Search results for: marine ecosystems

Authors: Girlly Marchlina Listyono, Abdurrokhim Abdurrokhim, Emi Sukiyah, Pulung Arya Pranantya

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Jakarta Area is composed by deposit which has various lithology characteristics. Based on its lithology types, colors, textures, mineral dan organic content from 22 wells scattered on Jakarta, lithofacies analysis and intra-wells data correlation can be done. From the analysis, it can be interpretated that Jakarta deposit deposited in marine, transition and terrestrial depositional environments. Terrestrial deposit characterized by domination of relatively coarse clastics and content of remaining roots, woods, plants, high content of quartz, lithic fragment, calcareous and oxidated appearace. The thickness of terrestrial deposit is thickening to south. Transitional deposit characterized by fine to medium clastics with dark color, high content of organic matter, various thickness in any ways. Marine deposit characterized by finer clastics, contain remain of shells, fosil, coral, limestone fragments, glauconites, calcareous. Marine deposit relatively thickening to north. Those lateral variety caused by tectonic, subsidence and stratigraphic condition. Deposition of Jakarta deposit from the data research was started on marine depositional environment which surrounded by the event of cycle of regression and transgression then ended with regression which ongoing until form shore line in north Jakarta nowadays.

Keywords: deposit, Indonesia, Jakarta, sediment, stratigraphy

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Authors: K. C. Bloom, Cynde McInnis

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The Covid-19 pandemic has caused immense changes in the way that we live, work and travel. The impact of these changes is readily apparent in tourism to Massachusetts and the region of New England. Whereas, in general, Massachusetts and New England are a hotspot for travelers from around the world, this form of travel has largely been shut down due to the pandemic. One such area where the impact has been felt is in marine-based wildlife tourism. Massachusetts is home to not only whales but also seals and great white sharks. Prior to the pandemic, whale watching had long been a popular activity while seal and shark tourism has been a developing one. Given that seeing a great white shark was rare in New England for many years, shark tourism has not played a role in the economies of the region until recently. While whales have steadily been found within the marine environments of Massachusetts and whale watching has been a popular attraction since the mid-1970s, the lack of great white sharks in New England was, in part, a response to a change in their environment in that a favorite food source, the gray seals, were culled by regional fishermen as the fishermen believed that seals were taking their catch. This retaliatory behavior ended when the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA) was passed. The MMPA prohibited the killing of seals and since then the seal population has increased to traditional numbers (Tech Times, 2014). Given the increase in the seal population in New England, and especially Cape Cod, Massachusetts, there has been a similar increase in the numbers of great white sharks. In fact, over the time between 2004 and 2014, the number of sightings increased from an average of two per year to more than 20 (NY Post, 7/21/14). This has increased even more over the last six years. As a result, residents and businesses in Massachusetts have begun to embrace the great whites as a potential tourism draw. Local business owners are considering opening up cage diving and shark viewing businesses while there has also been an increase in shark-related merchandise throughout the Cape Cod region. Combined with a large whale watching industry, marine-based wildlife tourism is big business to Massachusetts. With the Covid-19 pandemic shuttering international travel, this study aims to look at the impacts of the pandemic on this industry. Through interviews with marine-based wildlife tourism businesses as well as survey data collection from visitors, this study looks at the holistic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on an important part of the marine tourism industry in the state.

Keywords: marine tourism, ecotourism, Covid, wildlife

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Authors: Shobrina Silmi Qori Tarlita, Fariz Kukuh Harwinda

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Indonesia has 81.000 kilometers coastal line and 70% water surface which is known as the country who has a huge potential in fisheries sector and also which is able to support more than 50 % of Gross Domestic Product. But according to Department of Marine and Fisheries data, fisheries sector supported only 20% of Total GDP in 1998. Not only that, the highest decline in fisheries sector income occured in 2009. Those conditions occur, because of some factors contributed to the lack of integrated working platform for the fisheries and marine management in some areas which have a high productivity to increase the economical profit every year for the country, especially Indonesia, besides the labor requirement for every company, whether a big company or smaller one, depends on the natural condition that makes a lot of people become unemployed if the weather condition or any other conditions dealing with the natural condition is bad for creating fisheries and marine management, especially in aquaculture and fish – captured operation. Not only those, a lot of fishermen, especially in Indonesia, mostly make their job profession as an additional job or side job to fulfill their own needs, although they are averagely poor. Another major problem are the lack of the sustainable developmental program to stabilize the productivity of fisheries and marine natural source, like protecting the environment for fish nursery ground and migration channel, that makes the low productivity of fisheries and marine natural resource, even though the growth of the society in Indonesia has increased for years and needs more food resource to comply the high demand nutrition for living. The development of Minapolitan Area is one of the alternative solution to build a better place for aqua-culturist as well as the fishermen which focusing on systemic and business effort for fisheries and marine management. Minapolitan is kind of integration area which gathers and integrates the ones who is focusing their effort and business in fisheries sector, so that Minapolitan is capable of triggering the fishery activity on the area which using Minapolitan management intensively. From those things, finally, Minapolitan is expected to reinforce the sustainable development through increasing the productivity of fish – capturing operation as well as aquaculture, and it is also expected that Minapolitan will be able to increase GDP, the earning for a lot of people and also will be able to bring prosperity around the world. From those backgrounds, this paper will explain more about the Minapolitan Area and the design of reinforcing the Minapolitan Area by zonation in the Fishery and Marine exploitation area with high productivity as well as low productivity. Hopefully, this solution will be able to answer the economical and social issue for declining food resource, especially fishery and marine resource.

