Search results for "Marine biodiversity"

Marine biodiversity in space and time : what tiny fossils tell

2018

Biodiversity has been changing both in space and time. For example, we have more species in the tropics and less species in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, constituting latitudinal diversity gradient, one of the patterns we can see most consistently in this complex world. We know much less regarding the biodiversity gradients with time. This is because it would require a well designed continuous monitoring program, which seldom persist beyond a few decades. But, luckily, we have remains of ancient organisms, called fossils. These are basically the only direct records of past biodiversity. 

Sustaining Canadian marine biodiversity: Policy and statutory progress

2020

A 2012 Expert Panel Report on marine biodiversity by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) concluded that Canada faced significant challenges in achieving sustainable fisheries, regulating aquaculture, and accounting for climate change. Relative to many countries, progress by Canada in fulfilling international obligations to sustain biodiversity was deemed poor. To track progress by Canada since 2012, the RSC struck a committee to track policy and statutory developments on matters pertaining to marine biodiversity and to identify policy challenges, and leading options for implementation that lie ahead. The report by the Policy Briefing Committee is presented here. It concluded that Canada has …

Antitumoral compounds from vertebrate sister group: A review of Mediterranean ascidians

2020

Among the diseases that afflict the human population, cancer is one for which many drug treatments are not yet known or effective. Moreover, the pharmacological treatments used often create serious side effects in sick patients and for this reason, it is essential to find effective and less harmful treatments. To date, marine biodiversity is a real source of metabolites with antitumoral activity and among invertebrates' ascidians have been the main source to obtain them. Mediterranean area is the richest in biodiversity and contains several ascidian species used in drugs development during the years. However, many more Mediterranean ascidian species have not been studied and could be a sour…

The Mediterranean intertidal habitat as a natural laboratory to study climate change drivers of geographic patterns in marine biodiversity.

2011

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY FROM POLYPEPTIDE-RICH EXTRACTS OF THE SEAGRASS POSIDONIA OCEANICA

2021

The present study was carried out to assess the antibacterial, antifungal and antibiofilm properties of polypeptide-rich extracts isolated from green leaves and rhizomes of Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica (L. Delile) (Posidoniaceae). The seagrass was collected, washed with freshwater, grinded with liquid nitrogen in order to obtain fine powders that were exposed to extraction by acetic acid and antiproteases. The crude extracts isolated from leaves and rhizomes of P. oceanica were subjected to microbiological assays to evaluate the antibacterial, antifungal and antibiofilm activity of polypeptide fraction against two reference bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and…

Effects of Caulerpa cylindracea Sonder (Chlorophyta Caulerpaceae) on marine biodiversity

2019

The chief purpose of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is biodiversity conservation. The effects that invasive alien species (IAS) have on MPAs are not yet fully known, even though assessing them is fundamental. Effective management plans, indeed, also require knowledge on the dis- tribution, spread dynamics and impact of IAS. We report first observations on the effects of Caulerpa cylindracea Sonder (Chlorophyta Caulerpaceae) on the communities living along the coasts of the Island of Favignana (Egadi Islands MPA, Sicily, Italy). We found that C. cylindracea may have negative effects on the habitat where it settles in two different ways: a) affecting the structure of the native algal community…

New Mediterranean Marine biodiversity records (December, 2013)

2013

M. Bilecenoglu [et al.]

Effects of Caulerpa cylindracea on marine biodiversity

2017

The Mediterranean sea is an important hotspot for alien species. Following habitat loss, Invasive Alien Species (IAS) are considered to be amongst the most serious threats to biodiversity and natural ecosystem functioning. Among the IAS recorded in the Mediterranean sea, Caulerpa cylindracea Sonder, introduced from Australia and New Caledonia, has raised serious concern due to its negative impact on native communities. We provide some observations on the effects of the presence of C. cylindracea on the communities living along the coasts of the Island of Favignana (Egadi Islands, Marine Protected Areas).

Natural acidification changes the timing and rate of succession, alters community structure, and increases homogeneity in marine biofouling communiti…

2017

Ocean acidification may have far-reaching consequences for marine community and ecosystem dynamics, but its full impacts remain poorly understood due to the difficulty of manipulating pCO2 at the ecosystem level to mimic realistic fluctuations that occur on a number of different timescales. It is especially unclear how quickly communities at various stages of development respond to intermediate-scale pCO2 change and, if high pCO2 is relieved mid-succession, whether past acidification effects persist, are reversed by alleviation of pCO2 stress, or are worsened by departures from prior high pCO2 conditions to which organisms had acclimatized. Here, we used reciprocal transplant experiments al…