Melioidosis is a disease caused by bacteria called B. pseudomallei. Infections can develop after contact with standing water. This disease can reach all the organs and especially the lungs. It is associated with a high mortality rate (up to 50%). Melioidosis is endemic in northern Australia and in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, B. pseudomallei may be endemic in the Indian Ocean region and in Mad...

A visual survey of cetaceans was carried out during a voyage from Singapore to Sri Lanka, through the Straits of Malacca, Andaman Sea and across the Bay of Bengal in the northern Indian Ocean in November/December 2012. Forty sightings of 11 cetacean species were recorded in 19 days of observation. Two mixed-species associations of interest were recorded. One of these contained four species of o...

[1] The sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of the tropical Indian Ocean show a pronounced warming since the 1950s. We have analyzed the impact of this warming on Sahelian rainfall and on the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) by conducting ensemble experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model. Additionally, we investigate the impact of the other two tropical oceans on these two climate ...

Two specimens representing two hippolytid genera were sampled recently from the Coral Seamount, southwest Indian Ocean, at 732 m water depth. Lebbeus ketophilos sp. nov. and Eualus oreios sp. nov. are described and illustrated and their morphologies are compared with those of previously described species. The new species are closest in morphology to L. indicus Holthuis, 1947 and E. kinzeri Tief...

17 18 Regional patterns of tropical Indo-Pacific climate change are investigated over the last six 19 decades based on a synthesis of in situ observations and ocean model simulations, with a 20 focus on physical consistency among sea surface temperature (SST), cloud, sea level 21 pressure (SLP), surface wind, and subsurface ocean temperature. A newly-developed 22 bias-corrected surface wind dat...

[1] Investigating the September to December rainy season in Sri Lanka associated with the Maha rice growing season provides insights into the Asian monsoon during the boreal fall. Here, the modulation of the Maha rainfall by the tropical air_sea coupled phenomenon referred to as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is documented. The Maha rainfall has a strong and robust association with the IOD from ...

Three species of the pagurid hermit crab genus Pagurixus Melin, 1939, are reported from Europa Island in the Mozambique Strait, western Indian Ocean: P. haigae Komai & Osawa, 2007, P. annulus n. sp., and P. europa n. sp. Pagurixus haigae is recorded from the western Indian Ocean for the first time. Pagurixus annulus n. sp. and P. europa n. sp. are referred to the P. boninensis (Melin, 1939) spe...

The Litophyton species of the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean are revised, which includes species previously belonging to the genus Nephthea, which is synonymized with Litophyton. A neotype for both Litophyton arboreum, the type species of Litophyton, and Nephthea chabrolii, the type species of Nephthea, are designated. The new species Litophyton curvum sp. n. is described and depicted, an...

The Southwest Indian Ridge is the longest section of very slow to ultraslow-spreading seafloor in the global mid-ocean ridge system, but the biogeography and ecology of its hydrothermal vent fauna are previously unknown. We collected 21 macro- and megafaunal taxa during the first Remotely Operated Vehicle dives to the Longqi vent field at 37° 47'S 49° 39'E, depth 2800 m. Six species are not yet...

The surface wind stress curl is the forcing function in the equations of vertically integrated water transport of wind-driven ocean currents. Hence, i t has become a basic quantity in theoretical oceanography. As the time dependence of all important surface quantities in the Indian Ocean is stronger than in other oceans, it is valuable to look particularly a t the time variation in this region....