Invasions of non-native species in marine ecosystems can be ecologically damaging and economically costly. Identifying ‘hot-spots’ of non-native species and their sources of introduction is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of invasion quarantine programs. We use a large spatially explicit marine fish database to show that there are a surprising number of non-native fishes on the reefs of...

BACKGROUND Tropical marine molluscs are traded globally. Larger species with slow life histories are under threat from over-exploitation. We report on the trade in protected marine mollusc shells in and from Java and Bali, Indonesia. Since 1987 twelve species of marine molluscs are protected under Indonesian law to shield them from overexploitation. Despite this protection they are traded openl...

Marine molluscs represent an estimated 23% of all extant marine taxa, but research into their conservation status has so far failed to reflect this importance, with minimal inclusion on the authoritative Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). We assessed the status of all 632 valid species of the tropical marine gastropod mollusc, Conus (cone snails), using R...

Marine invertebrates are rich sources of bioactive compounds and their biotechnological potential attracts scientific and economic interest worldwide. Although sponges are the foremost providers of marine bioactive compounds, cnidarians are also being studied with promising results. This diverse group of marine invertebrates includes over 11,000 species, 7500 of them belonging to the class Anth...

Two of the major limitations to effective management of coral reef ecosystems are a lack of information on the spatial distribution of marine species and a paucity of data on the interacting environmental variables that drive distributional patterns. Advances in marine remote sensing, together with the novel integration of landscape ecology and advanced niche modelling techniques provide an unp...

Freshwater habitats make up only ∼0.01% of available aquatic habitat and yet harbor 40% of all fish species, whereas marine habitats comprise >99% of available aquatic habitat and have only 60% of fish species. One possible explanation for this pattern is that diversification rates are higher in freshwater habitats than in marine habitats. We investigated diversification in marine and freshwate...

Hansen, A. J. (University of Idaho, Moscow), O. B. Weeks, and R. R. Colwell. Taxonomy of Pseudomonas piscicida (Bein) Buck, Meyers, and Leifson. J. Bacteriol. 89:752-761. 1965.-Twenty strains of marine bacteria showing the properties of pigmentation and icthyotoxicity were studied for selected physiological features. A quantitative taxonomic analysis with an electronic computer was performed. E...

The marine ecosystem is governed by a multitude of environmental cycles, all of which are linked to the periodical recurrence of the sun or the moon. In accordance with these cycles, marine species exhibit a variety of biological rhythms, ranging from circadian and circatidal rhythms to circalunar and seasonal rhythms. However, our current molecular understanding of biological rhythms and clock...

Policymakers' Summary, 1 st Edition Our Living Oceans: Habitat FOREWORD Our Living Oceans: Habitat. Status of the Habitat of U.S. Living Marine Resources joins editions on living marine resources and economics as the third and final part of the Our Living Oceans publication series. Taken together, the volumes in this series serve as a report card on the state of U.S. living marine resources, th...

Ocean acidification and decreasing seawater saturation state with respect to calcium carbonate (CaCO3) minerals have raised concerns about the consequences to marine organisms that build CaCO3 structures. A large proportion of benthic marine calcifiers incorporate Mg into their skeletons (Mg-calcite), which, in general, reduces mineral stability. The relative vulnerability of some marine calcif...