Figure 1 Schematic demonstrating the cycling of pollutants in coastal ocean systems, including uptake and exchange in ocean ecosystems. Here, CECs (chemicals of emerging concern), microplastics (µPs) and/or persistent organic pollutants enter the water column through the ocean surface, river input, waste water treatment plants, etc., before undergoing various processes outlined in the schematic. Pollutants are cycled through both pelagic and benthic ecosystems, biomagnifying as they move up the food chain and various trophic levels.

Figure 2 Schematic of POPs fate, cycling and transport processes occurring in coastal and shelf systems. Pollutants enter the ocean via river input and the ocean surface. They are exchanged with the atmosphere through air-sea processes, with the sediment through settling and resuspension processes, and with the open ocean through advective processes from/into the regional basin.