The invasion of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, into North American waters has resulted in profound ecological disturbances and large monetary losses. This study examined the invasion history and patterns of genetic diversity among endemic and invading populations of zebra mussels using DNA sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. Patterns of haplotype frequency...

Kouraev et al. 2003: Polar Research 22(1), 43–50 A stable and strong ice cover forms during winter months in the Aral Sea and northern part of the Caspian Sea. The presence of ice cover negatively affects navigation and fi shery condi tions and endangers facilities located on the coast as well as on the shelf, such as oil rigs that have recently been installed in the northern Caspian by Russia ...

Persistent organic pollutants including organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, and PCDDs/DFs were determined in the blubber of Caspian seals, which died during an outbreak of canine distemper virus in 2000 and 2001. DDTs were the predominant contaminants that ranged from 3.1 to 560 microg/g lipid. A negative correlation was observed between concentration of contaminants and blubber thickness. During ...

We developed and tested eight polymorphic microsatellite loci for Ponto-Caspian 'neogobiin' gobies, many of which are invasive in Eurasia and North America, whose study will aid understanding of the population genetics underlying their success. We tested samples from one to two locations from 12 taxa in the recently revised genera Babka, Benthophilus, Mesogobius, Neogobius = Apollonia, Ponticol...

Tides are the main type of sea level variability in the world oceans. However, oceanic tides penetrate weakly, or do not penetrate at all, into enclosed basins such as the Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas. Consequently, only directly forced tides are formed in these basins. Long observation time series (up to 123 years in the Baltic Sea and 38 years in the Black and Caspian seas) at numerous sta...

The objective of the current study was determined chemical composition (including protein, lipid, ash and moisture) and content of minerals (Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, Cr, Ca, Na, Mg, Mo, P, Se, K, I and F) in five fish species from the South Caspian Sea. The chemical analysis revealed that the protein content of common kilka, Caspian kutum, common carp, pike perch and golden grey mullet was 18.35%, 21.39...

[1] The Arabia-Eurasia collision deforms an area of 3,000,000 km of continental crust, making it one of the largest regions of convergent deformation on Earth. There are now estimates for the active slip rates, total convergence and timing of collision-related deformation of regions from western Turkey to eastern Iran. This paper shows that extrapolating the present day slip rates of many activ...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to provide the age- and sex-specific percentile values of anthropometric measures for Iranian children and adolescents. METHODS This cross-sectional nationwide survey was conducted on a representative sample of 14,880 school students, selected by multistage random cluster sampling from urban and rural areas of 30 provinces in Iran. Anthropometric measures i...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of obesity is increasing among Iranian youngsters like other developing countries. OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to assess regional disparities in sedentary behaviors and meal frequency in Iranian adolescents. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this national survey, 5682 students aged 10 - 18 years from urban and rural districts of 27 provinces of Iran were selected via...