Seasonality of primary production explains the richness of pioneering benthic communities.

A pattern of increasing species richness from the poles to the equator is frequently observed in many animal taxa. Ecological limits, determined by the abiotic conditions and biotic interactions within an environment, are one of the major factors influencing the geographical distribution of species diversity. Energy availability is often considered a crucial limiting factor, with temperature and productivity serving as empirical measures.

Phylogenomic Resolution of Sea Spider Diversification through Integration of Multiple Data Classes.

Despite significant advances in invertebrate phylogenomics over the past decade, the higher-level phylogeny of Pycnogonida (sea spiders) remains elusive. Due to the inaccessibility of some small-bodied lineages, few phylogenetic studies have sampled all sea spider families. Previous efforts based on a handful of genes have yielded unstable tree topologies.

Increased sea ice cover alters food web structure in East Antarctica.

In recent years, sea ice cover along coasts of East Antarctica has tended to increase. To understand ecological implications of these environmental changes, we studied benthic food web structure on the coasts of Adélie Land during an event of unusually high sea ice cover (i.e.

Conveniently pre-tagged and pre-packaged: extended molecular identification and metagenomics using complete metazoan mitochondrial genomes.

Background: Researchers sorely need markers and approaches for biodiversity exploration (both specimen linked and metagenomics) using the full potential of next generation sequencing technologies (NGST). Currently, most studies rely on expensive multiple tagging, PCR primer universality and/or the use of few markers, sometimes with insufficient variability.

Methodology/principal Findings: We propose a novel approach for the isolation and sequencing of a universal, useful and popular marker across distant, non-model metazoans: the complete mitochondrial genome.

Cladistic coding of genomic maps.

A new method of genomic maps analysis is described. The purpose of the method is to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships from the genomic organization of taxa. Our approach is based on gene order coding.

Complete mitochondrial DNA of the hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri: the comparative analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences strongly supports the cyclostome monophyly.

The phylogenetic position of cyclostomes, i.e., the relationships between hagfishes, lampreys, and jawed vertebrates is an unresolved problem.