Sensors and biosensors for monitoring marine contaminants

The marine environment plays an important role in the global climate regulation, mainly as a major source of biodiversity. However, the climate change and the human activity impacts have increasingly disrupted the natural balance in marine environment. The European Union, through the commitment undertaken in 2008 by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) determined to take until 2020 every necessary step to achieve a healthy marine environment. Thus, the continuous monitoring of contaminants at low concentrations is of great importance for the environmental protection. In this field, the marine sensors and biosensors have been identified as potentially important analytical devices using technological developments such as miniaturized electronics, small scale networks, and wireless communication in order to produce advanced analytical tools for the continuous monitoring of the ‘good environmental status’ of the marine environment. This overview provides a state of the art of sensors and biosensors for monitoring contaminants in marine waters.