To test vicariant speciation hypotheses derived from geological evidence of the closing of the Tethys Sea, we reconstruct phylogenetic relationships of the predominantly fresh-water killifish genus Aphanius using 3263 aligned base pairs of mitochondrial DNA from samples representing 49 populations of 13 species. We use additional 11 cyprinodontid species as outgroup taxa. Genes analysed include...

The present report studies synoptic-scale variations of the polar air-mass transformed over the Japan Sea, during the ‘‘East Japan Sea Observation’’ in the winters of 1976 and 1977. Rawinsonde observation data at a research vessel are used, in addition to data at operational upper observation stations and the objective analysis data. The multi-layer structure of the transformed air-mass, includ...

Compiled by Manoj Prathapan, Amrita institute of Medical Sciences. Cochin Cataract surgery in its simplest form is at least 4000 years old. Couching for cataract was the earliest method at about 2000 BC, and even then was evidently practiced in the Tigris / Euphrates area, India and Japan. The earliest records are from the early Hindu records of Susruta’s time and from Bible and Red Sea Scrolls...

The Baltic Sea is the second largest (373 000 km) brackish water system in the world and experiences long periods of anoxia and hypoxia (\2 ml l) below the halocline at approximately 80 m depth. This ‘dead zone’ could have a below-halocline extension of 70 000 km (2011), which is similar to the area of Scotland. Although the Baltic Sea has had periods of low oxygen in historical times (Zillén e...

A sea border provides trading opportunities for nations and enables participation in the world market and therefore economic growth. In this essay sea access is considered a significant limiting factor in the economic success of African countries. Research of this hypothesis illustrates a positive relationship between access to the sea and the economic success of African nations when Gross Nati...

Remote sensing has changed modern oceanography by proving synoptic periodic data which can be processed. Since the satellite data are usually too much and nonlinear, in most cases, it is difficult to distinguish the patterns from these images. In fact, SOM (Self-Organizing Maps) model is a type of ANN (Artificial Neural Network) that has the ability to distinguish the efficient patterns from th...

Remote sensing has changed modern oceanography by proving synoptic periodic data which can be processed. Since the satellite data are usually too much and nonlinear, in most cases, it is difficult to distinguish the patterns from these images. In fact, SOM (Self-Organizing Maps) model is a type of ANN (Artificial Neural Network) that has the ability to distinguish the efficient patterns from th...

Caspian Sea with an average depth of 27m is the largest enclosed water body in the world. Despite its enormity and valuable biotic and economic resources, investigations on the biota and seawater properties are mosaic at best. In previous studies, the monitoring of the chlorophyll-a concentrations in the Southern Caspian Sea was organized based on satellite data sets however, vertical dis...

Exposure to contaminants other than petroleum hydrocarbons could confound interpretation of Exxon Valdez oil spill effects on biota at Prince William Sound, Alaska. Hence, we investigated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in blood of sea otters and harlequin ducks sampled during 1998. PCB concentrations characterized by lower chlorinated congeners were highest in sea otters from the unoiled area...