Environmental Chemistry Letters - The abundance of humic-like substances in the atmosphere has received considerable attention since these substances play an important role in various atmospheric... 相似文献
Microplastic pollution is occurring in most ecosystem, yet their presence in high altitude clouds and their influence on cloud formation and climate change are poorly known. Here we analyzed microplastics in cloud water sampled at the summits of Japan mountains at 1300–3776 m altitude by attenuated total reflection imaging and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We observed nine microplastics including polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, polyamide 6, polycarbonate, ethylene–propylene copolymer or polyethylene–polypropylene alloy, polyurethane, and epoxy resin. Microplastic were fragmented, with mean concentrations ranging from 6.7 to 13.9 pieces per liter, and with Feret diameters ranging from 7.1 to 94.6 μm. Microplastics bearing hydrophilic groups such as carbonyl and/or hydroxyl groups were abundant, suggesting that they might have acted as condensation nuclei of cloud ice and water. Overall, our finding suggest that high-altitude microplastics cloud influence cloud formation and, in turn, might modify the climate.
A survey for leptocephali around Sulawesi Island in the central Indonesian Seas during May 2001 found that the leptocephali
of the congrid eel, Ariosoma scheelei, were present in all seven areas that were sampled. A total of 551 leptocephali (22–166 mm TL) were collected, and A. scheelei was by far the most abundant species of leptocephali collected during the survey. The wide range of sizes in most areas indicated
that spawning had occurred during a period of several months in many different areas, although the exact spawning locations
were not determined. The larger size classes were more abundant in all areas except in Tomini Bay on the northeast side of
Sulawesi Island. The highest catch rates were observed at the eastern edge of the Java Sea and to the north in the Celebes
Sea near Makassar Strait. Premetamorphic leptocephali were also collected in surface samples at 11 stations (N=62), but metamorphosing leptocephali (N=86) were only caught in IKMT tows that fished from the surface to about 200 m. Metamorphosing leptocephali were collected
primarily at two stations in the Java Sea and Makassar Strait where a surface layer of lower-salinity water was detected.
Their total lengths (105.3–153.3 mm) and the largest premetamorphic individuals suggested that this species can reach maximum
sizes of about 165 mm before beginning to metamorphose. It is hypothesized that this species may be abundant in the Indonesian
Seas region and that it has ecological traits such as large size at recruitment and a small size at reproduction that have
made it successful in many regions of the Indo-Pacific. 相似文献
Prodigiosin is a reddish antibiotic pigment that plays an important role in the biocontrol of plant diseases by the bacterium
Serratia marcescens. However, its activity is unstable under agricultural conditions; further, it can be degraded by various environmental factors.
To examine the effect of epiphytic microbes on the stability of prodigiosin used for biological control processes, we collected
a total of 1,280 bacterial isolates from the phylloplane of cyclamen and tomato plants. Approximately 72% of the bacterial
strains isolated from the cyclamen plants and 66% of those isolated from the tomato plants grew on minimal agar medium containing
100 μg ml−1 prodigiosin. Certain isolates obtained from both plant species exhibited prodigiosin-degrading activity. We compared the
16S rRNA gene sequences derived from the isolates with sequences in a database. The comparison revealed that the sequences
determined for the prodigiosin-degrading isolates were homologous to those of the genera Pseudomonas, Caulobacter, Rhizobium, Sphingomonas, Janthinobacterium, Novosphingobium, and Rathayibacter. These results indicate that indigenous epiphytic microorganisms may interfere with the interaction between plant pathogens
and biocontrol agents by degrading the antibiotics produced by the agents. 相似文献
Leptocephali of the widely distributed tropical marine eels of the genus Kaupichthys (family Chlopsidae) were collected around Sulawesi Island during a sampling survey in the Indonesian Seas in late September
and early October 2002, and the otolith microstructure of 24 of the 59 specimens captured was examined to learn about the
larval growth rates and spawning times of these small sized eels. Leptocephali ranging in size from 25 to 60 mm were collected
in Makassar Strait and the Celebes Sea, but they were most abundant in the semi-enclosed Tomini Bay of northeast Sulawesi
