The use of biological species in the monitoring of marine environmental quality allows the evaluation of biologically available levels of contaminants in the ecosystem and the effects of contaminants on living organisms. The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is a useful bioindicator because through the lepidochronology technique it is possible to obtain a historical contamination trend of a given are...

A (15)N tracer study was performed during an experimental transplantation trial of natural Posidonia oceanica cuttings. The experiment was done in situ at 17 m depth in the Revellata Bay (Calvi, NW Corsica, France). Despite high survival rates of transplants (>90%) after one year, the weight and the N content of transplants are significantly lower than those of reference plants. In absence of r...

In the last decades the growing awareness of the ecological importance of seagrass meadows has prompted increasing efforts to protect existing beds and restore degraded habitats. An in-depth knowledge of factors acting as major drivers of propagule settlement and recruitment is required in order to understand patterns of seagrass colonization and recovery and to inform appropriate management an...

Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile is an endemic Mediterranean sea-grass distributed in the infralittoral zones, where it forms meadows playing a recognized ecological role in the coastal marine habitat. Although its use as a traditional herbal remedy is poorly documented, recent literature reports interesting pharmacological activities as antidiabetic, antioxidant and vasoprotective. Differently f...

Field and laboratory experiments were designed to determine the differential growth and toxin response to inorganic and organic nitrogen additions in Pseudo-nitzschia spp. Nitrogen enrichments of 50 mM nitrate (KNO3), 10 mM ammonium (NH4Cl), 20 mM urea and a control (no addition) were carried out in separate carboys with seawater collected from the mouth of the San Francisco Bay (Bolinas Bay), ...

Kiwi (Apteryx: Struthioniformes) are a family of ratite birds confined entirely to New Zealand. Since 1813, at least ten species have been described. Recent taxonomy has accepted three species: A. owenii (little spotted kiwi), A. haastii (great spotted kiwi) and A. australis (brown kiwi). Apteryx australis has three subspecies: A. a. australis (South Island); A. a. mantelli (North Island); and ...

results in vitro analysis showed that the greater the concentration of the extract, the greater the cytotoxicity. conclusions the crude extract of p. australis might be cytotoxic at high concentrations as evaluated against the cell line. materials and methods the mtt cytotoxicity assay was performed on a 3t3 mouse fibroblast cell line to measure the in vitro cytotoxic activity of the crude form...