Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Project
Knowledge base
Search
Contact
Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea
The pollution of the Mediterranea is primarily from land-based sources - domestic sewage, industrial discharges, agricultural runoff. It reaches the sea through the rivers runoff (local scale pollution) and dust storms and precipitation.
The uneven distribution of runoff and precipitation mainly along the northern coasts, combined with the concentration of population and industrial activity in the north, results in a load of pollutants in the northern Mediterranean waters, that may eventually spread in other areas.
Heavy traffic of oil tankers used to lead to the spread of tar balls on the coasts, but this has been conciderably reduced through the implementation of the Barcelona Convention. Significant progress has been achieved in reduction of discharge of urban effluence from major cities.
Plastic containers and other floating residue from ships and sailing boats remain a nuisance in most areas of the basin.
The Mediterranean is naturally adapted to avoid excessive eutrophication since the outflow into the Atlantic is of deep waters, relatively rich in nutrients, while the inflow is of low nutrient Atlantic surface water. However, when nutrients are continuously discharged into coastal waters in excess of their self-purification capacity, the oxygen balance is disturbed. The oxygen is not enough, plankton and vegetation dies, while anaerobic oxidation of organic matter procedes. Coastal water become turbid and poisonous to certain forms of marine life.
- Mediterranean Sea: Major intergovernmental agreements and actors
- Marine Pollution: An Introduction from About.com -
- Scientific American Presents: Oceans: Feature Article: Exploring the Ocean Planet: August 1998: Exploring ocean wonders with the Internet. -
- OceanLink Answers to Marine Pollution Questions -
- Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea - Known as the cradle of civilization, the Mediterranean region has been subject to human intervention for millennia
- Monitoring Oil-Spill Pollution in the Mediterranean with ERS SAR - An application study that highlights the potential of ERS SAR imagery for the regional monitoring of oil-spill pollution
- Water Pollution Case Analysis
- MEDIT Case
- Albania and the Mediterranean pollution
- Ocean Color From Space - Mediterranean
- Waterborne disease incidences in the Mediterranean region as a function of and T90 - microbial pollution