Marine Oil Pollution Research Articles

The Recent Progress and State-of-art applications for Ultraviolet Photodetectors

Contemporarily, ultraviolet photodetectors have already been successfully applied in many advanced areas, including astronomy, disaster forecasting, fire alarm, marine oil pollution monitoring, biomedical and more. Nowadays, many researchers are focusing on developing the wide bandgap UV photodetectors which possess advantages in fast response speed, high sensitivity, self-power, etc. This paper will discuss principle, types, and component of ultraviolet photodetectors based on information retrieval and literature analysis. Specifically, vacuum UV detectors, solid-state UV detectors and wide bandgap UV photodetectors are demonstrated. According to the analysis, wide bandgap UV photodetectors have better performance in multiple properties but still be limited with several drawbacks, included material problems and design issues. Once the material problems and design issues could be overcome, they could replace the traditional UV photodetectors rapidly, which are able to benefit more relevant areas in both military and civilization. These results shed light on guiding further exploration in UV photodetectors current.

Chronic oiling in global oceans.

Ocean oil slicks can be attributed to natural seepages or to anthropogenic discharges. To date, the global picture of their distribution and relative natural and anthropogenic contributions remains unclear. Here, by analyzing 563,705 Sentinel-1 images from 2014-2019, we provide the first global map of oil slicks and a detailed inventory of static-and-persistent sources (natural seeps, platforms, and pipelines). About 90% of oil slicks were within 160 kilometers of shorelines, with 21 high-density slick belts coinciding well with shipping routes. Quantified by slick area, the proportion of anthropogenic discharges was an order of magnitude greater than natural seepages (94 versus 6%), in contrast to the previous estimate quantified by volume during 1990-1999 (54 versus 46%). Our findings reveal that the present-day anthropogenic contribution to marine oil pollution may have been substantially underestimated.

Dynamic changes in the microbial community in the surface seawater of Jiaozhou Bay after crude oil spills: An in situ microcosm study

The changes in the composition and structure of microbial communities in Jiaozhou Bay are strongly affected by marine oil pollution, but the outcomes of the microbial responses and effects of dispersant application remain unclear. Herein, we performed an in situ microcosm study to investigate the response of the indigenous microbial community under crude oil alone and combined oil and dispersant treatment in the surface seawater of a semi-enclosed marine area of Jiaozhou Bay. The dynamics of the bacterial classification based on 16s rDNA sequencing were used to assess the changes with the crude oil concentration, dispersant use, and time. The crude oil resulted in a high abundance of the genera Pseudohongiella, Cycloclasticus, Marivita, and C1–B045 from the Gammaproteobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria classes, suggesting for hydrocarbon degradation. However, the dispersant treatment was more advantageous for Pacificibacter, Marivita, and Loktanella. Besides accelerating the rate of bacterial community succession, the dispersants had significantly stronger effects on the structure of the bacterial community and the degradation functions than the oil. A higher dose of oil exposure corresponded to fewer dominant species with a high relative abundance. Our study provides information for screening potential degradation bacteria and assessing the risks that oil spills pose to marine ecosystems.

Operational Modeling of North Aegean Oil Spills Forced by Real-Time Met-Ocean Forecasts

Over the latest decades, oil marine pollution has posed a vital threat for global ocean health, since spillages of any scale are related to environmental, social and financial impacts. The worldwide increase in oil and gas demand, and the parallel rise in oil and gas production, exploiting particularly coastal and offshore marine deposits, have significantly increased the risk of accidental oil release to the sea. In the present study, an operational oil spill model was applied to test the oil dispersive properties and to reveal the relative magnitude of weathering processes, after an accidental oil spill release along the main tanker transportation route in the North Aegean Sea. Numerical simulations were implemented using the OpenOil transport and fate numerical model, a subclass of the OpenDrift open-source trajectory framework. This model integrates algorithms with several physical processes, such as oil entrainment, vertical mixing, oil resurfacing and oil emulsification. The oil dispersion model was coupled to real-time met-ocean forecasts received from NOAA-GFS and CMEMS. Present simulation results have focused on the impact of turbulent kinetic energy, induced by the background flow field, on the horizontal spreading of particles, as well as on the evolution of oil mass balance and oil mass properties.

