Production of DMS and DMSP in different physiological stages and salinity conditions in two marine algae

Dimethylsulfide(DMS) and dimethylsulfoniopropionate(DMSP) production by Scrippsiella trochoidea and Prorocentrum minimum was investigated to characterize the effects of physiological stage and salinity on DMS and DMSP pools of these two marine phytoplankton species.Axenic laboratory cultures of the two marine algae were tested for DMSP production and its conversion into DMS.The results demonstrated that both algal species could produce DMS,but the average concentration of DMS per cell in S.trochoidea(12.63 fmol/L) was about six times that in P.minimum(2.01 fmol/L).DMS and DMSP concentrations in algal cultures varied significantly at different growth stages,with high release during the late stationary growth phase and the senescent phase.DMS production induced by three salinities(22,28,34) showed that the DMS concentrations per cell in the two algal cultures increased with increasing salinity,which might result from intra-cellular DMSP up-regulation with the change of osmotic stress.Our study specifies the distinctive contributions of different physiological stages of marine phytoplankton on DMSP and DMS production,and clarifies the influence of salinity conditions on the release of DMS and DMSP.As S.trochoidea and P.minimum are harmful algal bloom species with high DMS production,they might play an additional significant role in the sulfur cycle when a red tide occurs.     

Study on bottom stress under conditions of storm surge and tide

Sea bottom stress is conventionally assumed to be directly proportional to the square of the verticallyaveraged velocity,and the drag coefficient to be dependent on the speed and direction of the wind on the sea surface,the depth and dimension of the sea,the period of the tide and so on. In this paper a three-dimensional numerical model is used to discuss the relation the dragcoefficient and the above-mentioned factors.It can be shown from calculation that the relation, is valid,that the drag coefficient is a constant in a major part of a sea as thought conventionally,andthat there is a small area near the coast where the drag coefficient is far greater.We call it singular area. A number of conclusions on the relation between the drag coefficient and the speed and direction ofthe wind,the sea depth and so on,were obtained.     

CHLOROPHYLL FLUORESCENCE RATIO F685/F735 IN BROWN ALGAE AND ITS VARIATION UNDER EXCITATION BY TWO TYPES OF LIGHT AND DEHYDRATION

Calculation and comparative study of the chlorophyll fluorescence ratio F685/F735 in brown algae (Laminaria japonica, Underia pinnatifida and Padina crassa) excited by blue and green light showed that the fluorescence ratios were higher when the algae were excited by blue light (440 nm), but reduced obviously under green light (540 nm) excitation. The values also reduced under dehydration but could recover during rehydration if the stress was not serious. The variation of the fluorescence ratio under dehydration was mainly because changes in fluorescence emission at 735 nm were always sharper than those at 685 nm. The ratio was sensitive to stress and has potential as a stress indicator in phycological research. Measurement of the fluorescence excitation spectra showed that the only peak at 540 hm changed apparently during dehydration. It meant that the function of the Chl a /Fucoxanthin protein complex for energy transfer was easily inhibited by water stress. However, no variation of the ratio was foun     

Floc meal as potential substitute for soybean meal in tilapia diets under biofloc system conditions

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing soybean meal (SBM) by low protein floc meal (LPFM; 24% CP) in tilapia diets on growth performance, feed utilization and fish chemical composition. Three isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated; control diet (C; without LPFM), FM ₂₅ (25% of SBM protein was substituted by LPFM) and FM ₅₀ (50% of SBM protein was substituted by LPFM). Nine 55l circular plastic tanks were stocked by 12 fish to form three experimental groups. No differences in tilapia performance were observed between the control and the FM ₂₅ diet. Chemical composition of fish did not differ significantly among treatments except for protein and selenium contents where the highest values were recorded in the control treatment. The highest mineral content was recorded in floc collected from the control tanks, while calcium content showed its highest value in floc collected from FM ₅₀ effluent. These data indicate that replacing soybean meal with LPFM up to 25%, had no negative effect on growth performance and potentially may improve the system sustainability. Meanwhile, the adverse effect of more inclusion of LPFM in tilapia diet may be attributed to the higher content of ash. In other word, minerals seem to cause more energy utilization in fish fed floc meal since it is needed to maintain osmotic homeostasis.

