The Eastern North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water (ESTMW) is a water mass of low potential vorticity (PV) and appears as a weak pycnostad or thermostad. Distinct from other subtropical mode waters, it forms in the absence of a deep winter mixed layer. The formation mechanism of this ESTMW is investigated using an ocean general circulation model that is forced by monthly climatological temperatur...

A field experiment was carried out to test the effect of pore water salinity on the macrobenthic assemblages in an estuarine region of the Tagus estuary (Portugal) subjected to wide fluctuations in salinity. The conditions at the experimental site ranged from freshwater (minimum salinity 0.2) to mesohaline (maximum salinity 15.3). The experimental site was affected by an unexpected deposition o...

Concentration of total Hg, methyl Hg, and other heavy metals were determined in sediment collected along a salinity gradient in a Louisiana Gulf Coast estuary. Surface sediment was collected at established coordinates (n = 292) along a salinity gradient covering Lake Maurepas, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and the Chandeleur Sound located in the 12,170 km(2) Pontchartrain basin estuary southe...

Responses to moderate and extreme salinity change were investigated in White Sea Littorina saxatilis of different genetically determined shell colour morphs in order to test a hypothesis about physiological selection as a driving force of the change of phenotypic structure of this species along a salinity gradient in White Sea estuaries. Some of the studied physiological responses did not diffe...

The ability to identify past patterns of salinity habitat use in coastal fishes is viewed as a critical development in evaluating nursery habitats and their role in population dynamics. The utility of otolith tracers (δ13C, δ18O, and Sr/Ca) as proxies for environmental salinity was tested for the estuarine-dependent juvenile white perch Morone americana. Analysis of water samples revealed a pos...

To study the effects of metals on starfish in field conditions, immune responses were measured in starfish from natural populations along a metal pollution gradient (long-term contamination) and in starfish that were transferred up the gradient (short-term contamination). Coelomic amoebocyte concentration (CAC) and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by amoebocytes were measured in two ...

This work presents the use of the schlieren imaging to quantify the salinity gradients in a microfluidic device. By partially blocking the back focal plane of the objective lens, the schlieren microscope produces an image with patterns that correspond to spatial derivative of refractive index in the specimen. Since salinity variation leads to change in refractive index, the fluid mixing of an a...