Illuminating the nutritional nature of sponge-microbe symbioses

Sponges are present in virtually all aquatic environments around the globe and fulfil an important number of functional roles within ecosystems, largely resulting from their impressive water filtering capacity. These sessile filter feeders utilize a range of organic and inorganic nutrients from the water column via the interactivity of the sponge host and their diverse and abundant microbial symbionts. However, our understanding of the role of both host and microbiome in nutrient processing, particularly of dissolved organic matter (DOM), is limited. To address this knowledge gap, stable isotope probing and high-resolution imaging techniques (e.g. nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry), were applied to lab and field-based experiments. We found that both sponge cells and symbionts were actively involved in organic matter processing, with sponge filtering cells (choanocytes) being the primary site of organic matter uptake. We then quantified the uptake of DOM by host versus symbiont cells, showing that sponge cells were responsible for > 99 % of DOM uptake in sponges hosting low abundances of symbiotic microbes. Finally, we quantified the contribution of autotrophy and heterotrophy to the diet of a sponge hosting symbiotic cyanobacteria. Photosynthetic carbon fixation by cyanobacteria contributed approximately 7 % to total daily carbon uptake, which may prove beneficial for sponges under periods of limited food supply. Together, these findings provide a deeper understanding of the ancient relationship between sponges and their microbial symbionts, illuminating how they effectively capture and recycle nutrients

Latest Permian chars may derive from wildfires, not coal combustion: REPLY

ArticleThis is the final version of the article. It was first published by the Geological Society of America via http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G36804Y.1abstract not availabl

Reduced lethality in mice receiving a combined dose of cyclophosphamide and busulphan.

Animals treated with a sufficiently high dose of busulphan die about 14 days later from bone marrow failure. A single, appropriately timed injection of cyclophosphamide can save these mice. The nature of this protection is shown to be the cyclophosphamide induced elaboration of a humoral factor which stimulates haemopoietic recovery

Some continuum physics results from the lattice V-A correlator

We present preliminary results on extractions of the chiral LECs L_10 and C_87 and constraints on the excited pseudoscalar state pi(1300) and pi(1800) decay constants obtained from an analysis of lattice data for the flavor ud light quark V-A correlator. A comparison of the results for the correlator to the corresponding mildly-model-dependent continuum results (based primarily on experimental hadronic tau decay data) is also givenComment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Prepared for the Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Cairns, Australia, June 24-29, 2012; expanded version of Reference 1

New results from the lattice on the theoretical inputs to the hadronic tau determination of V_us

Recent sum rule determinations of |V_us|, employing flavor-breaking combinations of hadronic tau decay data, are significantly lower than either expectations based on 3-family unitarity or determinations from K_ell3 and Gamma[K_mu2]/Gamma[pi_mu2]. We use lattice data to investigate the accuracy/reliability of the OPE representation of the flavor-breaking correlator combination entering the tau decay analyses. The behavior of an alternate correlator combination, constructed to reduce problems associated with the slow convergence of the D = 2 OPE series, and entering an alternate sum rule requiring both electroproduction cross-section and hadronic tau decay data, is also investigated. Preliminary updates of both analyses, with the lessons learned from the lattice data in mind, are also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Prepared for the proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics, Sep. 17-21, 2012, Nagoya, Japan and the 10th International Conference on Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Oct. 6-13, 2012, Garching/Munich, German

Charcoal reflectance reveals early Holocene boreal deciduous forests burned at high intensities

