Primary productivity dynamics in the summer Arctic Ocean confirms broad regulation of the electron requirement for carbon fixation by light-phytoplankton community interaction

© 2019 Zhu, Suggett, Liu, He, Lin, Le, Ishizaka, Goes and Hao. Predicting conversion of photosynthetic electron transport to inorganic carbon uptake rates (the so-called electron requirement for carbon fixation, KC) is central to the broad scale deployment of Fast Repetition Rate fluorometry (FRRf) for primary productivity studies. However, reconciling variability of KC over space and time to produce robust algorithms remains challenging, given the large number of factors that influence KC. We have previously shown that light appears to be a proximal driver of Kc in several ocean regions and we therefore examined whether and how light similarly regulated KC variability in the Arctic Ocean, during a summer cruise in 2016. Sampling transited ice-free and ice-covered waters, with temperature, salinity and Chl-a concentrations all higher for the ice-free than ice covered surface waters. Micro- and pico-phytoplankton generally dominated the ice-free and ice-covered waters, respectively. Values of KC, determined from parallel measures of daily integrated electron transport rates and 14C-uptake, were overall lower for the ice-covered vs. ice-free stations. As in our previous studies, KC was strongly linearly correlated to daily PAR (r = 0.68, n = 46, p < 0.001) and this relationship could be further improved (r = 0.84, n = 46, p < 0.001) by separating samples into ice-free (micro-phytoplankton dominated) vs. ice-covered (Nano- and Pico-phytoplankton dominated water. We subsequently contrasted the PAR-KC relationship form the Arctic waters with the previous relationships from the Ariake Bay and East China Sea and revealed that these various PAR-KC relationships can be systematically explained across regions by phytoplankton community size structures. Specifically, the value of the linear slope describing PAR-KC decreases as water bodies have an increasing fraction of larger phytoplankton. We propose that this synoptic trend reflects how phytoplankton community structure integrates past and immediate environmental histories and hence may be a better broad-scale predictor of KC than specific environmental factors such as temperature and nutrients. We provide a novel algorithm that may enable broad-scale retrieval of CO2 uptake from FRRf with knowledge of light and phytoplankton community size information

Nanoplanktonic diatom rapidly alters sinking velocity via regulating lipid content and composition in response to changing nutrient concentrations

Diatom sinking plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, accounting for approximately 40% of marine particulate organic carbon export. While oceanic models typically represent diatoms as microphytoplankton (&gt; 20 μm), it is important to recognize that many diatoms fall into the categories of nanophytoplankton (2-20 μm) and picophytoplankton (&lt; 2 μm). These smaller diatoms have also been found to significantly contribute to carbon export. However, our understanding of their sinking behavior and buoyancy regulation mechanisms remains limited. In this study, we investigate the sinking behavior of a nanoplanktonic diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum (P. tricornutum), which exhibits rapid changes in sinking behavior in response to varying nutrient concentrations. Our results demonstrate that a higher sinking rate is observed under phosphate limitation and depletion. Notably, in phosphate depletion, the sinking rate of P. tricornutum was 0.79 ± 0.03 m d-1, nearly three times that of the previously reported sinking rates for Skeletonema costatum, Ditylum brightwellii, and Chaetoceros gracile. Furthermore, during the first 6 h of phosphate spike, the sinking rate of P. tricornutum remained consistently high. After 12 h of phosphate spike, the sinking rate decreased to match that of the phosphate repletion phase, only to increase again over the next 12 hours due to phosphate depletion. This rapid sinking behavior contributes to carbon export and potentially allows diatoms to exploit nutrient-rich patches when encountering increased nutrient concentrations. We also observed a significant positive correlation (P&lt; 0.001) between sinking rate and lipid content (R = 0.91) during the phosphate depletion and spike experiment. It appears that P. tricornutum regulates its sinking rate by increasing intracellular lipid content, particularly digalactosyldiacylglycerol, hexosyl ceramide, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, and triglycerides. Additionally, P. tricornutum replaces phospholipids with more dense membrane sulfolipids, such as sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol under phosphate shortage. These findings shed light on the intricate relationship between nutrient availability, sinking behavior, and lipid composition in diatoms, providing insights into their adaptive strategies for carbon export and nutrient utilization

Biomarker records of D5-6 columns in the eastern Antarctic Peninsula waters: responses of planktonic communities and bio-pump structures to sea ice global warming in the past centenary

