Seabird affinities for Gulf Stream frontal eddies: Responses of mobile marine consumers to episodic upwelling

This study combined ship-board counts of seabirds with satellite hydrography to determine whether Gulf Stream frontal eddies influenced spatial and seasonal patterns of apex consumers on the southeastern United States continental shelf and slope. Stratified sampling indicated seabird densities at eddies were 7–15 × higher than in resident shelf and Gulf Stream water, ranging from 2.31–10.91 birds km−2 compared to 0.15–1.51 birds km−2 in noneddy regions. At any given time eddies covered 3–17% of the outer shelf and upper slope, yet 28–59% of total seabird numbers in this domain aggregated within areas influenced by eddies.Gulf stream eddies consist of an upwelled, nutrient- and phytoplankton-rich cold-core and an oligotrophic warm filament entrained from the Gulf Stream. Seabird densities within eddy cold-cores were 4–21 × higher, ranging from 2.91–16.35 birds km−2 compared to 0.16–3.70 birds km−2 in the warm filament. Seabird abundances within eddy cold-cores were higher (a) near the frontal boundaries between water masses, and (b) within older upwelled (upstream) cold-core water as opposed to recently upwelled (downstream) cold-core water.Eddy size accounted for 99%, 94%, and 98%, respectively, of the between-eddy variation in seabird abundance, biomass, and minimum daily food requirements per unit area. Between-eddy differences in seabird density, biomass, and food requirements showed no relationship to eddy age.The frequency and the extent of satellite-detected, near-surface upwelling originating from eddies on the outer shelf and upper slope decreased during late summer and early fall. Total seabird density (pooled species\u27 abundances) showed no relationship to this seasonality. However, taxa that are particularly dependent on upwelling (Family Hydrobatidae: Oceanites and Oceanodroma) exhibited declines in abundance that correlated with seasonal decreases in near-surface upwelling. Seabird patchiness within the outer shelf and upper slope was greatest during months of frequent eddy upwelling, indicating that small-scale seabird distribution within domains may be affected by upwelling seasonality.Eddies influence seabird distribution and abundance at space scales of 10–50 and 50–150 km, and at time scales of 2–14 and 30–180 days. Seabird responses to environmental heterogeneity caused by eddies give strong circumstantial evidence for energy transfer beyond primary producers at these episodic upwelling features

Wellman Elementary School Wellman, Iowa I-WALK Report Spring 2012

In the past three decades, the number of obese and overweight individuals in Iowa and across the nation has skyrocketed. With obesity comes the greater risk of health complications and life expectancy reduction. As a result, the current generation of youth face a new and growing threat to their overall quality of life. In Iowa alone, 37.1% of 3rd grade students are identified as either overweight or obese.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iwalk_reports/1032/thumbnail.jp

Dallas Center Elementary School Dallas Center, Iowa I-WALK Report Spring 2012

In the past three decades, the number of obese and overweight individuals in Iowa and across the nation has skyrocketed. With obesity comes the greater risk of health complications and life expectancy reduction. As a result, the current generation of youth face a new and growing threat to their overall quality of life. In Iowa alone, 37.1% of 3rd grade students are identified as either overweight or obese.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iwalk_reports/1030/thumbnail.jp

Symmetrically H-Bridged Dimer of 2-Carboxylatobenzenediazonium. The 1:1 Complex between 2-Carboxybenzenediazonium Chloride and Benzenediazonium-2-carboxylate

The two zwitterions in the H-bridged dimer of 2-carboxylatobenzenediazonim (1) are linked by a crystallographically symmetric O⋯Hctdot;O hydrogen bond with an O⋯O distance of 2.436 (3) Å. Comparison of the (1) with the other benzenediazonium salts shows that the phenyl ring distortions in (1) are determined primarily by the diazonium substituent with only modest additional effects by the carboxylato group. Intramolecular neighboring goup interactions between the N2 group and the orthoCOO(H) group are indicated and are discussed. The terminal N atom of the diazonium group is bent away from the neighboring carboxylato group. The N2 and the carboxylato group are on the opposite sides of the best plane of the aromatic ring. Importantly, the carboxylato group is not fully conjugated with the aromatic ring but instead is rotated 6.5 (2)° around the C-CO2 axis in a fashion that suggest minimization of intramolecular repulsion between Nα and the proximate O atom and optimization of the inter-molecular hydrogen bonding

