The dinoflagellate cyst assemblages on the Nanji Island in the East China Sea, are documented at the first time to construct a quantitative overview of the cyst bank from 2014 to 2015. Thirty-four morphotypes from six groups are identified and quantified at eight sampling sites around the island, including a high proportion of potentially toxigenic species (14%). Autotrophic dinocysts constitute 74% of the total cyst counts, which is relatively low (two to thirty-three per millilitre sediment) compared with previous studies in adjacent areas. Scrippsiella trochoidea and Protoperidinium avellana are the most abundant autotrophic and heterotrophic species, respectively. A multivariate analysis is performed to assess associations between dinocysts and abiotic or biotic variables. Differentiation among seasons is evident in the detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination plot, while a spatial pattern is not clearly revealed despite heterogeneity of the hydrodynamic conditions between sampling sites. Soluble reactive phosphate, the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus concentrations and Karenia mikimotoi bloom are the three factors significantly (P<0.05) related to surface sediment cyst assemblage defined by the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), highlighting the importance of nutrient regime to a dinocyst distribution in this area. Although attempts to address the origin of HAB events in recent years using seed banks have failed, knowledge can be valuable for further investigation of dinocyst dynamics and potential toxin threats on the Nanji Island.

Satellite remote sensing of inland water body requires a high spatial resolution and a multiband narrow spectral resolution, which makes the fusion between panchromatic (PAN) and multi-spectral (MS) images particularly important. Taking the Daquekou section of the Qiantang River as an observation target, four conventional fusion methods widely accepted in satellite image processing, including pan sharpening (PS), principal component analysis (PCA), Gram-Schmidt (GS), and wavelet fusion (WF), are utilized to fuse MS and PAN images of GF-1. The results of subjective and objective evaluation methods application indicate that GS performs the best, followed by the PCA, the WF and the PS in the order of descending. The existence of a large area of the water body is a dominant factor impacting the fusion performance. Meanwhile, the ability of retaining spatial and spectral informations is an important factor affecting the fusion performance of different fusion methods. The fundamental difference of reflectivity information acquisition between water and land is the reason for the failure of conventional fusion methods for land observation such as the PS to be used in the presence of the large water body. It is suggested that the adoption of the conventional fusion methods in the observing water body as the main target should be taken with caution. The performances of the fusion methods need re-assessment when the large-scale water body is present in the remote sensing image or when the research aims for the water body observation.

Two field observations were conducted around the Lembeh Strait in September 2015 and 2016, respectively. Evidences indicate that seawater around the Lembeh Strait is consisted of North Pacific Tropical Water (NPTW), North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW), North Pacific Tropical Intermediate Water (NPTIW) and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW). Around the Lembeh Strait, there exist some north-south differences in terms of water mass properties. NPTIW is only found in the southern Lembeh Strait. Water mass with the salinity of 34.6 is only detected at 200–240 m between NPTW and NPTIW in the southern Lembeh Strait, and results from the process of mixing between the saltier water transported from the South Pacific Ocean and the lighter water from the North Pacific Ocean and Sulawesi Sea. According to the analysis on mixing layer depth, it is indicated that there exists an onshore surface current in the northern Lembeh Strait and the surface current in the Lembeh Strait is southward. These dramatic differences of water masses demonstrate that the less water exchange has been occurred between the north and south of Lembeh Strait. In 2015, the positive wind stress curl covering the northern Lembeh Strait induces the shoaling of thermocline and deepening of NPIW, which show that the north-south difference of air-sea system is possible of inducing north-south differences of seawater properties.

