Death's cold grip or helping hand: the effects of mortality salience on goal choice

Humans live with the knowledge that one day they will die. This understanding, at various levels of conscious awareness, induces a variety of reactive cognitive processes which may lead individuals to choose more meaningful and personally valued goals to pursue. The purpose of this thesis research was to discover whether a mortality salience (MS) induction leads participants to strive for goals that are more self-concordant across three experimental conditions (MS, MS with delay, or control group). In addition, the contents of those goals were analyzed so that both the "what" (goal contents) and the "why" (motivations) of personal goals could be compared across conditions. It was found that the extent to which participants chose self-concordant goals differed by gender such that females chose self-concordant goals regardless of condition while males in the mortality salience with delay condition selected more self-concordant goals to pursue than the other two conditions. Controlling for these gender differences yielded a significant effect of condition such that those in the mortality salience with delay group scored higher on the self-concordance of their goals than both of the other groups. In terms of goal contents, marginally significant differences were found between conditions such that participants in the mortality salience with no delay group reported goals with higher relative intrinsic content, on average than the other two conditions. Further analyses and explorations of these constructs are discussed in the context of relevant theories.Includes bibliographical references

Underwater Application of Quantitative PCR on an Ocean Mooring

The Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) is a device that allows for the underwater, autonomous application of DNA and protein probe array technologies as a means to remotely identify and quantify, in situ, marine microorganisms and substances they produce. Here, we added functionality to the ESP through the development and incorporation of a module capable of solid-phase nucleic acid extraction and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Samples collected by the instrument were homogenized in a chaotropic buffer compatible with direct detection of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and nucleic acid purification. From a single sample, both an rRNA community profile and select gene abundances were ascertained. To illustrate this functionality, we focused on bacterioplankton commonly found along the central coast of California and that are known to vary in accordance with different oceanic conditions. DNA probe arrays targeting rRNA revealed the presence of 16S rRNA indicative of marine crenarchaea, SAR11 and marine cyanobacteria; in parallel, qPCR was used to detect 16S rRNA genes from the former two groups and the large subunit RuBisCo gene (rbcL) from Synecchococcus. The PCR-enabled ESP was deployed on a coastal mooring in Monterey Bay for 28 days during the spring-summer upwelling season. The distributions of the targeted bacterioplankon groups were as expected, with the exception of an increase in abundance of marine crenarchaea in anomalous nitrate-rich, low-salinity waters. The unexpected co-occurrence demonstrated the utility of the ESP in detecting novel events relative to previously described distributions of particular bacterioplankton groups. The ESP can easily be configured to detect and enumerate genes and gene products from a wide range of organisms. This study demonstrated for the first time that gene abundances could be assessed autonomously, underwater in near real-time and referenced against prevailing chemical, physical and bulk biological conditions

Discovery of an extensive deep-sea fossil serpulid reef associated with a cold seep, Santa Monica Basin, California

Multibeam bathymetric mapping of the Santa Monica Basin in the eastern Pacific has revealed the existence of a number of elevated bathymetric features, or mounds, harboring cold seep communities. During 2013-2014, mounds at ~600 m water depth were observed for the first time and sampled by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s ROV Doc Ricketts. Active cold seeps were found, but surprisingly one of these mounds was characterized by massive deposits composed of fossil serpulid worm tubes (Annelida: Serpulidae) exhibiting various states of mineralization by authigenic carbonate. No living serpulids with equivalent tube morphologies were found at the site; hence the mound was termed ‘Fossil Hill’. In the present study, the identity of the fossil serpulids and associated fossil community, the ages of fossils and authigenic carbonates, the formation of the fossil serpulid aggregation, and the geological structure of the mound are explored. Results indicate that the tubes were most likely made by a deep-sea serpulid lineage, with radiocarbon dating suggesting that they have a very recent origin during the Late Pleistocene, specifically to the Last Glacial Maximum ~20,000 years ago. Additional U-Th analyses of authigenic carbonates mostly corroborate the radiocarbon dates, and also indicate that seepage was occurring while the tubes were being formed. We also document similar, older deposits along the approximate trajectory of the San Pedro Basin Fault. We suggest that the serpulid tube facies formed in situ, and that the vast aggregation of these tubes at Fossil Hill is likely due to a combination of optimal physical environmental conditions and chemosynthetic production, which may have been particularly intense as a result of sea-level lowstand during the Last Glacial Maximum

Ecology and biogeography of megafauna and macrofauna at the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vents on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge

0000-0002-9489-074X© The Author(s) 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The attached file is the published version of the article

Creative Stage Model of Goal Reengagement

We propose and test a creative breakthrough model of goal reengagement (CBMGR), which combines stage models of the creative process and of goal-functioning to explain where new ideas for action come from. The CBMGR posits that asking oneself questions (during a preparation phase) can prompt non-conscious thought (during an incubation phase), which can surface as new ideas for living (during an illumination or “aha” phase), which can lead to enhanced thriving in life (elaboration phase)

Seasonal Synechococcus and Thaumarchaeal population dynamics examined with high resolution with remote in situ instrumentation

Monterey Bay, CA is an Eastern boundary upwelling system that is nitrogen limited much of the year. In order to resolve population dynamics of microorganisms important for nutrient cycling in this region, we deployed the Environmental Sample Processor with quantitative PCR assays targeting both ribosomal RNA genes and functional genes for subclades of cyanobacteria (Synechococcus) and ammonia-oxidizing Archaea (Thaumarchaeota) populations. Results showed a strong correlation between Thaumarchaea abundances and nitrate during the spring upwelling but not the fall sampling period. In relatively stratified fall waters, the Thaumarchaeota community reached higher numbers than in the spring, and an unexpected positive correlation with chlorophyll concentration was observed. Further, we detected drops in Synechococcus abundance that occurred on short (that is, daily) time scales. Upwelling intensity and blooms of eukaryotic phytoplankton strongly influenced Synechococcus distributions in the spring and fall, revealing what appear to be the environmental limitations of Synechococcus populations in this region. Each of these findings has implications for Monterey Bay biogeochemistry. High-resolution sampling provides a better-resolved framework within which to observe changes in the plankton community. We conclude that controls on these ecosystems change on smaller scales than are routinely assessed, and that more predictable trends will be uncovered if they are evaluated within seasonal (monthly), rather than on annual or interannual scales