Evaluación del problema de la acidificación en el Mediterráneo mediante series temporals de pH y experimentos con corales

Ponencia presentada en: VI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Tarragona del 8 al 11 de octubre de 2008.[ES]El incremento de los niveles de CO2 atmosférico y la elevada absorción de éste por los mares y océanos está provocando una acidificación progresiva de los mismos. Las predicciones apuntan hacia una acidificación entre 0.3 y 0.5 unidades de pH en el año 2100 y cerca de 0.8 unidades de pH en el año 2300, un escenario sin precedentes para los últimos cientos de millones de años. En el caso concreto del Mar Mediterráneo, aún no está claro cual es la velocidad de absorción del CO2 antropogénico y la consecuente reducción de pH, aunque, debido a su reducida extensión, es posible que esta acidificación sea más severa que en los océanos del planeta.[EN]The increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere and its high uptake by the oceans are lowering the pH of the oceans. Predictions point towards acidification of 0.3 to 0.5 pH units by year 2100 and of nearly 0.8 pH units by year 2300, a scenario for which there is no obvious precedent over the last hundreds of millions of years. In the specific case of the Mediterranean Sea, it is still not clear how rapidly it is absorbing anthropogenic CO2 and thus lowering its pH but, owing to its smaller size, there is the possibility that the lowering of pH may be more severe and abrupt than in the world oceans.Este trabajo forma parte del proyecto ROMIAT (CTM2006-01957/MAR), financiado por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, y es una de las actividades del Grup de Recerca en Biogeoquímica Marina i Canvi Global (2005SGR00021), financiado por la Generalitat de Catalunya. Juancho Movilla está financiado mediante una beca FPI (BES-2007-16537) del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia

A 1-Million-Year Record of Environmental Change in the Central Mediterranean Sea From Organic Molecular Proxies

The Mediterranean Sea is particularly sensitive to climate oscillations and represents a key location to study past climatic and oceanographic changes. One valuable source of paleoceanographic information is through molecular biomarkers in deep sea sediments. This approach has been applied in a number of studies in this basin, but only covering the most recent glacial/interglacial cycles. Here we present, for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, a molecular biomarker record from the Strait of Sicily that covers the last million years until the present, almost continuously. We present data on alkenone derived urn:x-wiley:25724517:media:palo21102:palo21102-math-0001 index sea surface temperatures (SST) and provide insights on the evolution of the phytoplankton community composition and terrestrial inputs through the analysis of the concentrations of alkenones, brassicasterol and long-chain alcohols. The urn:x-wiley:25724517:media:palo21102:palo21102-math-0002-SST record followed a climatic evolution modulated by glacial/interglacial cycles with a marked increase in the 100 kyr-amplitude of the glacial cycles at ∼430 ka, coincident with the Mid-Brunhes transition. In addition, SSTs were consistently higher compared with other records in the western Mediterranean, indicative of the progressive warming that surface waters experience along their transit from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Central Mediterranean. Regarding the concentrations of alkenones and brassicasterol, they displayed distinct alternate peaks, some of them coeval with the deposition of sapropels. This suggests that different environmental and oceanographic conditions characterized each sapropel which, together with changes in terrestrial inputs and the degree of oligotrophy, induced the alternate proliferation of coccolithophores and diatoms.Postprin

Peeping through the deep: Insights to the reproductive strategies of cold water gorgonians in the Azores Archipelago

INTRODUCTION:The mean age at delivery has increased over the latest half of a century. Women of advanced maternal age have increased obstetrical risks and increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities and some other specified diagnoses in the offspring. The aim of this study was to assess the association between maternal age and overall child morbidity according to main diagnosis groups. MATERIAL AND METHODS:We conducted a national cohort study including 352 027 live firstborn singleton children. The children were born between Jan 1994 and Dec 2009 and followed to Dec 2012. Children were divided into groups according to maternal age: 15-24, 25-29, 30-34, and 35+ years. Poisson regression analyses calculated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR) of child morbidities according to main diagnoses groups A-Q of the International Classification of Disease 10 with adjustment for year of birth, body mass index, smoking, and mother's level of education. RESULTS:Average follow-up time was 11 years. Compared to children born to women 25-29 years, firstborn children to mothers aged 35+ had higher child morbidity in 8 of 19 main diagnosis groups and firstborn children to mothers 15-24 years had higher child morbidity in 12 of 19 main diagnosis groups. Thus, for a majority of diseases a U-shaped correlation was found, with lowest rates in women 25-29 years. CONCLUSION:Firstborn children to both older and younger mothers have higher overall morbidity as compared to children born by mothers 25-29 years

The pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata (Leach, 1814) (Bivalvia: Pteriidae) reaches Minorca, Balearic Islands

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