Organic matter recycling in a shallow coastal zone (NW Mediterranean): The influence of local and global climatic forcing and organic matter lability on hydrolytic enzyme activity

Seawater and sediment were collected on a monthly basis from a shallow (10.5 m depth) coastal site in the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean) from November 1993 to December 1994 to determine the main environmental forces that influenced the biogeochemical processes and to study the relationships between the availability and lability of the organic matter (OM) and hydrolytic enzymatic activity. The current direction throughout the sampling year was influenced by the climatic conditions, which showed significant correlations with north atlantic oscillation (NAO) index values. The current generally flowed northwards in spring. This could cause significantly lower transparency values than in the summer, when an eastward current probably reduced the allochthonous input of material from the main local watercourse and contributed to turning the conditions from mesotrophic to oligotrophic. Spring and summer were separated by transitional periods more than by the canonical autumn and winter seasons. These transitions were characterised by a reduction in salinity values and by resuspension caused by water column mixing and a current flowing towards the southwest. The significant inverse correlations of the chlorophyll-a and protein concentrations, bacterial abundance and proteolysis of the bottom seawater and transparency showed the direct influence of resuspension on the organic matter dynamics. Moreover, OM trophic quality influenced the bacterial parameters and the enzymatic activities. The glycolytic β glucosidase and chitinase activities and their bacterial cell-specific hydrolytic rates were higher when substrates such as hydrolysable proteins were available, while they decreased when refractory compounds were abundant. The low leucine aminopeptidase: β glucosidase ratio values observed in the water column were presumably related to the potential ease with which microbes obtained protein-derived materials and energy, the protein hydrolysable fraction being estimated at ca. 90%. The significant correlations of protein with the chlorophyll-a concentrations suggested an autotrophic-derived origin, although the higher chlorophyll-a values corresponded to lower hydrolysable protein concentrations and an increase in the autotrophic biomass at the surface was correlated with a reduction in the proteolytic affinity for substrates, suggesting that a recent origin did not necessarily mean higher trophic availability.     

Benthic microbial abundance and activities in an intensively trawled ecosystem (Thermaikos Gulf, Aegean Sea)

Abundance of benthic bacteria, heterotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates, extracellular enzymatic activities, bacterial C production, C mineralisation and sediment community oxygen consumption rates were measured in the Thermaikos Gulf (Northeastern Mediterranean), before (September 2001), and during intense trawling activities (October 2001 and February 2002). The biochemical composition of sedimentary organic matter has revealed that bottom trawling had an effect on the trophic state of Thermaikos Gulf. Changes on the benthic microbial food web were also recorded, during the three sampling seasons. Even though trawling-induced sediment resuspension did not alter significantly the abundance of the microbial components, with the exception of the most impacted station, it determined changes regarding their relative importance. Thus, the ratios of bacterium to nanoflagellates and ciliate to nanoflagellates abundance increased in the trawled stations, causing a sudden increase in bacterial C production, in comparison to the non-trawled station. Four months later, the effects of trawling on the microbial food web were less evident, masked possibly by the drastic decrease in the water temperature. The results of the present work suggest that bottom trawling induces alteration of the sedimentological variables and can be considered as a factor affecting the function of the microbial food web in marine coastal ecosystems. These alterations cause faster mobilisation of organic C buried in the sediment and increase nutrient concentrations and availability in the system, thus inducing an effect that could lead to coastal eutrophication.     

Characterizing the molecular structure of organic matter from natural environments: An analytical challenge

Natural organic matter (OM) is widespread in terrestrial ecosystems and it plays a major role in the global carbon cycle. Despite this high environmental importance, its characterization at the molecular level remains unsatisfactory, especially when the macromolecular OM is concerned. Such a characterization is challenging because of the diversity and heterogeneity of OM, but it is of prime importance to derive OM reactivity and, more generally, to model environmental processes in which natural OM is involved. This awareness led to a wealth of analytical developments, which are described in the present review. They include improvements of existing techniques, but also new approaches and concern spectroscopic tools along with chemical and thermal degradations.     

Salt body detection from seismic data via sparse representation

In seismic interpretation and seismic data analysis, it is of critical importance to effectively identify certain geologic formations from very large seismic data sets. In particular, the problem of salt characterization from seismic data can lead to important savings in time during the interpretation process if solved efficiently and in an automatic manner. In this work, we present a novel numerical approach that is able to automatically segmenting or identifying salt structures from a post‐stack seismic data set with a minimum intervention from the interpreter. The proposed methodology is based on the recent theory of sparse representation and consists in three major steps: first, a supervised learning assisted by the user which is performed only once, second a segmentation process via unconstrained ?₁ optimization, and finally a post‐processing step based on signal separation. Furthermore, since the second step only depends upon local information at each time, the whole process greatly benefits from parallel computing platforms. We conduct numerical experiments in a synthetic 3D seismic data set demonstrating the viability of our method. More specifically, we found that the proposed approach matches up to 98.53% with respect to the corresponding 3D velocity model available in advance. Finally, in appendixes A and B, we present a convergence analysis providing theoretical guarantees for the proposed method.     

