Academic literature on the topic 'Abiotic compartments'

We have studied the distribution and bioelimination of the organophosphorus pesticide parathion in a native microcosm consisting of water, sediment, bivalves and aquatic plants. A common apparent clearance constant for biotic and abiotic components was suggested from the analysis of parathion accumulation and degradation. In this work we developed a global model explaining the toxicokinetics of a lipophilic compound and particurlarly the common steady state degradation in an aquatic microcosm, using a set of linear differential equations. We simulated the distribution and degradation of the compound in the microcosm, and fitted single-compartment equation models to data, estimating the apparent sorption and elimination constants. We verified the existence of a common apparent degradation constant for all the compartments. We infer from the mathematical expressions and corroborate from the simulated data that the apparent degradation constant is equal to the sum of the metabolization rates at each biotic compartment multiplied by the compound mass ratios established at steady state between the biotic and the abiotic compartments. Product kinetics simulation showed that steady state might also be achieved in the different compartments, with the same apparent constant as that obtained for toxicant clearance. As a practical result, the total radioactivity in water would serve to calculate the global clearance constant in a simple experimental way if a radiotracer is used. Physical and chemical degradation and chemical loss due to volatilization and CO 2 diffusion were analyzed in the microcosm model. The assessments of the cases where these factors affect the clearance process as well as the implications emerged are discussed.

The ecotoxicology and human health risks of environmental pollutants are creating global concern, especially in the context of the prevalent and severe contamination of environmental abiotic and biotic compartments [...]

Abstract. A catchment-scale mass-balance model of linked carbon and nitrogen cycling in ecosystems has been developed for simulating leaching losses of inorganic nitrogen. The model (MERLIN) considers linked biotic and abiotic processes affecting the cycling and storage of nitrogen. The model is aggregated in space and time and contains compartments intended to be observable and/or interpretable at the plot or catchment scale. The structure of the model includes the inorganic soil, a plant compartment and two soil organic compartments. Fluxes in and out of the ecosystem and between compartments are regulated by atmospheric deposition, hydrological discharge, plant uptake, litter production, wood production, microbial immobilization, mineralization, nitrification, and denitrification. Nitrogen fluxes are controlled by carbon productivity, the C:N ratios of organic compartments and inorganic nitrogen in soil solution. Inputs required are: 1) temporal sequences of carbon fluxes and pools- 2) time series of hydrological discharge through the soils, 3) historical and current external sources of inorganic nitrogen; 4) current amounts of nitrogen in the plant and soil organic compartments; 5) constants specifying the nitrogen uptake and immobilization characteristics of the plant and soil organic compartments; and 6) soil characteristics such as depth, porosity, bulk density, and anion/cation exchange constants. Outputs include: 1) concentrations and fluxes of NO3 and NH4 in soil solution and runoff; 2) total nitrogen contents of the organic and inorganic compartments; 3) C:N ratios of the aggregated plant and soil organic compartments; and 4) rates of nitrogen uptake and immobilization and nitrogen mineralization. The behaviour of the model is assessed for a combination of land-use change and nitrogen deposition scenarios in a series of speculative simulations. The results of the simulations are in broad agreement with observed and hypothesized behaviour of nitrogen dynamics in growing forests receiving nitrogen deposition.

The objective of this study was to investigate the macrobenthic community of two compartments of the Maricá-Guarapina lagoon system, along the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in relation to its abiotic sediment factors. An additional discrimination between sites was made, wherever the macrophyte Typha domingensis was found. This vegetation supposedly represents a potentially important food source for consumers. Furthermore, the trophic pathways were analyzed functionally by means of stable isotope analysis to assess the role of organic matter sources for consumers in the study area. In conclusion, the results showed differences between abiotic features in the compartments of the lagoon system, which, although they have affected the different species' distribution, have led to a homogeneous low-diversity system. Macrozoobenthic species tend to change with increasing distance from the sea, with a slightly different distribution in the two compartments. The macrophyte T. domingensis did not exercise any great influence on the biotic distribution and was not the main food source for consumers in the lagoon system, where, instead, sedimentary organic matter and macrophyte detritus also seem to play an important role in the trophic web.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been at the forefront of environmental contamination research even before their ban in 2001 at the Stockholm Convention. Their relation to different compartments of the environment (biotic and abiotic) has been thoroughly investigated. This article aims to identify whether the benthos could represent a reliable indicator of environmental contamination with POPs and to highlight its potential transfer role between abiotic and upper trophic compartments—benthos feeders. In this regard, we determined that the Ephemeroptera samples have higher concentrations (p < 0.05) of ΣPCB, ΣHCH, and ΣDDT than sediment samples while Trichoptera samples have higher concentrations (p < 0.05) only in the case of ΣPCB and ΣDDT. This, along with the fact that the frequency of detection for POPs is similar between the sample types (sediments, Trichoptera, and Ephemeroptera), makes the benthos samples valuable indicators of contamination with sediment samples working as complementary information about how recent the contamination is.

