Patrick Martin

TL;DR: The broad-scale distribution of groundwater biodiversity across Europe is explored, focussing on obligate subterranean aquatic taxa, and a core of four hotspots emerged in all cases: one stretching across Slovenia and northeastern Italy, one in the French Pyrenees, two in Italy and one in Spain.

TL;DR: The results indicate that, despite the more uniform environment of the abyss and its presumed lack of obvious isolating barriers, abyssal populations might be more likely to show population differentiation and undergo speciation events than previously assumed.

TL;DR: Environmental values of oligochaetes include their importance in aquatic food chains; their impact on sediment structure and water-sediment exchanges; their long history of use in pollution monitoring and assessment; their potential to reduce sludge volumes in sewage treatment systems; and their role as intermediate host for several myxozoan parasites of fishes, including commercially exploited species.

TL;DR: In this article, a sampling protocol aimed at capturing the main sources of environmental heterogeneity within regions was applied in six regions across Europe, and rarefaction curves were calculated to determine sampling efficiencies within each region.

TL;DR: The phylogenetic relationships of the Clitellata were investigated with a data set of published and new complete 18S rRNA gene sequences of 51 species representing 41 families and a close scrutiny of the data suggested a spurious attraction between some polychaetes and clitellates.