A copy of Guangbo jiemu bao [Broadcast Program Report] was being passed from hand to hand among a group of young people eager to be the first to read the article introducing the program "What Is Revolutionary Love?" It said: "… Young friends, you are certainly very concerned about this problem'. So, we would like you to meet the young women workers Meng Xiaoyu and Meng Yamei and the older cadre Miss Feng. They are the three leading characters in the short story ‘The Place of Love.’ Through the description of the love lives of these three, the story induces us to think deeply about two questions that merit further examination.

This is How the Discussion Started

The Baltic Sea is affected by a range of human induced environmental pressures such as eutrophication Here we synthesize the ongoing shift from diatom dominance towards more dinoflagellates in parts of the Baltic Sea during the spring bloom and its potential effects on biogeochemical cycling of key elements (eg C, N and P) The spring bloom is the period with the highest annual primary production and sinking of organic matter to the sediment The fate of this organic matter is a key driver for material fluxes, affecting ecosystem functioning and eutrophication feedback loops The dominant diatoms and dinoflagellates appear to be functionally surrogates as both groups are able to effectively exhaust the wintertime accumulation of inorganic nutrients and produce bloom level biomass that contribute to vertical export of organic matter However, the groups have very different sedimentation patterns, and the sea floor has variable potential to mineralize the settled biomass in the different sub-basins While diatoms sink quickly out of the euphotic zone, dinoflagellates sink as inert resting cysts, or lyse in the water column contributing to slowly settling phyto-detritus The dominance by either phytoplankton group thus directly affects both the summertime nutrient pools of the water column and the input of organic matter to the sediment but to contrasting directions The proliferation of dinoflagellates with high encystment efficiency could increase sediment retention and burial of organic matter, alleviating the eutrophication problem and improve the environmental status of the Baltic Sea

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Shifting diatom—dinoflagellate dominance during spring bloom in the Baltic Sea and its potential effects on biogeochemical cycling

Determination of Phosphorus

Phenolic compounds from marine organisms are far less studied than those from terrestrial sources since their structural diversity and variability require powerful analytical tools. However, both their biological relevance and potential properties make them an attractive group deserving increasing scientific interest. The use of efficient extraction and, in some cases, purification techniques can provide novel bioactives useful for food, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical applications. The bioactivity of marine phenolics is the consequence of their enzyme inhibitory effect and antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, antidiabetic, antioxidant, or anti-inflammatory activities. This review presents a survey of the major types of phenolic compounds found in marine sources, as well as their reputed effect in relation to the occurrence of dietary and lifestyle-related diseases, notably type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cancer and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the influence of marine phenolics on gut microbiota and other pathologies is also addressed.

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Bioactive Properties of Marine Phenolics.

Organic matter (OM) in aquatic systems is either produced internally (autochthonous OM) or delivered from the terrestrial environment (ter-OM). For eutrophication (or the reverse – oligotrophication), the amount of autochthonous OM plays a key role for coastal ecosystem health. However, the influence of ter-OM on eutrophication or oligotrophication processes of coastal ecosystems is largely unclear. Therefore, ter-OM, or ter-OM proxies are currently not included in most policies or monitoring programs on eutrophication. Nevertheless, ter-OM is increasingly recognized as a strong driver of aquatic productivity: By influencing underwater light conditions and nutrient- and carbon availability, increased ter-OM input may shift systems from autotrophic towards heterotrophic production, but also alter the interactions between benthic and pelagic habitats. Thus, by changing baseline conditions in coastal zones, ongoing and predicted changes in inputs of ter-OM due to climate change (e.g. in precipitation) and anthropogenic activities (e.g. reduced sulfate deposition, damming, coastal erosion) may strongly modify eutrophication symptoms within affected ecosystems, but also hinder recovery from eutrophication following a reduction in nutrient loadings (i.e. oligotrophication). In this review, we aim to shed light upon the role of ter-OM for coastal eutrophication and oligotrophication processes and ecosystem health. Specifically, we (1) discuss the theoretical interactions between ter-OM and eutrophication and oligotrophication processes in coastal waters, (2) present global case studies where altered ter-OM supply to coastal ecosystems has shifted baseline conditions, with implications for eutrophication and oligotrophication processes, and (3) provide an outlook and recommendations for the future management of coastal zones given changes in ter-OM input. We conclude that it is essential to include and target all OM sources (i.e. also ter-OM) in monitoring programs to better understand the consequences of both eutrophication and oligotrophication processes on coastal ecosystems. Our review strongly urges to include ter-OM, or ter-OM proxies in eutrophication monitoring and policies to safeguard coastal ecosystem health also under changing climatic conditions and globally increasing anthropogenic perturbations of coastal ecosystems.

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Reevaluating the Role of Organic Matter Sources for Coastal Eutrophication, Oligotrophication, and Ecosystem Health

. Coastal lagoons are important sites for nitrogen (N) removal via sediment burial and denitrification. Blooms of heterocystous cyanobacteria may diminish N retention as dinitrogen (N 2 ) fixation
offsets atmospheric losses via denitrification. We measured N 2 fixation
in the Curonian Lagoon, Europe's largest coastal lagoon, to better
understand the factors controlling N 2 fixation in the context of
seasonal changes in phytoplankton community composition and external N
inputs. Temporal patterns in N 2 fixation were primarily determined by
the abundance of heterocystous cyanobacteria, mainly Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, which became
abundant after the decline in riverine nitrate inputs associated with
snowmelt. Heterocystous cyanobacteria dominated the summer phytoplankton
community resulting in strong correlations between chlorophyll  a (Chl  a ) and
N 2 fixation. We used regression models relating N 2 fixation to
Chl  a , along with remote-sensing-based estimates of Chl  a to derive
lagoon-scale estimates of N 2 fixation. N 2 fixation by pelagic
cyanobacteria was found to be a significant component of the lagoon's N
budget based on comparisons to previously derived fluxes associated with
riverine inputs, sediment–water exchange, and losses via denitrification. To
our knowledge, this is the first study to derive ecosystem-scale estimates
of N 2 fixation by combining remote sensing of Chl  a with empirical
models relating N 2 fixation rates to Chl  a .

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Spatiotemporal patterns of N 2 fixation in coastal waters derived from rate measurements and remote sensing

Ongoing marine monitoring programs are seldom designed to detect changes in the environment between different years, mainly due to the high number of samples required for a sufficient statistical p ...

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Sonia Brugel

Papers

Spatiotemporal patterns of N 2 fixation in coastal waters derived from rate measurements and remote sensing

A cost-precision model for marine environmental monitoring, based on time-integrated averages

A potential barrier to the spread of the invasive cladoceran Cercopagis pengoi (Ostroumov 1891) in the Northern Baltic Sea