60 research outputs found
Sponge Mass Mortalities in a Warming Mediterranean Sea: Are Cyanobacteria-Harboring Species Worse Off?
Mass mortality events are increasing dramatically in all coastal marine environments. Determining the underlying causes of mass mortality events has proven difficult in the past because of the lack of prior quantitative data on populations and environmental variables. Four-year surveys of two shallow-water sponge species, Ircinia fasciculata and Sarcotragus spinosulum, were carried out in the western Mediterranean Sea. These surveys provided evidence of two severe sponge die-offs (total mortality ranging from 80 to 95% of specimens) occurring in the summers of 2008 and 2009. These events primarily affected I. fasciculata, which hosts both phototrophic and heterotrophic microsymbionts, while they did not affect S. spinosulum, which harbors only heterotrophic bacteria. We observed a significant positive correlation between the percentage of injured I. fasciculata specimens and exposure time to elevated temperature conditions in all populations, suggesting a key role of temperature in triggering mortality events. A comparative ultrastructural study of injured and healthy I. fasciculata specimens showed that cyanobacteria disappeared from injured specimens, which suggests that cyanobacterial decay could be involved in I. fasciculata mortality. A laboratory experiment confirmed that the cyanobacteria harbored by I. fasciculata displayed a significant reduction in photosynthetic efficiency in the highest temperature treatment. The sponge disease reported here led to a severe decrease in the abundance of the surveyed populations. It represents one of the most dramatic mass mortality events to date in the Mediterranean Sea
Neue linguistische Methoden und arbeitstechnische Verfahren in der Erschliessung der Àgyptischen Grammatik
15 pĂĄginas, 1 tabla, 6 figuras.Does diversity beget diversity? Diversity
includes a diversity of concepts because it is linked to
variability in and of life and can be applied to multiple
levels. The connections between multiple levels of
diversity are poorly understood. Here, we investigated
the relationships between genetic, bacterial, and
chemical diversity of the endangered Atlanto-Mediterranean sponge Spongia lamella. These levels of
diversity are intrinsically related to sponge evolution
and could have strong conservation implications. We
used microsatellite markers, denaturing gel gradient
electrophoresis and quantitative polymerase chain
reaction, and high performance liquid chromatography to quantify genetic, bacterial, and chemical
diversity of nine sponge populations. We then used
correlations to test whether these diversity levels
covaried. We found that sponge populations differed
signiïŹcantly in genetic, bacterial, and chemical
diversity. We also found a strong geographic pattern
of increasing genetic, bacterial, and chemical dissimilarity with increasing geographic distance between
populations. However, we failed to detect signiïŹcant
correlations between the three levels of diversity
investigated in our study. Our results suggest that
diversity fails to beget diversity within a single species
and indicates that a diversity of factors regulates a
diversity of diversities, which highlights the complex
nature of the mechanisms behind diversityResearch funded by grants from the Agence Nationale de la
Recherche (ECIMAR), from the Spanish Ministry of Science
and Technology SOLID (CTM2010-17755) and Benthomics
(CTM2010-22218-C02-01) and the BIOCAPITAL project
(MRTN-CT-2004-512301) of the European Union. This is a
contribution of the Consolidated Research Group ââGrupo de
EcologıŽa BentoÂŽnica,ââ SGR2009-655.Peer reviewe
The management of acute venous thromboembolism in clinical practice. Results from the European PREFER in VTE Registry
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Europe. Data from real-world registries are necessary, as clinical trials do not represent the full spectrum of VTE patients seen in clinical practice. We aimed to document the epidemiology, management and outcomes of VTE using data from a large, observational database. PREFER in VTE was an international, non-interventional disease registry conducted between January 2013 and July 2015 in primary and secondary care across seven European countries. Consecutive patients with acute VTE were documented and followed up over 12 months. PREFER in VTE included 3,455 patients with a mean age of 60.8 ± 17.0 years. Overall, 53.0 % were male. The majority of patients were assessed in the hospital setting as inpatients or outpatients (78.5 %). The diagnosis was deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in 59.5 % and pulmonary embolism (PE) in 40.5 %. The most common comorbidities were the various types of cardiovascular disease (excluding hypertension; 45.5 %), hypertension (42.3 %) and dyslipidaemia (21.1 %). Following the index VTE, a large proportion of patients received initial therapy with heparin (73.2 %), almost half received a vitamin K antagonist (48.7 %) and nearly a quarter received a DOAC (24.5 %). Almost a quarter of all presentations were for recurrent VTE, with >80 % of previous episodes having occurred more than 12 months prior to baseline. In conclusion, PREFER in VTE has provided contemporary insights into VTE patients and their real-world management, including their baseline characteristics, risk factors, disease history, symptoms and signs, initial therapy and outcomes
Patient selection.
<p>Flow-chart detailing patient selection. ce-CMR: contrast-enhanced Cardiac Magnetic Resonance; FU: follow-up.</p
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