Many recent studies have been made on the nature of blood pathways through the gills of fish (Hughes & Grimstone, 1965; Vogel, Vogel & Kremers, 1973; Vogel, 1978; Laurent & Dunel, 1976), but as yet there have been no direct measurements of the blood flow velocity in any parts of this system. Estimates have been made of the circulation time through the gills (Mott, 1950), and this and other observations indicate that the blood remains in the gills several seconds. One of the reasons for this relatively slow circulation time is due to the large surface area (Gray, 1954; Hughes, 1966, 1972) of the secondary lamellae which form the sites for gaseous exchange between the water and blood. The network of blood channels which forms the microcirculation is, therefore, very extensive and consequently the velocity of blood flow in...
Ecosystem engineers on tropical reefs in transition
Giant barrel sponges (GSBs) remain robust to rising seawater temperatures and have rapidly populated reefs stripped of coral cover by climate change. GBSs may be poised to become the dominant habitat-forming organisms in tropical reef ecosystems of the future. In this Review, Joseph Pawlik provides an integrative and critical assessment of research on giant barrel sponges.
JEB grants to support junior faculty
Learn about the grants that we launched in 2023 to support junior faculty from two of our awardees: Erin Leonard, Early-Career Researcher (ECR) Visiting Fellowship recipient, and Pauline Fleischmann, Research Partnership Kickstart Travel Grant recipient. The next deadline to apply is 28 November 2025.
Stressed salmon develop hallmarks of depression
Farmed salmon can experience high levels of CO2 and now Marco Vindas and colleagues report that fish which have experienced this form of stress show signs of fishy depression. They hope that understanding this could help farmers improve the fish's quality of life.
Extraordinary creatures: hummingbirds
Doug Altshuler and Ken Welch tell us about the extraordinary lives of hummingbirds, from their ability to hover during flight to their use of nectar as a primary food source.
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