A rise in atmospheric O(2) has been linked to the Cambrian explosion of life. For the plankton and animal radiation that began some 40 million yr later and continued through much of the Ordovician (Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event), the search for an environmental trigger(s) has remained elusive. Here we present a carbon and sulfur isotope mass balance model for the latest Cambrian tim...

Parasitic interactions are often part of complex networks of interspecific relationships that have evolved in biological communities. Despite many years of work on the evolution of parasitism, the likelihood that sister taxa of parasites can co-evolve with their hosts to specifically infect two related lineages, even when those hosts occur sympatrically, is still unclear. Furthermore, when thes...

Effects of polychlor~nated b~phenyls (PCBs) on a natural rnarlne rcosystem were studied employing controlled ecosystem enclosures (CEEs) which conta~ned 68 m ' of srdwater and the natural sea-water biota (Saan~ch Inlet, Br~tish Co lumb~a , Canada) Follotv~ng a d d ~ t ~ o ~ l of PCBs 150 { r r j I l ) to a CEE, prlmary productivity was initially reduced by PCBs to less than 30 % of the control ...

The submarine volcano eruption off El Hierro Island (Canary Islands) on 10 October 2011 promoted dramatic perturbation of the water column leading to changes in the distribution of pelagic fauna. To study the response of the scattering biota, we combined acoustic data with hydrographic profiles and concurrent sea surface turbidity indexes from satellite imagery. We also monitored changes in the...

The current coarse resolution version of the Community Climate 19 System Model (CCSM) is used to assess the impact of phytoplankton on El 20 Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The experimental setup allows for the sepa21 ration of the effects of climatological annual cycle chlorophyll distribution from its 22 interannually varying part. The main finding is that the chlorophyll production 23 by p...

Impacts of ocean acidification (OA) on marine biota have been observed in a wide range of marine systems. We used a mesocosm approach to study the response of a high Arctic coastal microzooplankton community during the post-bloom period in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard) to direct and indirect effects of high pCO2/low pH. We found almost no direct effects of OA on microzooplankton composition and diver...

Ocean acidification (OA), a process of increasing seawater acidity caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) by the ocean, is expected to change surface ocean pH to levels unprecedented for millions of years, affecting marine food web structures and trophic interactions. Using an in situ mesocosm approach we investigated effects of OA on community composition and trophic transf...

The effects of submarine groundwater on the native plankton populations of a coastal area were examined through a series of in situ groundwater addition experiments carried out during the summer in a Mediterranean embayment. Different percentages (4, 8, 10 and 12%) of groundwater extracted from 2 intertidal coastal localities subjected to different land uses were added to picoplankton-dominated...