In the framework of enhancing medicinal plants of the Mediterranean flora, the present work investigates phytochemical screening of different parts’ extracts of a wild medicinal plant from Asteraces family: roots, leaves, flowers and aerial parts. It also highlights the quantification of the main secondary metabolites; total polyphenols and flavonoids and its correlation with in vitro antioxidant and antimicrobiol activities. Biological tests have shown encouraging results for the antioxidant activities namely: reducing power, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radical scavenging, and exhibit flowers extract as promising source of phenols and potent antioxidants with the ability of breaking hydroxyl free radical chain generating, the main responsible of oxidative stress, on the other hand antibacterial and antifungal activities tested by discs diffusion method on agar medium, were carried out; and the effectiveness of tested extracts has been demonstrated against five pathogen bacterial and fungal referential strains. Obtained results exhibit aerial part as better phenols sources, whereas roots extract showed better in vitro antimicrobial activity. Obtained results showed nice correlation and open large perspectives on bioactive compounds assessment, SAR studies and clinical trials.

In many plant species sexual and asexual reproduction occur simultaneously. Clone size and clonal architecture, i.e. the spatial distribution of ramets, can significantly affect pollination and mating. In guerrilla strategy vegetative ramets belonging to one genet are dispersed and intermixed with other clones, which facilitate cross-fertilization. In turn, the mixing of ramets of different clones is significantly limited in phalanx strategy, increasing the probability of self-fertilization by geitonogamy. The shrub birch, Betula humilis, is a wind-pollinated species, which also reproduces vegetatively. The aim of the study was to define the strategy of clonal growth and investigate clonal diversity in the endangered B. humilis populations from the southwestern margin of the species range to assess their potential influence on pollination and selfing. We conducted genotyping at seven nuclear SSR (simple sequence repeats) loci of 522 ramets within 24 sampling plots in six populations differentiated in size and level of competition from other plant species. The analysis revealed 86 genets in total. Clonal and genetic diversities were substantial in all populations. Spatial distribution of ramets and number of genets differed between studied populations, but in general, the phalanx strategy dominated, as from 59% to 95% of ramets shared the same genotype with their closest neighbour. Nevertheless, clones were relatively small, most of individuals were unrelated, and plots with intermixed genets were found in all studied localities. This observation indicates that self-pollination does not seem to be a considerable threat, even in small and overgrown B. humilis stands. The plasticity of clonal growth strategies may facilitate survival of the shrub birch and allows it to persist under different environmental conditions.

The Mediterranean subpopulation of common bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN Red list due to its decline in population size by at least 50% within the last 50 years. Identifying the spatial distribution and habitat characteristics of this species is crucial to develop effective conservation and ecosystem management strategies. This research is designed to understand the effect of external parameters on the distribution of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Montenegro. The northern and central Adriatic Sea have been comparably studied since the 1980s, however the southern Adriatic Sea is suffering from a lack of baseline knowledge. Data collected from boat and land surveys over the past 2+ years was utilized to create a Species Distribution Model (SDM). A random forest model incorporating environmental and physiographic variables to represent the dynamic nature of common bottlenose dolphins is applied. These variables include sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, nutrients (Phosphorus and Nitrogen), bathymetry, slope and distance to coast.

The results identified distance to coast, bathymetry, phosphorus and slope as the principal explanatory variables influencing bottlenose dolphin distribution in the southern Adriatic Sea. Bottlenose dolphins were more commonly spotted in shallow waters of <100 m, in areas with a lower degree of slope (0.06 -2.36), with higher phosphorus levels (>0.005 mmol m^-3) and between 760 to 2900 m from the coast of Montenegro.