Phytoplankton species composition and abundance in the Lembeh Strait waters was studied in four cruises of April 2013, May 2014, June 2012 and October 2015, during the period of monsoon transition time of SE monsoon. With data obtained the seasonal alternations of phytoplankton community structures and its driving factors were discussed. A total of 416 taxa belonging to 5 classes of phytoplankton were recorded in the four month surveys. Phytoplankton density was averaged 2 348 cell/L and diatoms and dinoflagellates had the most diversified species. Cyanobacterium was characterized by its low species numbers but high abundance in the waters of Lembeh Strait. Total phytoplankton abundance occurred low in April and October in the monsoon transition period and it raised high in May and June during the SE monsoon. Frequently occurred species were pelagic diatoms in addition to cyanobacterium Trichodesmium. Abundance and diversity of phytoplankton significantly differed seasonally. The diatoms Thalassionema and Pseudo-nitzschia, and cyanobacterium Trichodesmium contributed most to the community dissimilarities. Due to potentially higher nutrient supply in the south of Lembeh Strait, diatoms and dinoflagellates showed higher densities in the south than in the north of the strait. Though, cyanobacterium preferred distributing much evenly in all waters, it had higher density in the southern Lembeh Strait. Total phytoplankton abundance is quite low compared with the Jakarta Bay and some bays in China. Analysis showed that nutrients from upwelling forced by SE monsoon are the key factor varying the monthly phytoplankton abundances. Due to its primitive nature state, Lembeh water can be an ideal location for the study of pelagic ecosystem under merely the influence of macro environment changes with lower background noise from human activities.

Water samples were collected in order to study the spatial variation of photosynthetic pigments and phytoplankton community composition in the Lembeh Strait (Indonesia) and the Kelantan River Estuary (Malaysia) during July and August 2016, respectively. Phytoplankton photosynthetic pigments were detected using high performance liquid chromatography combining with the CHEMTAX software to confirm the Chl a biomass and community composition. The Chl a concentration was low at surface in the Lembeh Strait, which it was 0.580–0.682 μg/L, with the average (0.620±0.039) μg/L. Nevertheless, the Chl a concentration fluctuated violently at surface in the Kelantan River Estuary, in which the biomass was 0.299–3.988 μg/L, with the average (0.922±0.992) μg/L. The biomass at bottom water was higher than at surface in the Kelantan River Estuary, in which the Chl a concentration was 0.704–2.352 μg/L, with the average (1.493±0.571) μg/L. Chl b, zeaxanthin and fucoxanthin were three most abundant pigments in the Lembeh Strait. As a consequence, phytoplankton community composition was different in the two study areas. In the Lembeh Strait, prasinophytes (26.48%±0.83%) and Synechococcus (25.73%±4.13%) occupied ~50% of the Chl a biomass, followed by diatoms (20.49%±2.34%) and haptophytes T8 (15.13%±2.42%). At surface water in the Kelantan River Estuary, diatoms (58.53%±18.44%) dominated more than half of the phytoplankton biomass, followed by Synechococcus (27.27%±14.84%) and prasinophytes (7.00%±4.39%). It showed the similar status at the bottom water in the Kelantan River Estuary, where diatoms, Synechococcus and prasinophytes contributed 64.89%±15.29%, 16.23%±9.98% and 8.91%±2.62%, respectively. The different phytoplankton community composition between the two regions implied that the bottom up control affected the phytoplankton biomass in the Lembeh Strait where the oligotrophic water derived from the West Pacific Ocean. The terrigenous nutrients supplied the diatoms growing, and pico-phytoplankton was grazed through top down control in the Kelantan River Estuary.

The community structure of zooplankton has been conducted in the Lembeh Strait in Bitung and Wori Beach in Manado, North Sulawesi in October 2015. Sampling of this research was conducted in 22 sampling sites along the strait. Zooplankton samples were collected from 22 stations, by NORPAC 300 μm net that was vertically hauled from maximum 10 m depth up to the surface water. The samples were poured into the bottle with formalin of 4% as preservative. The results showed that there were 43 taxa of zooplankton. The abundance of zooplankton was between 21.216–4 193.776 ind./m³. The dominant taxa were copepod, especially Calanoida. The composition of zooplankton was relatively similar in all stations. We showed the abundance, dominance, composition and distribution of zooplankton at this research. More extensive studies concerning zooplankton is required to understand zooplankton biodiversity as a whole especially on the geographical and spatial distribution to describe population and community dynamic in the Lembeh Strait and Wori Beach.

