Morphological . molecular identification of trematode species infecting the edible cockle across Europe.

Identifying marine trematode parasites in host tissue can be complicated when there is limited morphological differentiation between species infecting the same host species. This poses a challenge for regular surveys of the parasite communities in species of socio-economic and ecological importance. Our study focused on identifying digenean trematode species infecting the marine bivalve across Europe by comparing morphological and molecular species identification methods.

Host-specific viral predation network on coral reefs.

Viral infections are major modulators of marine microbial community assembly and biogeochemical cycling. In coral reefs, viral lysis controls bacterial overgrowth that is detrimental to coral health. However, methodological limitations have prevented the identification of viral hosts and quantification of their interaction frequencies.

Improving genome-scale metabolic models of incomplete genomes with deep learning.

Deciphering microbial metabolism is essential for understanding ecosystem functions. Genome-scale metabolic models (GSMMs) predict metabolic traits from genomic data, but constructing GSMMs for uncultured bacteria is challenging due to incomplete metagenome-assembled genomes, resulting in many gaps. We introduce the deep neural network guided imputation of reactomes (DNNGIOR), which uses AI to improve gap-filling by learning from the presence and absence of metabolic reactions across diverse bacterial genomes.

Exploring robustness of hybrid membranes under high hydrostatic pressure and temperature.

Bacterial membranes are typically composed of ester-bonded fatty acid (FA), while archaeal membranes consist of ether-bonded isoprenoids, differentiation referred to as the 'lipid divide'. Some exceptions to this rule are bacteria harboring ether-bonded membrane lipids. Previous research engineered the bacterium to synthesize archaeal isoprenoid-based ether-bonded lipids together with the bacterial FA ester-linked lipids, showing that heterochiral membranes are stable and more robust to temperature, cold shock, and solvents.

Efficient deep learning surrogate method for predicting the transport of particle patches in coastal environments.

Several coastal regions require operational forecast systems for predicting the transport of pollutants released during marine accidents. In response to this need, surrogate models offer cost-effective solutions. Here, we propose a surrogate modeling method for predicting the residual transport of particle patches in coastal environments.

Ecological and Reproductive Cycles Drive Henipavirus Seroprevalence in the African Straw-Coloured Fruit Bat ().

Bats are known to host zoonotic viruses, including henipaviruses that cause high fatality rates in humans (Nipah virus and Hendra virus). However, the determinants of zoonotic spillover are generally unknown, as the ecological and demographic drivers of viral circulation in bats are difficult to ascertain without longitudinal data. Here we analyse serological data collected from African straw-coloured fruit bats () in Ghana over the course of 2 years and across four sites, comprising three wild roosts and one captive colony.

Comparative assessment of four ballast water compliance monitoring devices with natural UV-treated water using IMO's monitoring approaches.

Compliance Monitoring Devices (CMDs) are instruments indicating if the 10-50 μm organism abundance in ballast water complies with the International Maritime Organizations' discharge standard. For that, they trade the presumed accuracy of detailed methods for speed and simplicity. In an experiment using UV-treated water, four CMDs were compared, using a Cohen's kappa analysis (ISO 3725), with two detailed methods: Fluorescence Microscopy (FM) and the Most Probable Number (MPN).

Oceanic islands act as drivers for the genetic diversity of marine species: Cardita calyculata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the NE Atlantic as a case-study.

Geographic distribution, as well as evolutionary and biogeographic processes and patterns of marine invertebrate benthic species are strongly shaped by dispersal ability during the life cycle. Remote oceanic islands lie at the brink of complex biotic and abiotic interactions which have significantly influenced the biodiversity patterns we see today. The interaction between geological environmental change and taxon-specific dispersal modes can influence species evolutionary patterns, eventually delimiting species-specific biogeographic regions.

Seasonal dynamics and diversity of Antarctic marine viruses reveal a novel viral seascape.

The Southern Ocean microbial ecosystem, with its pronounced seasonal shifts, is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Since viruses are key modulators of microbial abundance, diversity, and evolution, we need a better understanding of the effects of seasonality on the viruses in this region. Our comprehensive exploration of DNA viral diversity in the Southern Ocean reveals a unique and largely uncharted viral landscape, of which 75% was previously unidentified in other oceanic areas.

Coral high molecular weight carbohydrates support opportunistic microbes in bacterioplankton from an algae-dominated reef.

Unlabelled: High molecular weight (HMW; >1 kDa) carbohydrates are a major component of dissolved organic matter (DOM) released by benthic primary producers. Despite shifts from coral to algae dominance on many reefs, little is known about the effects of exuded carbohydrates on bacterioplankton communities in reef waters. We compared the monosaccharide composition of HMW carbohydrates exuded by hard corals and brown macroalgae and investigated the response of the bacterioplankton community of an algae-dominated Caribbean reef to the respective HMW fractions.

Orbital modulation of subtropical versus subantarctic moisture sources in the southeast Pacific mid-latitudes.

Reconstructing rainfall variability and moisture sources is a critical aspect to understand past and future hydroclimate dynamics. Here, we use changes in the deuterium content of land-plant leaf waxes from two marine sediment cores located off Chile to reconstruct changes in rainfall amount and variation in moisture sources over the last ~50 ka. The records indicate increased moisture in central Chile during precession maxima, but an obliquity modulation is evident in southern Chile.

