The east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, consists of highly permeable limestone, such that surface flow and rivers are absent in this region. Extensive underground cave systems connect sink holes (cenotes) to submarine springs (ojos de aqua), which vent into the seagrass meadows of the adjacent oligotrophic coastal lagoons.

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Tissue samples of liver and blubber were salvaged from fifty-three dugong (Dugong dugon) carcasses stranded along the Queensland coast between 1996 and 2000. Liver tissue was analysed for a range of heavy metals and blubber samples were analysed for organochlorine compounds. Metal concentrations were similar in male and female animals and were generally highest in mature animals.

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As part of the program monitoring the ecosystem health of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia, we developed a means for assessing ecosystem health that allows quantitative evaluation and spatial representations of the assessments. The management objectives for achieving ecosystem health were grouped into ecosystem objectives, water quality objectives, and human health objectives.

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This data report details the results of an intensive sampling effort by the Integration and Application Network in the Maryland Coastal Bays. A spatially explicit Water Quality Index was developed from standard water quality analyses and a relatively new stable isotope technique.

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This report summarizes monitoring data collected over the past several years for water quality, aquatic living resources, and habitat categories. It utilizes conceptual diagrams for each reporting region to highlight the key ecosystem processes, biota and estuarine health problems.

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This 288-page book utilizes conceptual diagrams (including symbols from the IAN symbol libraries) to describe the health, geography, science, management and ecological functions of Australia's 974 estuaries. Chapters on natural history, coastal science and management give an understanding of our vast network of pristine and heavily modified estuaries - from isolated tide-dominated estuaries in Australia's tropical north to those shaped by waves in southern, temperate waters.

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This poster details the importance of developing a scientifically rigorous, spatially explicit ecosystem health report card on Chesapeake Bay and its watershed to facilitate coordination and feedback between monitoring, management and research. A pilot study was conducted in July 2003 on the Patuxent and Choptank Rivers using a novel stable isotope technique (see "Assessing Nutrient Sources" newsletter below) together with more traditional water quality monitoring techniques.

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Management of coastal systems is becoming increasingly important, however understanding the process of effective management often remains elusive. This chapter contrasts examples of environmental problems and associated management in Moreton Bay, Australia, and Chesapeake Bay, USA. Targeted research in Moreton Bay identified specific issues which led to changed practices, while intense management and research in Chesapeake Bay has been unable to keep pace with increasing anthropogenic stress.

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The abundance and productivity of benthic microalgae in coral reef sediments are poorly known compared with other, more conspicuous (e.g. coral zooxanthellae, macroalgae) primary producers of coral reef habitats.

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While the remote-sensing community attempts to find measures of reef ‘‘health’’ able to be detected and mapped using satellite image data, internationally recognized field assessments are already in place to document benthic cover, among other parameters, as an indicator of coral reef status. Reef Check is one such program, designed in 1996 as a globally applicable, rapid, field-survey protocol for coral reef health monitoring by volunteer divers (Hodgson 1999).

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