Based on oceanographic survey data in June 2012 in the Lembeh Strait, the zooplankton ecological characteristics such as species composition, individual abundance, dominant species and distribution were analyzed. The results showed that 183 species (including 4 sp.) had been recognized, most of them belonged to copepoda. Cnidaria followed with 43 species (including 1 sp.) were identified. The average abundance of zooplankton was (150.47±58.91) ind./m³. As to the horizontal distribution, the abundance of the zooplankton was higher in the southern waters than in the northern waters. The dominant species in the study area were Lensia subtiloides, Sagitta enflata, Lucifer intermedius, Oikopleura rufescens, Diphyes chamissoni, Creseis acicula, Subeucalanus subcrassus, Temora discaudata, Aglaura hemistoma, Doliolum denticulatum, Canthocalanus pauper, Oikopleura longicauda and Nanomia bijuga. Zooplankton biodiversity indexes were higher in study area than previous study in the other regions. The findings from this study provide important baseline information for future research and monitoring programs.

Anthropogenic impacts and natural disturbances have been intense recently in the global scale, affecting the composition of coral reef benthic communities from coral to algal dominated reefs. However, this condition does not always occur considering corals are able to recover when the stressors falter. This study aims to investigate the change in coral reef benthic communities and the relationship among benthic categories. The study was carried out in 2014 and 2016 at five sites, three sites in the Lembeh Strait and two sites in Likupang, North Sulawesi Province. Underwater Photo Transect (UPT) was used at depth of around 4–6 m in slope areas. The result indicated that the benthic communities were slightly changing: the percent covers of hard corals, sponges, soft corals, macroalgae and substrate categories were not significantly different between the years but category of others, particularly seasonally growing hydroid, increased significantly, occupying the available substrates and overtopping other benthos surrounding. The study also found that there was a significant relationship between the change in benthic gradient and the number of hard coral colonies: when the composition becomes less complex, the number of colony declines. In contrast, the hard coral diversity remained unchanged, suggesting the coral reefs apparently have an ecological resilience (sustainable species diversity) against the change although ecological complexity declines. In addition, the hard coral cover was significantly correlated with soft coral and sponge covers, which did not change significantly among the years. In general, the coral reefs in North Sulawesi might experience a temporary blip due to the increasing percent cover of others, and be predicted to recover as there was no indication of soft corals and sponges to increase significantly. However, it is necessary to investigate the dynamic of benthic communities in different depth gradients to gain a comprehensive understanding as the communities respond differently to the light intensity.

Due to the elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide, ocean acidification (OA) has recently emerged as a research theme in marine biology due to an expected deleterious effect of altered seawater chemistry on calcification. A system simulating future OA scenario is crucial for OA-related studies. Here, we designed an OA-simulated system (OASys) with three solenoid-controlled CO₂ gas channels. The OASys can adjust the pH of the seawater by bubbling CO₂ gas into seawaters via feedback systems. The OASys is very simple in structure with an integrated design and is new-user friendly with the instruction. Moreover, the OASys can monitor and record real-time pH values and can maintain pH levels within 0.02 pH unit. In a 15-d experiment, the OASys was applied to simulate OA in which the expected target pH values were 8.00, 7.80 and 7.60 to study the calcifying response of Galaxea fascicularis. The results showed daily mean seawater pH values held at pH 8.00±0.01, 7.80±0.01 and 7.61±0.01 over 15 d. Correspondingly, the coral calcification of G. fascicularis gradually decreased with reduced pH.

Fish species composition and spatio-temporal variability of the community were studied in a tropical seagrass meadow located in a lagoon in the eastern part of North Sulawesi. The diversity of fish community in the seagrass meadows was relatively high, with the Shannon-Wiener index ranging from 1.57 to 3.69. The family Apogonidae was the most dominant in abundance (8.27 ind./(100 m²)) and biomass (28.49 g/(100 m²)). At the species level, Apogon lateralis and Sphaeramia orbicularis were the most dominant species in abundance and biomass, respectively. For spatial distribution on species, the end, middle and mouth of the lagoon clustered together as a whole, which may be due to the substrate types found in those zones. The fish species, fish abundance and fish biomass were greater in the dry and wet seasons than in the transition season, which is explained by the strong monsoon, which provides a more suitable environment and food for the fish. The maximum length of 93.10% of the captured species was less than their length at maturity, indicating that seagrass meadows are nursery habitats for many fishes. Therefore, protection of the seagrass meadows is essential for fisheries and sustainable resource utilization.