Estuarine Ecology

The present geomorphology of the Mediterranean’s coasts is largely a product of an intricate long-term relationship between Nature and human societies. A cradle of ancient
civilizations, the Mediterranean has seen its shores occupied by Humans since Prehistory, and is, therefore, a particularly pertinent unit of analysis. The morphotectonic context and
other forcing agents (e.g., climate) shaped out a highly diversified coastal morphology and generated a sediment-supply regime potentially favourable to the formation of numerous open-coast deltas and bay-head deltas in infilled rias as sea level stabilised during the mid- Holocene. This supply of riverine sediment has also been the key agent in mediating human occupation of the Mediterranean’s clastic coasts.

Expressions of this relationship have been extensively archived in clastic coastal deposits, including base-level deltaic and estuarine sedimentary sinks, which comprise records to explore the interactions between geosystemsand the human environment. The stratigraphic sequences in these coastal sedimentary archives comprise, in many places, a clearly identified anthropogenic signature, notably in ancient harbours, some of which underwent extremely rapid silting up due to massive sediment sourcing generated by new agricultural practices from the Neolithic onwards.

Increasing human influence, especially over the last 3000 years, has been, in turn, an important driver of changes in sediment supply, strongly modulating deltaic development.
Pulses of sediment supply from catchments rendered vulnerable by human perturbations during the Roman period resulted in a new cycle of inception of many other deltas and in
rapid delta growth (e.g. the Ebro, the Po, the Arno and the Ombrone). Another progradation dynamic during the Little Ice Age, at a time of strong rural population growth, river discharge
increases, technological developments, and urbanisation, further consolidated delta growth.

Understanding the life cycle of these deltas since their initial formation is, in turn, key to unravelling the relative role of natural and anthropogenic forcing agents. Rapid climate
changes are deemed to have contributed through both the stripping of landscapes rendered fragile by human activities and active fluvial sediment transport to the coast, but
disentangling climate change effects from human impacts in the Mediterranean remains a challenge.

The patterns of subsequent deltaic growth and delta morphodynamics reflect adaptations to pulsed sediment supply, river discharge variations, the microtidal, fetchlimited
context of the Mediterranean, and direct engineering interventions. The progradation dynamic of the Roman period and Little Ice Age contrasts markedly with the situation of common coastal destabilisation over the last two centuries, particularly well documented for the last 50 years. This period has been characterised by reduced sediment flux to base-level geosystems due to catchment reforestation, retenion within reservoirs, fluvial regulation and dredging, resulting in the erosion of deltas and barrier-lagoon and beach-dune systems. Large stretches of shoreline and narrow coastal plains have been massively engineered for coastal defence and protection against erosion, but also for the construction of marinas, leisure harbours and artificial beaches, resulting in the emergence of veritable artificial seafronts. These interventions have, collectively and progressively, raised societies to a pervasive and overarching position in the geomorphic stabilityinstability of the Mediterranean’s coasts, a situation that will be exacerbated by pressures from sea-level rise, paving the way for rampant coastal erosion and delta destruction.

Interpretation of fossil assemblages in mixed energy environments, such as estuaries, is complex due to the accumulation of material from different sources. In such environments, different proxies may result in contrasting interpretations, as is illustrated by the case of the Scheldt estuary in northern Belgium: during a phase of increased landward tidal ingression between 7000 and 5000 cal BP, mud was deposited, including microfossils that indicate increased salinity, while macrofossil records from the same deposits indicate tidal freshwater environments. By combining multiple proxies, sedimentological analysis and multivariate statistics, it is concluded that considerable landward sediment transport by tidal pumping, possibly enhanced by storms, explains how marine and brackish microfossils are massively present in freshwater tidal deposits. We propose an approach that combines the easily transported microfossils with the more local macrofossils to obtain a coherent reconstruction of the local estuarine environment, and to better understand the sedimentological processes in the wider region.

