Estuarine ecosystems are transitional aquatic environments where freshwater from rivers mixes with saline marine waters, creating strong physicochemical gradients in salinity, turbidity, and nutrient concentrations. These systems encompass a mosaic of habitats, including tidal channels, mudflats, salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds, and are characterized by high primary productivity and biogeochemical cycling. Estuaries function as critical nursery areas for many fish and invertebrate species, support complex food webs, and mediate material fluxes between terrestrial and coastal ocean systems. They also exhibit pronounced temporal variability driven by tides, river discharge, and seasonal processes, making them sensitive indicators of watershed- and climate-driven environmental change.
For 40 years, scientists have been monitoring the Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis) along the southern coast of Brazil. A study published in Estuarine Management and Technologies reveals that these charismatic mammals ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 17, 2026
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Extreme rainfall is reshaping coastal waters along South Korea's shoreline, flushing nutrients from land into the sea and fueling the growth of algal blooms. A new multi-year study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, ...
I grew up on the beaches of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales. Visits to Tenby were my family's summer ritual: sand between our toes, paddling in rockpools, strawberry syrup on ice cream.
Environment
Feb 13, 2026
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Oysters famously filter their surrounding water, but it turns out they are removing more than algae and excess nutrients. New research from William & Mary's Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS shows they can ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 4, 2026
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Florida's Indian River Lagoon (IRL), one of the state's most ecologically productive estuaries, is facing a growing but invisible threat that could reshape its marine ecosystems. Over the past decade, the lagoon has suffered ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 3, 2026
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The Thames estuary in southeast England—the tidal stretch of the river—once supported extensive saltmarshes, seagrass meadows and oyster beds. These shallow areas, which flood and drain with the tides, provided vital feeding ...
Ecology
Dec 8, 2025
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For over 200 years, native oysters (Ostrea edulis) have been absent in Dublin Bay. Once abundant along the Irish coast, they thrived in the sheltered estuaries and tidal flats that shaped the city's maritime life.
Ecology
Nov 22, 2025
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89
Under the lead of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), a review article outlined the state of the Baltic Sea coast and its expected development as a result of climate change. The article shows that ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2025
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33
Virginia's bay scallop population is experiencing an unprecedented resurgence, thanks to years of dedicated restoration work led by the Batten School & VIMS Eastern Shore Laboratory (ESL) in Wachapreague. Once locally extinct ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 9, 2025
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220
A study spanning nearly four decades paints a clear picture of the transformation of fish communities in the Elbe estuary. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), in cooperation ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 24, 2025
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