Comments on the diel periodicity of phytoplankton photosynthesis, with an example from the Indian Ocean

The well known diel periodicity of phytoplankton photosynthesis under constant light can be explained, to a large extent, by diel periodicity of the photosynthetic activity per unit of chlorophyll; thus, to the same extent, this rhythm is independent of chlorophyll concentration or biomass, and it reflects an endogenous cycle. On the other hand, the periodicity which results from long term (24 hours) exposures under "simulated in situ" conditions belongs to a quite different type. Both phenomena are discussed here on the basis of parallel experiments made during cruise 8 of R/V "Anton Bruun" in the Mozambique Channel (International Indian ocean Expedition)

The treatment of the insane patients at the hospital in Vila Viçosa Rilhafoles (second half of the nineteenth century)

Neste trabalho analisamos os trâmites processuais respeitantes ao envio de doentes insanos de Vila Viçosa para o hospital de Rilhafoles, na segunda metade do século XIX, e as relações estabelecidas com o hospital desta vila alentejana relativamente ao pagamento do tratamento. A braços com uma grave crise financeira, o hospital de Vila Viçosa recusava sistematicamente a responsabilidade de enviar os alienados para Rilhafoles, numa tentativa de passar esse ónus para a administração do concelho, mostrando-se muito renitente no pagamento das faturas que lhe chegavam do hospital de São José. O conflito entre as duas instituições chegou ao monarca e sem outra alternativa que a do pagamento, o hospital da vila alentejana procedeu ao envio de parcelas de dinheiro, ainda que de forma muito atrasada. Para a realização deste trabalho servimo-nos dos livros de atas da Misericórdia e do fundo do Governo Civil de Évora, custodiadas pelo Arquivo Distrital da mesma cidade. Estas fontes resultam essencialmente da correspondência estabelecida entre a Misericórdia de Vila Viçosa, o administrador do concelho e o governador civil de Évora.In this work we examined the procedural requirements related to the sending of insane patients of Vila Viçosa to the hospital of Rilhafoles, in the second half of the 19th century, and the relationships established with the hospital of this Alentejo town relating to the payment of treatment. Faced with a severe financial crisis, the hospital of Vila Viçosa systematically refused the responsibility to send the insane patients to the Rilhafoles hospital in an attempt to pass this burden on the administration of the county, being very reluctant to pay the bills that came to him from the hospital of São José. The conflict between the two institutions came to the monarch with no other alternative than the payment, the hospital of village of the Alentejo region proceeded to sending parcels of money, albeit way too late. For the realization of this work we use the books of the Misericórdia and the documents of the Civil Governor found of the city of Évora under the custody of the Distrital Archive of the same city. This documents results, basically, from the correspondence between the Misericórdia of Vila Viçosa, the council administrator and the civil governor of Évora

Mesoscale subduction at the Almeria-Oran front. Part 2: biophysical interactions.

This paper presents a detailed diagnostic analysis of hydrographic and current meter data from three, rapidly repeated, fine-scale surveys of the Almeria–Oran front. Instability of the frontal boundary, between surface waters of Atlantic and Mediterranean origin, is shown to provide a mechanism for significant heat transfer from the surface layers to the deep ocean in winter. The data were collected during the second observational phase of the EU funded OMEGA project on RRS Discovery cruise 224 during December 1996. High resolution hydrographic measurements using the towed undulating CTD vehicle, SeaSoar, traced the subduction of Mediterranean Surface Water across the Almeria–Oran front. This subduction is shown to result from a significant baroclinic component to the instability of the frontal jet. The Q-vector formulation of the omega equation is combined with a scale analysis to quantitatively diagnose vertical transport resulting from mesoscale ageostrophic circulation. The analyses are presented and discussed in the presence of satellite and airborne remotely sensed data; which provide the basis for a thorough and novel approach to the determination of observational error

Diversity and distribution of the dinoflagellates Brachidinium, Asterodinium and Microceratium (Brachidiniales, Dinophyceae) in the open Mediterranean Sea

Brachidiniacean dinoflagellates have been investigated in the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea, along a transect from the south of France to the south of Cyprus (20 June–18 July 2008). Brachidinium and Karenia papilionacea often co-occurred, B. capitatum predominating in the surface waters. The highest abundance of Brachidinium were found in the upper 25min the western Mediterranean with a maximum (24 cells L–1) at a depth of 5 m in the Balearic Sea. Asterodinium (up to 4 cells L–1) was recorded below of deep chlorophyll maxima. The genus Microceratium, only known from the tropical Indo-Pacific region, is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea. Microceratium was found below 100min the eastern Mediterranean Sea, with the highest abundance of 8 cells L–1 at 125 m depth, in the Levantine Basin. This study also illustrates for the first time specimens under the division of Brachidinium and Microceratium. This first occurrence of Microceratium in the Mediterranean Sea should be considered an indicator of climate warming. However, it should not be considered a non-indigenous taxon. Microceratium is the \u27tropical morphotype\u27, the adaptation of a local species (a life stage of Karenia – Brachidinium – Asterodinium) to the tropical environmental conditions that prevail in summer in the open Mediterranean Sea

