The biodiversity crisis is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, but our understanding of the drivers remains limited. Thus, after decades of studies and regulation efforts, it remains ...unknown whether to what degree and at what concentrations modern agricultural pesticides cause regional-scale species losses. We analyzed the effects of pesticides on the regional taxa richness of stream invertebrates in Europe (Germany and France) and Australia (southern Victoria). Pesticides caused statistically significant effects on both the species and family richness in both regions, with losses in taxa up to 42% of the recorded taxonomic pools. Furthermore, the effects in Europe were detected at concentrations that current legislation considers environmentally protective. Thus, the current ecological risk assessment of pesticides falls short of protecting biodiversity, and new approaches linking ecology and ecotoxicology are needed.
Molluscs are the invertebrates with the highest level of morphological adaptation, allowing their establishment in the majority of aquatic environments. In fact, the highest fitness level is achieved ...by those species, such as bivalves, adapted to live on cryptic ecosystems build by themselves. In order to describe the diversity of cryptic bivalve molluscs in two sampling areas in the western coast of the Gulf of Venezuela (Kazuzain and Porshoure), samples were manually collected in June and July 2010, respectively, by snorkelling in random coralline rocks (3-5m depth), and stored them in 10% formalin for transportation. In the laboratory, the rocks were fragmented and all organisms within removed. Diversity was determined by the Shannon-Wiener index for each locality, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the bivalves composition between both localities in order to establish a possible significant difference (p<0.05). Five families, eight genera and ten species were found (n=53). Lithophaga corrugata, Lioberus castaneus, Gregariella coralliophaga and Choristodon robustus are reported as new records for Venezuela; while Leiosolenus appendiculatus, Lithophaga teres and Malleus candeanus are new records for the Maracaibo Lake System. No significant difference was found between the studied communities (p=0.1587). The specimens remain in the invertebrates collection of the Biology Museum, La Universidad del Zulia (MBLUZ), Maracaibo, Venezuela. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Inbreeding is a potent evolutionary force shaping the distribution of genetic variation within and among populations of plants and animals. Yet, our understanding of the forces shaping the expression ...and evolution of nonrandom mating in general, and inbreeding in particular, remains remarkably incomplete. Most research on plant mating systems focuses on self-fertilization and its consequences for automatic selection, inbreeding depression, purging, and reproductive assurance, whereas studies of animal mating systems have often assumed that inbreeding is rare, and that natural selection favors traits that promote outbreeding. Given that many sessile and sedentary marine invertebrates and marine macroalgae share key life history features with seed plants (e.g., low mobility, modular construction, and the release of gametes into the environment), their mating systems may be similar. Here, we show that published estimates of inbreeding coefficients (F
IS) for sessile and sedentary marine organisms are similar and at least as high as noted in terrestrial seed plants. We also found that variation in FIS within invertebrates is related to the potential to selffertiliz, disperse, and choose mates. The similarity of F
IS for these organismal groups suggests that inbreeding could play a larger role in the evolution of sessile and sedentary marine organisms than is currently recognized. Specifically, associations between traits of marine invertebrates and F
IS suggest that inbreeding could drive evolutionary transitions between hermaphroditism and separate sexes, direct development and multiphasic life cycles, and external and internal fertilization.
Antimicrobial peptides in marine invertebrate health and disease Destoumieux-Garzón, Delphine; Rosa, Rafael Diego; Schmitt, Paulina ...
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences,
05/2016, Letnik:
371, Številka:
1695
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Aquaculture contributes more than one-third of the animal protein from marine sources worldwide. A significant proportion of aquaculture products are derived from marine protostomes that are commonly ...referred to as ‘marine invertebrates’. Among them, penaeid shrimp (Ecdysozosoa, Arthropoda) and bivalve molluscs (Lophotrochozoa, Mollusca) are economically important. Mass rearing of arthropods and molluscs causes problems with pathogens in aquatic ecosystems that are exploited by humans. Remarkably, species of corals (Cnidaria) living in non-exploited ecosystems also suffer from devastating infectious diseases that display intriguing similarities with those affecting farmed animals. Infectious diseases affecting wild and farmed animals that are present in marine environments are predicted to increase in the future. This paper summarizes the role of the main pathogens and their interaction with host immunity, with a specific focus on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and pathogen resistance against AMPs. We provide a detailed review of penaeid shrimp AMPs and their role at the interface between the host and its resident/pathogenic microbiota. We also briefly describe the relevance of marine invertebrate AMPs in an applied context.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Evolutionary ecology of arthropod antimicrobial peptides’.
Casmara patrona is one of the main borer pests damaging Camellia oleifera in China. Few reports about this insect were published. The life history, biological characteristics and natural enemies of ...C. patrona were investigated through field survey and laboratory observation in this study. The results showed that C. patrona had one generation in one year or two years, and overwintered as 3rd-5th instar larva in Zhejiang Province. About 88 percent of larvae began to pupate in early May, and the rest kept feeding till the next year. The adults could be observed from early June to early July, and the peak of emergence occurred in late June. The adults began to oviposit in late June and terminated in early July. The eggs started hatching in early July, and then the larvae bored into the branch to feed. The entrance holes of the larvae distributed predominately in the middle of the eastern and southern part of C. oleifera tree. The larva had five instars, and there were 10-50 days when the larva did not feed betwee
Jellyfish Blooms Purcell, Jennifer E; Angel, Dror L
2010, Letnik:
212
eBook
This volume provides an identification key for the ephyrae of 18 common scyphozoan species, documents the Mediterranean-wide bloom of the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, and addresses the ...direct effects of ocean acidification on jellyfish.
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