Identification and characterization of pathogen to bacterial septicaemia in cultured turbot, Scophthalmus maximus

Bacteria-infected turbots Scophthalmus maximus with septicaemia were examined between 2001 and 2004 in aspects of the conditions of disease occurrence, clinical syndromes and pathological changes. The phenotypic information of pathogenic bacteria was studied, including morphology, physiological and biochemical characteristics, and the mol% G C of the DNA. In addition, representative strains (S010623-1, LH031120-1) were selected for molecular identification by partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results show that the isolates (LH031120-1 to LH031120-6, HT040308-1 to HT040308-6, HT040620-1 to HT040620-6) from three farms were identified as Edwardsiella tarda. The isolates (S010610-1 to S010610-10, S010623-1 to S010623-20) from one farm were identified as Listonella anguillarum. We conducted studies on the pathogenicity of isolates by artificial infection, and revealed all infected groups in morbidity and mortality. The septicaemia infected turbot showed a syndrome similar to that of the naturally infected fish. Antibiotic sensitivity showed that of 37 antimicrobial agents, E. tarda was sensitive to 27 agents, and L. anguillarum was sensitive to 21 agents.     

非晶态镍硼酸盐的制备和表征

由摩尔比分别为1:2和1:8的六水氯化镍和硼砂反应得到两种镍硼酸盐样品1.25NiO·B_2O_3·4.5H_2O和NiO·B_2O_3·3.1H_2O。用XRD、TG-DSC、FT-IR和Raman等实验方法对其进行表征,样品为非晶态,确定了样品中的阴离子等,并结合化学分析结果近似确定了上述两种非晶态镍硼酸盐样品的结构组成式,前者为三元复盐,结构式为Ni[B_3O_3(OH)_5]·0.5Ni[B_2O(OH)_6]·Ni(OH)_2·4H_2O,后者结构式为Ni[B_2O(OH)_6]。     

Effects of heavy metals on some soil biological parameters

The soils most polluted by heavy metals are probably alluvial soils. One of them is the alluvium of the Litavka River. The heavy metal content was much higher in some cases than the threshold values, allowed by the Czech standards. The effect of soil contamination on enzyme activity is presented. Generally, the values of enzymatic activities were highest in the soil above the source of contamination and they decrease as they approach the source of contamination. All measured parameters were affected by heavy metal concentrations. Our results demonstrate that several parameters of microbial activity could be used as good indicators of increasing concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn in soil.     

MUD BANK SLIDING IN A DAM RESERVOIR

l INTRODUCTIONTo ensure the long-term futhe of dams, the emPtying of storage reservoirs is often realised with tWoobjectives:'-periodic insPection of the sttucthe,-flushing oftalrials Which sedimatd within the reservoir.Both aims are lthely to cause the instability of sedhoent, and these displacements can induceenvirOInnenal distheances that have to be reduced to the Ininimum. This imPlies a good knowledge ofthese maerials and of the processes Which originated the disPlacements.The se…     

鱼类生长激素的分离、鉴定及其生理功能研究的进展

主要对８０年代末至９０年代中期国际有关鱼类生长激素的分离，鉴定和生理功能研究的进展予以综述，资料表明，蓝鲨，罗非鱼等２１种鱼类的生长激素已被分离，并阐明鱼类ＧＨ一般是在碱性条件下，将脑垂体匀浆，或取其体外培养的分泌液，经凝胶过滤和反相高效液相色谱纯化得到。     

树脂固定化海洋脂肪酶ADM47601的研究

以海洋脂肪酶ADM47601为研究对象,以树脂为载体,进行了固定化酶的研究。筛选了21种树脂,确定D316型阴离子交换树脂为载体。通过正交试验得到了固定化的最佳条件,每克载体加脂肪酶10 000 U,pH7.5,25℃,150 r/min,固定化时间3 h,固定化酶活力回收率可达65.53%±1.06%。固定化脂肪酶最适作用pH为7.5,在pH6.0~9.0的范围内能够保持85%的活力。最适作用温度40℃,在50℃下贮存1 h后依然保持66%的活力。25℃保存半衰期为55 d,操作8次仍然能维持60%以上的活性,且在多种有机试剂中能够稳定的保持活性。固定化脂肪酶Km和Vmax值分别为4.86×10~(–5) mol/L和1.31×10~(–5) mol/(L·min),对底物亲和性较好。