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: New high-precision minor element analysis of the most magnesian olivine cores (Fo85–88) in fifteen high-MgO (Mg#66–74) alkali basalts or trachybasalts from the Quaternary backarc volcanic province, Payenia, of the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone in Argentina displays a clear north-to-south decrease in Mn/Feol. This is interpreted as the transition from mainly peridotite-derived melts in the north to mainly pyroxenite-derived melts in the south. The peridotite–pyroxenite source variation correlates with a transition of rock compositions from arc-type to OIB-type trace element signatures, where samples from the central part of the province are intermediate. The southernmost rocks have, e.g., relatively low La/Nb, Th/Nb and Th/La ratios as well as high Nb/U, Ce/Pb, Ba/Th and Eu/Eu* = 1.08. The northern samples are characterized by the opposite and have Eu/Eu* down to 0.86. Several incompatible trace element ratios in the rocks correlate with Mn/Feol and also reflect mixing of two geochemically distinct mantle sources. The peridotite melt end-member carries an arc signature that cannot solely be explained by fluid enrichment since these melts have relatively low Eu/Eu*, Ba/Th and high Th/La ratios, which suggest a component of upper continental crust (UCC) in the metasomatizing agent of the northern mantle. However, the addition to the mantle source of crustal materials or varying oxidation state cannot explain the variation in Mn and Mn/Fe of the melts and olivines along Payenia. Instead, the correlation between Mn/Feol and whole-rock (wr) trace element compositions is evidence of two-component mixing of melts derived from peridotite mantle source enriched by slab fluids and UCC melts and a pyroxenite mantle source with an EM1-type trace element signature. Very low Ca/Fe ratios (~1.1) in the olivines of the peridotite melt component and lower calculated partition coefficients for Ca in olivine for these samples are suggested to be caused by higher H2O contents in the magmas derived from subduction zone enriched mantle. Well-correlated Mn/Fe ratios in the wr and primitive olivines demonstrate that the Mn/Fewr of these basalts that only fractionated olivine and chromite reflects the Mn/Fe of the primitive melts and can be used as a proxy for the amount of pyroxenite melt in the magmas. Using Mn/Fewr for a large dataset of primitive Payenia rocks, we show that decreasing Mn/Fewr is correlated with decreasing Mn and increasing Zn/Mn as expected for pyroxenite melts.

Description: Different studies on the position of the non-indigenous species Neogobius melanostomus within the coastal food web of the Pomeranian Bay (western Baltic) were performed, resulting in a quantitative and qualitative species list of prey organisms found in the stomachs of the invader and an estimation concerning the importance of round goby as prey for different resident predators. It seems that the colonization process is not fully completed yet, but the results reveal that the species is already established in the food web 16 years after the first observation within the study area. The results show that N. melanostomus feed upon a wide range of different resident organisms. While a direct predation effect on native fish species appears rather unlikely, indirect effects such as competition cannot yet be excluded. In addition, our results reveal an ontogenetic diet shift and that the round goby itself already serves as an important prey for piscivorous fish and seabirds. Finally, we formulate different hypotheses based on our results which will require further research.

Description: International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 352 recovered a high-fidelity record of volcanism related to subduction initiation in the Bonin fore-arc. Two sites (U1440 and U1441) located in deep water nearer to the trench recovered basalts and related rocks; two sites (U1439 and U1442) located in shallower water further from the trench recovered boninites and related rocks. Drilling in both areas ended in dolerites inferred to be sheeted intrusive rocks. The basalts apparently erupted immediately after subduction initiation and have compositions similar to those of the most depleted basalts generated by rapid sea-floor spreading at mid-ocean ridges, with little or no slab input. Subsequent melting to generate boninites involved more depleted mantle and hotter and deeper subducted components as subduction progressed and volcanism migrated away from the trench. This volcanic sequence is akin to that recorded by many ophiolites, supporting a direct link between subduction initiation, fore-arc spreading, and ophiolite genesis.

