Environmental research on aquatic microorganisms, such as phytoplankton, aquatic bacteria, and aquatic viruses, often takes advantage of their natural chlorophyll, phycobilins, and other intrinsic fluorescent pigments. Although epifluorescence microscopy is still used frequently, flow cytometry has become a key research tool due to its ability to provide multiparametric analysis at the single-c...

Urs Uehlinger Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), CH-8600 D€ ubendorf, Switzerland Karl M. Wantzen Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, ATIG-Aquatic-Terrestrial Interaction Group, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany Rob S.E.W. Leuven Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR), Faculty of Sci...

Invertebrates and plants are among the most ubiquitous and abundant macroscopic organisms in aquatic ecosystems; they dominate most habitats in both diversity and biomass and play central roles in aquatic food webs. Plants regulate and create habitats for a wide array of organisms (Cooke et al. 2005). Snail grazing and bivalve filtering profoundly alter habitats and communities (Harvey and Hill...

BACKGROUND Despite the health benefits of swimming as a form of exercise, evidence exists that both the swimming pool environment and endurance exercise are etiologic factors in the development of asthma. The prevalence of asthma in swimmers is high compared with that in participants in other Olympic sport disciplines. There are no publications comparing the prevalence of asthma in the 5 aquati...

Beaver dams tend to increase habitat heterogeneity by breaking up streams into lentic and lotic sections. I investigated the impact of beaver dams on macroinvertebrates in and near Cart Creek in Newbury, MA. I found that the high spatial density of dams on this small creek suppresses aquatic species diversity, but the ponds might be increasing the species diversity of terrestrial macroinvertebr...

In this paper, we examine the utility of a heterogeneous fleet of aquatic robots to cooperatively assess large-scale aquatic ecosystems, with a specific focus on representing the responses of coral reef ecosystems to climate change. We approach this problem through a unique blend of persistent aquatic sampling, vision-based sensing, and cooperative mission planning across a fleet of heterogeneo...

The study of the holotype and of a new specimen of Nanchangosaurus suni (Reptilia; Diapsida; Hupehsuchia) revealed a suite of hitherto unrecognized characters. For example, Nanchangosaurus has bipartite neural spines and its vertebral count is nearly identical to that of Hupehsuchus. It differs from the latter in having poorly developed forelimbs despite the advanced ossification in the rest of...

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Primary producers play critical structural and functional roles in aquatic ecosystems; therefore, it is imperative that the potential risks of toxicants to aquatic plants are adequately assessed in the risk assessment of chemicals. The standard required macrophyte test species is the floating (non-sediment-rooted) duckweed Lemna spp. This macrophyte species might not...

Evolutionary trajectories are often biased by developmental and historical factors. However, environmental factors can also impose constraints on the evolutionary trajectories of organisms leading to convergence of morphology in similar ecological contexts. The physical properties of water impose strong constraints on aquatic feeding animals by generating pressure waves that can alert prey and ...