Climate change jeopardizes soybean production by declining seed yield and quality. In this review, the morphophysiological alterations of soybean in response to abiotic stress are summarized, followed by illustrations of cellular metabolisms and regulatory mechanisms to organellar stress based on subcellular proteomics. This highlights the communications associated with reactive oxygen species scavenging, molecular chaperones, and phytohormone signals among subcellular compartments. Given the complexity of climate change and the limitations of plants in coping with multiple abiotic stresses, a generic response to environmental constraints is proposed between calcium and abscisic acid signals in subcellular organelles. This review summarizes the findings of subcellular proteomics in stressed soybean and discusses the future prospects of subcellular proteomics for promoting the improvement of climate-tolerant crops.

Abstract. The large shallow wetlands that dominate much of the South American continent are rich in biodiversity and complexity. Many of these undamaged ecosystems are presently being examined for their potential economic utility, putting pressure on local authorities and the conservation community to find ways of correctly utilising the available natural resources without compromising the ecosystem functioning and overall integrity. Contrary to many northern hemisphere ecosystems, there have been little long term ecological studies of these systems, leading to a lack of quantitative data on which to construct ecological or resource use models. As a result, decision makers, even well meaning ones, have difficulty in determining if particular economic activities can potentially cause significant damage to the ecosystem and how one should go about monitoring the impacts of such activities. While the direct impact of many activities is often known, the secondary indirect impacts are usually less clear and can depend on local ecological conditions. The use of qualitative models is a helpful tool to highlight potential feedback mechanisms and secondary effects of management action on ecosystem integrity. The harvesting of a single, apparently abundant, species can have indirect secondary effects on key trophic and abiotic compartments. In this paper, loop model analysis is used to qualitatively examine secondary effects of potential economic activities in a large wetland area in northeast Argentina, the Esteros del Ibera. Based on interaction with local actors together with observed ecological information, loop models were constructed to reflect relationships between biotic and abiotic compartments. A series of analyses were made to study the effect of different economic scenarios on key ecosystem compartments. Important impacts on key biotic compartments (phytoplankton, zooplankton, ichthyofauna, aquatic macrophytes) and on the abiotic environment (nutrients and sediment resuspension) were observed through model analysis. These models results do not indicate a definite relationship between activity and a possible impact, but a potential impact that can be further studied and modelled. Likewise, the model is not intended to be an end in itself, but as a tool to help focus further ecological study, monitoring and modelling. In the real world of wetland management, it is not always possible to conduct extensive (and expensive) analysis of all the principal ecological compartments. In the same manner, the construction of larger and more complex models for resource management usually needs to be focused to those areas most likely to effect resource quality or ecosystem functioning. In this light, the development of qualitative models was considered as a first step to help researchers and decision makers focus their efforts (and economic resources) in an intensive ecological sampling programme and the construction of predictive models.

BackgroundBacteria, archaea, viruses and fungi live in various plant compartments including leaves and roots. These plant-associated microbial communities have many effects on host fitness and function. Global climate change is impacting plant species distributions, a phenomenon that will affect plant-microbe interactions both directly and indirectly. In order to predict plant responses to global climate change, it will be crucial to improve our understanding of plant-microbe interactions within and at the edge of plant species natural ranges. While microbes affect their hosts, in turn the plant’s attributes and the surrounding environment drive the structure and assembly of the microbial communities themselves. However, the patterns and dynamics of these interactions and their causes are poorly understood.MethodsIn this study, we quantified the microbial communities of the leaves and roots of seedlings of the deciduous tree species sugar maple (Acer saccharumMarshall) within its natural range and at the species’ elevational range limit at Mont-Mégantic, Quebec. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing, we quantified the bacterial and fungal community structure in four plant compartments: the epiphytes and endophytes of leaves and roots. We also quantified endophytic fungal communities in roots.ResultsThe bacterial and fungal communities ofA. saccharumseedlings differ across elevational range limits for all four plant compartments. Distinct microbial communities colonize each compartment, although the microbial communities inside a plant’s structure (endophytes) were found to be a subset of the communities found outside the plant’s structure (epiphytes). Plant-associated bacterial communities were dominated by the phyla Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes while the main fungal taxa present were Ascomycota.DiscussionWe demonstrate that microbial communities associated with sugar maple seedlings at the edge of the species’ elevational range differ from those within the natural range. Variation in microbial communities differed among plant components, suggesting the importance of each compartment’s exposure to changes in biotic and abiotic conditions in determining variability in community structure. These findings provide a greater understanding of the ecological processes driving the structure and diversity of plant-associated microbial communities within and at the edge of a plant species range, and suggest the potential for biotic interactions between plants and their associated microbiota to influence the dynamics of plant range edge boundaries and responses to global change.

