Coastal Ecology - Science topic

Dear Julius Riese

Thank you for your answer!

It's quite hard to distinguish in this area what's tributary and what's not, as it's a coastal area, an inner archipelago. However, the northern stream is generally considered to be a main stem. The western eutrophicated bay is a flad (as they usually call such coastal lagoons in Finland). The characteristics of a flad are usually that they are under some kind of protection because of their unique ecosystem and the "entrance" to the flad is usually very narrow and very shallow (however inside a flad it's usually 2-8m deep).

As you can see on the maps, this flad is connected to the other bigger bay (fjärden) through a small ditch that goes through wetlands. The coordinates of the central bay of interest are 59°58'00.9"N 23°40'09.7"E.

There is basically no tide in that area of the Baltic sea. The central bay is something like 9-14km from the open sea (areas of the outer archipelago) depending on what route to choose through all these islands.

Basically, we have made a GAM analysis for that area based on our other parameters, and we have a predicted "normal level" for turbidity and a map, which shows SD from that normal level for every occasion (approx. 6 occasions during the non-ice period). So, basically, we were thinking about if it's possible to understand which source has a greater influence on this high positive SD turbidity in the bay and to which spatial extent. Like the spatial influence of a "point-source pollution". We have lots of high-resolution data, so we were thinking that probably it's possible indirectly calculate the strength and direction of influence. Kind of to draw the area where this particular point of pollution has influence, and where it stops having significant influence, being too diluted. But now thinking more about it, it seems that it's not really possible to predict such things without knowing velocities.

All the best,

Maria

You are correct, visual sorting gets increasingly difficult as the particle size gets smaller. The sizes of MPs that you are able to pick out of your sample first comes down to what you can see, and that is often dependent upon the magnification abilities of your microscope. And there can be a fair amount of error associated with that as MPs often look like other things (e.g., diatoms). Adding additional techniques before visualization can help a lot.

First is the digestion of the tissue. I have tried both KOH and H2O2 + heat on fish tissues and found them both to be effective. I typically use H2O2 at 65C for a few of hours with periodic agitation, depending on the size of the tissue sample. Karami et al. (2017) has a nice paper on different types of digestions. Next is separation from the surrounding media. If you are interested in separating by polymer type, then you can consider a density separation. Li et al. (2018) provides a good method. Just know that some of the chemicals used can be a little difficult to handle and particle size can impact buoyancy. The latter might be solvable by adding centrifugation (see Nguyen et al. 2019). You mention filtration, and I would say that is the most common method. There is some discussion about how to best filter samples to get the most MPs while avoiding contamination. While not the only one, Cai et al. (2020) addressed that subject recently. Personally, I think that filters are a good way to go if your MPs are large enough to be caught by it. You should consider passing the digestate and subsequent filtrates through multiple filters with smaller and small pore sizes so that you you don’t clog filter pores and when you get to the smallest particles large bits aren’t obscuring the view of smaller particles. Nanoplastics are still a big problem. The Nguyen et al. (2019) study says that their technique is able to separate those too, but I haven’t tried it yet. Its generally agreed upon (as of now) that there is no one good method to separate out the really small nanoplastics. And if you think you have a separation method, once they get that small, the only way to verify if you got any is by using an electron microscope (maybe uFTIR…very much maybe). That’s one of the reasons most people purchase fluorescent NPs to use in their exposure experiments. Next is the Nile red staining that you mentioned (I’m assuming you are using protocols from Maes et al. 2017 and Shim et al. 2016?). I certainly see this as one of the more commonly used methods to differentiate MPs from their background. And, if your microscope has enough resolution, you should be able to see particles <500um. Considering that you are using shrimp tissue, you should determine if you will get autofluorescence within the same wavelengths as the stain. I also recommend reading Meyers et al. (2022); they have some interesting ideas about using Nile red that I look forward to trying. Stanton et al. (2019) proposes the use of DAPI as a costain gives better results. And as the previous responder mentioned, FTIR has the final say in whether something is a plastic or not, and what kind it is. If it is possible for you to do on at least a subsample of what you separate from your sample, then it will make your study stronger. Regarding tissue type, I think that has more to do with your question. When dealing with aquatic organisms, exposure route should be carefully considered as it can be inhalation, dermal, and/or ingestion. Particle size typically determines if an how a particle can translocate through the body, and not all tissue types are equally permeable. The muscle seems like generic sort of tissue to look at, not in a bad way though. Would it be possible to collect hemolymph?

I’m not sure how much I helped to solve your problem, but I hope I at least gave you a few more directions to look in.

Good luck!

