Microsatellite markers have been used to study the genetic variability of rainbow wrasse (Coris julis) Mediterranean and Atlantic populations. Differentiation tests failed to reveal any significant genetic differentiation among samples from continental Portugal and the Azores, despite more than 1800 km of geographical separation. Preliminary results tended to indicate a significant genetic diff...

We present tomographic evidence for the existence of deep-mantle thermal convection plumes. P-wave velocity images show at least six well-resolved plumes that extend into the lowermost mantle: Ascension, Azores, Canary, Easter, Samoa, and Tahiti. Other less well-resolved plumes, including Hawaii, may also reach the lowermost mantle. We also see several plumes that are mostly confined to the upp...

Primers were developed for 10 microsatellite loci for two species of Oceanodroma storm-petrels. Variability was tested in 27 O. castro and 22 O. monteiroi from the Azores, and 24 O. leucorhoa from Norway. At least six loci amplified reliably and were polymorphic in each species. The number of alleles per locus averaged 4.6, and observed heterozygosities averaged 0.41. Most primers also yielded ...

MARK BOLTON 1,2 *, ANDREA L. SMITH 3 , ELENA GÓMEZ-DÍAZ 4 , VICKI L. FRIESEN 3 , RENATA MEDEIROS 1 , JOËL BRIED 1 , JOSE L. ROSCALES 4 & ROBERT W. FURNESS 5 1 Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, University of the Azores, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal 2 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK Headquarters, The Lodge, Sandy, Beds, SG19 2DL, UK 3 Department of Biology, Queen’s University, K...

The genus Brevicellicium encompasses wood-inhabiting corticioid fungi characterized by isodiametric subhymenial hyphae, short basidia, and smooth, often subangular spores with a distinct apiculus. Eight new LSU nrDNA sequences and 13 new ITS nrDNA of this genus, including the type species, were aligned with 47 and 42 accessions respectively of species of Trechisporales obtained from GenBank, an...

We describe Canariphantes junipericola n. sp. and C. relictus n. sp., new single-island endemic linyphiid spiders from the islands of Flores and Santa Maria (Azorean archipelago, Macaronesia), respectively. The female of the first species was incorrectly assigned to Canariphantes acoreensis (Wunderlich, 1992), a species occurring in four islands in the Central Group of Azores (Faial, Pico, São ...

We assessed the effectiveness of very high spatial resolution IKONOS imagery for mapping a top invasive woody plant, Pittosporum undulatum, in a Protected Area in S.Miguel Island. We developed a segmentation-based classification scheme. A strong separability between most important land cover classes and a high accuracy in supervised classification maps was achieved. Overall separability improve...

Thomas J. Matthews* and Robert J. Whittaker Conservation Biogeography and Macroecology Group, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK; Azorean Biodiversity Group (ABG, CITA-A) and Portuguese Platform for Enhancing Ecological Research & Sustainability (PEERS), Departamento de Ciências Agr arias, University of the Azores, Rua Capit~ ao J...