Stress-induced apoptosis in sea urchin embryogenesis

We find that early sea urchin embryos have the capability to induce programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in response to chemical and physical stress. Strongylocentrotus purpuratus embryos (fertilized, 4 cell, 16 cell, 64 cell, and early blastula) were exposed to known cytotoxins, in order to determine when apoptosis occurs naturally and in response to stress. Using cell permeability as an indicator of early stage apoptosis, caspase activation as a mid-stage indicator, and DNA fragmentation as a late stage indicator, we find that during the cleavage stage of embryogenesis apoptosis is almost completely absent. However, a statistically significant (p<0.001) rise in apoptosis in stressed embryos is evident around 24 h after fertilization, during the early blastula stage and shortly after hatching. Before this stage, exposed embryos show no statistically significant increases in apoptosis in comparison to the controls. This pattern of apoptosis in development is similar to that seen in lower vertebrate models in which stress-induced apoptosis occurs only around the mid-blastula transition. We conclude that apoptosis may be used to rid embryos of aberrant or damaged cells in early development, but this response is stage-dependant. Repair, rather than apoptosis, may be utilized during earlier stages, or alternatively, embryos exposed to such stressors may continue development with damaged cells and perhaps damaged DNA. Our continued studies will focus on these alternative hypotheses.     

Twelve years of tracking 52-Hz whale calls from a unique source in the North Pacific

A unique whale call with 50–52 Hz emphasis from a single source has been tracked over 12 years in the central and eastern North Pacific. These calls, referred to as 52-Hz calls, were monitored and analyzed from acoustic data recorded by hydrophones of the US Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and other arrays. The calls were noticed first in 1989, and have been detected and tracked since 1992. No other calls with similar characteristics have been identified in the acoustic data from any hydrophone system in the North Pacific basin. Only one series of these 52-Hz calls has been recorded at a time, with no call overlap, suggesting that a single whale produced the calls. The calls were recorded from August to February with most in December and January. The species producing these calls is unknown. The tracks of the 52-Hz whale were different each year, and varied in length from 708 to 11,062 km with travel speeds ranging from 0.7 to 3.8 km/h. Tracks included (A) meandering over short ranges, (B) predominantly west-to-east movement, and (C) mostly north-to-south travel. These tracks consistently appeared to be unrelated to the presence or movement of other whale species (blue, fin and humpback) monitored year-round with the same hydrophones.     

Late Quaternary history of contourite drifts and variations in Labrador Current flow,Flemish Pass,offshore eastern Canada

Contourite drifts of alternating sand and mud, shaped by the Labrador Current, formed during the late Quaternary in Flemish Pass seaward of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada. The drifts preserve a record of Labrador Current flow variations through the last glacial maximum. A high-resolution seismic profile and a transect of four cores were collected across Beothuk drift on the southeast side of Flemish Pass. Downcore and lateral trends in grain size and sedimentation rate provide evidence that, between 16 and 13 ka, sediment was partitioned across Beothuk drift and the adjacent Flemish Pass floor by a strong current flow but, from 29 to 16 ka, sedimentation was more of a blanketing style, represented by draped reflections interpreted as being due to a weaker current. The data poorly resolve the low sedimentation rates since 13 ka, but the modern Labrador Current in Flemish Pass is the strongest it has been in at least the past 29 ka. Pre-29 ka current flow is interpreted based on reflection architecture in seismic profiles. A prominent drift on the southwestern side of Flemish Pass formed above a mid-Miocene erosion surface, but was buried by a mass-transport deposit after the penultimate glacial maximum and after drift deposition switched to eastern Flemish Pass. These findings illustrate the temporal complexity of drift sedimentation and provide the first detailed proxy for Labrador Current flow since the last glacial maximum.     

