Marine Science

Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAPB) contribute profoundly to the global carbon cycle. However, most AAPB in marine environments are uncultured and at low abundance, hampering the recognition of their functions and molecular mechanisms. In this study, we developed a new culture-independent method to identify and sort AAPB using single-cell Raman/fluorescence spectroscopy. Characteristic Raman and fluorescent bands specific to bacteriochlorophyll a (Bchl a ) in AAPB were determined by comparing multiple known AAPB with non-AAPB isolates...

Children and youth with neurological and/or neurodevelopmental conditions were at high risk for behavioral and mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Positive and responsive parenting practices may be one way to prevent and manage potential difficulties in families. We aimed to identify whether positive parenting practices were associated with reduced behavioral concerns in children at neurological risk during the late stages and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we examined whether ongoing parental stress, anxiety, and depression impacted parenting practices during this time period...

BACKGROUND: In patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), individualized exercise training (ET) programs are strongly recommended to optimize peak oxygen uptake ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow><mml:mover><mml:mi>V</mml:mi> <mml:mo>̇</mml:mo></mml:mover> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation>$$ \dot{\mathrm{V}} $$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> O2peak ) improvement and prognosis...

Phosphorus to an optimum extent is an essential nutrient for all living organisms and its scarcity may cause food security, and environmental preservation issues vis-à-vis agroeconomic hurdles. Undesirably excess phosphorus intensifies the eutrophication problem in non-marine water bodies and disrupts the natural nutrient balance of the ecosystem. To overcome such dichotomy, biodegradable polymer-based adsorbents have emerged as a cost-effective and implementable approach in striking a "desired optimum-undesired excess" balance pertaining to phosphate in a sustainable manner...

Marine organisms are simultaneously exposed to anthropogenic stressors associated with ocean acidification and ocean warming, with expected interactive effects. Species from different trophic levels with dissimilar characteristics and evolutionary histories are likely to respond differently. Here, we perform a meta-analysis of controlled experiments including both ocean acidification and ocean warming factors to investigate single and interactive effects of these stressors on marine species. Contrary to expectations, we find that synergistic interactions are less common (16%) than additive (40%) and antagonistic (44%) interactions overall and their proportion decreases with increasing trophic level...

In the context of the increasing global use of ethanol biofuel, this work investigates the concentrations of ethanol, methanol, and acetaldehyde, in both the gaseous phase and rainwater, across six diverse urban regions and biomes in Brazil, a country where ethanol accounts for nearly half the light-duty vehicular fuel consumption. Atmospheric ethanol median concentrations in São Paulo (SP) (12.3 ± 12.1 ppbv) and Ribeirão Preto (RP) (12.1 ± 10.9 ppbv) were remarkably close, despite the SP vehicular fleet being ~13 times larger...

BACKGROUND: Astaxanthin is the most prevalent carotenoid in the marine environment and is widely used as an additive in formulated aquafeeds. OBJECTIVES: A 60-day feeding trial was conducted to consider the effect of dietary nanoliposome-coated astaxanthin (NA) on haematological parameters, serum antioxidant activities and immune responses of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. METHODS: A total of 450 healthy fish weighing 31.00 ± 2...

Algae are an entry point for mercury (Hg) into the food web. Bioconcentration of Hg by algae is crucial for its biogeochemical cycling and environmental risk. Herein, considering the cell heterogeneity, we investigated the bioconcentration of coexisting isotope-labeled inorganic (199 IHg) and methyl Hg (201 MeHg) by six typical freshwater and marine algae using dual-mass single-cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (scICP-MS). First, a universal pretreatment procedure for the scICP-MS analysis of algae was developed...

The development of programming skills and computational thinking in the formal educational context is one of the most recent horizons set by many educational systems worldwide. Although the first computational thinking initiatives are being applied from the earliest school ages, this research focuses on the secondary education level. Specifically, the objective is the following: to analyse the implementation of Arduino, as well as the benefits and opportunities it brings to secondary school students. For this purpose, documentary research has been undertaken applying a systematic review according to the PRISMA 2020 framework following the PiCoS strategy...

Oil and gas exploitation introduces toxic contaminants such as hydrocarbons and heavy metals to the surrounding sediment, resulting in deleterious impacts on marine benthic communities. This study combines benthic monitoring data over a 30-year period in the North Sea with dietary information on >1400 taxa to quantify the effects of active oil and gas platforms on benthic food webs using a multiple before-after control-impact experiment. Contamination from oil and gas platforms caused declines in benthic food web complexity, community abundance, and biodiversity...

