Apportioning aldehydes: Quantifying industrial sources of carbonyls

<正>In their recent Journal of Environmental Sciences publication,Wang and colleagues provide field evidence that industrial activities can contribute substantially to atmospheric carbonyl concentrations(Wang et al.,2015).These results may helpto explain underestimations of carbonyl emissions in currently available emission inventories,and highlight the need for an improved understanding of industrial sources of this class of compounds.In the atmosphere,carbonyl compounds photolyze to yield     

Social learning of an associative foraging task in zebrafish

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is increasingly becoming an important model species for studies on the genetic and neural mechanisms controlling behaviour and cognition. Here, we utilized a conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm to study social learning in zebrafish. We tested whether social interactions with conditioned demonstrators enhance the ability of focal naïve individuals to learn an associative foraging task. We found that the presence of conditioned demonstrators improved focal fish foraging behaviour through the process of social transmission, whereas the presence of inexperienced demonstrators interfered with the learning of the control focal fish. Our results indicate that zebrafish use social learning for finding food and that this CPP paradigm is an efficient assay to study social learning and memory in zebrafish.     

Extensive aerosol optical properties and aerosol mass related measurements during TRAMP/TexAQS 2006 – Implications for PM compliance and planning

Extensive aerosol optical properties, particle size distributions, and Aerodyne quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometer measurements collected during TRAMP/TexAQS 2006 were examined in light of collocated meteorological and chemical measurements. Much of the evident variability in the observed aerosol-related air quality is due to changing synoptic meteorological situations that direct emissions from various sources to the TRAMP site near the center of the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) metropolitan area. In this study, five distinct long-term periods have been identified. During each of these periods, observed aerosol properties have implications that are of interest to environmental quality management agencies. During three of the periods, long range transport (LRT), both intra-continental and intercontinental, appears to have played an important role in producing the observed aerosol. During late August 2006, southerly winds brought super-micron Saharan dust and sea salt to the HGB area, adding mass to fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) measurements, but apparently not affecting secondary particle growth or gas-phase air pollution. A second type of LRT was associated with northerly winds in early September 2006 and with increased ozone and sub-micron particulate matter in the HGB area. Later in the study, LRT of emissions from wildfires appeared to increase the abundance of absorbing aerosols (and carbon monoxide and other chemical tracers) in the HGB area. However, the greatest impacts on Houston PM_2.5 air quality are caused by periods with low-wind-speed sea breeze circulation or winds that directly transport pollutants from major industrial areas, i.e., the Houston Ship Channel, into the city center.     

Production of semiochemical and allelobiotic agents as a consequence of aphid feeding

Aphids have an extremely intimate relationship with their plant hosts. Although this might suggest that aphid infestation would be largely cryptic, there are a wide range of changes that can be detected behaviourally, chemically and also at the molecular genetic level. Colonisation by aphids can cause release of semiochemicals characteristic of the aphid species and besides reducing acceptability to incoming aphids; these can enable recruitment of specific parasitoids. Some semiochemicals involved in these processes can also influence the defence status of neighbouring intact plants through air or the rhizosphere. Electrophysiological and behavioural studies on the aphids, their parasitoids and other organisms facilitate the identification of compounds having direct effects on plant defence. New developments from work on semiochemicals such as (Z)-jasmone and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, and allelobiotic agents such as 6-hydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid and 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one, as well as new work on these compounds and others as potential phytopheromones are discussed.     

Viable algae released by the seastar <Emphasis Type="Italic">Dermasterias</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">imbricata</Emphasis> feeding on the symbiotic sea anemone <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anthopleura elegantissima</Emphasis>

Echinoderms are major predators of anemones in temperate ecosystems. The fate of two algae, zooxanthellae and zoochlorellae, after their host anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima Brandt) was consumed by the leather star Dermasterias imbricata Grube was determined in experiments conducted in July and August 2004. Productivity, photosynthetic pigments, and mitotic index (percent of cells dividing) were used as indicators of algal health; algae released after leather stars consumed their host were compared with algae freshly isolated from anemones. Two types of waste products contained algae: pellets resulting from extraoral digestion, and feces. Zooxanthellae and zoochlorellae isolated from these waste products were photosynthetic, although to different extents. For algae from feces and pellets, light-saturated photosynthetic rates (P _max) were 85 and 13%, respectively, of P _max of freshly isolated zooxanthellae; and were 20 and 46%, respectively, for zoochlorellae. The photosynthetic pigments and mitotic index (percent of dividing cells) were not altered by the feeding activities of the leather star. These results show that algae released by seastar predation on their hosts remain viable, and are hence available for establishing symbioses in A. elegantissima and other potential hosts.