Development of the swine and cattle industries has led to an increase of manure application to agricultural lands in Saskatchewan. Studies have been conducted to determine the nutrient benefits of swine manure application. However, a need was also identified for information on the effects of manure application on soil physical and chemical properties. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of repeated applications of manure on soil physical and chemical properties and to relate those effects to early plant growth and development.<p>Four experimental sites were used, representing the Dark Brown (Plenty), Brown (Riverhurst irrigated), Black (Dixon) and Gray (Melfort) Soil Zones of Saskatchewan, where liquid swine manure had been applied for four to seven years. At each site, treatments were 1) a control treatment, 2) a nitrogen based agronomic rate of manure application, 3) a high rate of manure application (2-4x the agronomic rate) and 4) a urea fertilizer treatment. At the Dixon site, the same two manure treatments with cattle manure were also examined.<p>Soil strength, as determined by penetration resistance measurements and barley (<i>Hordeum vulgare</i>) emergence were measured at two experimental sites (swine and cattle manure trials at Dixon, SK) in a field study. Penetration resistance was measured at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm depths, 20, 39 and 123 days after seeding using a recording cone penetrograph. Twenty days after seeding, there were no significant differences among treatments at the 10, 15 and 20 cm depths. But, at the 5 cm depth, the control treatment had soil strength 0.11 MPa lower than the two manure rates. The manure treatments were not significantly different from the urea treatment. Thirty-nine days after seeding, the soil strength of the low rate manure treatment was 1.1 MPa greater than the control at the 10 cm depth, but not significantly different from the urea treatment. One hundred and twenty three days after seeding, the control treatment had greater soil strength than the high rate of manure at 5 and 10 cm depths by 0.28 and 0.71 MPa respectively. At the 20 cm depth, the high rate of manure had the greatest soil strength. Barley emergence on the two manured treatments did not differ significantly from the control. Aggregate size was measured in field samples collected from all sites. Aggregate size for the manured treatments did not differ from the control at any site.<p>Soil crust strength, flax emergence, infiltration rate, salinity, sodicity, coefficient of linear extensibility (COLE) and modulus of rupture were measured under controlled conditions in intact cores of soil removed from all five experimental sites. All soils were treated with a simulated rainfall from a Guelph Rainfall Simulator II. Following the simulated rainfall, crust strength was measured with a hand-held penetrometer. Soil crust strength was measured daily for 10 days as the cores dried. Repeated applications of liquid swine manure at either low or high rates decreased soil strength in the Plenty, Riverhurst and Melfort soils, and increased soil strength in the Dixon soil. Repeated applications of liquid swine manure at low rates caused flax emergence to decrease for the Riverhurst soil compared to its control and had no significant effect at the other sites. There were no notable differences in infiltration rates among treatments. Repeated applications of liquid swine manure caused salinity (EC) to increase slightly for the Plenty and Riverhurst soils, and sodicity (ESP) to increase slightly for the Melfort and Dixon soils relative to their control. The COLE and modulus of rupture measurements indicated no significant effects and were inconclusive due to difficulties in measurement. <p>None of the properties measured in any of the treatments exceeded threshold values for soil productivity, or where plant injury might be considered an issue. It is concluded that repeated (four to seven) annual applications of liquid swine or cattle manure would not cause any large alterations in soil strength, aggregation, infiltration, salinity, or sodicity that would affect early plant growth and development. This was supported by field and lab measurements of emergence that showed limited effect.

