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.
As primary producers at the base of marine food webs, diatoms are key indicators of environmental change, providing critical insight into the health and resilience of the Salish Sea bioregion. A team of Canadian scientists ...
Ecology
May 19, 2026
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Storm-driven sea floods are becoming more frequent as the climate warms, increasingly destroying the nests of threatened wader birds along the Baltic Sea coast. Waders are currently beginning their breeding season.
Ecology
May 13, 2026
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A new study by University of Victoria (UVic) and Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) scientists has uncovered what adult Chinook salmon in the Salish Sea are eating—and revealed diet can differ according to region. The study, ...
Plants & Animals
May 12, 2026
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When the Atlantic herring colonized the Baltic Sea thousands of years ago, it needed to adapt to the low salinity. Genes with a vital role in the functioning of sperm, eggs and embryos were crucial to this adaptation. A new ...
Plants & Animals
May 11, 2026
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A new study of the British Isles' coastal ecosystems has revealed that nitrogen enrichment is significantly reducing the abundance and variety of marine life. The research, published by scientists at Swansea University and ...
Ecology
May 6, 2026
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Heat stress from marine heat waves can create a toxic relationship between seagrasses and a hidden ecosystem of bacteria, transforming a previously beneficial co-existence between marine plants and microbes into a harmful ...
Ecology
May 6, 2026
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Sequencing environmental DNA—or eDNA—from the East River in New York City can effectively monitor human diets and local wildlife, as well as the river's fish populations, report Mark Stoeckle and Jesse Ausubel of The Rockefeller ...
Ecology
Apr 29, 2026
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A study led by Wageningen University & Research shows that human interventions have significantly changed tides in river estuaries over the past centuries. In many regions around the world, the difference between high and ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 24, 2026
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97
Oceans absorb roughly 25% to 30% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released into the atmosphere. When this CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, making the water more acidic and altering its chemistry. Elevated ...
Ecology
Apr 14, 2026
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7
A crab named for mangrove forests is leaving them behind. New research from William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS shows that the Atlantic mangrove fiddler crab (Leptuca thayeri) is settling into temperate salt marshes along ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 8, 2026
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