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Estuaries usually experience the most intense anthropogenic influences among coastal areas due to their geographical and physical attributes, and they represent important parts of marine eco-civilization construction in China. Although assessments of the eco-civilization performance in estuaries are important, few methodologies or case studies related to marine eco-civilization assessments are available. This study aimed to formulate both an index system and an evaluation model for assessing the eco-civilization performance of the Oujiang Estuary. The index system consisted of six subsystems, including society, economy, resources, ecology, culture, and governance, based on the requirements of "marine eco-civilization construction" and the attributes of the estuary area. The evaluation model was developed based on a 3-D space state model. The results showed that the overall performance of marine eco-civilization construction in the Oujiang Estuary was good but that the development of the six subsystems was not balanced. The performance of the culture and ecology subsystems was relatively lower than that of the other four subsystems, indicating that the local government could focus more on developing marine culture and restoring the marine ecological environment in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To priority areas for conservation in the coast of Zhejiang, this study attempts to map the spatial patterns of the intra-specific genetic diversity of two intertidal species, Septifer virgatus and Tetraclita japonica, using the sequences of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and large subunit ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) genes. In total, 129 and 112 specimens were collected from 12 and 11 populations for S. virgatus and T. japonica, respectively. These two species revealed congruent population historical signals, including (1) high levels of haplotype diversity and low values of nucleotide diversity, (2) post-LGM expansion, (3) the lack of population genetic structure, sharing haplotypes over all sampling populations, (4) gene flow connections, and (5) migration directions. Largely, all results supported that all sampling populations could be divided into two main metapopulations, exhibiting a northern and southern distribution. The north metapopulation could be considered as a marine protected area. The genetic patterns of the two species should be considered in the management and conservation in the islands along the Zhejiang, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]