42 research outputs found

    Traditional use of the Andean flicker (Colaptes rupicola) as a galactagogue in the Peruvian Andes

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    This paper explores the use of the dried meat and feathers of the Andean Flicker (Colaptes rupicola) to increase the milk supply of nursing women and domestic animals in the Andes. The treatment is of preColumbian origin, but continues to be used in some areas, including the village in the southern Peruvian highlands where I do ethnographic research. I explore the factors giving rise to and sustaining the practice, relate it to other galactagogues used in the Andes and to the use of birds in ethnomedical and ethnoveterinary treatments in general, and situate it within the general tendency in the Andes and elsewhere to replicate human relations in the treatment of valuable livestock. The bird's use as a galactagogue appears to be motivated by both metaphorical associations and its perceived efficacy, and conceptually blends human and animal healthcare domains

    Adverse effects of ocean acidification on early development of squid (Doryteuthis pealeii)

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    This study was supported by a WHOI Student Summer Fellowship and WHOI-MIT Joint Program, the Penzance Endowed Fund, the John E. and Anne W. Sawyer Endowed Fund and NSF Research Grant No. EF-1220034. Additional support came from NSF OCE 1041106 to ALC and DCM, and NOAA Sea Grant award #NA10OAR4170083 to ALC and DCM.Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) is being absorbed into the ocean, altering seawater chemistry, with potentially negative impacts on a wide range of marine organisms. The early life stages of invertebrates with internal and external aragonite structures may be particularly vulnerable to this ocean acidification. Impacts to cephalopods, which form aragonite cuttlebones and statoliths, are of concern because of the central role they play in many ocean ecosystems and because of their importance to global fisheries. Atlantic longfin squid (Doryteuthis pealeii), an ecologically and economically valuable taxon, were reared from eggs to hatchlings (paralarvae) under ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations in replicated experimental trials. Animals raised under elevated pCO2demonstrated significant developmental changes including increased time to hatching and shorter mantle lengths, although differences were small. Aragonite statoliths, critical for balance and detecting movement, had significantly reduced surface area and were abnormally shaped with increased porosity and altered crystal structure in elevated pCO2-reared paralarvae. These developmental and physiological effects could alter squid paralarvae behavior and survival in the wild, directly and indirectly impacting marine food webs and commercial fisheries.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

    Isotopic constraints on carbon exchange between deep ocean sediments and sea water

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    THE vast reservoirs of organic carbon in marine sediments1–3 have the potential to influence the properties of organic matter in the overlying water column. For example, it has been suggested that marine sediments are a possible source of the old, refractory dissolved organic carbon (DOC) found in deep water3–4. Natural radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope ratios (Δ14C and δ13C) can be used to constrain the role of sediments in the ocean carbon cycle5–8. Here we report the distributions of Δ14C and δ13C associated with dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in sediment pore water, together with those of the particulate sedimentary organic carbon, from two geochemically distinct marine environments. Concentration gradients of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon across the sediment–water interface imply significant diffusive fluxes of these solutes from the sediment to the water column. But the DOC fraction in the sediments is greatly enriched in 14C compared with that in the overlying sea water (by as much as 370%), indicating that the DOC supplied by sediments to ocean waters must be relatively young, and that its remnant ages in the water column itself. © 2015 Nature Publisher Group
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