed negative trends with salinity, these trends of concentrations seem to be associate to microbial uptake. Our results suggest a toxic effect of Ni on neuston and microbiology community’s abundance of the top meter of the surface waters of the Western Mediterranean Sea.

scholarly journals Wet deposition in the remote western and central Mediterranean as a source of trace metals to surface seawater

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karine Desboeufs ◽  
Franck Fu ◽  
Matthieu Bressac ◽  
Antonio Tovar-Sánchez ◽  
Sylvain Triquet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Metals ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Saharan Dust ◽  
Surface Microlayer ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Atmospheric Inputs

Abstract. This study reports the only recent characterisation of two contrasted wet deposition events collected during the PEACETIME cruise in the Mediterranean open seawater, and their impact on trace metals (TMS) marine stocks. Rain samples were analysed for Al, 12 trace metals (TMs hereafter, including Co, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Ti, V and Zn) and nutrients (N, P, DOC) concentrations. The first rain sample collected in the Ionian Sea (rain ION) was a wet typical regional background deposition event whereas the second rain collected in the Algerian Basin (rain FAST) was a Saharan dust wet deposition. The concentrations of TMs in the two rain samples were significantly lower compared to concentrations in rains collected at coastal sites reported in the literature, suggesting either less anthropogenic influence in the remote Mediterranean environment, or decreased emissions during the last decades in the Mediterranean Sea. The TMs inventories in the surface microlayer and mixed layer (0–20 m) at ION and FAST stations before and after the events, compared to atmospheric fluxes, showed that the atmospheric inputs were a significant source of particulate TMs for both layers. At the scale of the western and central Mediterranean, the atmospheric inputs were of the same order of magnitude as marine stocks within the ML for dissolved Fe, Co and Zn, underlining the role of the atmosphere in their biogeochemical cycle in the stratified Mediterranean Sea. In case of intense wet dust deposition event, the contribution of atmospheric inputs could be critical for dissolved stocks of the majority of TMs.

scholarly journals The clandestine cemetery

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Zagaria
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Waste Dump ◽  
North African ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Dead

The Mediterranean Sea has recently become the deadliest of borders for illegalised travellers. The victims of the European Union’s liquid border are also found near North African shores. The question of how and where to bury these unknown persons has recently come to the fore in Zarzis, a coastal town in south-east Tunisia. Everyone involved in these burials – the coastguards, doctors, Red Crescent volunteers, municipality employees – agree that what they are doing is ‘wrong’. It is neither dignified nor respectful to the dead, as the land used as a cemetery is an old waste dump, and customary attitudes towards the dead are difficult to realise. This article will first trace how this situation developed, despite the psychological discomfort of all those affected. It will then explore how the work of care and dignity emerges within this institutional chain, and what this may tell us about what constitutes the concept of the human.

Globalization, the Media, and Challenges of Illegal Migration for Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 194-215
Author(s):  
Benjamin Enahoro Assay
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
North African ◽  
Illegal Migration ◽  
Cable News ◽  
African Migrants ◽  
Illegal Migrants ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
Cable News Network

There is a growing concern about African migrants who risk their lives to embark on hazardous journeys across dozens of borders and the treacherous waves of the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life in Europe. Cable News Network footage of a live auction in Libya, where black youths were presented to north African buyers as potential farmhands and sold for as little as $400 confirm the fears and brought to the fore the ugly reality of the plight of illegal migrants. Aside, the narratives in the media about migration also give cause for concern. In the midst of the general invisibility of illegal migrants in the media, most portrayals refer to migrants in connection with themes of ‘trafficking', ‘prostitution', ‘slavery', and ‘death' because cases of enslavement, drowning, and killings of trafficked Africans in search of utopia greener pastures flood newspapers, magazines, and broadcast space. It is against this backdrop that this chapter proffers solutions and recommends ways to halt illegal migration and change media narratives about migration in Africa.

scholarly journals Contribution of Nutrients and some Trace Metals from a Huge Egyptian Drain to the SE-Mediterranean Sea, west of Alexandria

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.A. EL-RAYIS ◽  
M.A.M. ABDALLAH
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
North African ◽  
Inorganic N ◽  
Total Load ◽  
Technical Report Series ◽  
Technical Report ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Aswan High Dam ◽  
Reactive Phosphorus ◽  
Polluted Lake

In 2003 the MAP Technical Report Series 141, mentioned the lack of data concerning the flux of water, sediments and pollutants from North-African rivers and from the land-based sources to the Mediterranean Sea.In Egypt, the Omoum drain, after the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the controlling of the Nile River water fl ow, has become one of the main land-based sources regularly discharging its waters (fl ow rate 2547.7 x 106 m3/year) directly into the Mediterranean Sea at EL-Mex Bay, west of Alexandria. Downstream, before it reaches the sea, its water mixes with water effl uent (surplus water) from a neighboring sewage-polluted lake called Lake Maryout, rate 262.8 x 106 m3/year.The present work is a monthly study over a year of levels of concentration of some mainly trace elements (nutrients and some heavy metals) in the proper water of the drain before mixing and in the effl uent from the lake, and calculations of both the concentrations and the corresponding expected loads of these elements contributed by the drain to the sea. The results revealed that the respective loads to the sea are 77380 ton/year for total suspended matter, 823 tons/year for dissolved PO4 -P, 4745 tons/year for inorganic N, 23.7 tons/year for Fe, 3.28 tons/year for Mn, 5.84 tons/year for Cu, 2.9 ton/year for Cd, and 24 tons/year for Zn. The elements loaded by the lake effl uent represent values ranging between 8 and 57.5% of the total load contributed by the drain to the sea. The plant nutrients (ammonia and reactive phosphorus) are of values exceeding 44%.

scholarly journals Phylogeography of Aphanius fasciatus (Osteichthyes: Aphaniidae) in the Mediterranean Sea, with a focus on its conservation in Cyprus

Hydrobiologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Langeneck ◽  
Chris Englezou ◽  
Matteo Di Maggio ◽  
Alberto Castelli ◽  
Ferruccio Maltagliati
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Glacial Refugium ◽  
Small Fish ◽  
North African ◽  
Aphanius Fasciatus ◽  
The Mediterranean

AbstractAphanius fasciatus is a small fish occurring in Mediterranean brackish environments. In Cyprus it is known from three localities separated by long stretches of coast. The genetic diversity of these populations was evaluated using fragments of two mitochondrial genes. A comparison with the other available data showed that Cyprus populations represent a distinct lineage. The other lineages are concentrated in a relatively small area between the Strait of Sicily and the Western Ionian Sea, while all other areas include a subset of these lineages, suggesting that the aforementioned area might have acted as a glacial refugium. Landlocked North-African populations diverge from all other populations, suggesting that they might have originated in the Late Pleistocene, during transgression events of the Mediterranean Sea in North-African inland water bodies. The genetic diversity of A. fasciatus varied across different Cyprus populations, with a pattern mirroring the degree of environmental degradation, which likely affected population genetic variability through demographic reductions. The three Cyprus populations showed genetic uniqueness, suggesting the need of population-based management practices; the low genetic diversity of two populations, and the number of threats affecting them, suggest that the species should be considered endangered at national level and deserves protection measures.

The role of the Gulf of Cadiz circulation in the redistribution of trace metals between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 719 ◽  
pp. 134964 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Laiz ◽  
S. Plecha ◽  
A. Teles-Machado ◽  
E. González-Ortegón ◽  
D. Sánchez-Quiles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Metals ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Gulf Of Cadiz ◽  
Gulf Of Cádiz ◽  
The Mediterranean
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