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In 2009, the container ship Colombo Queen and the oil tanker W-O BUDMO grounded off Jialeshui and Houwan, respectively, in southern Taiwan. Water quality was monitored at each site to evaluate the environmental impact caused by the resulting oil spills. The results show that the PAHs, turbidity, and other nutrients increased shortly after oil spill, however levels of these parameters eventually returned to baseline levels. On the other hand, DO saturation, pH and chl. a decreased initially, reached maxima after 10days, and returned to the baseline levels after 14days. The chl. a concentration, pH and DO saturation fluctuated in a similar pattern at both sites during the oil spills, likely driven by algal blooms. In this study, we documented a full environmental recovery at coastal areas before, during and after the oil spills.

The fiddler crabs, genus Uca Leach, 1814 (Decapoda, Ocypodidae) of Taiwan, including the offshore islands of Penghu (Pescadores), Kinmen (Quemoy), Matsu (Matzu), and Dongsha (Pratas), are revised, with the recognition of five subgenera and 15 species, viz. Uca (Austruca) Bott, 1973: U. lactea (De Haan, 1835), U. perplexa (H. Milne Edwards, 1837), U. triangularis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1873); U. (Gelasimus) Latreille, 1817: U. borealis Crane, 1975, U. jocelynae Shih, NaruseNg, 2010, U. tetragonon (Herbst, 1790), U. vocans (Linnaeus, 1758); U. (Paraleptuca) Bott, 1973: U. crassipes (White, 1847), U. splendida (Stimpson, 1858); U. (Tubuca) Bott, 1973: U. acuta (Stimpson 1858), U. arcuata (De Haan, 1835), U. coarctata (H. Milne Edwards, 1852), U. dussumieri (H. Milne Edwards, 1852), U. paradussumieri (Bott, 1973); and U. (Xeruca) Shih, 2015: U. formosensis Rathbun, 1921. Among them, U. acuta, U. paradussumieri, and U. vocans are confirmed to be distributed in Taiwan. Uca formosensis is endemic to Taiwan. The Uca species of the main islands of Japan are also listed. Four species (U. arcuata, U. lactea, U. crassipes and U. borealis) are known, but the recent additional records of U. perplexa and U. vocans need further confirmation. Except U. acuta, U. borealis, U. formosensis, U. lactea, and U. paradussumieri, other 10 Taiwanese species can be found from the Ryukyus too. Only one endemic species, U. boninensis, is reported from the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands. A key to the 18 species of Uca found in East Asia is also provided in this study.

Four leucosiid species from Taiwan are presented. Ebalia nudipes Sakai, 1963, with its male first gonopod figured for the first time. Galilia petricola KomaiTsuchida, 2014, is recorded on the basis of a larger specimen, and distinguishing features with its only congener, G. narusei NgRicher de Forges, 2007, reappraised. Nursia rhomboidalis (Miers, 1879), previously known only from Japan, Korea, and mainland China, is also recorded from Taiwan. Myra fugax (Fabricius, 1798) is now formally recorded from Taiwan, and female characters identified to help separate the three known Taiwanese species of Myra.

The toxicity of the gastropod Nassarius glans was investigated. This gastropod was implicated in an incident of food paralytic poisoning on Tungsa Island, Taiwan, in April 2004. Six victims consumed both digestive glands and muscle. These tissues contained high concentrations of toxin; their highest toxicity scores were 2,048 and 2,992 MU/g, respectively, based on the tetrodotoxin (TTX) bioassay. The toxin was purified from these gastropods and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography, which revealed TTX and related compounds 4-epi TTX and anhydro-TTX; paralytic shellfish poisons were not found. The urine and blood samples from patients were cleansed using a C 18 Sep-Pak cartridge column and 3,000 molecular weight cutoff Ultrafree microcentrifuge filters, and the eluate was filtered and analyzed by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. The detection limit for TTX was 1 ng/ml. The standard curves were linear in the range 30 to 600 ng/ml for urine and 1 to 30 ng/ml for blood. TTX was detected in all urine samples but in only three of four blood samples tested. Thus, the causative agent of gastropod food poisoning was identified as TTX.

Recurrent disturbances can have a critical effect on the structure and function of coral reef communities. In this study, long-term changes were examined in the hard coral community at Wanlitung, in southern Taiwan, between 1985 and 2010. In this 26 year interval, the reef has experienced repeated disturbances that include six typhoons and two coral-bleaching events. The frequency of disturbance has meant that species susceptible to disturbance, such as those in the genus Acropora and Montipora have almost disappeared from the reef. Indeed, almost all hard coral species have declined in abundance, with the result that total hard coral cover in 2010 (17.7%) was less than half what it was in 1985 (47.5%). In addition, macro-algal cover has increased from 11.3% in 2003 to 28.5% in 2010. The frequency of disturbance combined with possible chronic influence of a growing human population mean that a diverse reef assemblage is unlikely to persist on this reef into the future.