Studies of marine viromes (viral metagenomes) have revealed that DNA viruses are highly diverse and exhibit biogeographic patterns. However, little is known about the diversity of RNA viruses, which are mostly composed of eukaryotic viruses, and their biogeographic patterns in the oceans. A growth in global commerce and maritime traffic may accelerate spread of diverse and non-cosmopolitan DNA ...

Biological invasions via ship ballast are a major driver of biodiversity change in aquatic systems. In the Laurentian Great Lakes basin, unique shipping operations pose a particular invasion risk. The majority (>90%) of incoming vessels are not fully loaded with ballast water but carry ballast sediments and residual water. Ballast sediments contain viable diapause organisms that could hatch and...

Existing quality controlmethods for railway ballast are arduous and expensive since they are based onmanual material inspections. Thus, test intervals are typically fairly wide. As a consequence, short-term andmid-term fluctuations of ballast quality may not be detected. This results in increased costs for maintenance work such as tamping. To make test intervals shorter and even allow for conti...

The High-Intensity-Discharge Lamps (HID), consisting of a broad range of gas discharge lamps, are notable for their high luminous efficacy, good color rendering, and long l ife. Metal halide lamps have the best combination of the above properties and are considered the most ideal light sources. Recently, there has been an emerging demand to replace the conventional halogen headlamps with the ne...

The impact of NaOH as a ballast water treatment (BWT) on microbial community diversity was assessed using the 16S rRNA gene based Ion Torrent sequencing with its new 400 base chemistry. Ballast water samples from a Great Lakes ship were collected from the intake and discharge of both control and NaOH (pH 12) treated tanks and were analyzed in duplicates. One set of duplicates was treated with t...

ballast as a part of the railway system plays an important role in the operation of the railways and also has a great impact on repair and maintenance activities. hence most of the repair and maintenance activities in traditional railway systems are due to the defections in the ballast layer and therefore most of the maintenance budget is spent on repairing these defects. these repair and maint...

This paper describes a stochastic model used to characterize the probability/risk of NIS establishment from ships’ ballast water discharges. Establishment is defined as the existence of a sufficient number of individuals of a species to provide for a sustained population of the organism. The inherent variability in population dynamics of organisms in their native or established environments is ...

The observed rates and deleterious impacts of biological invasions have caused significant alarm in recent years, driving efforts to reduce the risk (establishment) of new introductions. Characterizing the supply of propagules is key to understanding invasion risk and developing effective management strategies. In coastal ecosystems, ships' ballast water is an important transfer mechanism (vect...

Marine biological invasions have been regarded as one of the major causes of native biodiversity loss, with shipping and aquaculture being the leading contributors for the introductions of alien species in aquatic ecosystems. In the present study, five aquatic alien species (one mollusk, three crustaceans and one fish species) were detected during dives, shore searches and from the fisheries on...