The New Zealand pāua or black footed abalone,
Haliotis iris
, is one of many mollusc species at potential risk from ocean acidification and warming. To investigate possible impacts, juvenile pāua ...(~24 mm shell length) were grown for 4 months in seawater pH/pCO
2
conditions projected for 2100. End of century seawater projections (pH
T
7.66/pCO
2
~1,000 μatm) were contrasted with local ambient conditions (pH
T
8.00/pCO
2
~400 μatm) at two typical temperatures (13 and 15 °C). We used a combination of methods (morphometric, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction) to investigate effects on juvenile survival and growth, as well as shell mineralogy and integrity. Lowered pH did not affect survival, growth rate or condition, but animals grew significantly faster at the higher temperature. Juvenile pāua were able to biomineralise their inner nacreous aragonite layer and their outer prismatic calcite layer under end-of-century pH conditions, at both temperatures, and carbonate composition was not affected. There was some thickening of the nacre layer in the newly deposited shell with reduced pH and also at the higher temperature. Most obvious was post-depositional alteration of the shell under lowered pH: the prismatic calcite layer was thinner, and there was greater etching of the external shell surface; this dissolution was greater at the higher temperature. These results demonstrate the importance of even a small (2 °C) difference in temperature on growth and shell characteristics, and on modifying the effects at lowered pH. Projected CO
2
-related changes may affect shell quality of this iconic New Zealand mollusc through etching (dissolution) and thinning, with potential implications for resilience to physical stresses such as predation and wave action.
Most marine sponges precipitate silicate skeletal elements, and it has been predicted that they would be among the few “winners” among invertebrates in an acidifying, high-CO2 ocean. But members of ...Class Calcarea and a small proportion of the Demospongiae have calcified skeletal structures, which puts them among those calcifying organisms which are vulnerable to lowered pH and CO3= availability. A review of carbonate mineralogy in marine sponges (75 specimens, 32 species), along with new data from New Zealand (42 specimens in 15 species) allows us to investigate patterns and make predictions. In general sponges show little variability within individuals and within species (±0.5wt.% MgCO3 in calcite). Extant sponges in Class Calcarea generally produce calcitic spicules with relatively high Mg contents, up to 15wt.% MgCO3. Whereas most of the calcifying demosponges are aragonitic, the genus Acanthochaetetes in the order Hadromerida produces extremely high-Mg calcite (14 to 18wt.% MgCO3). There is generally a weak phylogenetic consistency among classes, orders and families. Statistical analyses, including those accounting for these phylogenetic effects, fail to find a substantial or significant effect of water temperature on mineralogical variation. In the context of global ocean acidification, sponges which produce high-Mg calcite and/or aragonite will be most vulnerable to dissolution, meaning that not all sponges will be “winners” in a high-CO2 ocean.
•Calcifying sponges show a range of mineralogies from high-Mg calcite to aragonite.•Association between phylogeny and mineralogy undercuts environmental correlations.•Sponges producing high-Mg calcite/aragonite will not be “winners” in high-CO2 seas.
No‐take marine reserves are an important management tool in the conservation and restoration of marine habitats around the world. They are intended to provide spatial refugia for exploited species ...and to protect sensitive habitat and biodiversity hot spots.
Despite strong evidence that marine reserves enhance overall biodiversity, it is not clear that this effect extends to all taxonomic groups. Most marine reserves are designed to protect large mobile fauna. Their effect on small sessile benthic invertebrates is unclear, yet these organisms provide critical ecosystem functions.
Three hundred and seventy‐eight images and associated faunal descriptions were compared from 2007 and 2018 in Ulva Island/Te Wharawhara Marine Reserve, Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand (46.9°S, 168.1°E, 0–25 m depth, established 2004), to discern the effect of non‐extractive marine protection on a soft‐sediment temperate benthic community.
