Coral diseases are emerging as a significant global threat; however, their distribution and species susceptibility patterns remain understudied in many regions, including Oman’s reefs. To address this gap, we surveyed ten northeastern Omani reef sites, and documented disease types, spatial patterns, their frequency, and genus-specific susceptibility. We found five disease types: black band disease (BBD), white syndromes (WS),...

Many aspects of blue whale biology are poorly understood. Some of the gaps in our knowledge, such as those regarding their basic taxonomy and seasonal movements, directly affect our ability to monitor and manage blue whale populations. As a step towards filling in some of these gaps, microsatellite and mtDNA sequence analyses were conducted on blue whale samples from the Southern Hemisphere, the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP)...

Decades of ecological study have demonstrated the importance of top‐down and bottom‐up controls on food webs, yet few studies within this context have quantified the magnitude of energy and material fluxes at the whole‐ecosystem scale. We examined top‐down and bottom‐up effects on food web fluxes using a field experiment that manipulated the presence of a consumer, the Trinidadian guppy Poecilia reticulata , and the production...

Summary Molecular epidemiology studies further our understanding of migrations of phytopathogenic bacteria, the major determining factor in their emergence. Asiatic citrus canker, caused by X anthomonas citri pv. citri , was recently reported in M ali and B urkina F aso, a region remote from other contaminated areas. To identify the origin and pathways of these emergences, we used two sets of markers, minisatellites and micros...

Blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus ) were among the most intensively exploited species of whales in the world. As a consequence of this intense exploitation, blue whale sightings off the coast of Chile were uncommon by the end of the 20th century. In 2004, a feeding and nursing ground was reported in southern Chile (SCh). With the aim to investigate the genetic identity and relationship of these Chilean blue whales to those i...

We estimated the abundance of humpback whales in the North Pacific by capture‐recapture methods using over 18,000 fluke identification photographs collected in 2004–2006. Our best estimate of abundance was 21,808 (CV = 0.04). We estimated the biases in this value using a simulation model. Births and deaths, which violate the assumption of a closed population, resulted in a bias of +5.2%, exclusion of calves in samples resulted...

The effects of food ration and social context, as well as possible interactions, on the antipredator behaviour of juvenile rainbow trout Onchorhynchus mykiss were investigated in a pair of laboratory studies. In experiment 1, pairs of dominant and subordinate O. mykiss were exposed to conspecific alarm cues when maintained under high or low food rations. Under high food rations, dominant individuals responded to predation risk...

Under natural conditions, both young‐of‐the‐year (YOY; 0+ year) and parr (1+ year) Atlantic salmon Salmo salar exhibited strong antipredator behaviour ( e.g. increase in latency to resume foraging) following the exposure to damage‐released chemical alarm cues relative to a stream water control. Subsequent exposure to a novel visual stimulus had contrasting results. Parr increased their reactive distance to the visual stimulus...