L’intérêt croissant de la société pour les terres rares, rassemblant 17 éléments métalliques aux propriétés uniques, exploitées dans les secteurs industriels, agricoles et médicaux, entraîne une augmentation des rejets dans l'environnement conduisant à des enrichissements dans les milieux aquatiques, notamment dans les estuaires, soumis à de fortes pressions anthropiques. L’objectif de cette thèse était d’étudier la répartition environnementale des terres rares dans les écosystèmes estuariens à travers l’étude de deux estuaires français fortement anthropisés aux degrés de contamination différents : l’estuaire de la Loire et l’estuaire de la Seine. L’étude des compartiments abiotiques a permis de démontrer que les terres rares sont principalement accumulées dans les phases solides des systèmes aquatiques naturels. Néanmoins, la phase dissoute correspond au compartiment le plus impacté par les apports anthropiques, avec des enrichissements en gadolinium rapportés dans les deux estuaires. L’étude du biote, qui s’est portée sur un grand nombre d’espèces issues de 5 phyla (algues, annélides, mollusques, crustacés et vertébrés) représentant les principaux niveaux d’un réseau trophique estuarien, a dévoilé une dilution trophique des terres rares au sein des deux estuaires. En effet, la bioaccumulation des terres rares est plus élevée dans les algues. Cependant, les enrichissements (notamment en gadolinium) sont plus importants chez les vertébrés. Les résultats ont démontré des concentrations totales en terres rares plus importantes dans l’estuaire de la Loire par rapport à celui de la Seine, probablement en raison d’un fond géogénique plus élevé. Par contre, la contamination anthropique en gadolinium plus importante rapportée dans l’estuaire de la Seine pourrait s’expliquer par la plus forte densité de population, impliquant un nombre plus important d’actes médicaux nécessitant des produits de contraste. Ainsi, l’estimation des transferts des compartiments abiotiques vers le biote et des transferts trophiques au sein du biote a permis de caractériser le devenir global des terres rares dans ces écosystèmes estuariens
The growing interest of society in rare earth elements, regrouping 17 metallic elements with unique properties and used in the industrial, agricultural and medical sectors, is leading to an increase of their release into the environment, resulting in enrichments in the aquatic media, particularly in estuaries, that are subject to strong anthropogenic pressures. The objective of this work was to study the environmental distribution of rare earth elements in estuarine ecosystems through the study of two highly anthropized French estuaries showing different levels of contamination: the Loire estuary and the Seine estuary. The study of abiotic compartments demonstrated rare earth elements are mainly accumulated in the solid phases of natural aquatic systems. However, the dissolved phase corresponds to the most impacted compartment by anthropogenic inputs with gadolinium enrichments reported in the two estuaries. The study of the biota, focusing on a large number of species from 5 phyla (algae, annelids, mollusks, crustaceans and vertebrates) representing the main levels of an estuarine food web, revealed a trophic dilution of rare earth elements within the two estuaries. Indeed, the bioaccumulation of rare earth elements is higher in algae. However, the enrichments (including gadolinium) are greater in vertebrates. These results demonstrated higher total rare earth element concentrations in the Loire estuary compared to the Seine estuary, probably due to a higher geogenic background. On the other hand, the higher anthropogenic gadolinium contamination reported in the Seine estuary could be explained by the higher population density, implying a higher number of medical procedures requiring contrast agents. Thus, the estimation of transfers from abiotic compartments to the biota and trophic transfers within the biota allowed to characterize the overall fate of rare earth elements in these estuarine ecosystems

