The Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus, has experienced regionally divergent population trends over recent decades. One potential mechanism for this disparity is that local factors cause reduced health and, therefore, reduced survival of individuals. The use of blood parameters to assess sea lion health may help to identify whether malnutrition, disease and stress are important drivers of cur...

Climate change has had profound effects upon marine ecosystems, impacting across all trophic levels from plankton to apex predators. Determining the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems requires understanding the direct effects on all trophic levels as well as indirect effects mediated by trophic coupling. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of climate change on the p...

The present study investigates the nature of the link between the staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) gene and the lifecycle of Siphoviridae bacteriophages, including the origin of strain variation regarding SEA production after prophage induction. Five strains representing three different genetic lines of the sea region were studied under optimal and prophage-induced growth conditions and the S...

Due to the significant lack of information on the community structure of deep-sea nanoflagellates and other nanofauna components as a potentially important component of deepsea matter fluxes, the aim of the present study was to check whether there is a specific deep-sea nanofauna (<20 μm) community. Studies were carried out in the deep oligotrophic basins of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea around...

In January 1986, a sea-urchm mediated deforestation began in C a m e l Bay, California. USA, near the center of the California sea otter's range. The deforestation occurred on an offshore rocky reef where depths range from l ? to > 30 m. Both purple (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) and red (S. franciscanus) sea urchins were abundant and probably belonged to a cohort that settled in 1984. By Octo...

The deep-sea benthic community at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (NE Atlantic) is a highly food limited system. The annual input of sedimenting phytodetritus, which reaches the sea floor around May/June, is the major input of energy. The relative trophic position of the most abundant components of the benthos (90 species or higher taxonomic groups), including meiofaunal, macrofaunal, and megafauna...

781 Few of us may ever live on the sea or under it, but all of us are making increasing use of it either as a source of food and other materials, or as a dump. As our demands upon the ocean increase, so does our need to understand the ocean as an ecosystem. Basic to the understanding of any ecosystem is knowledge of its food web, through which energy and materials flow. (Pomeroy 1974, p. 499)

Aggregations by 3 species of dolphins (the bottlenose dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], the short-beaked common dolphin [Delphinus delphis], and the long-beaked common dolphin [Delphinus capensis]) and California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) were investigated in Santa Monica Bay, California. Groups were followed and observed during 201 boat-based surveys conducted in 1997–2001 documenting tha...

objective: sea cucumber is a traditional food and medical item and has been reported to exhibit antioxidant, antifungal, anti tumoral and antibacterial bioactivity. the objective of this study is to describe the antibacterial activity of 4 extracts of holoturia. sp (sea cucumber), collected from hengam island of persian gulf. materials and methods: methanol, hexane, aqueous and chloroform extr...

1. Japan is an island with approximately 70% of land covered by mountain forests and where arable space is limited. Fishing communities are located in all coastal areas nationwide. Food resources from the ocean have historically played a significant role in the Japanese diet. Even today, around 40% of protein consumed by Japanese people comes from sea food. 2 Ensuring the long-term sustainabili...