Surf smelt accelerate usage of endogenous energy reserves under climate change.

Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) are ecologically critical forage fish in the North Pacific ecosystem. As obligate beach spawners, surf smelt embryos are exposed to wide-ranging marine and terrestrial environmental conditions. Despite this fact, very few studies have assessed surf smelt tolerance to climate stressors.

Direct and indirect effects of elevated CO2 are revealed through shifts in phytoplankton, copepod development, and fatty acid accumulation.

Change in the nutritional quality of phytoplankton is a key mechanism through which ocean acidification can affect the function of marine ecosystems. Copepods play an important role transferring energy from phytoplankton to higher trophic levels, including fatty acids (FA)-essential macronutrients synthesized by primary producers that can limit zooplankton and fisheries production. We investigated the direct effects of pCO2 on phytoplankton and copepods in the laboratory, as well as the trophic transfer of effects of pCO2 on food quality.

Characterization and quantitation of a tertiary mixture of salts by Raman spectroscopy in simulated hydrothermal vent fluid.

This article will demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy can be a useful tool for monitoring the chemical composition of hydrothermal vent fluids in the deep ocean. Hydrothermal vent systems are difficult to study because they are commonly found at depths greater than 1000 m under high pressure (200-300 bar) and venting fluid temperatures are up to 400 degrees C. Our goal in this study was to investigate the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize and quantitate three Raman-active salts that are among the many chemical building blocks of deep ocean vent chemistry.