Integrative Indicator for Assessing the Alert Levels of Algal Bloom in Lakes: Lake Taihu as a Case Study.

Algal blooms have recently become one of the most serious environmental problems in eutrophic freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Although many observation and simulation approaches have been applied to predict algal blooms, few studies have addressed the alert levels of algal blooms using integrative indicators in a large lake with multiple service function and significant horizontal heterogeneity. This study developed an integrative indicator assessment system (IIAS) to rank the alert level of algal blooms. In the IIAS, algal biomass, area percentage, distance from drinking water intake points, distance from scenic zones and duration of algal bloom were used as indicators to calculate a comprehensive alert level, which was classified into five grades (Vigilance, Low, Moderate, High, and Severe). Lake Taihu was taken as a case study to assess the comprehensive alert level of algal blooms in 2007 and 2010. The comprehensive alert level showed obvious spatial-temporal patterns, with an acceptable accuracy in Lake Taihu. The comprehensive alert levels were relatively higher in typical phytoplankton subzones than typical hydrophytes subzones and are more sensitive to weight factor in the northern and western subzones where high biomass usually occurs. Case study showed a very good application of the proposed comprehensive alert level assessment methodology, which can be adjusted to predict the degree of hazard of algal blooms in multi-service function large lakes to help the government and decision makers to act to prevent the disaster from algal bloom spreading.

[Effect of interactions of chromatin regulatory elements with different promoters on the regulation of gene expression].

The effect of altering the promoter region of ubiquitous chromatin-opening element (UCOE) and matrix attachment region (MAR) on stable and efficient expression of genes was investigated. Four different promoters were tested, namely, oct4 containing an enhancer region, sox2 having a CpG island, nanog having no regulatory elements, and CMV containing a CpG island and an enhancer region. Eight reporter plasmids were constructed: pOCT4-UCOE, pOCT4-MAR, pSOX2-UCOE, pSOX2-MAR, pNANOG-UCOE, pNANOG-MAR, pCMV-UCOE, and pCMV-MAR. Stable and efficient expression was observed when UCOE combined with the oct4 promoter, whereas the sox2 was the best promoter suited for MAR. Comparison of the stable clones of oct4-UCOE and sox2-MAR showed that UCOE-regulated expression is more stable and efficient than MAR-regulated expression. When CpG island-containing promoter is linked with UCOE, stable and efficient expression could be observed. These data suggest that an enhancer region in the promoter leads to high, yet unstable expression when combined with UCOE, whereas CpG islands stabilize expression. In conclusion, UCOE and MAR interact with regulatory elements on the promoter by altering the chromatin open state and chromatin loop to regulate gene expression.

MnFtz-f1 Is Required for Molting and Ovulation of the Oriental River Prawn Macrobrachium nipponense.

Molting and ovulation are the basic processes responsible for the growth and reproduction of Macrobrachium nipponense; however, the molecular mechanisms of molting and ovulation in M. nipponense are poorly understood. The present study aimed to use MnFtz-f1 as the starting point to study the molting and ovulation phenomena in M. nipponense at the molecular level. The full-length MnFtz-f1 cDNA sequence was 2,198 base pairs (bp) in length with an open reading frame of 1,899 bp encoding 632 amino acids. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that MnFtz-f1 was highly expressed in the ovary at the cleavage stage and on the fifth day after hatching. In vivo administration of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) showed that 20E effectively inhibited the expression of the MnFtz-f1 gene, and the silencing of the MnFtz-f1 gene reduced the content of 20E in the ovary. In situ hybridization (ISH) analysis revealed the localization of MnFtz-f1 in the ovary. Silencing of MnFtz-f1 by RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in significant inhibition of the expression of the vitellogenin (Vg), Spook, and Phantom genes, thus confirming that MnFtz-f1 had a mutual regulatory relationship with Vg, Spook, and Phantom. After RNAi, the molting frequency and ovulation number of M. nipponense decreased significantly, which demonstrated that MnFtz-f1 played a pivotal role in the process of molting and ovulation.

Long-term and inter-monthly dynamics of aquatic vegetation and its relation with environmental factors in Taihu Lake, China.

This paper discussed the long-term and inter-monthly variation in the distribution area of aquatic macrophytes in Taihu Lake, as well as the relationship between these variations and environmental factors. The findings were of great significance to the protection and environmental remediation of lake ecosystems. This paper presented data from 92 periods during 1980 to 2017 on the distribution area of aquatic macrophytes (including submerged macrophytes and floating-leaved macrophytes, but excluding emergent macrophytes) in Taihu Lake. Data were acquired by remote-sensing and subsequent image interpretation. The analysis of the inter-monthly variation indicated that the area occupied by aquatic macrophytes first increased and then decreased from January to December. Specifically, the distribution area was very small from January to March, began to increase gradually from April to August, reached its maximum in September, and decreased gradually from October to December. The analysis of the long-term variation showed that the distribution and area of aquatic macrophytes experienced two stages during the years 1980 to 2017: 1) gradual increase, 2) sharp decrease. In the first stage (1980 to 2014), the area occupied by aquatic macrophytes increased by 9 times, the maximum distribution area was 206.27 km2 (in May), 307.92 km2 (in September) and 277.33 km2 (in October). In the second stage (2015 to 2017), the distribution area of aquatic macrophytes decreased sharply to 50 km2 or less. The distribution area of aquatic macrophytes during the months of January to December had a significant positive correlation with monthly average temperature, CODMn value, secchi disk depth(SDD), area of cyanobacteria and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration, a significant negative correlation with water quality indices such as dissolved oxygen (DO) value and NH3-N concentration, but no significant correlation with water quality indices such as pH values and total suspended matter (TSM) concentration. The distribution area of aquatic macrophytes from 1980 to 2017 had a significant positive correlation with annual average temperature, annual minimum water level, pH value, SDD, area of cyanobacteria and Chl-a concentration, but no significant correlation with water quality indices such as DO value, CODMn value, NH3-N concentration and TSM concentration. The sharp decrease in the distribution area of aquatic macrophytes in 2015 and subsequent years was primarily due to the mechanized salvage of aquatic plants.

