The impact of heat stress on the immune system in dairy cattle: A review.

The key to dinoflagellate (Noctiluca scintillans) blooming and outcompeting diatoms in winter off Pakistan, northern Arabian Sea

Microalgae play a key role in the dynamics of biofloc technology aquaculture systems. Some phytoplankton groups, such as diatoms, are desired for their high nutritional value and contribution to water quality. Other groups, such as cyanobacteria, are undesired because of their low nutritional value and capacity of producing toxins. So, monitoring the phytoplankton community structure and succession is key for managing biofloc systems. However, research on phytoplankton in these systems is scarce and mostly done by microscopy. The primary objective of this research was to estimate phytoplankton community structure in shrimp biofloc system water samples, using high-performance liquid chromatography methods and CHEMTAX software. The major groups present in our system were diatoms, euglenophytes, cyanobacteria and chlorophytes, while dinoflagellates were only remarkable at the initial period. We observed a clear dominance of diatoms all along the 5 months that comprised a complete biofloc system culture. The characteristic succession of autotrophic processes by heterotrophs of the biofloc systems was observed by the reduction of net primary production. Light intensity played a key role in determining the phytoplankton composition and abundance. Algal pigment analyses using high-performance liquid chromatography and subsequent CHEMTAX analysis in water samples were useful for estimating the phytoplankton community structure in the biofloc systems. However, we found some limitations when the biofloc system was in heterotrophic mode. Under these conditions, some dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria behaved as heterotrophs and lost or decreased their biomarker pigments. So, further research is needed to increase knowledge on the accuracy of high-performance liquid chromatography/CHEMTAX under these conditions.

Phytoplankton evolution during the creation of a biofloc system for shrimp culture

Phytoplankton community structure in a contrasting physico-chemical regime along the eastern Arabian Sea during the winter monsoon

Two field observations were conducted around the Lembeh Strait in September 2015 and 2016, respectively. Evidences indicate that seawater around the Lembeh Strait is consisted of North Pacific Tropical Water (NPTW), North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW), North Pacific Tropical Intermediate Water (NPTIW) and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW). Around the Lembeh Strait, there exist some north-south differences in terms of water mass properties. NPTIW is only found in the southern Lembeh Strait. Water mass with the salinity of 34.6 is only detected at 200–240 m between NPTW and NPTIW in the southern Lembeh Strait, and results from the process of mixing between the saltier water transported from the South Pacific Ocean and the lighter water from the North Pacific Ocean and Sulawesi Sea. According to the analysis on mixing layer depth, it is indicated that there exists an onshore surface current in the northern Lembeh Strait and the surface current in the Lembeh Strait is southward. These dramatic differences of water masses demonstrate that the less water exchange has been occurred between the north and south of Lembeh Strait. In 2015, the positive wind stress curl covering the northern Lembeh Strait induces the shoaling of thermocline and deepening of NPIW, which show that the north-south difference of airsea system is possible of inducing north-south differences of seawater properties.

North-south difference of water mass properties across the Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

The Arabian Sea experiences moderate to weak upwelling along the south-west coast of India, which subsequently propagates towards the north. This causes variation in plankton community composition, which is addressed in the present study. Here we report the spatial variations in distribution of phytoplankton groups along the north-south transect in the eastern Arabian Sea based on marker pigments supported with flow-cytometric and microscopic analyses. 15 phytoplankton pigments were identified using High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the chemotaxonomic software (CHEMTAX) analysis associated these to seven major group of phytoplankton. The phytoplankton biomass, chlorophyll a (Chl a) was higher in southern stations with dominance of fucoxanthin whereas, divinyl chlorophyll a (divinyl Chl a), marker pigment of Prochlorococcus was present only in the northern region. Microscopic observation revealed the dominance of larger forms; diatoms (Chaetoceros coarctatum and Nitzschia sp.) and dinoflagellates (Scrippsiella sp., Oxytoxum nanum and Oxytoxum sp.) in the southern region. Furthermore, a study of plankton size distribution showed dominance of picoplankton (fpico) followed by nanoplankton (fnano) along the northern stations with comparatively higher microplankton (fmicro) in the south. This study clearly showed the influence of different environmental conditions on the phytoplankton community as reflected in dominance of diatoms in the southern (south of 12 °N) and that of picoplankton in the northern (north of 12 °N) region.

Spatial variability in phytoplankton community structure along the eastern Arabian Sea during the onset of south-west monsoon

Variability of organic nitrogen and its role in regulating phytoplankton in the eastern Arabian Sea.

Effect of seasons on physiological and hematological values in Punganur cattle.

Variation in phytoplankton community and its implication to dimethylsulphide production at a coastal station off Goa, India

Anthropogenic activities release effluents containing nutrients and pathogenic bacteria that change the characteristics of coastal ecosystems. An important type of marine pollution which has occurred in 3 different states in India during 2019 is sea foam. Sea foam was found on Hole beach, Goa (Lat: 15.404° N, Long: 73.787° E), where nutrients (NO3- = 137 μM and organic nitrogen = 121 μM) from a garbage dumpyard are released directly via streams/gutters to coastal waters. This resulted in a bloom of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, associated with high concentration of total organic carbon and fucoxanthin. Decay of this bloom along with strong agitation due to rocks and wave action resulted in sea foam. We isolated foam-associated bacteria and identified pathogenic bacteria including Enterobacter cancerogenus through 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Such foam-associated pathogenic bacteria, could be antibiotic resistant, and may have adverse effects on human health. This can also hamper the tourism industry of a small state like Goa that relies heavily on tourism.

B. R. Naik

Papers

Spatial variability in phytoplankton community structure along the eastern Arabian Sea during the onset of south-west monsoon

Variability of organic nitrogen and its role in regulating phytoplankton in the eastern Arabian Sea.

Effect of seasons on physiological and hematological values in Punganur cattle.

Variation in phytoplankton community and its implication to dimethylsulphide production at a coastal station off Goa, India

Sea foam-associated pathogenic bacteria along the west coast of India