Changes in phytoplankton composition in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon in the Cullera Estany (Comunitat Valenciana, Spain)

The Cullera Estany is a coastal lagoon located in a highly intensified agriculture and tourist area in Valencia. This coastal lagoon has connections with the sea that produce marine intrusion and generate a freshwater interface. Four sampling campaigns were carried out during 2010 in order to analyse the phytoplankton composition and its relation to nutrient content through a Redundancy Analysis. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrite and salinity are the main factors controlling the dynamics of phytoplankton community. During July and October, there is water column stratification; meanwhile in March, there is a well-mixed water column. In addition, in May and July campaigns, hypoxia/anoxia conditions are detected at the bottom. The most abundant phytoplankton groups are Diatoms and Cryptophyceae. Diatoms and Cyanophyceae respond positively to temperature while Cryptophyceae, Prasinophyceae and Dinophyceae respond to high salinity and dissolved oxygen values. Furthermore, picoplankton is correlated inversely with nutrient concentrations.This research work has been supported by the Generalitat Valenciana.Pachés Giner, MAV.; Romero Gil, I.; Martínez Guijarro, MR.; Martí Insa, CM.; Ferrer Polo, J. (2014). Changes in phytoplankton composition in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon in the Cullera Estany (Comunitat Valenciana, Spain). Water and Environment Journal. 28(1):135-144. doi:10.1111/wej.12020S135144281Agencia Estatal de Meteorologia. AEMET 2011 http://www.aemet.es/es/portadaTer Braak, C. J. F. (1986). Canonical Correspondence Analysis: A New Eigenvector Technique for Multivariate Direct Gradient Analysis. Ecology, 67(5), 1167-1179. doi:10.2307/1938672Brogueira, M. J., Oliveira, M. do R., & Cabeçadas, G. (2007). Phytoplankton community structure defined by key environmental variables in Tagus estuary, Portugal. Marine Environmental Research, 64(5), 616-628. doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2007.06.007Caroppo, C. (2000). The contribution of picophytoplankton to community structure in a Mediterranean brackish environment. Journal of Plankton Research, 22(2), 381-397. doi:10.1093/plankt/22.2.381Cloern, J. (2001). Our evolving conceptual model of the coastal eutrophication problem. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 210, 223-253. doi:10.3354/meps210223Domingues, R. B., Barbosa, A., & Galvão, H. (2008). Constraints on the use of phytoplankton as a biological quality element within the Water Framework Directive in Portuguese waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 56(8), 1389-1395. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2008.05.006Falco , S. 2003 Comportamiento de los nutrientes en un estuario estratificado: Caso del Delta del EbroReview Lecture - Picoplankton. (1986). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences, 228(1250), 1-30. doi:10.1098/rspb.1986.0037Havskum, H., Schlüter, L., Scharek, R., Berdalet, E., & Jacquet, S. (2004). Routine quantification of phytoplankton groups—microscopy or pigment analyses? Marine Ecology Progress Series, 273, 31-42. doi:10.3354/meps273031Johnson, P. W., & Sieburth, J. M. (1979). Chroococcoid cyanobacteria in the sea: A ubiquitous and diverse phototrophic biomass1. Limnology and Oceanography, 24(5), 928-935. doi:10.4319/lo.1979.24.5.0928Kirkwood , D. Aminot , A. Pertilla , M. 1991 Report on the Results of the Fourth Intercomparison Exercise for Nutrients in Sea Water ICES Cooperative Research Report 174Lidón, A., Ramos, C., & Rodrigo, A. (1999). Comparison of drainage estimation methods in irrigated citrus orchards. Irrigation Science, 19(1), 25-36. doi:10.1007/s002710050068Martí , C.M. 2010 Caracterización ecológica y establecimiento de los criterios para determinar el potencial ecológico en las salinas de la Comunidad ValencianaMösso, C., Sierra, J. P., Rodilla, M., Romero, I., Falco, S., González del Río, J., & Sánchez-Arcilla, A. (2007). High Vertical Resolution Sampling in Density Interfaces of Estuaries and River Plumes. Estuaries and Coasts, 31(2), 258-268. doi:10.1007/s12237-007-9009-4Novarino, G. (2003). A companion to the identification of cryptomonad flagellates (Cryptophyceae = Cryptomonadea). Hydrobiologia, 502(1-3), 225-270. doi:10.1023/b:hydr.0000004284.12535.25Pachés, M., Romero, I., Hermosilla, Z., & Martinez-Guijarro, R. (2012). PHYMED: An ecological classification system for the Water Framework Directive based on phytoplankton community composition. Ecological Indicators, 19, 15-23. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.07.003Pérez-Ruzafa, A., Gilabert, J., Gutiérrez, J. M., Fernández, A. I., Marcos, C., & Sabah, S. (2002). Hydrobiologia, 475/476, 359-369. doi:10.1023/a:1020343510060Puigserver, M., Ramon, G., Moyà, G., & Martínez-Taberner, A. (2002). Hydrobiologia, 475/476, 493-504. doi:10.1023/a:1020368215511Ramos, C., Agut, A., & Lidón, A. . (2002). Nitrate leaching in important crops of the Valencian Community region (Spain). Environmental Pollution, 118(2), 215-223. doi:10.1016/s0269-7491(01)00314-1Ramos, M. C. (2001). Rainfall distribution patterns and their change over time in a Mediterranean area. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 69(3-4), 163-170. doi:10.1007/s007040170022Reynolds, C. S. (2006). The Ecology of Phytoplankton. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511542145Rojo , C. Miracle , R. 1984 Fluctuación estacional de las poblaciones fitoplanctónicas del Estany de Cullera (Valencia) Anales de biología, 2 (Sección especial, 2) Universidad de Murcia (Spain) 161 168Suikkanen, S., Laamanen, M., & Huttunen, M. (2007). Long-term changes in summer phytoplankton communities of the open northern Baltic Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 71(3-4), 580-592. doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2006.09.004Vargo , G.A. 1978 Using a Fluorescence Microscope. Phytoplankton Manual Monographs on Oceanography Methodology UNESCO 108 112Vicente , E. Miracle , M.R. 1988 Estructura y función de los procariotas en dos ecosistemas lagunares costeros: L'albufera de Valencia y l'Estany de Cullera Actas del Congreso de Biologia Ambiental. II Congreso Mundial Vasco 79 108 ISBN 84-7585-146-

