Global change has led to manifold changes of marine ecosystems and biodiversity world-wide. While it been shown that certain jellyfish comb jelly species have increased regionally, remains be investigated if this is a general trend or localized phenomenon. Especially for the economically important Baltic Sea, which characterized by an extreme physical environmental gradient, question not addres...

The insect chemoreceptor superfamily consists of 2 gene families, the highly diverse gustatory receptors (GRs) found in all arthropods with sequenced genomes and the odorant receptors that evolved from a GR lineage and have been found only in insects to date. Here, I describe relatives of the insect chemoreceptor superfamily, specifically the basal GR family, in diverse other animals, showing t...

Research on the effects of declining abundances of the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) in Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries has primarily focused on the role of oysters in filtration and nutrient dynamics, and as habitat for fish or fish prey. Oysters also play a key role in providing substrate for the overwintering polyp stage of the scyphomedusa sea nettle, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, wh...

The Venice Lagoon is an important site belonging to the Italian Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER). Alongside with increasing trend of water temperature and relevant morphological changes, in recent years, resident zooplankton populations have also continued cope colonization by alien species, particularly strong competitor Mnemiopsis leidyi . In this work, we compared dynamics lagoon...

The indigenous ctenophore Pleurobrachia pileus (O.F. Müller, 1776) was common in the coastal waters of English Channel early 1990s and showed very abundant populations downstream part Seine estuary. In 2005, non-indigenous Mnemiopsis leidyi A. Agassiz, 1868, a species native to Western Atlantic, reported for first time Europe Norwegian fjords Le Havre harbour (Seine estuary, France). More recen...

 The present study was carried out during 2006-2007 along the southern Caspian Sea. The species composition showed that the common kilka, Clupeonella cultriventris caspia, is dominant species with 89% and then anchovy, C. engrauliformis, has shown only 8.7% while it was already dominant species in the past decades. The overall results indicated that common kilka was replaced with anchov...