Qualitative habitat types observed in the 2018 images were similar to those described in 2007. There was a significant positive effect of protection on benthic invertebrate abundance between 2007 and 2018 across Paterson Inlet/Whaka a Te Wera. Additionally, there were significantly more benthic invertebrates within reserve sites compared with sites outside the reserve in 2018.
Based on these positive effects, it can be concluded that Ulva Island/Te Wharawhara Marine Reserve has facilitated an increase in the biodiversity of the benthic invertebrate community of Paterson Inlet/Whaka a Te Wera, Stewart Island/Rakiura.
Interestingly, heavily calcified biogenic reefs were present within Paterson Inlet/Whaka a Te Wera, but not within the reserve itself. The re‐evaluation of marine reserve boundaries could result in more comprehensive and representative management of the rich marine environment around Stewart Island/Rakiura.
Sustainable agroecosystems provide adequate food while supporting environmental and human wellbeing and are a key part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Some strategies to ...promote sustainability include reducing inputs, substituting conventional crops with genetically modified (GM) alternatives, and using organic production. Here, we leveraged global databases covering 121 countries to determine which farming strategies—the amount of inputs per area (fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation), GM crops, and percent agriculture in organic production—are most correlated with 12 sustainability metrics recognized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Using quantile regression, we found that countries with higher Human Development Indices (HDI) (including education, income, and lifespan), higher-income equality, lower food insecurity, and higher cereal yields had the most organic production and inputs. However, input-intensive strategies were associated with greater agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, countries with more GM crops were last on track to meeting the SDG of reduced inequalities. Using a longitudinal analysis spanning 2004–2018, we found that countries were generally decreasing inputs and increasing their share of agriculture in organic production. Also, in disentangling correlation vs. causation, we hypothesize that a country's development is more likely to drive changes in agricultural strategies than
vice versa
. Altogether, our correlative analyses suggest that countries with greater progress toward the SDGs of no poverty, zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, quality education, decent work, economic growth, and reduced inequalities had the highest production of organic agriculture and, to a lesser extent, intensive use of inputs.
Psychiatric disorders are prevalent in dermatology patients. Psychodermatology is the body of knowledge at the intersection of psychiatry and dermatology practice. The purpose of this literature ...review was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health care professionals regarding psychodermatology. A search of relevant articles was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, and PsychInfo databases using a comprehensive set of search terms. Studies were included if (1) study participants were health care professionals, (2) studies contained data that could be extracted, and (3) studies were published in peer-reviewed journals. A review of study findings was conducted. A total of nine studies were included in the review. Studies were conducted in several countries. Findings from the review confirmed that providers frequently reported psychocutaneous disorders in their practice. There were, however, gaps and variations in providers’ knowledge base and level of comfort treating these patients. Further, providers acknowledged a lack of training in the practice of psychodermatology. The findings from this review suggest that health care professionals from multiple areas of the world may lack a full understanding, level of comfort, and proper training in psychodermatology. Improving the knowledge base and increasing level of comfort in treating psychodermatological disorders can improve the practice of psychodermatology amongst providers. Further, addressing knowledge and comfort level among providers through training and continuing education may improve outcomes for patients with psychocutaneous disorders.
OBJECTIVESThe objective of this study was to compare usage of computed tomography (CT) scan for evaluation of appendicitis in a children’s hospital emergency department before and after ...implementation of a clinical practice guideline focused on early surgical consultation before obtaining advanced imaging.
METHODSA multidisciplinary team met to create a pathway to formalize the evaluation of pediatric patients with abdominal pain. Computed tomography scan utilization rates were studied before and after pathway implementation.
