Latitudinal relationships among temperature and selected plant nutrients along the west coast of North and South America

The relationships among temperature and selected plant nutrients (nitrate, phosphate and silicate) were determined in marine waters for 10° latitudinal (longitudinal) bands along the west coast of North and South America. Data within each 10° band were obtained from the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center, the Canadian Oceanographic Data Center or major oceanographic institutions...

Chapter 6. Primary Production, Cycling of Nutrients, Surface Layer and Plankton.

RADIALES (IEO)Versión del edito

Cold front induced changes on the Florida panhandle shelf during October 2008

A significant step transition between seasonally stratified and destratified hydrographic conditions occurred during an October 2008 cruise to the Florida Panhandle Shelf along a cross-shelf transect that was sampled before and after a cold front passed through the area. Meteorological measurements from nearby ocean and land-based stations characterized the event. Cross-shelf continuous Acrobat profiles and discrete CTD stations characterized water column hydrographic patterns, while mid-shelf multi- corer and box corer samples characterized sediment texture and nutrients.Water samples collected from selected depths biased toward the sediment interface were analyzed for nutrient content and phytoplankton community composition. Pre-front, the cross-shelf water column exhibited vertical stratification with complex temperature and salinity patterns. A prominent near-bottom chlorophyll a maximum of ~1.5 μg L⁻¹ between the 25–35 m isobaths occurred with the 1% light level at ~18 m depth and a near-bottom nitrate+ nitrite (NO₃ + NO₂⁻) maximum > 3 μM between the 30–40 m isobaths. HPLC-determined phytoplankton community composition in the near-bottom chlorophyll a maximum consisted of gyroxanthin-containing dinoflagellates (Kareniabrevis) and less abundant diatoms, both verified by FlowCAM analysis, mixed with detectable cryptophytes and chlorophytes. Sediment trends based on limited core replicates suggested the sediments were a potential source of nutrients to near-bottom populations of K. brevis and that shell hash could provide abundant pore space for K. brevis incursions. Between the 40–50 m isobaths, diatoms, cryptophytes and chlorophytes dominated near-bottom,gyroxanthin-containing dinoflagellates and prasinophytes occurred throughout the water column, and cyanophytes dominated near-surface. Post-front, the cross-shelf water column exhibited destratification with temperature and salinity increasing offshore. Achlorophyll a maximum of ~0.75 μg Chl a L⁻¹ left the sediment between 25–35 m isobaths and extended offshore especially in the lower water column with the 1% light level at ~15 m depth and NO₃ + NO₂⁻ concentrations ~2 μM to the 60 m isobath. HPLC-determined phytoplankton community composition of the offshore plume retained the signature of gyroxanthin-containing dinoflagellates and chloro- phytes. Between the 30–50 m isobaths, prasinophytes increased in the lower water column, while cyanophytes increased at all depths across the shelf. The observed step transition from stratification to destratification on the Florida Panhandle Shelf contributed to altered phytoplankton community patterns in response to predominant downwelling favorable winds. Pre-front, K. brevis cells were broadly distributed cross-shelf, but concentrated near-bottom between the 25–35 m isobaths and staged for prolific bloom seeding in response to the upwelling favorable west winds more typical of spring-summer. Post-front, K. brevis cells were mixed throughout the mid-shelf water column and were staged for diffuse bloom seeding in response to either the downwelling or upwelling favorable winds occurring fall-winter. Cyanophytes located predominantly near-surface offshore pre-front, were ubiquitous cross-shelf and more closely associated with K. brevis post-front

Mining a Sea of Data: Deducing the Environmental Controls of Ocean Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll biomass in the surface ocean is regulated by a complex interaction of physiological, oceanographic, and ecological factors and in turn regulates the rates of primary production and export of organic carbon to the deep ocean. Mechanistic models of phytoplankton responses to climate change require the parameterization of many processes of which we have limited knowledge. We develop a statistical approach to estimate the response of remote-sensed ocean chlorophyll to a variety of physical and chemical variables. Irradiance over the mixed layer depth, surface nitrate, sea-surface temperature, and latitude and longitude together can predict 83% of the variation in log chlorophyll in the North Atlantic. Light and nitrate regulate biomass through an empirically determined minimum function explaining nearly 50% of the variation in log chlorophyll by themselves and confirming that either light or macronutrients are often limiting and that much of the variation in chlorophyll concentration is determined by bottom-up mechanisms. Assuming the dynamics of the future ocean are governed by the same processes at work today, we should be able to apply these response functions to future climate change scenarios, with changes in temperature, nutrient distributions, irradiance, and ocean physics

Historic 2005 toxic bloom of Alexandrium fundyense in the western Gulf of Maine : 2. Coupled biophysical numerical modeling

