The assessment of fish diversity is crucial for effective conservation and management strategies, especially in ecologically sensitive regions such as marine protected areas. This study contrasts the effectiveness of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding analysis employing Nanopore technology with compare beam trawl surveys at the Sylt Outer Reef, a Natura 2000 site in the North Sea, Germany. Out of the 17 fish species caught in a bottom trawl (using a 3m beam trawl), 14 were also identified through eDNA extracted from water samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Southern Ocean is characterized by longitudinal water circulations crossed by strong latitudinal gradients. How this oceanographic background shapes planktonic populations is largely unknown, despite the significance of this region for global biogeochemical cycles. Here, we show, based on genomic, morphometric, ecophysiological and mating compatibility data, an example of ecotypic differentiation and speciation within an endemic pelagic inhabitant, the diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Christmas Island red crab Gecarcoidea natalis undergoes extreme changes in metabolic status, ranging from inactivity during the dry season, to a spectacular annual breeding migration at the start of the wet season. The dramatic change in metabolic physiology that this polarisation entails should be reflected in changes in endocrine physiology, particularly that of the crustacean hyperglycaemic hormone (CHH), of which we know relatively little. CHH levels were measured using a novel ultrasensitive time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TR-FIA), together with metabolites (glucose, lactate), in the field at several scales of temporal resolution, during migratory activities (wet season) and during the inactive fossorial phase (dry season).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring their annual breeding migration the Christmas Island land crab Gecarcoidea natalis sustains locomotion aerobically for up to 12 h per day compared with just 10 min during the dry season when their muscles quickly become anaerobic. A seasonal transition to an endurance-muscle phenotype would thus seem essential for migrating crabs. The current study employed a gene discovery approach comparing two expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries, one each for leg muscle from dry (non-migrating) and wet season (migrating) crabs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe studied the transepithelial potential difference (TEPD) and (22)Na flux across isolated perfused gills (anterior pair 5 and posterior pairs 6-8) of the crab Chasmagnathus granulatus acclimated to either hypo- or hyper-osmotic conditions. The gills of crabs acclimated to low salinity, perfused and bathed with 10 per thousand saline solutions, produced the following TEPDs (hemolymph side with respect to bath side): 0.4+/-0.
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