European Red List of Habitats Part 1. Marine habitats

The European Red List of Habitats provides an overview of the risk of collapse (degree of endangerment) of marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats in the European Union (EU28) and adjacent regions (EU28+), based on a consistent set of categories and criteria, and detailed data and expert knowledge from involved countries1. A total of 257 benthic marine habitat types were assessed. In total, 19% (EU28) and 18% (EU28+) of the evaluated habitats were assessed as threatened in categories Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable. An additional 12% were Near Threatened in the EU28 and 11% in the EU28+. These figures are approximately doubled if Data Deficient habitats are excluded. The percentage of threatened habitat types differs across the regional seas. The highest proportion of threatened habitats in the EU28 was found in the Mediterranean Sea (32%), followed by the North-East Atlantic (23%), the Black Sea (13%) and then the Baltic Sea (8%). There was a similar pattern in the EU28+. The most frequently cited pressures and threats were similar across the four regional seas: pollution (eutrophication), biological resource use other than agriculture or forestry (mainly fishing but also aquaculture), natural system modifications (e.g. dredging and sea defence works), urbanisation and climate change. Even for habitats where the assessment outcome was Data Deficient, the Red List assessment process has resulted in the compilation of a substantial body of useful information to support the conservation of marine habitats

Is the meiofauna a good indicator for climate change and anthropogenic impacts?

Our planet is changing, and one of the most pressing challenges facing the scientific community revolves around understanding how ecological communities respond to global changes. From coastal to deep-sea ecosystems, ecologists are exploring new areas of research to find model organisms that help predict the future of life on our planet. Among the different categories of organisms, meiofauna offer several advantages for the study of marine benthic ecosystems. This paper reviews the advances in the study of meiofauna with regard to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. Four taxonomic groups are valuable for predicting global changes: foraminifers (especially calcareous forms), nematodes, copepods and ostracods. Environmental variables are fundamental in the interpretation of meiofaunal patterns and multistressor experiments are more informative than single stressor ones, revealing complex ecological and biological interactions. Global change has a general negative effect on meiofauna, with important consequences on benthic food webs. However, some meiofaunal species can be favoured by the extreme conditions induced by global change, as they can exhibit remarkable physiological adaptations. This review highlights the need to incorporate studies on taxonomy, genetics and function of meiofaunal taxa into global change impact research

Сравнительный анализ многолетних изменений в структурной организации зообентоса в условиях постоянного антропогенного воздействия (на примере Севастопольской бухты, Крым)

Представлены результаты бентосной съемки рыхлых грунтов Севастопольской бухты (2001 г.), являющейся одной из наиболее антропогенно нагруженных акваторий побережья Крыма. Дана характеристика количественного развития, выделены таксоны, определяющие особенности структурной организации комплексов макрозообентоса. Полученные результаты позволяют отнести Севастопольскую бухту к фаунистически богатым акваториям Крыма и Черного моря в целом. Использование методов многомерной статистики позволило выделить комбинации 7 – 8 ключевых абиотических переменных, из общего числа 32-х, включенных в анализ, которые наилучшим образом “объясняют” распределение бентоса. При этом, хлороформные битумоиды, традиционно относимые к наиболее значимым для зообентоса абиотическим факторам, по результатам нашего анализа не вошли в группу ключевых переменных для макробентоса. Сравнительный анализ материалов, полученных с 1928 по 2001 гг., позволил сделать заключение о многолетних тенденциях увеличения средней биомассы бентоса в бухте и изменения трофической структуры донных группировок в сторону преобладания детритофагов. Такие изменения можно рассматривать в качестве ответной реакции экосистемы в условиях роста органического обогащения прибрежных вод Крыма.The results of benthic survey of soft bottoms in the Sevastopol bay had been performed in 2001 are presented. This bay is under permanent technogenic impact and is being considered as one of the most polluted areas along the coastal part of Crimea. The peculiarities of quantitative development of macrobenthic assemblages were characterized, and taxa which define the structural organization of assemblages were distinguished. In spite of strong influence of technogenic pollution, Sevastopol bay can be attributed to faunistically rich areas of Crimean coast and the Black Sea at whole. Using the methods of multivariate statistical analysis, suites of 7 – 8 environmental variables (from the 32 ones considered in the analysis) that best explained the observed benthic spatial distribution pattern were identified. It was noted that chloroform-extracted bitumens, which traditionally are being attributed to the most important abiotic factors affecting to bottom communities, were not included into set of the most significant variables influencing on macrobenthos. Comparative analysis of materials which had been collected in extremely far-separated time periods (1928 – 2001) allowed revealing availability of long-term tendencies: increasing of average benthos biomass values in the bay; and change in trophic structure of benthos when detritus-feeders became prevail. Such alterations can be considered as one of the way of adaptive response of the bay’s ecosystem under growing of organic enrichment in Crimean coastal waters

Obtaining spatially resolved tumor purity maps using deep multiple instance learning in a pan-cancer study

10.1016/j.patter.2021.100399Patterns32100399

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Picornaviridae.

The family Picornaviridae comprises small non-enveloped viruses with RNA genomes of 6.7 to 10.1 kb, and contains >30 genera and >75 species. Most of the known picornaviruses infect mammals and birds, but some have also been detected in reptiles, amphibians and fish. Many picornaviruses are important human and veterinary pathogens and may cause diseases of the central nervous system, heart, liver, skin, gastrointestinal tract or upper respiratory tract. Most picornaviruses are transmitted by the faecal-oral or respiratory routes. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of the Picornaviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/picornaviridae