The digestive organs in decapodiform cephalopod species morphologically vary by individual lifestyle. We examined the following six species of adult decapodiformes cephalopods representing different habitats: Todarodes pacificus, Loligo bleekeri, Loligo edulis, Watasenia scintillans (pelagic), Sepia lycidas and Euprymna morsei (benthic). L. bleekeri and L. edulis possess a bursiform cecal sac c...

Tidal dynamics affect Antarctic Bottom Water and Ice Shelf Water production in the southern Weddell Sea and the general circulation and mixing. In this region, tidal dynamics were found to be extremely sensitive both to the proximity of the continental shelf-slope break to the critical latitude ? crit and to the existence of a shelf break front. If the continental slope was not in the vicinity ...

Parallel phenotypic divergence in replicated adaptive radiations could either result from parallel genetic divergence in response to similar divergent selection regimes or from equivalent phenotypically plastic response to the repeated occurrence of contrasting environments. In post-glacial fish, replicated divergence in phenotypes along the benthic-limnetic habitat axis is commonly observed. H...

Offshore fish farming is predicted to increase in the near future driven by the lack of coastal space. In this review I discuss the environmental issues of offshore farming from experience in coastal farms. Even more so than in coastal farms, a rapid and wide dispersal of dissolved waste products is predicted for offshore farms. Despite wider dispersal of particulate waste products, fast sinkin...

Benthic diatoms isolated from tidal flats in the west coast of Korea were identified through both traditional morphological method and molecular phylogenetic method for methodological comparison. For the molecular phylogenetic analyses, we sequenced the 18S rRNA and the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit coding gene, rbcL. Further, the comparative analysis allowed for the assessmen...

Hippos transfer massive quantities of trophic resources from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems through defecation. The ramifications of the latter for the functioning of benthic ecosystems are unknown, but are dependent ultimately on rates of utilisation relative to inputs. Low input and high utilisation can strengthen bottom-up pathways and enhance consumer biomass and abundance. However, if i...

Dreissenid mussels have invaded the Laurentian Great Lakes causing dramatic changes to benthic-pelagic interactions. Despite research on food web impacts, there is limited data on mussel effects on benthic bacterial communities. This study examined effects of dreissenid mussels and benthic algae on sediment bacterial community composition and diversity. Triplicate experimental sediment plus lak...

One fifth of Mediterranean waters can be classified as shelf—much higher than the global average. Consequently, the shelf/coastal zone plays a proportionally greater biogeochemical role than in the major oceans, including the support of a wide range of range of endemic or culturally important species and ecosystems. However, despite their known importance in regulating ecosystem function and th...

The extent to which convergent adaptation to similar ecological niches occurs by a predictable genetic basis remains a fundamental question in biology. Threespine stickleback fish have undergone an adaptive radiation in which ancestral oceanic populations repeatedly colonized and adapted to freshwater habitats. In multiple lakes in British Columbia, two different freshwater ecotypes have evolve...

We investigated how establishment of invasive dreissenid mussels impacted the structure and energy sources of the littoral benthic food web of a large temperate lake. We combined information about pre- and postdreissenid abundance, biomass, and secondary production of the littoral benthos with results of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of archival (predreissenid) and recent (postdre...