The invasion of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, into North American waters has resulted in profound ecological disturbances and large monetary losses. This study examined the invasion history and patterns of genetic diversity among endemic and invading populations of zebra mussels using DNA sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. Patterns of haplotype frequency...

Kouraev et al. 2003: Polar Research 22(1), 43–50 A stable and strong ice cover forms during winter months in the Aral Sea and northern part of the Caspian Sea. The presence of ice cover negatively affects navigation and fi shery condi tions and endangers facilities located on the coast as well as on the shelf, such as oil rigs that have recently been installed in the northern Caspian by Russia ...

The Caspian seal (Pusa caspica) has declined by more than 90% since 1900 and is listed as endangered by IUCN. We made the first quantitative assessment of Caspian seal by-catch mortality in fisheries in the north Caspian Sea by conducting semi-structured interviews in fishing communities along the coasts of Russia (Kalmykia, Dagestan), Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. We recorded a documented minim...

common kilka clupeonella cultriventris (nordmann, 1840) is a brackish water and small pelagic fish species and is one of the most abundant fishes that live gregariously in the caspian sea. a total of 60 specimens of adult common kilka were sampled from two seasons. fifteen pairs of microsatellites previously developed for a.sapidissima, c. pallasi, c.harengus, and s. pilchardus were tested for ...

Post-Soviet legal governance regime of Caspian Sea e the largest inland body of water on earth e remains a source of conflict among the five coastal states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. Although different division methods have been suggested for sharing the sea and its valuable resources, the actual gain of the countries is unclear as the proposed methods focus eith...

In spite of significant differences in their sizes, depths, salinity and other properties, the Aral Sea and the Dead Sea share many features, as illustrated by a comparison of the histories of both water bodies. Fifteenth and early sixteenth century maps, based on the ‘Geography’ of Ptolemy, contain both lakes. The first successful limnological surveys of the lakes were made in the same year 18...

During a long term of road survey for detection of the zoonotic helminthes in carnivores, a male Vulpes vulpes was naturally found infected by Dioctophyme renale in Caspian Sea littoral in Iran. Since the parasite transmission usually occurs through consumption of fish and other accidental food items, investigation of the worm amongst fish-eating animals in the areas with potential circulation ...

Legally certified sturgeon fisheries require population protection and conservation methods, including DNA tests to identify the source of valuable sturgeon roe. However, the available genetic data are insufficient to distinguish between different sturgeon populations, and are even unable to distinguish between some species. We performed high-throughput single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-geno...

The Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus (Borodin, 1897), is an economically important species, which mainly inhabits the Caspian Sea. However, little is known about its population genetic structure. In this study, variation in nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of wild stock Persian sturgeon was determined to assess the genetic diversity among different natura...