Chemistry and bioactivity of Antarctic marine organisms Auteur(s) : Baker, Bill Année de publication : Loading the player... Éditeur(s) : Université des Antilles AREBio Groupe de recherche BIOSPHERES : BIOlogie, Sciences Physiques & Humaines pour les énergies Renouvelables, l Extrait de : 1er colloque international BIOSPHERES, du 18 au 20 juin 2019. Université des Antilles Description : Antarctica is a continent of enigmas. Stunning geographic beauty belies its inhospitable climate. Covered a mile thick in ice, it is the world's largest desert. Fossil ferns found in its mountains speak of its prehistory as a tropical rainforest, but now is largely devoid of life. Its most famous inhabitant, the penguin, is thought of as a flightless bird, but soars underwater much as a falcon glides the sky. Perhaps one of the greatest enigmas is the contrast between the terrestrial and marine environments. On land, monochromatic snow and ice support little life, yet the sea teams with life, life that expresses itself with the full rainbow of colors. Color is but one manifestation of chemical ecology. The Antarctic benthos supports an extensive community of predators and prey, competitors and facilitators. A harsh geographic history has contributed to marine diversification and enhanced what we now recognize as a rich flora and fauna, commensurate in some instances with temperate kelp forests and even approaching the richness of tropical marine environments. Not surprisingly, Antarctic benthic ecology is highly dependent on chemical mediation of interspecific interactions, interweaving chemodiversity with biodiversity in a classical yin and yang feedback loop. The evolution of selective chemical defenses facilitates drug discovery research, producing suites of metabolites that inform structure-activity studies and add breadth to bioactivity profiles. This presentation will focus on recent and contextual research from our lab which has demonstrated the potential for new biomedical lead molecules and scaffolds from these difficult to access biological resources. Droits : CC-BY-NC-ND - Attribution - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Pas de modification Permalien : http://www.manioc.org/fichiers/V19067 V19067 | Partager |
Mapping habitats in a marine reserve showed how a 30-year trophic cascade altered ecosystem structure Auteur(s) : Leleu, Kevin Remy-zephir, Brice Grace, Roger Costello, Mark J. Éditeur(s) : Elsevier Sci Ltd Résumé : Time-series studies have reported trophic cascades in land, freshwater and marine environments in many geographic areas. However, the spatial extent of habitats, a key metric of ecosystem structure, has not been mapped in these studies. Marine reserves can provide experimental, before-after and inside-outside (control-impacted), situations for assessing the impact of fishing on ecosystems. We mapped seabed habitats and their associated communities (biotopes) in New Zealand's oldest marine reserve for comparison with pre-reserve maps created about 30 years previously. Areas grazed bare by sea urchins were entirely replaced in the centre of the reserve by kelp, or alga turf, an intermediate biotope between heavily grazed encrusting algae and lightly grazed kelp. Urchins declined following increased abundance and body size of spiny (rock) lobsters and fish (especially snapper) in the reserve but maintained bare rock outside. While this gradient in habitat change matched the gradient of predator abundance, it also matched the extent of reef habitat area. Thus the trophic cascade may be influenced by the effect of habitat on the abundance and behavioural interactions of urchins and their predators. Further ecosystem changes may arise should the abundance of mega-predators, such as seals, cetaceans and large sharks, increase in the region; if parasites become pathogenic; and/or when invasive species reach the reserve. No-take marine reserves provide real-world experiments that show the importance of species in food webs, and the consequences of fishing for ecosystems. Because these changes in ecosystem structure may continue, and will vary with environment, climate and species distributions, reserves need to be permanent and replicated geographically. Habitat maps should be produced for all reserves to enable ecological changes in the ecosystem to be spatially quantified. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Biological Conservation (0006-3207) (Elsevier Sci Ltd), 2012-10 , Vol. 155 , P. 193-201 Droits : 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00107/21842/20067.pdf DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2012.05.009 http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00107/21842/ | Partager Voir aussi Kelp forest Ecosystem change Predator release Subtidal mapping Urchin Barren New Zealand Lobster Fish Time-series Télécharger |