001. Karen Evans, Nicholas J. Bax, and David C. Smith. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Enhancing the robustness of a national assessment of the marine environment. Marine Policy, 2018, Vol. 98, Pages: 133 - 145.

      The Australian government produces an independent report on the state of the Australian environment every five years. Based on 123 assessments of key pressures, key components of the marine environment, and the effectiveness of management responses to those pressures, the 2016 assessment identified that the overall state of the Australian marine environment can be regarded as good. However, the historical impacts of a number of pressures (e.g. commercial and recreational fishing) and ongoing pressures caused by activities currently inadequately managed (e.g. climate change and marine debris) have, and are continuing to, deteriorate its state. As a result, the outlook for the marine environment can be regarded as mixed. Addressing the challenges facing the marine environment will require a coordinated, collaborative and dedicated effort across jurisdictions and sectors. A number of improvements to the assessment framework were implemented for the 2016 report, the most substantial being the development of clear and repeatable processes for information synthesis and assessment. This improved transparency and supported the robustness of conclusions made. Improved communication of uncertainties associated with assessments, and comparability with assessments in previous reports has furthered the quality of the report and laid the foundation for improvements going forward. Processes that will continue to improve assessments include identifying key indicators that can be reliably and effectively monitored, improving data provision processes, enhancing assessment frameworks and reporting processes to ensure that approaches are integrated and support the delivery of tangible and practical risk mitigation and adaptation pathways.

Keywords: Australia, Marine environment, Assessment, State and trends, Outlook.

002. RenchaoYang, Aiping Fan, A. J. Van Loon (Tom), Zuozhen Han, Carlos Zavala. College of Earth Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, Shandong, China. The influence of hyperpycnal flows on the salinity of deep-marine environments, and implications for the interpretation of marine facies. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 2018, Vol. 98, Pages: 1 - 11.

      Interpretation of the continental or marine character of sediments on the basis of the paleosalinity is increasingly based on the concentration of some trace elements. The paleosalinity can be affected, however, also in deep-marine environments, by discharge peaks of major sediment-laden rivers. These induce hyperpycnal flows that run down the basin slope. The huge volume of fresh water gradually mixes with the ambient saline seawater, diminishing the paleosalinity. The temporail lowered paleosalinity may be preserved in the sedimentary record in the form of ‘diverging’ concentrations of trace elements and trace-element ratios. This is exemplified for the Early Cretaceous Lingshandao Formation on Lingshan Island (western Yellow Sea). It was found during field work and geochemical analysis that hyperpycnal currents may not only lower the salinity of a deep-marine environmental setting, but may also carry along continental plant fragments and other biological remains, which may obscure the marine character of the sediments. It is deduced that detailed facies analysis in the field is consequently required to reveal the true character of a marine environment.

Keywords: Hyperpycnites, Paleosalinity, Trace-element analysis, Lithofacies analysis, Lingshan Island.

003. Ana Sanchis, J. Pablo Salvador, M. Pilar Marco. Nanobiotechnology for Diagnostics (Nb4D), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Nanotechnology, Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC) of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain. Multiplexed immunochemical techniques for the detection of pollutants in aquatic environments. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 2018, Vol. 106, Pages: 1 - 10.

      The present article gives an overview of the situation of the aquatic ecosystem in respect to contamination by chemical pollutants and the different multiplexed techniques used to detect, identify and quantify water pollutants. A brief comparison between chromatographic and immunochemical methods is described at the beginning of this article, as an introduction of the increasing interest for multidetection of pollutants in these environments. The information regarding multiplexed immunochemical and biosensors technologies is presented emphasizing all aspects, from the importance of the design of immunizing haptens and the production of antibodies with different specificity potentials, to the establishment of different approaches to fulfill the multiplexation needs the actual environmental monitoring requires. For each class of platforms described a brief description of the physical principle, specific features, and basic concepts is presented providing additionally specific examples.

Keywords: Aquatic environments; Environmental pollutants; Immunochemical techniques; Multiplexation; Multiresidue.