Cumulative impacts on seabed habitats: An indicator for assessments of good environmental status

The European seas are under anthropogenic pressures impacting the state of water quality, benthic habitats and species. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires the Member States to assess the impacts of pressures and make a programme of measures leading to good environmental status (GES) by 2020. This study presents a method for assessing the quantity and distribution of anthropogenic impacts on benthic habitats in the Baltic Sea by using spatial data of human pressures and benthic habitats. The southern sub-basins were more extensively impacted than the northern sub-basins. Over the entire sea area, deep sea habitats were more impacted than shallower infralittoral and circalittoral habitats. Sand and coarse sediments were the seabed types relatively most impacted in the Baltic Sea scale. A comparison against tentative thresholds for GES showed that in the sub-basin scale only one third of the habitat types was in GES.     

Mapping benthic macroalgal communities in the coastal zone using CHRIS-PROBA mode 2 images

The ecological importance of benthic macroalgal communities in coastal ecosystems has been recognised worldwide and the application of remote sensing to study these communities presents certain advantages respect to in situ methods. The present study used three CHRIS-PROBA images to analyse macroalgal communities distribution in the Seno de Corcubión (NW Spain). The use of this sensor represent a challenge given that its design, build and deployment programme is intended to follow the principles of the “faster, better, cheaper”. To assess the application of this sensor to macroalgal mapping, two types of classifications were carried out: Maximum Likelihood and Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM). Maximum Likelihood classifier showed positive results, reaching overall accuracy percentages higher than 90% and kappa coefficients higher than 0.80 for the bottom classes shallow submerged sand, deep submerged sand, macroalgae less than 5 m and macroalgae between 5 and 10 m depth. The differentiation among macroalgal groups using SAM classifications showed positive results for green seaweeds although the differentiation between brown and red algae was not clear in the study area.     

Ecological periodic tables for benthic macrofaunal usage of estuarine habitats in the US Pacific Northwest

This study shows that spatially and temporally recurring benthic macrofauna-habitat patterns validate the ecological relevance of habitat types to benthic macrofauna and suggest they can serve as elements in ecological periodic tables of benthic macrofaunal usage. We discovered patterns across nine habitat types (intertidal eelgrass [Zostera marina], dwarf eelgrass [Zostera japonica], oyster [Crassostrea gigas] ground culture, burrowing mud shrimp [Upogebia pugettensis], burrowing ghost shrimp [Neotrypaea californiensis], shell, sand, mud, and subtidal) on a variety of benthic macrofaunal community state variables in Grays Harbor, Washington, USA and compared them to those in Willapa Bay, Washington, USA. There were nominal differences in benthic macrofaunal Bray-Curtis similarity between all the habitats investigated except eelgrass and oyster in both estuaries. Across-habitat patterns on mean benthic macrofaunal species richness, abundance, biomass, abundance of deposit, suspension and facultative feeders, a dominance and a diversity index for the five habitats common to both studies were the same on a rank measurement scale: eelgrass ≈ oyster > mud shrimp > ghost shrimp ≈ subtidal. The patterns for most of the habitats and benthic macrofaunal measures were the same on a ratio measurement scale.     

珠江口外表层沉积物底栖有孔虫组合及其与环境的关系

对珠江口外CJ14区块250个站位的表层沉积物进行底栖有孔虫分析,共发现底栖有孔虫118种,其中玻璃壳质80种,瓷质壳质21种,胶结壳质17种。有孔虫丰度基本随水深变深而增大。为研究底栖有孔虫分布与沉积环境之间的关系,对底栖有孔虫含量进行Q型因子分析,并选取前4个主因子,分别对应4个有孔虫组合。它们总共解释了总方差的86.2%,基本上反映了沉积物中有孔虫的群落结构。研究表明,水深和盐度是影响珠江口表层沉积物中有孔虫组合分布的控制因素,其他影响因素主要包括沉积物类型、水动力条件和沉积速率。水动力条件主要影响有孔虫的含量;沉积速率主要影响有孔虫的丰度。     

Modern and Pleistocene boron isotope composition of the benthic foraminifer Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi

Here we present the first species-specific study of boron isotopes in the epibenthic foraminifer species Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi. Coretop samples from a water depth profile from 1000 to 4500 m on the northern flank of the Walvis Ridge are 4.4‰ lower than the values expected, based on calculations of the δ¹¹B_borate of ambient seawater. Similar values for this foraminifer species are presented from ODP site 668B at the Sierra Leone Rise, in the equatorial Atlantic. The consistency between data of the same species suggests the offsets are primary, rather than diagenetic. Glacial C. wuellerstorfi from ODP 668B and Walvis Ridge have boron isotope compositions only slightly different to interglacial samples, that is no larger than + 0.10 pH units, or + 23 µmol kg^− 1 in [CO₃²⁻] above the reconstructed glacial lysocline, and − 0.07 pH units, or − 14 µmol kg^− 1 in [CO₃²⁻] below. We use these results to suggest that glacial deep water pH in the Atlantic was similar to interglacial pH. The new data resolve the inconsistency between the previously reported high bottom water pH and the lack of significant carbonate preservation of the glacial deep ocean.     