Accurately characterizing the thermomechanical parameters of nanoscale systems is essential for understanding their performance and building innovative nanoscale technologies due to their distinct behaviours. Fractional thermal transport models are commonly utilized to correctly depict the heat transfer that occurs in these nanoscale systems. The current study presents a novel mathematical thermoelastic model that incorporates a new fractional differential constitutive equation for heat conduction. This heat equation is useful for understanding the effects of thermal memory...

In this study, as part of basic research aimed at enhancing the accuracy of load and resistance coefficients to ensure their suitability for practical design and promoting the application of underutilized reliability-based design in Korea, the author conducts optimal design based on the reliability analysis of a vertical-type breakwater in the seas off of Haeundae, Yeosu, Mokpo, Gunsan, and Incheon-representative ports in Korea. In doing so, the author utilized the double-loop approach, which simultaneously addresses a reliability problem nested within an optimization process, employing the Polak-He optimization algorithm...

Steeper and sometimes extreme salinity gradients increasingly affect aquatic organisms because of climate change. Hypersalinity habitats demand powerful physiological adaptive strategies. Few teleost species have the capacity to spend their whole life cycle in salinities way over seawater levels. Focusing on the multifunctional gill, we unraveled the tilapia S. melanotheron key strategies to cope with different environmental conditions, ranging from freshwater up to hypersaline habitats. De novo transcriptome assembly based on RNAseq allowed for the analysis of 40,967 annotated transcripts among samples collected in three wild populations at 0, 40 and 80 ‰...

Marine pollution by trace elements is a global concern due to potential toxicity to species and ecosystems. Copper is a fundamental trace element for many organisms; however, it becomes toxic at certain concentrations. The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a good sentinel species, due to its circumglobal distribution, long life cycle, coastal habits when juvenile, and is subject to environmental pollution. Quantifying and comparing copper levels makes it possible to understand the availability of this trace element in nature...

The comprehensive analysis of multiple biological communities is essential for assessing diversities within mangrove ecosystems, yet such studies are infrequent. Environmental DNA (eDNA) facilitates the simultaneous exploration of organisms across various levels within a single ecosystem. In this investigation, 16S rRNA, cytochrome C oxidase I (COI), and Mito-fish primers were employed to characterize the microbiome, eukaryotic plankton, and fish communities, along with their intricate interactions, across 24 samples from three Chinese mangrove reservoirs...

Poleward range expansion of marine organisms is commonly attributed to anthropogenic ocean warming. However, the extent to which a single species can migrate poleward remains unclear. In this study, we used molecular data to examine the current distribution of the Pocillopora damicornis species complex in Taiwan waters and applied niche modeling to predict its potential range through the end of the 21st Century. The P. damicornis species complex is widespread across shallow, tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific regions...

Many species around the world have collapsed, yet only some have recovered. A key question is what happens to populations post collapse. Traditionally, marine fish collapses are linked to overfishing, poor climate, and recruitment. We test whether the effect on biomass change from these drivers remains the same after a collapse. We used a regression model to analyse the effect of harvesting, recruitment, and climate variability on biomass change before and after a collapse across 54 marine fish populations around the world...

Marine heatwaves are increasing in frequency and duration, threatening tropical reef ecosystems through intensified coral bleaching events. We examined a strikingly variable spatial pattern of bleaching in Moorea, French Polynesia following a heatwave that lasted from November 2018 to July 2019. In July 2019, four months after the onset of bleaching, we surveyed > 5000 individual colonies of the two dominant coral genera, Pocillopora and Acropora, at 10 m and 17 m water depths, at six forereef sites around the island where temperature was measured...

La Paz Bay (LPB) in Mexico is one of the largest marine-coastal bodies of water in the Gulf of California (GC) and is ecologically important for the feeding, reproduction, and refuge of marine species. Although particulate organic carbon (POC) is an important reservoir of oceanic carbon and an indicator of productivity in the euphotic zone, studies in this region are scarce. This study evaluates the performance of satellite-derived POC in LPB from January 2003 to December 2020. The metrics obtained for COP ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www...

Marine litter and more specifically plastic marine litter is nowadays considered a global issue with unprecedented impact and consequences to the entire marine ecosystem and biota. The current situation that has been created worldwide due to the abundance of plastic litter in the Earth's Seas has been characterized as alarming, necessitating the immediate action for an overall reduction of plastic waste, better collection and recycling schemes and beach-shoreline clean-ups. In this article we attempt to delve into the details of the magnitude of the impact that plastic litter have caused to marine biota via a meta-research analysis, by compiling, combining, analysing and presenting data from various relative works, using primarily scientific and, secondarily, grey literature...