Animal physiology, ecology and evolution are affected by temperature and it is expected that community structure will be strongly influenced by global warming. This is particularly relevant in the tropics, where organisms are already living close to their upper temperature limits and hence are highly vulnerable to rising temperature. Here we present data on upper temperature limits of 34 tropic...

We can gain biomechanical insights if we couple knowledge of the environments, ecological roles and life history strategies of organisms with our laboratory analyses of their mechanical function or fluid dynamics, as illustrated by studies of the mechanical design of bottom-dwelling marine organisms. Obviously, measurements of the spatial and temporal distribution of loads on an organism in nat...

The intra-specific diversity in secondary metabolites can provide crucial information for understanding species ecology and evolution but has received limited attention in marine chemical ecology. The complex nature of diversity is partially responsible for the lack of studies, which often target a narrow number of major compounds. Here, we investigated the intra-specific chemical diversity of ...

The widespread occurrence and accumulation of plastic waste in the environment have become a growing global concern over the past decade. Although some marine organisms have been shown to ingest plastic, few studies have investigated the ecological effects of plastic waste on animals. Here we show that exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic polystyrene particles (90...

study into the mauve stinger. “The trouble is that we know so little about jellyfish,” says Haughton. Most people think of them as having little impact on ecosystems. “Now we need to learn, very quickly, about their behaviour and about their breeding patterns in our waters.” The team is getting its first basic data by monitoring the number of jellyfish spotted from the decks of ferries crossing...

The marine environment is a rich source of both biological and chemical diversity. This diversity has been the source of unique chemical compounds with the potential for industrial development as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, molecular probes, fine chemicals and agrochemicals. In recent years, a significant number of novel metabolites with potent pharmacological propertie...

In order to search for novel bioactive substances from marine organisms, we investigated the acetone extract of the soft coral Nephthea chabrolii collected at San-Hsian-Tai, Taitong County, Taiwan. From this extract three new 19-oxygenated steroids, nebrosteroids N-P (1-3) were isolated. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analyses.

We report a complex set of scaling relationships between mutation and reproduction in a simple model of a population. These follow from a consideration of patterns of genetic diversity in a sample of DNA sequences. Five different possible limit processes, each with a different scaled mutation parameter, can be used to describe genetic diversity in a large population. Only one of these correspon...

There are numerous biologically active substances with novel structures and unique physiological functions in marine organisms. These substances are important sources of new lead compounds. Pelorol is a natural product isolated from marine organisms that possesses a novel structure with high bioactivity. In this paper, the synthesis of pelorol has been completed, and the synthesis of some inter...