Structural analysis of phytoplankton communities variation in the archipelago of La Maddalena (North Sardinian Coast): A canonical correlation approach

The relative importance of certain sources of variation on organizational features of phytoplankton communities have been investigated in a 1-yr study carried out in the Archipelago of La Maddalena (North Sardinian Coast, Italy). Samples were collected in the four seasons, at 13 locations and two different layers providing biological, chemical and physical data.

The relationship between the different environmental characteristics and certain indices of phytoplankton organization have been investigated by means of canonical correlation analyses. To this purpose, the diversity index family Δ_β was used to provide evaluation on the complexity of phytoplankton community structures through the derivation of diversity profiles based both on abundance and biomass data.

The temporal pattern of variation of phytoplankton organization was greater than that due to spatial heterogeneity. Species richness in the different seasons and locations was independent of the layer considered. The quality of evenness behaved similarly to richness. A spatial gradient of this last component of diversity was inversely related to log phytoplankton abundance in the direction of the main current flow in the channels of the Archipelago.

The structural features of phytoplankton communities in the Archipelago seemed to reflect the general environmental variation. More even communities were associated with relatively low nitrate and total phosphorus status. Species richness was inversely related to a larger availability of total phosphorus and directly related to relatively high temperature and water stability.

Canonical correlation analysis was a very useful tool since it allowed a proper separation of species richness and evenness on two uncorrelated variates determining the best conditions for a powerful insight into the statistical relationships between the structural features of phytoplankton communities and the characteristics of the surrounding environment.     

The importance of avoiding chemical contamination for a successful cultivation of marine organisms

1. Using 6 phytoplankton species and/or the copepodEuterpina acutifrons or larvae of the sea urchinArbacia lixula the potential inhibitory effects of chemicals released from some 70 different materials (mainly plastics) have been tested. In addition, the effects of 6 detergents have been examined. 2. Several materials, such as natural rubbers and polyvinyl chlorides, are highly toxic and should never be used when experimenting with living marine organisms. 3. Teflon (Algoflon), Perspex, Polyethylene, Tygon, Polypropylene, Polycarbonates (Makrolon) and Polyester (Gabraster) have been shown to be non-toxic and are, therefore, suitable for use in cultivation of marine organisms. Some materials had slightly negative effects on the organisms tested and should, therefore, be used only if no alternatives are available. 4. Some suggestions are advanced on how to construct non-toxic samplers and laboratory equipment used for experiments with marine organisms.     

Rats spontaneously perceive global motion direction of drifting plaids

Computing global motion direction of extended visual objects is a hallmark of primate high-level vision. Although neurons selective for global motion have also been found in mouse visual cortex, it remains unknown whether rodents can combine multiple motion signals into global, integrated percepts. To address this question, we trained two groups of rats to discriminate either gratings (G group) or plaids (i.e., superpositions of gratings with different orientations; P group) drifting horizontally along opposite directions. After the animals learned the task, we applied a visual priming paradigm, where presentation of the target stimulus was preceded by the brief presentation of either a grating or a plaid. The extent to which rat responses to the targets were biased by such prime stimuli provided a measure of the spontaneous, perceived similarity between primes and targets. We found that gratings and plaids, when used as primes, were equally effective at biasing the perception of plaid direction for the rats of the P group. Conversely, for the G group, only the gratings acted as effective prime stimuli, while the plaids failed to alter the perception of grating direction. To interpret these observations, we simulated a decision neuron reading out the representations of gratings and plaids, as conveyed by populations of either component or pattern cells (i.e., local or global motion detectors). We concluded that the findings for the P group are highly consistent with the existence of a population of pattern cells, playing a functional role similar to that demonstrated in primates. We also explored different scenarios that could explain the failure of the plaid stimuli to elicit a sizable priming magnitude for the G group. These simulations yielded testable predictions about the properties of motion representations in rodent visual cortex at the single-cell and circuitry level, thus paving the way to future neurophysiology experiments.     

Cytogenetic and genetic data support Crossodactylus aeneus Müller, 1924 as a new junior synonym of C. gaudichaudii Duméril and Bibron, 1841 (Amphibia, Anura)

The nominal anuran species Crossodactylus gaudichaudii Duméril and Bibron, 1841 and Crossodactylus aeneus Müller, 1924 are indistinguishable based on adult and larval morphology, being subject of taxonomic doubts. Here, we describe the karyotypes of C. gaudichaudii and C. aeneus, using classical and molecular cytogenetic markers. In addition, we used sequences of the H1 mitochondrial DNA to infer their phylogenetic relationships by Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Maximum Parsimony (MP) approaches and species delimitation test (by bPTP approach). The karyotypic data do not differentiate C. gaudichaudii and C. aeneus in any of the chromosome markers assessed. In both phylogenetic analyses, C. gaudichaudii and C. aeneus were recovered into a strongly supported clade. The species delimitation analysis recovered the specimens assigned to C. gaudichaudii and C. aeneus as a single taxonomic unit. Taken the cytogenetic and genetic results together with previous studies of internal and external morphology of tadpoles and biacoustic pattern, C. gaudichaudii and C. aeneus could not be differentiated, which supports the hypothesis that they correspond to the same taxonomic unit, with C. aeneus being a junior synonym of C. gaudichaudii.