Keywords: Minapolitan, fisheries, economy, Indonesia

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Authors: Patrick Cummings, Laura Cassani, Deirdre Kelliher

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In this paper we present findings from a research effort to apply a hybrid collaborative-context approach for a system focused on Marine Corps civil affairs data collection, aggregation, and analysis called the Marine Civil Information Management System (MARCIMS). The goal of this effort is to provide operators with information to make sense of the interconnectedness of entities and relationships in their area of operation and discover existing data to support civil military operations. Our approach to build a recommendation engine was designed to overcome several technical challenges, including 1) ensuring models were robust to the relatively small amount of data collected by the Marine Corps civil affairs community; 2) finding methods to recommend novel data for which there are no interactions captured; and 3) overcoming confirmation bias by ensuring content was recommended that was relevant for the mission despite being obscure or less well known. We solve this by implementing a combination of collective matrix factorization (CMF) and graph-based random walks to provide recommendations to civil military operations users. We also present a method to resolve the challenge of computation complexity inherent from highly connected nodes through a precomputed process.

Keywords: Recommendation engine, collaborative filtering, context based recommendation, graph analysis, coverage, civil affairs operations, Marine Corps

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Authors: Siran Offman, Hermes Pacule, Teofilo Nhamuhuco

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Marine invertebrates are very important for the livelihood of coastal communities, particularly in Pemba City. The study was conducted From June 2011 to March 2012. The aim of this study is to determine the socioeconomic impact of collecting marine invertebrates in communities and Chuiba Maringanha. Data were collected biweekly during the spring tide ebb in the intertidal zone, and through structured surveys, the confrontation of data was done through direct observation in the neighborhoods. In total 40 collectors was surveyed and it was found that activity of collecting marine invertebrates is practiced by women 57.2% and men 42.5%. Their ages ranged from 9 to 45 years, and the range was 25-32 dominant with 30.5% and collection practice 5-7 times per week they spend about 4-6 hours a day. The collection methods are direct harvesting by hand aided by knives, sharp irons, and transport use pots, buckets, basins, shawls. Were identified in total 8 marketable species namely: Octopus vulgaris 8.6 Kg, Cyprea Tigers 7 units, Cypraea annulus 48 kg, 40 kg holuturias, Cyprea bully, Atrina vexilium 10 kg, Modiulus philiphinarum and lambis lambis. The species with the greatest economic value are sea cucumber (3 Usd/ kg) and Octopus vulgaris ( 2.5 Usd/ kg) more commercialized. The socio-economic impacts on communities of collectors the average income of collectors varies from 0.5 to 5 Usd/ day and the money are intended to purchase food and agricultural instruments. The other socioeconomics impacts are illiteracy with 36% dropout, and 28% have never studied 87% of unemployed collectors, a high number of family members, weak economic power, poor housing made the basis of local materials and relies on community wells to access water, and most do not have electric power.

Keywords: socio-economic, impacts, collecting marine invertebrates, communities

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Authors: Robert Kwame Kpaliba, Dennis Kpakpor Adotey, Yaw Serfor-Armah

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Increase in the oceanic carbon dioxide absorbance from the atmosphere due to climate change has led to appreciable change in the chemistry of the oceans. The change in oceanic pH referred to as ocean acidification poses multiple threats and stresses on marine species, biodiversity, goods and services, and livelihoods. Marine ecosystems are continuously threatened by plethora of natural and anthropogenic stressors including carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions causing a lot of changes which has not been experienced for approximately 60 years. Little has been done in Africa as a whole and Ghana in particular to improve the understanding of the variations of the carbonate chemistry of seawater and the biophysical impacts of ocean acidification on security of seafood, nutrition, climate and environmental change. There is, therefore, the need for regular monitoring of carbonate chemistry of seawater along Ghana’s coastline to generate reliable data to aid marine policy formulation. Samples of seawater were collected thrice every month for a one-year period from five study sites for the various parameters to be analyzed. Analysis of the measured physico-chemical and the carbonate chemistry parameters was done using simple statistics. Correlation test and ANOVA were run on both of the physico-chemical and carbonate chemistry parameters. The carbonate chemistry parameters were measured using computer software programme (CO₂cal v4.0.9) except total alkalinity and pH. The study assessed the variability of seawater carbonate chemistry in selected portions of the Central Atlantic Coastline of Ghana (Tsokomey/Bortianor, Kokrobitey, Gomoa Nyanyanor, Gomoa Fetteh, and Senya Breku landing beaches) over a 1-year period (June 2016–May 2017). For physico-chemical parameters, there was insignificant variation in nitrate (NO₃⁻) (1.62 - 2.3 mg/L), ammonia (NH₃) (1.52 - 2.05 mg/L), and salinity (sal) (34.50 - 34.74 ppt). Carbonate chemistry parameters for all the five study sites showed significant variation: partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂) (414.08-715.5 µmol/kg), carbonate ion (CO₃²⁻) (115-157.92 µmol/kg), pH (7.9-8.12), total alkalinity (TA) (1711.8-1986 µmol/kg), total carbon dioxide (TCO₂) (1512.1 - 1792 µmol/kg), dissolved carbon dioxide (CO₂aq) (10.97-18.92 µmol/kg), Revelle Factor (RF) (9.62-11.84), aragonite (ΩAr) (0.75-1.48) and calcite (ΩCa) (1.08-2.14). The study revealed that the partial pressure of carbon dioxide and temperature did not have a significant effect on each other (r² = 0.31) (p-value = 0.0717). There was an appreciable effect of pH on dissolved carbon dioxide (r² = 0.921) (p-value = 0.0000). The variation between total alkalinity and dissolved carbon dioxide was appreciable (r² = 0.731) (p-value = 0.0008). There was a significant correlation between total carbon dioxide and dissolved carbon dioxide (r² = 0.852) (p-value = 0.0000). Revelle factor correlated strongly with dissolved carbon dioxide (r² = 0.982) (p-value = 0.0000). Partial pressure of carbon dioxide corresponds strongly with atmospheric carbon dioxide (r² = 0.9999) (p-value = 0.00000).

