Seagrasses are being lost at alarming rates worldwide, most often due to anthropogenic effects, but few reports have examined how seagrass loss affects the metabolism of coastal ecosystems. Here, we address this question by comparing both areal and system-integrated daytime benthic metabolic rates across 3 lagoons in the North Central Gulf of Mexico that display varying levels of abundance of t...

Variability in assemblages of organisms in contiguous lagoons is dependent upon component bays and their connections to the ocean and terrestrial watersheds. Fish and blue crab assemblage structure of Maryland’s coastal lagoon complex, which consists of Assawoman, Isle of Wight, Sinepuxent, and Chincoteague Bays, was analyzed for spatial and seasonal patterns for the period 1991–2002. Nonmetric...

Two new species of the family Alpheidae: Alpheus margaritaesp. n. and Leptalpheus melendezensissp. n. are described from Santa María-La Reforma, coastal lagoon, SE Gulf of California. Alpheus margaritaesp. n. is closely related to A. antepaenultimus and A. mazatlanicus from the Eastern Pacific and to A. chacei from the Western Atlantic, but can be differentiated from these by a combination of c...

[1] Shallow coastal lagoons are environments where a dynamic equilibrium exists between water quality and seagrass cover. Dense seagrass canopies limit the resuspension of bed sediments thereby creating a clearer water column and a positive feedback for seagrass growth. Positive feedbacks are often associated with the existence of bistable dynamics in ecosystems. For example, a bare and a seagr...

The investigations on the quality status of the sediments in the German Baltic Sea coastal waters focused on the natural background as assessment basis. On this basis, the chemical sediment quality can be evaluated. Furthermore, the decision about the relocation of dredged material from federal waterways depends on this assessment. The sediment quality of the German Baltic Sea coastal waters be...

Abstract. Coastal lagoons are important sites for nitrogen (N) removal via sediment burial and denitrification. Blooms of heterocystous cyanobacteria may diminish N retention as dinitrogen (N2) fixation offsets atmospheric losses We measured N2 in the Curonian Lagoon, Europe's largest coastal lagoon, to better understand factors controlling context seasonal changes phytoplankton community compo...

A shallow water hydrostatic 2D hydrodynamic numerical model, based on the boundary conforming coordinate system, was used to simulate aspects of both general and small scale oceanic features occurring in the composite system constituted by the Adriatic Sea and the Lagoon of Venice (Italy), under the influence of tide and realistic atmospheric forcing. Due to a specific technique for the treatme...

During the last decade, several studies have focused on the use of passive multispectral remote sensing to derive the bathymetry in coastal zone. In particular, data acquired with the SPOT and the Landsat TM/ETM+ sensors have been used to derive models of bathymetry at medium scales. Until now, the successful application of passive remote sensing techniques to bathymetry mapping was restricted ...

A USGS scientist collects data from an automated sampling system moored in Malibu Lagoon (July 2009). Photograph by John Izbicki, USGS. Each year, over 550 million people visit California’s public beaches. To protect beach-goers from exposure to waterborne disease, California state law requires water-quality monitoring for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as enterococci and Escherichia coli...

The growth, mortality and migration pattern of the population of Litopenaeus vannamei Boone 1931 in the Carretas-Pereyra coastal lagoon system, Mexico, were studied. The shrimp spatial distribution and abundance were analyzed in relation to salinity, water temperature, and substrate. A total of 2669 shrimps was collected at 22 sites sampled monthly from March 2004 to August 2005. Juvenile shrim...