南极菲尔德斯半岛近岸海洋生物体有机锡污染状况

在南极地区已发现丁基锡污染,但有关苯基锡污染及有机锡在食物链中的传递等相关研究尚未见报道.为此,自2014年12月—2015年1月从南极菲尔德斯半岛周边采集了20种海洋生物共32个混合样品(即由多个同种生物个体混合而成),经甲醇/醋酸提取、四乙基硼化钠衍生和弗洛里硅土柱净化等过程处理后,采用气相色谱-质谱联用仪(GC-MS)对样品中一丁基锡(MBT)、二丁基锡(DBT)、三丁基锡(TBT)、二苯基锡(DPhT)和三苯基锡(TPhT)进行测定,并讨论了不同有机锡化合物在食物链中的传递特征.结果表明:海藻、无脊椎动物、鱼类、海豹、鸟类中有机锡含量分别为n.d.~19.5、8.6~11.0、10.8、4.2~12.9、21.6~27.0 ng·g~(-1)(以Sn计,若未注明均以干重计),生物样品中TBT、DBT、TPhT、DPhT均有检出,而MBT均未检出;大型海藻对TBT、DBT有一定富集能力,且TBT一定程度上表现出随营养级生物放大效应;TBT和TPhT在食物链顶端含量最高,同时发现高营养级的生物具有排出部分有机锡的能力.     

Bacterial diversity in Fez tanneries and Morocco’s Binlamdoune River, using 16S RNA gene based fingerprinting

The response of bacteria to various carbohydrates in the deep-sea sediments and the Antarctic soils was investigated using cellulose, chitin, and olive oil. It was found that the carbohydrates significantly increased the corresponding specific ectoenzyme activity (β- glucosidase, β-N-acetylglucosaminidase, lipase) in the samples from deep-sea sediments. In the case of Antarctic soil samples, the cellulose or olive oil amendments had minor or no effect on β-glucosidase or lipase activity, except the chitin which stimulated β- N-acetylglucosaminidase production. The responses of the bacteria in the deep-sea sediment sample WP02-3 and the Antarctic soil sample CC-TY2 towards the chitin amendment were further analyzed. Chitin amendments were shown to stimulate the ectoenzyme activity in all the tested sediments and the soils. The bacterial response before and after the carbohydrates amendments were compared by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction. Significant changes were found in the structure and density of the bacterial community in the deep sea sediments as compared to the Antarctic soil sample, where the effects were relatively lower. There was no change in the bacterial population in both studied samples in response to carbohydrates amendments. These data indicate that the bacterial communities in the oligotrophic deep-sea sediments are more dynamic than that in the Antarctic soils as they respond to the nutrient sources efficiently by regulation of ectoenzyme activity and/or changing community structure.     

Detection of presumed genes encoding beta-lactamases by sequence based screening of metagenomes derived from Antarctic microbial mats

• Beta-lactamase genes were found in all samples from distant places in Antarctica. • Class C beta-lactamase coding genes were the most frequently found. • Diversity of sequences exceeds that of the beta-lactamases from clinical environment. Analysis of environmental samples for bacterial antibiotic resistance genes may have different objectives and analysis strategies. In some cases, the purpose was to study diversity and evolution of genes that could be grouped within a mechanism of antibiotic resistance. Different protocols have been designed for detection and confirmation that a functional gene was found. In this study, we present a sequence-based screening of candidate genes encoding beta-lactamases in 14 metagenomes of Antarctic microbial mats. The samples were obtained from different sites, representing diverse biogeographic regions of maritime and continental Antarctica. A protocol was designed based on generation of Hidden Markov Models from the four beta-lactamase classes by Ambler classification, using sequences from the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD). The models were used as queries for metagenome analysis and recovered contigs were subsequently annotated using RAST. According to our analysis, 14 metagenomes analyzed contain A, B and C beta-lactamase genes. Class D genes, however, were identified in 11 metagenomes. The most abundant was class C (46.8%), followed by classes B (35.5%), A (14.2%) and D (3.5%). A considerable number of sequences formed clusters which included, in some cases, contigs from different metagenomes. These assemblies are clearly separated from reference clusters, previously identified using CARD beta-lactamase sequences. While bacterial antibiotic resistance is a major challenge of public health worldwide, our results suggest that environmental diversity of beta-lactamase genes is higher than that currently reported, although this should be complemented with gene function analysis.     

Omega-3 nutraceuticals,climate change and threats to the environment: The cases of Antarctic krill and Calanus finmarchicus

The nutraceutical market for EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is promoting fishing for Euphasia superba (Antarctic krill) in the Southern Ocean and Calanus finmarchicus in Norwegian waters. This industry argues that these species are underexploited, but they are essential in their ecosystems, and climate change is altering their geographical distribution. In this perspective, we advocate the cessation of fishing for these species to produce nutraceuticals with EPA and DHA. We argue that this is possible because, contrary to what this industry promotes, the benefits of these fatty acids only seem significant to specific population groups, and not for the general population. Next, we explain that this is desirable because there is evidence that these fisheries may interact with the impact of climate change. Greener sources of EPA and DHA are already available on the market, and their reasonable use would ease pressure on the Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems.     