The focus of this article is to link historical accounts about former islands of the Anatolian gulfs of the Aegean Sea to geoarchaeological evidence. During the Holocene, prominent environmental and coastline changes have taken place in many tectonic grabens of western Asia Minor, today's Turkey. The Büyük and the Küçük Menderes fault systems are excellent examples for deciphering these changes. Since mid-Holocene times, the eponymous rivers have advanced their deltas, silting up marine embayments which had once reached inland for tens of kilometres. To describe this terrestrial–marine–terrestrial evolution of estuarine islands we coin the term " life cycle of estu-arine islands ". Besides other factors, such as natural erosion, sea-level changes, and tectonic activities, the delta progradation was mainly governed by riverine sediment load, which, in turn, was to a great extent dependent on human impact on the vegetation cover of the drainage basins. Based on historical accounts as well as modern geoarchaeological research it is possible to reconstruct the spatio-temporal evolution of the landscape. For Miletos and the Büyük Menderes (Maiandros, Maeander) graben, remarkable transformations have been revealed: the metamorphosis of the marine gulf into residual lakes (Lake Azap, Lake Bafa), the landlocking of islands (Hybanda, Lade, Asteria, Nergiz Tepe), the transition of the Milesian archipelago to a peninsula and finally to a part of the floodplain. A dramatic effect of the ongoing accumulation of fine-grained sediments was the sil-tation of harbours – a major reason for the decline of the once flourishing coastal cities of Myous, Priene, Herakleia, and finally Miletos, today some 8 km inland. For Ephesos and the Küçük Menderes (Kaystros) graben, the research focused on the former island of Syrie. Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia, c. CE 77) attributed the landlocking of Syrie to the Kaystros River – a scenario which has been verified by our geoarchaeological research and 14 C–dated to the 5th century BC. The local foundation myth according to which an island, presumably Syrie, was the location of the first settlement of immigrants from the Greek mainland in the 11th century BCE can neither be proven nor disproven for lack of archaeological evidence. The delta advance was the main reason why the settlement sites and the harbours of Ephesos were relocated several times from the Early Iron Age to the Middle Ages.
- I am very happy that this article gets such a high rating, even though it is without footnotes and higher than my one! The standards of Humanities do not count so much  any more!  Its about money and power only. Think it over!

The paradigm of ecosystem services (ES) and the methods of monetary valuation have become boundary objects, spanning disciplines and earning particular purchase in policy circles. However, the notion of ES and ES valuation have also been subjected to multiple critiques, ranging from their varying precision to the potential for neoliberalization of nature. This paper does not attempt to refute such critiques but rather revisits the potentials of the ES paradigm and the specific method of benefit transfer valuation for their utility as a form of environmental politics and sustainability practice. We find they have particular relevance in contexts where " data " are not readily available or are not legible to policy makers as well as where the imperative of " development " remains ideological. We argue for ES assessment and, specifically, rapid ES valuation as a first-pass tactic to inform evaluation of potentially environmentally degrading projects or environmental management. We demonstrate this using a simple benefit transfer analysis to offer an initial evaluation of (wet) landscape ES in a lightly touched estuary in Karnataka, India, where a state-backed proposal to develop an industrial shipping port is gathering steam. While we recognize and do not categorically reject critiques of the ES paradigm, we nonetheless argue for valuation as a starting point for politics that highlight and make visible ES benefits and users implicated by " development " and other kinds of environmental change.

