Buoyancy Regulation in Phaeocystis globosa Scherffel Colonies

Buoyancy of Phaeocystis globosa Scherffel (Prymnesiophyceae) colonies was investigated by measuring the vertical distribution of colonies in quiescent water where convection had been removed. Over 60% of the colonies exhibited negative buoyancy regardless of light condition or growth phase. Positively and neutrally buoyant colonies lost their buoyancy in the dark, but regained buoyancy upon return to the light. Colonies with closer cell packing; i.e., more cells per unit colonial surface area, had greater capability to remain buoyant. Our results suggest that colony buoyancy was not uniform within a P. globosa population, and that biological regulation of colony buoyancy required light energy

Ciliate epibionts associated with crustacean zooplankton in German lakes: distribution, motility, and bacterivory

Ciliate epibionts associated with crustacean zooplankton are widespread in aquatic systems, but their ecological roles are little known. We studied the occurrence of ciliate epibionts on crustacean zooplankton in nine German lakes with different limnological features during the summer of 2011. We also measured the detachment and re-attachment rates of the ciliates, changes in their motility, and the feeding rates of attached vs. detached ciliate epibionts. Epibionts were found in all lakes sampled except an acidic lake with large humic inputs. Epibiont prevalence was as high as 80.96% on the cladoceran Daphnia cucullata, 67.17% on the cladoceran Diaphanosoma brachyurum, and 46.67% on the calanoid copepod Eudiaptomus gracilis. Both cladoceran groups typically had less than 10 epibionts per individual, while the epibiont load on E. gracilis ranged from 1 to \u3e30 epibionts per individual. After the death of the zooplankton host, the peritrich ciliate epibiont Epistylis sp. detached in an exponential fashion with a half-life of 5 min, and 98% detached within 30 min, leaving behind the stalks used for attachment. Immediately after detachment, the ciliates were immotile, but 62% became motile within 60 min. When a new host was present, only 27% reattached after 120 min. The average measured ingestion rate and clearance rate of Epistylis were 11,745 bacteria ciliate(-1) h(-1) and 24.33 mu l ciliate(-1) h(-1), respectively. Despite their high feeding rates, relatively low epibiont abundances were observed in the field, which suggests either diversion of energy to stalk formation, high metabolic loss by the epibionts, or high mortality among the epibiont populations

Methane Production in Oxic Lake Waters Potentially Increases Aquatic Methane Flux to Air

Active methane production in oxygenated lake waters challenges the long-standing paradigm that microbial methane production occurs only under anoxic conditions and forces us to rethink the ecology and environmental dynamics of this powerful greenhouse gas. Methane production in the upper oxic water layers places the methane source closer to the air–water interface, where convective mixing and microbubble detrainment can lead to a methane efflux higher than that previously assumed. Microorganisms may produce methane in oxic environments by being equipped with enzymes to counteract the effects of molecular oxygen during methanogenesis or using alternative pathways that do not involve oxygen-sensitive enzymes. As this process appears to be influenced by thermal stratification, water transparency, and primary production, changes in lake ecology due to climate change will alter methane formation in oxic water layers, with far-reaching consequences for methane flux and climate feedback

Reversible Metal-Semiconductor Transition of ssDNA-Decorated Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

A field effect transistor (FET) measurement of a SWNT shows a transition from a metallic one to a p-type semiconductor after helical wrapping of DNA. Water is found to be critical to activate this metal-semiconductor transition in the SWNT-ssDNA hybrid. Raman spectroscopy confirms the same change in electrical behavior. According to our ab initio calculations, a band gap can open up in a metallic SWNT with wrapped ssDNA in the presence of water molecules due to charge transfer.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Studies on the aggregation-induced emission of silole film and crystal by time-resolved fluorescence technique

In this Letter, the photoluminescence of 1,1,2,3,4,5-hexaphenylsilole (HPS) and poly{1,1-[(1,2,3,4,5-pentaphenylsiloly)oxy]-1-phenyl-1-undecyne} (PS9PA) was studied in detail by time-resolved fluorescence technique to investigate possible mechanisms of their unique aggregation-induced emissions. Enhanced emissions and long lifetimes of HPS and PS9PA films were detected in PMMA matrix compared to those of their solutions. Furthermore, strong fluorescence with nanosecond lifetimes was also obtained in the single crystal of HPS. These results show that intramolecular vibrational and torsional motions can act as efficient nonradiative pathways for the excited states to decay in the solutions and that suppression of these motions by restricting intramolecular vibrations in the solid state leads to enhanced fluorescence

Copepod carcasses in the subtropical convergence zone of the Sargasso Sea: implications for microbial community composition, system respiration and carbon flux

We showed that copepod carcasses were prevalent in the dynamic subtropical convergence zone where the water column stratification pattern can change considerably across the front as warm and cold water masses converge. The proportional numerical abundances of copepod carcasses increased with depth, reaching up to 91% at 300–400 m. On average 14–19% of the copepods in the upper 200 m were carcasses. Combining field and experimental data, we estimated that decomposing copepod carcasses were a negligible oxygen sink in the STCZ, but sinking carcasses represent an overlooked source of the passive carbon sinking flux in the area

Copepod carcasses as microbial hot spots for pelagic denitrification

Copepods are exposed to a high non-predatory mortality and their decomposing carcasses act as microniches with intensified microbial activity. Sinking carcasses could thereby represent anoxic microenvironment sustaining anaerobic microbial pathways in otherwise oxic water columns. Using non-invasive O-2 imaging, we document that carcasses of Calanus finmarchicus had an anoxic interior even at fully air-saturated ambient O-2 level. The extent of anoxia gradually expanded with decreasing ambient O-2 levels. Concurrent microbial sampling showed the expression of nitrite reductase genes (nirS) in all investigated carcass samples and thereby documented the potential for microbial denitrification in carcasses. The nirS gene was occasionally expressed in live copepods, but not as consistently as in carcasses. Incubations of sinking carcasses in (15)NO3-amended seawater demonstrated denitrification, of which on average 34%+/- 17% (n=28) was sustained by nitrification. However, the activity was highly variable and was strongly dependent on the ambient O-2 levels. While denitrification was present even at air-saturation (302 mol L-1), the average carcass specific activity increased several orders of magnitude to approximate to 1 nmol d(-1) at 20% air-saturation (55 mol O-2 L-1) at an ambient temperature of 7 degrees C. Sinking carcasses of C. finmarchicus therefore represent hotspots of pelagic denitrification, but the quantitative importance as a sink for bioavailable nitrogen is strongly dependent on the ambient O-2 level. The importance of carcass associated denitrification could be highly significant in O-2 depleted environments such as Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZ)

The phantom midge menace: Migratory Chaoborus larvae maintain poor ecosystem state in eutrophic inland waters

Chaoborus spp. (phantom midge) are prevalent in eutrophic lakes with methane-rich, oxygen depleted hypolimnion and sediments, and the methane-poor, oxygen-rich epilimnion. Using a combination of experiments and system modelling, we demonstrated that the larvae’s burrowing activities in and out of the sediment perturbed the sediment and reintroduced sequestered phosphorus into the overlying water, thereby exacerbating internal nutrient loading in the water column. Fluxes of sediment methane and other reduced solutes enhanced by the larval bioturbation sustain the hypoxic/anoxic condition below the thermocline. Migrating larvae also directly transported methane in their gas vesicles from the deep water and release it in the surface water, potentially contributing to methane emission to air. As nutrient pollution and climate warming persist or worsen in the coming decades, proliferation of Chaoborus could intensify this positive feedback loop and delay lake recovery