Mercury is a widespread contaminant in marine food webs, and identifying uptake pathways of mercury species, CH3Hg(+) and Hg(2+), into low trophic level organisms is important to understanding its entry into marine food webs. Enriched stable isotope tracers were used to study benthic vs. pelagic pathways of CH3Hg(+) and Hg(2+) uptake via food to the infaunal estuarine amphipod, Leptocheirus plu...

Predation by adults of the amphipod Monoporeia affinis on the plantigrade postlarval stage of the bivalve Macoma balthica was studied in the laboratory. We confirmed that M. affinis consumes small M. balthica. Amphipods offered 14C-labelled postlarvae took up the radioactive tracer, while those presented Rhodamine B-stained postlarvae acquired gut contents fluorescing strongly in orange, wherea...

Sea-ice macrofauna includes ice amphipods and benthic amphipods, as well mysids. Amphipods are important components of the sympagic food web, which is fuelled by production algae. Data on diversity sea-ice biota have been collected a part scientific expeditions over decades, here we present pan-Arctic analysis data ice-associated mysids assimilated 35 years (1977–2012). The composition species ...

Population structure, reproductive parameters and other life history traits are among the main preconditions for alien amphipods’ successful invasion. In freshwaters of Northern Europe, i.e. Latvia, overall Ponto-Caspian amphipods is little known. Furthermore, population structure reproductivity native Gammarus pulex have not been studied in Latvian freshwaters. The aim study was to describe va...

INTRODUCTION It is generally agreed that the most primitive type of nitrogenous excretory product, arising directly from the a-amino-N of proteins by deamination, is ammonia. In an extensive survey of the invertebrates, Delaunay (1927) was able to account for more than 50 % of the total non-protein nitrogen (N.P.N.) excreted in terms of ammonia in a large number of unrelated aquatic species, in...

Genome size varies considerably across taxa, and extensive research effort has gone into understanding whether variation can be explained by differences in key ecological and life-history traits among species. The extreme environmental conditions that characterize the deep sea have been hypothesized to promote large genome sizes in eukaryotes. Here we test this supposition by examining genome s...

Two new genera and a new species of lysianassoid amphipods are described. Debroyerella gen. nov. is described for three Antarctic species previously assigned to the genus Cheirimedon. Ulladulla gen. nov. is described to accommodate the new species U. selje, from Australian waters. Diagnostic descriptions are given for the genera and all species are described in full.

Commensal leucothoid amphipods have been collected from the canals of their sponge hosts throughout the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. Eleven new species are described in the genus Leucothoe with valuable location data and host records. An identification key to sponge-dwelling Leucothoidae of the Ryukyu Archipelago is provided.