The biogeochemistry of nutrients, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a in the Catalan Sea (NW Mediterranean Sea)

Reference depth profiles of dissolved inorganic nutrients, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a are described for the Catalan Sea using quality controlled data. Phosphate, nitrate and silicate show typical nutrient profiles, with nutriclines at different depths. Maximums of nitrite, dissolved oxygen, and occasionally ammonium, are found within the photic zone, close to the deep chlorophyll maximum. In intermediate waters we found a minimum of dissolved oxygen coincident with maximum concentrations of phosphate and nitrate. Ammonium concentration is unexpectedly high in the mesopelagic zone, where there are still measurable nitrite concentration, and their origin remains unclear. We also identify and describe anomalous data and profiles resulting from eutrophication, Western Mediterranean Deep Water formation, or dense shelf-water cascading. N:P ratio in deep waters is 22.4, which indicates P-limitation relative to the Redfield ratio. However, the N:P ratio above the deep chlorophyll maximum in stratified surface waters is <4 (<8 including ammonium). The depth profiles of key biogeochemical variables described in this study will be a useful reference for future studies in the Catalan Sea (NW Mediterranean Sea): to validate data sampled in this area, to identify anomalous processes, and to study the evolution of the ecosystem following the undergoing global change

Antitrypanosomatid Pharmacomodulation at Position 3 of the 8-Nitroquinolin-2(1H)-one Scaffold Using Palladium-Catalysed Cross-Coupling Reactions

International audienceAn antikinetoplastid pharmacomodulation study at position 3 of the recently described hit molecule 3-bromo-8-nitroquinolin-2(1H)-one was conducted. Twenty-four derivatives were synthesised using the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction and evaluated in vitro on both Leishmania infantum axenic amastigotes and Trypanosoma brucei brucei trypomastigotes. Introduction of a para-carboxyphenyl group at position 3 of the scaffold led to the selective antitrypanosomal hit molecule 3-(4-carboxyphenyl)-8-nitroquinolin-2(1H)-one (21) with a lower reduction potential (-0.56 V) than the initial hit (-0.45 V). Compound 21 displays micromolar antitrypanosomal activity (IC50 =1.5 μm) and low cytotoxicity on the human HepG2 cell line (CC50 =120 μm), having a higher selectivity index (SI=80) than the reference drug eflornithine. Contrary to results previously obtained in this series, hit compound 21 is inactive toward L. infantum and is not efficiently bioactivated by T. brucei brucei type I nitroreductase, which suggests the existence of an alternative mechanism of action

A Novel Method for the Metallization of 3D Silicon Induced by Metastable Copper Nanoparticles

The development of efficient copper deposition processes in high-aspect-ratio silicon structures is still a key technological issue for the microelectronic industry. We describe here a new process for the deposition of copper thin films in three-dimensional (3D) structures induced by the decomposition of a copper amidinate precursor in solution under a moderate H2 pressure. The reduction of a metal precursor under soft conditions (3 bar, 110 °C) affords the preparation of a high-purity, conformal metallic layer. We unveil a novel deposition mechanism driven by colloidal copper nanoparticles (NPs) in solution that behave as a reservoir of metastable metallic NPs that eventually condense as a solid film on all immersed surfaces. The film growth process is characterized by time-resolved analyses of the NPs in the colloidal state (nuclear magnetic resonance NMR and UV–vis spectra) and of the NPs and metallic layer on substrates (transmission electron microscopy TEM, and scanning electron microscopy SEM). Major deposition stages of this process are proposed and the conformal metallization of 3D silicon substrates is successfully achieved. This method is transposable to other metallic layers such as silver or nickel