Quality of coastal and estuarine essential fish habitats: estimations based on the size of juvenile common sole (Solea solea L.)

Survival and growth of early fish stages are maximal in coastal and estuarine habitats where natural shallow areas serve as nurseries for a variety of widely distributed species on the continental shelf. Processes occurring in these nursery grounds during the juvenile stage affect growth and may be important in regulating the year-class strength of fishes and population size. The need, therefore, exists to protect these essential fish habitats hence to develop indicators to estimate their quality.The purpose of the present study was to use the growth of juvenile sole as a means of comparing the quality of coastal and estuarine nursery habitats in the Bay of Biscay (France). These sole nurseries were clearly identified from studies based on trawl surveys carried out during the last two decades. The size of 1-group juveniles at the end of their second summer, as estimated from these surveys, is an indicator of growth in these habitats during the juvenile phase and can be used to compare habitat quality. A model taking into account the role of seawater temperature in spatial and interannual variations of juvenile size was developed to compare growth performance in the different nursery sectors.This study shows that the size of juvenile sole after two summers of life is not density-dependent, probably because the size of the population adapts to habitat capacity after high mortality during early-juvenile stages. Size is on one hand positively related to temperature and on the other hand higher in estuarine than in non-estuarine habitats. This high growth potential of juvenile fish in estuarine areas confirms the very important role played by estuaries as nursery grounds and the essential ecological interest of these limited areas in spite of their low water quality. If a general conclusion on habitat quality is to be reached about studies based on the growth of juvenile fish, it is necessary to use not only an integrative indicator of growth, like size, representative of the intrinsic habitat quality, but also more sensitive and less integrative means, such as otolith increments or caging experiments, which better respond to anthropogenic disturbance. Moreover, it is necessary to take juvenile densities into account.     

A simple method to determine breaker height and depth for different deepwater wave height/length ratios and sea floor slopes

Existing, easily applicable methods to calculate the depth and height of breaking waves are hampered by two obstacles. First, the breaker depth is usually required to compute its height, and vice versa. Second, the equations take into account either the deepwater height to wavelength ratio or the sea floor slope, but not both. A simple iterative procedure is therefore proposed which incorporates both elements. For fully developed waves breaking over a nearly horizontal bottom, the breaker height and depth are also direct functions of the deepwater wavelength.     

Cold-seep assemblages on a giant pockmark off West Africa: spatial patterns and environmental control

A giant pockmark colonised by dense cold‐seep assemblages near 3160 m depth along the Congo‐Angola margin has been surveyed by the ROV Victor 6000. The quantitative distribution of chemosynthetic communities was mapped along the dive tracks from a video study using GIS and image mosaicking. Several types of faunal assemblages, either dominated by bivalves of the families Mytilidae (Bathymodiolus sp.) or Vesicomyidae (Calyptogena sp., ‘Vesicomya’ aff. chuni), or by Siboglinidae polychaetes (Escarpia southwardae) were mapped over the 800‐m diameter pockmark area and sampled for fauna, water and sediment. The isotopic analyses (δ¹³C) of tissues from symbiont‐bearing species were within the range typical of nutrition via symbiosis using methane for mussels and sulphide for vesicomyids and siboglinids. The living chemosynthetic communities were distributed on a SW‐NE axis, corresponding to the expression at the sediment surface of a main buried channel providing fluids to the pockmark. The site was characterised by a more active central part in a depression with abundant carbonate concretions where high‐density clusters of siboglinids and mytilids dominate. Large fields of dead and live vesicomyids with a lower mean density were observed in the external areas. The mean coverage of each of the three symbiotic taxa in these two contrasted areas was estimated from mosaic analysis and was up to 30% in the central area dominated by E. southwardae bushes (23%). Symbiont‐bearing species distribution was consistent with methane concentrations in seawater that were generally higher in mytilid beds than in the vicinity of siboglinids and vesicomyids. A Principal Component Analysis performed on environmental factors at the ten sampling sites revealed that 37% of the observed variance in the distribution of symbiont‐bearing species may be explained by variation in both methane and oxygen concentrations, while a Canonical Redundancy Analysis selected methane concentration as the only variable which explains symbiont‐bearing species densities. This spatial distribution of chemosynthetic species at the pockmark scale may reflect temporal patterns of succession of both substrate and fauna, and may be related to different individual pockmarks visible on the microbathymetry mapped using ROV data.     

