As a transitional zone between riverine and marine environments, an estuary plays an important ro... more As a transitional zone between riverine and marine environments, an estuary plays an important role for the sources, accumulation and transport of microplastics. Although estuarine environments are hotspots of microplastic pollution, the correlation between microplastic pollution and aquatic organisms is less known. Here we investigated microplastic pollution in wild oysters Saccostrea cucullata from 11 sampling sites along the Pearl River Estuary in South China. The microplastic abundances in oysters ranged from 1.4 to 7.0 items per individual or from 1.5 to 7.2 items per gram tissue wet weight, which were positively related to those in surrounding waters. The oysters near urban areas contained significantly more microplastics than those near rural areas. Fibers accounted for 69.4% of the total microplastics in oysters. Microplastic sizes varied from 20 to 5000 μm and 83.9% of which were less than 100 μm. Light color microplastics were significantly more common than dark color ones...
Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences [JAMS], 2015
Multidisciplinary approaches and modern technology provide insights to glue curing that are stimu... more Multidisciplinary approaches and modern technology provide insights to glue curing that are stimulatingand controversial. Our team applies classic and modern theory and techniques to the study of barnacle glue. Techniques include physical measures, bacteriology, behavior, physiology, biochemistry, microscopy, spectroscopy, tomography, tandem mass spectrometry, molecular biology and proteomics. Theory is grounded in evolution and previous literature. Here, we use data from these techniques to support the hypothesis that barnacle glue curing is similar toblood clotting and propose a model for how glue cures. Similar to blood clotting, barnacle glue curing involves enzymatic activation of precursors and rearrangement of structural molecules to form a crosslinked material. Barnacle larval settlement, bacteriology and biochemical data show glue contains large amounts of small peptides. Their role in glue curing has been overlooked. The peptides comprise 15 to 30% of partially cured glue....
Tributyltin (TBT) is a marine biocide that alters activity of cytochrome P450 (P450) monooxygenas... more Tributyltin (TBT) is a marine biocide that alters activity of cytochrome P450 (P450) monooxygenases and elicits androgenization in gastropod molluscs. This study was conducted to determine whether testosterone metabolism was altered in field collected and TBT-induced imposex female mud snail, I. obsoleta. Normal and imposex snails were collected from two field sites. Imposex was induced by exposing normal snails to
As a transitional zone between riverine and marine environments, an estuary plays an important ro... more As a transitional zone between riverine and marine environments, an estuary plays an important role for the sources, accumulation and transport of microplastics. Although estuarine environments are hotspots of microplastic pollution, the correlation between microplastic pollution and aquatic organisms is less known. Here we investigated microplastic pollution in wild oysters Saccostrea cucullata from 11 sampling sites along the Pearl River Estuary in South China. The microplastic abundances in oysters ranged from 1.4 to 7.0 items per individual or from 1.5 to 7.2 items per gram tissue wet weight, which were positively related to those in surrounding waters. The oysters near urban areas contained significantly more microplastics than those near rural areas. Fibers accounted for 69.4% of the total microplastics in oysters. Microplastic sizes varied from 20 to 5000 μm and 83.9% of which were less than 100 μm. Light color microplastics were significantly more common than dark color ones...
Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences [JAMS], 2015
Multidisciplinary approaches and modern technology provide insights to glue curing that are stimu... more Multidisciplinary approaches and modern technology provide insights to glue curing that are stimulatingand controversial. Our team applies classic and modern theory and techniques to the study of barnacle glue. Techniques include physical measures, bacteriology, behavior, physiology, biochemistry, microscopy, spectroscopy, tomography, tandem mass spectrometry, molecular biology and proteomics. Theory is grounded in evolution and previous literature. Here, we use data from these techniques to support the hypothesis that barnacle glue curing is similar toblood clotting and propose a model for how glue cures. Similar to blood clotting, barnacle glue curing involves enzymatic activation of precursors and rearrangement of structural molecules to form a crosslinked material. Barnacle larval settlement, bacteriology and biochemical data show glue contains large amounts of small peptides. Their role in glue curing has been overlooked. The peptides comprise 15 to 30% of partially cured glue....
Tributyltin (TBT) is a marine biocide that alters activity of cytochrome P450 (P450) monooxygenas... more Tributyltin (TBT) is a marine biocide that alters activity of cytochrome P450 (P450) monooxygenases and elicits androgenization in gastropod molluscs. This study was conducted to determine whether testosterone metabolism was altered in field collected and TBT-induced imposex female mud snail, I. obsoleta. Normal and imposex snails were collected from two field sites. Imposex was induced by exposing normal snails to
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