We present a seasonal and baseline survey of selected physicochemical parameters in epipelagic samples from Qua Iboe (QIB) and Cross River (CRV) estuaries in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The parameters analysed were temperature, pH, salinity, turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen, available p...

Marine ecosystems are reported to be contaminated by microplastics (MPs) (< 5 mm); however, the ecological mechanisms involved in ingestion of debris marine organisms relatively unknown. By developing and optimising an appropriate protocol gut digestion for fish species, this study explores a tropical estuarine environment unriddle processes responsible different rates plastic debris. A total 8...

There is currently a large regional effort to restore tidal marsh ecosystems in the San Francisco BayDelta Estuary involving the commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars and broad landscape-scale habitat manipulations. Although climate change has been on the horizon for many years, recent developments suggest that it must be taken seriously as a factor to be considered in future planning f...

Water beetles belonging to the suborder Polyphaga vary greatly in larval and adult ecologies, and fulfil important functional roles in shallow-water ecosystems by processing plant material, scavenging and through predation. This study investigates the species richness and composition of aquatic polyphagan assemblages in and around the St Lucia estuarine lake (South Africa), within the iSimangal...

Estuarine systems are the major conduits for the transfer of nitrate from agricultural and other terrestrial-anthropogenic sources into marine ecosystems. Within estuarine sediments some microbially driven processes (denitrification and anammox) result in the net removal of nitrogen from the environment, while others (dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium) do not. In this study, molecular...

Hypoxia is increasing in marine and estuarine systems worldwide, primarily due to anthropogenic causes. Periodic hypoxia represents a pulse disturbance, with the potential to restructure estuarine biotic communities. We chose the shallow, epifaunal community in the lower Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA, to test the hypothesis that low dissolved oxygen (DO) (<4 mg l–1) affects community dynamics b...

Eutrophication is a process that can be defined as an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter (OM) to an ecosystem. We provide a general overview of the major features driving estuarine eutrophication and outline some of the consequences of that process. The main chemical constituent of OM is carbon (C), and therefore rates of eutrophication are expressed in units of C per area per uni...

The impact of freshwater discharges from upstream hydroelectric projects on estuarine ecology, particularly on commercial bivalves was seldom ever studied, despite the fact that they contribute substantially to local livelihoods. Such projects have been executed in many rivers of Indian Western Ghats unmindful of their ecological consequences. Through a period of the past five decades, two hydr...