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The Términos Lagoon is a 2000-km 2 wide coastal lagoon linked to the largest river catchment in Mesoamerica. Economic development, together with its ecological importance, led the Mexican government to pronounce the Términos Lagoon and its surrounding wetlands as a Federal protected area for flora and fauna in 1994. It is characterized by small temperature fluctuations, but with two distinct seasons (wet and dry) that control the biological, geochemical, and physical processes and components. This paper presents a review of the available information about the Términos Lagoon. The review shows that the diversity of benthic communities is structured by the balance between marine and riverine inputs and that this structuration strongly influences the benthic metabolism and its coupling with the biogeochemistry of the water column. The paper also presents many specific drivers and recommendations for a long-term environmental survey strategy in the context of the expected Global Change in the Central American region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coastal catchments, rainfall events primarily drive bacterial inputs to the sea by causing land runoff, surface leaching and sewer overflow. Under semi-arid climate, extensive dry periods are interspersed with extreme precipitation. This paper aims to assess the impact of intense summer rainstorms events on Fecal Indicator Bacteria loadings to Mediterranean seawaters. Firstly, explanatory relationships were derived between an Antecedent Precipitation Index and the loads of thermo-tolerant coliforms and intestinal enterococci measured at three catchment outlets in the Gulf of Aigues-Mortes (southern France). Secondly, fecal bacterial loadings were simulated during summer season from 2006–2016, with a confidence interval arising from measurements uncertainties. On average, more than two rainstorms per summer season elevate bacterial loads at least by one order of magnitude, potentially leading to the degradation of bathing and fishing water quality observed in regulatory monitoring data. The results highlight the crucial importance of considering hydrological conditions in coastal water quality management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under natural and anthropogenic pressure, the coastal regions are evolving rapidly (population growth, erosion, modification of services, etc.), and some of these changes increase their vulnerability. Monitoring the evolution of the coastal regions has thus become essential to understand how they respond to the various pressures and to define how their resilience could be increased. Among other outcomes, such monitoring should provide continuous, high-resolution data on the spatial and temporal evolution of the coastal areas, especially the shoreline zone. One appropriate way to acquire long, continuous, time series of data is to set up a permanent observatory in the zone to be monitored. This paper aims to provide recommendations and a methodological framework to set up a “shoreline observatory” dedicated to monitor some of the specific features and behaviours of tropical littorals, more particularly back-reef beaches and their geomorphic changes. After a brief review of carbonate sandy beach morphodynamics, we present survey solutions (TLS, UAV photogrammetry) to monitor at high resolution and repeatedly the geomorphic changes of the coastal area, both on land and in shallow water. The example case is that of the back-reef beaches in La Reunion Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Latest Miocene succession of the Baccinello-Cinigiano Basin in southern Tuscany (Italy) recorded a faunal turnover documenting the extinction of an older, insular, endemic faunal complex characterised by the extinct ape Oreopithecus bambolii and the setting of a new, continental, European faunal complex including the colobine monkey Mesopithecus . A similar turnover pattern (Late Miocene ape/Latest Miocene Cercopithecidae) is generally observed in Late Miocene continental successions of Eurasia, from Spain to central Europe, Southwest Europe, the near East, and Southwest Asia. Abundant literature reports that the Late Miocene Eurasian hominoid primate distribution closely tracks the climatic/environmental changes occurring during the 12–9 Ma interval, until their extinction in western Europe. In the primate record, the dispersion of Cercopithecidae and the contraction of hominids is interpreted as an event depicting a pattern of “continentalisation” in the Old World. The sedimentary succession of the Baccinello-Cinigiano basin, one of the longest continuous vertebrate-bearing continental successions in the Neogene Italian record, contributes to the debate on this hypothesis. This paper provides an overview of the main characteristics of the sedimentary succession, the chronological constraints (biochronology, radiometric datings, magnetostratigraphy), and the palaeoenvironmental evolution as derived from palaeobiological approaches and from the study of stable carbon and oxygen isotope contents along the entire sedimentary succession. The 2 myr geological history of the Baccinello Cinigiano Basin, which documents the evolutionary history of Oreopithecus and associated faunas, does not have a direct relation with the event of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The evolutionary history of Baccinello-Cinigiano Basin and its palaeontological record have been mainly driven by the regional tectonism and palaeogeographic changes that affected the northern Tyrrhenian regions in Late Miocene (Latest Tortonian–Messinian) times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rodents are among the most useful proxies for reconstructing the ecology and environment of the Quaternary. The present paper focuses on a series of fossil rodent assemblages from northeastern Iberia of the Late Pleistocene (ca. 128–11.7 ka BP) and the beginning of the Holocene (< 11.7 ka BP). Descriptive and multivariate statistical methods have been applied to expand what is known about the species involved and their palaeoecological implications. The results show the importance of the three predominant species: Microtus arvalis , Microtus agrestis and Apodemus sylvaticus . A transition in the ecological conditions is shown in the studied area during the course of this interval: from open environments and cooler climatic conditions to more forested landscapes and temperate conditions. The beginning of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene share similarities, and both differ clearly from the end of the Late Pleistocene, showing the singular nature of the environmental conditions of Marine Isotope Stage 2 in the northeastern sector of the Iberian Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate changes, sea-level variations, volcanism and human activity have influenced the environment of the southwest Pacific Islands during the Holocene. The high-resolution palynological analysis presented here concerns two specific levels (main lithological changes) of a well-dated Holocene core, Tfer06, collected from Emaotfer Swamp, Efate Island (Vanuatu). Our aim is to understand the role of climatic variability and human activities in shaping vegetation during these changes. Between 3790–3600 cal yr BP, the development of vegetation marked by disturbance is a marker of an increase in sustained El Niño events, also observed in many Asian-West Pacific areas. Between 1500–900 cal yr BP, the increase in introduced taxa and in microcharcoal particles is interpreted as human impact. In a forthcoming paper, the ongoing high-resolution palynological analysis of the whole core will be compared and integrated into regional palaeoecological data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]