L’oceanografia per satèl•lit ha esdevingut una integració consolidada de les tècniques convencionals de monitorització in situ dels oceans. Un coneixement precís dels processos oceanogràfics i de la seva interacció és fonamental per tal d’entendre el sistema climàtic. En aquest context, els camps de salinitat mesurats regularment constituiran directament una ajuda per a la caracterització de les variacions de la circulació oceànica global. La salinitat s’utilitza en models oceanogràfics predictius, pero a hores d’ara no és possible mesurar-la directament i de forma global. La missió Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) (en català, humitat del sòl i salinitat de l’oceà) de l’Agència Espacial Europea pretén omplir aquest buit mitjançant la implementació d’un satèl•lit capaç de proveir aquesta informació sinòpticament i regular. Un nou instrument, el Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) (en català, radiòmetre d’observació per microones per síntesi d’obertura), ha estat desenvolupat per tal d’observar la salinitat de la superfície del mar (SSS) als oceans a través de l’adquisició d’imatges de la radiació de microones emesa al voltant de la freqüència de 1.4 GHz (banda L). SMOS portarà el primer radiòmetre orbital, d’òrbita polar, interferomètric 2D i es llençarà a principis de 2009. Així com a qualsevol altra estimació de paràmetres geofísics per teledetecció, la recuperació de la salinitat és un problema invers que implica la minimització d’una funció de cost. Per tal d’assegurar una estimació fiable d’aquesta variable, la resta de paràmetres que afecten a la temperatura de brillantor mesurada s’ha de tenir en compte, filtrar o quantificar. El producte recuperat seran doncs els mapes de salinitat per a cada passada del satèl•lit sobre la Terra. El requeriment de precisió proposat per a la missió és de 0.1 ‰ després de fer el promig en finestres espaciotemporals de 10 dies i de 20x20. En aquesta tesi de doctorat, diversos estudis s’han dut a terme per a la determinació del balanç d’error de la salinitat de l’oceà en el marc de la missió SMOS. Les motivacions de la missió, les condicions de mesura i els conceptes bàsics de radiometria per microones es descriuen conjuntament amb les principals característiques de la recuperació de la salinitat. Els aspectes de la recuperació de la salinitat que tenen una influència crítica en el procés d’inversió són: • El biaix depenent de l’escena en les mesures simulades, • La sensibilitat radiomètrica (soroll termal) i la precisió radiomètrica, • La definició de la modelització directa banda L • Dades auxiliars, temperatura de la superfície del mar (SST) i velocitat del vent, incerteses, • Restriccions en la funció de cost, particularment en el terme de salinitat, i • Promig espacio-temporal adequat. Un concepte emergeix directament de l’enunciat del problema de recuperació de la salinitat: diferents ajustos de l’algoritme de minimització donen resultats diferents i això s’ha de tenir en compte. Basant-se en aquesta consideració, la determinació del balanç d’error s’ha aproximat progressivament tot avaluant l’extensió de l’impacte de les diferents variables, així com la parametrització en termes d’error de salinitat. S’ha estudiat l’impacte de diverses dades auxiliars provinents de fonts diferents sobre l’error SSS final. Això permet tenir una primera impressió de l’error quantitatiu que pot esperar-se en les mesures reals futures, mentre que, en un altre estudi, s’ha investigat la possibilitat d’utilitzar senyals derivats de la reflectometria per tal de corregir les incerteses de l’estat del mar en el context SMOS. El nucli d’aquest treball el constitueix el Balanç d’Error SSS total. S’han identificat de forma consistent les fonts d’error i s’han analitzat els efectes corresponents en termes de l’error SSS mig en diferents configuracions d’algoritmes. Per una altra banda, es mostren els resultats d’un estudi de la variabilitat horitzontal de la salinitat, dut a terme utilitzant dades d’entrada amb una resolució espacial variable creixent. Això hauria de permetre confirmar la capacitat de la SSS recuperada per tal reproduir característiques oceanogràfiques mesoscàliques. Els principals resultats i consideracions derivats d’aquest estudi contribuiran a la definició de les bases de l’algoritme de recuperació de la salinitat. / Satellite oceanography has become a consolidated integration of conventional in situ monitoring of the oceans. Accurate knowledge of the oceanographic processes and their interaction is crucial for the understanding of the climate system. In this framework, routinely-measured salinity fields will directly aid in characterizing the variations of the global ocean circulation. Salinity is used in predictive oceanographic models, but no capability exists to date to measure it directly and globally. The European Space Agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission aims at filling this gap through the implementation of a satellite that has the potential to provide synoptically and routinely this information. A novel instrument, the Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture Synthesis, has been developed to observe