Contribution of heterotrophic marine bacteria (HB) to the particulate beam attenuation coefficient (cp) was estimated as a function of latitude in diverse marine regions. Calculations were based on surface measurements (0 to 20 m depth) of bacterial abundance and biovolume, physiooptical empirical relationships, and light scattering models. Relative contribution of spherical HB to cp (cHB/cp) w...

Planktic foraminiferal shell thinning in the Arabian Sea due to anthropogenic ocean acidification? H. de Moel, G. M. Ganssen, F. J. C. Peeters, S. J. A. Jung, G. J. A. Brummer, D. Kroon, and R. E. Zeebe Department of Paleoclimatology and Geomorphology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Ams...

A new species of cryptochirid crab, Fizesereneia panda van der Meij, is described and illustrated based on specimens collected from the scleractinian corals Lobophyllia cf. hemprichii and L. cf. corymbosa from the Farasan Banks, Farasan Islands, and the reefs off Thuwal in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea, and from Symphyllia recta from reefs in the Gulf of Oman. This is the second cryptochirid specie...

Stylophora pistillata is a widely used coral "lab-rat" species with highly variable morphology and a broad biogeographic range (Red Sea to western central Pacific). Here we show, by analysing Cytochorme Oxidase I sequences, from 241 samples across this range, that this taxon in fact comprises four deeply divergent clades corresponding to the Pacific-Western Australia, Chagos-Madagascar-South Af...

The mitochondrial control region has been the first choice for examining the population structure but hypervariability and homoplasy have reduced its suitability. We analysed eight populations using control region for examining the population structure of Hilsa. Although the control region analysis revealed broad structuring between the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal (F ST  0.0441, p < 0.001) it...

Chrysymenia tigillis sp. nov. is described on the basis of a few specimens collected from Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman. The new species is known only from southern Oman, a region of the northern Arabian Sea that is strongly impacted by the upwelling from the summertime monsoon. It is distinguished from other species of the genus by the simple nature of the blades, their dimensions (to 75 cm in len...

Autotrophic picoplankton dominate primary production over large oceanic regions but are believed to contribute relatively little to carbon export from surface layers. Using analyses of data from the equatorial Pacific Ocean and Arabian Sea, we show that the relative direct and indirect contribution of picoplankton to export is proportional to their total net primary production, despite their sm...

Introduction With the decline in the overland Silk Routes in the fifth century AD, traders from West Asia looked increasingly to the sea for alternative routes to China, and the silk they so highly valued. By the seventh century, with new advances in rigging technology and celestial navigation, they had successfully mastered the long seaborne journey, establishing the transoceanic sailing route...