## 1 Introduction  
Neritic environments are peculiar marine areas acting as interface between the atmosphere, the sea and the continental masses [1]. Due to their proximity to land and to sunlight infiltration, they are rich in nutrients and, consequently, in biologic activities, showing a remarkable biodiversity and biomass of algae, seagrasses and animal organisms inhabiting the coastal ecosystems. Zooplankton, along with phytoplankton, representing the most abundant form of life in terms of biomass and biodiversity inritic ecosystems, is comprised of heterotrophic microscopic, unicellular or multicellular organisms with size classes ranging from a few microns (picozoplankton) to a millimeter or more (mesozoplankton), such as the gelatinous zooplankton [2]. The marine zooplankton can be divided into two ecological categories: holoplankton, spending their entire lifecycle in the water column (e.g., crustaceans such as copepods and krill) and meroplankton, spending only the larval stages of their lifecycle as zooplankton, such as decapod crustaceans, echinoderms and fish larvae that, once they mature, adopt a benthic or nektonic lifestyle. Taxa can be further distinguished depending on their typical living habits (permanently in the water column or diel vertical migration from bentnos to sea surface such as hyperbenthic organisms e.g., Isopoda) and on their feeding habits and behavior (herbivorous, carnivorous and omnivorous). Zooplankton plays a critical ecological role in marine food webs, both in the neritic and pelagic ecosystems, since it is involved in the conservation of energy from primary producers (phytoplankton) to higher trophic levels [3], in biogeochemistry cycles and in supporting the ocean's biological pump of carbon export. Hence, an alteration of this category, i.e., through chemical contaminations, can lead to disruptions up to the highest trophic levels. Due to their peculiar conformation, neritic areas are strongly vulnerable to harmful effects of several anthropogenic pollutants derived from human activities, even when located far away from the pollution sources [4]. Such compounds could easily enter the whole marine ecosystem, with possible transfer (and contamination) along its main compartments, namely the water column, the sediment and the biota [5; 6; 7]. Transfer and contamination pathways mainly depend on the physicochemical properties of the pollutant molecules [8] or on the living habits of biota. Moreover, it is worth noting that the fate of pollutants is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the sea, such as water exchange capacity, as the enclosed or semi-enclosed basins (i.e., the Mediterranean Sea) are more susceptible to the accumulation of pollutants in marine sediments than open basins [9]. Among the organic micropollutants frequently detected in marine waters, are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) [10; 11]. PAHs represent pollutants of natural and anthropogenic origins (e.g., volcanic eruptions, combustion) while PCBs mainly derive from use in industrial activities (e.g., dielectric fluids, motor oils). Sewaater contamination from PAHs and PCBs derives from the not negligible impact of ports, industries and touristic activities located on coastal areas [12; 13], as well as from wastewater treatment plants [14] and river effluents [15]. Atmospheric deposition presents an additional source of marine water contamination [16]. Since both PAHs and PCBs are mutagenic/carcinogenic recalcitrant pollutants [17], there are serious concerns regarding their presence in the environment [18; 19; 20], particularly in neritic compartments, and also with consideration of their tendency to partition between water and sediments and from water and sediments to biota, due to their high octanol/water partition coefficients (logK\({}_{\text{OW}}\) ranging from 2.96 to 5.60 for PAHs and from 5.41 to 7.83 for PCBs) [21].