- Melissa

Cai, H., et al. (2020) Microplastic quantification affected by structure and pore size of filters. Chemosphere 257, 127198. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127198

Nguyen, B., Claveau-Mallet, D., Hernandez, L. M., Xu, E. G., Farner, J. M., & Tufenkji, N. (2019). Separation and analysis of microplastics and nanoplastics in complex environmental samples. Accounts of chemical research, 52(4), 858-866. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00602

Karami, A., et al, (2017) A high-performance protocol for extraction of microplastics in fish. Science of the Total Environment 578, 485-494. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.10.213

Stanton, T., et al. (2019). Exploring the efficacy of Nile red in microplastic quantification: a costaining approach. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 6(10), 606-611. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.9b00499

Meyers, N., et al, (2022). Microplastic detection and identification by Nile red staining: Towards a semi-automated, cost-and time-effective technique. Science of the Total Environment, 823, 153441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153441

Li, L., et al., (2018). A straightforward method for measuring the range of apparent density of microplastics. Science of The Total Environment 639, 367-373. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.166

Maes, T., et al. (2017) A rapid-screening approach to detect and quantify microplastics based on fluorescent tagging with Nile Red. Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 44501. http://doi.org/10.1038/srep44501

Shim, W.J., et al. (2016) Identification and quantification of microplastics using Nile Red staining. Marine Pollution Bulletin 113, 469-476. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.10.049

Use OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System) mapper (https://mapper.obis.org/), on the left hand you have Options, and within that, you can tick the box 'only Red List species'. So you can get all records of all marine Red list species. Use the Depth range option to get only shallow water species from this. Then use the arrow with a bar beneath it (download) on the top row to download all these results to a csv file. This is one approach to getting at the data that you need. WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species) (https://www.marinespecies.org/news.php?p=show&id=8143) does use this IUCN Red List for species, although it would be harder to get the data, but is useful for checking. You can also email WoRMS to ask for a query that has the IUCN Red List, they are very helpful.

Dear Colleagues,

Here is my new paper. https://popups.uliege.be/0037-9565/index.php?id=9493

Kind regards

Fatima

Abhijit Mitra Thank you I appreciate the information.

Michael Waldon I know some folks on that team, i just spent a summer in the Everglade on an internship will definitely reach out.

I will keep you all posted as I will be working on this analysis in the coming month during the academic break.

see the article

there are many mathematical and model based methods are available for shoreline prediction.

the one of the simple method is given below

Future Shoreline Change = Slope * Time interval + Intercept

Low dissolved oxygen is more often the result of autotrophic algal bloom in response to eutrophication. Aerobic degradation of cellulose/lignin and other biomolecules strip off oxygen. Many or most heterotrophic dinoflagellates or picoeukaryotes feed on the diverse array of bacterial blooms which are associated with algal degradation and decomposition as well as hypoxic conditions, hence it could simply be a cue for the dinoflagellates to know that their is bacterial feed present and so they congregate at such specific locations. The question might simply be the case of inverted observation and the hypoxic condition may not be conducive to the heterotrophic dinoflagellates but their presence could mean ongoing decomposition of the autotrophic species biomass that had started to sponge up the dissolved oxygen.

Numerical estimation of planktonic species are performed by many, but it is indeed a sorry state of affair that many of such reports are the results of extrapolated data obtained from very least volume of water sample and that too without establishing a mean data. Normally manual or instrumental enumeration of species assemblages, if performed on only 0.5 to 1 ml of water sample, results in amplification of the data when extrapolated to a litre of water and often the data exceeds what would have been actually present there.

With this being written, it is also possible for many workers to simply misidentify the more mature copepodite stages of mesozooplankton as adults and that too often yields exorbitant densities.

Keeping the above statements in mind, we need to consider the fact that aquatic system in highly dynamic and data procured from one such environment can only be contested upon by being at the same sight at the same time, which practically is impossible since the planktonic assemblages varies significantly based on the circadian rhythm as well as the biogeochemistry of the ambient ecosystem. Also the presence of warm discharge water at the vicinity of nuclear power plants might have triggered such a phytoplanktonic bloom as befitting the number of zooplankton reported.

Unless consistent data of similar magnitude get reported, it will not be prudent to discard (no matter how outrageous it appears) nor incorporate such data in the more practical data pool used by the concerned personnel. Doing either without absolute evidence to disregard the other will simply lead to impractical vilification and unwanted situations. In cases such as this, ignorance is a bliss.

Regards,

Dr. Abhishek Mukherjee

Hi Wolfang , I occasionally find some freshwater

Gnathostomulida during processing my sample. these samples are from the Delta Nile region in Egypt. I am not sure about its taxonomy.