Lethal concentrations of suspended solids for common native fish species that are rare in New Zealand rivers with high suspended solids loads

Abstract

Common native fish species that are rare in New Zealand rivers with high suspended solids (SS) concentrations were identified to determine which species were likely to be most affected by high SS concentrations. Mortality rates for the three most sensitive species (banded kokopu Galaxias fasciatus, redfin bully Gobiomorphus huttoni, common smelt Retropinna retropinnd) were measured over a range of SS concentrations to identify lethal concentrations. The survival of banded kokopu and redfin bully was not reduced by SS concentrations up to 43 000 g m^?3; however, the 24‐h survival of common smelt was reduced by SS concentrations over 1000 g m^?3, and its median lethal concentration (LC50) was close to 3000 g m^?3. SS concentrations over 3000 g m^?3 for more than 24 h will therefore reduce smelt but not affect the mortality of most other common native fish species. Although mortality from high concentrations of SS can account for the scarcity of smelt in rivers with high SS concentrations, mortality from high SS does not explain the scarcity of banded kokopu or redfin bully in such rivers. High turbidity (>20 nephelometric turbidity units) is known to limit the upstream migration and recruitment of juvenile banded kokopu in rivers with increased SS concentrations. Banded kokopu is therefore affected by increased turbidity from SS rather than lethal SS concentrations. As redfin bully were not affected by either high turbidity levels or high SS concentrations, the low abundance of this species in rivers with high SS concentrations is likely to be related to the siltation of benthic habitats.     

Conservation status of New Zealand freshwater fish, 2009

The threat status of 74 freshwater and estuarine fish present in New Zealand was determined. Fifty-one native taxa were ranked of which 67% were considered Threatened or At Risk. A single species was classified as Extinct, the New Zealand grayling, which has not been observed since the 1920s. Four taxa were classified in the highest threat category, Nationally Critical, and a further 10 taxa as Threatened (Nationally Endangered or Nationally Vulnerable). Twenty taxa were ranked in the At Risk group with the majority ranked as Declining. Endemic galaxiids (Galaxiidae) dominated the Threatened and At Risk taxa. The majority (68%) belonged to the Galaxias genus, comprising 81% of recognised taxa in this genus and all five species in the genus Neochanna were also ranked as Threatened or At Risk. In addition to 51 native taxa, a further three fish species were considered colonists and 20 introduced species were classified as naturalised, although two of these are considered rare. The majority of the Threatened species occur in the Canterbury and Otago regions where a suite of rare non-migratory galaxiids exist. Threat mechanisms that were identified as causal in the decline of freshwater fish species were the impact of introduced fish species, declining water quality, effects of water abstraction, loss of habitat via land-use change and land-use activities, and river modifications.     

Astrothrombus rugosus clark,new to New Zealand,with notes on ophioceres huttoni (farquhar), hemilepis norae (benham), and ophiuroglypha irrorata (lyman) (echinodermata: Ophiuroidea)

Astrothrombus rugosus (Clark), hitherto known only from eastern Australia, is recorded here from off Kaikoura. Hemilepis abernethyi (Fell) and Ophioceres marginata (Fell) are here regarded as junior subjective synonyms of Hemilepis norae (Benham) and Ophioceres huttoni (Farquhar) respectively. Some New Zealand specimens of the cosmopolitan species Ophiuroglypha irrorata (Lyman) differ in some respects from the “typical” form; they may prove to represent a new species.     

Measuring species richness on sandy beach transects: extrapolative estimators and their implications for sampling effort

