Subfossil biotic assemblages in surface sediments of lakes have been used to infer ecological conditions across environmental gradients.. Local variables are usually the major drives of assemblage composition, but in remote oceanic islands biogeographic filters may play a significant role. To assess the contribution of local and regional filters in the composition of subfossil diatoms and chiro...

The extinct São Miguel Scops Owl Otusfrutuosoi n. sp. is described from fossil bones found in Gruta de Água de Pau, a volcanic tube in São Miguel Island (Azores Archipelago, North Atlantic Ocean). It is the first extinct bird described from the Azores and, after the Madeiran Scops Owl (O. mauli Rando, Pieper, Alcover & Olson 2012a), the second extinct species of Strigiformes known in Macaronesi...

A great number of scientific papers claim that angiosperm diversification is manifested by an ample differentiation of diaspore traits favouring long-distance seed dispersal. Oceanic islands offer an ideal framework to test whether the acquisition of multiple sets of diaspore traits (syndromes) by a single species results in a wider geographic distribution. To this end, we performed floristic a...

Two common indicators of Atlantic climate variability, viz., the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) and the crossintertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) sea surface temperature (SST) gradient, are examined for their frequency characteristics and midlatitude-tropical links. SST anomalies north and south of the ITCZ are found to be uncorrelated on all time scales, while the sea level pressure (SLP) f...

Morphometric variation in the squid Loligo forbesi was investigated to quantify effects of region, season, sex and maturity. Practical exercises were carried out using this species and the congeneric Loligo vulgaris to evaluate differences in measurements by different workers. The utility of meristic characters was also examined. Consistent significant differences were found between measurement...

Influence of chemosynthetic substrates availability on symbiont densities, carbon assimilation and transfer in the dual symbiotic vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus V. Riou, S. Halary, S. Duperron, S. Bouillon, M. Elskens, R. Bettencourt, R. S. Santos, F. Dehairs, and A. Colaço Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, IMAR-University of Azores, Horta, Portugal Department of Analytical and Envi...

Azorean Biodiversity Group, CITA-A, Universidade dos Açores, Rua Capitão João d¢Ávila, 9700-042 Angra do Heroı́smo, Terceira, Azores, Portugal, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK, Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, IPNA-CSIC, C/ Astrofı́sico Francisco Sánchez 3, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary I...

The Madeiran wall lizard Teira dugesii is a relatively new species to the Azores Archipelago, where it was accidentally introduced about 150 200 years ago. This lacertid quickly became naturalised and now occurs in all nine main islands of Azores. At Praia Islet, off Graciosa Island, recently observed preying on chicks threatened Monteiro’s storm-petrel Hydrobates monteiroi . To characterise li...

Ten passerine species were examined on three islands of the Azores (North Atlantic) during 2013 and 2014 in order to identify their feather mite assemblages. We recorded 19 feather mite species belonging to four families of the superfamily Analgoidea (Analgidae, Proctophyllodidae, Psoroptoididae and Trouessartiidae). A high prevalence of feather mite species was recorded on the majority of the ...