Molecular biomarkers (e.g., isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (iGDGTs) and proxies, such as di-unsaturated to tri-unsaturated highly branched isoprenoids (D/T) ratio, total organic carbon, δ13C and ice-rafted debris (IRD)) were used to reconstruct the dominant phytoplankton (diatoms, dinoflagellates and coccolithophores), phytoplankton and zooplankton productivity, biological pump structure, and archaea assemblage (Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota) from a marine sediment core (D5-6) dated with 210Pb (1922–2012). We characterized the environmental response to sea ice variations/global warming off the eastern Antarctic Peninsula. The results showed that (1) the biomarkers brassicasterol (average = 519.79 ng·g−1), dinosterol (average = 129.68 ng·g−1) and C37 alkenones (average = 40.53 ng·g−1) reconstructed phytoplankton (average = 690.00 ng·g−1) and zooplankton (cholesterol average = 669.25 ng·g−1) productivity. The relative contribution to productivity by different phytoplankton groups was diatoms > dinoflagellates > coccolithophores. This is consistent with field surveys showing that diatoms dominate the phytoplankton in waters adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula. (2) The relative abundances of different highly branched isoprenoids reflected the contributions of sea ice algae and open water phytoplankton (D/T = 1.2–30.15). Phytoplankton productivity and sea ice showed a good linear relationship with a negative correlation, indicating that more open water during periods of warming and reduced sea ice cover led to an enhanced biological pump. (3) Over the past 100 years, phytoplankton productivity and zooplankton biomass increased. This trend was particularly evident in the last 50 years, corresponding to increased global warming, and showed a negative correlation with IRD and D/T. This suggests that with decreasing sea ice coverage in a warming climate, diatom biomass greatly increased. Coccolithophore/diatom values and the ratio of C37 alkenones to total phytoplankton productivity decreased, indicating the proportion of coccolithophores in the phytoplankton community decreased. The reduction in coccolithophores changes the phytoplankton assemblage and affects the overall efficiency of the biological pump and carbon storage. (4) The results also showed that the abundance of iGDGTs and archaea phyla (Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota) showed consistent changes over the past 100 years in response to global warming. Since 1972, trends in archaea, phytoplankton and zooplankton showed variations but a consistent decline. Whether their response to the changing climate off the Antarctic Peninsula involves interactions and influence among different marine biological groups remains an open question. As a result of global warming and reductions in Antarctic sea ice, the relative effectiveness of the Antarctic biological pump can significantly affect global ocean carbon storage

Orbital Origin of Extremely Anisotropic Superconducting Gap in Nematic Phase of FeSe Superconductor

The iron-based superconductors are characterized by multiple-orbital physics where all the five Fe 3$d$ orbitals get involved. The multiple-orbital nature gives rise to various novel phenomena like orbital-selective Mott transition, nematicity and orbital fluctuation that provide a new route for realizing superconductivity. The complexity of multiple-orbital also asks to disentangle the relationship between orbital, spin and nematicity, and to identify dominant orbital ingredients that dictate superconductivity. The bulk FeSe superconductor provides an ideal platform to address these issues because of its simple crystal structure and unique coexistence of superconductivity and nematicity. However, the orbital nature of the low energy electronic excitations and its relation to the superconducting gap remain controversial. Here we report direct observation of highly anisotropic Fermi surface and extremely anisotropic superconducting gap in the nematic state of FeSe superconductor by high resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements. We find that the low energy excitations of the entire hole pocket at the Brillouin zone center are dominated by the single $d_{xz}$ orbital. The superconducting gap exhibits an anti-correlation relation with the $d_{xz}$ spectral weight near the Fermi level, i.e., the gap size minimum (maximum) corresponds to the maximum (minimum) of the $d_{xz}$ spectral weight along the Fermi surface. These observations provide new insights in understanding the orbital origin of the extremely anisotropic superconducting gap in FeSe superconductor and the relation between nematicity and superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 interventions on the incidence of hand, foot, and mouth disease in mainland China

