Marine pollution

Plastic debris has now become the most serious problem affecting the marine environment, not only for coastal areas of developing countries but also for the world's oceans as a whole. Drifiting plastic debris is well recognized as having several adverse effects on marine species and ecosystems, but there is still a lack of precise knowledge about the quantity, sources, transport, accumulation and fate of plastics in the oceans.

The Journal publishes original contributions dealing with the following fields of investigations.

Reefs at Risk Revisited is part of a series that began in 1998 with the release of the first global analysis, Reefs at Risk: A Map-Based Indicator of Threats to the World’s Coral Reefs. Two regionspecific publications followed with Reefs at Risk in Southeast Asia (2002) and Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean (2004). These regional studies incorporated more detailed data and refined the modeling approach for mapping the impact of human activities on reefs.

This volume has been compiled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, which for half a century has been the UN organization responsible for fostering intergovernmental cooperation on global ocean science.