Hi,

The first one is most likely Pelagia noctiluca but this specimen was damaged. This is one of the most common scyphozoan in the Mediterranean Sea.

I am less familiar with the others specimens but it reminds me of the genus Olindias (Hydrozoa; Limnomedusae). It may be this genus or something close.

Cheers!

The following link is very helpful. You can download village boundary map of all the Indian States from the following site. Using QGIS I could open the file in the vector shape file mode.

Hi Iestin,

The attached papers should point you in the right direction.

Tomas

Hope this PDF is useful

I'm not sure where you can find this shapefile, but it's likely the authors of the attached 2016 paper "Global patterns of kelp forest change over the past half-century" will have one. See Figure 1A. 

Dear Van Van,

Please take a look to these papers.

thank you for your answer

Tubular Immersion heaters are best option. It can be designed to based on Tank dimensions n with a suitable control System ( Panel). We make such heaters.

Hey Jose!

I am not from the area, but there is a group working with integrated coastal management in Southern Brazilian coast that I could introduce to you, if there would be any names that you would like to get in touch. The first link below is about many works (dissertation) they have developed within the scope of coastal management. The second link is the address o the researchers that I know, in case you need some contacts. Finally, the third link is a guideline from Brazilian government on the instruments for integrated coastal management. It is in Portuguese, but I assume it would not be so hard to read.

Hope it helps.

;)

Dear Debasish 

The samples that you have posted , was living or fossil stage ? 

Best 

Aravinda 

Dear Verena,

there are many government and NGOs that work on mangroves and corals in the Indian subcontinent.

our Institute National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change researches on both the ecosystems. 

Besides there are institutions like ZSI, BSI, CMFRI, CIARI, MKU, State Universities in the Govt side and SDMRI, Dakshin, ANET, NCF, MFF etc in the NGO side.

Best wishes for your research

Deepak

Hello David,

Please get in touch with Joseph M Maina of the University of Queensland. That is his expertise, you can visit his researchgate profile at  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph_Maina8 and also his google page for his publications at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Go7V_2AAAAAJ&hl=en

I am also appending one of his recent publications on a study on coral reefs in Madagascar.

Goodluck,

Beckline.

Riley:

This link with references would provide you with essential insights:

Best

Syed

Very interesting question. The bottom current has an effect on detrital input which in turn, may influence the feeding activities of macrobenthic polychaete community.

The following references may help you more.

Regards.

Dola:

Well I can guess that your image in frame 1 resembles a thecate Amoeba. In frame 2 resembles cyst of a dinoflagellate. See link:

Best

Syed

Thank you v.much Dr.Annes and Dr.Rajiv Pandey for providing your valuable comments and suggestions.

Hi Desmond, 

The question was more about what is exactly the meaning of term. In system where the very baselines and functioning are no longer natural, which are the stressors and consequences of coastal pollution? Some contaminants are more clearly human-derived, such as POPs, metals, nutrients, etc. However, what are the stressors that we have not looked at or to which our assumption of natural behavior is no longer sustainable?

Check with Norm Nelson/Dave Siegel from UCSB. Their data should be open with much available through NASA SeaBASS. Best, Emmanuel

Hi Joop

Maybe this will help: I just uploaded our recent paper on Caprella tuberculata in the Dutch part of the North Sea. It includes several references on Caprellids in this area.

Wim Vader responded to our paper and he presented an unpublished record of this species on the light vessel Noordhinder half a century earlier: Vader, W. 2015. Enkele amphipoden van het lichtschip Noordhinder in 1956. Het Zeepaard 75 (2) 53-54.

Dear Xikum Song

Thanks so much for letting me know i will definitely contact them 

regards

Jorge Quirós

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I think that the sand dune flora reduce the aeolian transport of sand, and increase the consolidation rates of sand dune. It allows the development of the dune.

Best regard,

V.V. Than

i cannot, sorry

Although the pictures are not good, I think it is a colony of a Bryozoa, Gymnolaemata, Ctenostomata. These animals have the skeleton leathery, chitinous or gelatinous, not calcified.

You should use any of the environmental ecology model for finding answer of your problem. For assessing habitat protection value, first document the biota present there, and their use value per unit area.

Thanking you very much for your kind effort.

I would like to point you to a report we have written recently for the European commission specifically on the topic of connectivity between networks of marine protected areas, called Analysis and comparison of criteria used by Member States for establishing coherent, adequate and representative networks of marine protected areas

look at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277840693_Analysis_and_comparison_of_criteria_used_by_Member_States_for_establishing_coherent_adequate_and_representative_networks_of_marine_protected_areas

There is a lot to be said about the proper configuration of MPAs and taking care of the connectivity between the is highly relevant.

