The Stability of Invertebrate Communities in Bromeliad Phytotelmata in a Rain Forest Subject to Hurricanes

Communities of invertebrate animals in lower canopy and saxicolous tank bromeliads, originally studied in 1993–1997, were resampled along an elevational gradient in tabonuco, palo colorado, and dwarf or cloud forest in Puerto Rico in 2010. These Puerto Rican montane rain forests were impacted strongly by hurricanes in 1989 and 1998, so the surveys in the 1990s represented 4–8 yr of post‐hurricane recovery, whereas our recent survey represents 12 yr of post‐hurricane recovery. At most elevations, species diversity, both within individual bromeliads and at the forest scale, declined between the 1990s and 2010. This decline in diversity between decades is associated with reductions in bromeliad density as the canopy progressively closed during recovery from hurricane damage. The observed decline in alpha and gamma diversity appears to have involved the loss of rarer species, as might be expected from standard metapopulation theory. By contrast, the most common species were remarkably stable in abundance, composition, and frequency of occurrence over the two decades. In the lowermost tabonuco forest, two endemic bromeliad specialists, restricted to bromeliads for their entire life cycle, were not found on resampling. This study also demonstrates that, at least in Puerto Rico, sets of ten plants from each forest were sufficient to monitor bromeliad invertebrate populations and their diversity over time.     

Getting ready for PAT: Scale up and inline monitoring of protein refolding of Npro fusion proteins

Screening for optimal refolding conditions for recombinant protein overexpressed in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies is often carried out on micro-scale in non-agitated reactors. Currently, scale up of refolding of N^pro fusion proteins is based on geometric similarity and constant Re number. Refolding/cleavage kinetics is recorded offline by HPLC and via fluorescence intensity. We show that the results for refolding obtained on the micro-scale can be transferred to the laboratory scale stirred tank reactor, with increases in scale up to a factor of 5000, with high agreement of kinetic constants and yield. Progress of refolding kinetics on the laboratory scale is monitored inline by attenuated total reflectance – Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Addressing the demands for better process understanding, we demonstrate that ATR-FTIR enables the inline monitoring of refolding processes on the laboratory scale, replacing offline analysis which delivers the results with a time delay. Implementing inline monitoring will allow the integration of process control, thereby resulting in a more efficient and knowledge based production process.     

Ontogenetic changes in temperature preference of Atlantic cod

Final thermal preferendum ( T ) experiments were conducted in a horizontal thermal gradient tank from the beginning of August 2001 to mid‐November 2001 using Atlantic cod Gadus morhua from 6·5 to 79·0 cm fork length ( L _F). The value of T varied significantly ( P  < 0·005) with L _F( T  = 7·23–0·054 L _F), with smaller (younger) fish choosing higher temperatures than larger (older) fish. The preferendum varied from 6·9° C for fish of 6·5 cm to 3·0° C for those of 79·0 cm. Experiments comparing fish positions in the gradient tank between thermal gradients of 0·5–11·0 and 4·5–14·5° C demonstrated that fish positions were determined by temperature selection instead of undesirable tank effects. This study is the first to demonstrate the effect of ontogeny on temperature preferences of a marine fish species.     

光生物反应器中螺旋藻培养条件的优化

利用正交实验对搅拌式光生物反应器中钝顶螺旋藻(Spirulina platensis Geitl)的培养条件即搅拌速度、通气量和光照强度进行优化.实验结果表明:当培养温度为30℃时,通过正交实验所获得的最佳培养条件为搅拌转速120 r·min-1,通气量80 L·h-1,光照强度5000lx.在最佳培养条件下,收获时螺旋藻的干重为1.922 g·L-1.根据回归模型得到相应的优化条件为:光照强度5000lx,通气量150L·h-1,搅拌转速111.70r·min-1,收获量(干重)的预测值为2.293 g·L-1.另外,10%的接种量有利于螺旋藻的生长.     