In the last decade, events of mass disease and mortality of sponges have been observed on Lake Baikal, which indicates an ecological crisis on the Lake. Based on the crucial role of sponges as filter feeders and bioindicators, their comprehensive study in this situation is of great interest. Despite the presence of genomic and transcriptome data for several species of endemic Baikal sponges, their population structure has never been studied before. The analysis of the population structure of both marine and freshwater sponges is successfully carried out using microsatellite markers. For freshwater sponges, the only species for which microsatellite markers have been pub lished is Ephydatia fluviatilis, a close relative of the Baikal endemic sponges. Microsatellite markers show a high percentage of interspecies cross-specificity among invertebrates. According to this, we attempted here to assess the suitability of these microsatellite markers for population genetic studies of endemic Baikal sponge Lubomirskia baikalensis based on genomic data. The presence of mi-crosatellite sequence markers homologous to the flanking regions in the L.baikalensis genome was shown for 63.6% of markers, 71.4% of which contained microsatellite sequences. However, all of these markers require the development of species-specific primer pairs.

CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere have promoted the absorption rate by the ocean, lowering the pH and causing its acidification. This change in pH affects all marine biota, particularly reef-building corals. Estimations of the ocean acidification-OA effects on marine environments indicate that coral reefs' structure will collapse, so it is important to establish mitigation strategies based on the most probable effects of pH reduction on corals. This study aimed to determine the effects of on corals near the Colombian Caribbean city of Cartagena, taking as model organisms of the species Porites astreoides and P. porites.

For each species, the effect of OA on bleaching, survival, and calcification was determined using artificial systems with concentrations of 700 ± 50 ppm (pH 7.879 ± 0,004) and 950 ± 50 ppm (pH 7.789 ± 0,007). The results showed that under concentrations of 700 ± 50 ppm pCO₂, the bleaching of P. astreoides increased by 24.92% and its survival decreased by 80.56%, while at 950 ± 50 ppm pCO₂, bleaching increased in 32.78% and survival decreased by 87.5%. In the case of P. porites, at 700 ± 50 ppm pCO₂, bleaching increased by 29.42% and survival decreased by 30.56% and at 950 ± 50 ppm pCO₂, bleaching increased in 37.32% and survival decreased by 13.39%. In both species, calcification was reduced more than 90% at 700 ppm pCO₂ and their skeleton began to disolve at 950 ppm pCO₂. This study represents the first effort to determine OA effects on Colombian Caribbean's marine biota.

Historically, marine oceanic open environments have been considered without barriers to dispersal, and the subsequent speciation of lineages from distant areas. As a consequence, many marine pelagic marine invertebrates are considered as monotypic cosmopolitan taxa, sometimes even including divergent geographic morphotypes. However, this view has been consistently challenged in the last decades by the discovery of many cryptic species complexes among pelagic marine “cosmopolitan” invertebrates. Despite their vast ecological importance, oceanic squids of the order Oegopsida Orbigny, 1845 and the superfamily Bathyteuthoidea Vecchione, Young and Sweeney, 2004 are seldomly molecularly tested for cryptic biodiversity covering wide areas. Here, we barcoded specimens belonging to 12 oceanic squid species sampled during several Atlantic oceanic cruises covering Atlantic waters from Brazil to Iceland, and the Mediterranean Sea. For assessing the presence of cryptic lineages, we studied the uncorrected p-distances at the intra- and interclade level and performed molecular species delimitation methods, such as the Poisson Tree Processes and the Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent approach. Within Atlantic waters, we found cryptic biodiversity in five species: Abraliopsis morisii (Verany, 1839), Ancistrocheirus lessueuri (Orbigny 1842), Chtenopteryx sicula (Verany 1851), Galiteuthis armata Joubin, 1898 and Helicocranchia pfefferi Massy 1907. Atlantic individuals of Pterygioteuthis gemmata Chun, 1908 represent a divergent lineage of those from New Zealand. The divergence values among cryptic lineages of individuals of the same nominal species range from 2.2 to 17 %, likely representing different stages of divergence since each putative speciation phenomena. In total, 50 % of the tested species revealed cryptic lineages, which indicates that oceanic squid biodiversity is underestimated and it is necessary to develop more studies to assess the diversity of these animals at a global scale.

