This study comprehensively investigated the influences of salinity, exposure concentration and time on the aggregate size, surface charge and dissolution of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs; 20nm) in seawater, and examined the interacting effect of salinity and waterborne exposure of ZnO-NPs on the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana for 96h. We found that aggregate sizes of ZnO-NPs signifi...

Salinity is a major driver of bacterial community composition across the globe. Despite growing recognition that different bacterial species are present or active at different salinities, the mechanisms by which salinity structures community composition remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that these patterns reflect ecological coherence in the salinity preferences of phylogenetic groups us...

Core flood and field tests have demonstrated that decreasing injection water salinity increases oil recovery from sandstone reservoirs. However, the microscopic mechanism behind the effect is still under debate. One hypothesis is that as salinity decreases, expansion of the electrical double layer decreases attraction between organic molecules and pore surfaces. We have developed a method that ...

Effects of salinity on seed germination and growth of young (1 month old) and old (2-year old) seedlings of Excoecaria agallocha were investigated. Combined effects of salinity and nutrient level were also examined on old seedlings. Seed germination was best at 0 and 5 psu salinity. 15 psu salinity significantly delayed root initiation and decreased final establishment rate. All seeds failed to...

A new method to study 3D saline front advancement in coastal fractured aquifers has been presented. Field groundwater salinity was measured in boreholes of the Bari (Southern Italy) coastal aquifer with depth below water table. Then, the Ghyben-Herzberg freshwater/saltwater (50%) sharp interface and saline front position were determined by model simulations of the freshwater flow in groundwater...

Diagnosis of soil salinity and its spatial variability is required to establish control measures in irrigated agriculture. This article shows the usefulness of electromagnetic (EM) and soil sampling techniques to map salinity. We analysed the salinity of a 1-ha plot of surface-irrigated olive plantation in Aragon, NE Spain, by measuring the electrical conductivity of the saturation extract (ECe...

Pore fluid chlorinity/salinity data from deep-sea cores related to the salinity maximum of the last glacial maximum (LGM) are analyzed using estimation methods deriving from linear control theory. With conventional diffusion coefficient values and no vertical advection, results show a very strong dependence upon initial conditions at 100 ky. Earlier inferences that the abyssal Southern Ocean wa...

Eurihaline fish support waters with different salt concentration. However, numerous studies have shown that salinity can affect fish development. Thus, the effect of salinity change from 20 to 5 and 35 on survival, weight, length, gill chloride cell ultrastructure and gill Na+, K+ ATPase activity was evaluated in Centropomus parallelus following short-term (6, 24 and 96 hours) and long-term exp...

In euryhaline crustaceans, sensitivity to toxic trace metals may be linked to osmoregulation and salinity conditions. This study investigated if grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio) populations from different salinity regimes differed in sensitivity to cadmium (Cd). Grass shrimp were collected in May 2011 from two marsh sites with average salinities of ~3.0 ppt and 24.0 ppt. Groups were acclimated...

Trade-offs may influence both physiological and evolutionary responses to co-occurring stressors, but their effects on both plastic and adaptive responses to climate change are poorly understood. To test for genetic and physiological trade-offs incurred in tolerating multiple stressors, we hybridized two populations of the intertidal copepod Tigriopus californicus that were divergent for both h...