The deadly neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) is found in a variety of animal phyla and, because of its toxicity, is most often assumed to deter predation. On the tropical Pacific island of Guam, we found an undescribed flatworm (planocerid sp. 1) that contains high levels of TTX and its analogs. Through ecological experiments, we show that TTXs do not protect these flatworms from some predators but...

Subseabed CO2 storage is considered a future climate change mitigation technology. We investigated the ecological consequences of CO2 leakage for a marine benthic ecosystem. For the first time with a multidisciplinary integrated study, we tested hypotheses derived from a meta-analysis of previous experimental and in situ high-CO2 impact studies. For this, we compared ecological functions of nat...

Recent research into the origins and compositions of the stomach oils unique to sea~birds of the order Procellariifonnes is reviewed. The sources of these oils, most of which contain mainly wax esters and/or trigIycerides, is discussed in relation to the presence of such compounds in the marine environment. A number of functions are proposed as the ecological roles of the oils, including their ...

Stable mating relationships are widespread in our species, with important economic, social and reproductive implications. 1 Pair-bonds are part of the unique human mosaic including very large brains, childhood, concealed ovulation, sexual intercourse in private, cultural symbols, and complex social groups. Yet we understand relatively little about the evolution of human pairing, its functions, ...

We introduce a new method for quantifying the ecological condition (C) of sites based on documented species’ responses to environmental stress. Preliminary research is needed to establish species-specific logistic functions, representing probabilities of finding individual species across an explicit reference gradient, ranging from maximally stressed (C = 0) to minimally stressed (C = 10) local...

Ecological systems usually are heterogeneous, and this heterogeneity has important functional consequences. Nevertheless, it is not always necessary for ecologists to explicitly include this heterogeneity in their studies and models of ecological systems. Heterogeneity may be safely ignored if its grain size is much smaller than the spatial extent over which measurements are integrated or much ...

The life cycle of many dinoflagellates includes at least one nonflagellated benthic stage (cyst). In the literature, the different types of dinoflagellate cysts are mainly defined based on morphological (number and type of layers in the cell wall) and functional (long- or short-term endurance) differences. These characteristics were initially thought to clearly distinguish pellicle (thin-walled...

Although eID technology has undergone several development cycles and eID have been issued to citizens of various European countries, it is still not as broadly used as originally expected. One reason is the absence of compelling use cases besides eGovernment. Current Research focuses mainly on the needs of the user and technical aspects. The economic perspective is often disregarded. This is es...

Most ecological interactions occur in environments that are spatially and temporally heterogeneous-'patchy'-across a wide range of scales. In contrast, most theoretical models of ecological interactions, especially large-scale models applied to societal issues such as climate change, resource management and human health, are based on 'mean field' approaches in which the underlying patchiness of...