Island. The Kaupichthys leptocephali examined had 39–161 otolith growth increments. Their back-calculated hatching dates indicated that five age
groups were present and each group appeared to have been spawned around the full moon of previous months. Average growth rate
estimates of the first two age groups were 0.65 and 0.54 mm/day for the 27.4–30.4 and 37.6–45.6 mm age classes. The growth
rates of the oldest three age groups (52.0–60.8 mm) appeared to have slowed down after they reached their approximate maximum
size. An increase in increment widths at the outer margin of the otoliths of those larger than 53 mm suggested that the process
of metamorphosis had begun even though there were few external morphological changes indicating metamorphosis. It is hypothesized
that chlopsid leptocephali have an unusually short gut that may not need to move forward during early metamorphosis. The presence
of four age classes in Tomini Bay suggests that the Togian Islands region may be productive habitats for Kaupichthys juveniles and adults. 相似文献
Many planktonic organisms have adaptations such as floats or lighter substances to obtain buoyancy to help them remain in
the surface layer of the ocean where photosynthetic primary production occurs and food is most abundant. The almost totally
transparent eel larvae, called leptocephali, are a unique member of the planktonic community of the surface layer, but their
ecology and physiology are poorly understood. We conducted a comparative study on the specific gravity of planktonic animals
including 25 taxa of 7 phyla of marine invertebrates and 6 taxa of leptocephali (vertebrate) to gain a broad perspective on
the buoyancy of the eggs and larval stages of the Japanese eel. The specific gravity values of the various freshly caught
marine invertebrate taxa varied widely from 1.020 to 1.425, but leptocephali had some of the lowest values (1.028–1.043).
Artificially cultured live leptocephali had even greater buoyancies with specific gravities of 1.019–1.025 that were close
to or lower than seawater, and their buoyancy showed ontogenetic changes among the different early life history stages. Leptocephali
appear to have a unique mechanism of buoyancy control by chloride cells all over body surface through osmoregulation of body
fluid contained in the extracellular matrix of transparent gelatinous glycosaminoglycans filling their bodies. This adaptation
is likely a key factor for their survival by helping them to remain in the surface layer where food particles are the most
abundant, while being transparent for predator avoidance. The ontogenetic change in buoyancy of eel eggs, leptocephali and
glass eels likely enhances their larval survival, transport, and recruitment to terrestrial freshwater habitats. 相似文献
Concentrations of the anthropogenic 137Cs and 239,240Pu in surface water of the Sea of Japan were in the ranges of 2·7–3·8 mBq l-1 and 1·3–8·0 μBq l-1, respectively, in 1993–1994, which are in the same order of magnitude as those in the North Pacific. The time-series data indicated a marked increase of surface 137Cs in 1986 and 1987 after the major radioactive dumping and the Chernobyl fallout in 1986 and then rapidly decreased thereafter. The apparent half-residence time of 137Cs in the surface water was estimated to be about 3 years for excess 137Cs and 16 years for a rather long time-scale transport, respectively. For 239,240Pu in the surface water, no systematic temporal variation was observed over the past two decades, which may reflect rapid recycling of deeper Pu. The results revealed that most of the recent radioactivity in water columns of the Sea of Japan was of global fallout origin from atmospheric nuclear testing and partly the Chernobyl fallout. No clear signal about the effect of radioactivity from Russian dumping was observed. 相似文献
Anthropogenic radionuclides in seawater have been used as transient tracers of processes in the marine environment. Especially, plutonium in seawater is considered to be a valuable tracer of biogeochemical processes due to its particle-reactive properties. However, its behavior in the ocean is also affected by physical processes such as advection, mixing and diffusion. Here we introduce Pu/137Cs ratio as a proxy of biogeochemical processes and discuss its trends in the water column of the North Pacific Ocean. We observed that the 239,240Pu/137Cs ratio in seawater exponentially increased with increasing depth (depth range: 100–1000 m). This finding suggests that the profiles of the 239,240Pu/137Cs ratios in shallower waters directly reflect biogeochemical processes in the water column. A half-regeneration depth deduced from the curve fitting the observed data, showed latitudinal and longitudinal distributions, also related to biogeochemical processes in the water column. 相似文献