The Yangtze estuary is considered as an important eco-region of China, but it has been heavily disturbed by reclamation projects. We evaluated the effect of freshwater inflow on the self-restoration of macrobenthic diversity in 3-year-old vegetated, gravel, and mudflat habitats of reclaimed seaward intertidal wetlands. There was a significant self-restoration of species richness and diversity in vegetated and gravel habitats with no inflow of freshwater, but there were no significant changes in species diversity in three habitats subjected to freshwater inflow. Significant changes in community structures of macrobenthos occurred in vegetated and gravel habitats from pre- to post-restoration. Analysis of benthic health showed that gravel habitats were under moderate to high levels of disturbance in pre-restoration period. In contrast, there tended to be no evidence of disturbance in vegetated and mudflat habitats during two investigations. Restoration of macrobenthos is best achieved in vegetated habitats with on inflow of freshwater.

The annual sea surface temperature increased at a rate of 0.038 to 0.074 °C/year in recent decade, and pH decreased at a rate of 0.012–0.014/year in two coastal waters of the South China Sea. Therefore, a culture experiment was conducted to study the effects of acidification and warming on coral calcification rates. The calcification of three coral species were significantly reduced during the exposure to elevated CO₂, while other three coral species were not significantly affected. The reef coral Pocillopora damicornis was resistant to high CO₂, but was not able to survive during the exposure to 33 °C in our culture experiments. Our findings suggested that some corals might not survive in tropical areas if coral could not adapt to warming rapidly, and subtropical coastal waters with temperature of <30 °C will serve as refugia for the corals resistant to high CO₂ at the end of this century.

Microplastics (MPs) are contaminants of environmental concern that represent a threat to marine systems. Here we report data on the abundance and characteristics of MPs collected from surface waters of the urban Guanabara Bay. Samples were collected, by horizontal trawling of a plankton net on two occasions (summer of 2016). The MPs were obtained from samples by sieving and particles were manually sorted with microscope. Characterization of MPs was accomplished by gravimetry and digital image processing (for quantification and morphology categorization), and chemical composition identified by infrared spectroscopy and elemental analyses. Total MPs ranged from 1.40 to 21.3 particles/m3, which places Guanabara Bay amongst the most contaminated coastal systems worldwide by microplastics. Polyethylene and polypropylene polymers ≤1 mm were the most abundant particles. Therefore, the occurrence of MPs in Guanabara Bay is relevant to understand ecological hazards of exposition to marine biota and merits further investigation.

Although many achievements have been made in studies on the relationship between Symbiodiniaceae and coral bleaching, there is little information on the responses of Symbiodiniaceae to coral thermal bleaching in the South China Sea (SCS). In this study, Symbiodiniaceae communities and the effective quantum yield (ФPSII) of healthy and bleached massive corals from the SCS were compared. The results indicated that the Symbiodiniaceae communities and ФPSII values showed coral bleaching-dependent variations. Specifically, the relative abundances of the rare putatively thermally tolerant Durusdinium sp. (D1) and the Symbiochlorum hainanensis increased significantly in the bleached corals. In addition, bleached Porites lutea was mainly associated with the putatively thermally tolerant Cladocopium sp. (C15 and C91) and exhibited the highest ФPSII value compared with other bleached corals. These results highlight that the rare putatively thermally tolerant algae and coral species-specific algae may be important for understanding thermal bleaching of corals.

Urbanization in recent years has driven us to investigate metal contamination on Nellore coast by collecting seawater, sediment, and bivalve samples monthly at five stations from 2015 to 2017. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis indicated that open sea (OS) samples were markedly different from the samples collected at other stations. Strong factor loadings of Al (0.76), Mn (0.79), and Cd (0.78) showed variability in seawater, while those for Fe (0.76), Ni (0.77), Zn (0.85), and Pb (0.81) showed variability in sediment. The mean values of Fe (346 ppm) and Mn (21 ppm) were high in bivalves compared to the mean values of other metals. A higher contamination factor was observed for Cd at Buckingham Canal, while the lowest was observed for sediment in OS. The order of trace metals in sediments according to risk index was Cd > Pb > Cu > Cr > Zn. The results obtained are essential to establish a reference for better comparison of tropical environments.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a recently acknowledged form of anthropogenic pollution of growing concern to the biology and ecology of exposed organisms. Though ALAN can have detrimental effects on physiology and behaviour, we have little understanding of how marine organisms in coastal areas may be impacted. Here, we investigated the effects of ALAN exposure on coral reef fish larvae during the critical recruitment stage, encompassing settlement, metamorphosis, and post-settlement survival. We found that larvae avoided illuminated settlement habitats, however those living under ALAN conditions for 10 days post-settlement experienced changes in swimming behaviour and higher susceptibility to nocturnal predation. Although ALAN-exposed fish grew faster and heavier than control fish, they also experienced significantly higher mortality rates by the end of the experimental period. This is the first study on the ecological impacts of ALAN during the early life history of marine fish.