Directional growth of a clonal bromeliad species in response to spatial habitat heterogeneity

Habitat selection by directional growth of plants has previously been investigated but field evidence for this phenomenon is extremely scarce. In this study we demonstrate directional clonal growth in Aechmea nudicaulis, a monocarpic, perennial bromeliad native to spatially heterogeneous sandy coastal plains (restinga) in Brazil. This habitat is characterized by a matrix of bare sand with interspersed vegetation islands. Due to very high soil surface temperatures and other stress factors such as drought, A. nudicauliscan only germinate inside vegetation islands. Nevertheless, this species is very common on bare sand. In this study we tested the hypothesis that clonal fragments occurring at the border and inside vegetation islands show habitat selection by growing preferentially towards the bare sand habitat (i.e. away from the center of vegetation islands).We randomly chose 116 clonal fragments in two distinct micro-environments (inside vegetation islands, and in the border area between bare sand and vegetation islands) in the natural habitat of A.nudicaulisand measured their growth direction in relation to the island center. We measured the growth directions of entire clonal fragments (defined as the line that connects the oldest and the youngest ramets of a clonal fragment) as well as the growth direction of the youngest internode on each fragment (the growth direction of the youngest ramet in relation to its parent ramet). We used Monte Carlo simulations to test for deviations from randomness in the growth direction of clonal fragments and individual internodes. The clonal fragments of A.nudicaulis showed a significant tendency to grow away from the center of vegetation islands. In other words, the main growth direction of clonal fragments growing inside vegetation islands or at the border between bare sand and vegetation islands was preferentially directed towards bare sand environments. Individual internodes at the border of vegetation islands also exhibited this tendency to grow towards the outside of vegetation islands, but internodes growing inside vegetation islands did not show directional growth. These results provide the first field evidence for habitat selection through directional growth of a clonal plant species.Co-ordinationg editor: J. Tuomi     

搅拌式光生物反应器培养海带配子体细胞：不同脉冲补料方式的研究

本文以批次培养为对照,研究了七种脉冲补料方式对搅拌式光生物反应器中培养大型褐藻海带配子体细胞生长和培养液内氮磷营养盐消耗的影响,并首次探讨了脉冲补料方式下不同补料时间点和补料量的影响作用。培养条件设定为50 mg DCW (细胞干重) L-1接种密度、培养液为改良的APSW人工海水、光强60 µE m-2 s-1、光周期16/8 h L/D、通气速率和搅拌速率分别为50 mL min-1和100 rpm。结果表明少量补料利于细胞对氮磷的协同吸收,进而利于生物量扩增。当培养液内氮磷富足或耗尽时补料对于生物量大量生产效果甚微,可能由于氮磷吸收变缓、其储存现象显著,或是其吸收协同性降低。文中当细胞生长至对数中期开始频繁补加少量氮磷营养盐,即维持培养液内氮磷浓度在各自起始浓度的1/3至1/2之间,对生物量生产最有效,生物量增长倍数高达12.270倍。     

红缘拟层孔菌发酵工艺的研究及其升罐培养

为筛选出红缘拟层孔菌发酵的最佳条件,并用于升罐发酵,试验优选出5个基础培养基,再以发酵菌丝体的生物量为指标,确定红缘拟层孔菌发酵的最佳条件。进行升罐发酵,间隔取出少量发酵液进行显微观察并检测葡萄糖含量,描述出菌丝体的生长状态。结果表明:红缘拟层孔菌发酵的最佳条件为马铃薯200 g/L,葡萄糖20 g/L,磷酸二氢钾1 g/L,硫酸镁1.5 g/L,维生素B10.4 g/L。升罐发酵中,菌丝干质量在前60 h处于快速的增长状态,最大为6.890 1 g/L,而60 h之后菌丝的生长变缓慢,到84 h之后,菌丝自溶,菌丝的产量开始下降。菌丝的葡萄糖含量经血糖仪检测在60 h时最高,达到0.296 5 g/L,之后呈现下降趋势。红缘拟层孔菌升罐发酵的最佳发酵时间为56~64 h。