Historical mining activities cause widespread, long-term trace metal contamination of freshwater ecosystems. However, measuring bioavailability has proven difficult, because it depends on many factors, not least concentrations in water, sediment and habitat. Simple tools are needed to assess bioavailabilities. The use biomonitors been widely advocated provide a realistic measure. To date there ...

Despite the utility of gastropod models for the study of evolutionary processes of great generality and importance, their effective population size has rarely been estimated in the field. Here, we report allele frequency variance at three allozyme-encoding loci monitored over 7 years in a population of the invasive freshwater pulmonate snail Physa acuta (Draparnaud 1805), estimating effective p...

The first Chilean species of Bogidiellid amphipod, Patagongidiella wefkoi n. sp., is described from freshwater springs in the Osorno Province, Los Lagos Region. The new taxon is characterized principally by the structure of the hypertrophied facial robust seta present on the peduncle of male uropod 1, and the modified dimorphic setae on the exopod of male pleopod 2. The new species is described...