Lincoln Upper Elementary School Washington, Iowa I-WALK Report Spring 2012

In the past three decades, the number of obese and overweight individuals in Iowa and across the nation has skyrocketed. With obesity comes the greater risk of health complications and life expectancy reduction. As a result, the current generation of youth face a new and growing threat to their overall quality of life. In Iowa alone, 37.1% of 3rd grade students are identified as either overweight or obese.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iwalk_reports/1031/thumbnail.jp

Lincoln Elementary School Cedar Falls, Iowa I-WALK Report Spring 2012

In the past three decades, the number of obese and overweight individuals in Iowa and across the nation has skyrocketed. With obesity comes the greater risk of health complications and life expectancy reduction. As a result, the current generation of youth face a new and growing threat to their overall quality of life. In Iowa alone, 37.1% of 3rd grade students are identified as either overweight or obese.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iwalk_reports/1029/thumbnail.jp

Hurricane impacts on the Caribbean coastal/marine environment : using scientific assessment to plan for the future

The passage of Hurricane Hugo through the eastern Caribbean provided a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary study of (1) the effects of severe storms on tropical coastal and marine ecosystems, and (2) the physical and biological responses of those ecosystems to intense storm-induced changes. In addition to its direct value as basic science, this study can be used to facilitate development of improved coastal and marine resource management capabilities.Funding was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Coastal Research Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the NOAA National Sea Grant College Program Offce, Department of Commerce, under Grant No. NA86-AA-D-90

Anomalously High Recruitment of the 2010 Gulf Menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) Year Class: Evidence of Indirect Effects from the Deepwater Horizon Blowout in the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) exhibited unprecedented juvenile recruitment in 2010 during the year of the Deepwater Horizon well blowout, exceeding the prior 39-year mean by more than four standard deviations near the Mississippi River. Abundance of that cohort remained exceptionally high for two subsequent years as recruits moved into older age classes. Such changes in this dominant forage fish population can be most parsimoniously explained as consequences of release from predation. Contact with crude oil induced high mortality of piscivorous seabirds, bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), waders, and other fish-eating marsh birds, all of which are substantial consumers of Gulf menhaden. Diversions of fresh water from the Mississippi River to protect coastal marshes from oiling depressed salinities, impairing access to juvenile Gulf menhaden by aquatic predators that avoid low-salinity estuarine waters. These releases from predation led to an increase of Gulf menhaden biomass in 2011 to 2.4 million t, or more than twice the average biomass of 1.1 million t for the decade prior to 2010. Biomass increases of this magnitude in a major forage fish species suggest additional trophically linked effects at the population-, trophic-level and ecosystem scales, reflecting an heretofore little appreciated indirect effect that may be associated with major oil spills in highly productive marine waters

Insights into the mode of action of a putative zinc transporter CzrB in thermus thermophilus

peer-reviewedThis paper was obtained through PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research) http://www.peerproject.euThe crystal structures of the cytoplasmic domain of the putative zinc transporter CzrB in the apoand zinc-bound forms reported herein are consistent with the protein functioning in vivo as a homodimer. NMR, X-ray scattering and size exclusion chromatography provide support for dimer formation. Full-length variants of CzrB in the apo and zinc-loaded states were generated by homology modelling with the Zn2+ / H+ antiporter YiiP. The model suggests a way in which zinc binding to the cytoplasmic fragment creates a docking site to which a metallochaperone can bind for delivery and transport of its zinc cargo. Since the cytoplasmic domain may exist in the cell as an independent, soluble protein a proposal is advanced that it functions as a metallochaperone and that it regulates the zinc-transporting activity of the full-length protein. The latter requires that zinc binding becomes uncoupled from the creation of a metallochaperone-docking site on CzrB