Although geographical patterns of species' sensitivity to environmental changes are defined by interacting multiple stressors, little is known about compensatory processes shaping regional ...differences in organismal vulnerability. Here, we examine large‐scale spatial variations in biomineralization under heterogeneous environmental gradients of temperature, salinity and food availability across a 30° latitudinal range (3,334 km), to test whether plasticity in calcareous shell production and composition, from juveniles to large adults, mediates geographical patterns of resilience to climate change in critical foundation species, the mussels Mytilus edulis and M. trossulus. We find shell calcification decreased towards high latitude, with mussels producing thinner shells with a higher organic content in polar than temperate regions. Salinity was the best predictor of within‐region differences in mussel shell deposition, mineral and organic composition. In polar, subpolar, and Baltic low‐salinity environments, mussels produced thin shells with a thicker external organic layer (periostracum), and an increased proportion of calcite (prismatic layer, as opposed to aragonite) and organic matrix, providing potentially higher resistance against dissolution in more corrosive waters. Conversely, in temperate, higher salinity regimes, thicker, more calcified shells with a higher aragonite (nacreous layer) proportion were deposited, which suggests enhanced protection under increased predation pressure. Interacting effects of salinity and food availability on mussel shell composition predict the deposition of a thicker periostracum and organic‐enriched prismatic layer under forecasted future environmental conditions, suggesting a capacity for increased protection of high‐latitude populations from ocean acidification. These findings support biomineralization plasticity as a potentially advantageous compensatory mechanism conferring Mytilus species a protective capacity for quantitative and qualitative trade‐offs in shell deposition as a response to regional alterations of abiotic and biotic conditions in future environments. Our work illustrates that compensatory mechanisms, driving plastic responses to the spatial structure of multiple stressors, can define geographical patterns of unanticipated species resilience to global environmental change.
Little is known about compensatory processes shaping regional differences in organismal vulnerability. We examined large‐scale spatial variations in biomineralization under heterogeneous environmental gradients across a 30° latitudinal range in critical foundation species, the blue mussels Mytilus edulis and M. trossulus. Salinity was the best predictor of within‐region differences in mussel shell deposition, mineral and organic composition. We identified biomineralization plasticity as a potential compensatory mechanism conferring Mytilus species a protective capacity for quantitative and qualitative trade‐offs in shell deposition as a response to regional alterations of abiotic and biotic conditions in future environments.
•We examine the effect of NW phase connectivity on capillary trapping in porous media.•We establish relationships of NW connectivity as a function of NW saturation.•High initial NW connectivity ...results in reduced trapping for Bentheimer sandstone.•Multiple drainage-imbibition cycles do not change the NW connectivity of the media.•A WAG injection scheme reduces connectivity and promotes capillary trapping of CO2.
This work examines the influence of initial (i.e. post drainage) nonwetting (NW) fluid topology on total residual (i.e. after imbibition) NW phase saturation. Brine and air (used as a proxy for supercritical CO2) flow experiments were performed on Bentheimer sandstone; results were quantified via imaging with X-ray computed microtomography (X-ray CMT), which allows for three dimensional, non-destructive, pore-scale analysis of the amount, distribution, and connectivity of NW phase fluid within the sandstone cores. In order to investigate the phenomenon of fluid connectivity and how it changes throughout flow processes, the Bentheimer sandstone results are compared to previously collected X-ray CMT data from similar experiments performed in a sintered glass bead column, a loose packed glass bead column, and a column packed with crushed tuff. This allows us to interpret the results in a broader sense from the work, and draw conclusions of a more general nature because they are not based on a single pore geometry. Connectivity is quantified via the normalized Euler number of the NW fluid phase; the Euler number of a particular sample is normalized by the maximum connectivity of the media, i.e. the Euler number of the system at 100% NW phase saturation. General connectivity-saturation relationships were identified for the various media. In terms of trapping, it was found that residual NW phase trapping is dependent on initial (i.e. post-drainage) NW phase connectivity as well as imbibition capillary number for the Bentheimer sandstone. Conversely, the sintered glass bead column exhibited no significant relationship between trapping and NW topology.
