The global aquatic pet trade encompasses a wide diversity of freshwater and marine organisms. While relying on a continual supply of healthy, vibrant aquatic animals, few sustainability initiatives exist within this sector. Public aquariums overlap this industry by acquiring many of the same species through the same sources. End users are also similar, as many aquarium visitors are home aquaris...

Synchronized transitions in the polymorph mineralogy of the major reef-building and sediment-producing calcareous marine organisms and abiotic CaCO3 precipitates (ooids, marine cements) throughout Phanerozoic time are believed to have been caused by tectonically induced variations in the Mg/Ca ratio of seawater (molar Mg/Ca>2=“aragonite seas”, <2=“calcite seas”). Here, I assess the geological e...

Urban structures in the form of pontoons and pilings represent major coastal habitats for marine organisms and understanding the factors causing abundances of organisms to differ between these and natural habitat has been neglected in the study of coastal ecology. It has been proposed that composition of substrata explain differences previously described between subtidal assemblages of epibiota...

Functional connectivity, the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement, depends on how animals perceive costs and benefits associated with habitat features and integrate them into a movement path. There have been few studies on functional connectivity in marine organisms, despite its importance for the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas. In this study, we asked how open...

Artificial structures can create novel habitat in the marine environment that has been associated with the spread of invasive species. They are often located in areas of high disturbance and can vary significantly in the area of free space provided for settlement of marine organisms. Whilst correlation between the amount of free space available and recruitment success has been shown in populati...

Ocean acidification is a growing environmental problem, and there is a need to investigate how the decreasing pH will affect marine organisms. Here we studied the effects of lowered pH on the growth and development of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) eggs. Adult fish, collected from the natural environment, were allowed to mate in aquaria and the newly produced eggs were incu...

Among methanogens, only 2 genera, Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina, are known to contribute to methanogenesis from acetate, and Methanosaeta is a specialist that uses acetate specifically. However, Methanosaeta strains so far have mainly been isolated from anaerobic digesters, despite the fact that it is widespread, not only in anaerobic methanogenic reactors and freshwater environments, but als...

The widespread contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has created a need for cost-effective bioremediation processes. This research studied a chronically PAH-contaminated estuarine sediment from the East River (ER; NY, USA) characterized by high concentrations of PAHs (approximately 4-190 ppm), sulfide, and metals and a marine sediment from New York/ New Jersey Harbor (NY/NJH;...

Despite large-scale development on the North Slope, no recent studies examining Alaskan arctic marine sediment microbial communities and their ability to metabolize petroleum compounds have been published. Microbial degradation of spilled petroleum hydrocarbons is a major mechanism of removal of these compounds from the environment. In this study we initiated a survey of marine sediment microbi...

Almost all ICES member countries have policies that address the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems. These policies may explicitly be framed as an implementation of an ecosystem approach. An important example is the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) of the European Union (EC, 2008), which is a comprehensive framework for achieving good environmental status (GES) for Europe...