To understand the responses to external disturbance such as defoliation and possible feedback mechanisms at global change in terrestrial ecosystems, it is necessary to examine the extent and nature of effects on aboveground-belowground interactions. We studied a temperate heathland system subjected to experimental climate and atmospheric factors based on prognoses for year 2075 and further expo...

River biota are affected by global reach-scale pressures, but most approaches for predicting biota of rivers focus on river reach or segment scale processes and habitats. Moreover, these approaches do not consider long-term morphological changes that affect habitat conditions. In this study, a modelling framework was further developed and tested to assess the effect of pressures at different sp...

In the analysis of the long-term changes in the biota of the macroecosystems of the Bering Sea, many researchers focus on а) global greenhouse warming, b) decadal changes in climate and oceanological regimes, and c) cascading changes at different trophic levels. We think that the association of the majority of significant biological events in the Bering Sea with irreversible greenhouse warming ...

The present-day spatial distribution of interspecific contact zones and intraspecific phylogeographical breaks provides a window into the past ecological and evolutionary processes that underlie speciation and species ranges. The clustering of contact zones and/or phylogeographical breaks in space indicates the suturing of diverged biotas. The presence of such suture zones indicates that simila...

Soil amendment with biochar is evaluated globally as a means to improve soil fertility and to mitigate climate change. However, the effects of biochar on soil biota have received much less attention than its effects on soil chemical properties. A review of the literature reveals a significant number of early studies on biochar-type materials as soil amendments either for managing pathogens, as ...

Background: Bacterial vaginosis is the most frequent condition associated to the vaginal microbiota imbalance, affecting about the 40-50% of women in the world. Even if antibiotics are effcetive for bacterial vaginosis treatment a long-term recurrence rates, higher than 70%, is recorded. Lactoferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein with bacteriostatic and bactericidal properties. It owns the abi...

Refugia have been suggested as priority sites for conservation under climate change because of their ability to facilitate survival of biota under adverse conditions. Here, we review the likely role of refugial habitats in conserving freshwater biota in arid Australian aquatic systems where the major long-term climatic influence has been aridification. We introduce a conceptual model that chara...

This study presents results of an analytical method developed for the quantification of monoalkyl phthalate esters (MPEs) in seawater, sediments, and biota. The method uses accelerated solvent extraction, solid-phase extraction, and liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ ESI-MS/MS). Results show the method is robust and can provide trace measurement of sever...

The primary hypothesis for successful exotic plant invasions is that the invaders have escaped the specialist consumers that control them (Enemy Release Hypothesis). However, few studies have rigorously tested this assertion with biogeographical experiments or considered the effects of soil organisms. We tested the Enemy Release Hypothesis and the enhanced role of mutualisms by comparing densit...