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.
Around the world, ocean warming is causing fish to move poleward in search of cooler water.
Plants & Animals
Jun 12, 2026
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Farmed oysters are mixing with and potentially adding to populations of wild oysters—a once-abundant species in New York's estuaries and rivers that has declined drastically over the last century. A new study, published in ...
Ecology
Jun 9, 2026
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Although the clean energy transition offers major opportunities, a new report from University of Aberdeen researchers warns that current governance arrangements may leave coastal communities bearing the cost of energy transition ...
Environment
Jun 4, 2026
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Urban estuaries can support thriving ecosystems despite bustling human activity. Noting that bird populations can serve as a key indicator of environmental health, researchers recently investigated trends in the New York–New ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 3, 2026
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Perhaps nothing better illustrates the flamingo's status as a newcomer to the Venetian Lagoon than the fact that the local dialect has no word for them.
Ecology
May 31, 2026
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Wild dolphins are known for their complex social lives, but new research shows those social networks can be influenced by human activity.
Plants & Animals
May 28, 2026
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When a team of researchers recorded a low thundering underneath the surface of the Hudson River, they thought they were hearing the muffled rumble of trains. A closer look and listen led to a much more interesting discovery: ...
Plants & Animals
May 27, 2026
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Scientists at William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS, FlowWest and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science recently announced that the Chesapeake Bay's annual "dead zone" is expected to be relatively mild ...
Environment
May 27, 2026
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For 20 years, Millicent Turay has supported her family by collecting mangrove oysters near Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a common livelihood along the west African coast.
Environment
May 22, 2026
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Juvenile Chinook salmon in the Lower Fraser River estuary are feeding and growing in a slurry of contaminants from pharmaceuticals, personal care products to industrial chemicals, according to a new Simon Fraser University ...
Plants & Animals
May 20, 2026
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