Management of marine oil spills: A case study of the Wakashio oil spill in Mauritius using a lens-actor-focus conceptual framework

Small Island Developing States, or SIDS, astride major shipping lanes are particularly vulnerable to pollution incidents. The Wakashio spill of nearly 1,000 t of very low sulphur fuel oil in Mauritius in August 2020 impacted 125 km2 of waterfront and over 30 km of shoreline. Although the Mauritius spill was preceded by major spills in New Zealand and the Solomon Islands, marine oil pollution management in SIDS remains largely unexamined in scholarly studies to influence regulatory or policy response. This paper, therefore, attempts to study the oil pollution contingency planning, preparedness, coordination of response and compensation for pollution damages in SIDS using the Wakashio incident as a case study of international interest. A lens-actor-focus triad is developed as a conceptual framework and applied for the case study research in management of marine pollution. The study indicated that any substantive oil spill in SIDS could disproportionately impact livelihoods and economy and highlighted that the significant and comprehensive United Nations system-wide response to the marine oil pollution incident was unlike ever before. The paper discusses, among other aspects, implications for management of marine oil pollution in SIDS with reference to strategies for prevention and containment of pollution, and integration of external assistance and local community into contingency plans. The study suggests that the lens-actor-focus may be a useful framework for study of contingency management including marine pollution and argues that integrating provision of external assistance by UN agencies into national contingency plans merits urgent critical consideration by SIDS, and concerned UN agencies including the International Maritime Organisation. The study also suggests scope for a review of the liability and compensation regime in the context of implications for SIDS.

Marine Oil Pollution in an Area of High Economic Use: Statistical Analyses of SAR Data from the Western Java Sea

In this paper, we analyze more than 2000 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of the Western Java Sea acquired by Sentinel-1 SAR-C and ENVISAT ASAR, with the aim to generate oil pollution statistics for a sea region of high economic use. The spatial distributions show that most oil pollution occurs along the major shipping routes and at oil production sites in that area. The majority of the spills have sizes of less than 1 km2 and an axial ratio smaller than 10. For two sets of SAR images, we compared the results obtained by different operators, who analyzed the same images. While more than 50% of the spills were not found by both operators, the overall spatial patterns derived from their results are the same. Our results indicate that the observed differences are mainly due to lookalikes, which can easily be confused with oil spills, but also due to small oil spills that were overseen by one of the operators. These assumptions are supported by the fact that the percentage of spills jointly found by both operators increased when only oil spills were considered that were found on SAR images acquired at higher mean wind speeds.

Mission accomplished: chronic North Sea oil pollution now at acceptable levels, with Common GuillemotsUria aalgeas sentinels

Marine oil pollution has been an issue of concern for at least a century. The earliest reports contained outrage over oil-contaminated dead seabirds found ashore. This paper reports on observed trends in strandings and oil rates of Common Guillemots Uria aalge to illustrate the history of oil pollution and its effects in the North Sea. This paper is also a tribute to Peter Hope Jones, who brought systematic beached bird surveys and oil-spill impact assessments to a higher level, by implementing detailed research on affected wildlife. In recent decades, unexpectedly, the oil problem has disappeared almost completely from the North Sea. Given the global nature of current environmental issues, including the climate and biodiversity crises, it may be instructive to examine the background to this stunning success. A short history of major oil events is presented, including the measures taken to reduce the oil problem. It required a succession of major oil incidents to push the community into action. The process of international conventions was notoriously slow, and the implementation of concrete measures even slower, as economic arguments prevailed to prevent or delay immediate action.

Simulation and Analysis of Bistatic Radar Scattering From Oil-Covered Sea Surface

