A collaborative multidisciplinary research project is described in which new natural product anticancer drug leads are obtained from a diverse group of organisms, constituted by tropical plants, aquatic cyanobacteria, and filamentous fungi. Information is provided on how these organisms are collected and processed. The types of bioassays are indicated in which crude extracts of these acquisitio...

~ Organic matter from aquatic and terrestrial sources provides the carbon energy that 'drives' aquatic food webs. Most streams and rivers are heterotrophic — that is, more carbon is consumed (e.g. by animals and bacteria) than is produced within the system by aquatic plants. However, despite the presence of vast amounts of carbon in streams and rivers, only a small proportion of the total is tr...

Background: Aquatic plants are an important component of aquatic ecosystems. They are valuable for the oxygen and carbon dioxide household and generate habitats especially for small fish and other small organisms. However, problems for the maintenance of water bodies can result from mass occurrences of these plants. Invasive neophytes such as members of the Elodea genus are particularly problem...

Heavy metals that enter marine environment and remain in the water as well as the sediments are accumulated by aquatic organisms, thus becoming highly good indicators to monitor metal accumulation in the long run. Metals are potentially harmful to humans and most organisms at varied levels of exposure and absorption. Northern East Mediterranean Sea is a crucial region as it is an area, shared b...

Invasive aquatic plants are an ever-growing nuisance to water resources in Mississippi and the rest of the United States. These plants are generally introduced from other parts of the world, some for beneficial or horticultural uses. Once introduced, they can interfere with navigation, impede water flow, increase flood risk, reduce hydropower generation, and increase evapotranspirational losses...

Increasing urbanization, industrialization and over population is one of the leading causes of environmental degradation and pollution. Heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Cd, As etc. are one of the most toxic pollutants which show hazardous effects on all living livings. Lead is one such pollutants which disrupts the food chain and is lethal even at low concentrations. The prevailing purification tec...

In this study we present the comparative molecular analysis of bacterial communities of the aquatic plant Lemna minor from a contaminated site (RCP) and from a laboratory culture (EPA), as well as each of these with the addition of cadmium. Plants were identified as L. minor by analysis of the rpl16 chloroplast region. Comparative bacterial community studies were based on the analyses of 16S rR...

Aquatic and terrestrial plants and microorganisms were screened to test their ability to remove the herbicide, atrazine, from the environment. Plants included hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), reed canarygrass (Phalarius arundinacea), annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), and two varieties ofperennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). Microorganisms studied included a ...

The persistence of species may depend upon their capacity to keep pace with climate change. However, dispersal has been ignored in the vast majority of studies that aimed at estimating and predicting range shifts as a response to climate change. Long distance dispersal (LDD) in particular might promote rapid range shifts and allow species to track suitable habitat. Many aquatic plant species ar...