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C07040, doi:10.1029/2007JC004602.A coupled physical/biological modeling system was used to hindcast a massive Alexandrium fundyense bloom that occurred in the western Gulf of Maine in 2005 and to investigate the relative importance of factors governing the bloom's initiation and development. The coupled system consists of a state-of-the-art, free-surface primitive equation Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) tailored for the Gulf of Maine (GOM) using a multinested configuration, and a population dynamics model for A. fundyense. The system was forced by realistic momentum and buoyancy fluxes, tides, river runoff, observed A. fundyense benthic cyst abundance, and climatological nutrient fields. Extensive comparisons were made between simulated (both physical and biological) fields and in situ observations, revealing that the hindcast model is capable of reproducing the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of the 2005 bloom. Sensitivity experiments were then performed to distinguish the roles of three major factors hypothesized to contribute to the bloom: (1) the high abundance of cysts in western GOM sediments; (2) strong ‘northeaster' storms with prevailing downwelling-favorable winds; and (3) a large amount of fresh water input due to abundant rainfall and heavy snowmelt. Model results suggest the following. (1) The high abundance of cysts in western GOM was the primary factor of the 2005 bloom. (2) Wind-forcing was an important regulator, as episodic bursts of northeast winds caused onshore advection of offshore populations. These downwelling favorable winds accelerated the alongshore flow, resulting in transport of high cell concentrations into Massachusetts Bay. A large regional bloom would still have happened, however, even with normal or typical winds for that period. (3) Anomalously high river runoff in 2005 resulted in stronger buoyant plumes/currents, which facilitated the transport of cell population to the western GOM. While affecting nearshore cell abundance in Massachusetts Bay, the buoyant plumes were confined near to the coast, and had limited impact on the gulf-wide bloom distribution.Research support was provided through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant OCE-0430723 and National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) grant 1-P50-ES012742-01, ECOHAB program through NSF grant OCE-9808173 and NOAA grant NA96OP0099, and GOMTOX program through NOAA grant NA06NOS4780245

Phytoplankton Cell Size Reduction in Response to Warming Mediated by Nutrient Limitation

Shrinking of body size has been proposed as one of the universal responses of organisms to global climate warming. Using phytoplankton as an experimental model system has supported the negative effect of warming on body-size, but it remains controversial whether the size reduction under increasing temperatures is a direct temperature effect or an indirect effect mediated over changes in size selective grazing or enhanced nutrient limitation which should favor smaller cell-sizes. Here we present an experiment with a factorial combination of temperature and nutrient stress which shows that most of the temperature effects on phytoplankton cell size are mediated via nutrient stress. This was found both for community mean cell size and for the cell sizes of most species analyzed. At the highest level of nutrient stress, community mean cell size decreased by 46% per degrees C, while it decreased only by 4.7% at the lowest level of nutrient stress. Individual species showed qualitatively the same trend, but shrinkage per degrees C was smaller. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that temperature effects on cell size are to a great extent mediated by nutrient limitation. This effect is expected to be exacerbated under field conditions, where higher temperatures of the surface waters reduce the vertical nutrient transport

Sc65-Null Mice Provide Evidence for a Novel Endoplasmic Reticulum Complex Regulating Collagen Lysyl Hydroxylation

Collagen is a major component of the extracellular matrix and its integrity is essential for connective tissue and organ function. The importance of proteins involved in intracellular collagen post-translational modification, folding and transport was recently highlighted from studies on recessive forms of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Here we describe the critical role of SC65 (Synaptonemal Complex 65, P3H4), a leprecan-family member, as part of an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) complex with prolyl 3-hydroxylase 3. This complex affects the activity of lysyl-hydroxylase 1 potentially through interactions with the enzyme and/or cyclophilin B. Loss of Sc65 in the mouse results in instability of this complex, altered collagen lysine hydroxylation and cross-linking leading to connective tissue defects that include low bone mass and skin fragility. This is the first indication of a prolyl-hydroxylase complex in the ER controlling lysyl-hydroxylase activity during collagen synthesis

Plasma and cellular fibronectin: distinct and independent functions during tissue repair

Fibronectin (FN) is a ubiquitous extracellular matrix (ECM) glycoprotein that plays vital roles during tissue repair. The plasma form of FN circulates in the blood, and upon tissue injury, is incorporated into fibrin clots to exert effects on platelet function and to mediate hemostasis. Cellular FN is then synthesized and assembled by cells as they migrate into the clot to reconstitute damaged tissue. The assembly of FN into a complex three-dimensional matrix during physiological repair plays a key role not only as a structural scaffold, but also as a regulator of cell function during this stage of tissue repair. FN fibrillogenesis is a complex, stepwise process that is strictly regulated by a multitude of factors. During fibrosis, there is excessive deposition of ECM, of which FN is one of the major components. Aberrant FN-matrix assembly is a major contributing factor to the switch from normal tissue repair to misregulated fibrosis. Understanding the mechanisms involved in FN assembly and how these interplay with cellular, fibrotic and immune responses may reveal targets for the future development of therapies to regulate aberrant tissue-repair processes