Showing papers in "Marine Environmental Research in 2017"

TL;DR: Investigations on temporal trends, geographical distribution and global cycle of plastics have management implications when defining the origin, possible drifting tracks and ecological consequences of such pollution, and the fate and impact of microplastics in the marine environment are still far to be fully clarified.

TL;DR: The blue mussel (Mytilus spp.) is widely used as a bioindicator for monitoring of coastal water pollution (mussel watch programs) and some important issues for future research and development are highlighted.

TL;DR: While densities and diversities of some taxa can recover to or even exceed pre-disturbance levels, community composition remains affected after decades, and community shifts that persist over geological timescales at mined sites are identified.

TL;DR: The possibility of obtaining a continuous source of bioactives from marine microorganisms, more amenable to culturing compared to macro-organisms, may be able to meet the challenging demands of pharmaceutical industries.

TL;DR: In mussels from the polluted site, severe morphological alterations were observed in gills, mainly involved in nutrient uptake and gas exchange, and onset of hypoxic adaptive responses with up-regulation of hypoxia-inducible factor transcript was highlighted.

TL;DR: Overall, OA adversely influences metabolism, acid-base status and calcification of blood clams, subsequently leading to a decrease in the fitness of this marine bivalve species.

TL;DR: The developed assessment framework can furthermore provide a suitable approach for the assessment of Good Environmental Status (GES) for Descriptor 8 of the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

TL;DR: Progress in research will rely on advances in areas such as remote sensing, genomic tools, microsensors, computer modeling, and statistical analyses, and a more interdisciplinary approach will be needed to facilitate greater understanding of the complex interactions among seagrasses and their environment.

TL;DR: Australasian Undaria research provides an example of a decoupling between the success and impact of an invasive species, and understanding potential invasion pathways, maintaining native canopy-forming species that limit Undaria success, and effectively managing anthropogenic vectors of Undaria spread should be key management priorities.

TL;DR: The objective of the present review was to compile the main results in the literature regarding the study of shoreline protection delivered by coral reefs, identifying the main threats climate change imposes to the service, and discuss mitigation and recovery strategies that can and have been applied to these ecosystems.

TL;DR: A trait-based approach was used on a large dataset from across the European shelf to determine how functional characteristics of unimpacted benthic assemblages vary between different sedimentary habitats, finding assemblage of gravelly sediments exhibit a relatively greater numerical dominance of non-bioturbators and asexual reproducers.

TL;DR: The present findings indicate that in a global warming scenario both species are able to induce different mechanisms to mitigate the impacts of temperature increase.

TL;DR: Strong evidence was found that all three foundation types not only function as aggregation sites, but also as nursery grounds for C. pagurus, and it becomes clear that the German Bight in the future will provide new artificial reef habitats for another 320% crabs and 50% wrasse representing substrata-limited mobile demersal hard bottom species.

TL;DR: In this article, the effects of hypoxia on oxidative stress response and immune function in mussels Perna perna exposed to air for 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours were investigated.

TL;DR: A systematic analysis of the most recent works that have used marine invertebrate swimming alteration as behavioral end-point in ecotoxicological studies by assessing the differences between behavioral and acute responses in a wide range of species, in order to compare their sensitivity.

TL;DR: The present findings indicate that Dongsha Atoll is a potential thermal refuge for reef-building corals in the northern South China Sea and reveal the development of resilience and resistance to bleaching in coral communities of the lagoon.

TL;DR: Concentrations of trace metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments, mussels, and fish collected from estuarine, coastal and offshore waters from Iceland to the Mediterranean Sea indicate that at no site were concentrations of all contaminants at background and that concentrations of some contaminants were of significant concern in all areas, except the central North Sea.

TL;DR: Echinoderms, and sea urchins particularly, are alternative collagen sources to produce efficient GTR membranes and display a further advantage in terms of eco-sustainability by recycling tissues from food wastes.

TL;DR: This study is the first investigation of marine debris findings in all three marine mammal species from German waters and demonstrates the health impacts marine debris can have, including severe suffering and death.

TL;DR: Through the ICON project, the use of an integrating framework is demonstrated and more knowledge is gleaned than ever before in any single field campaign about the impacts contaminants may have in European marine areas.

TL;DR: The results contribute to quantifying coastal protection ecosystem services provided by salt marshes in both sandy and silty sediments and found no relevant relationships with nutrient status, likely due to overall high nutrient concentrations and low C:N ratios.

TL;DR: It is indicated that diclofenac exposure may have negative impacts on invertebrate reproductive success, whereas ibuprofen potentially may compromise P. miliaris reproduction.

TL;DR: The strong negative effects of Gd on calcification in plutei, together with the plethora of marine species that have calcifying larvae, indicates that Gd pollution is urgent issue that needs to be addressed.

TL;DR: Results obtained indicated that ocean acidification significantly reduced the fertilization success of T. granosa, which could be accountable by decreased sperm velocity hence reducing the probability for sperm-egg collisions, lowered probability of gamete fusion for each gamete collision event, and disrupted intracellular Ca2+ oscillations.

TL;DR: Results highlighted the effects of Cu exposure, leading corals to an oxidative stress condition and a possible reduced calcification ability and biomarkers associated with oxidative status (TAC and DNA damage) and calcification [(Ca, Mg)-ATPase] are indicated as good predictors of corals health.

TL;DR: In vitro bioassay testing with silicone passive sampler extracts of sediments is a promising tool to assess the toxic potency of the bioavailable fraction of hydrophobic sediment contaminants, but further work will be needed before it can be routinely applied for sediment quality assessment.

TL;DR: The number of offshore wind farms (OWF) is increasing to meet the demands for renewable energy, which creates new habitat for species with preference to hard substrates, and the impact of this hard substrate on the fish community in a Dutch OWF in the sandy southern North Sea is studied.

TL;DR: The effects of the filtrates of some diatom species, both benthic (Tabularia affinis, Proschkinia complanatoides and Navicula sp.) and planktonic (Thalassiosira sp. and Skeletonema marinoi) on cell morphology, cytological features and growth of O. cf.

TL;DR: The findings match with previous physiological studies and supported the idea that warming will differently impact Mediterranean seagrass meadows depending on the species as well as on the depth (i.e. thermal regimen) at which the meadow grows.