Keywords: carbonate chemistry, seawater, central atlantic coastline, Ghana, ocean acidification

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Authors: T. A. Mona M. Salem, Ali F. Bakr

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Given the potential devastation associated with future climate change related disasters, it is vital to change the way we build and manage our cities, through new strategies to reconfigure them and their infrastructures in ways that help secure their reproduction. This leads to a kaleidoscopic view of the city that recognizes the interrelationships of energy, water, transportation, and solid waste. These interrelationships apply across sectors and with respect to the built form of the city. The paper aims at a long-term climate resilience of cities and their critical infrastructures, and sets out an argument for including an eco-infrastructure-based approach in strategies to address climate change. As these ecosystems have a critical role to play in building resilience and reducing vulnerabilities in cities, communities and economies at risk, the enhanced protection and management of ecosystems, biological resources and habitats can mitigate impacts and contribute to solutions as nations and cities strive to adapt to climate change.

Keywords: ecology, ecosystem, infrastructure, climate change, urban

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Authors: Waisea Votadroka, Bert Van Bavel

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The most commonly consumed shellfish species produced in the Pacific, shellfish and tuna fish, were investigated for the occurrence of a range of brominated and chlorinated contaminants in order to establish current levels. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were analysed in the muscle of tuna species Katsuwonis pelamis, yellow fin tuna, and shellfish species from the Fiji Islands. The investigation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), furans (PCDFs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE No.47) in tuna and shellfish in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Fiji is necessary due to the lack of research data in the Pacific region. The health risks involved in the consumption of marine foods laced with toxic organo-chlorinated and brominated compounds makes in the analyses of these compounds in marine foods important particularly when Pacific communities rely on these resources as their main diet. The samples were homogenized in a motor with anhydrous sodium sulphate in the ratio of 1:3 (muscle) and 1:4-1:5 (roe and butter). The tuna and shellfish samples were homogenized and freeze dried at the sampling location at the Institute of Applied Science, Fiji. All samples were stored in amber glss jars at -18 ° C until extraction at Orebro University. PCDD/Fs, PCBs and pesticides were all analysed using an Autospec Ultina HRGC/HRMS operating at 10,000 resolutions with EI ionization at 35 eV. All the measurements were performed in the selective ion recording mode (SIR), monitoring the two most abundant ions of the molecular cluster (PCDD/Fs and PCBs). Results indicated that the Fiji Composite sample for Batissa violacea range 0.7-238.6 pg/g lipid; Fiji sample composite Anadara antiquate range 1.6 – 808.6 pg/g lipid; Solomon Islands Katsuwonis Pelamis 7.5-3770.7 pg/g lipid; Solomon Islands Yellow Fin tuna 2.1 -778.4 pg/g lipid; Kiribati Katsuwonis Pelamis 4.8-1410 pg/g lipids. The study has demonstrated that these species are good bio-indicators of the presence of these toxic organic pollutants in edible marine foods. Our results suggest that for pesticides levels, p,p-DDE is the most dominant for all the groups and seems to be highest at 565.48 pg/g lipid in composite Batissa violacea from Fiji. For PBDE no.47 in comparing all samples, the composite Batissa violacea from Fiji had the highest level of 118.20 pg/g lipid. Based upon this study, the contamination levels found in the study species were quite lower compared with levels reported in impacted ecosystems around the world

Keywords: polychlorinated biphenyl, polybrominated diphenylethers, pesticides, organoclorinated pesticides, PBDEs

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Authors: Pramod Kumar, A. V. N. Swamy, C. V. Sowjanya, C. V. Ramachandra Murthy

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Biosorption is one of the effective methods for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. Results are presented showing the sorption of Pb(II) from solutions by biomass of commonly available marine algae Chlorella sp. The ability of marine algae Chlorella pyrenoidosa to remove heavy metal ion (Pb(II)) from aqueous solutions has been studied in this work. The biosorption properties of the biosorbent like equilibrium agitation time, optimum pH, temperature and initial solute concentration were investigated on metal uptake by showing respective profiles. The maximum metal uptake was found to be 10.27 mg/g. To achieve this metal uptake, the optimum conditions were found to be 30 min as equilibrium agitation time, 4.6 as optimum pH, 60 ppm of initial solute concentration. Lead concentration is determined by atomic absorption spectrometer. The process was found to be well fitted for pseudo-second order kinetics.

Keywords: biosorption, heavy metal ions, agitation time, metal uptake, aqueous solution

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Authors: Shinta Holdsworth, Jan Axmacher, Darren J. Mann

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Beetles represent the most diverse insect taxon, and they contribute significantly to a wide range of vital ecological functions. Examples include decomposition by bark beetles, nitrogen recycling and dung processing by dung beetles or pest control by predatory ground beetles. Nonetheless, research into the distribution patterns, species richness and functional diversity of beetles particularly from tropical regions remains extremely limited. In our research, we aim to investigate the distribution and diversity patterns of beetles and the roles they play in small tropical island ecosystems in the Kepulauan Seribu Marine National Park and on Java. Our research furthermore provides insights into the effects anthropogenic activities have on the assemblage composition and diversity of beetles on the small islands. We recorded a substantial number of highly abundant small island species, including a substantial number of unique small island species across the study area, highlighting these islands’ potential importance for the regional conservation of genetic resources. The highly varied patterns observed in relation to the use of different trapping types - pitfall traps and flight interception traps (FITs) - underscores the need for complementary trapping strategies that combine multiple methods for beetle community surveys in tropical islands. The significant impacts of human activities have on the small island beetle faunas were also highlighted in our research. More island beetle species encountered in settlement than forest areas shows clear trend of positive links between anthropogenic activities and the overall beetle species richness. However, undisturbed forests harboured a high number of unique species, also in comparison to disturbed forests. Finally, our study suggests that, with regards to different feeding guilds, the diversity of herbivorous beetles on islands is strongly affected by the different levels of forest cover encountered.