the sea surface salinity (SSS) over the oceans by capturing images of the emitted microwave radiation around the frequency of 1.4 GHz (L-band). SMOS will carry the first-ever, polar-orbiting, space-borne, 2-D interferometric radiometer and will be launched in early 2009. Like whatsoever remotely-sensed geophysical parameter estimation, the retrieval of salinity is an inverse problem that involves the minimization of a cost function. In order to ensure a reliable estimation of this variable, all the other parameters affecting the measured brightness temperature will have to be taken into account, filtered or quantified. The overall retrieved product will thus be salinity maps in a single satellite overpass over the Earth. The proposed accuracy requirement for the mission is specified as 0.1 ‰ after averaging in a 10-day and 2ºx2º spatio-temporal boxes. In this Ph.D. Thesis several studies have been performed towards the determination of an ocean salinity error budget within the SMOS mission. The motivations of the mission, the rationale of the measurements and the basic concepts of microwave radiometry have been described along with the salinity retrieval main features. The salinity retrieval issues whose influence is critical in the inversion procedure are: • Scene-dependent bias in the simulated measurements, • Radiometric sensitivity (thermal noise) and radiometric accuracy, • L-band forward modeling definition, • Auxiliary data, sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed, uncertainties, • Constraints in the cost function, especially on salinity term, and • Adequate spatio-temporal averaging. A straightforward concept stems from the statement of the salinity retrieval problem: different tuning and setting of the minimization algorithm lead to different results, and complete awareness of that should be assumed. Based on this consideration, the error budget determination has been progressively approached by evaluating the extent of the impact of different variables and parameterizations in terms of salinity error. The impact of several multi-sources auxiliary data on the final SSS error has been addressed. This gives a first feeling of the quantitative error that should be expected in real upcoming measurements, whilst, in another study, the potential use of reflectometry-derived signals to correct for sea state uncertainty in the SMOS context has been investigated. The core of the work concerned the overall SSS Error Budget. The error sources are consistently binned and the corresponding effects in terms of the averaged SSS error have been addressed in different algorithm configurations. Furthermore, the results of a salinity horizontal variability study, performed by using input data at increasingly variable spatial resolution, are shown. This should assess the capability of retrieved SSS to reproduce mesoscale oceanographic features. Main results and insights deriving from these studies will contribute to the definition of the salinity retrieval algorithm baseline.

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is an Earth Explorer Opportunity mission from the European Space Agency (ESA). It was a direct response to the global observations of soil moisture and ocean salinity. Its goal is to produce global of these parameters using a dual-polarization L-band interferometric radiometer the Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS). This instrument is a new polarimetric two-dimensional (2-D) Y-shaped synthetic aperture interferometric radiometer based on the techniques used in radio-astronomy to obtain high resolution avoiding large antenna structures. MIRAS measures remotely the brightness temperature (TB) emitted by the Earth's surface, which is not isotropic, since it depends on the incidence angle and polarization, the Soil Moisture (SM) or the Sea Surface (SSS), the surface roughness etc. among others. The scope of this doctoral thesis is the study of some potential improvements could eventually be implemented in future interferometric radiometers. To validate improvements a ground-based instrument concept demonstrator the Passive Advanced Unit Synthetic Aperture or (PAU-SA) has being designed and implemented. Both MIRAS and PAU-SA are Y-shaped array, but the receiver topology and the processing unit are different. This Ph.D. thesis has been developed in the frame of The European Investigator Awards (EURYI) 2004 project entitled "Passive Advanced Unit (PAU): Hybrid L-band Radiometer, GNSS Refectometer and IR-Radiometer for Passive Sensing of the Ocean", and supported by the European Science Foundation (ESF).

