Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea.

The Ægir Ridge System (ARS) is an ancient extinct spreading axis in the Nordic seas extending from the upper slope east of Iceland (∼550 m depth), as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), to a depth of ∼3,800 m in the Norwegian basin. Geomorphologically a rift valley, the ARS has a canyon-like structure that may promote increased diversity and faunal density. The main objective of this study was to characterize benthic habitats and related macro- and megabenthic communities along the ARS, and the influence of water mass variables and depth on them.

Gene expression analysis identifies novel genes participating in early murine liver development and adult liver regeneration.

Adult liver tissue regeneration may recapitulate molecular events of liver organogenesis. As gaps in our understanding of the fundamental processes that govern development and regeneration of the liver still exist, we studied gene expression in the developing liver at embryonic day 9.5 post coitum (E d9.