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Li, X., Blancheton, J. - P., Liu, Y., Triplet, S., & Michaud, L. (2014). Effect of oxidation-reduction potential on performance of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in recirculating aquaculture systems. Aquaculture International, 22(4), 1263–1282.
Résumé: The direct impact of oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) on fish welfare and water quality in marine recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is poorly documented. In this study, the effects of the fish size (S-1, S-2, S-3) and ORP level (normal, four successive levels) on the performance of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) were investigated. Three size fish were distributed into two RAS (RAS and RAS O-3). Ozone was injected into RAS O-3 to increase the ORP level. The ORP was stabilized to four successive levels: 260-300, 300-320, 320-350, and 300-320 mV in fish tanks during four periods (P1-4). At the last day of each period, the hematological parameters, plasma protein and mortality of sea bass were analyzed. Two-way ANOVA revealed that several hematological parameters, including pH, hematocrit, concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, glucose (Glu), ionized calcium, kalium, and hemoglobin, were significantly influenced by the increased ORP levels over the experimental period. The alteration in blood Glu and plasma protein concentration showed that ORP around 300-320 mV started to stress sea bass. Once the ORP exceeded 320 mV in the tanks during the P-3 period, mortality occurred even when total residual oxidants/ozone-produced oxidants was only 0.03-0.05 mg L-1 in the fish tanks. At the same time, plasma protein decreased notably due to appetite depression. After the decrease in ORP during the P-4 period, mortality continued. In conclusion, the results strongly suggest that for European sea bass in RAS, the ORP should not exceed 320 mV in the tanks. Once ozonation damaged fish, the effect seemed to be irreversible. However, how ORP affected related hematological parameters still need the further investigations.
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Moreau, S., Mostajir, B., Almandoz, G. O., Demers, S., Hernando, M., Lemarchand, K., et al. (2014). Effects of enhanced temperature and ultraviolet B radiation on a natural plankton community of the Beagle Channel (southern Argentina): a mesocosm study. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, 72(2), 155–173.
Résumé: ABSTRACT: Marine planktonic communities can be affected by increased temperatures associated with global climate change, as well as by increased ultraviolet B radiation (UVBR, 280-320 nm) through stratospheric ozone layer thinning. We studied individual and combined effects of increased temperature and UVBR on the plankton community of the Beagle Channel, southern Patagonia, Argentina. Eight 2 m3 mesocosms were exposed to 4 treatments (with 2 replicates) during 10 d: (1) control (natural temperature and UVBR), (2) increased UVBR (simulating a 60% decrease in stratospheric ozone layer thickness), (3) increased temperature (+ 3°C), and (4) simultaneous increased temperature and UVBR (60% decrease in stratospheric ozone; + 3°C). Two distinct situations were observed with regard to phytoplankton biomass: bloom (Days 1-4) and post-bloom (Days 5-9). Significant decreases in micro-sized diatoms (>20 µm), bacteria, chlorophyll a, and particulate organic carbon concentrations were observed during the post-bloom in the enhanced temperature treatments relative to natural temperature, accompanied by significant increases in nanophytoplankton (10-20 µm, mainly prymnesiophytes). The decrease in micro-sized diatoms in the high temperature treatment may have been caused by a physiological effect of warming, although we do not have activity measurements to support this hypothesis. Prymnesiophytes benefited from micro-sized diatom reduction in their competition for resources. The bacterial decrease under warming may have been due to a change in the dissolved organic matter release caused by the observed change in phytoplankton composition. Overall, the rise in temperature affected the structure and total biomass of the communities, while no major effect of UVBR was observed on the plankton community.
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Mari, X., Lefevre, J., Torreton, J. P., Bettarel, Y., Pringault, O., Rochelle-Newall, E., et al. (2014). Effects of soot deposition on particle dynamics and microbial processes in marine surface waters. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 28(7), 662–678.
Résumé: Large amounts of soot are continuously deposited on the global ocean. Even though significant concentrations of soot particles are found in marine waters, the effects of these aerosols on ocean ecosystems are currently unknown. Using a combination of in situ and experimental data, and results from an atmospheric transport model, we show that the deposition of soot particles from an oil-fired power plant impacted biogeochemical properties and the functioning of the pelagic ecosystem in tropical oligotrophic oceanic waters off New Caledonia. Deposition was followed by a major increase in the volume concentration of suspended particles, a change in the particle size spectra that resulted from a stimulation of aggregation processes, a 5% decrease in the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), a decreases of 33 and 23% in viral and free bacterial abundances, respectively, and a factor similar to 2 increase in the activity of particle-attached bacteria suggesting that soot introduced in the system favored bacterial growth. These patterns were confirmed by experiments with natural seawater conducted with both soot aerosols collected in the study area and standard diesel soot. The data suggest a strong impact of soot deposition on ocean surface particles, DOC, and microbial processes, at least near emission hot spots.
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Lett, C., Semeria, M., Thiebault, A., & Tremblay, Y. (2014). Effects of successive predator attacks on prey aggregations. Theor Ecol, 7(3), 239–252.
Résumé: We study the cumulative effect of successive predator attacks on the disturbance of a prey aggregation using a modelling approach. Our model intends to represent fish schools attacked by both aerial and underwater predators. This individual-based model uses long-distance attraction and short-distance repulsion between prey, which leads to prey aggregation and swarming in the absence of predators. When intermediate-distance alignment is added to the model, the prey aggregation displays a cohesive displacement, i.e., schooling, instead of swarming. Including predators, i.e. with repulsion behaviour for prey to predators in the model, leads to flash expansion of the prey aggregation after a predator attack. When several predators attack successively, the prey aggregation dynamics is a succession of expanding-grouping-swarming/schooling phases. We quantify this dynamics by recording the changes in the simulated prey aggregation radius over time. This radius is computed as the longest distance of individual prey to the aggregation centroid, and it is assumed to increase along with prey disturbance. The prey aggregation radius generally increases during flash expansion, then decreases during grouping until reaching a constant lowest level during swarming/schooling. This general dynamics is modulated by several parameters: the frequency, direction (vertical vs. horizontal) and target (centroid of the prey aggregation vs. random prey) of predator attacks; the distance at which prey detect predators; the number of prey and predators. Our results suggest that both aerial and underwater predators are more efficient at disturbing fish schools by increasing their attack frequency at such level that the fish cannot return to swarming/schooling. We find that a mix between aerial and underwater predators is more efficient at disturbing a fish school than a single type of attack, suggesting that aerial and underwater foragers may gain mutual benefits in forming foraging groups.
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Canard, E. F., Mouquet, N., Mouillot, D., Stanko, M., Miklisova, D., & Gravel, D. (2014). Empirical Evaluation of Neutral Interactions in Host-Parasite Networks. American Naturalist, 183(4), 468–479.
Résumé: While niche-based processes have been invoked extensively to explain the structure of interaction networks, recent studies propose that neutrality could also be of great importance. Under the neutral hypothesis, network structure would simply emerge from random encounters between individuals and thus would be directly linked to species abundance. We investigated the impact of species abundance distributions on qualitative and quantitative metrics of 113 host-parasite networks. We analyzed the concordance between neutral expectations and empirical observations at interaction, species, and network levels. We found that species abundance accurately predicts network metrics at all levels. Despite host-parasite systems being constrained by physiology and immunology, our results suggest that neutrality could also explain, at least partially, their structure. We hypothesize that trait matching would determine potential interactions between species, while abundance would determine their realization.
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