Development of the swine and cattle industries has led to an increase of manure application to agricultural lands in Saskatchewan. Studies have been conducted to determine the nutrient benefits of swine manure application. However, a need was also identified for information on the effects of manure application on soil physical and chemical properties. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of repeated applications of manure on soil physical and chemical properties and to relate those effects to early plant growth and development.<p>Four experimental sites were used, representing the Dark Brown (Plenty), Brown (Riverhurst irrigated), Black (Dixon) and Gray (Melfort) Soil Zones of Saskatchewan, where liquid swine manure had been applied for four to seven years. At each site, treatments were 1) a control treatment, 2) a nitrogen based agronomic rate of manure application, 3) a high rate of manure application (2-4x the agronomic rate) and 4) a urea fertilizer treatment. At the Dixon site, the same two manure treatments with cattle manure were also examined.<p>Soil strength, as determined by penetration resistance measurements and barley (<i>Hordeum vulgare</i>) emergence were measured at two experimental sites (swine and cattle manure trials at Dixon, SK) in a field study. Penetration resistance was measured at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm depths, 20, 39 and 123 days after seeding using a recording cone penetrograph. Twenty days after seeding, there were no significant differences among treatments at the 10, 15 and 20 cm depths. But, at the 5 cm depth, the control treatment had soil strength 0.11 MPa lower than the two manure rates. The manure treatments were not significantly different from the urea treatment. Thirty-nine days after seeding, the soil strength of the low rate manure treatment was 1.1 MPa greater than the control at the 10 cm depth, but not significantly different from the urea treatment. One hundred and twenty three days after seeding, the control treatment had greater soil strength than the high rate of manure at 5 and 10 cm depths by 0.28 and 0.71 MPa respectively. At the 20 cm depth, the high rate of manure had the greatest soil strength. Barley emergence on the two manured treatments did not differ significantly from the control. Aggregate size was measured in field samples collected from all sites. Aggregate size for the manured treatments did not differ from the control at any site.<p>Soil crust strength, flax emergence, infiltration rate, salinity, sodicity, coefficient of linear extensibility (COLE) and modulus of rupture were measured under controlled conditions in intact cores of soil removed from all five experimental sites. All soils were treated with a simulated rainfall from a Guelph Rainfall Simulator II. Following the simulated rainfall, crust strength was measured with a hand-held penetrometer. Soil crust strength was measured daily for 10 days as the cores dried. Repeated applications of liquid swine manure at either low or high rates decreased soil strength in the Plenty, Riverhurst and Melfort soils, and increased soil strength in the Dixon soil. Repeated applications of liquid swine manure at low rates caused flax emergence to decrease for the Riverhurst soil compared to its control and had no significant effect at the other sites. There were no notable differences in infiltration rates among treatments. Repeated applications of liquid swine manure caused salinity (EC) to increase slightly for the Plenty and Riverhurst soils, and sodicity (ESP) to increase slightly for the Melfort and Dixon soils relative to their control. The COLE and modulus of rupture measurements indicated no significant effects and were inconclusive due to difficulties in measurement. <p>None of the properties measured in any of the treatments exceeded threshold values for soil productivity, or where plant injury might be considered an issue. It is concluded that repeated (four to seven) annual applications of liquid swine or cattle manure would not cause any large alterations in soil strength, aggregation, infiltration, salinity, or sodicity that would affect early plant growth and development. This was supported by field and lab measurements of emergence that showed limited effect.

This dissertation investigated ingress of postlarval blue crabs Callinectes sapidus to the Newport River estuary, North Carolina, USA. Data from C. similis, Menippe mercenaria, Pachygrapsus transversus, and Arenaeus cribrarius are included in some chapters for comparison. Changes in tolerance to low salinity were examined by: 1) exposing postlarvae (megalopae) collected in coastal and estuarine areas to a range of salinities and 2) determining the cue that stimulates acclimation of coastal megalopae to low salinities, the time to acclimation, and the decrease in salinity necessary for acclimation. Coastal megalopae were less tolerant to salinities of 5 and 10 than megalopae from the estuary. Coastal megalopae became acclimated to low salinities within 12 h when salinity was reduced from 35 to 31. Spatial patterns in abundance during ingress were investigated simultaneously in coastal and estuarine areas. Coastal distributions were determined using nighttime surface plankton tows at slack water after ebb tide and slack water after flood tide on four nights; two each during spring and neap tides. Estuarine distributions were determined using nightly settlement on 'hog's hair' collectors. C. sapidus megalopae were most abundant at the coast east of Beaufort Inlet, but settlement was restricted to western channels of the estuary. Species-specific patterns in abundance were maintained during two spring/neap cycles, possibly due to interactions between larval behavior and physical