These findings imply that for a CO2 sequestration scenario, capillary trapping is controlled by both the imbibition capillary number and the initial NW phase connectivity: as capillary number increases, and the normalized initial Euler number approaches a value of 1.0, capillary trapping is suppressed. This finding is significant to CO2 sequestration, because both the drainage (CO2 injection) and imbibition (subsequent water injection or infiltration) processes can be engineered in order to maximize residual trapping within the porous medium. Based on the findings presented here, we suggest that both the Euler number-saturation and the capillary number-saturation relationships for a given medium should be considered when designing a CO2 sequestration scenario.
Abstract
Severe obesity in adolescence negatively impacts upon health and wellbeing. Lifestyle modifications do not usually achieve a sufficient degree or durability of weight loss to mitigate the ...risk of medical complications. In recent years, metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS), already a well-established treatment for adults with severe obesity, has emerged as an option in adolescents. Controlled studies in this age group have demonstrated substantial and sustained weight loss, improvements in associated health parameters, and a safety profile surpassing that observed in adult patients. This review aims to present published data on the results of MBS in adolescents with a focus on long-term outcomes. Indications for bariatric surgery and aspects of timing in the young person's life are also presented, along with safety considerations and factors influencing patient selection for surgery. We conclude, predominantly from short- to medium-term outcomes data, that MBS is a safe and valuable therapeutic option for adolescents with severe obesity. Considering the poor health and social wellbeing prognosis in this group, MBS appears to be underutilized. The need for continued research, multiprofessional specialist provision, coherent contemporary clinical guidelines, and routine long-term follow-up in adolescents undergoing MBS is highlighted.
The dissolution of the delicate shells of sea butterflies, or pteropods, has epitomised discussions regarding ecosystem vulnerability to ocean acidification over the last decade. However, a recent ...demonstration that the organic coating of the shell, the periostracum, is effective in inhibiting dissolution suggests that pteropod shells may not be as susceptible to ocean acidification as previously thought. Here we use micro-CT technology to show how, despite losing the entire thickness of the original shell in localised areas, specimens of polar species Limacina helicina maintain shell integrity by thickening the inner shell wall. One specimen collected within Fram Strait with a history of mechanical and dissolution damage generated four times the thickness of the original shell in repair material. The ability of pteropods to repair and maintain their shells, despite progressive loss, demonstrates a further resilience of these organisms to ocean acidification but at a likely metabolic cost.
Shape variability represents an important direct response of organisms to selective environments. Here, we use a combination of geometric morphometrics and generalised additive mixed models (GAMMs) ...to identify spatial patterns of natural shell shape variation in the North Atlantic and Arctic blue mussels, Mytilus edulis and M. trossulus, with environmental gradients of temperature, salinity and food availability across 3980 km of coastlines. New statistical methods and multiple study systems at various geographical scales allowed the uncoupling of the developmental and genetic contributions to shell shape and made it possible to identify general relationships between blue mussel shape variation and environment that are independent of age and species influences. We find salinity had the strongest effect on the latitudinal patterns of Mytilus shape, producing shells that were more elongated, narrower and with more parallel dorsoventral margins at lower salinities. Temperature and food supply, however, were the main drivers of mussel shape heterogeneity. Our findings revealed similar shell shape responses in Mytilus to less favourable environmental conditions across the different geographical scales analysed. Our results show how shell shape plasticity represents a powerful indicator to understand the alterations of blue mussel communities in rapidly changing environments.
Many neuropsychiatric diseases are associated with cognitive rigidity linked to prefrontal dysfunction. For example, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease are associated with performance deficits on ...the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, which evaluates attentional set shifting. Although the genetic underpinnings of these disorders can be reproduced in mice, there are few models for testing the functional consequences. Here, we demonstrate that an analog of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, developed in marmosets and recently adapted to rats, is a behavioral model of prefrontal function in mice. Systematic analysis demonstrated that formation of the attentional set in mice is dependent on the number of problem sets. We found that mice, like rats and primates, exhibit both affective and attentional sets, and these functions are disrupted by neurotoxic damage to orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortical areas, respectively. These data are identical to studies in rats and similar to the deficits reported after prefrontal damage in a comparable task in marmosets. These results provide a behavioral model to assess prefrontal function in mice.