The ability of microalgae to preserve viable in coastal sediments as resting forms provides a reservoir of biodiversity and a useful tool to determine species spreadings. This study represents the first port baseline survey on dinoflagellate cysts, investigated in nine Adriatic ports during a cross border project. 40 dinoflagellate taxa were detected. The assemblages resulted in all ports dominated by Lingulodinium polyedra and Alexandrium minutum/affine/tamutum group. General separation to the western and eastern side of the Adriatic regarding cysts assemblage composition, partially abundance, was observed. Six taxa were detected as non-indigenous species for the Adriatic. Two taxa are included in the list of harmful aquatic organisms, indicating the potential threat of ballast waters in the Adriatic. Potential spreading of taxa by general circulation and ballast waters, intra- and extra-Adriatic was investigated. The entering in to force of the ballast waters management regulations should enhance prospects to minimize future harmful impacts.

Mangroves connect terrestrial and marine ecosystems and are sensitive to environmental change, and the sediments within faithfully record long-term changes in the aquatic environment and supplement the generally short monitoring archives. Here we present a sediment-core record of TN, TP, TOC, and C/N ratios from the Futian mangrove wetland, Shenzhen Bay (South China), and compare with our remote sensing-derived land use change and the nearby seawater monitoring records. Our reconstructed record extends the history of tropic state change back to the Year 1958, supplementing the monitoring activity initiated in 1987. More importantly, the results reveal two distinct periods. The pre-1983 period (Year 1958–1982) is characterized by increased nutrient due to agricultural activities, while the post-1983 period (Year 1983–2014) is marked by reduced TP but relatively stable TN values, during which the simultaneous increase in construction lands and C/N ratios suggests enhanced soil erosion due to the rapid urbanization of Shenzhen City.

Mesozooplankton was sampled seasonally in a large microtidal estuary (Peel-Harvey) suffering from massive macroalgal growths and cyanobacterial blooms. Comparisons with other estuaries indicate that eutrophication led to copepod abundance declining and macroalgal-associated species increasing. Mesozooplankton species are almost exclusively autochthonous, i.e. spend entire life cycle within the estuary. Meroplanktonic species are virtually absent because main benthic macroinvertebrate species undergo direct benthic rather than planktotrophic development. There are also few abundant holoplanktonic species. Most species are tychoplanktonic, i.e. benthic and transported into plankton through physical disturbance of sediment. Species number, concentration and Simpson's Index are greater during night than day. Annual cyclical changes in species composition are related closely to changes in salinity. At the most degraded site, nematode concentrations were high and the species number and concentration changed markedly during extreme eutrophication, when oxygen concentrations were low, disrupting annual cyclical changes in species composition.

The recent intensification of energy resource exploration and human activities in the Barents Sea (BS) requires a more thorough assessment of the natural and anthropogenic impact of hydrocarbons on the environment. We analyzed a wide set of sensitive indicators, including hydrocarbon molecular markers and organic matter (OM) maturity parameters in the Holocene sediments from three regions of the BS: the Kola-Kanin Monocline (KKM), the Svalbard shelf, and the Shtokman gas-condensate field (GCF). An increase in pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons toward the core surface traces the intensification of anthropogenic contamination in the KKM region during last century. An input of highly mature OM from the eroded coal rocks of Barentsburg were confirmed by comparison of biomarker distribution in sediments and coals. An increase in biogenic hopanes and hopenes content down-core, and a crude-oil stage of OM maturity in surface sediments of the Shtokman GCF attests to hydrocarbons migration from subsurface strata.