Le plastique est un matériel peu cher, léger et résistant, ce qui l’a rendu rapidement indispensable dans tous types de secteurs tel que celui de l’emballage alimentaire, du médicale ou encore de l’automobile et du bâtiment. Néanmoins, ces extraordinaires propriétés ont aussi contribué à son actuelle omniprésence dans l’environnement marin, de manière parfois insidieuse. En effet, une fraction souvent invisible à l’œil nu, nommée microplastique (MP) est aujourd’hui étudiée avec intérêt. Les MP sont principalement définis par une taille inférieure à 5 mm, bien que la limite inférieure soit encore discutée au sein de la communauté. Dans le même temps, d’autres types de particules manufacturées par l’homme sont de plus en plus fréquemment décrites, tel que des fragments caoutchouteux noirs ou des fibres. Ces particules anthropiques (AP), MP inclus, ont été détectées dans l’ensemble des compartiments aquatiques (e.g. eau de surface et colonne d’eau) et le compartiment sédimentaire (e.g. plages, sédiments subtidaux et intertidaux) et dans un grand nombre d’espèces dans toutes les régions océaniques. Cependant, leur présence n’est pas anodine car les MP peuvent modifier certains cycles géochimiques, mais aussi biologiques. Par exemple, du fait de leur petite taille, ils peuvent interagir avec une très large gamme d’espèces aquatiques allant du zooplancton aux cétacés. Hors, dans le Bassin d’Arcachon, une pression anthropique importante découle de l’attractivité et de la richesse de cette lagune (e.g. pêche, conchyliculture et tourisme). Par ailleurs, ce système lagunaire est complexe de par sa morphologie (e.g. chenaux et zones intertidales) et son fonctionnement hydrodynamique est marqué principalement par les marées. Ainsi, ce projet de recherche doctoral a permis d’établir un état des lieux de la contamination par les MP et autres particules anthropiques au sein du Bassin d’Arcachon (notamment des fibres). Plus particulièrement, nous avons 1) quantifié et caractérisé les AP et MP présents dans différents compartiments de cette lagune (eau de surface, colonne d’eau, sédiment intertidaux, laisse de mer, organismes aquatiques), 2) déterminé leur distribution spatiale (depuis la zone océanique jusqu’aux limites continentales du bassin) et exploré la dynamique de leur transport entre les compartiments, 3) caractérisé l’évolution temporelle de la contamination au sein de ces compartiments
As a cheap, light and resistant material, plastic rapidly became unavoidable in many sectors such as packaging, medical, automobile or building ones. However, theses extraordinary properties contribute to its ubiquity in marine environments, and sometime in an insidious way. Indeed, there is a fraction invisible to the naked eyes, named microplastic (MP), that draw researchers’ attention. They are commonly described by an upper limit size of 5 mm, yet the lower size limit is still under discussion. Meantime, other types of manufactured particles are more and more described, such as black rubbery fragments and fibers. These anthropogenic particles (AP) were already detected in marine compartments of all regions, from sea surface to bottom sediments by the way of beach, water column and living organisms. Nevertheless, MP contamination could be associated to impairment of geochemical cycles and biologic ones. Actually, because they are small-sized, MP can be ingested by a wide range of marine organisms (from zooplankton to cetacean). Additionally, the Arcachon Bay area supports important and diverse anthropogenic activities such as fishing, shellfish farming and mass tourism. Additionally, the lagoon have a complex morphology (e.g. intertidal areas and passes) and its hydrodynamic is mainly driven by tide. Thus, this project describes AP and MP contaminations in the Arcachon Bay, such as the one caused by fibers. Specifically, we were able to 1) quantify and characterize AP and MP contamination in nine compartments of this lagoon (sea surface, water column, wastewater effluent, intertidal sediment, high tide line, marine species), 2) describe their spatial distribution (from the oceanic zone to the inner-bay part) and explore transport dynamic between compartments, 3) characterize temporal evolution of the contamination within the studied compartments

AbstractThis chapter aims to contribute to a comprehensive view of environmental radiobiology and discuss the effects of different kinds of ionizing radiation on ecosystems. The impact of ionizing radiation was considered on both organisms and the abiotic environment, assessing the fate of radionuclides in abiotic compartments (e.g., the movement through atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere) and in the trophic chains, with implications for human and non-human biota. The available methodologies for estimating radiation dose to biota were also addressed as well as the associated challenges. This chapter also focused on the impacts of ionizing radiation exposure on non-human biota from microorganisms to vertebrates, as well as on the basic concepts related to environmental radiobiology and the molecular effects associated with the exposure to different types of ionizing radiation. The particular context of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) contamination was also tackled, as well as its effects on non-human biota.

Stress compromises protein trafficking in plants, which often results in modifications to the endomembrane system and trafficking pathways. Proteins travel in unexpected ways during stress, and cell compartments alter their appearance, activity, and content to cope with the difficulties that stress brings. We will piece together material on the issue in this chapter, emphasizing how the endomembrane system processes such changes and how it reacts to a dynamic environment. The intricate dynamics of protein transport pathways and how they maintain cellular homeostasis under challenging circumstances is illustrated.

This chapter focuses on the distinction between ecosystem function and ecosystem dynamics. Ecosystem function refers to the manner in which the ecosystem of interest works, and interactions among its component parts and fluxes, including biotic and abiotic compartments. Meanwhile, ecosystem dynamics refers to variation in ecosystem function through time in response to perturbations that are continuous or stochastic in nature, or in relation to changes in ecosystem components. Therefore, the study of ecosystem dynamics derives from an understanding of ecosystem function, and this, in turn, depends critically on successful identification of the important drivers within the ecosystem. Inevitably, a discussion of ecosystem function and dynamics boils down to the factors that influence and contribute to variation in net ecosystem production—the result of net primary productivity and ecosystem respiration.