黄河口的变迁对邻近海区潮波运动影响的数值研究

研究表明,黄河三角洲附近海区的潮汐和潮流分布具有如下显著特征:黄河口外存在M2分潮的无点潮(方国洪,1986)和S2分潮的无潮点(王淑雪等,1987),以及五号桩海区属于规则全日潮区。 关于黄河口外存在M2分潮无潮点的问题,自Ogura(1936)首次提出以来,一直是本区潮汐潮流研究中倍受重视的问題。据方国洪(1986)的统计,迄今为止,反映在黄河口外存在M2分潮无潮点位置的渤海同潮图的文献已有20篇之多(丁文兰,1985;山广林等,1983;方国洪,1986;方国洪等,1985;方国洪等,1986;王淑雪等,1987;刘爱菊等,1980;孙文心等,1981;沈育疆,1980;侍茂崇等,1985;黄祖珂,1991;An,1977;Fang1986 Nishida,1980;Ogura,1936; ?opИc,1958)。从表1可以看出,历年来不同学者给出的黄河口外M2分潮无潮点的位置各不相同,本文作者认为这主要是由于黄河三角洲的变迁造成的。统计表明,在1855年至1984年间,近代黄河三角洲自套尔河口至淄脉沟口的年淤进速率为0.16km,挑河湾至宋春荣沟口为0.16km,而年淤进速率最大的五号桩区(即直接影响黄河口外M2分潮无潮点位置的区域)的年淤进速率达0.3km。海湾中的无潮点是入射的潮波与自湾顶反射的潮波叠加而形成的节点,由于近代黄河三角洲的海岸线不断向海中推进,在黄河尾闾的不同时期,黄河三角洲海岸线的位置便有显著变化,这必然会使无潮点的位置随着时间的推移而发生变化。然而表1中M2无潮点的不同位置并不完全是由于黄河三角洲岸线变化引起的,由于表1中的多数无潮点的位置是数值计算的结果,而不同的人在数值计算中所用的边界条件和底摩擦应力的表达式及其系数又不尽相同,因此必然造成计算结果的差异。这里值得指出的是王淑雪等(1987)的结果,这一结果是根据1985年8-9月在黄河口外几个站进行连续1个月的水位观测资料得出的M2无潮点位置,在此点上,M2分潮振幅仅为0.8cm。当然,由于渤海潮汐中存在着显著的天文一气象分潮(方国洪等,1986),故根据夏天一个月的潮汐资料分析得到调和常数与由长期(如一年)潮汐资料所得到的调和常数是有差别的,由此而得到的无潮点的位置仍会有一定的误差,但应该说,这一结果所给出的无潮点位置对于清水沟流路的单一顺直阶段的黄河三角洲岸线而言,已是最接近实际的了。既然黄河口的变迁是黄河口外M2分潮无潮点位置的变化的主要因子,那么自1855年以来由于黄河口的不断变迁使黄河口外M2分潮无潮点位置产生了怎样的变化?本文将探讨这一问題。至于黄河口外是否有S2分潮无潮点的问题,或者说,黄河口外曾存在过的S2分潮的无潮点现在是否已经消失仍是人们所关心的问题,本文中也将讨论。 实测表明,在M2分潮无潮点附近的验潮站处,潮位的全日潮分量(即K1和O1分潮)作用突然增大,使黄河三角洲沿岸的潮汐性质发生了显著变化,即不规则半日潮→不规则全日潮→规则全日潮→不规则半日潮(表2)。近一百多年来黄河三角洲的变迁对黄河三角洲沿岸各站的潮汐性质的变化究竟产生了什么样的影响也是本文将探讨的内容之一。 本文将利用数值模拟方法,通过考察不同时期黄河三角洲附近海域潮汐、潮流的分布特征,对上述各问题加以探讨,为黄河口的开发提供依据。     

Cell responses to xenobiotics: comparison of MCF7 multi-drug- and mussel blood cell multi-xenobiotic-defense mechanisms

Multi-drug resistance (MDR) in MCF7 breast cancer cells and multi-xenobiotic resistance (MXR) in mussel (Mytilus edulis) blood cells (MBC) are well known mechanisms that contribute to the decrease in intracellular concentrations of many unrelated but cytotoxic compounds. In the present work, we have carried out comparative investigations of the MDR/MXR protective mechanisms using a rapid colorimetric assay for cell viability and calcein accumulation for MDR/MXR activities. These studies were performed using cultured MCF7 and MBC before and after in vitro exposure to xenobiotics. Our results indicate that a 5-day exposure to doxorubicin or vincristine decreased calcein accumulation in MBC which is consistent with an induction of multi-xenobiotic resistance. The increase in calcein accumulation provoked by 1-h treatment with 50 microM verapamil was much lower in MBC when compared to the P-glycoprotein overexpressing MCF7 cell line. We conclude that such microplate assays could be used in primary cultures of MBC to estimate the effects of various chemicals on MXR activity.     

Rhodamine exclusion activity in primary cultured turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) hepatocytes

Cellular detoxification by direct processes has been investigated in fish by studying the ability of hepatocytes prepared from juvenile aquarium-reared turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) to actively exclude the fluorescent dye rhodamine B (RB). Cell viability was studied by measurements of non-specific esterase activity using fluorescein diacetate. This revealed that turbot hepatocytes can be cultured for a few days with a viability decreasing to 38% after 24 h. The 24-h cultured cells have been used to study the rhodamine B exclusion activity using confocal laser microscopy. Hepatocytes accumulated the dye in a competitive manner with verapamil, thus suggesting that they express a transport system similar to the P-glycoprotein-mediated multixenobiotic resistance process. Incubation of cells with 1 μM RB and 20 μM verapamil led to a 26% increase of cellular fluorescence as compared to the accumulation in absence of competitor. Rhodamine B accumulated in the whole cytoplasm, with more concentrated areas that might correspond to the lysosomal compartment and the cell membrane.     

黄河囗演变对河口水化学环境的影响

1855年以来黄河河口已经历了10余次大型改道,1950年以后改道3次。由于黄河口多次改道,尾闾往复摆动,黄河泥沙在河口大面积淤积(占总来沙量的20%),形成了现代黄河三角洲。黄河口的演变对河口海区的理化和生物环境均产生了一定影响。本文主要根据1959年农业部黄海水产研究所等单位1)和1984年中国科学院海洋研究所的调查资料(沈志良等,1989;李全生等,1986;任广法,1987),对黄河口1964年和1976年两次改道给河口海区水化学环境及生物生产力造成的影响作初步讨论。