Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
The Caribbean bivalves Codakia orbicularis (Linnée, 1758) and C. orbiculata (Montagu, 1808) live in seagrass beds of Thalassia testudinum and harbor intracellular sulfuroxidizing gamma-proteobacteria. These bacterial symbionts fix CO2 via the Calvin Benson cycle and provide organic compounds to the bivalve. During experimentally induced starvation, no reduced sulfur compounds and no organic particle food are available; the symbionts could be considered as the sole nutrient source of the host bivalve. A previous study has shown that the intracellular bacterial population decreased considerably during starvation and that bacterial endosymbionts were not released by the bivalves. In this study, the activity of two lysosomal marker enzymes (acid phosphatase and arylsulfatase) was detected using cytochemical experiments coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray transmission electron microscopy during sulfide and organic particle starvation. The degradation of bacterial endosymbionts began after 2 weeks of starvation in C. orbiculata and after 3 weeks in C. orbicularis. Degradation processes seem to be continuous over several months and could be responsible for the disappearance of the bacterial endosymbionts within the gills during starvation. These data suggest that the host use symbionts as a nutrient source to survive a hunger crisis. The carbon transfer from the symbionts to the host could be flexible and could consist in transfer of organic matter, “milking,” under normal feeding conditions and digestion of the symbionts under starved conditions.
ISSN: 1059-910X

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
hal-01206367
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01206367
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01206367/document
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01206367/file/revised%20version%20to%20be%20submitted%20to%20the%20editor3oct.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/jemt.22458

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : Proper estimates of decomposition are essential for tropical forests, given their key role in the global carbon (C) cycle. However, the current paradigm for litter decomposition is insufficient to account for recent observations and may limit model predictions for highly diverse tropical ecosystems. In light of recent findings from a nutrient-poor Amazonian rainforest, we revisit the commonly held views that: litter traits are a mere legacy of live leaf traits; nitrogen (N) and lignin are the key litter traits controlling decomposition; and favourable climatic conditions result in rapid decomposition in tropical forests. Substantial interspecific variation in litter phosphorus (P) was found to be unrelated to variation in green leaves. Litter nutrients explained no variation in decomposition, which instead was controlled primarily by nonlignin litter C compounds at low concentrations with important soil fauna effects. Despite near-optimal climatic conditions, tropical litter decomposition proceeded more slowly than in a climatically less favourable temperate forest. We suggest that slow decomposition in the studied rainforest results from a syndrome of poor litter C quality beyond a simple lignin control, enforcing energy starvation of decomposers. We hypothesize that the litter trait syndrome in nutrient-poor tropical rainforests may have evolved to increase plant access to limiting nutrients via mycorrhizal associations.
ISSN: 0028-646X

hal-01032400
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032400
DOI : 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03483.x

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : Emplacement of post-glacial turbidites is commonly controlled by rapid changes in sea level or by seismicity. On the continental rise of the Gulf of Lions (Western Mediterranean), an aseismic area, we identified turbiditic beds deposited during the rising stage and highstand of sea level. Swath bathymetry, sediment cores, in situ Cone Penetrating Tests (CPTU), heavy mineral associations and radiocarbon dating determined the source, composition, distribution and age of the turbiditic beds. Turbidites are composed of homogeneous to positively graded silts to medium sand with quartz (up to 90%), shell debris and shelfal benthic faunas. Their distribution on the sea floor is very patchy and controlled by abundant inherited erosional bedforms. Their source is found in relict regressive sands at the outershelf. Their deposition occurred just after the onset of the post-glacial sea level rise and the concomitant sediment starvation of the Rhone deep sea turbiditic system until recently. Whilst canyons are fed with sand by strong seasonal hydro-sedimentary dynamics on the outershelf, the emplacement of post-glacial turbidites is not controlled by sea level changes but probably by the periodic flushing of the canyons. Our study revealed that this low energy aseismic margin undergoes significant transport of sand, down to the base of slope, during the sea-level rise and the Holocene highstand.
Marine Geology (0025-3227) (Elsevier), 2009-02 , Vol. 257 , N. 1-4 , P. 65-86

Droits : 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6316.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2008.10.013
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6316/