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Dense beds of mussels of the family Mytilidae occur worldwide on soft-bottoms in cold and warm temperate coastal waters and have usually been considered hot spots of biodiversity. We examined intertidal mussel beds at four distant locations around the globe with the same sampling method, to Wnd out whether this "hot spot" designation holds universally. We studied species assemblages within the matrices of byssally interconnected mussels engineered by Mytilus edulis in the North Sea, by mixed Perumytilus purpuratus and Mytilus chilensis at the southern Chilean coast, by Musculista senhousia in the Yellow Sea and by Xenostrobus inconstans at the coast of southern Australia. In all cases, species assemblages inside mussel beds were signiWcantly diVerent from those outside with many species being restricted to one habitat type. However, species richness and diversity were not generally higher in mussel beds than in ambient sediments without mussels. In the North Sea (M. edulis) and at the Chilean coast (P. purpuratus, M. chilensis), mussel beds have markedly higher species numbers and diversities than surrounding sediments, but this was not the case for mussel beds in Australia (X. inconstans) and the Yellow Sea (M. senhousia) where numbers of associated species were only slightly higher and somewhat lower than in adjacent sediments, respectively. In conclusion, although soft bottom mytilid mussels generally enhance habitat heterogeneity and species diversity at the ecosystem level, mussel beds themselves are not universal centres of biodiversity, but the eVects on associated species are site speciWc.

Multiple stressors in estuaries can cause declines in native species and impairment of ecosystem goods and services. In contrast, one stressor -the introduction of non-native speciesactually leads to higher local richness. We examined the changes in ecosystem function associated with introductions into Willapa Bay, Washington, USA, a relatively undeveloped estuary with 45 documented exotic marine species. The replacement of native oysters by 2 new bivalve species has increased secondary production of harvested suspension feeders by 250% over peak historic values (3.3 × 10 5 vs. 0.9 × 10 5 kg dry wt yr -1), based on >150 yr of records of harvested biomass. Key aspects of aquaculture -particularly planted area -have remained constant over time, so we attribute much of the altered secondary production to higher growth rates of non-native species. The addition of 2 tracheophytes has increased primary production on the tideflats by > 50% (5.3 × 10 7 vs. 3.5 × 10 7 kg dry wt yr -1 ), which we calculated by scaling up local measurements of plant growth to the total area occupied by each species. These changes in production are also associated with altered detritus, water filtration, and biogenic habitat. Because other stressors are largely absent from Willapa Bay, the addition of particular exotic species has dramatically enhanced system production, while fundamentally reshaping the ecological character of the estuary. These strong ecological impacts of introduced species have rarely been measured at whole-ecosystem scales, and they occur in part because new species occupy habitats where similar native species were not present.

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BackgroundStudies on the association between obesity and ovarian cancer survival have had conflicting results. We reviewed and quantitatively summarized the existing evidence, exploring potentially important sources of variability, such as the timing of body mass index (BMI) assessment, BMI cut points, references used in multivariate analysis, and ovarian cancer stage.MethodsEligible studies were searched using MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, relevant bibliographies were manually reviewed for additional studies. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) from individual studies were pooled using a random effects model.Results17 cohort studies of 929 screened articles were included in the final analysis. Obesity in early adulthood and obesity 5 years before ovarian cancer diagnosis were associated with poor patient survival (early adulthood: pooled HR 1.67; 95% CI 1.29-2.16; 5 years prediagnosis: pooled HR 1.35; 95% CI 1.03-1.76). However, the results for obesity at diagnosis depended on whether BMI was analyzed as a categorical or continuous variable. Analysis of obesity with BMI as a categorical variable did not affect ovarian cancer prognosis (pooled HR 1.07; 95% CI 0.95-1.21); obesity with BMI as a continuous variable showed slightly poorer survival with each incremental increase in BMI (pooled HR 1.02; 95% CI 1.01-1.04).ConclusionsObesity 5 years before ovarian cancer diagnosis and obesity at a young age were associated with poor prognosis. The association between obesity at diagnosis and survival of ovarian cancer patients still remains equivocal. BMI at diagnosis cannot be a prognostic factor for the survival of ovarian cancer patients. Further well-designed studies are needed to elucidate the variety effect of obesity on the survival of ovarian cancer patients.