The most prominent pattern in global marine biogeography is the biodiversity peak in the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Yet the processes that underpin this pattern are still actively debated. By reconstructing global marine paleoenvironments over the past 3 million years on the basis of sediment cores, we assessed the extent to which Quaternary climate fluctuations can explain global variation i...

Symbiotic interactions, where two species occur in close physical proximity for the majority of the participants' lifespans, may constrain the fitness of one or both of the participants. Host choice could result in lineage divergence in symbionts if fitness benefits vary across the interaction with hosts. Symbiotic interactions are common in the marine environment, particularly in the most dive...

Shallow-water tropical reefs and the deep sea represent the two most diverse marine environments. Understanding the origin and diversification of this biodiversity is a major quest in ecology and evolution. The most prominent and well-supported explanation, articulated since the first explorations of the deep sea, holds that benthic marine fauna originated in shallow, onshore environments, and ...

Fusion of embryos or larvae prior to metamorphosis is rarely known to date in colonial marine organisms. Here, we document for the first time that the embryos of the broadcast spawning coral Platygyra daedalea could fuse during blastulation and further develop into conjoined larvae, and the settlement of conjoined larvae immediately resulted in inborn juvenile colonies. Fusion of embryos might ...

Dispersal is a crucial ecological process, driving population dynamics and defining the structure and persistence of populations. Measuring demographic connectivity between discreet populations remains a long-standing challenge for most marine organisms because it involves tracking the movement of pelagic larvae. Recent studies demonstrate local connectivity of reef fish populations via the dis...

Scientific monitoring has recorded only a recent fraction of the oceans' alteration history. This biases our understanding of marine ecosystems. Remote coral reef ecosystems are often considered pristine because of high shark abundance. However, given the long history and global nature of fishing, sharks' vulnerability, and the ecological consequences of shark declines, these states may not be ...

the asmari formation at nil anticline area has been studied in order to determine faunal assemblages, the age and the paleoecology. paleontological and biostratigraphical studies led to the identification of 5 faunal assemblages. as a result, the age of the asmari formation in this section, with 291m thickness, is rupelian/chattian-burdigalian. extension of the large benthic foraminifera sugges...

During the last 10 years marine organisms have provided a large number of new natural products. Interesting compounds have mainly been derived from macroorganisms such as sponges, ascidians, corals and bryozoans. The number of secondary metabolites from marine microorganisms is smaller, but rapidly increasing. Because of the enormous difficulties involved in harvesting products from marine anim...

Plants are important in urban environments for removing pathogens and improving water quality. Seagrass meadows are the most widespread coastal ecosystem on the planet. Although these plants are known to be associated with natural biocide production, they have not been evaluated for their ability to remove microbiological contamination. Using amplicon sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, w...

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand."  Baba Dioum, Senegalese naturalist and poet Introduction The marine environment encompasses a broad array of ecosystems, ranging from spectacular coral reefs and kelp forests, to coastal mangroves, seagrass beds, and salt marshes, to expansive deepsea plains interspersed with trenches, seamounts, ridges, an...