The use of cholinesterase as potential biomarker: In vitro characterization in the polychaete Capitella teleta     

Isa D.L. Gomes  Marco F.L. Lemos  Amadeu M.V.M. Soares  Carlos Barata  Melissa Faria 《Marine pollution bulletin》2014

The ecological relevance of polychaetes coupled with their easy culture and maintenance in the laboratory, has led them to become increasingly used in marine ecotoxicological studies, raising the need to validate frequently applied monitoring tools at various biological levels. The present study was aimed to characterize the cholinesterases (ChE) activity in the polychaete Capitella teleta, using three substrates (acetylthiocholine iodide, propionylthiocholine iodide, and S-butyrylthiocholine iodide) and four known inhibitors (eserine hemisulfate, BW284c51, iso-OMPA and chlorpyrifos-oxon). Results showed that most of the measured cholinesterase activity was acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Inhibition of enzyme kinetic experiments denoted that sensitivity of C. teleta’s ChE to the organophosphorous metabolite chlorpyrifos-oxon (IC₅₀ = 60.72 nM) was analogous to some fish species. This study highlights the relevance of ChE characterization before its use as a biomarker in ecotoxicology and biomonitoring studies.  相似文献   

Diagenetic controls on the isotopic composition of carbonate‐associated sulphate in the Permian Capitan Reef Complex,West Texas     

Theodore M. Present  Melissa Gutierrez  Guillaume Paris  Charles Kerans  John P. Grotzinger  Jess F. Adkins 《Sedimentology》2019,66(7):2605-2626

Late Palaeozoic‐age strata from the Capitan Reef in west Texas show facies‐dependent heterogeneity in the sulphur isotopic composition of carbonate‐associated sulphate, which is trace sulphate incorporated into carbonate minerals that is often used to reconstruct the sulphur isotopic composition of ancient seawater. However, diagenetic pore fluid processes may influence the sulphur isotopic composition of carbonate‐associated sulphate. These processes variously modify the sulphur isotopic composition of incorporated sulphate from syndepositional seawater in shelf crest, outer shelf, shelf margin and slope depositional settings. This study used a new multicollector inductively‐coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique to determine the sulphur isotopic composition of samples of individual depositional and diagenetic textures. Carbonate rocks representing peritidal facies in the Yates and Tansill formations preserve the sulphur isotopic composition of Guadalupian seawater sulphate despite alteration of the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions by meteoric and dolomitizing diagenetic processes. However, sulphur isotopic data indicate that limestones deposited in reef and slope facies in the Capitan and Bell Canyon formations largely incorporate sulphate from anoxic marine‐phreatic pore fluids isotopically modified from seawater by microbial sulphate reduction, despite generally preserving the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of Permian seawater. Some early and all late meteoric calcite cements have carbonate‐associated sulphate with a sulphur isotopic composition distinct from that of Permian seawater. Detailed petrographic and sedimentary context for carbonate‐associated sulphate analyses will allow for improved reconstructions of ancient seawater composition and diagenetic conditions in ancient carbonate platforms. The results of this study indicate that carbonate rocks that diagenetically stabilize in high‐energy environments without pore fluid sulphate gradients can provide a robust archive of ancient seawater's sulphur isotopic composition.  相似文献   

A 2000 year record of climatic change at Ongoke Lake,southwest Alaska     

Melissa L. Chipman  Gina H. Clarke  Benjamin F. Clegg  Irene Gregory-Eaves  Feng Sheng Hu 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2009,41(1):57-75