Estuaries serve important ecological and economic functions including habitat provision and the removal of nutrients. Eutrophication can overwhelm the nutrient removal capacity of estuaries and poses a widely recognized threat to the health and function of these ecosystems. Denitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) are microbial processes responsible for the removal of fixed nitrogen and diminish the effects of eutrophication. Both of these microbial removal processes can be influenced by direct inputs of dissolved inorganic nitrogen substrates or supported by microbial interactions with other nitrogen transforming pathways such as nitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA). The coupling of nitrogen removal pathways to other transformation pathways facilitates the removal of some forms of inorganic nitrogen; however, differentiating between direct and coupled nitrogen removal is difficult. Network modeling provides a tool to examine interactions among microbial nitrogen cycling processes and to determine the within-system history of nitrogen involved in denitrification and anammox. To examine the coupling of nitrogen cycling processes, we built a nitrogen budget mass balance network model in two adjacent 1 cm3 sections of bottom water and sediment in the oligohaline portion of the Cape Fear River Estuary, NC, USA. Pathway, flow, and environ ecological network analyses were conducted to characterize the organization of nitrogen flow in the estuary and to estimate the coupling of nitrification to denitrification and of nitrification and DNRA to anammox. Centrality analysis indicated NH4+ is the most important form of nitrogen involved in removal processes. The model analysis further suggested that direct denitrification and coupled nitrification-denitrification had similar contributions to nitrogen removal while direct anammox was dominant to coupled forms of anammox. Finally, results also indicated that partial nitrification-anammox may play an important role in anammox nitrogen removal in the Cape Fear River Estuary.► We constructed a N mass balance network model for the Cape Fear River Estuary. ► Ammonium plays the most central role in N cycling in the Cape Fear River Estuary. ► We estimated the strength of coupling of N cycling processes using environ analysis. ► Coupled nitrification-denitrification comprises nearly half of denitrification loss. ► Coupled nitrification-anammox may be an important N removal pathway in estuaries.

Due to the increasing economic and cultural value of bathing waters and the shellfish industry in the UK and worldwide, water quality in estuarine and coastal waters has attracted considerable public attention in recent years. To obtain accurate predictions of the concentration distributions of faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) in coastal waters for better management of bathing water compliance, it is necessary to build an integrated modelling system to predict the complete diffuse and point source inputs from river and catchment basins. In the present paper, details are given of the development of such an integrated modelling system for simulating the transport and decay processes of FIOs, from catchment areas upstream from the coastal region, in which a distributed catchment module, a 1D river network module and a 2D estuarine and coastal module are linked dynamically by boundary inputs and outputs. Extensive measured data from the catchments, river networks and estuaries have been collated to determine the model parameters. Verification results of the distribution of water levels, flows and velocities, and suspended sediment and Escherichia coli concentrations, at controlled monitoring sites are presented, which show that the integrated model predictions generally agree well with the measurements, although locally appreciable errors can occur. The model results also highlight the importance of including the flux of FIOs via sediments being an important factor in terms of assessing the quality of bathing waters. The main factors influencing the relatively high concentration values in the bathing region are analysed, based on the model predictions and measured data, with four categories of FIO concentration levels being reviewed.

The Orange River is one of the longest rivers in southern Africa and one of the most regulated rivers in the world. Its estuary supports diverse marine and freshwater life, yet, ecosystem structure and functioning within the estuary are poorly understood. This study investigated trophic linkages and interactions among dominant fishes through carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) stable isotope (SI) ratios along a salinity gradient. The five dominant species utilizing the Orange River Estuary Continuum (OREC) included marine Chelon richardsonii, estuarine Gilchristella aestuaria, and freshwater species Labeobarbus aeneus, Pseudocrenilabrus philander and Mesobola brevianalis. Variations in SI ratios were associated with changes in body size, seasonality and salinity. Variability in seasons and the salinity continuum influenced SI ratios. Chelon richardsonii, P. philander and L. aeneus occupied the widest isotopic niche in the lower OREC, an indication of generalist feeding behaviour in these species. Mesobola brevianalis had the narrowest isotopic niche, perhaps suggesting more specialized feeding on zooplank-ton. Isotopic similarity was observed among the five co-occurring species, suggesting trophic overlap, particularly during the high-flow season when environmental variables, productivity and food availability are predominantly freshwater driven and uniform throughout the river estuary continuum. This study is the first to utilize δ 13 C and δ 15 N analyses to assess trophic dynamics of dominant species co-occurring in the estuary and estuarine-freshwater ecotone of the lower OREC.

