An up-to-date list of exclusively cave-dwelling gastropod species recorded in Brazil is presented including updated taxonomy, detailed geographic information, and illustration of types. The list includes 18 cave-exclusive (troglobitic) gastropods encompassing 15 land and three freshwater species, with the status of further species pending additional studies. Their unusual morphology and diversity ...

The current warming of the oceans has been shown to have detrimental effects for a number of species. An understanding of the underlying mechanisms may be hampered by the non-linearity and non-stationarity of the relationships between temperature and demography, and by the insufficient length of available time series. Most demographic time series are too short to study the effects of climate on ...

<ol> <li>Free-living parasite life stages may contribute substantially to ecosystem biomass and thus represent a significant source of energy flow when consumed by non-host organisms. However, ambient temperature and the predator's own infection status may modulate consumption rates towards parasite prey.</li> <li>We investigated the combined effects of temperature and predator infection status ...

Ecosystems are currently experiencing rapid changes. Decision-makers need to anticipate future changes or challenges that will emerge in order to implement both short-term actions and long-term strategies for reducing undesirable impacts. Strategic foresight has been proposed to help resolve these challenges for better planning and decision-making in an uncertain future. This structured process ...

Ptarmigan are herbivorous birds that are year-round residents of alpine and arctic ecosystems — presently subjected to the most rapid climate warming on earth. Yet, compared to other bird taxa there has been little climate impact research on ptarmigan. Ptarmigan population dynamics, in particular in the sub/low-arctic, appears to be strongly influenced by complex interactions with a suite of ...

As the global climate changes, the higher latitudes are seen to be warming significantly faster. It is likely that the Arctic biome will experience considerable shifts in ice melt season length, leading to changes in photoirradiance and in the freshwater inputs to the marine environment. The exchange of nutrients between Arctic surface and deep waters and their cycling throughout the water column ...

Eight hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon Salmo salar post-smolts, implanted with acoustic depth sensing transmitters and manually tracked for 5-12 h in the Hardangerfjord (Norway), spent most of their time (49-99%) at 1-3 m depth during the day, whereas four of seven fish tracked were found close (<0.5 m) to the surface at night, with a strong negative cross-correlation between general swimming depth ...

Snow is a critically important and rapidly changing feature of the Arctic. However, snow-cover and snowpack conditions change through time pose challenges for measuring and prediction of snow. Plausible scenarios of how Arctic snow cover will respond to changing Arctic climate are important for impact assessments and adaptation strategies. Although much progress has been made in understanding ...

Microorganisms play an essential role in the performance of constructed wetlands (CWs) for wastewater treatment. However, there has been limited discussion on the characteristics of microbial communities in CWs for treatment of effluents from marine recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). This study is aimed at characterizing the microbial communities of pilot-scale CWs with <i>Salicornia bigelovii</i> ...

Rock ptarmigans (<i>Lagopus muta</i>) are gallinaceous birds inhabiting arctic and sub-arctic environments. Their diet varies by season, including plants or plant parts of high nutritional value, but also toxic plant secondary metabolites (PSMs). Little is known about the microbes driving organic matter decomposition in the cecum of ptarmigans, especially the last steps leading to methanogenesis. ...