The effects of changing salinity and nitrogen limitation on dimethylsulfoniopropionate(DMSP) and dimethylsulfide(DMS) concentrations were investigated in batch cultures of coastal diatom Skeletonema costatum,an ecologically important species.Changes in salinity from 20-32 caused no measurable variation in cell growth or culture yield,but increased intracellular DMSP per cell by 30%.Nitrogen limitation caused up to a two-fold increase in total DMSP per cell and up to a three-fold increase in DMS per cell.These changes in DMSP and DMS per cell in the Skeletonema costatum cultures with nitrogen limitation and changing salinity were primarily attributed to the physiological functions of DMSP as an osmolyte and an antioxidant.The data obtained in this study indicated that nitrogen limitation and salinity may play an important role in climate feedback mechanisms involving biologically derived DMS.
This paper reports the photochemical degradation of Methylene Blue(MB)in natural seawater(NSW).The photode-gradation reaction conformed to the first-order reaction kinetics with the rate constant 0.0158 min-1.MB was photochemically de-gradated faster under high-pressure mercury lamp(HPML)than under sunlight.When MB was in lower concentrations,salinitycould inhibit the photoreaction whereas MB in higher concentration,salinity could accelerate the photoreaction.Humid acid couldalso inhibit the photoreactions.Toxicity tests with marine phytoplankton Skeletonema costatum(Sk)and Heterosigma akashiwo Hada(Ha)showed decreased acute toxicity after photodegradation.
Biologically utilizable dissolved organic compounds,including dissolved organic carbon (DOC),dissolved carbohydrates (DCHO) and dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) were analyzed in filtered surface seawater samples collected at 19 stations in Jiaozhou Bay,China,on June 3,2007.In these samples,concentrations of DOC,dissolved free carbohydrates (DFCHO),dissolved combined carbohydrates (DCCHO),total dissolved carbohydrates (TDCHO) and total dissolved free amino acids (TDFAA) ranged from 141.7 to 191.1 μmol C/L,1.98 to 18.18 μmol C/L,5.04 to 24.90 μmol C/L,14.52 to 30.36 μmol C/L,and 1.83 to 11.89 μmol C/L,respectively.As a major component of the dissolved carbohydrates,the concentrations of DCCHO were about three times higher than those of DFCHO.Three major constituents of the DFAA were threonine (23.0±5.7 mol%),glutamic acid (16.6±3.2 mol%) and arginine (9.1±3.3 mol%).Based on the composition of DFAA,a molar C:N ratio of 3.60±0.75 in DFAA was derived,indicating longer carbon chains in the amino acids.DCCHO (8.1%) was the most abundant fraction of DOM in most samples,followed by DFCHO (4.8%) and TDFAA (2.7%).These DOM concentrations displayed a decreasing trend from the coast to the central region.Significant correlations were found between the DCCHO and DFCHO concentrations (r=-0.724,n=19,P<0.001) and the DCCHO and TDCHO concentrations (r=0.506,n=19,P=0.027).
