Marine Microbiota Responses to Shipping Scrubber Effluent Assessed at Community Structure and Function Endpoints.

The use of novel high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies to examine the responses of natural multidomain microbial communities to scrubber effluent discharges to the marine environment is still limited. Thus, we applied metabarcoding sequencing targeting the planktonic unicellular eukaryotic and prokaryotic fraction (phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, and protozooplankton) in mesocosm experiments with natural microbial communities from a polluted and an unpolluted site. Furthermore, metagenomic analysis revealed changes in the taxonomic and functional dominance of multidomain marine microbial communities after scrubber effluent additions.

A catastrophic change in a european protected wetland: From harmful phytoplankton blooms to fish and bird kill.

Understanding the processes that underlay an ecological disaster represents a major scientific challenge. Here, we investigated phytoplankton and zooplankton community changes before and during a fauna mass kill in a European protected wetland. Evidence on gradual development and collapse of harmful phytoplankton blooms, allowed us to delineate the biotic and abiotic interactions that led to this ecological disaster.

The genus Diaphanosoma (Diplostraca: Sididae) in Greece: morphological and molecular assessment.

For the genus Diaphanosoma Fischer (Cladocera) the species name D. brachyurum has been widely used for many decades to identify other species belonging to this genus. To clarify the diversity of the genus in Greek lakes in the present study, we morphologically and genetically identified the Diaphanosoma species occurring in eight lakes.

Rotifers from inland water bodies of continental Ecuador and Galápagos Islands: An updated checklist.

We present an updated checklist of the rotifer fauna from inland aquatic habitats in continental Ecuador and the Galápagos islands based on published rotifer records found in the literature. The checklist summarizes the status of the current taxonomic and faunistic knowledge on rotifers in Ecuador, updates the nomenclature, and reports the regions where each species has been found in the country. A total of 287 valid species (269 monogononts and 18 bdelloids was found.

Reverse taxonomy applied to the Brachionus calyciflorus cryptic species complex: Morphometric analysis confirms species delimitations revealed by molecular phylogenetic analysis and allows the (re)description of four species.

The discovery and exploration of cryptic species have been profoundly expedited thanks to developments in molecular biology and phylogenetics. In this study, we apply a reverse taxonomy approach to the Brachionus calyciflorus species complex, a commonly studied freshwater monogonont rotifer. By combining phylogenetic, morphometric and morphological analyses, we confirm the existence of four cryptic species that have been recently suggested by a molecular study.

Period of public commentary begins on the revised proposal of species-group level names, and on the proposal of genus-group level names of the Candidate Part of List of Available Names (LAN) in the phylum Rotifera.

Following ICZN (1999) Article 79 Chapter 17 http://www.nhm.ac.

Integrative Taxonomy Recognizes Evolutionary Units Despite Widespread Mitonuclear Discordance: Evidence from a Rotifer Cryptic Species Complex.

Mitonuclear discordance across taxa is increasingly recognized as posing a major challenge to species delimitation based on DNA sequence data. Integrative taxonomy has been proposed as a promising framework to help address this problem. However, we still lack compelling empirical evidence scrutinizing the efficacy of integrative taxonomy in relation to, for instance, complex introgression scenarios involving many species.

Updating the description and taxonomic status of Brachionus sessilis Varga, 1951 (Rotifera: Brachionidae) based on detailed morphological analysis and molecular data.

Brachionus sessilis Varga, 1951 is an epizoic rotifer living exclusively on cladocerans of the genus Diaphanosoma. Current taxonomic knowledge relies solely on limited morphological information, whereas there is no type material. Here, we aim to resolve issues concerning its morphology and taxonomy using both morphological and genetic characters on material sampled from Lake Balaton (Hungary), as well as Lake Doirani (Greece) that was selected for comparison purposes.

Phytoplankton and water quality in a Mediterranean drinking-water reservoir (Marathonas Reservoir, Greece).

Phytoplankton and water quality of Marathonas drinking-water Reservoir were examined for the first time. During the study period (July-September 2007), phytoplankton composition was indicative of eutrophic conditions although phytoplankton biovolume was low (max. 2.