     

Physiological changes of submerged macrophytes in response to a floating filamentous green algae bloom in clear-water conditions

The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological responses of a submerged macrophyte to a floating fi lamentous green algal bloom in clear-water conditions.Elodea nuttallii was grown with floating Cladophora sp.at four diff erent levels(0,control;140,280,560 g FW/m ~2)in an outdoor experimental system,and its photosynthetic and antioxidant systems were evaluated.The presence of floating Cladophora sp.signifi cantly changed the water environment by decreasing light intensity and increasing dissolved oxygen and the pH value.The photosynthetic parameters of E.nuttallii(e.g.?F/F _m~￠,F _v/F _m,total chlorophyll)were higher in the presence of floating Cladophora sp.than in the control at the beginning of experiment.Because of the increasing dissolved oxygen concentration and pH value,the values of these indicators decreased(except for photosynthetic pigments)during the experiment.Compared with E.nuttallii in the control,E.nuttallii growing in the presence of floating Cladophora sp.showed higher malondialdehyde content,catalase activity,and peroxidase activity.The biomass of E.nuttallii was decreased by about 30% in the presence of high biomasses of floating Cladophora sp.(280 and 560 g FW/m ~2).These results suggest that floating Cladophora had complex eff ects on the biomass of E.nuttallii and that changes in water quality resulting from floating Cladophora sp.may be more important than its direct shading eff ect.     

Response of benthic algae to environmental conditions in an urban lake recovered from eutrophication,China

Journal of Oceanology and Limnology - Benthic algae communities dominate the primary production in littoral zone of shallow lake. To understand the long-term effect of alteration in the composition...     

CHANGE IN THE ACTIVITY OF THE RESPIRATORY ELECTRON TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN NATURAL PHYTOPLANKTON ASSEMBLAGES AND CULTURED ALGAE

Activities of the respiratory electron transport system (ETS), C uptake, chlorophyll and temperature were determined at a station in the center of Donghu Lake. Seasonal, fluctuations in ETS-activities ranged from 100 to 460μg O2 h-1.L-1. Production: respiration ratio (P/R) calculated from C uptake and ETS-activity, ranged from 0.2 to 6.8. The test on cultured algae ETS-activity revealed marked differences in different growth phases. ETS activity is suggested as an indicator of lake nutrient status.     

Changes of cellular superficial configuration of symbiotic algae during cultivation from two anemones found in the South China Sea

Symbiotic algae from two anemones, Radianthus macrodactylus and Stichodactyla mertensii, found in the South China Sea, were cultivated in ASP-8A medium in this study. Changes of superficial configuration of symbiotic algae during the cultivation were studied by means of a microscope and a scanning electron microscope （SEM）. A number of small cavities appeared on the surfaces of symbiotic algae after they were cultivated for 10 h. The cavities enlarged and the cell contents were lost with extended cultivation. Our data suggested that the presence of cavities on symbiotic algae surfaces may be one of the main reasons for failure to culture symbiotic algae in an artificial medium.     

Optimization of fluorescence in situ hybridization （FISH） for the identification of two polar coccoid green algae species

Standard FISH protocols using fluorochrome-labeled oligonucteotide probes have been successfully applied for in situ detection.However,optimized protocols of FISH for specific eukaryotes in marine environments are often not developed.This study optimized the conditions of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) by using two polar isolated microalgae.The modified conditions were as follows: (1) 10 mg·mL-1 lysozyme solution pretreatment at 37℃ for 30 min;(2) the hybridization buffer including 20% formamide;(3) the hybridization condition was 47℃ for 6 h. The cells enumerated by FISH were compared with those enumerated by flow eytometry (FCM) and DAPI to confirm the cell loss and hybridization efficiency.The optimized protocol was also successfully applied to Arctic Ocean samples,which were found to be dominated by Micromonas sp.The modified protocol showed a high relative efficiency and could be successfully applied for the detection of specific microbial eukaryotes in environmental samples.     

Reconstruction of surface deformation characteristics in alpine canyons under shadow conditions

Monitoring deformation in high undulating mountainous environments is critical for surface process research and disaster prevention studies. Although observations based on interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar(InSAR) are an excellent tool for monitoring deformation, the shadow phenomena can limit its application. Based on a series of geomorphic parameters and limited InSAR observation data, surface deformations were reconstructed in areas with missing observations by constructing a random for...     

Transcriptome of hepatopancreas in kuruma shrimp Marsupenaeus japonicus under low-salinity stress

Journal of Oceanology and Limnology - The kuruma shrimp Marsupenaeus japonicus is one of the most commercially important shrimp species in the world. Low salinity would affect the penetration and...     

