Horizontal gene transfer by conjugative plasmids plays a critical role in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Interactions between bacteria and other organisms can affect the persistence and spread of conjugative plasmids. Here we show that protozoan predation increased the persistence and spread of the antibiotic resistance plasmid RP4 in populations of the opportunist bacterial pathogen S...

The feeding habits and trophic level of Himantura gerrardi were studied according to sex and size classes utilizing 80 individuals obtained using bottom trawl between May and December 2014 from Oman Sea. Collected specimens were divided in three size classes (small 58 cm) based on disk width (DW). Preys were identified in seven main zoological categories, where crustacean and polychaetes were t...

The aim of this study was to assess the eutrophication and trophic status of the Caspian Sea based on different indices and also compare its status with the reference threshold values in the Iranian coastal waters of Caspian Sea (hereafter ICWCS). The water samples (three replicates) were collected along four transects (off the coast from Anzali, Tonekabon, Nowshahr and Amirabad) between spring...

Climate change is expected to affect resource-consumer interactions underlying stability in polar food webs. Polar benthic organisms have adapted to the marked seasonality characterising their habitats by concentrating foraging and reproductive activity in summer months, when inputs from sympagic and pelagic producers increase. While this enables the persistence of biodiverse food webs, the mec...

We quantify the trophic positions of subtropical open-ocean zooplankton species using amino acid–specific (AA) stable nitrogen isotopic compositions. We model animal trophic position by computing trophic 15N enrichment of glutamic acid relative to phenylalanine, and find that trophic position for primary copepod consumers (Oithona spp., Neocalanus robustior) and secondary copepod consumers (Ple...

the parameters used to determine the trophic state of a water body are: total phosphorus (tp),transparency (secchi disk depth) and chlorophyll a. however, these parameters show strong seasonalfluctuations which may hinder the estimation of trophic state. some authors have proposed that sediments be used as an additional tool to evaluate the trophic state of a water body. the aim of this study w...

The bioaccumulations of metals Cu, Cd, Ni, Cr, Co, Mn, Zn and Fe were measured in bivalves, Cerastoderma glucaum, and four species of fishes including Alburnus chalcoides, Liza aurata, Rutilus frisii and Sander lucioperca from various trophic levels of the Caspian food web. The concentrations of Cd, Cr, Co and Ni in most samples of fish were below the detection limits; while the concentrations ...

The nominal fish harvest of 100 X 10” t reported for 1993, while exceeding many early predictions of “potential yield” remains well below some other, more optimistic predictions. The key elements of a sample of prediction of marine fish potentials are reviewed, enabling identification of their shared features. One of these is the tendency for initial guesses (e.g. of the relations between optim...