Natural oligotrophy vs. pollution-induced eutrophy on the SE Mediterranean shallow shelf (Israel): Environmental parameters and benthic foraminifera

The eastern Mediterranean is naturally highly oligotrophic, but urbanization along the Levant coast has led to raised organic and nutrient loads. This study tracks living foraminiferal assemblages at two sites near an activated sewage sludge outfall from 11/2003 to 5/2004. Oligotrophic site PL29 shows seasonal variations in O_2, chlorophyll a, and organic carbon, and has an abundant, diverse benthic foraminiferal assemblage living at various in-sediment depths. At eutrophic site PL3, ∼16 years of sludge injection favor a depleted assemblage primarily of opportunist foraminifera. This site shows less seasonality, is subjected to organic matter overload, O₂-stress, and periodic anoxia, foraminifera are less abundant and diverse, and live at shallower depths. The assemblages at both sites represent a common pool of species, with Ammonia tepida highly dominant. Benthic foraminifera were therefore found to be sensitive to trophic trajectories, respond on sub-seasonal time-scales, and track injection and dispersal of organic loads on the shelf.     

有孔虫壳体内草莓状黄铁矿成因及其地质意义——以湖北雁门口地区栖霞组有孔虫化石为例

在湖北省京山县雁门口地区栖霞组上部的含泥灰岩中存在丰富的节房虫科底栖有孔虫化石,主要有节房虫属、厚壁虫属和郎格虫属,壳体均被草莓状黄铁矿充填。对其系统的显微镜、扫描电镜观察和黄铁矿的能谱分析结果发现,黄铁矿草莓体直径最大为15 μm,平均约10 μm,硫铁原子比值（S/Fe）为1.90±0.10,表明在黄铁矿形成过程中,有孔虫壳体空腔内呈轻度- 中度贫氧的微环境。在分析该类黄铁矿成因的基础上,认为有孔虫壳体内的黄铁矿在指示沉积环境和保存环境方面具有局限性。     

The 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption and Eastern South China Sea foraminifera: occurrence, composition and recovery

Abstract Analysis of the 12 samples taken from two horizons (the pre-1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption and the post-1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption layers) of the six deep water cores that were collected along the Eastern South China Sea shows that the absolute abundance of Recent benthic foraminifera (total assemblage) in the post-eruption layer is much lower compared to the pre-eruption layer. The post-eruption layer also shows lower diversity with relative high abundance of Quinqueloculina spp., which probably form part of the recolonization fauna. These observations suggest that environmental stability plays a vital role in the distribution of foraminifera in the eastern margin of the South China Sea. The disturbance created by the immense amount of pyroclastic materials that originated from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo has resulted in the dilution and, eventually, the decimation of most of the benthic foraminifera. The species that were able to survive might have taken advantage of the small amounts of available nutrient supply. These might also be the species that were able to adapt quickly to the changes in the environmental conditions.     

STUDIES ON CULTURE CONDITIONS OF BENTHIC DIATOMS FOR FEEDING ABALONE Ⅲ. EFFECTS OF IRON AND SILICON NUTRIENTS AND OF ORTHOGONAL COMBINATIONS OF NITROGEN,PHOSPHORUS,IRON AND SILICON ON GROWTH RATE

rmDUCnONInthecultUreofbenthicdiatomsasfeedforabalone,itisnecesoptoaddsomnu-trientssuchasnitIngen,Phosphorus,ironandsilicontotheSeawatermwhum.Thecom-monraioofthenutrientswas(lO-25):(l-2.5):o.l:l(mg/L)(Chenetal.,1977).Anstinetal-(l99o)rePOrtedthatheratioofnibogenandphosphorusinfluencedthebio-massdensityofthePeriphyton,whichInainlyconsistedOfbenthicdiatomPOPulations.However,theirrestiltswerenotbasedonmonoalgalwwh,andtherewerenodetallsonthereasonableratioofthesenutrientsintheirreports-Ther…