Contaminant Cycling Under Climate Change: Evidences and Scenarios

Marine ecosystems are influenced by many factors related with human activity, such as eutrophication, chemical contamination, selective ­overfishing, ­bottom trawling and blast fishing. However, various regions have shown at least some changes that were likely to be attributable to recent climate change. Although various works have pointed to repercussions of climate change on ocean processes at physical and biological levels, a few thoughts were highlighted on contaminant pathways in concert with the predicted and confirmed climate changes. Human activities released during the last century a cocktail of contaminants that are stored in soil, coastal sediments and ice. Predicted alterations under climatic changes raise pertinent questions on this topic. Are hazardous substances stored in those compartments released to cycling within the ecosystem under climate changes? To what extent are quantities injected in the ecosystems toxic to marine organisms? Does it affect ecosystem functioning?