A fish hepatocyte model for the investigation of the effects of environmental contaminants

An isolated fish hepatocyte culture system was developed as a models ystem to investigate the mechanisms of action of environmental contaminants. Hepatocytes were isolated from striped bass (Morone saxatilis) by an adaptation of the two stage perfusion technique of Seglen.¹ The system was used to evaluate metal binding protein (MBP) induction in response to cadmium, a primary inducer of metallothionein (MT) in rat hepatocytes. Striped bass hepatocytes appeared to be refractory to the induction of MBP by cadmium, since there was no significant increase in the synthesis of MBP for any of the doses at any of the time points investigated. However, when a similar experiment was performed using rat hepatocytes there was induction of MBP that was related to both dose and time. These comparative experiments indicate that although there are similarities between the hepatocytes of the two species in regard to ³⁵S incorporation into low molecular weight metal-binding proteins, there appear to be significant quantitative differences as well in regard to MBP kinetics. This in vitro model system could potentially be utilized to investigate the toxicological properties of other environmental contaminants.     

Wave transmission and reflection characteristics of a rigid surface and submerged horizontal plate

The wave transmission and reflection characteristics of a rigidly fixed surface and submerged horizontal plate were investigated experimentally in detail for a wide range of incident wave steepnesses and for different depths of submerge of the plate in deep water conditions in regular water wave fields. The experiments were conducted at the Ocean Engineering Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, in a wave flume 10 m long, 0.3 m wide and in a constant water depth of 0.8 m. The horizontal plate is 0.22 m thick and 1.2 m in length, covering the enrire width of the flume. From the present investigation, it is found that for a rigid surface plate, the coefficient of transmission is a minimum and the coefficient of reflection is a maximum, but the maximum value of the coefficient of energy loss occurs for plates submerged closer to the still-water level (SWL) and not for the surface plate. It is also found that the value of the coefficient of reflection increases with the increase in the value of the Reddy-Neelamani (RN) number, the ratio of horizontal water particle excursion at the bottom of the plate in its absence to the length of the plate. The coefficient of transmission is found to decrease rapidly with increase in the value of RN number up to 0.1. The wave transmission is only 5% for RN from 0.1 to 0.2. It is also found that for RN number greater than 0.04, the minimum energy dissipation is consistently about 60% of the incident wave energy.     

Mechanisms controlling the temporal variation of the sea ice edge in the Southern Ocean

This paper examines the mechanism controlling the short time-scale variation of sea ice cover over the Southern Ocean. Sea ice concentration and ice velocity datasets derived from images of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) are employed to reveal this mechanism. The contribution of both dynamic and thermodynamic processes to the change in ice edge location is examined by comparing the meridional velocity of ice edge displacement and sea ice drift. In the winter expansion phase, the thermodynamic process of new ice production off the ice edge plays an important role in daily advances of ice cover, whereas daily retreats are mostly due to southward ice drift. On the other hand, both advance and retreat of ice edges in the spring contraction phase are mostly caused by the dynamic process of the ice drift. Based on the above mechanism and the linear relation between the degree of ice production at the ice edge and northward wind speed, the seasonal advance of ice cover can be roughly reproduced using the meridional velocity of ice drift at the ice edge.     

The Levant Slumps and the Phoenician Structures: collapse features along the continental margin of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

Two distinct series of slumps deform the upper part of the sedimentary sequence along the continental margin of the Levant. One series is found along the base of the continental slope, where it overlies the disrupted eastern edge of the Messinian evaporites. The second series of slumps transects the continental margin from the shelf break to the Levant Basin. It seemed that the two series were triggered by two unrelated, though contemporaneous, processes. The shore-parallel slumps were initiated by basinwards flow of the Messinian salt, that carried along the overlying Plio-Quaternary sediments. Seawater that percolated along the detachment faults dissolved the underlying salt to form distinctly disrupted structures. The slope-normal slumps are located on top of large canyons that cut into the pre-Messinian sedimentary rocks. A layer of salt is found in the canyons, and the Plio-Quaternary sediments were deposited on that layer. The slumps are bounded by large, NW-trending faults where post-Messinian faulted offset was measured. We presume that the flow of the salt in the canyons also drives the slope-normal slumps. Thus thin-skinned halokynetic processes generated the composite post-Tortonian structural patterns of the Levant margin. The Phoenician Structures are a prime example of the collapse of a distal continental margin due to the dissolution of a massive salt layer.     

Estimates of the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean

Estimates of the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange (coefficients of horizontal exchange, scales of deviations of the velocity of geostrophic currents from the background flows, and horizontal scales of perturbations) in the upper ocean layer were obtained on the basis of the data of expeditions held in 1978 and 1980 in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. It is shown that the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange strongly depend on the structure of the background flows, and one of the causes of their variability is related to tropical cyclones. A tendency to a decrease (to different degrees) of the turbulent coefficients in the wake of a tropical cyclone is noted.     

Local remineralization patterns in the mesopelagic zone of the Eastern North Atlantic, off the NW Iberian Peninsula

The short-time-scale variability of the remineralization patterns in the domain of Eastern North Atlantic Central Waters (ENACW) off the NW Iberian Peninsula is studied based on biogeochemical data (oxygen, nutrient salts, total alkalinity, pH, dissolved organic matter and fluorescence of dissolved humic substances) collected weekly between May 2001 and April 2002. The temporal variability of inorganic variables points to an intensification of remineralization during the summer and autumn, with an increase of nutrients, total inorganic carbon and fluorescence and a decrease of oxygen. During the subsequent winter mixing, there is a biogeochemical reset of the system, with lower nutrients, total inorganic carbon and fluorescence and higher oxygen. In contrast to inorganic variables, the levels of dissolved organic matter in the ENACW seem to respond to short-term events probably associated with fast sinking particles, where solubilisation of organic matter prevails over remineralization. Applying a previously published stoichiometric model, we observed a vertical fractionation of organic-matter remineralization. Although there is a preferential remineralization of proteins and P compounds in the entire domain of ENACW, the percentage was higher in the upper ENACW (σ<27.10 kg/m³) than in the lower; the percentage of N and P compounds in the oxidised organic matter was >80% for the upper ENACW and 63% for the lower. Likewise, the redissolution of calcareous structures contributes about 6% and 13% to the carbon regenerated in the upper and lower layers of ENACW, respectively.     

High-resolution sediment echosounding off Peru: Late Quaternary depositional sequences and sedimentary structures of a current-dominated shelf

About 6000 km of both bathymetric and high-resolution acoustic profiles were acquired on the shelf and upper slope offshore Peru between 9° S and 14° S. Two new sediment echosounder systems – SEL-96 and SES-2000DS – provided details of the sedimentary structures of the Quaternary sequences within the Sechura-Salaverry, Huacho and Pisco Basins. To a great extent, the poleward undercurrent determines the distribution of sediments. The undercurrent has generated numerous erosional unconformities, it has winnowed hardgrounds and has created mudwaves common between 250 m and 400 m water depth. Distinct subbottom reflectors within sedimentary units represent hiatuses due to periods of intensified winnowing or non-deposition. Erosional unconformities usually marked by pronounced reflectors suggest shifts of the undercurrent system related to climatic changes and eustatic variations of sea level. On a larger scale, the stacked prograding depositional sequences reflect the sea-level cycles of the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Based on the stratigraphy of our piston cores and that of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 680, the depositional sequences limited by extended unconformities were assigned to oxygen isotope stages 1 to 7. Other sedimentary structures are small straight channels that were conduits for downslope sediment transport. Deformed sediments associated with synsedimentary normal faults result from creep movements indicating beginning slope failure.