Keywords: beetle diversity, forest disturbance, island biogeography, island settlement

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Authors: Shivankar Agrawal, Sunil Kumar Deshmukh, Colin Barrow, Alok Adholeya

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A variety of genetic and environmental factors cause various cosmetics and dermatological problems. There are already claimed drugs available in market for treating these problems. However, the challenge remains in finding more potent, environmental friendly, causing minimal side effects and economical cosmeceuticals. This leads to an increased demand for natural cosmeceutical products in the last few decades. Plant derived ingredients are limited because plants either contain toxic metabolites, grow too slow or seasonal harvesting is a problem. To identify new bioactive cosmetics ingredients of marine microbial bioresource, we screened 35 marine fungi isolated from marine samples collected from Andaman Island and west coast of India. Fungal crude extracts were investigated for their antityrosinase, antioxidant and antibacterial activities for the purpose of identifying anti-aging, skin-whitening and anti-acne biomolecule with the potential in cosmetics. In the tyrosinase inhibition and 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assays, two fungal extracts, including “P2”, Talaromyces stipitatus and “D4”, Aspergillus terreus showed high inhibitory activity at 1mg/mL for tyrosinase inhibition and 0.5mg/mL for DPPH scavenging. The in vitro antimicrobial activity was investigated by the agar well diffusion method. In the tyrosinase inhibition assay, 8 extracts showed significant antibacterial activity against bacteria causing skin and wound infection in humans. In the course of systematic screening program for bioactive marine fungi, strain “D5” was found to be most potent strain with MIC value of 1mg/mL, which was morphologically identified as Simplicillium lamellicola. The effects of the most active crude extracts against their susceptible test microorganisms were also investigated by SEM analysis. Further investigations will focus on purification and characterization major active components responsible for these activities.

Keywords: antioxidant, antimicrobial activity, tyrosinase, cosmeceuticals, marine fungi

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Authors: Mingbao Chen

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The blue economy is a new comprehensive marine economy integrated with resources, industries, and regions, and is an upgraded version of the marine economy. The blue economy attaches great importance to the coordinated development of the ecological environment and the economy, which is an emerging economic form advocated by all countries in the world. This paper constructs the model including four variables：natural capital, economic capital, intellectual capital, cultural capital. Theoretically, this paper deduces the function mechanism of variables on economic growth, and empirically calculates the driving force and influence of the blue economy on the national economy by using data of China's 2006-2015 year. The results show that natural capital and economic capital remain the main factors of blue growth in the blue economy. And with the development of economic society and technological progress, the role of intellectual capital and cultural capital is bigger and bigger. Therefore, promoting the development of marine science and technology and culture is the focus of the future blue economic development.

Keywords: blue growth, natural capital, intellectual capital, cultural capital

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Authors: Awei Bainivalu, Joachim Larsen, Logesh Panneerselvan, Toby Mills, Brett Neilan, Megharaj Mallavarapu

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World War II (WWII) shipwrecks harbour up to 20 million tonnes of oil. More than 3000 wrecks are in the Pacific Ocean; 300 are oil tankers. Compared to other oil removal methods, bioremediation is environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Oil's microbial community and hydrocarbon properties from the Pacific WWII wrecks were identified. Dominant phyla are Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes. Native marine bacteria oil-degraders were isolated for bioremediation. Petroleum degradation data from the bacterial consortium will be analyzed over the next three months.

Keywords: oil bioremediation, marine bacteria, WWII shipwrecks, pacific

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Authors: N. R. P Withana, E. Auch

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The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of climate change risk to forest ecosystems and forest-based communities as well as perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies for climate change as well as challenges for adaptation. Data was gathered using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Simple random selection technique was applied. For the majority of issues, the responses were obtained on multi-point Likert scales, and the scores provided were, in turn, used to estimate the means and other useful estimates. A composite knowledge index developed using correct responses to a set of self-rated statements were used to evaluate the issues. The mean of the knowledge index was 0.64. Also all respondents recorded values of the knowledge index above 0.25. Increase forest fire was perceived by respondents as the greatest risk to forest eco-system. Decrease access to water supplies was perceived as the greatest risk to livelihoods of forest based communities. The most effective adaptation strategy relevant to climate change risks to forest eco-systems and forest based communities livelihoods in Kathmandu valley in Nepal as perceived by the respondents was reforestation and afforestation. As well, lack of public awareness was perceived as the major limitation for climate change adaptation. However, perceived risks as well as effective adaptation strategies showed an inconsistent association with knowledge indicators and social-cultural variables. The results provide useful information to any party who involve with climate change issues in Nepal, since such attempts would be more effective once the people’s perceptions on these aspects are taken into account.

