ALBERT

Description: Climate change has significant implications for biodiversity and ecosystems. With slow progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate engineering (or ‘geoengineering’) is receiving increasing attention for its potential to limit anthropogenic climate change and its damaging effects. Proposed techniques, such as ocean fertilization for carbon dioxide removal or stratospheric sulfate injections to reduce incoming solar radiation, would significantly alter atmospheric, terrestrial and marine environments, yet potential side-effects of their implementation for ecosystems and biodiversity have received little attention. A literature review was carried out to identify details of the potential ecological effects of climate engineering techniques. A group of biodiversity and environmental change researchers then employed a modified Delphi expert consultation technique to evaluate this evidence and prioritize the effects based on the relative importance of, and scientific understanding about, their biodiversity and ecosystem consequences. The key issues and knowledge gaps are used to shape a discussion of the biodiversity and ecosystem implications of climate engineering, including novel climatic conditions, alterations to marine systems and substantial terrestrial habitat change. This review highlights several current research priorities in which the climate engineering context is crucial to consider, as well as identifying some novel topics for ecological investigation.

Description: The surface chemistry of aquatic organisms determines their biotic interactions. Metabolites in the spatially limited laminar boundary layer mediate processes, such as antifouling, allelopathy and chemical defense against herbivores. However, very few methods are available for the investigation of such surface metabolites. An approach is described in which surfaces are extracted by means of C18 solid phase material. By powdering wet algal surfaces with this material, organic compounds are adsorbed and can be easily recovered for subsequent liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) investigations. The method is robust, picks up metabolites of a broad polarity range and is easy to handle. It is more universal compared to established solvent dipping protocols and it does not cause damage to the test organisms. A protocol is introduced for the macroalgae Fucus vesiculosus, Caulerpa taxifolia and Gracilaria vermiculophylla, but it can be easily transferred to other aquatic organisms.

Description: One new diterpene, trichocitrin (1), and four known secondary metabolites, nafuredin (2), 5-hydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-7-methoxychromone (3), 24-methylenecycloartanol (4) and citrostadienol (5), were isolated from the culture of marine brown alga-endophytic Trichoderma citrinoviride cf-27. Trichocitrin (1) represents the first Trichoderma-derived and furan-bearing fusicoccane diterpene, and its structure and relative configuration were identified by analysis of 1D/2D NMR and mass spectroscopic data. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited 8.0- and 9.5-mm inhibition zones, respectively, against Escherichia coli at 20 μg/disc and 54.1 and 36.7% growth inhibition, respectively, of Prorocentrum donghaiense at 80 μg/mL.

Description: Antarctica is a still unexplored area in many respects, among which biological diversity and, even more so, chemical diversity are important challenges. Over recent years, our research group has been studying marine benthic ecosystems in different Antarctic areas. These studies yielded several interesting discoveries, including species new to science, as well as new natural products never seen before. Overall, we have been trying to unravel the complex network of interactions that exist between marine benthic organisms in these cold and hardly accessible ecosystems. We present here an overview of our recent results regarding the biological and the chemical diversity of these organisms. In fact, these ecosystems are as complex as many other marine environments on the planet, and indeed, many questions remain yet to be answered.

Description: In this study, Lade's double-surface work-hardening constitutive model was adopted which uses the elasto-plasticity model as a basic conceptual framework. The model can analyze work hardening and work softening of nonlinear stress-strain behavior, and is regarded as superior to other elasto-plasticity constitutive models in terms of estimation. In the double-surface work-hardening constitutive model, 14 soil parameters are needed to estimate soil behaviors. To determine them, laboratory tests—isotropical consolidation test and conventional compression test—were conducted. Determining of soil parameters is highly complicated and time-consuming; randomness cannot be ruled out in determining parameters that are sensitive to stress-strain estimation, and error may occur. For this reason, a linear and nonlinear regression analysis was used to determine soil parameters. In estimation of undrained behavior, the estimated stress-strain behavior based on the two constitutive models largely overlapped with the test results. However, in estimating drained behavior, the outcome of the two models and the test results were mostly the same, but between the two models, the double-surface work-hardening constitutive model had a sharper slope in initial stress state, and a smaller maximum deviatoric stress.

Description: The aim of this study was to test the effects of temperature on phenolic content of the brown seaweed Cystoseira amentacea. Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites involved in different protection mechanisms as, for example, against grazers, epiphytes and UV radiation. Seasonal variations of phenolic content in C. amentacea were analysed and laboratory experiments, in which C. amentacea was exposed to an increase of temperature (25°C and 30°C), were performed. Total phenolic content (TPC) was determined colorimetrically with the Folin–Ciocalteu reagent. In C. amentacea, a seasonal pattern in TPC was observed, with a maximum value in winter-spring. C. amentacea responded significantly to the temperature treatments with a consistent decrease in TPC after 48 h.

