Lucifer faxoni (BORRADAILE, 1915) and L. typus (EDWARDS, 1837) are species first identified in the neritic and oceanic waters off the Amazon. Samplings were made aboard the vessel "Antares" at 22 stations in July and August, 2001 with a bongo net (500-µm mesh size). Hydrological data were taken simultaneously for comparative purposes. L. faxoni was present at thirteen of the fourteen neritic st...

A foraging dichotomy among sexually mature females has been reported for several populations of loggerhead sea turtles, where large adult females forage primarily in neritic habitats and smaller adult females forage primarily in oceanic habitats. The prevalence of neritic foragers has been considered a consequence of much higher food availability in neritic foraging grounds than in oceanic habi...

Juvenile loggerhead sea turtles spend more than a decade in the open ocean before returning to neritic waters to mature and reproduce. It has been assumed that this transition from an oceanic to neritic existence is a discrete ontogenetic niche shift. We tested this hypothesis by tracking the movements of large juveniles collected in a neritic foraging ground in North Carolina, USA. Our work sh...

Dietary studies in marine mammals are traditionally performed by stomach contents analyses, which may be insufficient to determine long-term dietary preferences of these upper level predators. Our primary objective was to test the efficiency of trace metal measurements as complementary tools in dietary studies. Variations in cadmium (Cd) exposure through the diet and its effective renal levels ...

Diazotrophic inputs by Trichodesmium have been shown to support production in tropical and subtropical marine environments, but the importance of Trichodesmium in the Gulf of Mexico has not been widely investigated. Here, we use stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes to determine whether diazotrophy impacts the isotope baselines of pelagic food webs in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Ph...

In order to enhance protection and conservation strategies for endangered green turtles (Chelonia mydas), the identification of neritic habitats where this species aggregates is mandatory. Herein, we present new information about the population parameters and residence time of two neritic aggregations from 2010 to 2013; one in an upwelling dominated site (Paracas ∼14°S) and the other in an ecot...

Identification of different species of oceanic and neritic squids in Iranian waters of Oman Sea was carried out from December 1996 to February 1997. The trawl surveys were conducted during a 12-months period. Fishing was also undertaken by Mid-water and bottom trawl for species confirmation purposes in deep (200-350m) and shallow (0-100m) waters to collect enough specimens that could be used fo...

To determine whether loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) nesting in southeastern USA exhibit polymorphic foraging strategies, we evaluated skin samples for stable isotopes of carbon (dC) and nitrogen (dN) from 310 loggerheads from four locations on the east coast of Florida and epibionts from 48 loggerheads. We found a dichotomy between a depleted dC cluster and an enriched dC cluster. Epibion...

Using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) magnetic beads immunocapture and a PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique (BUMP-DGGE), we determined seasonal variations in the community structures of actively growing bacteria in the neritic waters of Hiroshima Bay, western Japan. The community structures of actively growing bacteria were separated into two clusters, corresponding to the ti...

This study aims to assess niche segregation among the five main toothed whales 25 that frequent the NW Iberian Peninsula waters: the common dolphin, the harbour porpoise, 26 the bottlenose dolphin, the striped dolphin and the long-finned pilot whale. We used cadmium 27 (Cd) and stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) as ecological tracers to assess degree of 28 segregation in diet/trophic lev...