Dust and Sand Storms (DSS) originating in deserts in arid and semi-arid regions are events raising global public concern. An important component of atmospheric aerosols, dust aerosols play a key role in climatic and environmental changes at the regional and the global scale. Deserts and semi-deserts are the main source of dust and sand, but regions that undergo vegetation deterioration and desertification due to climate change and human activities also contribute significantly to DSS. Dust aerosols are mainly composed of dust particles with an average diameter of 2 mm, which can be transported over thousands of kilometers. Dust aerosols influence the radiation budget of the earthatmosphere system by scattering solar short-wave radiation and absorbing surface long-wave radiation. They can also change albedo and rainfall patterns because they can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) or ice nuclei (IN). Dust deposition is an important source of both marine nutrients and contaminants. Dust aerosols that enter marine ecosystems after long-distance transport influence phytoplankton biomass in the oceans, and thus global climate by altering the amount of CO2 absorbed by phytoplankton. In addition, the carbonates carried by dust aerosols are an important source of carbon for the alkaline carbon pool, which can buffer atmospheric acidity and increase the alkalinity of seawater. DSS have both positive and negative impacts on human society: they can exert adverse impacts on human’s living environment, but can also contribute to the mitigation of global warming and the reduction of atmospheric acidity.
The marine sponge Dysidea fragilis from El Mar Menor, a hypersaline coastal lagoon (Murcia, Spain), contains the furanosesquiterpenoid ent-furodysinin as the major secondary metabolite. D. fragilis emits a defensive white fluid when it is disturbed. Electron micrographs of this fluid revealed intact vesiculated cells
together with other amorphous material. Dissociated cells are more rounded in shape but maintain the same ultrastructural
features as cells observed in ultra-thin sections of the whole sponge. The defensive secretion is composed mainly of sponge
cells with abundant light vesicles. Sometimes these light vesicles appear to open into the intercellular space; this correlates
with surface blebs on these cells observed under scanning electron microscopy. The intracellular location of ent-furodysinin was confirmed by Erlich staining. In laboratory assays, we examined the role of ent-furodysinin as a feeding deterrent to generalist fish predators. It was isolated from D. fragilis and incorporated into a carrageenan-based artificial diet. The addition of ent-furodysinin to the artificial diet reduced feeding by the fish Thalassoma pavo. Similarly, fish did not feed on artificial diet above which defensive secretion of D. fragilis had been ejected with a small syringe.
Received: 4 June 1997 / Accepted: 28 January 1998 相似文献
One of the objectives of the new State of Croatia, as a Mediterranean country oriented towards tourism, is safety of its air traffic. The frequency of use of Zagreb airport is currently 688 flights, or about 20000 passengers a week. In 1996, research was carried out at the airport concerning air traffic safety with respect to the presence of birds on the airfield. Biological methods, in which birds were chased away by means of trained birds of prey, were used. For the Zagreb airport experiment nine birds involving three different species: Falco peregrinus, Accipiter gentilis and Falco cherrug were utilised. The results showed that the air traffic safety on Zagreb airport with regard to possible bird-plane strikes improved.Other bird clearing methods, applied over the 1987–1996 period also reduced bird-plane interferences but were noted to be less effective. With the biological, bird of prey method, 100% temporary clearance was achieved. Habitat modification, which involved removal from the airport vicinity of all factors attractive to the birds, only removed 20–30% of the birds, but this was of a more permanent nature. Use of fire-arms achieved a 80–90% temporary bird clearance. A combination of all three methods would appear to be most effective and measures for further monitoring for safe air traffic movement at Zagreb airport are proposed. 相似文献
Abstract One of two topics explored is the limitations of the daily average in summarizing pollutant hourly profiles. The daily average of hourly measurements of air pollutant constituents provides continuity with previous studies using monitoring technology that only provided the daily average. However, other summary statistics are needed that make better use of all available information in 24-hr profiles. The daily average reflects the total daily dose, obscuring hourly resolution of the dose rate. Air pollutant exposures with comparable total daily doses may have very different effects when occurring at high levels over a few hours as opposed to low levels over a longer time. Alternative data-based choices for summary statistics are provided using principal component analysis to capture the exposure dose rate, while preserving ease of interpretation. This is demonstrated using the earliest hourly particle concentration data available for El Paso from archived records of particulate matter (PM)10. In this way, a significant association between evening PM10 exposures and nonaccidental daily mortality is found in El Paso from 1992 to 1995, otherwise missed using the daily average. Secondly, the nature and, hence, effects of particles in the ambient aerosol during El Paso sandstorms is believed different from that of particles present during stillair conditions resulting from atmospheric temperature inversions. To investigate this, wind speed (ws) is used as a surrogate variable to label PM10 exposures as Low-ws (primarily fine particles), High-ws (primarily coarse particles), or Mid-ws (a mixture of fine and coarse particles). A High-ws evening is significantly associated with a 10% lower risk of mortality on the succeeding third day, as compared with comparable exposures at Low- or Mid-ws. Although this analysis cannot be used to form firm conclusions because it uses a very small data set, it demonstrates the limitations of the daily average and suggests differential toxicity for different particle compositions. 相似文献
Oil gelling agents are widely used in emergency response of marine oil spills. However, the biological toxicity of oil gelling agents is not well understood. This research aimed to evaluate the environmental safety of oil gelling agents used for rapid removal and cleanup of marine oil spills. We used luminescent bacteria (Acinetobacter sp. Tox2 and Acinetobacter sp. RecA) combined with exposure experiment using marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) juveniles to detect the acute toxicity and genotoxicity of 10 oil gelling agents. As a result, a certain level of acute toxicity was detected from the oil gelling agent FOA and GMN-01 (the toxicity equivalent to 0.067 mg/L and 0.084 mg/L of HgCl2, respectively), and a certain level of genotoxicity was detected from the oil gelling agent NORSOREX (the toxicity equivalent to 0.307 mg/L of MMC) by the luminescent bacteria test. However, no obvious acute toxicity or genotoxicity was detected from the above three oil gelling agents in fish-exposure experiments. Our results suggest that the 10 oil gelling agents have no obvious acute toxicity or genotoxicity to higher organisms (including marine medaka). The luminescent bacteria test is more sensitive in detecting biological toxicity of oil gelling agents. This study provides a reference for environmental safety evaluation of the oil gelling agents used in the cleaning up of the marine oil spills. 相似文献
