benthic organisms have been studied in past to assess the health of an aquatic ecosystem. moreover, being sedentary forms they have been used as indicator organisms. in the present study, an attempt has been made to study the distribution and assemblage of major macrobenthic forms occurring in ponnani estuary. a total of 23 genera of benthic invertebrate fauna belonging to 6 groups viz., polych...

Bivalve aquaculture introduces high densities of farmed organisms to the natural environment with potential consequences on a number of ecosystem processes, including modification of nutrient fluxes (e.g. NH4, NOX, PO4, and Si(OH)4) and benthic respiration, and may impact benthic communities. Infaunal clam culture may influence the environment due to the clams themselves [their metabolic proces...

After the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP), an accidental release of a large amount of radioactive isotopes into both the air and the ocean occurred. Measurements provided by the Japanese agencies over the past 5 years show that elevated concentrations of 137Cs still remain in sediments, benthic organisms, and demersal fishes in ...

The first study on coexistence of reef benthic organisms in Brazilian coral reefs was done in three localities of the Abrolhos Archipelago. Organisms were recorded in concentric circle samples (10 and 20 cm in diameter) randomly laid on transects. Type and frequency of "coexistence events" between pairs of organisms were determined. Most frequent organisms (massive and branched coralline algae,...

Ocean acidification and decreasing seawater saturation state with respect to calcium carbonate (CaCO3) minerals have raised concerns about the consequences to marine organisms that build CaCO3 structures. A large proportion of benthic marine calcifiers incorporate Mg into their skeletons (Mg-calcite), which, in general, reduces mineral stability. The relative vulnerability of some marine calcif...

Benthic macroinvertebrates have many useful properties that make possible the use of these organisms as sentinel in biomonitoring programmes in freshwater. Combined with the characteristics of the water and sediment, benthic macroinvertebrates are potential indicators of environmental quality. Thus, the spatial occurrence of potentially toxic metals (Al, Zn, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn and Ni) in the wa...

Trophic transfer of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and other related perfluorinated compounds was examined in a Great Lakes benthic foodweb including water-algae-zebra mussel-round goby-smallmouth bass. In addition, perfluorinated compounds were measured in livers and eggs of Chinook salmon and lake whitefish, in muscle tissue of carp, and in eggs of brown trout collected from Michigan. Simila...