Description: Fluorescent-amplified fragment length polymorphism (FAFLP) fingerprinting assay was used to compare the genetic diversity within and between tadpole shrimps (Notostraca) populations of Lepidurus apus (n=7) and Triops cancriformis (n=2) from rain pools in Israel. Each ephemeral water body has revealed a unique fingerprint pattern with an entailed genetic drift between nearby ponds. High similarity of genotypic diversity within each geographic area led to three clusters of water bodies, north, south and center of Israel. FAFLP assays on several newly hatched individuals of T. cancriformis revealed high identity amongst kin, as compared to L. apus where newly hatched from the same maternal source showed high diversity. Results indicate that T. cancriformis populations from Israel are probably parthenogenetic as indicated by clonal structures. The higher genetic variability in the L. apus populations and in laboratory-hatched specimens indicates the existence of sexual reproduction.

Description: Gammarids from the Caspian complex have invaded many European waters along the rivers and canals of the inland migration corridors. The species examined in this work are well known as invaders of European freshwater environments, so the colonization of brackish habitats is a phenomenon inviting more detailed investigation. The aim of this study was to determine the condition of the Ponto-Caspian gammarids Pontogammarus robustoides (G.O. Sars, 1894), Obesogammarus crassus (G.O. Sars, 1894), Dikerogammarus haemobaphes (Eichwald, 1841) and Dikerogammarus villosus (Sowinsky, 1894) as expressed by the relationship between total length and the wet weight of specimens in the brackish waters of the Gulf of Gdansk (Poland). The relationships can be regarded as responses to a newly expanded habitat after they overcome the salinity barrier of the southern Baltic Sea coastal waters. All these Ponto-Caspian gammarids demonstrated an increase in weight with increasing total length: P. robustoides (b = 2.852), O. crassus (b = 3.3477), D. haemobaphes (b = 3.7855) and D. villosus (b = 2.6917). The results are an indicator of the relatively good condition of the organisms and indicate that the brackish environment of the Gulf of Gdansk affords them excellent possibilities for growth.

Description: For the environmental monitoring of coral, mucus appears to be an appropriate biological matrix due to its array of functions in coral biology and the non-intrusive manner in which it can be collected. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility of using mucus of the stony coral Lophelia pertusa (L. pertusa) as an analytical matrix for discovery of biomarkers used for environmental monitoring. More specifically, to assess whether a mass-spectrometry-based proteomic approach can be applied to characterize the protein composition of coral mucus and changes related to petroleum discharges at the seafloor. Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) screening analyses of orange and white L. pertusa showed that the mucosal protein composition varies significantly with color phenotype, a pattern not reported prior to this study. Hence, to reduce variability from phenotype difference, L. pertusa white individuals only were selected to characterize in more detail the basal protein composition in mucus using liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In total, 297 proteins were identified in L. pertusa mucus of unexposed coral individuals. Individuals exposed to drill cuttings in the range 2 to 12 mg/L showed modifications in coral mucus protein composition compared to unexposed corals. Although the results were somewhat inconsistent between individuals and require further validation in both the lab and the field, this study demonstrated preliminary encouraging results for discovery of protein markers in coral mucus that might provide more comprehensive insight into potential consequences attributed to anthropogenic stressors and may be used in future monitoring of coral health.

Description: Results from two recent field trials, onshore in the Alaska permafrost and in the Nankai Trough offshore Japan, suggest that natural gas could be produced from marine gas hydrate reservoirs at compatible yields and rates. However, both field trials were accompanied by different technical issues, the most striking problems resulting from un-predicted geomechanical behaviour, sediment destabilization and catastrophic sand production. So far, there is a lack of experimental data which could help to understand relevant mechanisms and triggers for potential soil failure in gas hydrate production, to guide model development for simulation of soil behaviour in large-scale production, and to identify processes which drive or, further, mitigate sand production. We use high-pressure flow-through systems in combination with different online and in situ monitoring tools (e.g. Raman microscopy, MRI) to simulate relevant gas hydrate production scenarios. Key components for soil mechanical studies are triaxial systems with ERT (Electric resistivity tomography) and high-resolution localstrain analysis. Sand production control and management is studied in a novel hollow-cylinder-type triaxial setup with a miniaturized borehole which allows fluid and particle transport at different fluid injection and flow conditions. We further apply a novel large-scale high-pressure flow-through triaxial test system equipped with μ-CT to evaluate soil failure modes and triggers relevant to gas hydrate production and slope stability. The presentation will emphasize an in-depth evaluation of our experimental approach, and it is our concern to discuss important issues of translating laboratory results to gas hydrate reservoirs in nature. We will present results from high-pressure flow-through experiments which are designed to systematically compare soil mechanical behaviour of gas hydrate-bearing sediments in relevant production scenarios focusing on depressurization and CO2 injection. Experimental datasets are analyzed based on numerical models which are able to simulate coupled process dynamics during gas hydrate formation and gas production.