Description: In situ chemical monitoring at deep-sea hydrothermal vents remains a challenge. Particularly, tools are still scarce for assessing the ranges and temporal variability of sulfide in these harsh environmental conditions. There is a particular need for compact and relatively simple devices to enlarge the capacity of in situ measurements of this major energy source in chemosynthetic ecosystems. With this objective, a voltammetric sensor based on a bare-silver working electrode was developed and tested in real conditions. In the laboratory, the sensor presented a linear response from 10 to 1000 μM sulfide, together with a low pH sensitivity and moderate temperature dependence. The device was operated at 850 and 2500 m depth during 3 cruises over two different vent fields. The autonomous potentiostat (290 mm length, ∅ 35 mm) equipped with laboratory-made electrodes was mounted on a wand, for manipulation from a submersible, or on a holder for unattended deployments. The system was applied in mussel, tubeworm and annelid worm habitats, characterized by different ranges of sulfide concentration, pH and temperature. Calibrations performed before and after each deployment confirmed the stability of the sensor response over a few hours to 11 days, with a maximum drift of 11.4% during this period. Short-term measurements in the vicinity of Riftia pachyptila and Alvinella pompejana were consistent with previous results on these habitats, with concentrations ranging from 20 to 140 μM and 100 to 450 μM and sulfide versus temperature ratio of 14 μM °C−1 and 20 μM °C−1, respectively. A continuous 4-day record on a bed of Bathymodiolus Thermophilus mussels furthermore illustrated the capacity of the sensor to capture fluctuating sulfide concentration between 0 and 70 μM, in combination to temperature, and to investigate the changes in the sulfide versus temperature ratio over time. The method has a higher detection limit (〈10 μM) than previous in situ sulfide measurement methods, but has the advantage of selectivity to free sulfide (compared to colorimetry), low pH sensitivity (compared to amperometry) and lower reconditioning requirement for electrode surface (with respect to gold-amalgam voltammetry). This sensor is therefore a valuable complementary tool for discrete and continuous measurements within the moderate temperature environment of fauna at deep-sea vents.

Description: Highlights: • Adriatic coastal area: simultaneous atmospheric and seawater field measurements • Nutrient variability in aerosols, rainwater and atmospheric deposition (AD) fluxes • Local open-fire biomass burning (BB) affected chemistry of atmospheric samples. • AD impacted nutrient levels and N:P ratios in the sea surface microlayer (SML). • The SML plankton development and organic matter enrichments followed BB episodes. Abstract: Atmospheric deposition (AD) of nutrients and its impact on the sea surface requires consideration of interfacial processes within the sea surface microlayer (SML), the ocean-atmosphere boundary layer of major importance for many global biogeochemical and climate-related processes. This study comprised a comprehensive dataset, including dissolved NO3−, NH4+ and PO43− in ambient aerosol particles, wet deposition and sea surface samples collected from February to July 2019 at a central Adriatic coastal site. The aerosol mean concentration of dissolved nitrogen (DIN = NO3− + NH4+) and PO43− were 48.8 ± 82.8 μmol m−3 and 0.8 ± 0.6 μmol m−3, respectively, while their total fluxes (dry + wet) ranged from 24.2 to 212.3 μmol m−2 d−1 (mean 123.2 ± 53.2 μmol m−2 d−1) and from 1.2 to 2.1 μmol m−2 d−1 (mean 1.5 ± 0.3 μmol m−2 d−1), respectively. Intensive local episodes of open biomass burning (BB) significantly increased aerosol DIN concentrations as well as DIN deposition fluxes, particularly altering the molar DIN/PO43− ratio of atmospheric samples. The DIN temporal patterns showed high variability in the SML (range 0.2–24.6 μmol L−1, mean 5.0 ± 7.1 μmol L−1) in contrast to the underlying water samples (range 0.5–4.2 μmol L−1, mean 1.9 ± 1.2 μmol L−1), with significant increases during BB periods. Variability in abundance of heterotrophic bacteria and autotrophs in the SML along with concentrations of bulk dissolved and particulate organic carbon as well as dissolved and particulate lipids and carbohydrates, gel particles and surfactants followed DIN enhancements with a two-week delay. This study showed that AD can affect the short-term scale enrichments of organic matter in the SML, especially when accompanied by BB emissions typical of the overall Mediterranean coastal environment. This could have strong implications for global air-sea exchange processes, including those of climate relevant gases, mediated by the SML.

Description: The effects of climate change (CC) on contaminants and their potential consequences to marine ecosystem services and human wellbeing are of paramount importance, as they pose overlapping risks. Here, we discuss how the interaction between CC and contaminants leads to poorly constrained impacts that affects the sensitivity of organisms to contamination leading to impaired ecosystem function, services and risk assessment evaluations. Climate drivers, such as ocean warming, ocean deoxygenation, changes in circulation, ocean acidification, and extreme events interact with trace metals, organic pollutants, excess nutrients, and radionuclides in a complex manner. Overall, the holistic consideration of the pollutants-climate change nexus has significant knowledge gaps, but will be important in understanding the fate, transport, speciation, bioavailability, toxicity, and inventories of contaminants. Greater focus on these uncertainties would facilitate improved predictions of future changes in the global biogeochemical cycling of contaminants and both human health and marine ecosystems.

Description: The effects of climate change (CC) on contaminants and their potential consequences to marine ecosystem services and human wellbeing are of paramount importance, as they pose overlapping risks. Here, we discuss how the interaction between CC and contaminants leads to poorly constrained impacts that affects the sensitivity of organisms to contamination leading to impaired ecosystem function, services and risk assessment evaluations. Climate drivers, such as ocean warming, ocean deoxygenation, changes in circulation, ocean acidification, and extreme events interact with trace metals, organic pollutants, excess nutrients, and radionuclides in a complex manner. Overall, the holistic consideration of the pollutants-climate change nexus has significant knowledge gaps, but will be important in understanding the fate, transport, speciation, bioavailability, toxicity, and inventories of contaminants. Greater focus on these uncertainties would facilitate improved predictions of future changes in the global biogeochemical cycling of contaminants and both human health and marine ecosystems.