Human activities in marine coastal areas may coincide with protected areas for birds. Some of these anthropogenic activities may pose threats, such as gillnet fisheries, which can significantly affect populations of diving birds, especially gregarious species that gather in huge flocks in small areas such as Greater Scaup (Aythya marila). The Odra Estuary (Baltic Sea, Poland) is known for its importance as a wintering site for scaup; it is also used by fishermen using gillnets. Precise tools to determine the distribution and abundance of birds allow evaluation of risks faced by large aggregations. We used kernel density interpolation to estimate the spatial density of scaup in the Odra Estuary in spring 2011. At that time, an extraordinarily high number of scaup (95,400) was recorded, ~73% (63.0-94.5%) of the entire northwest European flyway population. Three variables are particularly important for conserving highly mobile long-distance migrating species: spatial distribution, abundance, and time (season of the year). This event concentrated most of the scaup flyway population in a small space, making the population vulnerable to mass mortality. We also show aggregated data of the spatial distribution of scaup during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons to highlight differences in the spatial use of the area between seasons. Vast areas occupied by scaup in 2011 were not used during 2 other studied seasons; this spatial variation may be crucial in conservation planning of this species. Our results are a first step in documenting the spatial distribution of scaup in the Odra Estuary and identifying the potential area of overlap with fishing activity. Niespotykanie wysoka liczebność ogorzałki Aythya marila w polskiej części estuarium Odry i jej konsekwencje dla ochrony gatunku ABSTRAKT Działalność człowieka prowadzona na wybrzeżach morskich może stanowić zagrożenie dla wielu gatunków zwierząt. Niektóre z tych zagrożeń mogą znacząco wpływać na populacje ptaków nurkujących, przykładem jest przyłów w sieci rybackie. Ma to szczególne znaczenie dla ptaków gromadzących się w dużych stadach na małej przestrzeni na miejscach przystankowych podczas migracji lub zimowiskach takich jak ogorzałka Aythya marila. Estuarium Odry (Morze Bałtyckie, Polska) znane jest jako ważne miejsce zimowania ogorzałki, jest jednocześnie wykorzystywane przez rybaków używających sieci skrzelowych, co może stanowić istotne zagrożenie dla ptaków. W ochronie gatunków odbywających dalekodystansowe wędrówki takich jak ogorzałka, ważne jest poznanie rozmieszczenia przestrzennego, oraz zagęszczeń ptaków w powiązaniu z sezonem feneologicznym w odniesieniu do zagrożeń. Ocena ryzyka związanego z dużymi zagęszczeniami ptaków wodnych wymaga precyzyjnego narzędzia statystycznego. W naszej pracy użyliśmy jądrowej interpolacji zagęszczeń do oszacowania rozmieszczenia przestrzennego i zagęszczenia ogorzałki wiosną 2011 roku. W tym czasie zarejestrowaliśmy niespotykanie wysoką liczebność tego gatunku (95 400) co stanowiło wówczas ~73% (63,0%-94,5%) całej północno zachodnioeuropejskiej populacji. Koncentracja tak znaczącego odsetka całej populacji w jednym miejscu wykorzystywanym rybacko sprawia, że jest ona szczególnie narażona na przypadki masowej śmiertelności. W pracy pokazujemy także dane rozmieszczenia przestrzennego ogorzałki z dwóch innych sezonów: 2015/2016 i 2016/2017 po to by zobrazować różnice między dwoma okresami badań. Duże obszary zajęte przez ogorzałkę w 2011 roku nie były wykorzystywane w dwóch innych badanych sezonach; takie różnice przestrzenne pomiędzy sezonami stanowią istotną trudność w planowaniu ochrony gatunku. Nasze wyniki są pierwszym krokiem w dokumentacji rozmieszczenia przestrzennego ogorzałki w estuarium Odry oraz w identyfikacji obszarów potencjalnego ich nakładania się z działalnością rybacką. Słowa kluczowe: blaszkodziobe, gatunki wędrowne, kaczki, miejsca przystankowe, morskie obszary chronione, Morze Bałtyckie, plan ochrony, przyłów, zalewy przymorskie, zimowisko ptaków wodnych