In this study, the bistatic radar scattering coefficients related to an oil-covered sea surface are predicted by modeling both the oil damping effect on surface roughness–through the advanced integral equation method–and the oil modification on the dielectric properties of the scattering surface. The bistatic scattering is analyzed in the whole upper scattering space under different radar frequencies, incidence angles, wind speeds, and oil thicknesses. Numerical predictions show that the scattering energy of an oil-covered sea surface is generally higher in the forward scattering zone than that in the backward one. In addition, the oil damping effect is the main mechanism ruling the scattering behavior in the backward region. The information related to the bistatic scattering geometry is also explored to retrieve oil thickness, representing one of the key parameters for radar-based marine oil pollution observation. A new index is proposed to quantify the sensitivity of bistatic scattering coefficients to oil thickness in different cases: single-polarization features, dual co-polarization features, namely, the polarization ratio (PR) and the normalized polarization difference index (NPDI), and dual-angular scattering features. Numerical results show that the bistatic scattering coefficients result in an enhanced sensitivity to oil thickness with respect to the monostatic case. The single HH-polarized scattering coefficients show better oil thickness sensitivity in the backward region, while the VV-polarized ones are more sensitive to oil thickness in the forward region. The combination of dual-polarized scattering coefficients significantly improves the oil thickness sensitivity compared to single-polarization radar observations, especially in the forward region. PR outperforms NPDI, even though the latter can suppress the effect of wind speed. The combination of dual-angular observations can significantly increase its sensitivity of oil thickness in the backward region but at the expense of reduced sensitivity in the forward region.

Abundance and diversity of n-alkane and PAH-degrading bacteria and their functional genes – Potential for use in detection of marine oil pollution

Monitoring environmental status through molecular investigation of microorganisms in the marine environment is suggested as a potentially very effective method for biomonitoring, with great potential for automation. There are several hurdles to that approach with regards to primer design, variability across geographical locations, seasons, and type of environmental pollution. Here, qPCR analysis of genes involved in the initial activation of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons were used in a laboratory setup mimicking realistic oil leakage at sea. Seawater incubation experiments were carried out under two different seasons with two different oil types. Degenerate primers targeting initial oxygenases (alkane 1-monooxygenase; alkB and aromatic-ring hydroxylating dioxygenase; ARHD) were employed in qPCR assays to quantify the abundance of genes essential for oil degradation. Shotgun metagenomics was used to map the overall community dynamics and the diversity of alkB and ARHD genes represented in the microbial community. The amplicons generated through the qPCR assays were sequenced to reveal the diversity of oil-degradation related genes captured by the degenerate primers. We identified a major mismatch between the taxonomic diversity of alkB and ARHD genes amplified by the degenerate primers and those identified through shotgun metagenomics. More specifically, the designed primers did not amplify the alkB genes of the two most abundant alkane degraders that bloomed in the experiments, Oceanobacter and Oleispira. The relative abundance of alkB sequences from shotgun metagenomics and 16S rRNA-based Oleispira-specific qPCR assay were better signals for oil in water than the tested qPCR alkB assay. The ARHD assay showed a good agreement with PAHs degradation despite covering only 25% of the top 100 ARHD genes and missing several abundant Cycloclasticus sequences that were present in the metagenome. We conclude that further improvement of the degenerate primer approach is needed to rely on the use of oxygenase-related qPCR assays for oil leakage detection.

Retraction Note to: Marine oil pollution remediation and enterprise capital efficiency based on improved neural network

Retraction Note to: Marine oil pollution remediation and enterprise capital efficiency based on improved neural network

Effects of axial motion and couple stress on lubrication performances of ship stern shaft

Increasingly prominent marine oil pollution problems highlight the importance of environmentally friendly lubricants in a ship. According to the actual navigation environment, the couple stress effect of environmentally friendly lubricants and axial motion of stern shaft is considered to establish a new hydrodynamic lubrication model, and finite difference method and Simpson integral method have been utilized to solve film pressure and bearing carrying capacity, respectively. Various performance characteristics were obtained for a range of couple stress parameters, misalignment angles and rotation speeds. The results show that axial motion and couple stress have opposite effects on film distribution, the minimum film thickness decreases with the increasing of axial velocity while the maximum film pressure significant reduce as couple stress parameter grows. The axial position corresponding to the maximum pressure is reduced from 0.51 to 0.49 m as axial velocity enhances from 0 to 0.8 m/s while couple stress parameter is 0, but nearly remains the place while couple stress is considered. Meanwhile, couple stress lubricants effectively restrain friction of journal caused by hydrodynamic effect, and the decreasing amplitude is nearly independent of axial velocity.

