Electron microprobe analysis was conducted on plagioclase from the plagioclase ultraphyric basalts (PUBs) erupted on the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) (51°E) to investigate the geochemical changes in order to better understand the magmatic processes occurring under ultraslow spreading ridges and to provide insights into the thermal and dynamic regimes of the magmatic reservoirs and conduit systems. The phenocryst cores are generally calcic (An_74–82) and are depleted in FeO and MgO. Whereas the phenocryst rims (An_67–71) and the plagioclase in the groundmass (An_58–63) are more sodic and have higher FeO and MgO contents than the phenocryst cores. The crystallization temperatures of the phenocryst cores and the calculation of the equilibrium between the phenocrysts and the matrix suggest that the plagioclase cores are unlikely to have crystallized from the host basaltic melt, but are likely to have crystallized from a more calcic melt. The enrichment in incompatible elements (FeO and MgO), as well as the higher FeO/MgO ratios of the outermost phenocryst rims and the groundmass, are the result of plagioclase-melt disequilibrium diffusion during the short residence time in which the plagioclase crystallized. Our results indicate that an evolved melt replenishing under the SWIR (51°E) drives the eruption over a short period of time.

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of integral membrane proteins that have been shown to be important for osmoregulation in many vertebrates. To identify potential stress resistance-related aqp genes in salinity adaptation of the roughskin sculpin Trachidermus fasciatus, we investigated the time-course expression dynamics of seven aquaporin genes (aqp1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12) in three osmoregulatory tissues (kidney, gill and intestine) and one metabolic tissue (liver). The fish were subjected to two different acute osmotic treatments (seawater-to-freshwater transfer respectively achieved in 1 h and 24 h, namely, E-acute and acute group). The expression profiling of the seven aqp genes were performed using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). At the time of all sampling time points (0 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h), no expression of aqp4 was found in the gill, liver and intestine; no expression of aqp7 was found in the gill and liver. Significant differences of aqp expression were determined in the four target tissues, and the mRNA levels were largely variable among gene members and tissues. Similar patterns of the time-course expression were detected in most of the aqp genes in T. fasciatus between the two acute groups, except that only one gene (aqp12) in the kidney and three genes (aqp7, aqp8 and aqp10) in the intestine revealed different expression patterns. These results suggest that the expression response of aqp genes was similar under osmotic changes with different rates.

In order to realize the spatiotemporal variations of benthic macrofaunal communities at the “Amphioxus Sand” habitat, six surveys including four seasons and three consecutive summers (i.e., 2014, 2015 and 2016) were conducted in two core sites, i.e., Huangcuo (HC) and Nanxian-Shibaxian (NX), in the Xiamen Amphioxus Nature Reserve in China. A total of 155 species of macrofauna were recorded, therein, polychaetes were dominant in terms of species number and density. Significant spatiotemporal variations of macrofaunal communities were observed. The density of polychaetes and the biomass of molluscs in the HC site were higher than those in the NX site. Macrofauna were more diverse and abundant in the cold seasons (winter and spring) than that in the warm seasons (summer and autumn). The annual variations of macrofaunal communities may be attributed to the changes in sediment texture among the three years of the survey. The variations in macrofaunal communities were mainly related to the proportion of polychaetes within the community. In addition, the density of amphioxus (include Branchiostoma japonicum and B. belcheri) was negatively correlated to that of polychaetes, bivalves, and crustaceans. Amphioxus was less likely to be found in the sediments with higher silt and clay content. Five biotic indices including Margaref’s richness index (d), Peilou’s evenness index (J′), Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H′), AMBI and M-AMBI were calculated in the present study. AMBI seems suitable in assessing benthic health at the “Amphioxus Sand” habitat, and a potential risk of ecological health in Xiamen Amphioxus Nature Reserve should be aware.

