A portion of Hillsborough Bay (Tampa, Florida, USA), part of the Tampa Bay estuary, undergoes annual summer defaunation, presumably due to hypoxia. Dissolved oxygen levels are very low (< 1.0 mg 1-l) at the times of the defaunations. In the ensuing period between defaunations, recolonization occurs. Monthly samples for 42 consecutive months were collected by SCUBA-diver-operated, hand-held PVC ...

The Texas brown tide bloom is noted for a concordant decline in benthic biomass and species diversity. However, the link between harmful effects induced by Texas brown tide and benthos has not been demonstrated. It has been proposed there may be a larval bottleneck, where larvae, but not adults, suffer adverse effects. This study was performed to test the effect of brown tide alga, Aureoumbra l...

Abstract The lower Rio Grande is a river-dominated estuary that serves as the border between Texas, USA, and Tamaulipas, Mexico. River estuaries encompass section of river influenced by tidal exchange with Gulf Mexico, but connection intermittent can be temporarily open or closed. During 4.8-year study period, mouth was closed 30% time, mostly during average dry climatic conditions, temporary c...

A multimetric benthic assessment method was developed for two benthic assemblages in the San Francisco Estuary (USA) using data from several monitoring programs collected over five years. Assessment indicators used were total number of taxa, total abundances, oligochaete abundances, number of molluscan taxa, number of amphipod taxa, and Capitella capitata and Streblospio benedicti abundances. E...