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Marine Algae (marine + alga)
Selected AbstractsMARINE ALGAE ASSOCIATED WITH CARIBBEAN ROCKY SHORES, QUINTANA ROO, MEXICOJOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 2001Article first published online: 24 SEP 200 Albert, E. M. & Lehman, R. L. Center for Coastal Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX 78412 USA Rocky shores located on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula are typically high-energy habitats associated with fringing or barrier reef systems. They are phytokarstic (iron-shore) consisting of fossiliferous limestone that is composed of stony coral skeletons. This study compares the macroalgae from three rocky shores located on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Fifteen 0.25m2 quadrates were randomly placed in the intertidal and subtidal zones and evaluated for dominant algal cover. In addition, fifteen 0.25 m2 quadrates of standing stock material was randomly collected and used to characterize algal composition, species richness, abundance, and biomass. A voucher collection including herbarium mounts and preserved specimens were prepared for all species encountered. Thirty-five species were identified representing three divisions: Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta, and Phaeophyta. Rhodophyta had the highest species richness with a total of fifteen taxa identified. Phaeophyta had the lowest species richness with seven taxa but dominated algal coverage at two of the three sites. Chlorophyta was represented by thirteen species. Species common to all points were represented by Digenia simplex, Laurencia poiteaui, Laurencia sp., Polysiphonia sp., Microdictyon marinum, Halimeda opuntia, Dictyosphaeria cavernosa, Padina sanctae-crucis, and Turbinaria tricostata. [source] Biosorption of heavy metal using brown seaweed in a regenerable continuous columnASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2008N. Rajamohan Abstract This paper deals with the experimental investigation on removal of cadmium [Cd(II)] ions from an aqueous solution using a marine alga, Sargassum tenerrimum, in a fixed-bed column. The effects of the inlet flow rate and the sorbent bed height on the biosorption of Cd(II) ions were studied. The dynamics of column biosorption was modeled by the bed depth service time (BDST) model and the Thomas model. The BDST model was used to study the dynamic sorption behavior at different bed heights, whereas the Thomas model was used to fit the column biosorption data at different flow rates. The uptake capacity and the breakthrough time increase with an increase in the bed height. The sorption capacities of the bed per unit volume and the rate constant Ka were found to be 3819.42 mg/l and 0.0353 mg/h respectively. In flow rate experiments, the results confirmed that the metal uptake capacity and the metal removal efficiency of S. tenerrimum decreased with increasing flow rate. The Thomas model was used to fit the column biosorption data at different flow rates and model constants were evaluated. After five sorption,desorption cycles, the selected marine alga exhibited a high cadmium uptake of 63.43 mg/g. Copyright © 2008 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Characterization of marine isoprene-degrading communitiesENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 12 2009Laura Acuña Alvarez Summary Isoprene is a volatile and climate-altering hydrocarbon with an atmospheric concentration similar to that of methane. It is well established that marine algae produce isoprene; however, until now there was no specific information about marine isoprene sinks. Here we demonstrate isoprene consumption in samples from temperate and tropical marine and coastal environments, and furthermore show that the most rapid degradation of isoprene coincides with the highest rates of isoprene production in estuarine sediments. Isoprene-degrading enrichment cultures, analysed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and by culturing, were generally dominated by Actinobacteria, but included other groups such as Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, previously not known to degrade isoprene. In contrast to specialist methane-oxidizing bacteria, cultivated isoprene degraders were nutritionally versatile, and nearly all of them were able to use n -alkanes as a source of carbon and energy. We therefore tested and showed that the ubiquitous marine hydrocarbon-degrader, Alcanivorax borkumensis, could also degrade isoprene. A mixture of the isolates consumed isoprene emitted from algal cultures, confirming that isoprene can be metabolized at low, environmentally relevant concentrations, and suggesting that, in the absence of spilled petroleum hydrocarbons, algal production of isoprene could maintain viable populations of hydrocarbon-degrading microbes. This discovery of a missing marine sink for isoprene is the first step in obtaining more robust predictions of its flux, and suggests that algal-derived isoprene provides an additional source of carbon for diverse microbes in the oceans. [source] Bioconcentration of persistent organic pollutants in four species of marine phytoplanktonENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 