We analyzed sediments of the past 2000 years from Ongoke Lake, southwest Alaska, for organic carbon, organic nitrogen, biogenic silica (BSi), and diatom assemblages at decadal to centennial resolution to infer limnological changes that may be related to climatic variation in southwestern Alaska. The chronology is based on a ²¹⁰Pb profile from bulk sediments and nine AMS ¹⁴C ages from terrestrial plant macrofossils. Four of the ¹⁴C ages span a core depth interval of 60.5 cm but are statistically indistinguishable from one another with a mean of ~1300 AD, which compromises the determination of temporal trends at Ongoke Lake and comparison with other paleoclimate records. The diatom record suggests changes in the duration of ice cover and strength of thermal stratification that are probably related to temperature variation. This variation includes a cold interval around the first millennium cooling (FMC) and a warm interval spanning the medieval climate anomaly (MCA). However, the lake-sediment record shows no clear signals of temperature variation for the period of the Little Ice Age (LIA) or the twentieth century. Climatic changes during these periods may have been manifested through effective-moisture (precipitation minus evapotranspiration) variation in the Ongoke Lake area. We estimate water depths and infer effective-moisture fluctuations by applying a regional transfer function to our diatom record. Together with inferences from diatom autecologies, this water-depth reconstruction suggests that effective moisture increased steadily from 50 BC to 350 AD, which was followed by relatively dry conditions between 550 and 750 AD and relatively wet conditions between 750 and 1450 AD. Effective moisture was low from ~1450 to 1850 AD, coinciding with the LIA; an alternative age model places this interval between ~1315 and 1850 AD. During the past 150 years, effective moisture increased, with estimated water depths reaching peak values in the second half of the twentieth century. This study offers the first paleolimnological record for inferring centennial-scale climatic variation over the past two millennia from southwestern Alaska.

Feng Sheng HuEmail:

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Improving exposure assessment in environmental epidemiology: Application of spatio-temporal visualization tools     

Jaymie R. Meliker  Melissa J. Slotnick  Gillian A. AvRuskin  Andrew Kaufmann  Geoffrey M. Jacquez  Jerome O. Nriagu 《Journal of Geographical Systems》2005,7(1):49-66

A thorough assessment of human exposure to environmental agents should incorporate mobility patterns and temporal changes in human behaviors and concentrations of contaminants; yet the temporal dimension is often under-emphasized in exposure assessment endeavors, due in part to insufficient tools for visualizing and examining temporal datasets. Spatio-temporal visualization tools are valuable for integrating a temporal component, thus allowing for examination of continuous exposure histories in environmental epidemiologic investigations. An application of these tools to a bladder cancer case-control study in Michigan illustrates continuous exposure life-lines and maps that display smooth, continuous changes over time. Preliminary results suggest increased risk of bladder cancer from combined exposure to arsenic in drinking water (>25 g/day) and heavy smoking (>30 cigarettes/day) in the 1970s and 1980s, and a possible cancer cluster around automotive, paint, and organic chemical industries in the early 1970s. These tools have broad application for examining spatially- and temporally-specific relationships between exposures to environmental risk factors and disease.This study was supported by grant R01 CA96002-10, Geographic-Based Research in Cancer Control and Epidemiology, from the National Cancer Institute. Development of the STIS^TM software was funded by grants R43 ES10220 from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and R01 CA92669 from the National Cancer Institute. Access to cancer case records was provided by Michigan Cancer Surveillance Program within the Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Michigan Department of Community Health. The authors thank Michigan Public Health Institute for conducting the telephone interview and Stacey Fedewa and Lisa Bailey for entering written surveys into a database. The authors thank 3 anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.  相似文献   

Incipient hydrothermal alteration of basalts and the origin of martian soil     

Melissa J. Nelson  Horton E. Newsom  David S. Draper 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2005,69(10):2701-2711

