My thesis contains two chapters that have been prepared as manuscripts for publication. The first chapter, " The effects of diet, extraction technique and microsatellite primers on genotyping success and error rates of river otter (Lontra canadensis) faecal DNA " comprises the main effort of my work as a Master of Sciences student and will be submitted to Molecular Ecology. The second chapter, ...

Antibiotics released into the aquatic environment play an important role in the spread of antibiotic resistance. In the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) and the coastal zone, the concentrations of antibiotics decreased from the Pearl River to the estuary, suggesting that antibiotics primarily originated from river tributaries and terrigenous sources. Within the PRE area, the concentrations of antibiot...

This study aimed to identify specific river sources of fecal contamination by applying pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to environmental water samples from a recreational beach in Japan. The genotypes of all Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis strains used as indicators of fecal pollution on the recreational beach and rivers were analyzed by PFGE, and the PFGE profiles of the ...

_ _________________________ Introduction. ________________________ Acknowledgments ___ _ _______________ Geography and geology __ ____________ Gubik Formation. ____________________ History __ ______________________ Mineralogy ______________________ Fossils ___ ______________________ Subdivision of the Gubik Formation. Skull Cliff unit_______________ Locality descriptions ______ Skull Cliff_____...

Nutrient-rich, turbid river plumes that are common to large lakes and coastal marine ecosystems have been hypothesized to benefit survival of fish during early life stages by increasing food availability and (or) reducing vulnerability to visual predators. However, evidence that river plumes truly benefit the recruitment process remains meager for both freshwater and marine fishes. Here, we use...

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is not only a fundamental parameter of coastal water quality, but also an indication of organics decomposed in water and their degree of eutrophication. There has been a concern about the deterioration of dissolved oxygen conditions in the Minjiang River Estuary, the longest river in Fujian Province, Southeast China. In this study, the syntheses effects on DO was analyzed ...

The Kishon River, the second largest coastal river in Israel, has been severely polluted for several decades. Sediments from upstream and downstream sites of the river were analyzed, lipid-extracted and evaluated for phenanthrene uptake. Total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration in downstream sediments was 299 microg kg(-1), consisting mostly of petrogenic-derived PAHs. Downstre...

Jurassic deposits are discovered in the Shahreza area, southwest of Isfahan city, central Iran. They yield plant macrofossils belonging to 22 species assigned to 17 genera of various orders such as Equisetales, Filicales, Bennettitales, Cycadales, Ginkgoales and Coniferales. According to the occurrence of Annulariopsis simpsonii, Coniopteris hymenophylloides, Cladophlebis aktashensis, Nilssonia...

The partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2), concentration of total dissolved inorganic carbon, and total alkalinity were measured at both high tide and low tide in the surface water of three Georgia estuaries from September 2002 to May 2004. Of the three estuaries, Sapelo and Doboy Sounds are marine-dominated estuaries, while Altamaha Sound is a river-dominated estuary. During all sampling m...

Glacier melting and altered precipitation patterns influence Arctic freshwater and coastal ecosystems. Arctic rivers are central to Arctic water ecosystems by linking glacier meltwaters and precipitation with the ocean through transport of particulate matter and microorganisms. However, the impact of different water sources on the microbial communities in Arctic rivers and estuaries remains unk...