Bacterial communities fluctuate in abundance and diversity under simulated oil-contaminated seawater conditions

Marine bacteria have recently been identified as a potent solution for petroleum hydrocarbon degradation in response to hazardous oceanic oil spills. In this study, a mesocosm experiment simulating a petroleum spill event was performed to investigate changes in the abundance, structure, and productivity of bacterial communities in response to oil pollution. Cultured heterotrophic bacteria and total bacteria showed a consistent trend involving an immediate decrease in abundance, followed by a slight increase, and a steady low-level thereafter. However, the changing trend of bacterial productivity based on bacterial biomass and bacterial volume showed the opposite trend. In addition, the density of oil-degrading bacteria increased initially, then subsequently declined. The change in the bacterial community structure at day 0 and day 28 were also analyzed by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis(ARDRA), which indicated that the species diversity of the bacterial community changed greatly after oil pollution. Alphaproteobacteria(40.98%)replaced Epsilonproteobacteria(51.10%) as the most abundant class, and Gammaproteobacteria(38.80%)became the second most dominant class in the whole bacterial community. The bacterial communities in oil-contaminated seawater(32 genera) became much more complex than those found in the natural seawater sample(16 genera). The proportion of petroleum-degrading bacteria in the oil-contaminated seawater also increased. In this study, culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches were combined to elucidate changes in both bacterial productivity and community structure. These findings will contribute to a better understanding of the role that bacteria play in material cycling and degradation in response to oil pollution.     

Decomposition of algal lipids in clay-enriched marine sediment under oxic and anoxic conditions

A series of laboratory incubation experiments were conducted to examine the decomposition of algal organic matter in clay-enriched marine sediment under oxic and anoxic conditions.During the 245-day incubation period,changes in the concentrations of TOC,major algal fatty acid components (14:0,16:0,16:1,18:1 and 20:5),and n-alkanes (C16-C23) were quantified in the samples.Our results indicate that the organic matters were degraded more rapidly in oxic than anoxic conditions.Adsorption of fatty acids onto cla...     

Decomposition of algal lipids in clay-enriched marine sediment under oxic and anoxic conditions

A series of laboratory incubation experiments were conducted to examine the decomposition of algal organic matter in clay-enriched marine sediment under oxic and anoxic conditions. During the 245-day incubation period, changes in the concentrations of TOC, major algal fatty acid components (14:0, 16:0, 16:1, 18:1 and 20:5), and n-alkanes (C₁₆–C₂₃) were quantified in the samples. Our results indicate that the organic matters were degraded more rapidly in oxic than anoxic conditions. Adsorption of fatty acids onto clay minerals was a rapid and reversible process. Using a simple G model, we calculated the decomposition rate constants for TOC, n-alkanes and fatty acids which ranged from 0.017–0.024 d⁻¹, 0.049–0.103 d⁻¹ and 0.011 to 0.069 d⁻¹, respectively. Algal organic matter degraded in two stages characterized by a fast and a slow degradation processes. The addition of clay minerals montmorillonite and kaolinite to the sediments showed significant influence affecting the decomposition processes of algal TOC and fatty acids by adsorption and incorporation of the compounds with clay particles. Adsorption/association of fatty acids by clay minerals was rapid but appeared to be a slow reversible process. In addition to the sediment redox and clay influence, the structure of the compounds also played important roles in affecting their degradation dynamic in sediments.     

Calculation of landslide occurrence probability in Taiwan region under different ground motion conditions

In this study, Bayesian probability method and machine learning model are used to study the real occurrence probability of earthquake-induced landslide risk in Taiwan region. The analyses were based on the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi Earthquake, the largest earthquake in the history in this Region in a hundred years, thus can provide better control on the prediction accuracy of the model. This seismic event has detailed and complete seismic landslide inventories identified by polygons, including 9272 seismic landslide records. Taking into account the real earthquake landslide occurrence area, the difference in landslide area and the non-sliding/sliding sample ratios and other factors, a total of 13,656,000 model training samples were selected. We also considered other seismic landslide influencing factors, including elevation, slope, aspect, topographic wetness index, lithology, distance to fault, peak ground acceleration and rainfall. Bayesian probability method and machine learning model were combined to establish the multi-factor influence of earthquake landslide occurrence model. The model is then applied to the whole Taiwan region using different ground motion peak accelerations(from 0.1 g to 1.0 g with 0.1 g intervals) as a triggering factor to complete the real probability of earthquake landslide map in Taiwan under different peak ground accelerations, and the functional relationship between different Peak Ground Acceleration and their predicted area is obtained.     

