This present study reviewed the chemical diversity of marine ascidians and their pharmacological applications, challenges and recent developments in marine drug discovery reported during 1994–2014, highlighting the structural activity of compounds produced by these specimens. Till date only 5% of living ascidian species were studied from <3000 species, this study represented from family didemnidae (32%), polyclinidae (22%), styelidae and polycitoridae (11–12%) exhibiting the highest number of promising MNPs. Close to 580 compound structures are here discussed in terms of their occurrence, structural type and reported biological activity. Anti-cancer drugs are the main area of interest in the screening of MNPs from ascidians (64%), followed by anti-malarial (6%) and remaining others. FDA approved ascidian compounds mechanism of action along with other compounds status of clinical trials (phase 1 to phase 3) are discussed here in. This review highlights recent developments in the area of natural products chemistry and biotechnological approaches are emphasized.

Species distribution, abundance and diversity of mangrove benthic macroinvertebrate fauna and the relationships to environmental conditions are important parts of understanding the structure and function of mangrove ecosystems. In this study seasonal variation in the distribution of macrobenthos and related environmental parameters were explored at four mangrove stations along the Pondicherry coast of India, from September 2008 to July 2010. Multivariate statistical analyses, including cluster analysis, principal component analysis and non-multidimensional scales plot were employed to help define trophic status, water quality and benthic characteristic at the four monitoring stations.

El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important driver of interannual variations in climate and ecosystem productivity in tropical regions. However, detailed information about this important phenomenon of the Indian Ocean is scarce. Consequently, the objective of this study is to improve understanding of the impact of warm event El Nino and cool event La Nina on annual tuna landings from the Indian Ocean from 1980 to 2010. In this study, maximum tuna landings were recorded during a weak El Nino year (1456054 t in 2006) and during a weak La Nina year (1243562 t in 2000), although the lowest tuna catch was followed during the strong El Nino year (1204119 t in 2009) and during a strong La Nina year (706546 t in 1988). Validation of predicted tuna landings and SST were showing a significant positive correlation (p < 0.01) was observed all the major tuna species except Southern Bluefin Tuna. Whereas the other relationships such as sea level pressure, Wind actions; Zonal Wind (U), Meridonial Wind (V), and Scalar Wind (W) are less well-defined. In contrast with principal component analysis we find that Principal Components 1 explains 75.5% of the total variance and suggest that sea surface temperature plays a major role in determining tuna availability in the region especially during warm event El Nino years; landings in Indian Ocean tend to be optimum SST 25 to 26°C in ENSO event. Our results confirm the ENSO impact on climate, tuna abundance and production in the Indian Ocean. However, among the oceanic variables SST explained the highest deviance in generalized additive models and therefore considered the best habitat predictor in the Indian Ocean followed by sea level pressure and Winds (U, V, W).