BACKGROUND Sponges have long been known to be ecologically important members of the benthic fauna on coral reefs. Recently, it has been shown that sponges are also important contributors to the nitrogen biogeochemistry of coral reefs. The studies that have been done show that most sponges are net sources of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; NH4 (+) and NO3 (-)) and that nitrification, mediated...

Availability and leaching of dissolved inorganic N (DIN = NH4 + NO3) in soil were measured in a periodically flooded forest of the Central Amazon floodplain (v rzea) during one terrestrial phase. Special emphasis was on the effects of a legume and a nonlegume tree species. NH4-N accounted for more than 85% of DIN even at the end of the terrestrial phase although it decreased throughout the expe...

Relatively high deposition of nitrogen (N) in the northeastern United States has caused concern because sites could become N saturated. In the past, mass-balance studies have been used to monitor the N status of sites and to investigate the impact of increased N deposition. Typically, these efforts have focused on dissolved inorganic forms of N (DIN = NH4-N + NO3-N) and have largely ignored dis...

Sistemele de monitorizare pe scară largă permit colectarea eficientă a datelor din câmp la rezoluții temporale și spațiale ridicate. Un exemplu relevant îl constituie aplicarea acestor sisteme în domeniul monitorizării infrastructurilor de transport al produselor petroliere pentru prevenirea scurgerilor și a accesului neautorizat, ce pot cauza daune de mediu și economice semnificative. Lucrarea...

Many animals, including humans, rely on active tactile sensing to explore the environment and negotiate obstacles, especially in the dark. Here, we model a descending neural pathway that mediates short-latency proprioceptive information from a tactile sensor on the head to thoracic neural networks. We studied the nocturnal stick insect Carausius morosus, a model organism for the study of adapti...

Predators and competitors of vertebrates can in theory reduce the density of infected nymphs (DIN)-an often-used measure of tick-borne disease risk-by lowering the density of reservoir-competent hosts and/or the tick burden on reservoir-competent hosts. We investigated this possible indirect effect of predators by comparing data from 20 forest plots across the Netherlands that varied in predato...