ASPECTS OF IRON NUTRITION IN MACROALGAE ULVA PERTUSA （CHLOROPHYTA） UNDER IRON STRESS

Fe, Chlorophyll (Chl) and total nitrogen (TN) content in tissues were measured in Fe-deficient cultures ofUlva. pertusa over a period of 60 days. Photosynthetic carbon fixation rates were studied at the start of and 30 days after Fe-deficiency culture, when the effects of Fe-deficiency on the ultrastructure were also analyzed. The iron content in tissue decreased exponentially during Fe-deficiency (from 726.7 to 31.6 μg/gdw) and simultaneously Chl and TN content declined to 4.35% and 59.9% of their original levels respectively. Maximum carbon fixation rate (50–250 μmol/m² s) under Fe-deficiency decreased significantly compared with the control (p<0.01) and was 13.6 to 0.365 μg C/cm² h. Photosynthesis in Fe-deficient cells became light-saturated at lower irradiance than that in control. Ultrastructural observations of Fe-deficient cells showed reductions in chloroplast number, some degeneration of lamellar organization, an increase in vacuolar area, a decrease in mitochondrial matrix density, and variation in accumulation body number and morphology. During Fe-deficiency, the algae growth rate continued to decline and after 6 weeks of iron deficiency, no further growth was detectable. These suggested that the lower growth rate ofUlva. pertusa under Fe-deficiency could be due mainly to nitrogen utilization and inhibition of photosynthesis. This project No. 39725023 supported by NSFC for Talented Youths and the Project under the Major State Basic Research of China (Grant No. G1999012011).     

Species and plant community reorganization in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt under climate change conditions

This study analyzes six vegetation communities in relation to current climatic parameters and eight climate change scenarios along an elevation gradient extending from 2,710 m to 4,210m in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The projected movements of 25 plant species with the current restricted or wide altitudinal distributions were also modeled. To relate climatic parameters to the species and communities, a Precipitation/Temperature(P/T)index was used both for the current and the different climate-change scenarios. The temperatures are expected to increase by 1.1°C to 1.7°C by 2020 and by2°C to 3°C by 2050. A decrease of 4% to 13% in the annual precipitation is expected for the 2020 horizon,and a reduction between 3% and 20% is expected for2050. The reductions in water availability were projected for all altitude levels and plant communities.The most marked reduction was under the HADLEYA2 scenario, in which the lower limit of the altitudinal range increased from 2,710 to 3,310 m(2050 horizon)with reductions in the P/T index between 36% and39% compared to the current climate. Most plant species tended to shift their distribution from 200 to300 m upward in the 2020 temporal horizon scenarios. The Pinus hartwegii, Alnus jorullensis and Pinus montezumae communities would have a shorter altitudinal range as they move upward and merge with the remaining species at the higher altitudinal range. For the 2050 temporal horizon,30% of the species, primarily those from the higher altitudinal range, would disappear because their P/Tindex values would be above the limit of plant survival(4,210 m).     

Growth inhibition and oxidative stress in two species of marine diatoms exposed to 1-phenylethanol

1-phenylethanol(1-PEA)is a flavor extensively used in the production of co smetics,beverages,and food.The release of 1-PEA into coastal environments has aroused great concern.However,its potential effects on marine organisms are still unknown.In order to provide a better understanding of the ecological risks of 1-PEA in marine environments,this study determined the toxic effects of 1-PEA on two marine diatoms(Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Skeletonema costatum).The diatoms were grown in culture medium containing different concentrations of 1-PEA for 96 h.The contents of chlorophyll a,chlorophyll c,glutathione(GSH),malondialdehyde(MDA),and the activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD),catalase(CAT)and glutathione peroxidase(GPx),were measured at the end of the exposure period.1-PEA was shown to significantly inhibit the growth of diatoms,with 96-h EC_(50) values of 257.14 mg/L and 126.46 mg/L in P.tricornutum and S.costatum,respectively.In P.tricornutum,the levels of SOD,CAT,GPx,GSH,and MDA were stimulated only when 1-PEA concentrations were close to or greater than the 96-h EC_(50)value.However,in S.costatum,the activities of SOD and CAT,and the syntheses of two chlorophylls were inhibited even at an exposure concentration below the 96-h EC_(50) value.Taken together,these findings indicate a potential ecological risk by discharging 1-PEA into coastal areas and its species-specific toxic effects on marine organisms.