AIMS To identify the most efficient techniques for the separation of micro-organisms from coastal sediments and, using these techniques, to determine the concentration of faecal indicator organisms in recreational coastal water and sediment. METHODS AND RESULTS Sediment samples were taken from a range of recreational coastal sites and subjected to various physical techniques to separate micro...

Carbon cycling on the east coast of Australia has the potential to be strongly affected by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) intensification and coastal development (industrialization and urbanization). We performed paleoreconstructions of estuarine sediments from a seagrass-dominated estuary on the east coast of Australia (Tuggerah Lake, New South Wales) to test the hypothesis that millennia...

Platinum contamination in estuarine and coastal sediments has been evaluated in three cores collected from the Tagus Estuary and Prodelta shelf sediments. Elevated concentrations, up to 25-fold enrichment compared to background values, were found in the upper layers of the estuarine sediments. The degree of Pt enrichment in the estuarine sediments varied depending on the proximity to vehicular ...

The long-term goal of this study is to develop a better mechanistic and quantitative understanding of the effects of biologically-enhanced transport, mineralogy, sediment fabric, and particle surface chemistry on biogeochemical reactions occurring in coastal sediments. Specifically, we plan to provide quantitative expressions of biogeochemical processes from field and laboratory studies and to ...

Major processes of the nitrogen cycle (i.e., nitrogen fixation, denitrification, ammonia mineralization and nitrification) were investigated in coastal sediments of several Seychelles Islands. Sediments were represented by carbonate sands, except in Victoria Harbor where they were carbonate silt. Nitrogen fixation was measured by acetylene reduction assay, other processes were studied by an exp...

The pentacyclic triterpene 17 beta(H),21 beta(H)-hop-22(29)-ene (diploptene) occurs in sediments throughout the Columbia River drainage basin and off the southern coast of Washington state in concentrations comparable to long-chain plantwax n-alkanes. The same relationship is evident for diploptene and long-chain n-alkanes in soils from the Willamette Valley. Microorganisms indigenous to soil...

BACKGROUND Early diagenetic processes involved in natural organic matter (NOM) oxidation in marine sediments have been for the most part characterized after collecting sediment cores and extracting porewaters. These techniques have proven useful for deep-sea sediments where biogeochemical processes are limited to aerobic respiration, denitrification, and manganese reduction and span over severa...

The Gulf of Paria is a semi-enclosed shallow basin with increasing coastal development activities along Trinidad's west coast. Sediments present a host for trace metal pollutants from overlying waters, therefore determination of their content is critical in evaluating and detecting sources of marine pollution. This paper presents a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of geochemical ass...