Metal Pollution

Metal pollution through anthropogenic inputs, particularly in coastal areas, into the marine ecosystem has elevated to large extents for the past decades. Heavy metals, once become bioavailable, tend to bioaccumulate through food chain and ultimately harm human beings. Of particular concerns are cadmium, copper, mercury, lead, and zinc. With emerging issues on metal pollution in ocean ecosystems, it is imperative to assess the biogeochemical pathways and health impact of deposited metals. The processes that impact the transport and fate of metals in oceans are critical for the determination of metal concentration in water columns and marine biota, and the environmental impact at ecological level, and thus the formation of management policies.