The martian soil is a fine-grained regolith that is chemically basaltic in character with evidence for both gains and losses of volatile and mobile elements compared to martian basalt compositions. These chemical fractionations provide clues to geochemical processes on the surface of Mars. Geochemical processes contributing to the soil proposed in the past include the chemical and mechanical breakdown of rocks under surface conditions, the addition of volcanic aerosols containing S and Cl compounds, and the alteration of basaltic glass to palagonite. Our studies of terrestrial analogs suggest that hydrothermal alteration processes involving impact craters and volcanism could also contribute to the major element trends observed in martian soil. Data from Viking, Pathfinder, and the current MER missions consistently show that relative to basaltic martian meteorite compositions, the major element compositions of the soils are (1) depleted in the fluid-mobile element calcium, (2) generally similar or somewhat enriched in iron oxide and magnesium but MgO depleted compared to Gusev rocks, (3) locally variable in potassium, (4) possibly poorer in aluminum, and (6) very enriched in chlorine and sulfur. The major element trends, aside from the Cl and S enrichment, could be explained by the formation or addition of palagonite according to McSween and Keil (2000), but the missing CaO remains a problem. The chlorine and sulfur are probably derived from other processes such as volcanic aerosols and hydrothermal fluids. McSween and Keil (2000) also argued that hydrothermal alteration of basalts produce alteration trends that are inconsistent with the Mars soil, but this study concludes otherwise. We have used quantitative mass balance mixing models to investigate possible models involving mixtures of basaltic compositions with different types of alteration materials, including palagonite. We show that the Mars soil composition can be matched with a combination of unweathered basaltic martian meteorites with basaltic FeO-rich, CaO-poor alteration products. Palagonite is a possible, but not a necessary component of successful model mixtures. The hydrothermal alteration materials that form successful model mixtures are formed in low temperature, low water/rock ratio environments, and they can reproduce the required geochemical trends because they are poorer in CaO but not in FeO compared to their respective protoliths. These results argue that material altered by hydrothermal processes could be a plausible component of the soil, and that removal of CaO from the soil into some undiscovered reservoir after its formation is not required. The current soil on Mars, therefore, did not have to undergo an episode of in situ aqueous alteration but could represent a sink for materials that experienced aqueous processes in a different setting before erosion to form the soil. The soil can also represent a sink for mobile elements (e.g., S, Cl, and Br) derived from other sources such as volcanic aerosols and hydrothermal fluids.  相似文献   

Research directions for information and communication technology and society in Geography     

Melissa R. Gilbert 《Geoforum》2005,36(3):277-279

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Oxygen, carbon, and strontium isotope geochemistry of diamond-bearing carbonate rocks from Kumdy-Kol, Kokchetav Massif, Kazakhstan     

M Ohta  T Mock  Y Ogasawara  D Rumble   《Lithos》2003,70(3-4):77-90

Diamond-bearing carbonate rocks from Kumdy-Kol, Kokchetav massif, Kazakhstan, were strongly altered by fluids flowing through fractures and infiltrating along grain boundaries during exhumation. Alteration includes retrogradation of high-grade silicate assemblages by hydrous minerals, replacement of diamond by graphite and of dolomite by calcite. Diamond-bearing carbonate rocks are among the most intensely altered isotopically with δ¹⁸O_VSMOW values as low as +9‰, δ¹³C_VPDB=−9‰, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr as high as 0.8050. Evidence of isotopic equilibration between coexisting dolomite and high-Mg calcite during ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism (UHPM) is preserved only rarely in samples isolated from infiltrating fluids by distance from fractures. Isotopic heterogeneity and isotopic disequilibrium are widespread on a hand-specimen scale. Because of this lack of homogeneity, bulk analyses cannot provide definitive measurements of ¹³C/¹²C fractionation between coexisting diamond and carbonate. Our study adequately documents alteration on a scale commensurate with observed vein structures. But, testing the hypothesis of metamorphic origin of microdiamonds has not fully succeeded because our analytical spatial resolution, limited to 0.5 mm, is not small enough to measure individual dolomite inclusions or individual diamond crystals.  相似文献   

International accreditation of sandwich hybridisation assay format DNA probes for micro‐algae     

Katie Ayers  Lesley L. Rhodes  John Tyrrell  Melissa Gladstone  Chris Scholin 《新西兰海洋与淡水研究杂志》2013,47(6):1225-1231

