The freshwater Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK) has been applied in 35 risk assessment areas in 45 countries across the six inhabited continents (11 applications using FISK v1; 25 using FISK v2). The present study aimed: to assess the breadth of FISK applications and the confidence (certainty) levels associated with the decision-support tool's 49 questions and its ability to distinguish between taxa of low-to-medium and high risk of becoming invasive, and thus provide climate-specific, generalised, calibrated thresholds for risk level categorisation; and to identify the most potentially invasive freshwater fish species on a global level. The 1973 risk assessments were carried out by 70 ? experts on 372 taxa (47 of

No abstract

No abstract

The potential invasiveness of 28 freshwater fishes in northern Kyushu Island, Japan, was evaluated using the Fish Invasiveness Scoring Kit (FISK). The five co-authors scored the level of invasiveness for each species and calculated the total FISK scores; the maximum and minimum scores were then eliminated, and the mean of the remaining three scores was used as the final score for each species. The mean scores ranged from 11.0 (Hypomesus nipponensis) to 31.0 (Cyprinus carpio). The receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that the threshold value between fishes that present a high risk of invasion and the other species were 19.8.

This study evaluated whether nitrogen (N) saturated upland forests can degrade downstream water quality in the Tatara River Basin, northern Kyushu, western Japan. Our hypothesis is that elevated atmospheric N deposition degrades downstream water quality in a watershed containing N-saturated forests because a considerable amount of atmospherically deposited N passes into the streams without being retained. Synoptic stream water samplings were conducted at 23 sites across a wide range of land-use categories in the basin over 1 year. A long-term temporal analysis of downstream water quality over the last 30 years was conducted and compared with longterm trends in related factors such as urban/agricultural activity, sewage wastewater treatment, atmospheric N deposition, and forest condition. The results showed that atmospherically deposited N to N-saturated forests can be a large enough nonpoint source of N leaving the watershed to impact downstream water quality. This was highlighted by the reduction in pollutant exports derived from urban/agricultural activities, an increase in atmospheric N deposition, and the maturation of coniferous plantation forests in the past 30 years. These have led to reductions in total phosphorus and organic nitrogen concentrations in downstream water, whereas downstream nitrate (NO 3 -) concentrations increased over the last 30 years. The consequent increase in the downstream N:P ratio indicated P limitation. Reducing the NO 3 -exports from N-saturated upland forests is suggested as a strategy to improve regional downstream NO 3 -pollution, but involves intercontinental-scale action in reducing atmospheric N emissions.

No abstract

Gene profiling of Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) was performed using an oligonucleotide DNA microarray representing 22,587 TIGR O. latipes gene indices (OLGIs). The average correlation coefficients for gene expression between individual mature fish were high (>0.95) for both female and male, indicating that the physiological status of medaka is highly reproducible under prescribed growth conditions. Of the 22,587 OLGIs, 2575 showed significant differences in expression between female and male. Exposure to 17beta-estradiol (E2) revealed 381 E2-responsive OLGIs in male medaka. Feminization and male-dysfunction factors of the E2-treated males calculated using the combination of Pearson correlation coefficient and Euclidean distances indicate that E2 treatment "weakly feminized" male medaka, while male physiological functions were not significantly disrupted. This study demonstrates the possibility of using medaka microarrays to estimate the overall effects of hormonally active chemicals.

No abstract