Published onlineJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.Wildfire size, frequency, and severity are increasing in the Alaskan boreal forest in response to climate warming. One of the potential impacts of this changing fire regime is the alteration of successional trajectories, from black spruce to mixed stands dominated by aspen, a vegetation composition not experienced since the early Holocene. Such changes in vegetation composition may consequently alter the intensity of fires, influencing fire feedbacks to the ecosystem. Paleorecords document past wildfire-vegetation dynamics and as such, are imperative for our understanding of how these ecosystems will respond to future climate warming. For the first time, we have used reflectance measurements of macroscopic charcoal particles (>180μm) from an Alaskan lake-sediment record to estimate ancient charring temperatures (termed pyrolysis intensity). We demonstrate that pyrolysis intensity increased markedly from an interval of birch tundra 11 ky ago (mean 1.52%Ro; 485°C), to the expansion of trees on the landscape ~10.5 ky ago, remaining high to the present (mean 3.54%Ro; 640°C) irrespective of stand composition. Despite differing flammabilities and adaptations to fire, the highest pyrolysis intensities derive from two intervals with distinct vegetation compositions. 1) the expansion of mixed aspen and spruce woodland at 10 cal. kyr BP, and 2) the establishment of black spruce, and the modern boreal forest at 4 cal. kyr BP. Based on our analysis, we infer that predicted expansion of deciduous trees into the boreal forest in the future could lead to high intensity, but low severity fires, potentially moderating future climate-fire feedbacks

Determining the scale in Lattice QCD

We discuss scale setting in the context of 2+1 dynamical fermion simulations where we approach the physical point in the quark mass plane keeping the average quark mass constant. We have simulations at four beta values, and after determining the paths and lattice spacings, we give an estimation of the phenomenological values of various Wilson flow scales.Comment: 7 pages; talk presented at Lattice 2015, the 33rd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory 4 -18 July 2015 at Kobe International Conference Center, Kobe, Japan; PoS(LATTICE2015)26

Wilson flow and scale setting from lattice QCD

We give a determination of the phenomenological value of the Wilson (or gradient) flow scales t0 and w0 for 2+1 flavours of dynamical quarks. The simulations are performed keeping the average quark mass constant, which allows the approach to the physical point to be made in a controlled manner. O(a) improved clover fermions are used and together with four lattice spacings this allows the continuum extrapolation to be taken.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure

A Deep-Sea Sponge Loop? Sponges Transfer Dissolved and Particulate Organic Carbon and Nitrogen to Associated Fauna

Cold-water coral reefs and sponge grounds are deep-sea biological hotspots, equivalent to shallow-water tropical coral reefs. In tropical ecosystems, biodiversity and productivity are maintained through efficient recycling pathways, such as the sponge loop. In this pathway, encrusting sponges recycle dissolved organic matter (DOM) into particulate detritus. Subsequently, the sponge-produced detritus serves as a food source for other organisms on the reef. Alternatively, the DOM stored in massive sponges was recently hypothesized to be transferred to higher trophic levels through predation of these sponges, instead of detritus production. However, for deep-sea sponges, the existence of all prerequisite, consecutive steps of the sponge loop have not yet been established. Here, we tested whether cold-water deep-sea sponges, similar to their tropical shallow-water counterparts, take up DOM and transfer assimilated DOM to associated fauna via either detritus production or predation. We traced the fate of 13carbon (C)- and 15nitrogen (N)-enriched DOM and particulate organic matter (POM) in time using a pulse-chase approach. During the 24-h pulse, the uptake of 13C/15N-enriched DOM and POM by two deep-sea sponge species, the massive species Geodia barretti and the encrusting species Hymedesmia sp., was assessed. During the subsequent 9-day chase in label-free seawater, we investigated the transfer of the consumed food by sponges into brittle stars via two possible scenarios: (1) the production and subsequent consumption of detrital waste or (2) direct feeding on sponge tissue. We found that particulate detritus released by both sponge species contained C from the previously consumed tracer DOM and POM, and, after 9-day exposure to the labeled sponges and detritus, enrichment of 13C and 15N was also detected in the tissue of the brittle stars. These results therefore provide the first evidence of all consecutive steps of a sponge loop pathway via deep-sea sponges. We cannot distinguish at present whether the deep-sea sponge loop is acting through a detrital or predatory pathway, but conclude that both scenarios are feasible. We conclude that sponges could play an important role in the recycling of DOM in the many deep-sea ecosystems where they are abundant, although in situ measurements are needed to confirm this hypothesis.publishedVersio