Effective spatial management of coral reefs including design of marine protected areas requires an understanding of interpopulation genetic connectivity. We assessed gene flow along 355 km of the Florida reef system and between Florida and Belize in three commensal invertebrates occupying the same host sponge (Callyspongia vaginalis) but displaying contrasting reproductive dispersal strategies:...

The southeast region of the Gulf of Mexico is considered to be biologically important, because it is a connection and transition zone between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, harboring great marine biodiversity. Nevertheless, benthic amphipods have been poorly studied in the Mexican southeast sector of the Gulf of Mexico with few studies listing species. The aim of this study is to provide...

The degree to which host suitability is a reflection of host community structure in generalist parasites was studied experimentally in the common fish acanthocephalan Leptorhynchoides thecatus. Previous study has shown that green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) are required, and largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) are suitable (but not required) hosts, where they occur sympatrically in natural ...

Sediments represent an important repository of pollutants and a source of contamination for the aquatic food web. Toxicity tests using amphipods as test-organisms have been employed in the assessment of marine and estuarine sediments, together with chemical analyses. The present work aimed to evaluate the quality of sediments from six stations situated in the Santos and São Vicente Estuarine an...

Many species of tropical red algae are known to produce halogenated secondary metabolites that have been hypothesized to function in chemical defense. The tropical fleshy red alga Ochtodes secundiramea (Montagne) Howe is a typical example known to produce the halogenated monoterpenoids ochtodene and chondrocole A. In this study, the susceptibility of 0. secundiramea to grazing by herbivorous fi...

Th is considered a valuable and useful tracer of oceanic biogeochemical processes occurring over timescales of days to weeks. While the geochemical behaviour of this radionuclide in the marine environment is well known, relatively few studies have explored its interactions with biota. To better understand biologically related Th dynamics, bioaccumulation of Th from the dissolved phase and its s...

While we can usually understand the impacts of invasive species on recipient communities, invasion biology lacks methodologies that are potentially more predictive. Such tools should ideally be straightforward and widely applicable. Here, we explore an approach that compares the functional responses (FRs) of invader and native amphipod crustaceans. Dikerogammarus villosus is a Ponto-Caspian amp...

Two new lysianassoid amphipod species, Ambasia anophthalma n. sp. and Bathyamaryllis biscayensis n. sp., are described based on adult females collected in the North Eastern Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay) by an autonomous bait system deployed on the sea bottom at a depth of 1460-1550 m. These two species are characterized by the absence of eyes (blind species). They belong to genera which includ...