Preponderance of a few diatom species among the highly diverse microphytoplankton assemblages in the Bay of Bengal

The microphytoplankton assemblages were studied from water samples collected at eight discrete depths in the top 120 m at five central (open ocean) and four western (shelf/slope region) locations in the Bay of Bengal. The Bay is a low-productive warm pool regime with poor inorganic nutrient inputs to its intensely stratified surface layer despite the very large riverine influx. In addition, the prolonged cloud cover has an adverse effect on the top 25–40 m, on primary production, chlorophyll concentration and phytoplankton assemblages. Microphytoplankton were the most abundant in the northern area of the Bay. A total of 153 phytoplankton species were identified during this study. The most abundant species (at least 1,800 individual cells belonging to a given species or ≥2% of the total counts of identified specimens) during this study were: Thalassiothrix longissima, Thalassiothrix fauenfeldii, Rhizosolenia styliformis, Nitzschia angularis, Thalassionema nitzschioides, Coscinodiscus radiatus, Chaetoceros eibenii, Skeletonema costatum, Coscinodiscus concinnus and Chaetoceros coarctatus. Similarly, there were 20 moderately abundant (≥0.5 but <2%) species. Thirty-three of the least abundant species (<0.5%) occurred at one station. Diatom species, T. fauenfeldii and T. longissima were ubiquitous in the study area. The exclusive occurrence of S. costatum in the northernmost stations suggests that it proliferates only in the low-salinity regions with adequate silica from the land inputs. Abundance of pennate diatoms was higher in the open Bay compared to that of centric diatoms in the more productive northern locations and the western Bay. There appears to be a basic difference between near shore flora and offshore flora. This first analysis of phytoplankton assemblages from the offshore Bay suggests that while there is predominance of only a few species, the Bay harbors very diverse diatom communities that seem to be syntrophic, non-competitive and co-habiting in the generally low nutrient, stratified surface waters.     

Physiological stress responses in the edible crab, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cancer pagurus</Emphasis>, to the fishery practice of de-clawing

We examined physiological stress responses in the edible crab, Cancer pagurus, subjected to the commercial fishery practice of manual de-clawing. We measured haemolymph glucose and lactate, plus muscular glycogen and glycogen mobilisation, in three experiments where the crabs had one claw removed. In the first, crabs showed physiological stress responses when ‘de-clawed’ as compared to ‘handled only’ over the short term of 1–10 min. In the second, de-clawing and the presence of a conspecific both increased the physiological stress responses over the longer term of 24 h. In the third, de-clawing was shown to be more stressful than ‘induced autotomy’ of claws. Further, the former practice caused larger wounds to the body and significantly higher mortality than the latter. Since the fishery practice is to remove both claws, the stress response observed and mortality data reported are conservative.     

A Numerical and Field Investigation of Surface Heat Fluxes from Small Wind-Sheltered Waterbodies in Semi-Arid Western Australia

Shelterbelts are used for a variety of purposes in agricultural environments, primarily because of their ability to improve the downwind microclimate. Excessive evaporative losses from small, agricultural water supply reservoirs in semi-arid Western Australia motivated a combined numerical modelling and field investigation into the potential for using shelterbelts to reduce evaporation from these open waterbodies. A numerical model of the disturbed momentum and turbulence fields in the region modified by the wind-shelter was employed and accounted for the presence of a waterbody downwind. The model was coupled with conservation equations for heat and moisture and sensible and latent heat fluxes were estimated from the simulated momentum, temperature and humidity fields. The numerical simulations were tested against four days of field data from two experiments conducted in the agricultural districts of southwest Western Australia that measured boundary-layer evolution over a variety of small waterbodies protected by artifical and natural wind-shelters. The model provided good predictions of windspeed during neutral conditions, but inadequate specification of the upwind boundary during non-neutral stabilities resulted in the model failing to capture any sensitivity to atmospheric stability as seen in the field data. Despite this limitation, the temperature and humidity fields were adequately captured by the model, and evaporative mass flux predictions also agreed well with estimates taken from water-balance measurements. It is concluded that well-designed wind-shelters can reduce evaporation from open waterbodies by 20–30% as a result of reductions in the velocity scales responsible for removing moisture from the water surface. The model can be used to estimate the values of various shelterbelt design parameters (e.g., porosity, height) that could be applied in the field to provide optimum evaporation reductions.     

