An annotated checklist of the Amphipoda (Crustacea) of Kuwait, north-western Arabian Gulf.

Kuwaits intertidal and subtidal habitats were surveyed from 2013 to 2016 for amphipods, and earlier records from Kuwait and the rest of the Gulf were compared to provide the first annotated checklist of Amphipoda in Kuwait. A total of 82 sites in mainland and islands were surveyed including intertidal and subtidal zones. The resulting data identified 86 amphipod taxa belonging to 54 genera, 32 families and 3 suborders, including 20 new records to science that are currently being described. A total of 46 amphipod species, 34 genera and 19 families constituted new regional records either for Kuwait or the entire Gulf area. Information on local distribution, occurrence, and habitat are provided for each species. Within the tidal zonation, 50 species inhabited both the intertidal and subtidal areas, 19 were intertidal, 12 subtidal, and 3 species were found in the supratidal zone. Sandy and rocky shores supported the most diverse amphipod assemblages. A gradient of increasing amphipod species richness from north to south along Kuwaits mainland coastline was revealed. The high level of regional endemism supported notable taxonomic distinction of the amphipod fauna of Kuwait from the other Gulf areas. Compositional dissimilarity among amphipod faunas increased with distance within a wide longitudinal gradient across the Gulf, Sea of Oman, and north-western Arabian Sea.

Distribution, magnitude and characterization of the toxicity of Ukrainian estuarine sediments.

During the Soviet era, Ukraine was an important industrial and agricultural region of the Soviet Union. This industrial and agricultural activity resulted in contamination of Ukraine's estuaries with legacy anthropogenic pollutants. Investigations on the toxicological effects of this estuarine contamination have been limited. For this research, we measured the toxicity of contaminated sediments from four Ukrainian estuaries to several aquatic organisms over 3 years. Sediment chemical analyses and whole sediment toxicity identification evaluations (TIEs) were also performed to determine the classes of contaminants contributing to toxicity. Toxic sediments were observed in several of the Ukrainian estuaries and chemical analyses of the sediments demonstrated anthropogenic contaminants were widely distributed. Contaminants were also detected in macrobenthic organisms collected from the sediments. Several lines of evidence, including TIEs, indicated hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) were contributing substantially to observed toxicity. This information can guide environmental managers to prioritize portions of the estuaries requiring remediation.