An Evolutionary Mosaic Challenges Traditional Monitoring of a Foundation Species in a Coastal Environment-The Baltic Fucus vesiculosus.

During periods of environmental change, genetic diversity in foundation species is critical for ecosystem function and resilience, but it remains overlooked in environmental monitoring. In the Baltic Sea, a key species for monitoring is the brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus, which forms sublittoral 3D habitats providing shelter and food for fish and invertebrates. Ecological distribution models predict a significant loss of Baltic F.

The Roles of Plasticity and Selection in Rapid Phenotypic Changes at the Pacific Oyster Invasion Front in Europe.

Invasive species present significant management challenges worldwide due to their ability to rapidly adapt to novel environments. The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, a globally distributed invasive species, arrived in western Sweden in 2006 but has not yet colonised the low salinity waters of the Baltic Sea, presumably because low salinities act as a barrier to reproduction. We used classic mating designs to investigate fertilisation rates and heritability of embryonal salinity tolerance (in 8‰-33‰) in oysters from three locations with different invasion history and salinity (established, 33‰; past invasion front, 23.

Sequential breakdown of the Cf-9 leaf mould resistance locus in tomato by Fulvia fulva.

Leaf mould, caused by Fulvia fulva, is a devastating disease of tomato plants. In many commercial tomato cultivars, resistance to this disease is governed by the Cf-9 locus, which encodes five paralogous receptor-like proteins. Two of these proteins confer resistance: Cf-9C recognises the previously identified F.