Legal Framework for Marine Oil Pollution from Ships in Thailand

Abstract Marine oil pollution from ships has been a constant threat to Thai waters. This article examines the domestication of the provisions of relevant international conventions to which Thailand is a party regarding the prevention, preparedness, response and compensation of claimants of marine oil pollution damage. The current Thai legal framework does not provide for adequate protection of the marine environment. Thailand has not yet become a party to many relevant international conventions and does not provide adequate compensation to victims of marine oil pollution incidents. This article provides recommendations for the improvement of the legal framework of Thailand regarding these issues.

Retraction Note: The concept of environmental protection in marine oil pollution and political teaching based on image deblurring method

Retraction Note: The concept of environmental protection in marine oil pollution and political teaching based on image deblurring method

Transparent Janus Hydrogel Wet Adhesive for Underwater Self-Cleaning.

The optical window is a key part of a sensor specially used for oceanographic detection, but it is often severely affected by marine biofouling and oil pollution, resulting in reduced transparency and lifespan. Hydrogel, as a hydrophilic polymer network, has excellent antifouling effects with good transparency, but it is difficult to adhere to substrates, which greatly limits its practical applications. To solve the above problem, a transparent Janus hydrogel wet adhesive was prepared through modifying poly(vinyl alcohol)/glycerol-tannic acid/Cu2+ (PVA/Gly-TA/Cu2+) hydrogel with the underwater adhesive poly(dopamine methacrylamide-co-methoxyethyl acrylate) (P(DMA-co-MEA)) via the coordination effect between Cu2+ and catechol. Even when coated with adhesive, the sample still retained good transmittance. The presence of Cu2+ endowed the hydrogel with better tensile strength and, at the same time, can improve the adhesion of the hydrogel to the substrate through the coordination effect with the adhesive. The tensile stress of Janus hydrogels can even reach 4.4 MPa, and the adhesion strength of the obtained Janus hydrogel can reach about 14 kPa in seawater. Furthermore, the Cu-rich Janus hydrogel presented a significant inhibitory effect on the growth of surface algae. The oil contact angle of the Janus hydrogel was as high as 148° underwater. After the hydrogel was reswollen, there were lower algae densities on the surfaces of the hydrogel and little change in transparency. Considering the above properties, this novel Janus hydrogel is anticipated to be a promising protective material to solve the marine pollution problem confronting optical equipment.

Durable hydrophobic Enteromorpha design for controlling oil spills in marine environment prepared by organosilane modification for efficient oil-water separation

Hydrophobic and oleophilic materials are attractive candidates for efficient oil collection due to their excellent oil-water separation. However, the most of currently reported oil adsorption materials are limited resources or require complicated preparation steps, which causes high energy consumption and not be practical for large-scale application. Herein, we report a facile strategy to modify the wettability of Enteromorpha from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, which not only greatly reduces energy consumption but also shows the outstanding capacity for oil-water separation with the maximum adsorption capacities is 11.4 g/g and the contact angle reaches 137°. The successful modification of the Enteromorpha is achieved by grafting n-octyltriethoxysilane on the surface of the pristine Enteromorpha. The hydrophobic and superoleophilic Enteromorpha guarantee adequate voids in the fibrous bundles only for oil adsorption and the oil floating on the seawater is removed by the formation of hydrogen bonding between oil and modified Enteromorpha. By optimizing test, the optimal adsorption conditions are adsorption time of 60 min, oil-water ratio of 1:10 and pH of 7. Our reported hydrophobic organosilane modified Enteromorpha will open a new avenue to control marine oil pollution and suppress the damage of Enteromorpha to the marine ecology system.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The concept of environmental protection in marine oil pollution and political teaching based on image deblurring method

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The concept of environmental protection in marine oil pollution and political teaching based on image deblurring method

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Management of offshore oil pollution and logistics transportation based on decision tree