forcing. Biophysical mechanisms of estuarine ingress were investigated by comparing nightly abundance in coastal and estuarine areas with environmental variables. Comparisons were made using cross-correlation and cross-fourier analyses. High estuarine abundances were associated with wind-driven estuarine inflow and nighttime flood tides. The seasonal pattern of estuarine ingress was strongly associated with the seasonal pattern of alongshore wind stress, suggesting that inter-annual variations in atmospheric forcing may determine the yearly abundance of megalopae arriving in estuarine nursery habitats. The effect of sampling interval on annual megalopal abundance estimates was determined using an 11-year dataset of nightly settlement. Variability in abundance estimates increased with increasing sampling interval. Switching from a one day to two day sampling interval resulted in a 20 % decrease in the likelihood of detecting a significant correlation between annual abundance and CPUE in the North Carolina blue crab pot fishery. / Dissertation

This study was to determine the effects of several selected environmental factors (temperature, salinity, light intensity, and acetate) on the nitrogen starvation induced lipid accumulation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii CC 400 by the Nile Red staining of lipid in the cells. Nitrogen starvation induced lipid accumulation, the extent of lipid accumulation increased as nitrogen concentrations in the medium decreased. For the 9.4 mM NH4Cl of HS medium as 100% N, the absence of NH4Cl from the medium will show the maximum induction in the lipid accumulation. This was also observed in the treatment of algal cells in mid-log phase by the absence of NH4Cl in the medium. A decrease in temperature down to 15oC depressed the nitrogen starvation induction in lipid accumulation for the algal cells from the mid-log phase, while the elevation in the light intensity up to 300 £gmol photons • m-2 • s-1 also showed an inhibitory effect. However, the transfer to darkness for the nitrogen starvation also inhibited the lipid increase. The addition of 100 mM NaCl enhanced the nitrogen starvation induced lipid accumulation but the NaCl level up to 200 mM inhibited the increment. The nitrogen starvation induction of lipid increase was partly inhibited due to the absence of acetate, whereas the increase in acetate concentrations in the medium did not have effect on lipid accumulation as compared to normal acetate addition in the medium. Overall, the results of the present study show that light and acetate are essential factors for the maximum lipid accumulation in C. reinhardtii by nitrogen starvation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the reproductive ecology including fecundity, reproductive season, timing of larval release, evaporative water loss during reproductive migration, and the salinity tolerance of first zoeal stage of Cardisoma carnifex in Houwan, Hengchun Peninsula. The average carapace width of ovigerous females was 70.5 ¡Ó 6.57 mm, with a size range of 56.0-93.7 mm. Fecundity intimates increased with size and the number of hatched larvae from individual female varied from 90,000 to 490,000. The reproductive season of C. carnifex began at the onset of the rainy season and ends approximately at the end of that season. The reproductive season was from June to Oct. in 2009 and May to Sept. in 2010. The peaks of larval release occurred in July in 2009, 2010. Some females had the capacity in spawning twice during a reproductive season. Ovigerous females releasing larvae synchronously. The relationship between larval release timing and environmental cycle is listed in decreasing order of importance: diel rhythm, semilunar rhythm, tidal amplitude rhythm, and a low correlation was found with the tidal rhythm. Ovigerous females of C. carnifex started to release larvae after the new and full moon, lasting for 6-8 days with peaks occurring 4-6 days after the new and full moon. The peaks of larval release occurred within 2-3 hours after the sunset time (i.e., between 1930H and 2130H). This species exhibits different larval release timing and behavior compare to other species of Gecarcinidae; ovigerous females of gecarcinid crabs follow a lunar rhythm but C. carnifex follow a semilunar rhythm. More than half of the ovigerous females stayed in the water for up to 10 min (average 5.5 ¡Ó 2.87 min) and could move to deep water (i.e., 120 cm) to release their larvae. A few females even released their larvae in the freshwater environment. For C. carnifex, a mean of 15¢H of its original weight was lost by the time they died and the osmolality of the hemolymph is 856 mOsm kg-1. Compare with the hemolymph osmolality of ovigerous females (694 ¡Ó 6.3 mOsm kg-1), the results indicated that the ovigerous females at Houwan may not experience severe water loss during larval release migration. The first zoeal stage of C. carnifex could not survive in the freshwater, all larvae died within 2 hours. However, at salinities large than 5‰, most larvae could survive for more than 3 days. The results show first zoeal stage of C. carnifex had adapted to the low salinity in the estuary.