RESULTSAmong patients who had appendectomy in the year before implementation (n = 70), 90% had CT scans, 6.9% had ultrasound, and 5.7% had no imaging. The negative appendectomy rate before implementation was 5.7%. In patients undergoing appendectomy in the postimplementation cohort (n = 96), 48% underwent CT, 39.6% underwent ultrasound, and 15.6% had no imaging. The negative appendectomy rate was 5.2%. We demonstrated a 41% decrease in CT use for patients undergoing appendectomy at our institution without an increase in the negative appendectomy rate or missed appendectomy. The results were even more striking when comparing the rate of CT scan use in the subset of patients undergoing appendectomy without imaging from an outside hospital. In these patients, CT scan utilization decreased from 82% to 20%, a 76% reduction in CT use in our facility after protocol implementation.
CONCLUSIONSImplementation of a clinical evaluation pathway emphasizing examination, early surgeon involvement, and utilization of ultrasound as the initial imaging modality for evaluation of abdominal pain concerning for appendicitis resulted in a marked decrease in the reliance on CT scanning without loss of diagnostic accuracy.
Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is a powerful microscopic technique to characterise the crystallography of biomineralisation. Here, we use high-resolution EBSD to characterise one of the ...least studied shells in the ocean, the female argonaut brood chamber, and to examine the changes in shell microstructure in response to incubation in decreased pH conditions. The thin (225 μm) shell of
Argonauta nodosa
is magnesium calcite with an average magnesium content of ca. 5.1 Wt % MgCO
3
. EBSD and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that calcification of the shell is bidirectional with formation of irregular crystalline grains. Following a 2 week incubation in a range of pH treatments (pH, 8.1–7.2), shell fragment weight decreased by dissolution in pH ≤ 7.8. EBSD and SEM revealed altered shell crystallography and microstructure at pH ≤ 7.4 due to preferential etching down crystallite grain boundaries and a change in crystalline orientation on both the inner and outer shell surfaces. Our study highlights the value of EBSD for the detailed examination of biogenic carbonates and its potential use in the field of ocean acidification research.
Cool-water shelf carbonates differ from tropical carbonates in their sources, modes, and rates of deposition, geochemistry, and diagenesis. Inorganic precipitation, marine cementation, and sediment ...accumulation rates are absent or slow in cool waters, so that temperate carbonates remain longer at or near the sea bed. Early sea-floor processes, occurring between biogenic calcification and ultimate deposition, thus take on an important role, and there is the potential for considerable taphonomic loss of skeletal information into the fossilised record of cool-water carbonate deposits. The physical breakdown processes of dissociation, breakage, and abrasion are mediated mainly by hydraulic regime, and are always destructive. Impact damage reduces the size of grains, removes structure and therefore information, and ultimately may transform skeletal material into anonymous particles. Abrasion is highly selective amongst and within taxa, their skeletal form and structure strongly influencing resistance to mechanical breakdown. Dissolution and precipitation are the end-members of a two-way chemical equilibrium operating in sea water. In cool waters, inorganic precipitation is rare. There is conflicting opinion about the importance of diagenetic dissolution of carbonate skeletons on the temperate sea floor, but test maceration and early loss of aragonite in particular are reported. Dissolution may relate to undersaturated acidic pore waters generated locally by a combination of microbial metabolisation of organic matter, strong bioturbation, and oxidation of solid phase sulphides immediately beneath the sea floor in otherwise very slowly accumulating skeletal deposits. Laboratory experiments demonstrate that surface-to-volume ratio and skeletal mineralogy are both important in determining skeletal resistance to dissolution. Biological processes on the sea floor include encrustation and bioerosion. Encrustation, a constructive process, may be periodic or seasonal, and can be reversed. It produces both information and material. Bioerosion, in contrast, is destructive and permanent. In temperate areas bioerosion may destroy even very large shells during their long residence at the sea floor, on the order of hundreds to thousands of years. Overall, processes on the temperate sea floor may combine to destroy more carbonate than they produce, and the preservation potential of temperate shelf carbonate into the rock record may be significantly affected. Where preservation does occur in such a destructive regime, the effects of early sea-floor processes will be key determinants of the deposit, resulting in a “taphofacies” characteristic of temperate shelf carbonate sediments.
