The underground environment imposes unique demands on life that have led subterranean species to evolve specialized traits, many of which evolved convergently. We studied convergence in evolutionary rate in subterranean mammals in order to associate phenotypic evolution with specific genetic regions. We identified a strong excess of vision- and skin-related genes that changed at accelerated rat...

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) nutrient fluxes from un-sewered suburban landscapes pose a significant eutrophication risk to coastal waters. In unconsolidated coastal aquifers, nutrients recharged to groundwater undergo diffuse discharge to the coastline during SGD. Defining pathways of nutrient attenuation is required for land management professionals to take effective nutrient remediat...

Relief wells are used extensively to relieve excess hydrostatic pressure in pervious foundation strata overlain by impervious top strata, conditions which often exist landward of levees and downstream of dams and hydraulic structures. Placing well outlets in below-surface trenches or collector pipes helps dry up seepage areas downstream of levees and dams. Relief wells are often used in combina...

The water louse Asellus aquaticus is a widespread, euryoecious species, mostly uniform throughout its range. However, six subspecies are known from the Dinaric karst in the northwestern Balkans. They include some specialized subterranean populations. The pattern of genetic variation among subterranean and surface populations in this hydrographically highly fragmented karst region was investigat...

Nitrate has been the most common chemical contaminant in water resource. This ion is introduced into the water via different ways, but more items of nitrate pollution was connected with farming-based drainage and sewage effluent. In this descriptive-analytical study, groundwater nitrate and nitrite concentrations of 8 wells on Dehloran, Ilam, Iran, were analyzed in 2015 to determine the causes ...

Coastal waters are severely threatened by nitrogen (N) loading from direct groundwater discharge. The subterranean estuary, the mixing zone of fresh groundwater and sea water in a coastal aquifer, has a high potential to remove substantial N. A network of piezometers was used to characterize the denitrification capacity and groundwater flow paths in the subterranean estuary below a Rhode Island...

Evolution of the middle ear ossicles was a key innovation for mammals, enhancing the transmission of airborne sound. Radiation into various habitats from a terrestrial environment resulted in diversification of the auditory mechanisms among mammals. However, due to the paucity of phylogenetically controlled investigations, how middle ear traits have diversified with functional specialization re...

Amphicarpic plants produce aerial and subterranean fruits on an individual plant, and these heteromorphic diaspores give rise to plants that differ in growth and ecology. Amphicarpaea edgeworthii is a summer annual amphicarpic species that grows over a range of light levels. We aimed to compare the response to shading intensity of plants of A. edgeworthii grown throughout their life cycle from ...

Subterranean animals are currently viewed as highly imperiled, precariously avoiding extinction in an extreme environment of darkness. This assumption is based on a hypothesis that the reduction in visual systems and morphology common in cave faunas reflects a genetic inability to adapt and persist coupled with the perception of a habitat that is limited, disconnected, and fragile. Accordingly,...

It has been popularly assumed, at least since the time of Pliny the Elder [1], that the hearing of moles and other subterranean mammals is acute, perhaps to compensate for their poor vision. In recent times, behavioural audiograms of subterranean species (most studies have been of rodents) have shown that audition is biased towards unusually low frequencies for such small mammals, typically bei...