Field measurements reveal exposure risk to microplastic ingestion by filter-feeding megafauna.

Microparticles, such as microplastics and microfibers, are ubiquitous in marine food webs. Filter-feeding megafauna may be at extreme risk of exposure to microplastics, but neither the amount nor pathway of microplastic ingestion are well understood. Here, we combine depth-integrated microplastic data from the California Current Ecosystem with high-resolution foraging measurements from 191 tag deployments on blue, fin, and humpback whales to quantify plastic ingestion rates and routes of exposure. We find that baleen whales predominantly feed at depths of 50-250 m, coinciding with the highest measured microplastic concentrations in the pelagic ecosystem. Nearly all (99%) microplastic ingestion is predicted to occur via trophic transfer. We predict that fish-feeding whales are less exposed to microplastic ingestion than krill-feeding whales. Per day, a krill-obligate blue whale may ingest 10 million pieces of microplastic, while a fish-feeding humpback whale likely ingests 200,000 pieces of microplastic. For species struggling to recover from historical whaling alongside other anthropogenic pressures, our findings suggest that the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors require further attention.

Models with environmental drivers offer a plausible mechanism for the rapid spread of infectious disease outbreaks in marine organisms.

The first signs of sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic occurred in just few months in 2013 along the entire North American Pacific coast. Disease dynamics did not manifest as the typical travelling wave of reaction-diffusion epidemiological model, suggesting that other environmental factors might have played some role. To help explore how external factors might trigger disease, we built a coupled oceanographic-epidemiological model and contrasted three hypotheses on the influence of temperature on disease transmission and pathogenicity. Models that linked mortality to sea surface temperature gave patterns more consistent with observed data on sea star wasting disease, which suggests that environmental stress could explain why some marine diseases seem to spread so fast and have region-wide impacts on host populations.

Why whales are big but not bigger: Physiological drivers and ecological limits in the age of ocean giants.

The largest animals are marine filter feeders, but the underlying mechanism of their large size remains unexplained. We measured feeding performance and prey quality to demonstrate how whale gigantism is driven by the interplay of prey abundance and harvesting mechanisms that increase prey capture rates and energy intake. The foraging efficiency of toothed whales that feed on single prey is constrained by the abundance of large prey, whereas filter-feeding baleen whales seasonally exploit vast swarms of small prey at high efficiencies. Given temporally and spatially aggregated prey, filter feeding provides an evolutionary pathway to extremes in body size that are not available to lineages that must feed on one prey at a time. Maximum size in filter feeders is likely constrained by prey availability across space and time.

Multi-year tracking reveals extensive pelagic phase of juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the North Pacific.

BACKGROUND: The juvenile stage of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) can last for decades. In the North Pacific Ocean, much is known about their seasonal movements in relation to pelagic habitat, yet understanding their multi-year, basin-scale movements has proven more difficult. Here, we categorize the large-scale movements of 231 turtles satellite tracked from 1997 to 2013 and explore the influence of biological and environmental drivers on basin-scale movement. RESULTS: Results show high residency of juvenile loggerheads within the Central North Pacific and a moderate influence of the Earth's magnetic field, but no real-time environmental driver to explain migratory behavior. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest the Central North Pacific acts as important developmental foraging grounds for young juvenile loggerhead sea turtles, rather than just a migratory corridor. We propose several hypotheses that may influence the connectivity between western and eastern juvenile loggerhead foraging grounds in the North Pacific Ocean.

Prey-mediated behavioral responses of feeding blue whales in controlled sound exposure experiments.

Behavioral response studies provide significant insights into the nature, magnitude, and consequences of changes in animal behavior in response to some external stimulus. Controlled exposure experiments (CEEs) to study behavioral response have faced challenges in quantifying the importance of and interaction among individual variability, exposure conditions, and environmental covariates. To investigate these complex parameters relative to blue whale behavior and how it may change as a function of certain sounds, we deployed multi-sensor acoustic tags and conducted CEEs using simulated mid-frequency active sonar (MFAS) and pseudo-random noise (PRN) stimuli, while collecting synoptic, quantitative prey measures. In contrast to previous approaches that lacked such prey data, our integrated approach explained substantially more variance in blue whale dive behavioral responses to mid-frequency sounds (r2 = 0.725 vs. 0.14 previously). Results demonstrate that deep-feeding whales respond more clearly and strongly to CEEs than those in other behavioral states, but this was only evident with the increased explanatory power provided by incorporating prey density and distribution as contextual covariates. Including contextual variables increases the ability to characterize behavioral variability and empirically strengthens previous findings that deep-feeding blue whales respond significantly to mid-frequency sound exposure. However, our results are only based on a single behavioral state with a limited sample size, and this analytical framework should be applied broadly across behavioral states. The increased capability to describe and account for individual response variability by including environmental variables, such as prey, that drive foraging behavior underscores the importance of integrating these and other relevant contextual parameters in experimental designs. Our results suggest the need to measure and account for the ecological dynamics of predator-prey interactions when studying the effects of anthropogenic disturbance in feeding animals.

Effects of El Niño-driven changes in wind patterns on North Pacific albatrosses.