Species richness is a measure that is fundamental to many studies in ecology, and it is particularly important on sandy beaches, where it underlies patterns described by the broadly accepted swash exclusion hypothesis. However, its estimation in practice is problematic. This has led ecologists in other fields to adopt extrapolative estimators of species richness, which project the total number of species present in a habitat by adjusting upward the number of species observed by an amount related to the number of rare species encountered in the samples. In so doing, the species richness can be estimated, with confidence intervals, at any level of sampling effort. Despite the availability and advantages of these methods, beach ecologists have continued to use the observed species richness as a point estimate of biodiversity for beaches. Here, we employ a Monte Carlo resampling approach over a range of routine transect designs used to sample sandy beaches, and evaluate the performance of seven non-parametric extrapolative estimators for species richness relative to that of the more conventionally used observed species richness. We find that the first-order Jackknife estimator (Jack 1) is the least biased, most accurate and most consistent across sites. Employing this estimator would allow accurate estimation of species richness on short (tens of metres) stretches of beach without exceeding the acceptable levels of sampling effort (4–5 m²). Spreading this effort evenly over three across-shore transects, each with a minimum of 13 equally spaced levels seems appropriately efficient. Although a greater number of research studies is required to ascertain the generality of these results beyond the beaches we sampled, we tentatively recommend the application of our results in biodiversity surveys on sandy beaches.     

Effects of ocean acidification and high temperatures on the bryozoan Myriapora truncata at natural CO2 vents

There are serious concerns that ocean acidification will combine with the effects of global warming to cause major shifts in marine ecosystems, but there is a lack of field data on the combined ecological effects of these changes due to the difficulty of creating large‐scale, long‐term exposures to elevated CO₂ and temperature. Here we report the first coastal transplant experiment designed to investigate the effects of naturally acidified seawater on the rates of net calcification and dissolution of the branched calcitic bryozoan Myriapora truncata (Pallas, 1766). Colonies were transplanted to normal (pH 8.1), high (mean pH 7.66, minimum value 7.33) and extremely high CO₂ conditions (mean pH 7.43, minimum value 6.83) at gas vents off Ischia Island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). The net calcification rates of live colonies and the dissolution rates of dead colonies were estimated by weighing after 45 days (May–June 2008) and after 128 days (July–October) to examine the hypothesis that high CO₂ levels affect bryozoan growth and survival differently during moderate and warm water conditions. In the first observation period, seawater temperatures ranged from 19 to 24 °C; dead M. truncata colonies dissolved at high CO₂ levels (pH 7.66), whereas live specimens maintained the same net calcification rate as those growing at normal pH. In extremely high CO₂ conditions (mean pH 7.43), the live bryozoans calcified significantly less than those at normal pH. Therefore, established colonies of M. truncata seem well able to withstand the levels of ocean acidification predicted in the next 200 years, possibly because the soft tissues protect the skeleton from an external decrease in pH. However, during the second period of observation a prolonged period of high seawater temperatures (25–28 °C) halted calcification both in controls and at high CO₂, and all transplants died when high temperatures were combined with extremely high CO₂ levels. Clearly, attempts to predict the future response of organisms to ocean acidification need to consider the effects of concurrent changes such as the Mediterranean trend for increased summer temperatures in surface waters. Although M. truncata was resilient to short‐term exposure to high levels of ocean acidification at normal temperatures, our field transplants showed that its ability to calcify at higher temperatures was compromised, adding it to the growing list of species now potentially threatened by global warming.     

Designation processes for marine protected areas in the coastal wetlands of South Korea

The history of Korean tidal flat management and the process for designating Coastal Wetland Protected Areas (CWPAs) are described. Korean coastal wetlands have a long history of intensive use through reclamation for agricultural and industrial uses in the 20th century. Recently, the management policy is shifting away from intensive use towards the conservation of wetlands. This shift is caused by increasing public awareness of the value of wetlands and strong institutional support from the government. Since the Wetlands Conservation Act was passed in 1999, a total of twelve CWPAs have been designated through both top-down and bottom-up processes. Three designation paths are classified based on the relevant drivers, namely government-driven designations (seven CWPAs), local community driven designations (three CWPAs), and conflict resolution (trade-offs) driven designation (two CWPAs). The lessons learned from the designation of Korean CWPAs is that diversification of designation process could facilitate voluntary participation of local stakeholders and thereby enhance the chance of successful implementation of wise use strategy of tidal flats.