Phytoplankton growth rates and mortality rates were experimentally examined at 21 stations during the 2017 spring intermonsoon (April to early May) in the northern and central South China Sea (SCS) using the dilution technique, with emphasis on a comparison between the northern and central SCS areas which had different environmental factors. There had been higher temperature but lower nutrients and chlorophyll a concentrations in the central SCS than those in the northern SCS. The mean rates of phytoplankton growth (μ₀) and microzooplankton grazing (m) were (0.88±0.33) d^–1 and (0.55±0.22) d^–1 in the central SCS, and both higher than those in the northern SCS with the values of μ₀ ((0.81±0.16) d^–1) and m ((0.30±0.09) d^–1), respectively. Phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing rates were significantly coupled in both areas. The microzooplankton grazing impact (m/μ₀) on phytoplankton was also higher in the central SCS (0.63±0.12) than that in the northern SCS (0.37±0.06). The microzooplankton abundance was significantly correlated with temperature in the surface. Temperature might more effectively promote the microzooplankton grazing rate than phytoplankton growth rate, which might contribute to higher m and m/μ₀ in the central SCS. Compared with temperature, nutrients mainly affected the growth rate of phytoplankton. In the nutrient enrichment treatment, the phytoplankton growth rate (μ_n) was higher than μ₀ in the central SCS, suggesting phytoplankton growth in the central SCS was nutrient limited. The ratio of μ₀/μ_n was significantly correlated with nutrients concentrations in the both areas, indicating the limitation of nutrients was related to the concentrations of background nutrients in the study stations.

As one of the important microzooplankton in marine pelagic habitats, tintinnids are classified as neritic genera, oceanic genera and cosmopolitan genera. Until now, we know little about the interaction between neritic and oceanic genera in continental shelves. Low species richness area was found in the mixing area between neritic and oceanic genera in the East China Sea. In this study, we investigated the spatial distribution of tintinnid community throughout the entire Bohai Sea in May (spring) of 2014 to find out: (1) whether the tintinnid assembalges differed in the three major bays bordering this shallow inland sea; (2) whether there was low species richness area in the Bohai Sea. Three genera and 11 species attributed to neritic and cosmopolitan taxa were reported from this region. Tintinnid abundance averaged (81±216) ind./L (0–1 234 ind./L). Tintinnid community differed within the three major bays, with each characterized by different tintinnid taxa. Referring to the average abundance of three bays, tintinnids were most abundant in the Laizhou Bay ((328±445) ind./L), and least abundant in the Liaodong Bay ((34±57) ind./L). A low species richness area occurred in the central Bohai Sea (20–40 m isobaths), in some stations of which no tintinnid was recorded. Our study demonstrates that tintinnid community varied greatly over small spatial scales, and low species richness area was found in the mixing area between neritic and oceanic genera within this inland sea.

Calreticulin (CRT) is a highly conserved Ca²⁺-binding protein and chaperone in the endoplasmic reticulum, which mainly participates in adjusting calcium level and directing proper conformation of proteins. Here, we cloned the crt gene of the scleractinian coral Galaxea astreata, named Gacrt, and analysed its ability to drive bacterial agglutination. The full-length Gacrt cDNA consisted of 1 792 nucleotides and contained a 77 bp 5’ untranslated region (UTR), a 380 bp 3’ UTR and a 1 335 bp open reading frame (ORF) that encoded a 444 amino acid protein. The deduced peptide possessed a signal peptide domain, an endoplasmic reticulum retrieval signal sequence (KDEL), two potential calreticulin family signature motifs and a set of triplicate repeats. We also found that the recombinant GaCRT protein could promote agglutination of both the Gram-positive bacterium Micrococcus luteus and the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. These results show that the GaCRT protein can enhance bacterial agglutination, hinting that GaCRT is an immune-relevant molecule involved in host defense against bacterium.

Uncovering the role of environmental factors and finding critical factors which harbor significant fractions in governing microbial communities remain key questions in coastal marine systems. To detect the interactions between environmental factors and distributions of virio- and bacterioplankton in trophic coastal areas, we used flow cytometry to investigate the abundance of virio- and bacterioplankton covering 31 stations in the Bohai Sea of China. Our results suggested that the average abundance of total virus (TV) in winter (~2.29×10⁸ particles/mL) was slightly lower than in summer (~3.83×10⁸ particles/mL). The mean total bacterial abundance (TB) was much lower in winter (~2.54×10⁷ particles/mL) than in summer (~5.43×10⁷ particles/mL). Correlation analysis via redundancy analysis (RDA) and network analysis among virioplankton, bacterioplankton and environmental factors revealed that the abundances of viral and bacterial subpopulations depend on environmental factors. In winter, only temperature significantly influenced the abundances of virio- and bacterioplankton. In summer, in addition to temperature, both salinity and nutrient (SiO₂) had a remarkable impact on the distribution of virio- and bacterioplankton. Our results showed a clear seasonal and trophic pattern throughout the whole water system, which revealed that temperature and eutrophication may play crucial roles in microbial distribution pattern.