Habitat-forming deep-sea scleractinian and alcyonacean corals from around the southwest Pacific were analysed for their calcium carbonate mineralogy. Scleractinian coral species Solenosmilia ...variabilis, Enallopsammia rostrata, Goniocorella dumosa, Madrepora oculata and Oculina virgosa were all found to be 100% aragonitic, while some members of the alcyonacean taxa Keratoisis spp., Lepidisis spp., and Paragorgia spp. were determined to be high magnesium (Mg) calcite (with 8–11mol% MgCO3) and Primnoa sp. is bimineralic with both aragonite and Mg calcite. The majority of these habitat-forming deep-sea corals are found at intermediate depths (800–1200m) in the Antarctic Intermediate Waters (AAIW) with low salinities (~34.5), temperatures of 4–8°C and high oxygen concentrations (>180μmol/kg) and currently sitting above the aragonite saturation horizon (ASH). However, habitat-forming corals have been recorded from greater depths, in cooler waters (2–4°C) that are undersaturated with respect to aragonite (Ωaragonite<1), but with oxygen levels still >160μmol/kg. To address the sampling depth bias the coral records were normalised by the number of benthic stations (sampling effort) in the same depth range. This shows that the highest number of corals per sampling effort is between 1000 and 1400m with corals present in over 5% of the stations at these depths. The normalised records and Boot Strap analyses suggests that scleractinian corals, especially S. variabilis should be present in >1% of stations down to 1800m water depth, with E. rostrata, M. oculata and G. dumosa slightly shallower. While alcyonacean corals are found in >1% down to 2600m, with Keratoisis spp. the deepest down to 2600m, while Lepidisis spp. and Paragorgia spp. found down to 1800m. This suggests that most species can probably tolerate some undersaturation of aragonite (Ωaragonite=0.8–0.9), with several species/genera (S. variabilis; Keratoisis spp.) even more tolerant of lower carbonate concentrations (CO32−), down to Ωaragonite of 0.7. With this tolerance for some carbonate undersaturation it is unclear how deep sea habitat-forming corals might respond to future ocean acidification. It is likely that some species/genera will cope better than others. However, future changes in oxygen concentrations and food availability, are also going to have a strong influence on the depth and spatial distribution of deep-sea corals in the southwest Pacific.
•The carbonate mineralogy of deep-sea habitat-forming corals in the southwest Pacific region was determined.•Some species may be able to tolerate lower carbonate concentrations than others.•It is unclear how future ocean acidification may affect these deep-sea habitat-forming corals.
Skeletal carbonate mineralogy of the bryozoan
Odontionella cyclops (Busk, 1854) (family Foveolariidae) is extremely variable, with calcite:aragonite ratio ranging from 27 to 100
wt.% calcite (mean
=
...57
wt.% calcite, SD
=
15,
n
=
118), and Mg content in calcite varying from 3.6 to 8.8
wt.% MgCO
3 (mean
=
6.2
wt.% MgCO
3, SD
=
1.1,
n
=
118). This study examines the sources of this wide variability and the possible effects of ocean acidification on bimineral invertebrates. Variation in calcite:aragonite ratio in
O. cyclops is neither environmental nor related to colonial growth form, but appears to be astogenetic. Primary calcification of the zooecial ‘box’ is all calcite, followed by progressive construction of a secondary aragonitic superstructure which includes avicularia. Consequently, young parts of the colony are dominated by calcite, with increasing amounts of aragonite with age. Very old parts of the colony may have the aragonite eroded or chipped away to become again entirely calcitic. In contrast with many other bryozoans that are entirely calcitic or mainly aragonitic, this bipartite structure may result in increased vulnerability to ocean acidification. Given the southern-temperate shelf-to-slope distribution of this species,
O. cyclops (and others like it) will begin to be subjected to decreasing pH in only a few decades. The consequence could be a modern sediment assemblage similar to a diagenetically-altered fossil assemblage — missing aragonitic skeletal parts and species.
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