The Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacted Louisiana's coastal estuaries physically, chemically, and biologically. To better understand the ecological consequences of this oil spill on Louisiana estuaries, we compared the abundance and size of two Gulf shrimp species (Farfantepeneus aztecus and Litopeneus setiferus) in heavily affected and relatively unaffected estuaries, before and after the oil...

Patterns of Sr/Ca variability in fish otoliths have been widely applied as tracers of movement between freshwater and marine habitats, with the assumption that low salinity habitats correspond to lower otolith levels of Sr/Ca. On the other hand, fluvial estuaries can contain steep gradients in Sr/ Ca, and in some estuaries, freshwater values of Sr/Ca can exceed marine values, which are relative...

Ecological observations sustained over decades often reveal abrupt changes in biological communities that signal altered ecosystem states. We report a large shift in the biological communities of San Francisco Bay, first detected as increasing phytoplankton biomass and occurrences of new seasonal blooms that began in 1999. This phytoplankton increase is paradoxical because it occurred in an era...

Detection of virulent strains associated with aquatic environment is a current concern for the management and control of human and animal health. Thus, Vibrio diversity was investigated in four estuaries from state of Ceará (Pacoti, Choró, Pirangi and Jaguaribe) followed by antimicrobial susceptibility to different antimicrobials used in aquaculture and detection of main virulence factors to hu...

An index (EQUATION* Estuarine QUAlity and condiTION) is presented for integrated evaluation of estuarine quality, based on an aggregation of four di!erent components: vulnerability, measuring the physical capacity of the system to react to change, water quality, which examines trophic status and eutrophication aspects, sediment quality, which looks at the sediments and benthic fauna, and tropho...

Ammonium and nitrate uptake was measured in 6 European tidal estuaries (Ems. Rhine, Scheldt, Loire, Gironde and Douro) using I5N-tracer techniques. Uptake rates of ammonium and nitrate ranged from 0.005 to 1.56 pmol N 1-' h-I and 0.00025 to 0.25 pmol N 1-' h-I, respectively, and differed significantly between and within estuaries. Analysis of nitrogen uptake using the relative preferential inde...

Cyanobacteria represent a common component of algal assemblages in Florida's lakes, springs, estuaries, and other marine environments. The frequency of cyanobacterial bloom reports has recently become more common and algal toxin data are just beginning to be collected with the advent of monitoring efforts and the availability of laboratories in the state capable of conducting algal toxin analys...

The Black Brant Branta bernicla nigricans is a seagrass-obligate goose, strongly tied to the estuaries of the Pacific Flyway coast of North America. Black Brant are unique in that they remain reliant on their traditional food resource, in contrast to other Brent Goose populations that now readily switch to feed on agricultural land during migration and in winter. While Black Brant use of coasta...

Estuaries have been sites of intensive human activities during the past century. Tracing the evolution of subaqueous topography in estuaries on a decadal timescale enables us to understand the effects of human activities on estuaries. Bathymetric data from 1955 to 2010 show that land reclamation decreased the subaqueous area of Lingding Bay, in the Pearl River estuary, by ~170 km2 and decreased...

Estuaries are highly degraded ecosystems throughout the world. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the biology and ecology, and the effects of contaminants on mangrove-associated micro and macroalgae, and assess their suitability in the biological assessment of estuaries. Ecological surveys over two seasonal cycles, in four estuaries in New South Wales, Austraba, the Cooks, Parrama...