In the survey of fishery resources, the sampling design will directly impact the accuracy of the estimation of the abundance. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the sampling design to increase the quality of fishery surveys. The distribution and abundance of fisheries resource estimated based on the bottom trawl survey data in the Changjiang River (Yangtze River) Estuary-Hangzhou Bay and its adjacent waters in 2007 were used to simulate the “true” situation. Then the abundance index of Portunus trituberculatus were calculated and compared with its true index to evaluate the impacts of different sampling designs on the abundance estimation. Four sampling methods (including fixed-station sampling, simple random sampling, stratified fixed-station sampling, and stratified random sampling) were simulated. Three numbers of stations (9, 16 and 24) were assumed for the scenarios of fixed-station sampling and simple random sampling without stratification. While 16 stations were assumed for the scenarios with stratification. Three reaction distances (1.5 m, 3 m and 5 m) of P. trituberculatus to the bottom line of trawl were also assumed to adapt to the movement ability of the P. trituberculatus for different ages, seasons and substrate conditions. Generally speaking, compared with unstratified sampling design, the stratified sampling design resulted in more accurate abundance estimation of P. trituberculatus, and simple random sampling design is better than fixed-station sampling design. The accuracy of the simulated results was improved with the increase of the station number. The maximum relative estimation error (REE) was 163.43% and the minimum was 49.40% for the fixed-station sampling scenario with 9 stations, while 38.62% and 4.15% for 24 stations. With the increase of reaction distance, the relative absolute bias (RAB) and REE gradually decreased. Resource-intensive area and the seasons with high density variances have significant impacts on simulation results. Thus, it will be helpful if there are prior information or pre-survey results about density distribution. The current study can provide reference for the future sampling design of bottom trawl of P. trituberculatus and other species.

Lithophyllum okamurae is one of the important encrusting coralline algae, which plays important roles as primary producer, carbonate sediment builder, and habitat provider in the marine ecosystems. In this study, L. okamurae was collected from tropical coast of Sanya, and firstly described based on both detailed morph-anatomical characteristics and molecular studies of typic DNA sequences. The structure of the thalli of L. okamurae was pseudoparenchymatous construction with radially organized dimerous organizations in the crustose portion. The pseudoparenchymatous construction were composed of three parts, including 1 to 3 layers of epithelia cells which had flatten to round outermost walls, one layer of square or rectangular cells of the hypothallia and multiple layers of square or elongated rectangular peripheral cells. Palisade cells were observed, and the cells of the contiguous vegetative filaments were connected by secondary pit-connections with cell fusions absent. The carposporangial conceptacles, the spermatangial conceptacles, the bisporangial conceptacles and the tetrasporangial conceptacles were observed, and all these four kinds of conceptacles were uniporate. The spermatangial conceptacles were slightly convex and buried at shallow depths in the thalli tissues, and the carposporangial conceptacles and asexual conceptacles were protruding and conical. Phylogenetic studies based on DNA barcoding markers of 18S rDNA, COI, rbcL and psbA revealed that L. okamurae clustered with the closest relation of L. atlanticum, and formed a distinct branch. Based on the comparative anatomical features and the molecular data, the detailed description of the valid species of L. okamurae was firstly given in this study to provide theoretical basis for algae resources utilization and conservation in marine ecosystems.

Marine ecosystems provide a wide variety of diverse habitats that frequently promote migration and ecological adaptation. The extent to which the geographic distribution of marine organism has reshaped by human activities remains underappreciated. The limitations intrinsic to morphology-based identification systems have engendered an urgent need for reliable genetic methods that enable the unequivocal recognition of fish species, particularly those that are prone to overexploitation and/or market substitution. In the present study, however, an attempt has been taken to identify two locally adapted fish species, Siganus sutor (Valenciennes, 1835) and Seriolina nigrofasciata (Rüppell, 1829) of order Perciformes, which happens to be the first record in Odisha coast, Bay of Bengal. The diagnostic characteristics of Siganus sutor are: dorsal fin XIII-10, anal fin VII-9, pectoral fin 15, pelvic fin II-3, while that of Seriolina nigrofasciata dorsal fin VI-I-35, anal fin I-17, pectoral fin 16, pelvic fin 5. All COI barcodes generated in this study were matched with reference sequences of expected species, according to morphological identification. Bayesian and likelihood phylogenetic trees were drawn based on DNA barcodes and all the specimens clustered in agreement with their taxonomic classification at the species level. The phylogeographic studies based on haplotype network and migration rates suggest that both the species were not panmitic and the high-frequency population distribution indicates successful migration. The result of this study provides an important validation of the use of DNA barcode sequences for monitoring species diversity and changes within a complex marine ecosystem.