Decision tree algorithm is one of the most widely used inductive thinking algorithms in data mining. Its construction does not require any domain knowledge or parameter settings, and it is widely suitable for exploratory knowledge discovery. The decision tree algorithm has clear structure, fast calculation speed, high precision, and higher flexibility and reliability. It can be used to process multidimensional data, and the acquired knowledge is intuitive and easy to understand. Decision tree algorithms are now widely used in medicine, manufacturing, financial analysis, astronomy, molecular biology, and remote sensing image classification. For example, in the field of marine oil pollution, the influence of bacterial flora has been studied through experiments with simulated bar graphs and bio-enhanced seawater oil pollution remediation, environmental parameters, and microbial metabolism have been found to affect the oil diffusion rate at the same time. In the early days, due to the high concentration of microorganisms, the established bacterial colonies that degraded petroleum had a certain degrading ability. As the abundance of microbial communities increases, the benefits of TCOB-4 and TCOB-5 gradually decrease. The oil of TCOB-5 is highly degradable, and may continue to function during the test period, and is compatible with other oil-degrading bacteria. The dominant position. With the rapid development of third-party logistics, logistics profits, the third source of profits, have become a black hole in the entire supply chain. If transportation costs can be reduced, the efficiency of the logistics system can be improved and profits can be maximized. Therefore, studying the decisions of third-party logistics transportation providers has undoubtedly become the top priority of ensuring fast transportation, reducing transportation costs, and conducting effective logistics management research.

Coastal and Marine Pollution in Bangladesh: Pathways, Hotspots and Adaptation Strategies

Marine and coastal pollution is a global issue for human health and biodiversity. We have investigated pollution sources, flow patterns, hotspots, challenges, and adaptation policies in Bangladesh. Industries, ship breaking yards, sewage, tourism, and transboundary depositions are the main sources of pollutions. The Ganges, Padma, Jamuna, Brahmaputra and Meghna carry wastes to the Bay of Bengal. Pollution hotspots are Dhaka, Gazipur, Narshingdi, Narayanganj, Chittagong, Khulna, Mongla port and Sylhet city. Textile and dyeing industries discharge 12.7–13.5 million m3 waste waters annually and pollute 20% of fresh water. Ship breaking yards dump about 22.5 tons polychlorinated biphenyls in a year. More than 50% of the marine oil pollution comes from urban activities. Plastic wastes at 3000 t day-1 and tourism are also contributing to the coastal pollution. Effluent releasing standards are not maintained, and thus higher concentrations of heavy metals are found with marine fishes. Use of heavy metal tolerant crops (rice: BRRI dhan47, potato: Cardinal, mustard: Brassica napus, flower: Marigold, vegetables: Cucumber, fibre: Kenaf, and so on), trap cropping, deep placement of fertilizers, integrated rice-fish-duck culture, etc can be adopted in polluted areas. There are laws for environmental issues, but coordination and financial capabilities does not warrant its effectiveness. Necessary steps are to be taken to improve infrastructure to ensure sanitation and benign discharge of industrial effluents. Systematic study on sources, fate and extent of current effluents dumping in water ways need to be assessed for wellbeing of aquatic life and human health.

Application of microbial remediation in the treatment of offshore oil pollution

With the development of offshore oil industry, the pollution caused by frequent oil spill accidents has brought great pressure to marine ecology. How to repair the oil polluted sea area economically, efficiently and safely has become an urgent problem to be solved in marine ecological environment protection. In this paper, the main factors affecting the bioremediation of marine oil pollution are the polluted sea environment, the physical and chemical properties of oil and the types of microorganisms. The research progress of marine ecological restoration at home and abroad and the main research direction of marine oil pollution ecological restoration technology are summarized. The possible problems in the repair application are analyzed, and the further research direction is proposed.

A Sensitivity Analysis on the Spectral Signatures of Low-Backscattering Sea Areas in Sentinel-1 SAR Images

Satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a unique tool to collect measurements over sea surface but the physical interpretation of such data is not always straightforward. Among the different sea targets of interest, low-backscattering areas are often associated to marine oil pollution even if several physical phenomena may also result in low-backscattering patches at sea. In this study, the effects of low-backscattering areas of anthropogenic and natural origin on the azimuth autocorrelation function (AACF) are analyzed using VV-polarized SAR measurements. Two objective metrics are introduced to quantify the deviation of the AACF evaluated over low-backscattering areas with reference to slick-free sea surface. Experiments, undertaken on six Sentinel-1 SAR scenes, collected in Interferometric Wide Swath VV+VH imaging mode over large low-backscattering areas of different origin under low-to-moderate wind conditions (speed ≤ 7 m/s), spanning a wide range of incidence angles (from about 30° up to 46°), demonstrated that the AACF evaluated within low-backscattering sea areas remarkably deviates from the slick-free sea surface one and the largest deviation is observed over oil slicks.