Estimating the biomass of unevenly distributed aquatic vegetation in a lake using the normalized water-adjusted vegetation index and scale transformation method.

Satellite remote sensing is advantageous for the mapping and monitoring of aquatic vegetation biomass at large spatial scales. We proposed a scale transformation (CT) method of converting the field sampling-site biomass from the quadrat to pixel scale and a new normalized water-adjusted vegetation index (NWAVI) based on remotely sensed imagery for the biomass estimation of aquatic vegetation (excluding emergent vegetation). We used a modeling approach based on the proposed CT method and NWAVI as well as statistical analyses including linear, quadratic, logarithmic, cubic, exponential, inverse and power regression to estimate the aquatic vegetation biomass, and we evaluated the performance of the biomass estimation. We mapped the spatial distribution and temporal change of the aquatic vegetation biomass using a geographic information system in a test lake in different months. The exponential regression models based on CT and the NWAVI had optimal adjusted R2, F and Sig. values in both May and August 2013. The scatter plots of the observed versus the predicted biomass showed that most of the validated field sites were near the 1:1 line. The RMSE, ARE and RE values were small. The spatial distribution and change of the aquatic vegetation biomass in the study area showed clear variability. Among the NWAVI-based and other vegetation index-based models, the CT and NWAVI-based models had the largest adjusted R2, F and the smallest ARE values in both tests. The proposed modeling scheme is effective for the biomass estimation of aquatic vegetation in lakes. It indicated that the proposed method can provide a most accurate spatial distribution map of aquatic vegetation biomass for lake ecological management. More accurate biomass maps of aquatic vegetation are essential for implementing conservation policy and for reducing uncertainties in our understanding of the lake carbon cycle.

[Experiment and model simulation of self-purification capacity of nitrogen and phosphorus in Lake Taihu].

A field experiment was carried out in Zhushanhu in September, 2011. On the basis of mass balance, nutrients flow in and out of Zhushanhu and their Digestion-absorption law was illustrated through water quantity-water quality observation of bay heart, bay mouth and rivers around Zhushanhu, which provides basic data for the further research on the self-purification capacity of Lake Taihu. The EcoTaihu model was adopted to simulate the nutrients flow and their self-purification capacity of Lake Taihu. The simulated annual self-purification capacity of total nitrogen and total phosphorus of Zhushanhu was 1 911 t and 116 t, respectively, whereas the observed annual self-purification capacity of total nitrogen and total phosphorus of Zhushanhu was 1 979 t and 119 t, respectively. The model was validated by the observation data. The simulated result showed that the self-purification capacity of total nitrogen of Lake Taihu in year 2006, 2008 and 2010 was 4. 00 x 10(4) t, 4. 27 x 10(4) t and 4. 11 x 10(4) t, respectively, whereas the self-purification capacity of total phosphorus of Lake Taihu in year 2006, 2008 and 2010 was 1.56 x 10(3) t, 1.80 x 10(3) t and 1.71 x 10(3) t, respectively.

[Spatial distribution characteristics and ecological significance of alkaline phosphatase in water column of Taihu Lake].

Based on different ecological zone of Taihu Lake, alkaline phosphatase activity (APA), the kinetic parameters and the chemical parameters in water column from different zone of Taihu Lake were monitored, and the spatial distribution characteristics and the effects of environmental factors on the values of APA, Vmax and Km were studied. The results showed that the values of APA, Vmax and Km in water column from Taihu Lake had a spatial heterogeneous distribution. The spatial distribution characteristic of APA values was the same as that of Vmax, ones in water from different zones of Taihu Lake, namely, the maximal values of APA (9.43 +/- 5.30) nmol x (L x min)(-1) and Vmax (13.70 +/- 7.42) nmol x (L x min)(-1) occurred in water from estuary zone in western bank of Taihu Lake. The value distribution of APA and Vmax in other zone of Taihu Lake followed as: the central zone of Taihu Lake > the grass type zone of Taihu Lake > the Meiliang Bay zone of Taihu Lake > the Zhushan Bay zone of Taihu Lake > the Gonghu Bay zone of Taihu Lake. The value of Km from the grass type zone of Taihu Lake was the highest (20.50 +/- 11.30) micromol x L(-1) , and the one from estuary zone in western bank of Taihu Lake was the lowest (9.17 +/- 3.46) micromol x L(-1) The value of kinetic parameter Vmax was significantly positively correlated with the values of pH, total phosphorus (TP) and the chlorophyll a (Chla), with r(pH) = 0.6512** (p < 0.01), r(TP) = 0.4885** (p < 0.01) and r(Chla) = 0.7656** (p < 0.01), respectively. However, the effects of hydro-temperature, dissolved total phosphorus (DTP) and orthophosphorus (PO4(3-) -P) on Vmax values were negligible. There was no significant influence of the hydro-temperature, pH, DTP, PO4(3-)-P and Chla concentrations on the Km values, nevertheless significant negative relationship between the Km value and TP content was found with r = -0.3834* (p = 0.048).