11 2005Antje Gerofke Abstract The uptake of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was studied in four species of marine algae. A novel experimental system to establish and maintain constant dissolved concentrations of PCBs was employed. Headspace sampling was used to verify that the freely dissolved concentrations remained constant with time. The headspace analysis also allowed sorption to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to be quantified for all but the most lipophilic PCB congeners. Equilibration with the dissolved phase was rapid for three of the four algae species (<1 d for the majority of congeners). Organic carbon,normalized algae/water partition coefficients (KAlgW) were similar for three of the four species, but were lower by a factor of 10 to 20 for Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The KAlgW values of the first three species were similar to the octanol/water partition coefficient (KOW) for those PCB congeners for which DOC sorption could be quantified. These KAlgW values also agreed well with organic carbon,normalized bioconcentration factors for PCBs in suspended particulate matter (BCFSPM) sampled in Baltic Sea surface water during the summer. [source] BIOGEOGRAPHY OF MARINE RED ALGAE: MYTHS AND REALITIESJOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 2001Article first published online: 24 SEP 200 Hommersand, M. H. Department of Biology, Coker Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280 USA Theories about the geographical distribution of marine algae fall roughly into two categories: (1) a concept of biogeographical regions in which algal distribution is determined primarily by growth, reproductive and lethal temperature boundaries (Setchell, van den Hoek, Breeman, Lüning) and (2) an historical perspective in which distribution is determined primarily by patterns of dispersal and the establishment of barriers to dispersal (vicariance biogeography) (Svedelius, Garbary, Lindstrom, Hommersand). Setchell proposed the 5° isotherm rule in 1920, and in 1924 Svedelius advocated a worldwide distribution for tropical and subtropical groups followed by discontinuous distribution upon closure of the connection between the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea and, later, between North and South America (Wegener's theory). Transarctic dispersal routes have received special attention in recent years (Lindstrom, Lüning, van Oppen, Olsen, Stam), as have special relationships between Australasia, South Africa and South America (Hommersand). Less well understood are the climatic changes that have taken place in the Cenozoic which are strategic to an understanding vicariant biogeography. The advent of molecular methods combined with the tools of phylogenetic systematics now make it possible to identify ancestral taxa, test the consistency of tree topologies, and calculate mean branch lengths between sister lineages diverging from an interior node of a tree. With such methods it may be possible to infer ancestral areas, identify dispersal pathways, determine the chronology of isolating events, assess the impact of multiple invasions, and generally relate dispersal and vicariance models to phylogenetic hypotheses for red, brown and green algal taxa. [source] THE END-PERMIAN MASS EXTINCTION WAS SYNCHRONOUS COINCIDED WITH THE EVOLUTION OF TOXIC ALGAEJOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 2001Article first published online: 24 SEP 200 Lee, R. E.1 & Kugrens, P.2 1Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523; 2Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80523 USA The cause of the end-Permian mass extinction, the greatest of all mass extinctions, is one of the most intriguing mysteries in the history of life. The end-Permian mass extinction was primarily a marine event, resulting principally in the elimination of sessile filter-feeding organisms. Based on two methods, molecular clocks and correlation with ancient atmospheric CO2, the algae derived from secondary endosymbioses are believed to have originated in the middle to late Permian. All of the toxic marine algae in today's oceans are derived from secondary endosymbioses. Therefore it appears likely that the end-Permian extinction was due to the evolution of toxic algae in the phytoplankton of late-Permian seas. Sieving of the toxic algae in the phytoplankton likely resulted in the decline and eventual elimination of a large portion of the Paleozoic fauna during the end-Permian mass extinction. [source] EXCHANGES OF INFORMATION, ENERGY & MATERIALS IN SYMBIOSESJOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, Issue 2000J.A. Raven Symbiosis is important in the cell and environmental biology of algae. Some examples involving the author and numerous collaborators include: 1) chloroplasts of eukaryotic algae arose from endosymbioses. Plastids are incapable of independent existence; most of the genes of the cyanobacterial photobiont have been lost, and the majority of the rest have been transferred to the nuclear genome. Some of the genes retained by the plastid are those whose transcription is controlled by environmental cues transduced by the organelle. The general trend is for organelle genes