interest in arid ecosystems as a source of food supply for rapidly increasing population of the world, on the one hand, and the problems pertaining to the climatic characteristics, water shortages and soil sensitivity for the inhabitants in such areas, on the other have prompted efforts at both national and international levels to develop a better understanding of these problems as well as to f...

Aims Recent studies revealed convergent temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration (Re) within aquatic ecosystems and between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We do not know yet whether various terrestrial ecosystems have consistent or divergent temperature sensitivity. Here, we synthesized 163 eddy covariance flux sites across the world and examined the global variation of the apparen...

Prochlorococcus ecotypes are a useful system for exploring the origin and function of diversity among closely related microbes. The genetic variability between phenotypically distinct strains that differ by less that 1% in 16S ribosomal RNA sequences occurs mostly in genomic islands. Island genes appear to have been acquired in part by phage-mediated lateral gene transfer, and some are differen...

As climates change across already stressed ecosystems, there is no doubt that species will be affected, but to what extent and which will be most vulnerable remain uncertain. The fossil record suggests that most species persisted through past climate change, whereas forecasts of future impacts predict large-scale range reduction and extinction. Many species have altered range limits and phenoty...

Changes in the microbial community in response to catastrophic oil spills in marine and fresh water environments have been well documented. Molecular methods provide tools for analyzing the entire bacterial community, covering also those bacteria that have not been cultured in the laboratory. In this study, four different microcosms were set up containing sediments collected from the Persian Gu...

Changes in the microbial community in response to catastrophic oil spills in marine and fresh water environments have been well documented. Molecular methods provide tools for analyzing the entire bacterial community, covering also those bacteria that have not been cultured in the laboratory. In this study, four different microcosms were set up containing sediments collected from the Persian Gu...