The goal of this study was to evaluate methanogen diversity in animal hosts to develop a swine-specific archaeal molecular marker for fecal source tracking in surface waters. Phylogenetic analysis of swine mcrA sequences compared to mcrA sequences from the feces of five animals (cow, deer, sheep, horse, and chicken) and sewage showed four distinct swine clusters, with three swine-specific clade...

The Lagos lagoon is a depository of last resort for over 70% of the surface runoffs, drainage channels and important rivers flowing from interior Nigeria to the Atlantic Ocean. The surrounding densely populated and industrialized areas often result in the introduction of potential harmful materials into the Lagoon. This work is aimed at providing reference data for the quality assessment of the...

Diuron is a herbicide commonly used in agricultural areas where excess application causes it to leach into rivers, reach sensitive marine environments like the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon and pose risks to marine life. To investigate the impact of diuron on whole prokaryotic communities that underpin the marine food web and are integral to coral reef health, GBR lagoon water was incubated w...

A short term solution for the treatment of dairy waste water is discussed. Discharge rate'is 500 m3lday with a high organic load (2,750 Kg CODlday). Low capital investment (US $ 330,000) and operational (US$ 0.55lm3) costs were required which ought to be competitive with current market prices but within the official environmental norms imposed by the national agency SEDESOL. The problem was sol...

The exotic Indo-West-Pacific species, Ficopomatus uschakovi (Polychaeta, Serpulidae) is recorded for the first time in the Tropical Eastern Pacific from two sites in La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas, a coastal lagoon in the Pacific south of Mexico. The means of dispersal of this serpulid species still remains unclear, as the nearest port (Puerto Chiapas) is 70 km to the south, and ther...

A high resolution seismic survey was conducted in the Patos Lagoon, southern Brazil, aboard of the research vessel LARUS of the Fundação Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG). Around 400 km of 3.5 kHz seismic profiles were collected, which provided acoustic signals of good penetration depth and resolution. Seismic anomalies, including turbidity and pocket gas, revealed that gas-charged sedi...

A short term solution for the treatment of dairy waste water is discussed. Discharge rate'is 500 m3lday with a high organic load (2,750 Kg CODlday). Low capital investment (US $ 330,000) and operational (US$ 0.55lm3) costs were required which ought to be competitive with current market prices but within the official environmental norms imposed by the national agency SEDESOL. The problem was sol...

Due to the connection between enzymatic activity and degradation of different fractions of organic matter, enzyme assays can be used to estimate degradation rates of particulate and dissolved organic carbon in freshwater systems. The aim of this study was to quantify and model the enzymatic degradation involving the decomposition of macrophytes, describing temporal activity of cellulases (EC 3....

Hydrochemical conditions in the Açu Lagoon are described using spatial and temporal variations of various limnological variables (water temperature, dissolved oxygen, electric conductivity, total alkalinity, carbon dioxide, dissolved and total nutrients (N, P and Si), and chlorophyll a). Collected data was used in order to understand the structure and functioning of an enclosed coastal lagoon s...

Since 1928, Henri Gauthier has been the only zoologist to describe the extant non-marine ostracod fauna of Tunisia. In 2010, new samples of living non-marine ostracods were collected from central and southern Tunisia. A complete list of the 41 non-marine ostracods of Tunisia is presented, including the species of Gauthier's work, published Holocene records, and new results from our field study....