This paper investigates the femtosecond pulse laser ablation and cleaning of two Galician granites of high cultural significance used for many monuments and infrastructure in Galicia, Spain: Vilachan which is affected by biological colonisation, and an ashlar granite in Vigo affected by a gypsum-rich black crust. The ablation thresholds of the granites were established to be 1.3 ± 0.2 J∙cm −2 . The ablation efficiency was dete...

Multiple neurocognitive processes are involved in the highly complex task of producing written words. Yet, little is known about the neural pathways that support spelling in healthy adults. We assessed the associations between performance on a difficult spelling-to-dictation task and microstructural properties of language-related white matter pathways, in a sample of 73 native English-speaking neurotypical adults. Participants...

Little is known about dispersal in deep-sea ecosystems, especially for sponges, which are abundant ecosystem engineers. Understanding patterns of gene flow in deep-sea sponges is essential, especially in areas where rising pressure from anthropogenic activities makes difficult to combine management and conservation. Here, we combined population genomics and oceanographic modelling to understand how Northeast Atlantic populatio...

Following the eruption of the Calbuco volcano in April 2015, an extensive ash plume spread across northern Patagonia and into the southeast Pacific and southwest Atlantic oceans. Here, we report on field surveys conducted in the coastal region receiving the highest ash load following the eruption (Reloncaví Fjord). The fortuitous location of a long-term monitoring station in Reloncaví Fjord provided data to evaluate inshore ph...

Sponges are ubiquitous components of various deep‐sea habitats, including cold water coral reefs, and form deep‐sea sponge grounds. Although the deep sea is generally considered to be a food‐limited environment, these ecosystems are known to be hotspots of biodiversity and carbon cycling. To assess the role of sponges in the carbon cycling of deep‐sea ecosystems, we studied the carbon budgets of six dominant deep‐sea sponges o...

Motivation Traits are increasingly being used to quantify global biodiversity patterns, with trait databases growing in size and number, across diverse taxa. Despite growing interest in a trait‐based approach to the biodiversity of the deep sea, where the impacts of human activities (including seabed mining) accelerate, there is no single repository for species traits for deep‐sea chemosynthesis‐based ecosystems, including hyd...

Nitrogen (N) is the major limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth and productivity in large parts of the world's oceans. Differential preferences for specific N substrates may be important in controlling phytoplankton community composition. To date, there is limited information on how specific N substrates influence the composition of naturally occurring microbial communities. We investigated the effect of nitrate ( ), ammo...

The catfish genus Ageneiosus in the exclusively Neotropical family Auchenipteridae is revised. Species of Ageneiosus are widely distributed in all major South American continental drainages except the São Francisco River basin and small rivers along the Brazilian east coast. The taxonomic revision was based on examination of available type specimens, additional museum material and comparisons of original descriptions. A suite...