Changes to patterns of wind and ocean currents are tightly linked to climate change and have important implications for cost of travel and energy budgets in marine vertebrates. We evaluated how El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-driven wind patterns affected breeding Laysan and black-footed albatross across a decade of study. Owing to latitudinal variation in wind patterns, wind speed differed between habitat used during incubation and brooding; during La Niña conditions, wind speeds were lower in incubating Laysan (though not black-footed) albatross habitat, but higher in habitats used by brooding albatrosses. Incubating Laysan albatrosses benefited from increased wind speeds during El Niño conditions, showing increased travel speeds and mass gained during foraging trips. However, brooding albatrosses did not benefit from stronger winds during La Niña conditions, instead experiencing stronger cumulative headwinds and a smaller proportion of trips in tailwinds. Increased travel costs during brooding may contribute to the lower reproductive success observed in La Niña conditions. Furthermore, benefits of stronger winds in incubating habitat may explain the higher reproductive success of Laysan albatross during El Niño conditions. Our findings highlight the importance of considering habitat accessibility and cost of travel when evaluating the impacts of climate-driven habitat change on marine predators.

Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean.

Pelagic marine predators face unprecedented challenges and uncertain futures. Overexploitation and climate variability impact the abundance and distribution of top predators in ocean ecosystems. Improved understanding of ecological patterns, evolutionary constraints and ecosystem function is critical for preventing extinctions, loss of biodiversity and disruption of ecosystem services. Recent advances in electronic tagging techniques have provided the capacity to observe the movements and long-distance migrations of animals in relation to ocean processes across a range of ecological scales. Tagging of Pacific Predators, a field programme of the Census of Marine Life, deployed 4,306 tags on 23 species in the North Pacific Ocean, resulting in a tracking data set of unprecedented scale and species diversity that covers 265,386 tracking days from 2000 to 2009. Here we report migration pathways, link ocean features to multispecies hotspots and illustrate niche partitioning within and among congener guilds. Our results indicate that the California Current large marine ecosystem and the North Pacific transition zone attract and retain a diverse assemblage of marine vertebrates. Within the California Current large marine ecosystem, several predator guilds seasonally undertake north-south migrations that may be driven by oceanic processes, species-specific thermal tolerances and shifts in prey distributions. We identify critical habitats across multinational boundaries and show that top predators exploit their environment in predictable ways, providing the foundation for spatial management of large marine ecosystems.

Topical capsaicin in humans: parallel loss of epidermal nerve fibers and pain sensation.

Capsaicin applied topically to human skin produces itching, pricking and burning sensations due to excitation of nociceptors. With repeated application, these positive sensory responses are followed by a prolonged period of hypalgesia that is usually referred to as desensitization, or nociceptor inactivation. Consequently, capsaicin has been recommended as a treatment for a variety of painful syndromes. The precise mechanisms that account for nociceptor desensitization and hypalgesia are unclear. The present study was performed to determine if morphological changes of intracutaneous nerve fibers contribute to desensitization and hypalgesia. Capsaicin (0.075%) was applied topically to the volar forearm four times daily for 3 weeks. At various time intervals tactile, cold, mechanical and heat pain sensations were assessed in the treated and in contralateral untreated areas. Skin blisters and skin biopsies were collected and immunostained for protein gene product (PGP) 9.5 to assess the morphology of cutaneous nerves and to quantify the number of epidermal nerve fibers (ENFs). Capsaicin resulted in reduced sensitivity to all cutaneous stimuli, particularly to noxious heat and mechanical stimuli. This hypalgesia was accompanied by degeneration of epidermal nerve fibers as evidenced by loss of PGP 9.5 immunoreactivity. As early as 3 days following capsaicin application, there was a 74% decrease in the number of nerve fibers in blister specimens. After 3 weeks of capsaicin treatment, the reduction was 79% in blisters and 82% in biopsies. Discontinuation of capsaicin was followed by reinnervation of the epidermis over a 6-week period with a return of all sensations, except cold, to normal levels. We conclude that degeneration of epidermal nerve fibers contributes to the analgesia accredited to capsaicin. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that ENFs contribute to the painful sensations evoked by noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli.

Methods and applications of three-color confocal imaging.

A simple method for constructing two- and three-color merged images from grayscale confocal fluorescence images using Adobe Photoshop is outlined. Various computer methods for manipulating and displaying the images are discussed in light of several recent biomedical applications of multi-label confocal microscopy.

Surgical treatment of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery in infancy and childhood. Early and late results in 20 consecutive cases.

From 1972 to September, 1979, 20 patients underwent transplantation of the anomalous left coronary artery to the aorta, either directly or via a graft. Correction of ischemia-induced mitral insufficiency was associated in eight patients and a postinfarction left ventricular scar was excised in 12. Operative mortality was high among patients under 1 year of age (4/5). Among older children it was 15%. There were not late deaths among patients surviving the operation (mean follow-up 3 years). All but one had marked clinical improvement and reduction of cardiomegaly. Eleven patients underwent angiographic control, with a patent graft or anastomosis demonstrated in every case. Operation is advocated for patients over 1 year of age. The best treatment of symptomatic infants remains controversial.

