BACKGROUND Vector-borne infectious diseases are a significant cause of human and animal mortality and morbidity. Modeling studies predict that changes in climate that accompany global warming will alter the transmission risk of many vector-borne infectious diseases in different parts of the world. Global warming will also raise sea levels, which will lead to an increase in saline and brackish w...

Estuarine turbidity maxima (ETM) function as hotspots of microbial activity and diversity in estuaries, yet, little is known about the temporal and spatial variability in ETM bacterial community composition. To determine which environmental factors affect ETM bacterial populations in the Columbia River estuary, we analyzed ETM bacterial community composition (Sanger sequencing and amplicon pyro...

Flavobacterium columnare causes columnaris disease in fresh and brackish water worldwide. F. columnare strain 94-081 was isolated from a diseased channel catfish in 1994; its genome sequence is the first completed genomovar II sequence.

Recent investigations of water balance in sea snakes demonstrated that amphibious sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) dehydrate in seawater and require fresh water to restore deficits in body water. Here, we report similar findings for Pelamis platurus, a viviparous, pelagic, entirely marine species of hydrophiine ("true") sea snake. We sampled snakes at Golfo de Papagayo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica and de...

Increasing stress on water resources is driving urban water utilities to establish new concepts for water supply. This paper presents the consequences of proposed alternative water supply options using a unique combination of quantitative and qualitative methods from different research fields. A former industrial harbor area in Copenhagen, Denmark, is currently under development and all infrast...

In isolated communities where potable water sources as well as energy grids are limited or nonexistent, treating brackish groundwater aquifers with small-scale desalination systems can be a viable alternative to existing water infrastructures. Given the unavailability of power in many such situations, renewable energy is an obvious solution to power such systems. However, renewable energy is an...

The ecosystems in brackish water regions are already exposed to stress, especially those living in estuaries with their fluctuating environment. The question raised here is whether these ecosystems are generally more susceptible to additional stress such as pollution, or if their ability to adapt to environmental changes leads to increased tolerance to pollution. The Baltic, as being the larges...

The history of the Middle East has been influenced by past global climatic changes. Warm periods caused droughts, resulting in desertification, migration and war. Cold periods were humid and brought prosperity and agricultural settlement to the desert fringes. The forecast based on this correlation is that the present global warming will cause the drying up of the Middle East. As in the past, t...