Autochthony and isotopic niches of benthic fauna at shallow-water hydrothermal vents

The food webs of shallow-water hydrothermal vents are supported by chemosynthetic and photosynthetic autotrophs. However, the relative importance of these two basal resources for benthic consumers and its changes along the physicochemical gradient caused by vent plumes are unknown. We used stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes (i.e., delta C-13 and delta N-15) and Bayesian mixing models to quantify the dietary contribution of basal resources to the benthic fauna at the shallow-water vents around Kueishan Island, Taiwan. Our results indicated that the food chains and consumer production at the shallow-water vents were mainly driven by photoautotrophs (total algal contribution: 26-54%) and zooplankton (19-34%) rather than by chemosynthetic production (total contribution: 14-26%). Intraspecific differences in the trophic support and isotopic niche of the benthic consumers along the physicochemical gradient were also evident. For instance, sea anemone Anthopleura sp. exhibited the greatest reliance on chemosynthetic bacteria (26%) and photoautotrophs (66%) near the vent openings, but zooplankton was its main diet in regions 150-300 m (32-49%) and 300-700 m (32-78%) away from the vent mouths. The vent-induced physicochemical gradient structures not only the community but also the trophic support and isotopic niche of vent consumers

A Terbium Chlorobismuthate(III) Double Salt: Synthesis, Structure, and Photophysical Properties

We report on the structure and luminescence of a double salt trivalent rare earth ion acceptor, Tb3+, with octahedral [BiCl6]3– donor clusters. The novel TbBiCl6·14H2O (1) was prepared from aqueous BiOCl and TbCl3·6H2O. The crystal structure of compound 1 exhibits isolated [BiCl6]3– and [Tb(OH2)8]3+ clusters. Luminescence data show energy transfer from octahedral chlorobismuthate(III) clusters to rare earth metal ions. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations show distinctly different emission pathways at high and low excitation energies

1-Methyl-4H-3,1-benzoxazine-2,4(1H)dione

In its crystal structure, the title compound, C9H7NO3, forms π-stacked dimers, with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.475 (5) Å between the benzenoid and the 2,4 dicarbonyl oxazine rings. These dimers then form staircase-like linear chains through further π-stacking between the benzenoid rings [centroid–centroid distance of 3.761 (2) Å]. The methyl-H atoms are disordered due to rotation about the C—N bond and were modeled with equal occupancy

Benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithio­phene-4,8-dione

The title mol­ecule, C10H4O2S2, is situated on a crystallographic center of inversion. In the crystal, weak hydrogen bonding contributes to the packing of the mol­ecules

Protocol for single-cell isolation and genome amplification of environmental microbial eukaryotes for genomic analysis

We describe environmental microbial eukaryotes (EMEs) sample collection, single-cell isolation, lysis, and genome amplification, followed by the rDNA amplification and OTU screening for recovery of high-quality species-specific genomes for de novo assembly. These protocols are part of our pipeline that also includes bioinformatic methods. The pipeline and its application on a wide range of phyla of different sample complexity are described in our complementary paper. In addition, this protocol describes optimized lysis, genome amplification, and OTU screening steps of the pipeline. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Ciobanu et al. (2021)

Insights Gained into Marginalized Students Access Challenges During the COVID-19 Academic Response

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on Minority Affairs (CMA) endeavors to support all chemistry faculty and staff as they educate all of our students during this pandemic. While the chemistry education community and the ACS have both provided resources as most institutions transitioned to virtual platforms, this pandemic disproportionally affects our students of color, lower socio-economic and rural backgrounds, and students with disabilities. Specifically, these students must overcome hurdles of technology access, environmental disruptions, and cultural pressures in order to be successful. Therefore, CMA has formulated partnerships with both academic and industrial institutions to highlight some best practices to improve future virtual learning experiences of these oftentimes marginalized students. Specifically, the work presented here examines programs and policies at three academic institutions with very different student body demographics and surrounding learning environments (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), and Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD)) with an attempt to identify variables that enhance marginalized student success in chemistry courses. The combination of their results suggests elements such as access to technology, home responsibility, and impostor syndrome, that other learning programs should consider to increase virtual learning success. Furthermore, other stopgap measures implemented at industrial partners give insight as to how these considerations can be implemented during virtual internship programs to meet their learning objectives associated with entering their institutional pipeline

Best Practices to Diversify Chemistry Faculty

Many academic institutions have looked at various ways to make their faculty a more diverse and inclusive group of people that better reflect the demographic swath of their current and future student bodies. This is even more so important in chemistry departments, where there has long been a discussion on the “leaky pipeline” for women and underrepresented groups. The work presented here examines programs and policies at various departments aimed at increasing the diversity of their faculty applicant pool, and compares them against the reception of the general scientific community by way of applicant demographics and the use of a survey instrument designed to ascertain the advertisement language that lends to a more diverse applicant pool. The combination of these results is then used to generate a list of best practices that administrations and academic search committees can use to improve their ability to attract diverse talent

Alkali Metal Bismuth(III) Chloride Double Salts

Evaporative co-crystallization of MCl (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) with BiOCl in aqueous HCl produces double salts: MxBiyCl(x+3y)·zH2O. The sodium salt, Na2BiCl5·5H2O (monoclinic P21/c, a = 8.6983(7) Å, b = 21.7779(17) Å, c = 7.1831(6) Å, β = 103.0540(10)°, V = 1325.54(19) Å3, Z = 4) is composed of zigzag chains of μ2-Cl-cis-linked (BiCl5)n2n– chains. Edge-sharing chains of NaCln(OH2)6−n octahedra (n = 0, 2, 3) are linked through μ3-Cl to Bi. The potassium salt, K7Bi3Cl16 (trigonal R−3c, a = 12.7053(9) Å, b = 12.7053(9) Å, c = 99.794(7) Å, V = 13,951(2) Å3, Z = 18) contains (Bi2Cl10)4– edge-sharing dimers of octahedra and simple (BiCl6)3– octahedra. The K+ ions are 5- to 8-coordinate and the chlorides are 3-, 4-, or 5-coordinate. The rubidium salt, Rb3BiCl6·0.5H2O (orthorhombic Pnma, a = 12.6778(10) Å, b = 25.326(2) Å, c = 8.1498(7) Å, V = 2616.8(4) Å3, Z = 8) contains (BiCl6)3– octahedra. The Rb+ ions are 6-, 8-, and 9-coordinate, and the chlorides are 4- or 5-coordinate. Two cesium salts were formed: Cs3BiCl6 (orthorhombic Pbcm, a = 8.2463(9) Å, b = 12.9980(15) Å, c = 26.481(3) Å, V = 2838.4(6) Å3, Z = 8) being comprised of (BiCl6)3– octahedra, 8-coordinate Cs+, and 3-, 4-, and 5-coordinate Cl−. In Cs3Bi2Cl9 (orthorhombic Pnma, a = 18.4615(15) Å, b = 7.5752(6) Å, c = 13.0807(11) Å, V = 1818.87(11) Å3, Z = 4) Bi octahedra are linked by μ2-bridged Cl into edge-sharing Bi4 squares which form zigzag (Bi2Cl9)n3n– ladders. The 12-coordinate Cs+ ions bridge the ladders, and the Cl− ions are 5- and 6-coordinate. Four of the double salts are weakly photoluminescent at 78 K, each showing a series of three excitation peaks near 295, 340, and 380 nm and a broad emission near 440 nm