Keywords: climate change, risk perceptions, forest ecosystems, forest-based communities

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Authors: Zouhaier Nasr, Mohamed Nouri

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The increase in greenhouse gases since the pre-industrial period is a real threat to disrupting the balance of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Along with the oceans, forest soils are considered to be the planet's second-largest carbon sink. North African forests have been subject to alarming degradation for several decades. The objective of this investigation is to determine and quantify the effect of thinning practiced in pine forests in northern Tunisia on the storage of organic carbon in the trees and in the soil. The plot planted in 1989 underwent thinning in 2005 on to plots; the density is therefore 1600 trees/ha in control and 400 trees/ha in thinning. Direct dendrometric measurements (diameter, height, branches, stem) were taken. In the soil part, six profiles of 1m / 1m / 1m were used for soil and root samples and biomass and organic matter measurements. The measurements obtained were statistically processed by appropriate software. The results clearly indicate that thinning improves tree growth, so the diameter increased from 24.3 cm to 30.1 cm. Carbon storage in the trunks was 35% more and 25% for the whole tree. At ground level, the thinned plot shows a slight increase in soil organic matter and quantity of carbon per tree, exceeding the control by 10 to 25%.

Keywords: forest, soil, carbon, climate change, Tunisia

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Authors: Muna Al-Tarshi

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The distribution and accumulation dynamics of anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) and microplastic particles in mangrove habitats in the region are poorly understood. The abundance, sorting, and diversity aspects of AMD and microplastics were investigated in three types of mangroves creeks ( Natural mangrove, afforested mangrove, and non-planted). Abundance, concentration, and particles form of microplastics have been illustrated in three substrate in mangrove habitats e.g. sediment, water, and aquatic organisms. Density separation method by using highly saturated solution was implemented to extract the plastic particles from the sediment samples. The average size of particles in each transect was done using image software, and the polymer type was determined via FTIR. There was variability in abundance of microplastics and marine debris between the habitats and within the substrates in the habitats.Biomonitoring program was developed to detect the pollution of microplastics in mangrove habitats in Sultanate of Oman. Sediment dwelling species were the best choice. Testing whether the zooplankton (Artemia) eating the microplastics via FlowCam technique have been studied. The zooplanktons (Artemia) were eating the microplastics as mistaken food.

Keywords: microplastics, marine debris, flowcam, FTIR, polymer, artemia

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Authors: Wael Ali Mohammed Hadi

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Pseudomonas fluorescens B29B, which has asparaginase enzymatic activity, was isolated from the surface coastal seawater of Trivandrum, India. We report the complete Pseudomonas fluorescens B29B genome sequenced, identified, and annotated from a marine source. We find the genome at most minuscule a 7,331,508 bp single circular chromosome with a GC content of 62.19% and 6883 protein-coding genes. Three hundred forty subsystems were identified, including two predicted asparaginases from the genome analysis of P. fluorescens B29B for further investigation. This genome data will help further industrial biotechnology applications of proteins in general and asparaginase as a target.

Keywords: pseudomonas, marine, asparaginases, Kerala, whole-genome

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Authors: A. Radwan, A. Elbatran, A. Mehanna, M. Shehadeh

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The corrosion is natural chemical phenomenon that is applied in many engineering structures. Hence, it is one of the important topics to study in the engineering research. Ship and offshore structures are most exposed to corrosion due to the presence of corrosive medium of air and the seawater. Consequently, investigation of the corrosion behavior and properties over ship and offshore hulls is one of the important topics to study in the marine engineering research. Using sacrificial anode is the most popular solution for protecting marine structures from corrosion. Hence, this research investigates the extent of corrosion between the composite ship model and relative velocity of water, along with the sacrificial aluminum anode consumption and its degree of protection in seawater. In this study, the consumption rate of sacrificial aluminum anode with respect to relative velocity at different Reynold’s numbers was studied experimentally, and it was found that, the degree of cathodic protection represented by the cathode potential at a given distance from the aluminum anode was decreased slightly with increment of the relative velocity.

Keywords: corrosion, Reynold's numbers, sacrificial anode, velocity

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Authors: Aswan Aswan

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Ichnofossils were examined based on two wells cores of Jurassic sediment from Bintuni Basin, West Papua, Indonesia. The cores are the Jurassic interval and known as the potential reservoir interval in this area. Representative of 18 ichnogenera was recorded including forms assigned to Arenicolites, Asterosoma, Bergaueria, Chondrites, cryptic bioturbation, Glossifungites, Lockeia, Ophiomorpha, Palaeophycus, Phycosiphon, Planolites, Rhizocorallium, Rosselia, root structure, Skolithos, Teichicnus, Thalassinoides, and Zoophycos. The two cores represent a depositional system that is dominated by tidal flat, shallow marine shelf continuum possibly crossed by estuaries or tidal shoals channels. From the first core identified two deepening cycles. The shallow one is a shallow marine with tidal influence while the deeper one attached to the shelf. Shallow interval usually indicates by appearances of Ophiomorpha and Glossifungites while the deeper shallow marine interval signs by the abundance of Phycosiphon. The second core reveals eight deepening cycles.

