Global Carbon Budget: Ocean carbon sink.

CO2 emissions from human activities, the main contributor to global climate change, are set to rise again in 2014 reaching 40 billion tonnes CO2 The natural carbon ‘sinks’ on land and in the ocean absorb on average 55% of the total CO2 emissions, thus slowing the rate of global climate change Increasing CO2 in the oceans is causing ocean acidificatio

Reactive Oxygen Species and Nitric Oxide Signaling in Bystander Cells

It is now well accepted that radiation induced bystander effects can occur in cells exposed to media from irradiated cells. The aim of this study was to follow the bystander cells in real time following addition of media from irradiated cells and to determine the effect of inhibiting these signals. A human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT cells, was irradiated (0.005, 0.05 and 0.5 Gy) with γ irradiation, conditioned medium was harvested after one hour and added to recipient bystander cells. Reactive oxygen species, nitric oxide, Glutathione levels, caspase activation, cytotoxicity and cell viability was measured after the addition of irradiated cell conditioned media to bystander cells. Reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide levels in bystander cells treated with 0.5Gy ICCM were analysed in real time using time lapse fluorescence microscopy. The levels of reactive oxygen species were also measured in real time after the addition of extracellular signal-regulated kinase and c-Jun amino-terminal kinase pathway inhibitors. ROS and glutathione levels were observed to increase after the addition of irradiated cell conditioned media (0.005, 0.05 and 0.5 Gy ICCM). Caspase activation was found to increase 4 hours after irradiated cell conditioned media treatment (0.005, 0.05 and 0.5 Gy ICCM) and this increase was observed up to 8 hours and there after a reduction in caspase activation was observed. A decrease in cell viability was observed but no major change in cytotoxicity was found in HaCaT cells after treatment with irradiated cell conditioned media (0.005, 0.05 and 0.5 Gy ICCM). This study involved the identification of key signaling molecules such as reactive oxygen species, nitric oxide, glutathione and caspases generated in bystander cells. These results suggest a clear connection between reactive oxygen species and cell survival pathways with persistent production of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide in bystander cells following exposure to irradiated cell conditioned media

Estimating the recharge properties of the deep ocean using noble gases and helium isotopes

The distribution of noble gases and helium isotopes in the dense shelf waters of Antarctica reflect the boundary conditions near the ocean surface: air-sea exchange, sea ice formation and subsurface ice melt. We use a non-linear least-squares solution to determine the value of the recharge temperature and salinity, as well as the excess air injection and glacial meltwater content throughout the water column and in the precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water. The noble gas-derived recharge temperature and salinity in the Weddell Gyre are -1.95 °C and 34.95 psu near 5500 m; these cold, salty recharge values are a result of surface cooling as well as brine rejection during sea ice formation in Antarctic polynyas. In comparison, the global value for deep water recharge temperature is -0.44 °C at 5500 m, which is 1.5 °C warmer than the southern hemisphere deep water recharge temperature, reflecting the contribution from the north Atlantic. The contrast between northern and southern hemisphere recharge properties highlight the impact of sea ice formation on setting the gas properties in southern sourced deep water. Below 1000 m, glacial meltwater averages 3.5 ‰ by volume and represents greater than 50% of the excess neon and argon found in the water column. These results indicate glacial melt has a non-negligible impact on the atmospheric gas content of Antarctic Bottom Water

Distribution of mesozooplankton biomass in the global ocean

Mesozooplankton are cosmopolitan within the sunlit layers of the global ocean. They are important in the pelagic food web, having a significant feedback to primary production through their consumption of phytoplankton and microzooplankton. In many regions of the global ocean, they are also the primary contributors to vertical particle flux in the oceans. Through both they affect the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and other nutrients in the oceans. Little, however, is known about their global distribution and biomass. While global maps of mesozooplankton biomass do exist in the literature, they are usually in the form of hand-drawn maps for which the original data associated with these maps are not readily available. The dataset presented in this synthesis has been in development since the late 1990s, is an integral part of the Coastal and Oceanic Plankton Ecology, Production, and Observation Database (COPEPOD), and is now also part of a wider community effort to provide a global picture of carbon biomass data for key plankton functional types, in particular to support the development of marine ecosystem models. A total of 153 163 biomass values were collected, from a variety of sources, for mesozooplankton. Of those 2% were originally recorded as dry mass, 26% as wet mass, 5% as settled volume, and 68% as displacement volume. Using a variety of non-linear biomass conversions from the literature, the data have been converted from their original units to carbon biomass. Depth-integrated values were then used to calculate an estimate of mesozooplankton global biomass. Global epipelagic mesozooplankton biomass, to a depth of 200 m, had a mean of 5.9 μg C L−1, median of 2.7 μg C L−1 and a standard deviation of 10.6 μg C L−1. The global annual average estimate of mesozooplankton in the top 200 m, based on the median value, was 0.19 Pg C. Biomass was highest in the Northern Hemisphere, and there were slight decreases from polar oceans (40–90°) to more temperate regions (15–40°) in both hemispheres. Values in the tropics (15° N–15° S) were intermediate between those at the northern and southern temperate latitudes