Community structures of actively growing bacteria shift along a north-south transect in the western North Pacific

Bacterial community structures and their activities in the ocean are tightly coupled with organic matter fluxes and thus control ocean biogeochemical cycles. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), halogenated nucleoside and thymidine analogue, has been recently used to monitor actively growing bacteria (AGB) in natural environments. We labelled DNA of proliferating cells in seawater bacterial assemblages with BrdU and determined community structures of the bacteria that were possible key species in mediating biochemical reactions in the ocean. Surface seawater samples were collected along a north-south transect in the North Pacific in October 2003 and subjected to BrdU magnetic beads immunocapture and PCR-DGGE (BUMP-DGGE) analysis. Change of BrdU-incorporated community structures reflected the change of water masses along a north-south transect from subarctic to subtropical gyres in the North Pacific. We identified 25 bands referred to AGB as BrdU-incorporated phylotypes, belonging to Alphaproteobacteria (5 bands), Betaproteobacteria (1 band), Gammaproteobacteria (4 bands), Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides (CFB) group bacteria (5 bands), Gram-positive bacteria (6 bands), and Cyanobacteria (4 bands). BrdU-incorporated phylotypes belonging to Vibrionales, Alteromonadales and Gram-positive bacteria appeared only at sampling stations in a subtropical gyre, while those belonging to Roseobacter-related bacteria and CFB group bacteria appeared at the stations in both subarctic and subtropical gyres. Our result revealed phylogenetic affiliation of AGB and their dynamic change along with north-south environmental gradients in open oceans. Different species of AGB utilize different amount and kinds of substrates, which can affect the change of organic matter fluxes along transect

Approximate Controllability for Linear Stochastic Differential Equations in Infinite Dimensions

The objective of the paper is to investigate the approximate controllability property of a linear stochastic control system with values in a separable real Hilbert space. In a first step we prove the existence and uniqueness for the solution of the dual linear backward stochastic differential equation. This equation has the particularity that in addition to an unbounded operator acting on the Y-component of the solution there is still another one acting on the Z-component. With the help of this dual equation we then deduce the duality between approximate controllability and observability. Finally, under the assumption that the unbounded operator acting on the state process of the forward equation is an infinitesimal generator of an exponentially stable semigroup, we show that the generalized Hautus test provides a necessary condition for the approximate controllability. The paper generalizes former results by Buckdahn, Quincampoix and Tessitore (2006) and Goreac (2007) from the finite dimensional to the infinite dimensional case.Comment: 31 pages, submitted to AM

Diversity and genomics of Antarctic marine micro-organisms

Marine bacterioplanktons are thought to play a vital role in Southern Ocean ecology and ecosystem function, as they do in other ocean systems. However, our understanding of phylogenetic diversity, genome-enabled capabilities and specific adaptations to this persistently cold environment is limited. Bacterioplankton community composition shifts significantly over the annual cycle as sea ice melts and phytoplankton bloom. Microbial diversity in sea ice is better known than that of the plankton, where culture collections do not appear to represent organisms detected with molecular surveys. Broad phylogenetic groupings of Antarctic bacterioplankton such as the marine group I Crenarchaeota, α-Proteobacteria (Roseobacter-related and SAR-11 clusters), γ-Proteobacteria (both cultivated and uncultivated groups) and Bacteriodetes-affiliated organisms in Southern Ocean waters are in common with other ocean systems. Antarctic SSU rRNA gene phylotypes are typically affiliated with other polar sequences. Some species such as Polaribacter irgensii and currently uncultivated γ-Proteobacteria (Ant4D3 and Ant10A4) may flourish in Antarctic waters, though further studies are needed to address diversity on a larger scale. Insights from initial genomics studies on both cultivated organisms and genomes accessed through shotgun cloning of environmental samples suggest that there are many unique features of these organisms that facilitate survival in high-latitude, persistently cold environments

Bacterioplankton production in freshwater Antarctic lakes

1. Bacterioplankton production was measured in the water columns of two ultra-oligotrophic, freshwater Antarctic lakes (Crooked Lake and Lake Druzhby) during an annual cycle. In both lakes bacterial production, measured by the incorporation of [H-3] thymidine, continued in winter and showed a cycle over the year. The range of production was between 0 and 479 ng C L-1 h(-1) in Crooked Lake and 0-354 ng L-1 h(-1) in Lake Druzhby. 2. Abundance and mean cell volume both varied, producing marked changes in biomass during the year, with highest biomass occurring in the winter and early spring. Biomass showed similar seasonal trends in both lakes. 3. For most of the year inorganic forms of nitrogen and phosphorus were detectable in the water columns of the lakes and were unlikely to have limited bacterial production. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was below 3000 mug L-1. Dissolved amino acids and carbohydrates contributed 5-25% of the DOC pool in Crooked Lake and 5-64% in Lake Druzhby. Dissolved carbohydrates were consistently low, suggesting that this may have been the preferred carbon substrate for bacterioplankton. 4. Aggregate associated bacteria had higher mean cell volume, abundances and production than freely suspended bacteria in Lake Druzhby, while in Crooked Lake aggregate associated bacteria consistently had higher mean cell volumes than free bacteria, but abundance and production were on occasion higher in free bacteria compared with aggregate associated communities. 5. The data indicated that production is limited by continuous low temperatures and the limited availability of suitable DOC substrate. However, the bacterioplankton functions year round, responding to factors other than temperature

Timeline Localization

International audienceThe research findings provide evidence that time-oriented data visualizations can contribute to faster information processing, bet-ter understanding and improved recall. Thus, they are used in many application domains – medicine, law enforcement, traffic and navigation control to name but a few. Simultaneously, human's time perception varies depending inter alia on culture, language, personal experience and situational factors. Although, the differences caused by the aforemen-tioned aspects were acknowledged and addressed in the Human Com-puter Interaction (HCI) field for decades their impact on time-oriented data visualizations was largely neglected. To fill this gap, we investigate the influence of time spatializations (or-ganization of time along axes) on the response time and accuracy of inferences based on time-oriented data visualizations. Moreover, we ex-amine users' preferences toward different time arrangements. Our find-ings show that user-adapted organization of time along axes can speed up the decision-making process and increase the user experience