Wave Enhancement of Diffusivities within Surficial Sediments

The enhancement of solute diffusivities within coastal surficial sediments as a result of wave action is examined. Fluctuating pressure gradients associated with passing waves cause interstitial water motions leading to enhanced diffusivities through the mechanism of shear dispersion. Wave amplification of diffusivities is likely to be greatest for waves of period 10 s, in shallow water, over a bottom of coarse grain. Diffusivity enhancement of hundreds of times molecular diffusivity is achievable. The mechanism is distinct from, but complements, the mechanism of rotational dispersion which has been previously described. Other mechanisms that enhance solute transport within surficial sediments rely on the interaction between wave-driven or steady flow over bottom obstructions such as biogenic structures or sand ripples. It is suggested that while the resulting advective flows may dominate solute transport within the top few 10 s of centimeters of the sediment column, shear dispersion may be more important deeper within the sediment. In any event, in contrast to these other mechanisms, shear dispersion is operative even when the seabed is flat. Application of the theory to sediments of the South Atlantic Bight would suggest that shear dispersion is capable of explaining a major part of the interstitial transport inferred from measurements.     

Insect cell-based impedance biosensors: a novel technique to monitor the toxicity of environmental pollutants

Cell biosensors are currently emerging as novel, sensitive techniques to monitor the toxicity of environmental pollutants. Here, we have developed electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) for on-line monitoring of the behavior of insect cells. Cells were cultured on a microarray of eight small gold electrodes, deposited on the bottom of tissue culture wells. Upon inoculation, cells showed a tendency to drift downward and attached to the gold surface precoated with the protein Concanavalin A to accelerate the cell attachment. The impedance increased because the cells acted as insulating particles to restrict the current flow. The resulting impedance, a coordination of many biological reactions within the cell, was continuously monitored in real-time to reveal information about cell spreading and micromotion. As the cell behavior was sensitive to external chemicals, the applicability of ECIS for inhibition assays was demonstrated with HgCl₂, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2-amino 4,6-dinitrotoluene (2-ADNT) and 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene (TNB). Electronic Publication     

Environmentally friendly bleaching of cotton using laccases

A new strain of Trametes hirsuta was found to oxidize various cotton flavonoids. Here we show that laccases of this organism were responsible for oxidation of the flavonoids morin, luteolin, rutin and quercetin. Out of two laccases produced by T. hirsuta (60.7 and 51.0 kDa) the more prominent 60.7 kDa laccase was purified and showed K _m and k _cat values of 75.5, 20.9 and 49.4 μM and 72.5, 96.3 and 32.7 s⁻¹, hours on ABTS, syringaldazide and DMP, respectively. Pretreatment of cotton with the T. hirsuta laccase resulted in a whiteness increase of 8.5%.     

Three party symbiosis: acoelomorph worms,corals and unicellular algal symbionts in Eilat (Red Sea)

Epizoic worms were found to occur on certain coral colonies from reefs off the coast of Eilat (Red Sea). We identified 14 coral species infested by acoelomorph worms at a depth range of 2–50 m. The host corals were all zooxanthellate and included both massive and branching stony corals and a soft coral. Worms from all hosts were identified as belonging to the genus Waminoa and contained two distinct algal symbionts differing in size. The smaller one was identified as Symbiodinium sp. and the larger one is presumed to belong to the genus Amphidinium. Worm-infested colonies of the soft coral, Stereonephthya cundabiluensis, lacked a mucus layer and exhibited distinct cell microvilli, a phenotype not present in colonies lacking Waminoa sp. In most cases, both cnidarian and Acoelomorph hosts displayed high specificity for genetically distinctive Symbiodinium spp. These observations show that the epizoic worms do not acquire their symbionts from the “host” coral.