Search results for " Crustacea"
showing 10 items of 27 documents
First Assessment of Plasticizers in Marine Coastal Litter-Feeder Fauna in the Mediterranean Sea
2021
Micro and nanoplastics are harmful to marine life due to their high level of fragmentation and resistance to degradation. Over the past two decades, marine coastal sediment has shown an increasing amount of microplastics being a sort of trap for debris wastes or chemicals. In such an environment some species may be successful candidates to be used as monitors of environmental and health hazards and can be considered a mirror of threats of natural habitats. Such species play a key role in the food web of littoral systems since they are litter-feeders, and are prey for fishes or higher trophic level species. A preliminary investigation was conducted on five species of small-sized amphipod cru…
Updated checklist and distribution of large branchiopods (Branchiopoda: Anostraca, Notostraca, Spinicaudata) in Tunisia
2016
Temporary ponds are the most peculiar and representative water bodies in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, where they often represent diversity hotspots that greatly contribute to the regional biodiversity. Being indissolubly linked to these ecosystems, the so-called “large branchiopods” are unanimously considered flagship taxa of these habitats. Nonetheless, updated and detailed information on large branchiopod faunas is still missing in many countries or regions. Based on an extensive bibliographical review and field samplings, we provide an updated and commented checklist of large branchiopods in Tunisia, one of the less investigated countries of the Maghreb as far as inland w…
Fishing pressure impacts the abundance gradient of European lobsters across the borders of a newly established marine protected area
2019
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are considered viable fisheries management tools due to their potential benefits of adult spillover and recruitment subsidy to nearby fisheries. However, before–after control–impact studies that explore the biological and fishery effects of MPAs to surrounding fisheries are scarce. We present results from a fine-scale spatial gradient study conducted before and after the implementation of a 5 km 2 lobster MPA in southern Norway. A significant nonlinear response in lobster abundance, estimated as catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) from experimental fishing, was detected within 2 years of protection. After 4 years, CPUE values inside the MPA had increased by a magnitu…
Are epizoites biological indicators of a western Mediterranean striped dolphin die-off?
1994
During a die-off of Mediterranean striped dolphins Stenella coeruleoalba in 1990-91, 82 individuals stranded on the Spanish coast were examined for crustacean ectoparasites and epizoites. Six species were detected: Syncyarnus aequus, PenneUa sp., Xenobalanus globicipitis, Conchoderma virgatum, Lepas pectinata and Lepas cf. hillii. The barnacles L. pectinata and L. cf. hillii are reported here for the first time on cetaceans; they were attached to the teeth. C. virgaturn was also found on the teeth; this is an unusual attachment on cetaceans. X. globicipitis showed a higher prevalence on the dolphins studied than on those stranded in the same months before (1980 to 1990) and after (1991 to 1…
Desalination effluents and the establishment of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890 in the south -eastern Mediterrane…
2019
A decade long monitoring programme has revealed a flourishing population of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla in the vicinity of outfalls of desalination plants off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The first specimens were collected in 2010, thus predating all previously published records of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. A decade-long disturbance regime related to the construction and operation of the plants may have had a critical role in driving the population growth. University of Palermo FFR 2018
Phosphorylation of serine residues is fundamental for the calcium-binding ability of Orchestin, a soluble matrix protein from crustacean calcium stor…
2003
International audience; Orchestia cavimana is a terrestrial crustacean, which cyclically stores calcium in diverticula of the midgut, in the form of calcified amorphous concretions. These concretions are associated with a proteinaceous matrix, the main constituent of the soluble matrix is Orchestin, an acidic calcium-binding protein [Testenière et al., Biochem. J. 361 (2002) 327-335]. In the present paper, we clearly demonstrate that Orchestin is phosphorylated on serine and tyrosine residues, but that calcium binding only occurs via the phosphoserine residues. To our knowledge, this is the first example of an invertebrate mineralization for which a post-translational modification is clearl…
Foreword to the special issue "new frontiers for monitoring European biodiversity: The role and importance of amphipod crustaceans"
2013
The role of freshwater copepods in the environmental risk assessment of caffeine and propranolol mixtures in the surface water bodies of Spain
2019
In this study we aimed at assessing: (i) the environmental risk posed by mixtures of caffeine and propranolol to the freshwater ecosystems of Spain; (ii) the sensitivity of freshwater copepod species to the two compounds; (iii) if the toxicity of caffeine and propranolol to freshwater copepods contributes to the environmental risk posed by the two compounds in the freshwater bodies of Spain. The environmental risk was computed as the ratio of MECs (i.e. the measured environmental concentrations) to PNECs (i.e. the respective predicted no-effect concentrations). The effects of caffeine and propranolol on the freshwater cyclopoid Diacyclops crassicaudis crassicaudis were tested both individua…
The potential of antimicrobial peptides isolated from freshwater crayfish species in new drug development: A review
2021
Abstract The much-publicised increased resistance of pathogenic bacteria to conventional antibiotics has focused research effort on the characterization of new antimicrobial drugs. In this context, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) extracted from animals are considered a promising alternative to conventional antibiotics. In recent years, freshwater crayfish species have emerged as an important source of bioactive compounds. In fact, these invertebrates rely on an innate immune system based on cellular responses and on the production of important effectors in the haemolymph, such as AMPs, which are produced and stored in granules in haemocytes and released after stimulation. These effectors are …