Biological response and ecological indices of benthic communities, such as greater mortality of foraminifera and shell abnormalities, have been used to document pollution effects on ecosystems. Shadegan Wetland was damaged from a deposition of huge amounts of soot and products of burning oilwells of Kuwait as well as chronic exhaust fumes of refinery and industrial furnaces. In this investigati...

BACKGROUND Species distribution, abundance and diversity of mangrove benthic macroinvertebrate fauna and the relationships to environmental conditions are important parts of understanding the structure and function of mangrove ecosystems. In this study seasonal variation in the distribution of macrobenthos and related environmental parameters were explored at four mangrove stations along the Po...

Oxygen deficiency in the near-bottom water associated with eutrophication has been shown to have negative impacts on marine benthos in many Scandinavian waters. In the present study, the benthic fauna and the sedimentary habitat have been studied between 7 and 34 m depth; at 14 stations in three Swedish fjords in four different years, and at 12 stations along the Swedish coast in three differen...

Patchy occurrences of benthic drift algae (i.e. loose lying macroalgal mats) may increase habitat complexity on normally bare soft bottoms, but at the same time, extensive amounts of drifting algal mats are known to stress the benthic fauna. This paper presents results of the first detailed study of the fauna associated with drift algal mats in the northern Baltic Sea. In order to assess the im...

The effects of pollution (nutrient enrichment). and the presence of macrovegetation on the species diversity and density of large benthic fauna in the Manukau Harbour, Auckland, were studied by sampling eight soft shore, intertidal habitats. Pollution was found to reduce faunal density but to have only a slight effect on species diversity. The presence of dense meadows of the intertidal seaweed...

Benthic macroinvertebrate fauna plays a major role in river ecosystems, especially those of tropical islands. Since there is no information on the distribution of benthic invertebrates along a Jamaican river, we report here on the composition of the benthic fauna of the Buff Bay river, on the Northern coast of Jamaica. A total of 14 samples were collected from five sites, using kick nets and a ...

*Correspondence: Erik Kristensen, Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] We aim at identifying how ecosystem functioning in shallow estuaries is affected by rapid shifts in benthic fauna communities. We use the shallow estuary, Odense Fjord, Denmark, as a case study to test our hypotheses that (1) shifts in benthic fa...

Eutrophication has been an increasing ecological threat during the past 50 yr in many Scandinavian and Baltic marine waters. Large sedimentary areas are seasonally, or more or less permanently, affected by hypoxia and/or anoxia with devastating effects on the benthic macrofauna in, for example, the Baltic Sea, the Belt Seas and Öresund between Denmark and Sweden, the Kattegat and the Skagerrak ...

A micropaleontological study has been carried out on the samples collected from the Sarv Abad section, the oldest and only known Jurassic sedimentary rocks cropping out in the Moghan area. Studied sequence consists of carbonates bounded at both base and top by clastic deposits. Studied carbonate deposits provide an assemblage of benthic foraminifera as well as calcareous algae. The stratigraphi...

We performed a 15N-labeling study to investigate nitrogen incorporation and retention by the benthic microbial community (bacteria and benthic microalgae) and fauna in the intertidal sediment of the subtropical Australian Brunswick Estuary. The main experiment involved an in situ 15N pulse–chase experiment. After injection of 15NH z4 into the sediment, 15N was traced into bulk sediment, total h...