Quite a few studies have documented the evolution of monsoon synoptic systems and midlatitude atmospheric blocking associated with the recent heavy precipitation and floods over northwest Pakistan during 2010. This period also witnessed a very unusual Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) evolution with a strong La Niña event in the Pacific, substantial Indian Ocean warming, and a negative...

Analyses of instrumental data demonstrate robust linkages between decadal-scale North Pacific and tropical Indo-Pacific climatic variability. These linkages encompass common regime shifts, including the noteworthy 1976 transition in Pacific climate. However, information on Pacific decadal variability and the tropical high-latitude climate connection is limited prior to the twentieth century. He...

In this study we investigated the influence of sea surface temperature (SST) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) on the organization, strength, and distribution of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) over the Indo-Pacific region for understanding El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The study is based on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission’s (TRMM) precipitation features dataset during bore...

Echinoids fauna are common and distributed in the Lower Miocene deposits of the Bagher Abad area, northeast Isfahan, Central Iran.There are six Echinoid taxa belonging to the Echinoidea Class that can be described as: Clypeaster intermedius, Prinocidaris sp. andspines related to: Eucidaris zaemays, Stylocidaris Polyacantha, Spatangoid sp. and Prinocidaris sp. Bivalves, Foraminifers,Bryozoans, B...

The black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) is an ecologically and economically important penaeid species and is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific region. Here we investigated the genetic diversity of P. monodon (n = 355) from eight geographical regions by genotyping at 10 microsatellite loci. The average observed heterozygosity at various loci ranged from 0.638 to 0.743, indicating a high le...

Recently, two introduced tunicate species Ecteinascidia thurstoni Herdman, 1891 and Clavelina cyclus Tokioka & Nishikawa, 1975 were discovered in the coastal waters of Thailand. E. thurstoni was found in Andaman Sea, the west coast of Thailand while C. cyclus was first recorded in the east coast, upper Gulf of Thailand. From the historical records, E. thurstoni can be found in South Asia, South...

A new genus of paralcyoniid soft corals (Octocorallia: Paralcyoniidae) from the Indo-West Pacific is described and named Ceeceenus. The new genus is compared with the related genera Paralcyonium Milne Edwards, 1850 and Studeriotes Thomson & Simpson, 1909. Four new species are described and included in the new genus. They were found in Thailand, Japan, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

[1] Following an El Niño event, a basin-wide warming takes place over the tropical Indian Ocean, peaks in late boreal winter and early spring, and persists through boreal summer. Our observational analysis suggests that this Indian Ocean warming induces robust climatic anomalies in the summer Indo-West Pacific region, prolonging the El Niño’s influence after tropical East Pacific sea surface te...

The family Sciaenidae, known as croakers or drums, is one of the largest perciform fish families. A recent multi-gene based study investigating the phylogeny and biogeography of global sciaenids revealed that the origin and early diversification of this family occurred in tropical America during the Late Oligocene-Early Miocene before undergoing range expansions to other seas including the Indo...