Background: Manta rays (Mobulidae), Mobula birostris and Mobula alfredi, are widely distributed in tropical and temperate waters. Still, little is known about their movements and their ecological interactions (e.g. behavior and diet). In Peru, M. birostris has only been reported along the northern shore within the Tropical East Pacific Marine Province. No official reports exist from central or ...

Birds living in desert environments have been the preferred models for the study of physiological adaptations to water scarcity. Passerine birds living in marine coastal habitats face similar problems, yet physiological adaptations to water conservation in such species have been poorly documented. We measured total evaporative water loss (TEWL) and rates of oxygen consumption (VO2) in three spe...

Bulk modulus of elasticity (ɛ), depicting the flexibility of plant tissues, is recognized as an important component in maintaining internal water balance. Elevated ɛ and comparatively low osmotic potential (Ψπ) may work in concert to effectively maintain vital cellular water content. This concept, termed the 'cell water conservation hypothesis', may foster tolerance for lower soil-water potenti...

study into the mauve stinger. “The trouble is that we know so little about jellyfish,” says Haughton. Most people think of them as having little impact on ecosystems. “Now we need to learn, very quickly, about their behaviour and about their breeding patterns in our waters.” The team is getting its first basic data by monitoring the number of jellyfish spotted from the decks of ferries crossing...

Microbial processes played a major role in mineral precipitation throughout the Earth’s history. Such processes have been widely discussed for the last few decades with regard to carbonate precipitation. Other than microbial precipitation of carbonates, in natural environments is also of great interest the potential role of microbes in the precipitation of marine barite. Regarding carbonates, o...

Survival of vertebrates in hypertonic environments such as the sea is opposed by diffusional loss of water and gain of sodium, and is aided by physical barriers to such diffusion along with the ability to transport ions actively. The energy expenditure for active transport obviously must be related to the efficiency of the physical barriers that impede diffusion. The description of these proces...

A temperature-defined regime shift occurred in the 1970s in the southern Indian Ocean, with simultaneous severe decreases in many predator populations. We tested a possible biological link between the regime shift and predator declines by measuring historic and contemporary feather isotopic signatures of seven penguin species with contrasted foraging strategies and inhabiting a large latitudina...

Tetrodotoxin is a potent low weight marine toxin found in warm waters, especially of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Intoxications are usually linked to the consumption of the puffer fish, although TTX was already detected in several different edible taxa. Benthic organisms such as mollusks and echinoderms, with different feeding habits, were collected monthly along the Portuguese coast from the...

Shallow-water tropical reefs and the deep sea represent the two most diverse marine environments. Understanding the origin and diversification of this biodiversity is a major quest in ecology and evolution. The most prominent and well-supported explanation, articulated since the first explorations of the deep sea, holds that benthic marine fauna originated in shallow, onshore environments, and ...

Since the Rio Summit in 1992 the public has become increasingly aware that coastal ecosystems are under significant threat from poilution, overexploitation, and habitat loss. However, little Progress has been made in sustained global actions to reverse their degraded state. It has been no smail feat for the world cornrnunity to come to agreement on international instruments identifying environm...