Amphibians are increasingly challenged with salinization due to factors such as elevated sea level associated with climate change, the use of road salts, and lowering of water tables. Aldosterone is a steroid hormone that is produced by the adrenal cortex and is involved in osmotic regulation and may play an important role in amphibian acclimation to elevated salinity. We studied the effects of salinity

In this study, we evaluated the behavioural characteristics of the epithelial tissues of sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) subjected to illumination. The behavioural results indicated that the tentacles, tube feet, and spines were sensitive to light with structural changes. Among the three epithelial tissues, the tentacles were the most sensitive with the shortest reaction and recovery times, whereas

The immune response is a complex network composed of various molecules, cells and signaling pathways in crustacean. Cadmium-induced immunosuppression has been widely researched, but its underlying mechanism on crayfish proPO remains to be elucidated. In this study, the relationship between proPO activity in haemolymph and the activation of p38MAPK and Nrf2 in hepatopancreas was evaluated after red

Fiddler crabs are numerically dominant consumers within salt marshes and understanding how their behavior is influenced by human activities can therefore shed light on the health of disturbed marsh communities. We investigated how various levels of human influence in South Carolina salt marshes alter male waving behavior in the sand fiddler crab Leptuca pugilator across 21 marsh sites. We show that

While many intertidal animals exhibit circatidal rhythms, the nature of the underlying endogenous clocks that control these rhythms has been controversial. In this study American horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus, were used to test the circalunidian hypothesis by exposing them to four different tidal regimes. Overall, the results obtained support the circalunidian hypothesis: each of the twice-daily

In many aquatic invertebrates including monogonont rotifers, sex provides genetic variation and dormant stages that allows dispersal in time and space. While the reproductive biology of some solitary monogonont rotifer species is known, little is known concerning mating behaviors in colonial rotifers. Coloniality poses unique challenges to the typical mating behavior of solitary rotifers. For instance

The daily rhythm of PERIOD protein (PER) expression is an integral component of the circadian clock, which is found among a broad range of animal species including fruit flies, marine mollusks and even humans. The use of antibodies directed against PER has provided a helpful tool in the discovery of PER homologues and the labeling of putative pacemaker cells, especially in animals for which an annotated