Current taxonomy of western Eurasian trout leaves a number of questions open; it is not clear to what extent some species are distinct genetically and morphologically. The purpose of this paper was to explore phylogeography and species boundaries in freshwater and anadromous trout from the drainages of the Black and the Caspian Seas (Ponto-Caspian). We studied morphology and mitochondrial phylo...

Interrelationships, origin and phylogenetic affinities of brown trout Salmo trutta populations from the southern Caspian Sea basin, Orumieh and Namak Lake basins in Iran were analysed from complete mtDNA control region sequences, 12 microsatellite loci and morphological characters. Among 129 specimens from six populations, seven haplotypes were observed. Based on mtDNA haplotype data, the Orumi...

This paper is focused on the discussion of the exact age, and environmental setting of the ‘Khvalynian’ Transgression of the Caspian Sea with the use of novel radiometric, isotopic evidence and GIS-linked modelling. Based on this evidence the Khvalynian transgression is viewed as coeval with the warm Late Glacial episodes in the higher latitudes, reaching its peak at 13.6 11.8 ka. During that p...

In this study, we investigate the sources of moisture (and moisture for precipitation) over the Danube River Basin (DRB) by means of a Lagrangian approach using the FLEXPART V9.0 particle dispersion model together with ERA-Interim reanalysis data to track changes in atmospheric moisture over 10-day trajectories. This approach computes the budget of evaporation-minus-precipitation by calculating...

The rapid rise of Caspian Sea water level (about 2.25 meters since 1978) has caused much concern to all five surrounding countries, primarily because flooding has destroyed or damaged buildings and other engineering structures, roads, beaches and farm lands in the coastal zone. Given that climate, and more specifically climate change, is a primary factor influencing oscillations in Caspian Sea ...

We present here the findings from a study of the microbiome of the southern basin of the Caspian Sea, the largest water body on Earth disconnected from any ocean and a brackish inland sea. By high-throughput metagenomics, we were able to reconstruct the genomes of representative microbes. The gross community structure (at the phylum level) was different from the structure of typical marine and ...

BACKGROUND Knowledge about Alburnoides remains lacking relative to many other species, resulting in a lack of a systematic position and taxonomic diagnosis. Basic biological information for Alburnoides has been constructed, and it is necessary to understand further and obtain more information about this species. Its phylogenetic relationships are still debated and no molecular data have been us...

The invasion of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, into North American waters has resulted in profound ecological disturbances and large monetary losses. This study examined the invasion history and patterns of genetic diversity among endemic and invading populations of zebra mussels using DNA sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. Patterns of haplotype frequency...

The Ponto-Caspian amphipod Obesogammarus obesus (Sars, 1894) was first recorded in the Rhine River near Koblenz, Germany in October 2004. Additional records of small numbers of O. obesus from the same location in 2005 and 2006 indicate that this alien species may have become established in the central section of the Rhine River. Ship transport via the Main-Danube Canal, connecting the Danube ba...