Staphylococcal nuclease: proposed mechanism of action based on structure of enzyme-thymidine 3',5'-bisphosphate-calcium ion complex at 1.5-A resolution.

The structure of the staphylococcal nuclease (EC 3.1.4.7)-thymidine 3',5'-bisphosphate-Ca(2+) (enzyme-inhibitor) complex has been extended to 1.5-A resolution by using much additional data and a phase refinement scheme based on an electron-density map modification procedure. By correlating this structure with the known properties of the enzyme, a mechanism of action is proposed that involves nucleophilic attack on phosphorus by a water molecule, which is bound to Glu-43, in line with the 5'-CH(2)O(H) leaving group. The carboxylate of Glu-43 promotes this attack by acting as a general base for the abstraction of a proton from the attacking water molecule. Nucleophilic attack is further facilitated by polarization of the phosphodiester by an ionic interaction between a Ca(2+) ion and a phosphate oxygen atom and by four hydrogen bonds to phosphate oxygen atoms from guanidinium ions of Arg-35 and Arg-87. These interactions may also catalyze the reaction by lowering the energy of a trigonal bipyramidal transition state. The hydrolysis of nucleic acid substrate proceeds by cleavage of the 5'-P-O bond to yield a free 5'-hydroxyl group and a terminal, 3'-phosphate monoester group. In the inhibitor complex the only general acid group found in a position to donate a proton to the leaving 5'-oxygen is the guanidinium ion of Arg-87. Alternative proton donors, presently lacking direct structural support, could be the phenolic hydroxyl group of Tyr-113 or a water molecule. The precision and rigidity of the location of the reactants at the active site and the probable dual binding and catalytic roles of the guanidinium ions of Arg-35 and Arg-87 are especially noteworthy.

Staphylococcal nuclease reviewed: a prototypic study in contemporary enzymology. IV. The nuclease as a model for protein folding.

This is the last in a series of four articles in which the chemical, enzymological and crystallographic work on Ribonucleate (deoxyribonucleate)-3'-nucleotidohydrolase, EC 3.1.4.4 (staphylococcal nuclease, micrococcal nuclease) will be reviewed and correlated. This article discusses the use of the nuclease as a model system for the study of the mechanisms and energetics of the folding-unfolding reaction in proteins and for the study of the interrelationships between amino acid sequence and three-dimensional structure.

Staphylococcal nuclease reviewed: a prototypic study in contemporary enzymology. II. Solution studies of the nucleotide binding site and the effects of nucleotide binding.

This is the second of a series of four articles in which the chemical, enzymological and crystallographic work on Ribonucleate (deoxyribonucleate)-3'-nucleotidohydrolase, EC 3.1.4.4. (staphylococcal nuclease, micrococcal nuclease) will be reviewed and correlated. This article discusses studies in solution delineating the extent of the binding site of the enzyme and identifying some of the particular amino acid residues that form this site. In addition, the effects of the very potent inhibitory combination of thymidine-3',5'-diphosphate and Ca2+ on the conformation of the enzyme and its physical, chemical and enzymological properties will be reviewed.

Staphylococcal nuclease reviewed: a prototypic study in contemporary enzymology. III. Correlation of the three-dimensional structure with the mechanisms of enzymatic action.

This is the third in a series of four articles in which the chemical, enzymological and crystallographic work on Ribonucleate (deoxribonucleate)-3'-nucleotidohydrolase, EC 3.1.4.4 (staphylococcal nuclease, micrococcal nuclease) will be reviewed and correlated. This article describes the structure of the nuclease and of a nuclease-inhibitor complex as determined by x-ray crystallography. The crystal structures are correlated with some of the known chemical and enzymological properties of the enzyme, and the three areas combined to propose a mechanism of action.

Staphylococcal nuclease reviewed: a prototypic study in contemporary enzymology. I. Isolation; physical and enzymatic properties.

This is the first of a series of four articles in which the chemical, enzymological, and crystallographic work on Ribonucleate (deoxyribonucleate)-3'-nucleotidohydrolase, EC 3.1.4.7, (Staphylococcal nuclease, Micrococcal nuclease) will be reviewed and correlated. This article discusses the purification of the enzyme and its general physical and enzymological properties. Subsequent articles will deal with specific studies of the nucleotide binding site, crystallographic studies of a nuclease-inhibitor complex, use of the nuclease as a model for protein folding and possible mechanisms for the action of the enzyme.

The role of arginine residues at enzyme active sites. The interaction between guanidinium ions and p-nitro-phenyl phosphate and its effect on the rate of hydrolysis of the ester.

In alcoholic solutions a relatively strong complex forms among two guanidinium ions and one p-nitrophenylphosphate dianion. The effect of this complex formation on the hydrolysis of the ester is to lower the rate by a factor of 4 in solutions containing 1 M guanidine hydrochloride when compared with solutions of the same total ionic strength containing no guanidinium ion. It is therefore suggested that, for the enzymatically catalyzed hydrolysis of phosphate compounds going via the formation of a metaphosphate intermediate, the role of any arginine residues at the active site is primarily one of binding and positioning the substrate.