Occurrence of legacy and emerging organic pollutants in whitemouth croakers from Southeastern Brazil.

The whitemouth croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) is one of the most commercially important species along the Atlantic coast of South America. Moreover, some of its biological traits (long life span, inshore feeding, high trophic position) make this species a suitable sentinel of coastal pollution. Here, we investigated contamination by multiple legacy and emerging organic pollutants, such as brominated and chlorinated flame retardants, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), in whitemouth croakers from two estuaries (Guanabara and Sepetiba Bays) located in industrialized and urbanized areas in Rio de Janeiro State, Southeastern Brazil. Furthermore, we assessed how biological and ecological features could explain the observed contamination patterns. Regarding brominated flame retardants, concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) varied from 7.6 to 879.7 pg g-1 wet weight (w.w.), with high contribution of tetra-, penta-, hexa- and deca-BDEs. The sum of chlorinated flame retardants (dechlorane-related compounds, ΣDRC) ranged from

Vulnerability of juvenile hermit crabs to reduced seawater pH and shading.

Multiple simultaneous stressors induced by anthropogenic activities may amplify their impacts on marine organisms. The effects of ocean acidification, in combination with other anthropogenic impacts (apart from temperature) are poorly understood, especially in coastal regions. In these areas, shading caused by infrastructure development, such as harbor construction, may potentially interact with CO2-induced pH reduction and affect invertebrate populations. Here, we evaluated the effects of reduced pH (7.6) and shading (24h in darkness) on mortality, growth, calcification and displacement behavior to live predator (danger signal) and dead gastropod (resource availability signal) odors using juveniles of the hermit crab Pagurus criniticornis collected in Araçá Bay (São Paulo state, Southeastern Brazil). After a 98 day experimental period, both stressors had a significant interaction effect on mortality, and an additive effect on total growth. No difference in calcification was recorded among treatments, indicating that individuals were able to maintain calcification under reduced pH conditions. When exposed to odor of live predators, crab responses were only affected by shading. However, an interactive effect between both stressors was observed in response to gastropod odor, leading to reduced displacement behavior. This study shows how local disturbance impacts may enhance the effects of global environmental change on intertidal crustacean populations.

Gastropod shell size and architecture influence the applicability of methods used to estimate internal volume.

Obtaining accurate and reproducible estimates of internal shell volume is a vital requirement for studies into the ecology of a range of shell-occupying organisms, including hermit crabs. Shell internal volume is usually estimated by filling the shell cavity with water or sand, however, there has been no systematic assessment of the reliability of these methods and moreover no comparison with modern alternatives, e.g., computed tomography (CT). This study undertakes the first assessment of the measurement reproducibility of three contrasting approaches across a spectrum of shell architectures and sizes. While our results suggested a certain level of variability inherent for all methods, we conclude that a single measure using sand/water is likely to be sufficient for the majority of studies. However, care must be taken as precision may decline with increasing shell size and structural complexity. CT provided less variation between repeat measures but volume estimates were consistently lower compared to sand/water and will need methodological improvements before it can be used as an alternative. CT indicated volume may be also underestimated using sand/water due to the presence of air spaces visible in filled shells scanned by CT. Lastly, we encourage authors to clearly describe how volume estimates were obtained.