129I/127I and Δ14C records in a modern coral from Rowley Shoals off northwestern Australia reflect the 20th-century human nuclear activities and ocean/atmosphere circulations.

Radionuclides produced by 20th-century human nuclear activities from 1945 (e.g., atmospheric nuclear explosions and nuclear-fuel reprocessing) made significant impacts on earth's surface environments. Long-lived shallow-water corals living in tropical/subtropical seas incorporate the anthropogenically-produced radionuclides, including 129I and 14C, into their skeletons, and provide time series records of the impacts of nuclear activities. Here, we present 129I/127I and Δ14C time series records of an annually-banded modern coral skeleton from Rowley Shoals, off the northwestern coast of Australia, in the far eastern Indian Ocean. The 129I/127I and Δ14C records, covering the period 1930s-1990s, exhibit distinct increases caused by the nuclear activities, and their increasing profiles are clearly different from each other. The first distinct 129I/127I increase occurs from 1955 to 1959, followed by a decrease in 1960-1963. The increase is probably due to US atmospheric nuclear explosions in Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls in 1954, 1956 and 1958. The 129I produced in those nuclear tests would be transported by the North Equatorial Current, a portion of which passes through the Indonesian Throughflow and then reaches Rowley Shoals. This initial increase from 1955 is, however, absent in the Δ14C record, which shows a distinct increase from 1959 and its peak around the mid-1970s, followed by a gradual decrease. This absence and the 4-year-delayed Δ14C increase are likely due to dilution of explosion-produced 14C with natural carbon (by seawater mixing and air-sea gas exchange) being much more intense than that of explosion-produced 129I with natural iodine (by the same processes), suggesting that the 129I/127I ratio is a more conservative anthropogenic tracer in surface ocean waters, as compared to Δ14C. The second 129I/127I increase is contemporaneous with a rapid Δ14C increase during 1964-1967, followed by a rapid 129I/127I decrease in 1968-1969; the increases can be ascribed to very large atmospheric nuclear explosions conducted in the former Soviet Union in 1961-1962. The third 129I/127I increase appears between 1969/1970 and 1992, which can be attributed to airborne 129I released from nuclear-fuel reprocessing facilities in Europe, the former Soviet Union and the US. The coral 129I/127I and Δ14C time series records, combined with previous studies, enhance our understanding of the behavior of anthropogenic 129I and 14C in the global ocean and atmosphere.

Bromate Reduction by Rhodococcus sp. Br-6 in the Presence of Multiple Redox Mediators.

A bromate (BrO3-)-reducing bacterium, designated Rhodococcus sp. strain Br-6, was isolated from soil. The strain reduced 250 µM bromate completely within 4 days under growth conditions transitioning from aerobic to anaerobic conditions, while no reduction was observed under aerobic and anaerobic growth conditions. Bromate was reduced to bromide (Br-) stoichiometrically, and acetate was required as an electron donor. Interestingly, bromate reduction by strain Br-6 was significantly dependent on both ferric iron and a redox dye 2,6-dichloroindophenol (DCIP). Cell free extract of strain Br-6 showed a dicumarol-sensitive diaphorase activity, which catalyzes the reduction of DCIP in the presence of NADH. Following abiotic experiments showed that the reduced form of DCIP was reoxidized by ferric iron, and that the resulting ferrous iron reduced bromate abiotically. Furthermore, activity staining of the cell free extract revealed that one of diaphorase isoforms possessed a bromate-reducing activity. Our results demonstrate that strain Br-6 utilizes multiple redox mediators, that is, DCIP and ferric iron, for bromate reduction. Since the apparent rate of bromate reduction by this strain (60 µM day-1) was 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of known bromate-reducing bacteria, it could be applicable to removal of this probable human carcinogen from drinking water.