Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine environments and have been documented across all ocean compartments, especially surface waters, across the world. Even though several studies identify the presence of microplastics in the world’s five ocea...
Seaports are gateways that connect a nation to the world economy. With trade by sea increasing due to globalization, the need for the improvement and development of seaports cannot be overlooked. While the development of ports is considered essential...
In May 2023, oceanic and atmospheric anomalies indicated El Niño conditions in the eastern Pacific, followed by coral bleaching in coral communities and reefs of Huatulco. We conducted surveys and sampled coral reef communities from late June...
Blue carbon has been proposed as a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation; however, a limited number of published works and data and knowledge gaps hinder the development of small island developing states’ (SIDS) national blue carb...
Baleen whales are ecosystem sentinels of microplastic pollution. Research indicates that they likely ingest millions of anthropogenic microparticles per day when feeding. Their immense prey consumption and filter-feeding behavior put them at risk. Ho...
Mesozooplankton are highly responsive to environmental changes, making their population dynamics and species composition important indicators of large-scale oceanic conditions. This study investigates the mesozooplankton composition, emphasizing biom...
The formation of dense water in the Aegean Sea is important as it affects the deep circulation and the hydrography of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. In this study, the variability of dense water formation is investigated in relation to forcing mechan...
Natural processes such as upwelling of deeper-water masses change the physical-chemical conditions of the water column creating localized ocean acidification events that can have an impact on the natural communities. This study was performed in a cor...
Deformable wave energy converters have significant potential for application as flexible material that can mitigate structural issues, while how to design the dimensions and choose an optimal deployment location remain unclear. In this paper, fully c...
The shipping industry faces the challenge of expanding its capabilities and mitigating its environmental impact. The utilization of adhesive bonding techniques has the potential to facilitate the construction of lighter ships with a reduced carbon fo...
Microplastic ingestion was reported for common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) inhabiting Sarasota Bay, FL, USA, a community that also has prevalent exposure to plasticizers (i.e., phthalates) at concentrations higher than human reference po...
Harbor porpoises are typically seen in small groups of 1–3 individuals, with aggregations of 20+ individuals treated as rare events. Since the 1990s, the harbor porpoise population in the Salish Sea has seen a significant recovery, and an incre...
Artificial reefs have been suggested as alternative dive sites to mitigate human pressure on natural reefs. Despite the conceptual appeal of artificial reefs, there is a paucity of empirical evidence regarding their effectiveness in achieving this ob...
This study assesses the spatial distribution and contamination level of heavy metals in Safi Bay surface sediments. In this order, 28 surface sediment samples were retrieved from the study area and analyzed using the x-fluorescence method. To assess...
Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a fire-retardant containing bromine, produced in large quantities worldwide and extensively used in several industrial products. This compound was identified as a potential contaminant of the environment, causing toxi...
The current study looks at how the characteristics of Arabian Sea tropical cyclones (TCs) change over time. The results show that in the pre-monsoon (April–June) and the post-monsoon (October–December), the activity of TCs > 34 knots,...
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been widely studied due to its environmental persistence and bioaccumulation potential, raising concerns about its effects on aquatic life. This research evaluates the impact of PFOA on the antioxidant defenses and s...
The Mediterranean Sea, a global biodiversity hotspot, faces significant threats that compromise its ecological health. While Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, their effectiveness is debated, and empirical...
In the past decades, one of the most widely reported phenomena on Caribbean reefs is the general fall in coral cover and rise in macroalgae. Reefs with low coral cover and high macroalgal abundances are often presumed to provide poorer ecosystem func...
A range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been found to be released during zooplankton grazing on microalgae cultivated for commercial purposes. However, production of grazing-derived VOCs from environmentally relevant species and their poten...
This study investigates the temporal trends and correlations between Saharan dust mass concentration densities (DMCD) and Sargassum concentrations (SCT) in the tropical North Atlantic. Average DMCD data for June, July, and August from 1980 to 2022, a...
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is a recognized contributor to the hydrological and biogeochemical functioning of coral reef ecosystems located along coastlines. However, the distribution, size, and thermal properties of SGD remain poorly under...
This research focuses on integrating seakeeping indices into the trajectory planning of a mother ship in order to minimize risks during UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) takeoff and landing in challenging sea conditions. By considering vessel dynamics an...
European strategic policy directions toward a sustainable blue economy have strengthened interest in maritime investments, thus increasing sectoral competition for marine space. Emerging repercussions out of such a rising interest need to be handled...
The expansion of the invasive Asian macroalgae Rugulopteryx okamurae along the coasts of the Azores represents a significant challenge for local marine biodiversity. A promising approach to managing the biomass produced by this alien alga is to valor...
