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Ecological niche has close relations with inter-species competition and resources utilization, and thus, can be used as an indicator to symbolize the resources utilization capability of certain groups of related species. In this paper, the niche breadth and overlap of the dominant zoo- plankton species in the Sanmen Bay of Zhejiang were determined by Shannon's formula and Petraitis index, respectively, and the differentiation of the niche was studied by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), aiming to approach the distribution features of coastal zooplankton and related affecting factors in the Bay. In the study area, some coastal species such as Zonosagitta bedoti, Centropages dorsispinatus, and brachyuran larvae had wider niche breadth than the pelagic species such as Flaccisagitta enflata and Pseudeuphausia sinica, and the species of different groups with prey- predator relation had a greater niche overlap than those of the same groups without this relation. The CCA analysis showed that the spatial distribution of the zooplankton was more affected by water temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll a content rather than nutrients. The spatial niche of the zoo- plankton species was correlated with their living habit, inter-species competition, and prey-predator relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the molecular response mechanisms of copepod to nickel stress, a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) cDNA library of Pseudodiaptomous annandalei under nickel stress was constructed by using SSH technique, and a total of 140 clones were randomly picked from the growing colonies and identified by PCR. The recombinant rate of the library was 98. 6%, and the volume of the library was 1. 12×106 cfu. After the recombinant plasmids were sequenced, a partial cDNA fragment of ferritin was recognized based on BLAST searches in NCBI, with a size of 859 bp and continuously encoding 170 amino acid residues. The semi-quantitative PCR results showed that the ferritin cDNA under 24 h nickel stress was distinctly up-regulated. The successful construction of the SSH library and the obtaining of ferritin cDNA fragment would supply basis for the further study of the molecular response mechanisms of copepod to nickel stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents the addition of 411 microsatellite marker loci and 15 pairs of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) sequencing primers to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Acanthopagrus schlegeli, Anopheles lesteri, Aspergillus clavatus, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus terreus, Branchiostoma japonicum, Branchiostoma belcheri, Colias behrii, Coryphopterus personatus, Cynogolssus semilaevis, Cynoglossus semilaevis, Dendrobium officinale, Dendrobium officinale, Dysoxylum malabaricum, Metrioptera roeselii, Myrmeciza exsul, Ochotona thibetana, Neosartorya fischeri, Nothofagus pumilio, Onychodactylus fischeri, Phoenicopterus roseus, Salvia officinalis L., Scylla paramamosain, Silene latifo, Sula sula, and Vulpes vulpes. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Aspergillus giganteus, Colias pelidne, Colias interior, Colias meadii, Colias eurytheme, Coryphopterus lipernes, Coryphopterus glaucofrenum, Coryphopterus eidolon, Gnatholepis thompsoni, Elacatinus evelynae, Dendrobium loddigesii Dendrobium devonianum, Dysoxylum binectariferum, Nothofagus antarctica, Nothofagus dombeyii, Nothofagus nervosa, Nothofagus obliqua, Sula nebouxii, and Sula variegata. This article also documents the addition of 39 sequencing primer pairs and 15 allele specific primers or probes for Paralithodes camtschaticus., (© 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Many estuarine and coastal planktonic copepods depend on the hatching of benthic resting eggs for recruitment of nauplii to the water column population. The potential effects of two organochlorine pesticides, hexchloriobinzene (HCH) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), on the recruitment of Acartia pacifica nauplii from benthic resting eggs in the seabed of Xiamen Bay were experimentally investigated. The abundance of A. pacifica nauplii hatched from the sediment significantly decreased with the increase of pesticide concentration. Trimmed Spearman-Karber analysis gave sediment 96-h LC50 values were 84.81 ng/g for HCH, and 157.94 ng/g for DDT. The median AI (AI50) was -0.77, which suggested that the combined effect of HCH and DDT showed a weak effect than individual effects. There was a positive relationship between mortality and exposure time in DDT treatment, while the relationship was not significant in HCH treatment. The results suggest that organochlorine pesticides can reduce recruitment of A. pacifica nauplii from benthic resting eggs to planktonic population.