1,738 publications from this institution
Abstract. CO2-driven compromises to marine life were examined along the Chilean sector of the Humboldt Current System, a particularly vulnerable hypoxic and upwelling area, applying the Respiration index (RI = log10 pO20.7) declining by half between 42° S and 28° S. The intermediate waters hardly reached those stations closer to the equator so that the increased pCO2 lowered pH and the saturation of aragonite. A significant fraction of the water column along the Chilean sector of the Humboldt Current System suffers from CO2–driven compromises to biota, including waters corrosive to calcifying organisms, stress to aerobic organisms or both. The habitat free of CO2-driven stresses was restricted to the upper mixed layer and to small water parcels at about 1000 m depth. pCO2 acts as a hinge connecting respiratory and calcification challenges expected to increase in the future, resulting in a spread of the challenges to aerobic organisms.
Global warming and other anthropogenic impacts have driven coral reef degradation on a global scale to unprecedented levels of decline, with further dramatic deterioration predicted by the end of this century. Along with a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, we face an imperative to restore and maintain marine habitats to secure the ecosystem services they provide. While terrestrial systems have benefited from the agricultural revolution that provided industrial tools for effective habitat restoration, limited access to marine environments has inhibited similar levels of innovation resulting in a lack of cost-effective and scalable solutions. Commercial off-the-shelf technologies to cater to this growing industry are still absent. Here we conducted a systematic analysis of patent and scientific literature data as indicators of research and development (R&D) output in the field of coral restoration. We identify technology growth trends, key areas of technological development, and their geographical distribution. While the number of inventions filed for coral restoration is on the rise, similar to the published academic literature, the stakeholders leading both fields are unrelated. Academic research appears to lack translation into inventions for commercialization. Intellectual property protection further seems to be spearheaded by a few countries and is often limited in its application to national jurisdictions, with China dominating this sector. This does not mirror the distribution of current and need for coral restoration efforts globally. Here we discuss potential differences in cultural, socio-economic, and philosophical ideologies that drive these divergences and their impact as inhibitors or promoters of innovations targeting coral restoration solutions.
The paper — Seaweed ecosystems may not mitigate CO2 emissions (Gallagher et al., 2022) — claims that seaweed ecosystems are carbon sources rather than carbon sinks because ‘respiration subsidies’ (from inputs of allochthonous organic carbon) create negative net ecosystem production. That is, that seaweed ecosystems produce more CO2 than they draw down, and thus may not mitigate CO2 emissions. They make this claim using a compiled dataset which shows that, on average, seaweed ecosystems are net heterotrophic. However, their assessment is flawed and conceptually misleading as key terms are misinterpreted, the data presented are biased, and the conclusions are not supported statistically. Here we discuss four flaws in the argument presented by Gallagher et al., which we believe risk confusing further research on seaweed blue carbon and unjustifiably seeding doubt around motivations and initiatives to protect and restore seaweed forests.
Thls study demonstrates that patch development in a Mediterranean con~munity of Cymodocea nodosa (Ucria) Ascherson, growing over highly mobile sandy sediments, proceeds by colonization by seedlings (0.047 m-' yr-'), and subsequent patch development by the surviving seedlings (< 10 %).Increased patch cover is obtalned by fast growlng rhizomes (average elongat~on = 1.6 m yr-'), and coalescence of neighbour patches.Honzontal patch growth varied substantially among patches due to enhanced patch elongat~on with Increasing patch slze, whereas growth vanance withln patches was attributable to interannual d~fferences consistent among d~fferent patches.Comparisons of the measured patch spread rates with those for other seagrasses specles show substantial variability (> 2 orders of m a g n ~t u d e ) in horizontal growth rates that ~m p l ~e s broad d~fferences in the potent~al for recovery among seagrass species
Abstract. The concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater emanating as spring discharge at several locations in Florida, USA, and the net rate of DOC increase in the downstream receiving waters were measured as part of a larger investigation of carbon dynamics in flowing waters. Springs with high discharge (>2.8 m3 s−1) were found to be the most organic-poor natural waters yet reported (13 ±1.6 μmol C L−1), while springs with lesser discharge exhibited somewhat higher DOC concentrations (values ranging from 30 to 77 μmol C L−1). DOC concentrations increased rapidly downstream from the point of spring discharge, with the calculated net areal input rate of DOC ranging from 0.04 to 1.64 mol C m−2 d−1 across springs. Rates of DOC increase were generally greater in those springs with high discharge rates. These input rates compare favorably with values reported for gross primary production in these macrophyte-dominated spring systems, assuming that 17% of macrophyte primary production is lost, on average, as DOC. The measures reported here are possible only because of the remarkably low DOC levels in the up-surging groundwaters and the short residency times of the water in the spring-runs themselves.
A sensitive and selective automated in-syringe dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) method is presented. It was successfully applied to the determination of aluminum in coastal seawater samples. The complete analytical procedure including sampling, buffering, reaction of the analyte with fluorescence reagent lumogallion (LMG), extraction, phase separation, and quantification was completely automized and carried out within 4 min. DLLME was done using n-hexanol as an extracting solvent and ethanol as a dispersing solvent in a 1:8 v/v percent mixture. The Al-LMG complex was extracted by an organic solvent and separated from the aqueous phase within the syringe of an automated syringe pump. Two devices were specially developed for this work. These were (a) the fluorescence detector and accompanying flow cell for the organic phase enriched with the reaction product and (b) a heating device integrated into the holding coil to accelerate the slow reaction kinetics. The limits of detection (3σ) and quantification (10σ) were 8.0 ± 0.5 nmol L(-1) and 26.7 ± 1.6 nmol L(-1), respectively. The relative standard deviation for eight replicate determinations of 200 nmol L(-1) Al(3+) was <1.5%. The calibration graph using the preconcentration system was linear up to 1000 nmol L(-1) with a correlation coefficient of 0.999. Ambient concentrations of samples were quantifiable with found concentrations ranging from 43 to 142 nmol L(-1). Standard additions gave analyte recoveries from 97% to 113% proving the general applicability and adequateness of the analyzer system to real sample analysis.
