Riverine supply of largely terrestrial carbon is important to the carbon cycle chemistry of the oceans. Along a river-ocean continuum, sedimentary organic matter composition and distribution can provide insights to the balance of terrestrial input and in situ production of an estuary. In the Yangtze River estuary (YRE), this balance is especially important to understand as human impacts and climate

We examined the effect of mesoscale oceanographic conditions on the seasonal abundance and distribution patterns of chaetognaths, a major component of the zooplankton community in the northern Gulf of Mexico, with data collected in late spring (May/June) and summer (July) from 2015 to 2017. Overall, 13 chaetognath species from six genera were observed in the samples. Significant pairwise associations

To effectively manage anthropogenic stressors causing widespread and pervasive habitat change, resource managers and policy makers require advice on priority stressors to optimally target conservation and restoration outcomes. This is difficult in soft sediment ecosystems affected by multiple stressors operating across centuries with possible legacy interactions. Using tools from the emerging discipline

Downwelling-favorable winds modify the front structure of river plumes and are important for cross-shelf mass transport. To understand the adjustment process of river plume fronts in response to downwelling-favorable wind events, a series of generic numerical experiments were conducted. The adjustment of river plume fronts underwent three stages: destratification and restratification during the wind

Inter-relationships between physical ocean-atmosphere processes over the eastern Agulhas Bank are explored using data assimilation by the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), which provides daily fields and time series off the south coast of South Africa (33.75–34.5S, 24.0–26.5E) in the period 2009–2017. Our objectives are: i) to describe and understand the sharp gradients over the shelf, ii) to

Salinization stands among the most prominent environmental hazards of the largest delta on Earth, the Bengal delta. It has significant impacts on the local societies and the economy. Using an unprecedented collection of in situ river salinity records over the Bengal delta, extending from the Hooghly estuary in the west to the Meghna estuary in the east, we report a sudden salinization of the central

Estuaries of large Siberian rivers, Yenisei and Ob, play a pivotal role in transformation and sedimentation of the suspended matter from the riverine runoff. The mesozooplankton community is one of the key players in estuarine functioning. Most of the studies in the Yenisei region were performed at the end of the productive season (August–September) and concentrated on the structure of zooplankton

The franciscana (Pontoporia blainvillei) is a coastal dolphin endemic to the south-western Atlantic Ocean. Incidental captures in fishing gillnets are the greatest conservation concern for this species. The present study examines the biophysical interactions between the franciscana prey composition and the marine environment. The feeding regime of franciscana was investigated from stomach contents

Cross-shore and alongshore velocities were measured over five high tide cycles in the swash and inner surf zones of a dissipative beach (significant wave height between 0.5 and 1.65 m; water levels between 0 and 0.87 m) using acoustic and electromagnetic current meters. Measurements are used to determine the importance of alongshore motions relative to cross-shore motions for bed shear stress; a parameter

In the western Pacific Ocean, the Kuroshio cross-shelf intrusion and the shelf circulation are vital components of the coastal environment. However, the key dynamic factors driving them remained unclear. Our model and theoretical analysis show that wind stress over the open Pacific Ocean east of Japan drives a net equatorward water flux of 2.2 Sv, and this flux sets up a south-north sea surface drop

Coastal lagoons and marshes are among the most fluctuating and productive ecosystems in the world, which provide a wide range of ecosystem. The objective of this work was to evaluate the factors and processes that condition the hydrogeochemical dynamics in salt marshes associated with the development of small coastal lagoons located at the southern end of the outer estuary of the Rio de la Plata, where

Several problems related with coastal flooding depend on tidal levels, rise in sea level induced by meteorological effects and their nonlinear interaction. The latter is particularly meaningful in coastal lagoons and estuaries since it is strongly dependent on shallow water processes. This work aims to understand the role of tide-surge interaction in local inundation patterns of Ria de Aveiro lagoon

