Coastal environments are faced with constant habitat modification and biodiversity loss due to human occupation. Estuaries are considered to be highly productive and shelter heterogeneous habitats such as mangrove forests, tidal creeks, tidal mud flats and sandy beaches, which are important for the maintenance of natural resources. The present study aims to evaluate how different shallow juvenile habitats (sandy beaches, mangrove shoreline habitats and dense macrophyte habitats) influence fish during their early life stages in a tropical estuary of Brazil. Monthly samples using a beach seine net from July 2012 to June 2013 were collected in eight shallow areas of the São Mateus River estuary. The fish assemblage comprised mainly juvenile and small-sized fish, which included ecologically and commercially important species. Small recruits of Atherinella brasiliensis and Ctenogobius boleosoma were most abundant in the autumn, while Rhinosardinia bahiensis and Centropomus undecimalis were highly abundant during the winter. The water salinity recorded in the mid and lower estuarine portions was the most important variable for the distribution of A. brasiliensis and Sphoeroides spengleri, whereas Anchovia clupeoides, C. undecimalis, C. parallelus and Gobionellus oceanicus were positively correlated with the water depth of the upper estuarine portion. The fish species T. paulistanus, Genidens genidens and Achirus lineatus were related to the water turbidity in the upper portion. Thus, the heterogeneous shallow water habitats (and their associated environmental parameters) of the São Mateus River estuary are potential nursery grounds for the early life stages of a variety of fish species, which highlights the importance of these areas for local biodiversity management.

The aim of this manuscript is to provide the first checklist of marine commercial fish species landed in Espírito Santo state (Brazilian central coast), with associated richness of common names and conservation status. The data collection took place under the Fisheries Monitoring Program, throughout the state of Espírito Santo. Altogether 22 fishing landing ports were monitored from May 2011 to August 2012. A total of 91 fish species from 39 families were identified. The richness of common names of fishery resources in Espírito Santo showed an average of two common names per species.

We propose an S 1 S 2 I S 2 S 1 junction model to describe the intergrain junctions of compounds with intrinsic mixtures of two superconductor phases. Considering the polycrystalline compound Hg,Re-1223 as a representative case, fitting using this model of a junction in J c as a function of applied magnetic field μ 0 H proves to be better than a simple SI S junction model for μ 0 H > 1.0 mT and T ≈ T C .