Cancer is an age-related disease, with the majority of patients receiving their diagnosis after the age of 60 and most mortality from cancer occurring after this age. The tumor microenvironment ...changes drastically with age, which in turn affects cancer progression and treatment efficacy. Age-related changes to individual components of the microenvironment have received well-deserved attention over the past few decades, but the effects of aging at the interface of two or more microenvironmental components have been vastly understudied. In this perspective, we discuss the relationship between the aging extracellular matrix and the aging immune system, how they affect the tumor microenvironment, and how these multidisciplinary studies may open avenues for new therapeutics. Cancer is a disease of aging. With a rapidly aging population, we need to better understand the age-related changes that drive tumor progression, ranging from secreted changes to biophysical and immune changes.
Oyster shells are mainly composed of layers of foliated microstructure and lenses of chalk, a highly porous, apparently poorly organized and mechanically weak material. We performed a structural and ...crystallographic study of both materials, paying attention to the transitions between them. The morphology and crystallography of the laths comprising both microstructures are similar. The main differences were, in general, crystallographic orientation and texture. Whereas the foliated microstructure has a moderate sheet texture, with a defined 001 maximum, the chalk has a much weaker sheet texture, with a defined 011 maximum. This is striking because of the much more disorganized aspect of the chalk. We hypothesize that part of the unanticipated order is inherited from the foliated microstructure by means of, possibly, Formula: see text twinning. Growth line distribution suggests that during chalk formation, the mantle separates from the previous shell several times faster than for the foliated material. A shortage of structural material causes the chalk to become highly porous and allows crystals to reorient at a high angle to the mantle surface, with which they continue to keep contact. In conclusion, both materials are structurally similar and the differences in orientation and aspect simply result from differences in growth conditions.
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•A 5-gene bivalve phylogeny includes the largest sampling to date with 84% families represented.•This study populates the bivalve ToL by placing many genera into a clear phylogenetic ...context.•Almost 20% bivalve families are not monophyletic.•Plebidonax deltoides is not a member of Donacidae; major revision of Tellinoidea is required.•Cementation in Cleidothaerus and Myochama may have had a single origin.
The systematics of the molluscan class Bivalvia are explored using a 5-gene Sanger-based approach including the largest taxon sampling to date, encompassing 219 ingroup species spanning 93 (or 82%) of the 113 currently accepted bivalve families. This study was designed to populate the bivalve Tree of Life at the family level and to place many genera into a clear phylogenetic context, but also pointing to several major clades where taxonomic work is sorely needed. Despite not recovering monophyly of Bivalvia or Protobranchia—as in most previous Sanger-based approaches to bivalve phylogeny—our study provides increased resolution in many higher-level clades, and supports the monophyly of Autobranchia, Pteriomorphia, Heteroconchia, Palaeoheterodonta, Heterodonta, Archiheterodonta, Euheterodonta, Anomalodesmata, Imparidentia, and Neoheterodontei, in addition to many other lower clades. However, deep nodes within some of these clades, especially Pteriomorphia and Imparidentia, could not be resolved with confidence. In addition, many families are not supported, and several are supported as non-monophyletic, including Malletiidae, Nuculanidae, Yoldiidae, Malleidae, Pteriidae, Arcidae, Propeamussiidae, Iridinidae, Carditidae, Myochamidae, Lyonsiidae, Pandoridae, Montacutidae, Galeommatidae, Tellinidae, Semelidae, Psammobiidae, Donacidae, Mactridae, and Cyrenidae; Veneridae is paraphyletic with respect to Chamidae, although this result appears to be an artifact. The denser sampling however allowed testing specific placement of species, showing, for example, that the unusual Australian Plebidonax deltoides is not a member of Donacidae and instead nests within Psammobiidae, suggesting that major revision of Tellinoidea may be required. We also showed that Cleidothaerus is sister group to the cementing member of Myochamidae, suggesting that Cleidothaeridae may not be a valid family and that cementation in Cleidothaerus and Myochama may have had a single origin. These results highlight the need for an integrative approach including as many genera as possible, and that the monophyly and relationships of many families require detailed reassessment. NGS approaches may be able to resolve the most recalcitrant nodes in the near future.
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