Spanish National Research Council

About: Spanish National Research Council is a government organization based out in Madrid, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 79563 authors who have published 220470 publications receiving 7698991 citations. The organization is also known as: CSIC & Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

Phase equilibria of fluid interfaces and confined fluids

Abstract: Phase transitions at fluid interfaces and in fluids confined in pores have been investigated by means of a density functional approach that treats attractive forces between fluid molecules in mean-field approximation and models repulsive forces by hard-spheres. Two types of approximation were employed for the hard-sphere free energy functional: (a) the well-known local density approximation (LDA) that omits short-ranged correlations and (b) a non-local smoothed density approximation (SDA) that includes such correlations and therefore accounts for the oscillations of the density profile near walls. Three different kinds of phase transition were considered: (i) wetting transition. The transition from partial to complete wetting at a single adsorbing wall is shifted to lower temperatures and tends to become first-order when the more-realistic SDA is employed. Comparison of the results suggests that the LDA overestimates the contact angle γ in a partial wetting situation. (ii) capillary evaporation of a fluid...

Recent Advances in Our Knowledge of the Myxozoa

Abstract: In the last few years two factors have helped to significantly advance our understanding of the Myxozoa. First, the phenomenal increase in fin fish aquaculture in the 1990s has lead to the increased importance of these parasites; in turn this has lead to intensified research efforts, which have increased knowledge of the development, diagnosis. and pathogenesis of myxozoans. The hallmark discovery in the 1980s that the life cycle of Myxobolus cerebralis requires development of an actinosporean stage in the oligochaete. Tubifex tubifex, led to the elucidation of the life cycles of several other myxozoans. Also, the life cycle and taxonomy of the enigmatic PKX myxozoan has been resolved: it is the alternate stage of the unusual myxozoan, Tetracapsula bryosalmonae, from bryozoans. The 18S rDNA gene of many species has been sequenced, and here we add 22 new sequences to the data set. Phylogenetic analyses using all these sequences indicate that: 1) the Myxozoa are closely related to Cnidaria (also supported by morphological data); 2) marine taxa at the genus level branch separately from genera that usually infect freshwater fishes; 3) taxa cluster more by development and tissue location than by spore morphology; 4) the tetracapsulids branched off early in myxozoan evolution, perhaps reflected by their having bryozoan, rather than annelid hosts; 5) the morphology of actinosporeans offers little information for determining their myxosporean counterparts (assuming that they exist); and 6) the marine actinosporeans from Australia appear to form a clade within the platysporinid myxosporeans. Ribosomal DNA sequences have also enabled development of diagnostic tests for myxozoans. PCR and in situ hybridisation tests based on rDNA sequences have been developed for Myxobolus cerebralis, Ceratomyxa shasta, Kudoa spp., and Tetracapsula bryosalmonae (PKX). Lectin-based and antibody tests have also been developed for certain myxozoans, such as PKX and C. shasta. We also review important diseases caused by myxozoans, which are emerging or re-emerging. Epizootics of whirling disease in wild rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) have recently been reported throughout the Rocky Mountain states of the USA. With a dramatic increase in aquaculture of fishes using marine netpens, several marine myxozoans have been recognized or elevated in status as pathological agents. Kudoa thyrsites infections have caused severe post-harvest myoliquefaction in pen-reared Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and Ceratomyxa spp., Sphaerospora spp., and Myxidium leei cause disease in pen-reared sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and sea bream species (family Sparidae) in Mediterranean countries.

Is Ocean Acidification an Open-Ocean Syndrome? Understanding Anthropogenic Impacts on Seawater pH

Abstract: Ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions is a dominant driver of long-term changes in pH in the open ocean, raising concern for the future of calcifying organisms, many of which are present in coastal habitats. However, changes in pH in coastal ecosystems result from a multitude of drivers, including impacts from watershed pro- cesses, nutrient inputs, and changes in ecosystem structure and metabolism. Interaction between ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions and the dynamic regional to local drivers of coastal ecosystems have resulted in complex regulation of pH in coastal waters. Changes in the watershed can, for example, lead to changes in alkalinity and CO2 fluxes that, together with metabolic processes and oceanic dynamics, yield high-magnitude decadal changes of up to 0.5 units in coastal pH. Metabolism results in strong diel to seasonal fluctuations in pH, with characteristic ranges of 0.3 pH units, with metabolically intense habitats exceeding this range on a daily basis. The intense variability and multiple, complex controls on pH implies that the concept of ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions cannot be transposed to coastal ecosystems directly. Furthermore, in coastal ecosys- tems, the detection of trends towards acidification is not trivial and the attribution of these changes to anthropogenic CO2 emissions is even more problematic. Coastal ecosystems may show acidification or basification, depending on the balance betweenthe invasionof coastal waters byanthropogenic CO2, watershed export of alkalinity, organic matter and CO2 ,a nd changes in the balance between primary production, respira- tion and calcification rates in response to changes in nutrient inputs and losses of ecosystem components. Hence, we contend that ocean acidification from anthropogenic CO2 is largely an open-ocean syndrome and that a concept of anthro- pogenic impacts on marine pH, which is applicable across the entire ocean, from coastal to open-ocean environments, provides a superior framework to consider the multiple components of the anthropogenic perturbation of marine pH trajectories. The concept of anthropogenic impacts on seawater pH acknowledges that a regional focus is neces- sary to predict future trajectories in the pH of coastal waters and points at opportunities to manage these trajec- tories locally to conserve coastal organisms vulnerable to ocean acidification.