Best regards

Arjen. 

I can send you reference of more two papers where some details are available in the supplementary data. Hope that works. If not you can just contact Nuno Ferreira (the first author) and ask him for details.

Susana

Having done extensive evaluation of C sequestration rates in US grasslands, my experience has been that in the absence of good examples in the literature, the only way to reliably estimate sequestration rates is through field studies.  This includes establishing a good baseline of the C in the soil at the beginning of the study for all treatments and then following the annual change due to management changes for at least 3 to 5 years in order to be able to estimate the C accretion rate.  Some of the previous answers are correct in that it is C that is "deep" or protected.  In order for C to be sequestered, it has to have persistence and permanence in the soil.  Often, shallow sampling (<0.3 m) does not give very reliable results because of the turn over of the C due to human, faunal and microbial activity.  Seasonal changes in temperature and moisture also have a profound effect on the long term persistence of C in the soil.

Xupeng, I feel , you need to have a diagnostic criteria of different nutrients , in terms of their threshold limits to diagnose the deficit or excess of any nutrient, otherwise whole exercise of evaluation will turn redundant .

May I suggest that you also read another review, focusing on the facilitative effects of non-native species? I always find it good to try to broaden my horizon a bit and try to see both sides of each coin. If you are interested you can check: Rodríguez, L.F. 2006. Can invasive species facilitate native species? Evidence of how, when, and why these impacts occur. Biological invasions 8: 927-939.

All the best

Åsa

I too agree with R.R. Das  regarding the  flowers to identify to the species level However from the  available vegetative features and the  apparent length of internodes suggest me  to fix the picture as that of R. maritima. 

1 - Salicornia brachiata + Suaeda aff. maritima (prob. S. australis)

2 - prob. Halosarcia indica (younger plant having not yet produced prostrate branches; certainly not Salicornia brachiata because it is already more than 1 year old!)

3 - Halosarcia indica (typical older plant, with prostrate branches)

Sorry, looked at Picture only and missed sampling area. Ophiopholis is obviously not the right genus as it is limited to the Northern hemisphere. However, your specimen still reminds me of species within family Ophiactidae (to which genus Ophiopholis also belongs). Only gave picture of Ophiopholis aculeata as example for comparison. And please don’t call me ‘madam’, I am not 90 years old :-D.

You may contact Dr. Punyasloke Bhadury at Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Kolkata for help on meiofaunal identification http://www.iiserkol.ac.in/people/faculty/dbs/pbhadury

Certainly Cerithium zonatum ... but I suggest the determination of C. zonatum (complex). In fact, as in the case of other polytypic species, desirable genetic studies may identify various sympatric or allopatric species , morphologically similar to each other. These two works can help you.

Looks like a corallimorpharian, family Discosomatidae (mushroom coral), but I could not find the species.

Faunus ater (Linnaes, 1758) Family Thiaridae.

probably "black spot" disease caused chitinolytic, gram-negative bacteria you should be able turn up references fairly easily.

Trends in sewage loadings in the coastal zone would be a good proxy.  Trends in the number of anoxic and hypoxic events and areas covered are popular too. 

Dear Researcher

All have suggested different methods. I will give left over method, which has to be operated manually. A bait attached to twine or thin wire has to be lowered in to burrow and crab grab the bait with chelates. The person holds the bait will sense it  and then slowly pull out the bait. The crab will come out along with bait. A scoop net is used to trap the crab when it is come out from the burrow. This is very old method which was operated by traditional  fisherman for their subsistence.

Thanks Xiaoguang.

The lower one may be Blyxa or Vallisneria?  But they are seen in fresh water.  In Which locality are these found? 

My guess is Hygrophila difformis and Najas guadalupensis.

In addition with the previous comment from Florian, the feeding guilds defined by Fauchald and Jumars were recently updated.

thank you everyone. . .

Buongiorno F. Kies.

Bakalem A. Diversité de la macrofaune des sables fins de la côte algérienne.

Rebzani-Zahaf C. & al. Cycle annuel du peuplement macrobenthique du port d'Alger.http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00093/20458/18130.pdf

Rouabah A. & Rouabah L. Biodiversité et complexe Perinereis cultrifera Grube (Pelure) : un exemple de spéciation.

Buona fortuna e successo.

Chère Fatima;

Je pense que le Fauvel (Polychètes errantes et sédentaires) suffira pour faire tes déerminations.

Je les utilisés, ainsi que Bakalem, Rebzani et Grimes et ça a bien marché pour nous....

