Additional records of metazoan parasites from Caribbean marine mammals, including genetically identified anisakid nematodes

Studies of marine mammal parasites in the Caribbean are scarce. An assessment for marine mammal endo- and ectoparasites from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but extending to other areas of the Caribbean, was conducted between 1989 and 1994. The present study complements the latter and enhances identification of anisakid nematodes using molecular markers. Parasites were collected from 59 carcasses of stranded cetaceans and manatees from 1994 to 2006, including Globicephala macrorhynchus, Kogia breviceps, Kogia sima, Lagenodelphis hosei, Mesoplodon densirostris, Peponocephala electra, Stenella longirostris, Steno bredanensis, Trichechus manatus. Tursiops truncatus, and Ziphius cavirostris. Sixteen species of endoparasitic helminthes were morphologically identified, including two species of acanthocephalans (Bolbosoma capitatum, Bolbosoma vasculosum), nine species of nematodes (Anisakis sp., Anisakis brevispiculata, Anisakis paggiae, Anisakis simplex, Anisakis typica, Anisakis ziphidarium, Crassicauda anthonyi, Heterocheilus tunicatus, Pseudoterranova ceticola), two species of cestodes (Monorygma grimaldi, Phyllobothrium delphini), and three species of trematodes (Chiorchis groschafti, Pulmonicola cochleotrema, Monoligerum blairi). The nematodes belonging to the genus Anisakis recovered in some stranded animals were genetically identified to species level based on their sequence analysis of mitochondrial DNA (629 bp of mtDNA cox 2). A total of five new host records and six new geographic records are presented.L'articolo è disponibile sul sito dell'editore http://www.springerlink.com

Atlantic Ocean CO2 uptake reduced by weakening of the meridional overturning circulation

7 páginas, 4 figuras.-- Proyecto CarbochangeUptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean declined rapidly between 1990 and 2006. This reduction in carbon dioxide uptake was related to warming at the sea surface, which—according to model simulations—coincided with a reduction in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. The extent to which the slowdown of this circulation system—which transports warm surface waters to the northern high latitudes, and cool deep waters south—contributed to the reduction in carbon uptake has remained uncertain. Here, we use data on the oceanic transport of volume, heat and carbon dioxide to track carbon dioxide uptake in the subtropical and subpolar regions of the North Atlantic Ocean over the past two decades. We separate anthropogenic carbon from natural carbon by assuming that the latter corresponds to a pre-industrial atmosphere, whereas the remaining is anthropogenic. We find that the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide—released by human activities—occurred almost exclusively in the subtropical gyre. In contrast, natural carbon dioxide uptake—which results from natural Earth system processes—dominated in the subpolar gyre. We attribute the weakening of contemporary carbon dioxide uptake in the subpolar North Atlantic to a reduction in the natural component. We show that the slowdown of the meridional overturning circulation was largely responsible for the reduction in carbon uptake, through a reduction of oceanic heat loss to the atmosphere, and for the concomitant decline in anthropogenic CO2 storage in subpolar waters.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Sciences and Innovation and co-funded by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional 2007 2012 (FEDER) through the CATARINA project (CTM2010-17141) and through EU FP7 project CARBOCHANGE `Changes in carbon uptake and emissions by oceans in a changing climate', which received funding from the European Commission's seventh Framework Programme EU under grant agreement no. 264879. The OVIDE research projectPeer reviewe