The behaviour of pollinators has important consequences for plant mating. Nectar-feeding birds often display that results in more pollen carryover than insect pollinators, which is predicted to result frequent outcrossing and high paternal diversity bird-pollinated plants. We tested this prediction by quantifying mating system parameters bird visitation three populations an understory herb, Ani...

Tuna purse seine fishery is a commercial and industrial fishery in the Iranian waters of Oman Sea. An observer programme was conducted to identify the by-catch composition of the tuna purse seine fishery in the Iranian waters of the Oman Sea. Investigations were carried out on board of purse seiner vessel “named Parsian Shila” between September and October 2015. The by-catch was composed of 17 ...

Peruvian waters exhibit high conservation value for sharks. This contrasts with a lag in initiatives for their management and a lack of studies about their biology, ecology and fishery. We investigated the dynamics of Peruvian shark fishery and its legal framework identifying information gaps for recommending actions to improve management. Further, we investigated the importance of the Peruvian...

The period of parental care can be a demanding life-history stage because parents need to find sufficient resources to feed themselves and their offspring. Often, this is reflected by elevated baseline levels of glucocorticoids—hormones that regulate metabolism and energy allocation. During 10 breeding seasons, we studied plasma corticosterone (the major avian glucocorticoid) concentrations as ...

Since nanofibers have a high surface-to-volume ratio, van der Waals forces render them attracted to virtually any surface. The ratio provides significant advantages for applications in drug delivery, wound healing, tissue regeneration, and filtration. Cribellate spiders integrate thousands of into their capture threads as an adhesive immobilize prey. These antiadhesive nanoripples on the calami...

The burgeoning and largely unregulated trade in shark fins represents one of the most serious threats to shark populations worldwide. In Hong Kong, the world's largest shark fin market, fins are classified by traders into Chinese-name categories on the basis of market value, but the relationship between market category and shark species is unclear preventing identification of species that are t...

BACKGROUND An increasing awareness of the vulnerability of sharks to exploitation by shark finning has contributed to a growing concern about an unsustainable shark fishery. Taiwan's fleet has the 4th largest shark catch in the world, accounting for almost 6% of the global figures. Revealing the diversity of sharks consumed by Taiwanese is important in designing conservation plans. However, fin...

Interactions between pelagic thresher sharks (Alopias pelagicus) and cleaner wrasse were investigated at a seamount in the Philippines. Cleaning associations between sharks and teleosts are poorly understood, but the observable interactions seen at this site may explain why these mainly oceanic sharks regularly venture into shallow coastal waters where they are vulnerable to disturbance from hu...