Cellular accumulation of crude oil compounds reduces the competitive fitness of the coral symbiont Symbiodinium glynnii.

Oil spill events in the marine environment can have a deleterious impact on the affected ecosystems, such as coral reefs, with direct consequences for their socioeconomic value. The mutualistic relationship between tropical corals and their dinoflagellate symbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) provide structural and nutritional basis for a high local biodiversity in oligotrophic waters. Here, we investigated effects of crude oil water-accommodated fraction on the competitive fitness of the model zooxanthellae species Symbiodinium glynnii.

First record of two rare spider crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Majoidea) from Brazil.

In this paper we report the first occurrence of two rare spider crabs (Majoidea) from Brazil, with additional morphological information based on material collected in the upper continental slope of the Potiguar Basin, northeast of Brazil. Lepteces ornatus Rathbun, 1893 (Epialtidae), originally described from the Gulf of Mexico and also reported from Uruguay, is now recorded from Brazilian waters (off Rio Grande do Norte), whereas Collodes leptocheles Rathbun, 1894 (Inachoididae) was considered for a long time as an endemic species of Gulf of Mexico and herein is being recorded for the first time in the Southern Atlantic.