NB; j'attends toujours que tu m'envoie ta stratégie d'échantillonnage.

Bonne chance

Here's what I've observed in the ANSP collection. In Japan, there is a brown color form of Anachis miser: our largest specimen is 15.7 mm. it is also our largest specimen identified as A. miser. The brown form does not occur in India or Sri Lanka in material here. Our largest specimen of Anachis from India is 19.2 mm. Taking it to be A. terpsichore on the basis of size, and because it is consistent with the description of that species gives a starting point. The same sample has a fully mature individual of 11.6 mm. So size range differs between the species, but not in a way that helps with identification, except of the largest individuals. The same can be said of spire height: spires more than half the shell length occur occasionally in A. miser, and not in A. terpsichore, but there is considerable overlap in spire height. The only character I've seen which might differentiate them is that the axial ribs in A. terpsichore have a central depression, whereas A. miser usually does not. That is, the rib is strong near the suture, a little depressed near the periphery, then stronger again. The more prominent parts of the rib tend to correspond to white in the color pattern, and the depressed part to brown. None of our adults have protoconchs; I haven't looked at juveniles yet.

Good discussion! I understand that ICZM also involves policies, laws and institutions, but I think that it would be convenient to differentiate when a relevant government instance leads coastal management (ICM) from when government simply participates and support, coastal management (ICZM). Discussing what mean area or zone in Spanish and English, is indeed another interesting subject, but I am focusing in coastal management processes. I suggest that there are  two distinct processes that should be considered separate.

I would join to the assumption this is an egg mass of a nudibranch gastropod. However, eggs themselves are not discernible on the picture.

I do not agree with what Alastair has said, pCO2 depends on pH of the water, it is other way around, pH of the sea water is dependent on pCO2. moreover, blooms can be also limited by CO2 in the oceans if not having constitute CCM. an increase in pH has been observed many times with enhancement in phytoplankton biomass. However, I agree with the last part of your answer. and also what Koji has mentioned. This is possible that for warming or upwelling, significant amount of CO2 is added up to the surface water and there could be simultaneous uptake also by phytoplankton and enhancement of fluorescence. However, the net increase in CO2 could be more and hence positively correlating with the fluorescence. In the Oligotrophic condition under high solar light there can be photo-inhibition leading to net heterotrophy and can may not uptake considerable amount of pCO2. As Koji said, phytoplankton stock is also important.

Yes the sliding moviments are typical of slug. And for the blue pointed colors I agree with Mario Chelinodura livida

Hi David, - Risk models and vulnerability assessments and work on the Western Victorian coastline is quite limited, perhaps considering looking at the latest Victorian Coastal Strategy 2014, and the Victorian Coastal Hazard Assessment 2012 for relative citations on coastal process modelling. Hydrology and geomorphology models could assist. 

Thank you all, I think that this egg mass are of Murex trapa. This species is very common at Zikim, near the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Broadly three main strategies are possible:

1) More effective land use planning to conserve existing areas of mangrove and prevent their conversion to agriculture, shrimp farming or development. Enabling mechanisms could involve protected area designations, local community participation/empowerment and greater recognition of the protective properties of mangroves against storm surges and tsunami;

2) Improved consideration of the long term effects of dams and flow regulation on rivers that can greatly affect the input of sediments to many mangrove coasts. While it is not easy to de-engineer large river catchments it is important to know whether sediment shortage is a factor that could be addressed through improved sediment conservation measures within eroding mangrove zones;

3) Carefully targetted mangrove restoration. Technical capability and experience is improving in this area - see the following links: http://www.mangroverestoration.com/  http://mangroveactionproject.org/  Benefits can include: conservation, fisheries and improved protection against storm surges and tsunami.

Internet searches for the following search terms should be be useful: "mangrove restoration" "Mangrove" AND "shrimp farming"

I wish you success with mangrove conservation.

The first option is of course  community based co management. To implement the Ecosystem approach one has to prepare a platform for creating awareness among the coastal community regarding scientific facts.  A linkage of scientific and local governance will actually lead to coastal management. 

Hello Atteleth, 

I personally don´t think you should use the advection/dispersion module from MIKE 21, which takes into account decay of the modeled substance. What you can do is do a MIKE 21 HD simulation and then in plot composer add particules. This particules will move according to the hydrodynamics in your modelling and they can give you an idea of how the propagule will distribute in your study area. An alternative is to use the ABM from MIKE 21, which allows you to determine how the propagule will propagate, but since they are only floating, then I guess there is no point on complicating your study!

I hope this helps. Cheers.