A worldwide bibliometric analysis of Antarctic krill research during 1960 to 2015

This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 1251 articles related to Antarctic krill from 1960 to2015, based on the Core Collection in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science. We analyzed the results from four aspects: annual distribution, Web of Science categories and the major journals, international collaboration and author keywords. The Antarctic krill research has developed rapidly since 1978, with an increasing article output. The studies mostly focused on the fields of marine and freshwater biology, oceanography, and ecology. Polar Biology, Marine Ecology-Progress Series and Deep-Sea Research Part Ⅱ-Topical Studies in Oceanography, were the top three journals to publish the Antarctic krill-related papers. Although Russia is the earliest state to report Antarctic krill, U.S.A. and England were leaders with the largest output quantity and the highest cooperation frequencies. The researches in PR China have taken a blooming since 2009 and will play a more and more important role in the world. The frequencies of author keywords were counted. The high-frequency keywords were further divided into four groups with cohesive subgroup analysis, which suggested the major themes. This paper depicts the existing publications on Antarctic krill. Our goal is to serve a point of reference and provide the direction for the future work.     

南极长城站夏季海雾预报的初步研究

基于南极长城站的气象观测(1985-2006年)和NCEP(National Centers for Environmental Prediction)的再分析数据,分析了该地区海雾的天气气候特征、海雾与气象要素的关系以及有利于海雾发生的3种典型天气形势,并据此初步建立了长城站夏季海雾预报系统。后报试验表明,该系统对长城站夏季海雾的预报效果较好。     

Antarctic krill fishery effects over penguin populations under adverse climate conditions: Implications for the management of fishing practices

Fast climate changes in the western Antarctic Peninsula are reducing krill density, which along with increased fishing activities in recent decades, may have had synergistic effects on penguin populations. We tested that assumption by crossing data on fishing activities and Southern Annular Mode (an indicator of climate change in Antarctica) with penguin population data. Increases in fishing catch during the non-breeding period were likely to result in impacts on both chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (P. papua) populations. Catches and climate change together elevated the probability of negative population growth rates: very high fishing catch on years with warm winters and low sea ice (associated with negative Southern Annular Mode values) implied a decrease in population size in the following year. The current management of krill fishery in the Southern Ocean takes into account an arbitrary and fixed catch limit that does not reflect the variability of the krill population under effects of climate change, therefore affecting penguin populations when the environmental conditions were not favorable.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01386-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Perfluorinated compounds in the Antarctic region: Ocean circulation provides prolonged protection from distant sources

In order to investigate the extent to which Perfluorinated Contaminants (PFCs) have permeated the Southern Ocean food web to date, a range of Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and Antarctic-migratory biota were analysed for key ionic PFCs.Based upon the geographical distribution pattern and ecology of biota with detectable vs. non-detectable PFC burdens, an evaluation of the potential contributory roles of alternative system input pathways is made. Our analytical findings, together with previous reports, reveal only the occasional occurrence of PFCs in migratory biota and vertebrate predators with foraging ranges extending into or north of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC).Geographical contamination patterns observed correspond most strongly with those expected from delivery via hydrospheric transport as governed by the unique oceanographic features of the Southern Ocean. We suggest that hydrospheric transport will form a slow, but primary, input pathway of PFCs to the Antarctic region.     

Species of copper and zinc in sediments collected from the antarctic ocean and the Taiwan Erhjin Chi coastal area

The species of copper and zinc, such as bioexchangeable, skeletal, easily reducible (Fe and Mn oxides), moderately reducible (crystalline Mn oxide), organic combined with sulfides, and detritus with minerals, in mud and sand, separated from the surface Antarctic Ocean and the Taiwan Erhjin Chi coastal (including river and estuarine) sediments, have been analyzed by sequential leaching methods. Results show that in the Antarctic Ocean sediments, high concentrations of total copper (128 mg/kg) and zinc (458 mg/kg) were found in the high mud (99.09%) content samples compared with the low concentrations of total copper (83.8 mg/kg) and zinc (288 mg/kg) in low mud (51.69%) content samples. High concentrations of copper, zinc, manganese and iron are possibly due to the characteristics of manganese nodules, in which the species of copper and zinc are mainly contained in the crystalline Mn oxide phase. In the Taiwan Erhjin Chi coastal sediments, the total copper and zinc concentrations in mud and sand vary with season and location. High values were generally observed in the river sediments during the dry season, and low values were in the estuarine and coastal sediments during the heavy rainy season. High percentages of copper (as high as 49.4%) and zinc (as high as 76.7%) in mud and sand were in the bioexchangeable phase including the skeletal phase. This result might be correlated with the problems arising from human impact on copper and zinc as well as sewage pollution in Taiwan. In the organic combined phase, biogenic particulate matter related to higher primary productivity in the Antarctic Ocean is also discussed.