Keywords: ichnofossil, Jurassic, sediment, reservoir, Bintuni, Indonesia, West Papua

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Authors: Steven Hidalgo, Patricio Neumann

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The growth of societies has increased the consumption of raw materials and food obtained from nature. This has influenced the services offered by ecosystems to humans, mainly supply and regulation services. One of the indicators used to evaluate these services is Net Primary Productivity (NPP), which is understood as the energy stored in the form of biomass by primary organisms through the process of photosynthesis and respiration. The variation of NPP by defined area produces changes in the properties of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, which alter factors such as biodiversity, nutrient cycling, carbon storage and water quality. The analysis of NPP to evaluate variations in ecosystem services includes harvested NPP (understood as provisioning services), which is the raw material from agricultural systems used by humans as a source of energy and food, and the remaining NPP (expressed as a regulating service) or the amount of biomass that remains in ecosystems after the harvesting process, which is mainly related to factors such as biodiversity. Given that agriculture is a fundamental pillar of Chile's integral development, the purpose of this study is to evaluate provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in the agricultural sector, specifically in cereal production, in the communes of the central-southern regions of Chile through a conceptual framework based on the quantification of the fraction of Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) and the fraction remaining in the ecosystems (NPP remaining). A total of 161 communes were analyzed in the regions of O'Higgins, Maule, Ñuble, Bio-Bío, La Araucanía and Los Lagos, which are characterized by having the largest areas planted with cereals. It was observed that the region of La Araucanía produces the greatest amount of dry matter, understood as provisioning service, where Victoria is the commune with the highest cereal production in the country. In addition, the maximum value of HANPP was in the O'Higgins region, highlighting the communes of Coltauco, Quinta de Tilcoco, Placilla and Rengo. On the other hand, the communes of Futrono, Pinto, Lago Ranco and Pemuco, whose cereal production was important during the study, had the highest values of remaining NPP as a regulating service. Finally, an inverse correlation was observed between the provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, i.e., the higher the cereal or dry matter production in a defined area, the lower the net primary production remaining in the ecosystems. Based on this study, future research will focus on the evaluation of ecosystem services associated with other crops, such as forestry plantations, whose activity is an important part of the country's productive sector.

Keywords: provisioning services, regulating services, net primary productivity, agriculture

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Authors: Hoo Cheol Lee, Dae Seung Kim, Sang Myung Jung, Gwang Heum Yoon, Hwa Sung Shin

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Loss of bone tissue can occur due to a bone tissue disease and aging or fracture. Renewable formation of bone is mainly made by its differentiation and metabolism. For this reason, osteoblasts have been studied for regeneration of bone tissue. So, tissue engineering has attracted attention as a recovery means. In tissue engineering, a particularly important factor is a scaffold that supports cell growth. For osteoblast scaffold, we used the cellulose nanowhisker (CNW) extracted from marine organism. CNW is one of an abundant material obtained from a number of plants and animals. CNW is polymer consisting of monomer cellulose and this composition offers biodegradability and biocompatibility to CNW. Mechanical strength of CNW is superior to the existing natural polymers. In addition, substances of marine origin have a low risk of secondary infection by bacteria and pathogen in contrast with those of land-derived. For evaluating its suitability as an osteoblast scaffold, we fabricate CNW film for osteoblast culture and performed the MTT assay and ALP assay to confirm its cytotoxicity and effect on differentiation. Taking together these results, we assessed CNW is a potential candidate of a material for bone tissue regeneration.

Keywords: bone regeneration, cellulose nanowhisker, marine derived material, osteoblast

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Authors: Elin Julianti, Marlia Singgih, Masayoshi Arai, Jianyu Lin, Masteria Yunovilsa Putra, Muhammad Azhari, Agnia S. Muharam

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The search for a source of new medicinal compounds with anticancer activity from natural products has become important to resolve the ineffectiveness problem of pancreatic cancer therapy. Fungal marine microorganisms are prolific sources of bioactive natural products. In this present study, the ethyl acetate extract of cultured broth of Trichoderma longibrachiatum marine sponge-derived fungi exhibited selective cytotoxicity against human pancreatic carcinoma PANC-1 cells cultured under glucose-deficient conditions (IC50 = 98,4 µg/mL). The T. longibrachiatum was fermented by the static method at room temperature for 60 days. The culture broth was extracted using ethyl acetate by liquid-liquid extraction method. The liquid-liquid extraction was conducted toward the ethyl extract by using 90% MeOH-H₂O and n-|Hexane as a solvent. The extract of 90% MeOH-H₂O was fractionated by liquid extraction using by C₁₈ reversed-phase vacuum flash chromatography using mixtures of MeOH-H₂O, from 50:50 to 100:0, and 1% TFA MeOH as the eluents to yield six fractions. The fraction 2 (MeOH-H2O, 70:30) and fraction 3 (MeOH-H2O, 80:20) showed moderate cytotoxicity with IC50 value of 119.3 and 274.7 µg/mL, respectively. Fraction 4 (MeOH-H₂O, 90:10) showed the highest cytotoxicity activity with IC₅₀value of < 10 µg/mL. The chemical compounds of the fractions that are responsible for cytotoxic activity are potent for further investigation.

Keywords: cytotoxic activity, trichoderma longibrachiatum, marine-derived fungi, PANC-1 cell line

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Authors: Christopher Meyer, Laima Gerlitz

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European Ports are about to take an important step towards their future economic development. Existing legislatives such as the European Green Deal are changing the perspective on ports as individual logistic institutions and demand a more holistic view on ports in their characteristic as ecosystem involving several different actors in an interdisciplinary and multilevel approach. A special role is taken by small and medium-sized ports facing the same political restriction and future goals - such as reducing environmental impacts with 2030 and 2050 as targets - while suffering from low financing capacity, outdated infrastructure, low innovation measures and missing political support. In contrast, they are playing a key role in regional economic development and cross-border logistics as well as facilitator for the regional hinterland. Also, in comparison to their big counterparts, small and medium-sized ports are often located within or close to city areas. This does not only bear more challenges especially when it comes to the environmental performance, but can also carry out growth potentials by putting the city as a key actor into the port ecosystem. For city development, the Smart City concept is one of the key strategies currently applied mostly on demonstration level in selected cities. Hence, the basic idea behind is par to the Smart Port concept. Thus, this paper is analysing potential synergetic effects resulting from the application of Smart City and Smart Port concepts for small and medium-sized ports' ecosystems closely located to cities with focus on innovation application, greening measurements and economic performances as well as strategic positioning of the ports in Smart City initiatives.