Description: Using outdoor mesocosms we investigated the relative importance of the direct and indirect (here: altered grazing) effects of seawater warming on benthic microalgae in a Baltic Sea Fucus vesiculosus (Phaeophyceae) system during the spring season. Seawater warming had a positive main effect on microalgal total biomass accrual and growth rate and on total mesograzer abundance and biomass. Moreover, under the existing resource-replete conditions in spring the direct positive effect of warming on microalgae was stronger than its indirect negative effect through enhanced grazing. The outcome of this study contrasts previous observations from the summer and winter season, where indirect effects of warming mediated by altered grazing were identified as an important driver of primary biomass in the Fucus system. In this context, the results from the spring season add mechanistic information to the overall understanding of the seasonal variability of climate change effects. They suggest that the relative importance of the underlying direct and indirect effective pathways of warming and the overall effect on the balance between production and consumption are influenced by the trophic state of the system, which in temperate regions is related to season.

Description: Food samples from 27 Buller’s mollymawks Diomedea bulleri from the New Zealand region showed that cephalopods were, by frequency of occurrence and by mass, their preferred food. Fish, crustaceans, and tunicates, in decreasing order of importance, also were taken. Seventeen species of Cephalopoda were identified by their beaks, with 78.5% of individuals belonging to the Ommastrephidae (77% Nototodarus spp.) and 10% to the Histioteuthidae. The diet was compared with that of four other small species of Diomedea, and found to be similar to that of D. chrysostoma, D. irrorata, and D. cauta, but different from that of D. melanophris, whose preferred food is euphausiids. Squid-fishing operations around New Zealand may come into competition with Buller’s mollymawk.

Description: The squid Nototodarus gouldi (McCoy, 1888) was caught by bottom trawl in Port Phillip Bay, Australia in February 1985. The squid accumulates in its digestive gland high levels of trace metals, with up to 100 μg Cd g-1 dry tissue, 1 200 μg g-1 copper and 1 500 μg g-1 zinc and up to 24 Bq g-1 of the naturally occurring radionuclide polonium-210. The molecular binding of these elements in six squid was investigated using column chromatography. Two poorly resolved copper peaks were associated with proteins of average molecular weights of 11 500 and 18 000. The two squid containing the highest levels of cadmium in their digestive glands (44 and 88 μg g-1) had cadmium associated with a peak of molecular weight intermediate between the copper-binding peaks, but this peak was absent from squid containing lower levels of cadmium. Zinc was associated with ligands of less than 1 500 molecular weight. The 210Po eluted with proteins of greater than 70 000 molecular weight, and there was no evidence of binding to low molecular weight proteins. Different mechanisms appear to be involved in the binding and control of the four elements.

Description: The production of shiga toxin (Stx) is a critical step in the establishment and progress of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) infections. The possible release of Stx from dead and dying bacteria, and the risk of resistance development have restricted the usage of antibiotics against EHEC. The chlorinated quaternary ammonium compound, strepthonium A, was isolated from the culture of Streptomyces sp. SBT345 that was cultivated from the Mediterranean sponge Agelas oroides. The structure was elucidated and confirmed by spectroscopic analyses including 1D and 2D NMR, ESI-HRMS, as well as ESI-HRMS2. Strepthonium A follows Lipinski's rule of five with respect to its molecular weight, CLogP values and the number of hydrogen acceptors and donors. Verotoxin ELISA assay demonstrated that Strepthonium A reduced the Stx production in EHEC strain EDL933 at 80 μM concentration without growth inhibition. This study demonstrates the potential of strepthonium A in restraining the production of Stx in EHEC infections.

Description: Land-use dynamic is a major challenge for town and country planners especially in developing countries such as Iran. Iran has been under rapid urban expansion and population growth for past three decades which led to lack of resources, environmental deterioration and haphazard landscape development. In this paper, an attempt has been made to map the urbanization dynamics of Tehran in 40 years based on remote sensing imagery and by means of artificial neural networks. The presented scheme could be taken into consideration when planning initiatives aimed at surveying, monitoring, managing and sustainable development of the territory. Moreover, it can serve the experts in the fields of geography, urban studies and planning as a background for number of geographical analyses.