For the seventh time in the history of this conference, Marine Pollution Bulletin has agreed to publish selected papers in this special issue following the normal refereeing procedures set by the journal. It is a pleasure to note that many papers in our previous six special issues have been amongst the “top downloaded” or “most cited” papers in Marine Pollution Bulletin. The Organizing Committee extends its sincere thanks to Marine Pollution Bulletin’s editors, and to Elsevier, for their continuing support, including offering the Elsevier prizes for the Best Student Oral and

Poster Papers. Finally, the strong support and generous sponsorship from various organizations, including the United Nations Development Program – Global Environmental Facilities, Partnerships in the Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia and the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem of the United Nations, Office of Naval Research mTOR inhibitor Global, SETAC Asia – Pacific, find more the Wei Lun Foundation, the K. C. Wong Education Foundation, the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, The Conservancy Association, Kou Hing Hong Scientific

Supplies Ltd, AB Sciex and The Marine Biological Association of Hong Kong is gratefully recognized. On behalf of the organizing committee, we thank the participants at the 7th International Conference on Marine Pollution and Ecotoxicology. It is a pleasure to note that our conference goes from strength to strength, as was clearly shown by the presence in Hong Kong of more than 250 participants from 24 countries. The work reported here not only provides us with food for thought, but inspires us to continue our earnest pursuit of environmental sustainability. “
“Global warming influences not only organisms on land but also in the sea. It seems that increase in water temperature may impact spatial distributions of sessile organisms rather than mobile ones because they cannot move after

settlement. In the shallow coastal waters, there are several important ecosystems such as corals, seaweed beds and seagrass beds growing on the bottom. For example, mass coral bleaching has occurred in association with episodes of elevated sea temperatures and resulted in significant losses of live coral in many parts of the world (Hoegh-Guldberg, 1999). These ecosystems form Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase indispensable habitats for many marine organisms. Thus it is necessary to explore the global warming influences on these ecosystems. Impacts of global warming on coral reefs are well examined (e.g. Pandolfi et al., 2011). On the other hand, there are not many studies on seaweed forests, which are very important coastal ecosystem as a primary producer ( Mann, 1982). On rocky coasts along the northwestern Pacific, seaweeds belonging to Sargassum species produce such an important ecosystem forming a luxuriant forest in spring and a scanty one in summer ( Komatsu et al.