BACKGROUND Although polychaetes are one of the dominant taxa in marine communities, their distributions and taxonomic diversity are poorly understood. Recent studies have shown that many species thought to have broad distributions are actually a complex of allied species. In Canada, 12% of polychaete species are thought to occur in Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans, but the extent of gene fl...

Carbonate communities: The activity of anaerobic methane oxidizing microbes facilitates precipitation of vast quantities of authigenic carbonate at methane seeps. Here we demonstrate the significant role of carbonate rocks in promoting diversity by providing unique habitat and food resources for macrofaunal assemblages at seeps on the Costa Rica margin (400-1850 m). The attendant fauna is surpr...

The distribution of macrobenthic polychaetes along the coastal waters of Penang National Park was surveyed to estimate the effect of various environmental parameters at three stations (200m, 600m and 1200m) from the shoreline, during six sampling months, from June 2010 to April 2011.The use of polychaetes in descriptive ecology is surveyed in the light of a recent investigation particularly con...

The marine aquarium industry has great potential to generate jobs in low-income coastal communities creating incentives for the maintenance of a healthy coral reef, if effectively managed. In the absence of current monitoring or legislation to govern the trade, baseline information regarding the species, number and source location of animals traded is missing despite being critical for its succ...

Molecular tools have revolutionized the exploration of biodiversity, especially in organisms for which traditional taxonomy is difficult (Tang et al., 2012). The small subunit (SSU) 18S rRNA gene is one of the most frequently used genes in phylogenetic studies and an important marker for random target PCR in environmental biodiversity screening. 18S rDNA is a nuclear ribosomal gene, commonly re...

Many coastal habitats are being substantially altered by introduced plants. In San Francisco Bay, California, USA, a hybrid form of the eastern cordgrass Spartina alterniflora is rapidly invading open mudflats in southern and central sections of the Bay, altering habitat, reducing macrofaunal densities, and shifting species composition. The invasion has resulted in significant losses of surface...

Trends among major metazoan meiofaunal taxa were investigated based on 56 deployments of a multicorer at 10 time points over a period of eleven years (1989-99) at a site on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO: 48°50 ́N 16°30 ́W, 4850 m depth). This area is characterised by a strong seasonality in the deposition of organic matter to the seafloor and by the massive increase in...

Five species of polychaetes (Spionidae) were found associated to Thalassia testudinum meadows in Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Venezuela. We included a guide for their identification and present range extensions for the Venezuelan coasts and Southern Caribbean Sea. The species are: Dipolydora socialis, Prionospio (Minuspio) cirrifera, P. (Prionospio) fallax, P. (P.) steenstrupi, and Spio pettiboneae.