Strandings caused by anthropogenic factors are one of the most worrying threats in relation to the conservation of cetacean species, and in the case of Chile, due to its geography and large extension of the coastline, monitoring and access to these e...
Sponges are increasingly recognized as ecologically important on coral reefs as scleractinian corals decline. Most sponge species can be divided into two symbiotic phenotypes which are characterized as high microbial abundance (HMA) or low microbial...
Pollution of the marine environment by microfibers is considered a problem for ecosystem conservation. The amount of microplastic, localization of sources, and associated ecotoxicity are well known in the literature. Wastewater from washing machines...
Shipping is a vital component of global trade. However, shipping activities have negative environmental impacts, including emissions to air and water. The Baltic Sea is severely affected by eutrophication, mainly due to nutrient inputs, especially ni...
This study was designed to investigate the impact of heat stress on the physiological changes and mortality rates of different life stages of the rhizostome jellyfish species Cassiopea xamachana, including planula larvae, scyphistomae (polyps), and m...
Herbivorous fishes play important functional roles in coral reef ecosystems, and their influence on mediating competitive dynamics between corals and macroalgae is well studied. Nonetheless, direct interactions between herbivorous fishes and corals m...
In Tasmania, Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) regularly interact with Atlantic salmon (Salmo salmar L.) aquaculture lease operations and opportunistically consume fish. The microbial communities of seals and aquaculture salmon...
The Ionian Sea is a crucial intersection for various water masses in the Mediterranean. Its hydrography and dynamics play a significant role in the seawater budgets and biogeochemistry of the neighboring sub-basins. Multiple theories have been formul...
The use of hyperspectral imaging in marine applications is limited, largely due to the cost-prohibitive nature of the technology and the risk of submerging such expensive electronics. Here, we examine the use of low-cost (<5000 GBP) hyperspectral...
Macroalgae are beneficial for consumers and producers due to their high productivity, their chemical composition and their efficient cultivation without additional feed. Asia dominates global macroalgae production, while European production is still...
Recent years have seen a notable rise in dolphin-watching boat activities along the Algarve coast in Portugal, potentially affecting the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) local populations. This study exam...
The ocean is increasingly affected by the rise in maritime activities. Increased anthropogenic pressures have led to environmental impacts and also intensified competition for space and resources among various socioeconomic sectors. To mitigate these...
The forty-year-old Long-Term Ecological Research MareChiara (LTER-MC) program started on 26 January 1984, with fortnightly oceanographic sampling until 1991 and then, from 1995, with weekly sampling up to the present time. LTER-MC produced >150 pu...
The impacts of climate change-related stressors are becoming more noticeable in the ocean, particularly in coastal marine ecosystems. Yet limited information still exists on the physiological state and ecological resilience of marine fish species, es...
This paper assessed the phytoplankton structure and its relationship with the physical environment in the coastal region off Mazatlán, Mexico, in two seasons of 2022, a year in which a strong La Niña event took place: (1) the warmer (Au...
In warm oligotrophic waters, photosymbiotic coral can flourish across a wide depth range (0–170+ m), extending to depths where light attenuates to ~0.1% of surface values. Conventional wisdom has long assumed that mixotrophic corals must increa...
Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA) are complexes, highly stable in vivo, used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), administered in patients and then eliminated via the renal system, passing through wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) before being...
The influence of environmental variables (oceanographic and climatic) on the catch rates of striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus) by artisanal fishery was investigated using different time series models (Dynamic Factorial Analyses; Min-Max Factorial...
Since reef-building corals rely on both heterotrophy and endosymbiotic dinoflagellate autotrophy to meet their metabolic needs, it is necessary to consider both food supply and light levels, respectively, when optimizing their cultivation ex situ. He...
The shells of dead Pinna nobilis individuals are important habitats in sedimentary coastal ecosystems, yet their ecological role is poorly understood. This study investigated macrofaunal communities associated with 80 P. nobilis shells from Soline Ba...
Harbor porpoises have been well studied in locations worldwide, but relatively little research has focused on site fidelity of individuals, which influences population structure and determines appropriate management and conservation measures. This st...
In this paper, the barotropic circulation in the gulfs of the Patras and Corinth system in Greece is numerically studied. This semi-enclosed hydrodynamic system is simulated as a unified basin, based on 3D simulations using the MIKE 3 Flow Model FM (...
The construction of artificial reefs is the primary ecological project of marine ranching and one of the most important methods of creating habitats for marine organisms. To date, studies on artificial reefs have taken a macroscopic perspective, with...
To achieve coral reef resilience under Agenda 2030, island governments need to institutionalise a competent blue workforce to expand their reef resilience initiatives across economic organisations and industries. The ability of island governments to...
The recruitment process is a fundamental step in population life cycles that determines survival, population demographic structure, and dynamics. The success of recruitment events repeated over successive years greatly affects the survival of long-li...
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