Keywords: port-city ecosystems, regional development, sustainability transition, innovation policy

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Authors: U. Pruthviraj, Praveen Kumar R. A. K. Athul, K. V. Gangadharan, S. Rao Shrikantha

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An open source based autonomous unmanned marine surface vehicle (UMSV) is developed for some of the marine applications such as pollution control, environmental monitoring and thermal imaging. A double rotomoulded hull boat is deployed which is rugged, tough, quick to deploy and moves faster. It is suitable for environmental monitoring, and it is designed for easy maintenance. A 2HP electric outboard marine motor is used which is powered by a lithium-ion battery and can also be charged from a solar charger. All connections are completely waterproof to IP67 ratings. In full throttle speed, the marine motor is capable of up to 7 kmph. The motor is integrated with an open source based controller using cortex M4F for adjusting the direction of the motor. This UMSV can be operated by three modes: semi-autonomous, manual and fully automated. One of the channels of a 2.4GHz radio link 8 channel transmitter is used for toggling between different modes of the USMV. In this electric outboard marine motor an on board GPS system has been fitted to find the range and GPS positioning. The entire system can be assembled in the field in less than 10 minutes. A Flir Lepton thermal camera core, is integrated with a 64-bit quad-core Linux based open source processor, facilitating real-time capturing of thermal images and the results are stored in a micro SD card which is a data storage device for the system. The thermal camera is interfaced to an open source processor through SPI protocol. These thermal images are used for finding oil spills and to look for people who are drowning at low visibility during the night time. A Real Time clock (RTC) module is attached with the battery to provide the date and time of thermal images captured. For the live video feed, a 900MHz long range video transmitter and receiver is setup by which from a higher power output a longer range of 40miles has been achieved. A Multi-parameter probe is used to measure the following parameters: conductivity, salinity, resistivity, density, dissolved oxygen content, ORP (Oxidation-Reduction Potential), pH level, temperature, water level and pressure (absolute).The maximum pressure it can withstand 160 psi, up to 100m. This work represents a field demonstration of an open source based autonomous navigation system for a marine surface vehicle.

Keywords: open source, autonomous navigation, environmental monitoring, UMSV, outboard motor, multi-parameter probe

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Authors: Yesim Özogul, Fethiye Takadaş, Mustafa Durmus, Yılmaz Ucar, Ali Rıza Köşker, Gulsun Özyurt, Fatih Özogul

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It has been well documented that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have beneficial effects on health, regarding prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and autoimmune disorders, development the brain and retina and treatment of major depressive disorder etc. Thus, an adequate intake of omega PUFA is essential and generally marine fish are the richest sources of PUFA in human diet. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of different extraction methods (Bligh and Dyer, soxhlet, microwave and ultrasonics) on the fat content and fatty acid profiles of marine fish species (Mullus babatus, Upeneus moluccensis, Mullus surmuletus, Anguilla anguilla, Pagellus erythrinus and Saurida undosquamis). Fish species were caught by trawl in Mediterranean Sea and immediately iced. After that, fish were transported to laboratory in ice and stored at -18oC in a freezer until the day of analyses. After extracting lipid from fish by different methods, lipid samples were converted to their constituent fatty acid methyl esters. The fatty acid composition was analysed by a GC Clarus 500 with an autosampler (Perkin Elmer, Shelton, CT, USA) equipped with a flame ionization detector and a fused silica capillary SGE column (30 m x 0.32 mm ID x 0.25 mm BP20 0.25 UM, USA). The results showed that there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in fatty acids of all species and also extraction methods affected fat contents and fatty acid profiles of fish species.

Keywords: extraction methods, fatty acids, marine fish, PUFA

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Authors: Kadda Boumediene, Mohamed Bouzit

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The prediction of the flow around marine propellers and vessel hulls propeller interaction is one of the challenges of Computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD has emerged as a potential tool in recent years and has promising applications. The objective of the current study is to predict the hydrodynamic performances of HSP marine propeller in open water and behind a vessel. The unsteady 3-D flow was modeled numerically along with respectively the K-ω standard and K-ω SST turbulence models for steady and unsteady cases. The hydrodynamic performances such us a torque and thrust coefficients and efficiency show good agreement with the experiment results.

Keywords: seiun maru propeller, steady, unstead, CFD, HSP

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Khaled Mahmud Gaddah

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Cretaceous deposits in the southeast of the Sirt Basin of Libya occur in several grabens that formed during a major phase of rifting related to the opening of the Tethys. They include continental deposits of Early Cretaceous age that belong to the Nubian Formation and marginal to fully marine deposits of Late Cretaceous age that belong to the Lidam Formation and transitional beds. The sequence was extensively sampled from twenty-two boreholes and palynologically analysed. Much of the sequence is barren. However, subordinate shales in all formations yield diverse assemblages of poorly to well preserved and thermally middle to post mature palynomorphs. Most of the assemblages contain non-marine palynomorphs (spores, pollen, and freshwater algae), although some contain rare marine elements (dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs). The palynofloras enabled the recognition of six assemblage zones of the late Barremian-Turonian age based on the dominant and base/top occurrences of stratigraphically useful palynomorphs: AI (Afropollisspp.-Aequitriraditesspinulosus) of late Barremian age; AIIa (Scenedesmusbifidus-S. sp.) of late Barremian?-early Aptian age; AIIb (Afropollisoperculatus-A. zonatus) of Aptian age; AIII (Crybelosporitespannuceus-Afropollisjardinus) of early Albian age; AIV (Subtilisphaera sp.-Lophosphaeridiumspp.) of Cenomanian-?Turonian age; AIV (Pediastrumbifidites-Leiosphaeridiaspp.) of Cenomanian?-Turonian age. These assemblages are comparable to others from Northern Gondwana (particularly from Libya and Egypt) and correspond to established Cretaceous palynofloral provinces. Palynofacies analysis is used to interpret the depositional environments, and five palynofacies types are recognised that reflect increasing marine influence up section.

