The spectacular recovery of fish inside marine reserves highlights the declines elsewhere.
A "weight of evidence" from laboratory-based studies, captive feeding studies of seals, and studies of free-ranging marine mammals highlights the endocrine-disrupting nature of complex mixtures of POPs and many of their constituents (Ross 2000).
The bioavailability of ENMs should be limited in saline waters but toxicity has been observed in marine animals, highlighting a need for more study on possible impacts in estuarine and coastal systems.
BIIb and BIIe carbonates exhibit uniform light REE depleted patterns suggesting inputs of detrital river material whereas a marine seawater, highlighted by the REE + Y distributions is preserved in BIIc and BIId carbonates.
As with terrestrial habitats, there is a lack of data on pharmaceutical exposures for the marine environment, highlighted by Sally Gaw (University of Canterbury), despite it being a major receptor for wastewater due to increasing human habitation of coastal areas and more intensive use of pharmaceuticals in aquaculture.
Mx representatives were recovered from environments identified as main contributors to atmospheric methane such as digestive systems of ruminants and termites, rice fields, peat bog, and freshwater and marine sediments, highlighting the importance of taking into account this whole new lineage in future culture-independent studies.
Reductions in circulating TH levels have been observed with increasing exposure to PCBs and related compounds in laboratory animals, aquatic birds, and both captive and free-ranging marine mammals, highlighting the sensitivity of this endocrine end point to disruption by environmental contaminants (Rolland 2000).
This integrated approach, applying non-invasive assays to simultaneously determine the responses at different levels of biological organisation, indicates the potential value of behavioural and physiological measures in determining the toxicity of chemicals to marine organisms and highlights also the relevance of including adult echinoderms in environmental studies.
For example, EarthEcho, the environmental nonprofit founded by Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau, has embedded a ROCKZi board that highlights marine science and conservation news.
This study represents an unparalleled example of rapid speciation in a species-poor open marine ecosystem and highlights the importance of increasing our understanding on the role of these habitats in species formation.
