Marine ecosystems are adversely affected because of increasing demand from human activities and the effect of global warming (GW), thereby facing a number of challenges. Dr. Khan M. G. Mostofa from the Group of Geochemical Processes of the Earth's Surface and Eco-environmental Effects led by Professor LIU Congqiang at the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS), and his collaborators presented a study targeting on the key issues in marine ecosystems.

Their study summarized the marine pollution associated with pharmaceuticals as emerging contaminants, harmful algal blooms/toxins, ocean acidification along with pH changes, ship breaking and recycling industries, and overfishing. The sources, factors, mechanisms and possible solutions of these key challenges were combined together to make their review study more potential in marine ecosystems. Part of the study results have been presented as “Challenges and Solutions to Marine Ecosystems” in BIT’s 2nd Annual World Congress of Marine Biotechnology (WCMB-2012) held on September 19-22, 2012, Dalian, China.

One of the key scientific issues in their study is to find out the Chinese case of “100 tablets in a bottle” issue which is the key process for the pharmaceuticals pollution in soil and water environments. It is demonstrated that at least 88 pharmaceuticals have been sold in China in the ‘100 tablets in a bottle’ format whereas the consumed drugs would be approximately 10-20% and the remaining 80-90% of tablets are ultimately disposed/released into the soils and waters as pharmaceutical pollutants. Based on this issue, the researchers have been reported to State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) to implement this issue, i.e. to enforce a modification of production processes in Chinese pharmaceuticals companies. Such implementation reduces the bulk amount of tablets per envelope, in particular shifting to paper or plastic sheet that would make tablet management easier and reduce the wasted amount. Solving this issue would provide a benefit both for the environment in terms of reduced pollution, and for the consumers in the form of lower expenditure in medicines.

Another important issue is to find out the worldwide increase in harmful algal blooms/toxins that causes the detrimental effects on the marine organisms including humans via food chains. The mechanism behind the increasing occurrence of harmful algal blooms is apparently an effect of global warming on waters with high content of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM) through high photosynthesis.

Ocean acidification, lowers seawater pH, is another global issue which potentially causes to death/damage of the dynamics, structure and biodiversity of coral reefs, shellfish, of other marine organisms. It primarily involved the several factors such as dissolution of anthropic increasing in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to seawater and the CO2 plus DIC (dissolved CO2, H2CO3, HCO3—, and CO32—) produced primary production along with the stimulatory effects of atmospheric acid rain, increased organic matter pollution, and the global warming. Their study firstly showed that ocean acidification is balancing by superoxide redox chemistry and the results have been published in EST. The researchers are now working to provide the full mechanism behind the ocean acidification and its impacts on marine organisms.

These studies are important research achievements in LIU Congqiang’s Research Group at the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry (SKLEG) at IGCAS. The related publications and reports in that regards are listed below.

1.Mostofa KMG, Liu CQ, Vione D, Gao K, Ogawa H (2013) Sources, Factors, Mechanisms and Possible Solutions to Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems. Environmental Pollution. 182:461-478.
2. Mostofa KMG, Liu CQ, Minella M, Vione D (2013) Balancing of Ocean Acidification by superoxide redox chemistry? Environmental Science & Technology 47:11380−11381.
3. Mostofa KMG, Liu CQ, Gao K, Vione D, Ogawa H (2012) Challenges and Solutions to Marine Ecosystems. (Invited Speaker). Proceedings of BIT’s 2nd Annual World Congress of Marine Biotechnology (WCMB-2012), September 19-22, Dalian, China.
4. Mostofa KMG, Liu CQ, et al. (2013) Ocean Acidification: Impacts, Causes and Remedial Measures to Marine Ecosystems. (Invited Speaker). BIT’s 3rd Annual World Congress of Marine Biotechnology (WCMB-2013), September 23-25, Hangzhou, China.
5. Mostofa, K.M.G., Liu, C.Q., 2012. Conversion of ‘100 Tablets in a Bottle’ into a Paper or Plastic Sheet Among Chinese Pharmaceuticals Companies. Report Submitted to ‘State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA)’, Beijing, China.


(By Khan M. G. Mostofa)