Normal incidence echo data (bottom reflection) can provide acoustic reflectivity estimates for seabed classification and predicting sediment properties with the use of seabed sediment models. However, the accuracy of normal-incident reflection coefficients significantly affects the geoacoustic inversion result. In this study, a multi-core platform with an acoustic recording system, which can perform

Suspended cohesive sediments form aggregates or ‘flocs’ and are often closely associated with carbon, nutrients, pathogens and pollutants, which makes understanding their composition, transport and fate highly desirable. Accurate prediction of floc behaviour requires the quantification of 3-dimensional (3D) properties (size, shape and internal structure) that span several scales (i.e. nanometre [nm]

An analysis is presented of hydrographic and nutrient data collected over three years for the Kangaroo Island upwelling region, Lincoln Shelf, South Australia, to determine the signature of upwelled water, depth of upwelling and the source water mass being brought onto the shelf. Strong upwelling seasons were recorded during the 2007–2008 and 2009–2010 summers, while the summer of 2008–2009 had only

In situ thermohaline variables measured monthly or bimonthly in the shallow northern Adriatic at prescribed stations between 1979 and 2017 were correlated with the local (river runoff, precipitation, net heat flux) and remote atmospheric (various hemispheric and regional indices) and oceanic (the Adriatic-Ionian Bimodal Oscillating System, BiOS) drivers acting on monthly to annual timescales. The highest

Large freshwater pulses to coastal ecosystems change local hydrologic regimes and alter biogeochemical processes. The Mississippi Bight coastal ecosystem, located in the northern Gulf of Mexico shelf, is influenced by extensive freshwater inputs: the Mississippi River (MSR) and several smaller rivers to the east. Under river flood conditions, MSR waters flow through the Bonnet Carré Spillway (BCS)

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that struck on 11 March 2011 caused 22 fuel tanks around Kesennuma Bay in northern Japan to collapse. A sediment-contact-type fluorescence spectroscopy system was developed to observe the coastal distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) deposited on the seafloor. A fluorescence maximum value of a sediment sample collected at Kesennuma Bay was considered

Organic-rich sediments of the southernmost Chilean Pacific coast and its fjord system constitute an important component of the global marine carbon budget. Sediment records from Trampa and Caribe bays and Churruca fjord in the western Magellan fjord system have been analyzed with the goal of understanding the factors controlling carbon accumulation and its regional fluctuation throughout the Holocene

Post-war marine munition dumpsites do exist and are acknowledged by authorities, but their real extent and their effect onto the environment are mostly unknown. Military historic reconstruction and ocean current data (from in-situ measurements and modelled data) indicate that the German dumpsite in the Baltic Sea ‘Kolberger Heide’ is an active environment with a huge content of discarded munition material

Bacterial pathogens in coastal sediments may pose a health risk to users of beaches. Although recent work shows that beach sands harbor both indicator bacteria and potential pathogens, it is not known how deep within beach sands the organisms may persist nor if they may be exposed during natural physical processes. In this study, sand cores of approximately 1 m depth were collected at three sites across

In situ observations and a coupled bio-physical model were used to study the germination, initiation, and development of the Gulf of Maine (GOM) Alexandrium fundyense bloom in 2006. Hydrographic measurements and comparisons with GOM climatology indicate that 2006 was a year with normal coastal water temperature, salinity, current and river runoff conditions. A. fundyense cyst abundance in bottom sediments

Two-hundred and twenty seven satellite-tracked drifters were deployed in the Gulf of Maine (GoM) from 1988 to 2007, primarily during spring and summer. The archive of tracks includes over 100,000 kilometers logged thus far. Statistics such as transit times, mean velocities, response to wind events, and preferred pathways are compiled for various areas of the coastal GoM. We compare Lagrangian flow

Field observations of flow and sediment transport in a tributary channel through intertidal mudflats indicate that suspended sediment was closely linked to advection and dispersion of a tidal salinity front. During calm weather when tidal forcing was dominant, high concentrations of suspended sediment advected up the mudflat channel in the narrow region between salty water from San Francisco Bay and