NORMAN Database System – Chemical Occurrence Data
Collections

EMBLAS was designed to tackle deficiencies and limitations in availability of accurate reliable and comparable marine data, as well as to build capacities of the countries to perform integrated environmental monitoring and assessment of the Black Sea according to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) for the coastal zones and the needs of the Black Sea Strategic Action Plan (BS SAP). The aim of the project was to determine degree of contamination and the effects of pollution by hazardous substances in the Black Sea, mainly its Eastern (Georgian area) and Western (Ukrainian area) sides. An in-depth contamination survey was carried out based on the profiling of WFD priority substances (2013/39/EC) and the screening of potential Black Sea Specific Pollutants in different environmental compartments (seawater and sediments) and marine organisms (mussels and fish). Several analytical methods and novel techniques were applied for the analysis of the samples. Target, suspect and non-target screening approaches were followed for the detection of priority pollutants and emerging contaminants, while advanced software and sophisticated tools were used for results’ extraction and toxicity prediction. Moreover, the risk of the identified emerging contaminants on the aquatic environment was evaluated following the EU risk assessment quidelines (Directive 93/67/EEC, 1488/94/EC, Directive 98/8/EC).
The EU4EMBLAS project is implemented by UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub. The project was building on the results of previous project phases and complements the needs to build further the national capacities – technical and personal, to implement marine environment monitoring programmes, in line with the Bucharest Convention and EU reporting requirements. The-art analytical methodologies have been applied allowing for screening of several thousands of organic pollutants and their transformation products (TPs) by wide-scope target (>2,400 substances) and suspect (>95,000 substances). Samples for analysis of microplastics in seawater and sediments by several sampling techniques, seawater samples for analysis of antimicrobial resistance and fish environmental DNA, were collected. The Cruise of Three European Seas took place in the period from 1 to 21 October 2021. The transfer of RV Belgica was organized and funded by the EU/UNDP project «European Union for Improving Environmental Monitoring of the Black Sea» (EU4EMBLAS). The cruise was scientifically supported by the EC Joint Research Centre and Ukrainian Centre for Ecology of the Sea (UkrSCES).

• V. Dulio, P.C. von der Ohe, NORMAN Prioritisation Framework for emerging substances. NORMAN Association (2013), ISBN: 978-2-9545254-0-2
• N.A. Alygizakis, et al: NORMAN Digital Sample Freezing Platform: A European virtual platform to exchange liquid chromatography high resolution-mass spectrometry data and screen suspects in “digitally frozen” environmental samples, April 2019, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 115, DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2019.04.008, License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Projects: Antibiotics and mobile resistance elements in wastewater reuse applications: risks and innovative solutions (ANSWER), Non Target Screening of Emerging Contaminants)

• https://emblasproject.org/
• https://emblasproject.org/publications-and-reports
• https://emblasproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Cruise.pdf

---