Kawamoto had reported that eel hemoglobin has a hyperbolic oxygen equilibrium function, with n in the Hill equation equal to 1. On the basis of Kawamoto's data and with new measurements, it is shown that the equilibrium function is in fact S-shaped, as in most other vertebrates, and n in Hill's equation equals 1.8.

Highly oxygenated freshwater habitats in the High Paraná River (Argentina-Paraguay) were home to highly endemic snails of the genus Aylacostoma, which face extinction owing to the impoundment of the Yacyretá Reservoir in the 1990s. Two species, A. chloroticum and A. brunneum, are currently included in an ongoing ex situ conservation programme, whereas A. guaraniticum and A. stigmaticum are pres...

Methods We described the biogeographical provinces of lower Mesoamerica (LMA) using presence/absence data of primary and secondary LMA freshwater fishes. We conducted subsequent analyses at the spatial resolution of the biogeographical provinces and described patterns of community composition, species richness, endemism, range size, and the permeability of dispersal barriers between biogeograph...

The evolutionary relationships between island and mainland faunas of the 24 species of insular freshwater crabs in the Afrotropical region are reviewed in the light of phylogenetic studies. Twenty insular species of freshwater crabs are endemic, and four are also found on the neighboring mainland of Africa. The Atlantic Ocean islands of Sherbro, Bioko, Príncipe, and São Tomé support five specie...

The role of surface freshwater flux boundary conditions in prognostic Arctic Ocean/sea-ice modelling is analysed, using a regional numerical model. Three different applications of freshwater flux formulations are evaluated. The standard formulation, which serves as a benchmark, takes surface volume fluxes due to precipitation, evaporation and river runoff into account. The total freshwater inpu...

The major groups of biochemical compounds (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, chitin, nucleic acids and nucleotides) have a distinct functional role and, therefore, incorporation of biochemical interpretations into stoichiometric analysis would improve our current understanding of species life histories and their interactions. A review of the stoichiometric composition of the main biochemical com...

Amphidromy is a diadromous life history pattern, common in tropical and subtropical freshwater caridean shrimps, in which adults live, breed and spawn small-sized embryos in freshwater but have extended larval development (ELD) in marine waters. Most completely freshwater species spawn large embryos with either direct or abbreviated larval development (ALD). An important benefit of amphidromy i...

Variation in the extent and magnitude of genome-wide linkage disequilibrium (LD) among populations residing in different habitats has seldom been studied in wild vertebrates. We used a total of 109 microsatellite markers to quantify the level and patterns of genome-wide LD in 13 Fennoscandian nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) populations from four (viz. marine, lake, pond, and river...