In the present work Cinnamomum zeylanicum gender a wildly used as spice and medicinal plant, is investigated for both chemical and biological field, since development of bio-guided trials on medicinal plants therapeutic target has increased recent years through pharmacology which is interested in discovering new molecules expressing a therapeutic activity and development of useful drugs by selecting the most active fraction and isolates the active compound responsible of the therapeutically effect.

Therefore, for studied spice, we performed identification and quantification analysis of main bioactive compounds in order to subject it to bio guided tests using several solvents' polarities in order to evaluate its in vitro antimicrobial potential. To achieve our objective, we used qualitative and quantitative methods to identify the components of the obtained extracts. The in vitro antimicrobial effect of the medicinal plant was evaluated by disk diffusion method on several ATCC microbial strains and which gave almost very interesting results for all tested pathogens in addition to a richness in secondary metabolites.

Coral reef micro-invertebrates are a diverse and abundant group of taxa that inhabit the reef framework structure. However, knowledge about their diversity and function is scarce, limiting our understanding of the responses of coral reef ecosystems to degradation as a whole. We investigated the variability of the cryptofauna community structure in a gradient of live coral cover in La Azufrada coral reef in Isla Gorgona, Colombian Pacific. Live coral cover was estimated from photo-quadrats at 60 sampling points across the reef, where the cryptofauna were also collected in dead coral and coral rubble. Using microscopy to identify taxa, we found 197 morphospecies, among which crustaceans (40%), polychaetes (24%), and molluscans (22%) represented most of the species richness. The 0-25%, 25%-50%, and 50-75% cover categories of live coral were similar to one another in cryptofauna species richness and abundance, but cryptofauna abundance was significantly lower in the areas of highest coral cover (75-100%). Crustaceans were the most abundant group at all four cover categories, mainly due to high abundances of tanaidaceans and isopods. Polychaetes were more abundant in the areas of low coral cover (<25%), whereas echinoderms, represented mostly by ophiuroids, had highest abundances at intermediate levels of coral cover (25%-75%). In contrast to abundance, echinoderms and polychaetes were the major contributors to cryptofauna biomass, whereas the contribution of crustaceans was relatively lower. Our results agree with previous studies in the Eastern Tropical Pacific that have found higher species richness and abundance of cryptic invertebrates in areas with low and intermediate levels of live coral cover. Therefore, substrate heterogeneity is an important condition for the high biodiversity observed in coral reefs.

Great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) are ecosystem engineers, able cause extremely changes in the territory of the breeding colony. The purpose of our work was to evaluate the influence of the colonies of great cormorants on small mammal communities. The investigation was done in 4 colonies of the great cormorants located in Lithuania. During nine-year study 1967 individuals of 10 small mammal species were trapped with a total sampling effort of 17,700 trap days. We found, that the small colonies of the great cormorants (80–130 breeding pairs) had a positive effect on small mammals communities. Abundance, species richness and diversity increased there. In the big colony of the great cormorants (which in different years hosted 1500–3800 breeding birds pairs) in the active part of colony abundance, species diversity, body condition index and proportion of females decreased. However, in the abandoned part of the colony abundance, diversity and body condition index increased. Thus, results of this study allow a better assessment of the complexity of the environmental impact of cormorants. For the first time we highlighted the effect of colony size, finding that with increase of the colony positive effects on small mammal communities are overweighed by the negative ones.

Clear—cuttings cause significant changes in boreal forest ecosystems and have long-term effects on populations of understory plants. The aim of our studies was to determine the impact of clear-cuttings on understory mosses and vascular plants populations after clear-cuttings. The species diversity of particular populations in mature stands before cuttings and after one year was determined. Results of investigations corroborated changes in coverage, frequency, and prominence value of predominant Ericaceae plants. We determined the different response of Vaccinium vitis-idaea L., V. myrtillus L. and Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull. Plant species that are particularly sensitive to clear—cuttings have been identified also. Assessing the viability of moss populations in mature forest stands and deforested areas showed that moss species are most sensitive to environmental changes after clear—cuttings. These investigations could justify the conservation of sensitive forest plant populations and non-wood forest resources.