Sediment samples were collected in 4 sites along a salinity gradient (between 0.2 and 27.3) of the Aussa River (Marano Lagoon, northern Adriatic Sea, Italy) and a decreasing gradient of industrial contamination downstream (from Stn A1 to Stn A4) to assess how a riverine-lagoonal system responds to chemical contamination by applying an integrative measure of its benthic ecological properties. Be...

Hypoxia is the depletion of dissolved oxygen below 2 mg O(2)/L. Relatively few studies on hypoxia and its effects on benthic macrofauna have been done in tropical marine ecosystems. This study describes the temporal response of the water column, sediments and macrofauna to seasonal hypoxia in a semi-enclosed bay (Cienfuegos, Caribbean Sea). The Calisito site was sampled monthly from June 2010 u...

Biodiversity and distribution of benthic Meiobenthos in the sediments of the Southern Caspian Sea) Mazandaran) was studied in order to introduce and determine their relationship with the environmental factors. From 12 stations (ranging in depths 5, 10, 20 and 50 meters), sediment samples were gathered in four seasons (2012). Environmental factors of water near the bottom including temperature, ...

Nowadays, beach nourishment is widely considered as a better alternative compared to the construction of hard structures to protect a sandy coast against detrimental erosive effects, both from an ecological and an engineering perspective. The rare studies conducted on the ecological impact of beach nourishment are short-term, post hoc monitoring investigations of the benthic macrofauna. Little ...

Benthic macrofauna are a key component of intertidal ecosystems. Their mobility and behavior determine processes like nutrient cycling the biogeomorphic development flats. Many physical drivers benthic behavior, such as sediment grain size, have been well-studied. However, little is known about how bulk density (a measure compaction water content) affects this behavior. We investigated effect o...