The combination of two factors, temperature and salinity might affect zoeal survival and morphological pattern of Thalamita crenata. In order to know the effect, newly hatched zoeae were reared under 45 combinations of temperature and salinity (i.e. combinations of five temperatures variables: 20, 25, 30, 33, 35¢J and nine salinity variables: 18,20,22,25,30,35,38,40,42 psu ). The zoeae were fed with newly hatched Artemia nauplii. The results showed that temperature and salinity as well as the interaction of the two parameters significantly affected the survival rate of zoeae. The effect of temperature at 20¢J and 35¢J resulted in no zoeal survival from zoea to megalopa stage. Under the temperature range of 25~33¢J, There is significant difference between the survival rates of zoeae (p < 0.05). High survival rate (above 64%) occurred at temperature range of 25~30¢J and salinity range of 30~35 psu. Survival rate decreased at salinity range of 20,22,25,38 psu. Under 30¢J and 18 psu condition, zoeae could develop into megalopa stage. Temperature, salinity and their interaction also significantly affected zoeal development. At 25¢J, the shortest zoeal developmental time to reach megalopa was 18 days under salinity 30 and 35 psu conditions and the developmental time extended to 20 and 21 days under salinity 38 and 20 psu conditions. At 30¢J, the shortest zoeal developmental time to reach megalopa was 11 days under salinity 30 psu conditions and the developmental time extended to 23 days under salinity 18 psu conditions. Under 33¢J and 25 psu condition, the zoeal developmental time to reach megalopa ranged from 16 to 22 days. The larval development of Thalamita crenata has five zoeal stages. Four tested zoeae had morphological differences in antennules, maxillule and maxilla in fifth stage which are shown as follow. There are 5 additional setae on the top of antennule exopod . The endite of maxillule coxal has 14 plumose setae; The basal endite has 8 plumose setae. The maxilla basal endite has 8 plumose setae. The scaphognathite has 27 plumose setae. In addition to basic five zoeal stages, an additional zoeal stages was observed from the tested crab. There were evidences suggested that the appearance of the additional zoeae was associated with limited temperature condition for life and lower salinity. Based on exuviae and larval specimens, the major morphological characteristics of the additional zoeal larvae were as follow: oblong carapace, lateral spine disappeared; prolonged cheliped and pereiopods compared to Z5 stage; with setae on pleopods.

The purpose of my research was to test the hypothesis that the availability of fresh, naturally occurring water may limit the distribution of Florida Key Deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium). More specifically, I was trying to determine if there was enough fresh, drinkable water for the deer on each of the islands. To test the hypothesis, I developed a model that simulated likely seasonal fluctuations in fresh water availability in naturally occurring waterholes within the Key Deer range. I estimated 60 scenarios representing different weather (precipitation and evaporation) conditions, different literature estimates of the daily water requirement of Key Deer and also different upper salinity thresholds for drinkable water. Results showed that 1) even under the most favorable conditions in terms of fresh water availability, there was not enough fresh, drinkable water for the deer on any of the islands. Results also showed that 2) high salinity was important in determining the fresh water availability to the deer, in addition to the lack of water volume. Although these results suggest a prolonged seasonal shortage of fresh, naturally occurring water on each of the islands, deer were present on all of the islands during all seasons. One possible reason for the lack of correlation between Key Deer distribution and naturally occurring waterholes is the availability of man-made water sources (e.g. birdbaths, swimming pools).

Benthic microalgal community composition on an ephemerally submerged sandflat at East Beach, Galveston Island, Texas was studied to determine the spatial and temporal variability of total biomass and community composition and its responses to experimental manipulations of two environmental factors (salinity and nutrients). Four field studies were conducted between August 2004 and February 2005. The community consisted of two major algal groups, diatoms, and cyanobacteria with two less abundant groups, green algae, and phototrophic bacteria. Spatial variability showed that patch sizes of 12 - 25 m were detected over larger scales with smaller scale (cm) patches of approximately 28 - 201 cm^-2 contained within the larger patches. The second study examined the spatio-temporal variability of BMA over a 21-month period in a 1,000 m^2 area. Sampling location and date explained a significant amount of the variability in the abundances of algal groups, which were positively correlated with the water content of the sediments and negatively correlated with temperature (sediment and water). All of the algal groups showed a seasonal pattern with higher abundances measured in the winter months and lower abundances found during the summer. BMA biomass (100 mg Chl a m^-2 or greater) maxima occurred at temperatures less than 22 degrees C and sediment water content greater than 15% (g water g sediment^-1). BMA response to different salinities and nutrient (N+P) amended sediments was assessed in four bioassays conducted over a 6-month period (Aug. 2004, Oct. 2004, Dec. 2004, and Feb. 2005). In the salinity study, the treatments that were either 100% or partially diluted with deionized water had the lowest BMA biomass over all. Chlorophyll a and fucoxanthin were significantly affected by salinity with higher abundances found in salinities that averaged 15 with a preference for salinities greater than 22. Chlorophyll b was affected by salinity with higher abundances measured in the treatments with lowest salinity (DL and DI); and was affected by the time of year. This would suggest that this algal group prefers an environment with salinity less than 2 but can easily adapt to environments with higher salinities. BMA abundances were not significantly affected by the nutrient amended sediment, but were significantly affected by stations with higher water content, and during the cooler months (Dec. 2004 and Feb. 2005).