to be transferred to the nucleus, escaping plastid redox activities generating mutagenic free radicals; 2) symbioses involving potentially free-living photobionts include marine lichens and sponges with cyanobacterial symbionts. For the lichen, Lichina, inorganic carbon acquisition appears to involve inorganic carbon transport by the mycobiont, and for the sponge, Cymbastella, the flagellar activity of the sponge is probably important for inorganic carbon supply to the photobiont; 3) the Australasian fucalean, Notheia, is an obligate epiphyte on the fucaleans, Hormosira and Xiphophora; the four species involved all contain the hexitol, altritol. Notheia anomala is known to be phyletically-distant from the other five altritol-containing species. Can Notheia synthesize altritol, or is it obtained from the phorophyte?; 4) Sacoglossan gastropods retain kleptoplastids (not strictly symbionts) from ulvophycean (or rhodophycean) marine algae. Analyses of the natural abundance of stable carbon isotopes suggest significant contribution of kleptoplastid photosynthesis to the carbon and energy budget of the mollusks. [source] Chronology of the last recession of the Greenland Ice SheetJOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, Issue 3 2002Ole Bennike Abstract A new deglaciation chronology for the ice-free parts of Greenland, the continental shelf and eastern Ellesmere Island (Canada) is proposed. The chronology is based on a new compilation of all published radiocarbon dates from Greenland, and includes crucial new material from southern, northeastern and northwestern Greenland. Although each date provides only a minimum age for the local deglaciation, some of the dates come from species that indicate ice-proximal glaciomarine conditions, and thus may be connected with the actual ice recession. In addition to shell dates, dates from marine algae, lake sediments, peat, terrestrial plants and driftwood also are included. Only offshore and in the far south have secure late-glacial sediments been found. Other previous reports of late-glacial sediments (older than 11.5 cal. kyr BP) from onshore parts of Greenland need to be confirmed. Most of the present ice-free parts of Greenland and Nares Strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island were not deglaciated until the early Holocene. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Phylogeny and Nucleomorph Karyotype Diversity of Chlorarachniophyte AlgaeTHE JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2007TIA D. SILVER ABSTRACT. Chlorarachniophytes are flagellated and/or reticulopod-forming marine algae with chlorophyll a - and b -containing plastids of secondary endosymbiotic origin. They are one of only two algal groups known to possess a "nucleomorph" (i.e. the remnant nucleus of the eukaryotic endosymbiont that donated the plastid). Apart from the recently sequenced nucleomorph genome of Bigelowiella natans, little is known about the size, structure, and composition of chlorarachniophyte nucleomorph genomes. Toward the goal of better understanding nucleomorph genome diversity, as well as establishing a phylogenetic framework with which to interpret variation in chlorarachniophyte morphology, ultrastructure, and life cycle, we are studying a wide range of chlorarachniophyte strains from public culture collections and natural habitats. We have obtained 22 new chlorarachniophyte nuclear and nucleomorph 18S rRNA gene (18S rDNA) sequences and nucleomorph genome size estimates for 14 different strains. Consistent with previous studies, all of the chlorarachniophytes examined appear to possess three nucleomorph chromosomes. However, our results suggest considerable variation in nucleomorph genome size and structure, with individual chromosome sizes ranging from ,90 to ,210 kbp, and total genome sizes between ,330 kbp in Lotharella amoebiformis and ,610 kbp in unidentified chlorarachniophyte strain CCMP622. The significance of these phylogenetic and nucleomorph karyotype data is discussed. [source] Entering and breaking: virulence effector proteins of oomycete plant pathogensCELLULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Brett M. Tyler Summary Oomycete pathogens of plants and animals are related to marine algae and have evolved mechanisms to avoid or suppress host defences independently of other groups of pathogens, such as bacteria and fungi. They cause many destructive diseases affecting crops, forests and aquaculture. The development of genomic resources has led to a dramatic increase in our knowledge of the effectors used by these pathogens to suppress host defences. In particular, a huge, rapidly diverging superfamily of effectors with 100,600 members per genome has been identified. Proteins in this family use the N-terminal motifs RxLR and dEER to cross the host plasma cell membrane autonomously. Once inside the host cell, the proteins suppress host defence signalling. The importance of this effector family is underlined by the fact that plants have evolved intracellular defence receptors to detect the effectors and trigger a rapid counter-attack. The mechanisms by which the effector enter host cells, and by which they suppress host defences, remain to be elucidated. [source] | ||||||||||