The sandwich hybridisation assay (SHA) is a DNA probe‐based method for rapid identification and enumeration of toxic micro‐algae which uses species specific oligonucleotide probes targeted at ribosomal RNA. It is suited to fragile micro‐algal cells which commonly collapse during the fixation stage of sample collection, compromising identification by traditional microscopy. The assay has been available for research for several years, but was validated and accepted for international accreditation for commercial laboratory use in New Zealand in May 2004 (International Accreditation New Zealand: ISO 17025). During the validation of the raphidophyte assay, some discrepancies were noted between SHA cell concentration estimates and traditional light microscope cell counts. Higher SHA estimates were recorded when blooms had collapsed but rRNA was still present in sea water. Conversely, higher traditional cell counts occurred when sample delivery was delayed more than 48 h, presumably owing to degradation of rRNA in the live cultures used for the SHA. SHA cell concentration estimates of the toxic diatom bloom‐former Pseudo‐nitzschia australis were also compared with whole cell format DNA probe counts and traditional microscope counts; SHA counts were comparable for the three methods tested.  相似文献   

Decadal temperature changes in the Tasman Sea     

Philip J.H. Sutton  Melissa Bowen  Dean Roemmich 《新西兰海洋与淡水研究杂志》2013,47(6):1321-1329

Ocean temperature changes between 1991 and 2005 in the eastern Tasman Sea were analysed. This area was chosen because of a combination of data availability, low mesoscale variability and because of its importance in determining the climate of the downwind New Zealand landmass. A large warming extending to the full depth of the water column (c. 800 m) was found to have occurred between 1996 and 2002. This warming was seen in measurements by expendable bathythermographs and also in satellite sea surface temperature and sea surface height products, and has a clear impact on New Zealand's terrestrial temperature. The nature of the warming is discussed, together with likely forcing mechanisms. No local forcing mechanisms are consistent with the observed warming, leading to the conclusion that the signal seen in the Tasman Sea is part of a larger South Pacific‐wide phenomenon.  相似文献   

Radar imagery of Mercury’s putative polar ice: 1999-2005 Arecibo results     

John K. Harmon  Martin A. Slade  Melissa S. Rice 《Icarus》2011,211(1):37-50

We present an updated survey of Mercury’s putative polar ice deposits, based on high-resolution (1.5-km) imaging with the upgraded Arecibo S-band radar during 1999-2005. The north pole has now been imaged over a full range of longitude aspects, making it possible to distinguish ice-free areas from radar-shadowed areas and thus better map the distribution of radar-bright ice. The new imagery of the south pole, though derived from only a single pair of dates in 2005, improves on the pre-upgrade Arecibo imagery and reveals many additional ice features. Some medium-size craters located within 3° of the north pole show near-complete ice coverage over their floors, central peaks, and southern interior rim walls and little or no ice on their northern rim walls, while one large (90 km) crater at 85°N shows a sharp ice-cutoff line running across its central floor. All of this is consistent with the estimated polar extent of permanent shading from direct sunlight. Some craters show ice in regions that, though permanently shaded, should be too warm to maintain unprotected surface ice owing to indirect heating by reflected and reradiated sunlight. However, the ice distribution in these craters is in good agreement with models invoking insulation by a thin dust mantle. Comparisons with Goldstone X-band radar imagery indicate a wavelength dependence that could be consistent with such a dust mantle. More than a dozen small ice features have been found at latitudes between 67° and 75°. All of this low-latitude ice is probably sheltered in or under steep pole-facing crater rim walls, although, since most is located in the Mariner-unimaged hemisphere, confirmation must await imaging by the MESSENGER orbiter. These low-latitude features are concentrated toward the “cold longitudes,” possibly indicating a thermal segregation effect governed by indirect heating. The radar imagery places the corrected locations of the north and south poles at 7°W, 88.35°N and 90°W, 88.7°S, respectively, on the original Mariner-based maps.  相似文献