Plant group classification relation to soil environmental characteristics was monitored in Hangzhou Bay coastal wetland, China. 18 taxa, belonging to 17 genus and 7 family were recorded, and classified into five groups by TWINSPAN viz A, Scirpus mariqueter group, B, Spartina alterniflora group, C, Phragmites communis group, D, Tamarix chinensis P. communis group, and E, Salix matsudana Imperata...

Virus-prokaryote interactions were investigated in four natural sites in Senegal (West Africa) covering a salinity gradient ranging from brackish (10‰) to near salt saturation (360‰). Both the viral and the prokaryote communities exhibited remarkable differences in their physiological, ecological and morphological traits along the gradient. Above 240‰ salinity, viral and prokaryotic abundance i...

Published data were used to compare the distance decay of similarity in parasite communities of three marine fish hosts: Atlantic cod Gadus morhua, the dab Limanda limanda and the flounder Platichthys flesus in two adjacent areas that differ with respect to the strength of a salinity gradient. In the Baltic Sea, which exhibits a strong salinity gradient from its connection with the North Sea in...

In order to understand the influence of hydrography on the picophytoplankton (PP) abundance in estuaries, sampling was conducted along a salinity gradient for the first time in an Indian estuary. Prochlorococcus-like cells were detected at salinities ranging from 0.06 to 35, which otherwise is reported from offshore regions, thereby showing that this group is capable of surviving in estuarine w...

Reverse electrodialysis allows for the capture of energy from salinity gradients between salt and fresh waters, but potential applications are currently limited to coastal areas and the need for a large number of membrane pairs. Using salt solutions that could be continuously regenerated with waste heat (≥40°C) and conventional technologies would allow much wider applications of salinity-gradie...

Salinity gradient energy (SGE) refers to the energy created from the difference in salt concentration between two streams. There are three types of SGE namely, pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), reverse electrodialysis (RED), and capacitive mixing (CapMix). All these technologies require membrane for the system to be operational. In this short review, the membranes modifications for each principl...

Salinity as well as drought are increasing problems in agriculture. Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum Desf.) is relatively salt sensitive compared with bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and yields poorly on saline soil. Field studies indicate that roots of durum wheat do not proliferate as extensively as bread wheat in saline soil. In order to look for genetic diversity in root gro...

It is known that mechanical work, and in turn electricity, can be produced from a difference in the chemical potential that may result from a salinity gradient. Such a gradient may be found, for instance, in an estuary where a stream of soft water is flooding into a sink of salty water which we may find in an ocean, gulf or salt lake. Various technological approaches are proposed for the produc...

The relative importance of environment and dispersal related processes for community assembly has attracted great interest over recent decades, but few empirical studies from the marine/estuarine realm have examined the possible effects of these two types of factors in the same system. Importance of these processes was investigated in a hypothetical metacommunity of benthic invertebrates in 16 ...

Microbial communities mediate the biogeochemical cycles that drive ecosystems, and it is important to understand how these communities are affected by changing environmental conditions, especially in complex coastal zones. As fresh and marine waters mix in estuaries and river plumes, the salinity, temperature, and nutrient gradients that are generated strongly influence bacterioplankton communi...