Keywords: palynology, palynomorphs, palynofacies, tethys, sirt basin

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Authors: Mangana B. Rampheri, Timothy Dube, Farai Dondofema, Tatenda Dalu

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Identifying and delineating groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) is critical to the well understanding of the GDEs spatial distribution as well as groundwater allocation. However, this information is inadequately understood due to limited available data for the most area of concerns. Thus, this study aims to address this gap using remotely sensed, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and in-situ data to identify and delineate GDEs in Khakea-Bray Transboundary Aquifer. Our study developed GDEs index, which integrates seven explanatory variables, namely, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Land-use and landcover (LULC), slope, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), flow accumulation and curvature. The GDEs map was delineated using the weighted overlay tool in ArcGIS environments. The map was spatially classified into two classes, namely, GDEs and Non-GDEs. The results showed that only 1,34 % (721,91 km2) of the area is characterised by GDEs. Finally, groundwater level (GWL) data was used for validation through correlation analysis. Our results indicated that: 1) GDEs are concentrated at the northern, central, and south-western part of our study area, and 2) the validation results showed that GDEs classes do not overlap with GWL located in the 22 boreholes found in the given area. However, the results show a possible delineation of GDEs in the study area using remote sensing and GIS techniques along with AHP. The results of this study further contribute to identifying and delineating priority areas where appropriate water conservation programs, as well as strategies for sustainable groundwater development, can be implemented.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process (AHP), explanatory variables, groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs), khakea-bray transboundary aquifer, sentinel-2

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Authors: Md. Rakeb-Ul Islam, Daniel J. Schmidt, Jane M. Hughes

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Population connectivity plays an important role in the conservation and recovery of declining species. It affects genetic diversity, adaptive potential and resilience of species in nature. Loss of genetic variation can affect populations by limiting their ability to persist in stressful environmental conditions. Generally, freshwater fishes show higher levels of genetic structuring and subdivision among populations than those inhabiting estuarine or marine environments due to the presence of artificial (e.g. dams) and natural (e.g. mountain ranges) barriers to dispersal in freshwater ecosystems. The Australian smelt (Retropinnidae: Retropinna spp.) is a common freshwater fish species which is widely distributed throughout coastal and inland drainages in South - eastern Australia. These fish are found in a number of habitats from headwaters to lowland sites. They form large shoals in the mid to upper water column and inhabit deep slow – flowing pools as well as shallow fast flowing riffle-runs. Previously, Australian smelt consisted of two described taxa (Retropinna semoni and Retropinna tasmanica), but recently a complex of five or more species has been recognized based on an analysis of allozyme variation. In many area, they spend their entire life cycle within freshwater. Although most populations of the species are thought to be non-diadromous, it is still unclear whether individuals within coastal populations of Australian Retropinna exhibit diadromous migrations or whether fish collected from marine/estuarine environments are vagrants that have strayed out of the freshwater reaches. In this current study, the population structure and genetic differentiation of Australian smelt fish were investigated among eight rivers of South-East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. 11 microsatellite loci were used to examine genetic variation within and among populations. Genetic diversity was very high. Number of alleles ranged from three to twenty. Expected heterozygosity averaged across loci ranged from 0.572 to 0.852. There was a high degree of genetic differentiation among rivers (FST = 0.23), although low levels of genetic differentiation among populations within rivers. These extremely high levels of genetic differentiation suggest that the all smelt in SEQ complete their life history within freshwater, or, if they go to the estuary, they do not migrate to sea. This hypothesis is being tested further with a micro-chemical analysis of their otoliths.

Keywords: diadromous, genetic diversity, microsatellite, otolith

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Authors: J. Dharmaraj, C. Gunasekaran

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Invertebrates are the reliable ecological indicators of disturbance of the forest ecosystems and they respond to environment changes more quickly than other fauna. Among these the terrestrial invertebrates are vital to functioning ecosystems, contributing to processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil fertility. The natural ecosystems of the forests have been subject to various types of disturbances, which lead to decline of flora and fauna. The comparative diversity of micro-arthropods in natural forest, wattle plantation and eucalyptus plantations were studied in Nilgiris. The study area was divided in to five major sites (Emerald (Site-I), Thalaikundha (Site-II), Kodapmund (Site-III), Aravankad (Site-IV), Kattabettu (Site-V). The research was conducted during period from March 2014 to August 2014. The leaf and soil samples were collected and isolated by using Berlese funnel extraction methods. Specimens were isolated and identified according to their morphology (Balogh 1972). In the present study results clearly showed the variation in soil pH, NPK (Major Nutrients) and organic carbon among the study sites. The chemical components of the leaf litters of the plantation decreased the diversity of micro-arthropods and decomposition rate leads to low amount of carbon and other nutrients present in the soil. Moreover eucalyptus and wattle plantations decreases the availability of the ground water source to other plantations and micro-arthropods and hences affects the soil fertility. Hence, the present study suggests to minimize the growth of wattle and eucalyptus tree plantations in the natural areas which may help to reduce the decline of forests.

Keywords: micro-arthropods, assemblage, berlese funnel, morphology, NPK, nilgiris

Procedia PDF Downloads 283