A long-term study of stable isotope ratios of fingernail keratin and amino acids in a mother-infant dyad.

Objective: To evaluate the potential of compound-specific isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) for investigating infant feeding practices, we conducted a long-term study that compared infant and maternal amino acid (AA) nitrogen isotope ratios.

Materials And Methods: Fingernail samples were collected from a single mother-infant dyad over 19 months postpartum. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios were measured in the bulk keratin of the fingernail samples.

gen. nov., sp. nov., an extremely acidophilic organotrophic member of the order .

A mesophilic, hyperacidophilic archaeon, strain M1, was isolated from a rock sample from Vulcano Island, Italy. Cells of this organism were cocci with an average diameter of 1 µm. Some cells possessed filaments.

Emergent constraints on historical and future global gross primary productivity.

Terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) is the largest carbon flux in the global carbon cycle and plays a crucial role in terrestrial carbon sequestration. However, historical and future global GPP estimates still vary markedly. In this study, we reduced uncertainties in global GPP estimates by employing an innovative emergent constraint method on remote sensing-based GPP datasets (RS-GPP), using ground-based estimates of GPP from flux towers as the observational constraint.

High-resolution temporal NDVI data reveal contrasting intratidal, spring-neap and seasonal biomass dynamics in euglenoid- and diatom-dominated biofilms.

Intertidal microphytobenthos (MPB) are a major contributor to primary production in estuarine ecosystems. While their biomass is highly variable at multiple spatial and temporal scales, the underlying drivers are as yet little understood. Both in situ sampling and remote-sensing techniques often lack the temporal resolution or coverage to simultaneously capture short-term (intratidal to daily) and longer-term (weekly to annual) biomass changes.

Temperature modulates dominance of a superinfecting Arctic virus in its unicellular algal host.

Complex virus-virus interactions can arise when multiple viruses coinfect the same host, impacting infection outcomes with broader ecological and evolutionary significance for viruses and host. Yet, our knowledge regarding virus competition is still limited, especially for single-celled eukaryotic host-virus systems. Here, we report on mutual interference of two dsDNA viruses, MpoV-45T and MpoV-46T, competing for their Arctic algal host Micromonas polaris.

Migratory-derived resources induce elongated food chains through middle-up food web effects.

Background: Seasonal movements of animals often result in the transfer of large amounts of energy and nutrients across ecosystem boundaries, which may have large consequences on local food webs through various pathways. While this is known for both terrestrial- and aquatic organisms, quantitative estimates on its effects on food web structure and identification of key pathways are scarce, due to the difficulty in obtaining replication on ecosystem level with negative control, i.e.

A comparison of multivariate curve resolution with endmember extraction methods in hyperspectral Raman imaging.

Hyperspectral Raman imaging not only offers spectroscopic fingerprints but also reveals morphological information such as spatial distributions in an analytical sample. However, the spectrum-per-pixel nature of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) results in a vast amount of data. Furthermore, HSI often requires pre- and post-processing steps to extract valuable chemical information.

Production of structurally diverse sphingolipids by anaerobic marine bacteria in the euxinic Black Sea water column.

Microbial lipids, used as taxonomic markers and physiological indicators, have mainly been studied through cultivation. However, this approach is limited due to the scarcity of cultures of environmental microbes, thereby restricting insights into the diversity of lipids and their ecological roles. Addressing this limitation, here we apply metalipidomics combined with metagenomics in the Black Sea, classifying and tentatively identifying 1623 lipid-like species across 18 lipid classes.

Arctic benthos in the Anthropocene: Distribution and drivers of epifauna in West Greenland.

Albeit remote, Arctic benthic ecosystems are impacted by fisheries and climate change. Yet, anthropogenic impacts are poorly understood, as benthic ecosystems and their drivers have not been mapped over large areas. We disentangle spatial patterns and drivers of benthic epifauna (animals living on the seabed surface) in West Greenland, by integrating an extensive beam-trawl dataset (326 stations, 59-75°N, 30-1400 m water depth) with environmental data.

Slow-exploring captive red knots were quicker to find food in a social setting than fast explorers.

Individuals foraging in groups face increased competition but can benefit from social information on foraging opportunities that can ultimately increase survival. Personality traits can be associated with food-finding strategies, such as shyer individuals scrounging on the food discoveries of others. How personality and foraging strategy interact in a social foraging context with different group compositions received less attention.

High dispersal ability versus migratory traditions: Fine-scale population structure and post-glacial colonisation in bar-tailed godwits.

In migratory animals, high mobility may reduce population structure through increased dispersal and enable adaptive responses to environmental change, whereas rigid migratory routines predict low dispersal, increased structure, and limited flexibility to respond to change. We explore the global population structure and phylogeographic history of the bar-tailed godwit, Limosa lapponica, a migratory shorebird known for making the longest non-stop flights of any landbird. Using nextRAD sequencing of 14,318 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and scenario-testing in an Approximate Bayesian Computation framework, we infer that bar-tailed godwits existed in two main lineages at the last glacial maximum, when much of their present-day breeding range persisted in a vast, unglaciated Siberian-Beringian refugium, followed by admixture of these lineages in the eastern Palearctic.