Background: In early 2020, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were implemented in China to reduce and contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission. These NPIs might have also reduced the incidence of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). Methods: The weekly numbers of HFMD cases and meteorological factors in 31 provincial capital cities and municipalities in mainland China were obtained from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) and National Meteorological Information Center of China from 2016 to 2020. The NPI data were collected from local CDCs. The incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated for the entire year of 2020, and for January-July 2020 and August-December 2020. The expected case numbers were estimated using seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models. The relationships between kindergarten closures and incidence of HFMD were quantified using a generalized additive model. The estimated associations from all cities were pooled using a multivariate meta-regression model. Findings: Stringent NPIs were widely implemented for COVID-19 control from January to July 2020, and the IRRs for HFMD were less than 1 in all 31 cities, and less than 0.1 for 23 cities. Overall, the proportion of HFMD cases reduced by 52.9% (95% CI: 49.3-55.5%) after the implementation of kindergarten closures in 2020, and this effect was generally consistent across subgroups. Interpretation: The decrease in HFMD incidence was strongly associated with the NPIs for COVID-19. HFMD epidemic peaks were either absent or delayed, and the final epidemic size was reduced. Kindergarten closure is an intervention to prevent HFMD outbreaks. Funding: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973102 & 81773487), Public Health Talents Training Program of Shanghai Municipality (GWV-10.2-XD21), the Shanghai New Three-year Action Plan for Public Health (GWV-10.1-XK16), the Major Project of Scientific and Technical Winter Olympics from National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFF0306000), 13th Five-Year National Science and Technology Major Project for Infectious Diseases (2018ZX10725-509) and Key projects of the PLA logistics Scientific research Program (BHJ17J013)

Changing epidemiology of hand, foot, and mouth disease in China, 2013−2019: a population-based study

Background: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is an important public health problem. A monovalent EV-A71 vaccine was launched in China in 2016. Previous studies showed that inactivated monovalent EV-A71 vaccines were highly efficient against HFMD associated with EV-A71 but not against HFMD with other etiologies, leading to a hypothesis that the introduction of EV-A71 vaccines might change the pathogen spectrum and epidemiological trend of HFMD. In this study, we described for the first time the changing epidemiological characteristics of HFMD after the launch of the EV-A71 vaccine. Methods: We extracted individual-based epidemiological data on HFMD cases reported to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention between January 2013 and December 2019. We described the changing epidemiological characteristics of HFMD before and after vaccine launch according to the distribution of diseases characteristics (demographic, temporal, and geographical) and evaluated the potential changes in risk factors of severe patients. All analyses were stratified by the phase before and after vaccine launch, and by enterovirus serotype. Findings: During 2013−2019, 15,316,710 probable cases of HFMD were reported. Of these, 787,197 (5·1%) were laboratory confirmed and 76,982 (0·5%) were severe. After the launch of the EV-A71 vaccine, the median age of HFMD patients infected with EV-A71 increased from 2·24 years (IQR:1·43, 3·56) to 2·81 years (IQR:1·58, 4·01). The proportion of patients less than 3 years of age decreased while the proportion of patients 3−5 years of age increased. There was a large decrease (60·7%) in the proportion of severe cases as well as a decline (28·3%) in HFMD patients infected with EV-A71. After the launch of the EV-A71 vaccine, the severe illness rate and mortality rate of HFMD patients in all age groups has decreased sharply, 62·20% and 83·78% respectively. The timing of the HFMD epidemic peak was delayed (1-2 months). After the launch of EV-A71 vaccine, the risk of becoming a severe case for EV-A71 serotype was decreased, whereas that risk was instead increased for CV-A16 (from 0·17 (95% CI:0·16, 0·18) to 0·23 (95% CI:0·21, 0·25)) and other enterovirus compared to EV-A71 (from 0·38 (95% CI:0·37, 0·39) to 0·58 (95% CI:0·56, 0·61)). The longer the time from onset to diagnosis, the higher was the risk of being a severe case, but the effect size was decreased. Interpretation: The introduction of the EV-A71 vaccine has effectively reduced the proportion of severe HFMD cases and mortality, but changes to the dominant serotypes should be closely monitored. Development of multivalent vaccines to avoid an increased case burden due to other enteroviruses is greatly needed. Funding: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973102, 81773487), Public Health Talents Training Program of Shanghai Municipality (GWV-10.2-XD21), the 5th Three-year Action Program of Shanghai Municipality for Strengthening the Construction of Public Health System (GWV-10.1-XK05), the Major Project of Scientific and Technical Winter Olympics from National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFF0306000), 13th Five-Year National Science and Technology Major Project for Infectious Diseases (2018ZX10725-509) and Key projects of the PLA logistics Scientific research Program (BHJ17J013)