Cascading tipping points of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are key elements in the physical and biological Earth system. Human-induced climate change, and other human activities in the region, are leading to several potential interacting tipping points with major and irreversible consequences. Here, we examine eight potential physical, biological, chemical, and social Antarctic tipping points.

The effect of submersion in different types of water on the survival and eclosion of blow-fly intra-puparial forms (Diptera: Calliphoridae).

Blow-fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) immatures are the main colonizers of decomposing remains, and any information on what influences their growth and development are important to forensic entomologists when they are required to estimate post-mortem intervals during a death investigation. Much of this work has been qualified and quantified in terrestrial environments, but is deplete in aquatic environments. When considering a blow-fly's life history, the longest immature life stage goes from the formation of the puparium to adult emergence, and involves metamorphosis.

The role of synchronized swimming as affiliative and anti-predatory behavior in long-finned pilot whales.

Synchronized swimming in cetaceans has been hypothesized to play a role in affiliative processes as well as anti-predatory responses. We compared observed variation in synchronized swimming at two research sites in relation to disturbance exposure to test these two hypotheses. This study describes and quantifies pair synchronization in long-finned pilot whales at the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain and Cape Breton, Canada.