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PloS One Aug 2010Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km(2). Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700... (Review)
Review
Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km(2). Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700 m, with more than 65% deeper than 2,000 m. Despite its status as a developing nation, South Africa has a relatively strong history of marine taxonomic research and maintains comprehensive and well-curated museum collections totaling over 291,000 records. Over 3 million locality records from more than 23,000 species have been lodged in the regional AfrOBIS (African Ocean Biogeographic Information System) data center (which stores data from a wider African region). A large number of regional guides to the marine fauna and flora are also available and are listed. The currently recorded marine biota of South Africa numbers at least 12,914 species, although many taxa, particularly those of small body size, remain poorly documented. The coastal zone is relatively well sampled with some 2,500 samples of benthic invertebrate communities have been taken by grab, dredge, or trawl. Almost none of these samples, however, were collected after 1980, and over 99% of existing samples are from depths shallower than 1,000 m--indeed 83% are from less than 100 m. The abyssal zone thus remains almost completely unexplored. South Africa has a fairly large industrial fishing industry, of which the largest fisheries are the pelagic (pilchard and anchovy) and demersal (hake) sectors, both focused on the west and south coasts. The east coast has fewer, smaller commercial fisheries, but a high coastal population density, resulting in intense exploitation of inshore resources by recreational and subsistence fishers, and this has resulted in the overexploitation of many coastal fish and invertebrate stocks. South Africa has a small aquaculture industry rearing mussels, oysters, prawns, and abalone-the latter two in land-based facilities. Compared with many other developing countries, South Africa has a well-conserved coastline, 23% of which is under formal protection, however deeper waters are almost entirely excluded from conservation areas. Marine pollution is confined mainly to the densely populated KwaZulu-Natal coast and the urban centers of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Over 120 introduced or cryptogenic marine species have been recorded, but most of these are confined to the few harbors and sheltered sites along the coast.
Topics: Animals; Biodiversity; Classification; Marine Biology; Oceans and Seas; South Africa
PubMed: 20689849
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012008 -
Recent Achievements in Total Synthesis for Integral Structural Revisions of Marine Natural Products.Marine Drugs Feb 2022A great effort to discover new therapeutic ingredients is often initiated through the discovery of the existence of novel marine natural products. Since substances... (Review)
Review
A great effort to discover new therapeutic ingredients is often initiated through the discovery of the existence of novel marine natural products. Since substances produced by the marine environment might be structurally more complex and unique than terrestrial natural products, there have been cases of misassignments of their structures despite the availability of modern spectroscopic and computational chemistry techniques. When it comes to refutation to erroneously or tentatively proposed structures empirical preparations through organic chemical synthesis has the greatest contribution along with close and sophiscated inspection of spectroscopic data. Herein, we analyzed the total synthetic studies that have decisively achieved in revelation of errors, ambiguities, or incompleteness of the isolated structures of marine natural products covering the period from 2018 to 2021.
Topics: Biological Products; Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic; Marine Biology; Molecular Structure; Spectrum Analysis
PubMed: 35323470
DOI: 10.3390/md20030171 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Mar 2013
Topics: Animals; Ecosystem; Invertebrates; Italy; Marine Biology; Oceans and Seas; Vacuum
PubMed: 23471961
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1302491110 -
Antarctic marine biodiversity--what do we know about the distribution of life in the Southern Ocean?PloS One Aug 2010The remote and hostile Southern Ocean is home to a diverse and rich community of life that thrives in an environment dominated by glaciations and strong currents. Marine... (Review)
Review
The remote and hostile Southern Ocean is home to a diverse and rich community of life that thrives in an environment dominated by glaciations and strong currents. Marine biological studies in the region date back to the nineteenth century, but despite this long history of research, relatively little is known about the complex interactions between the highly seasonal physical environment and the species that inhabit the Southern Ocean. Oceanographically, the Southern Ocean is a major driver of global ocean circulation and plays a vital role in interacting with the deep water circulation in each of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. The Census of Antarctic Marine Life and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Marine Biodiversity Information Network (SCAR-MarBIN) have strived to coordinate and unify the available scientific expertise and biodiversity data to improve our understanding of Southern Ocean biodiversity. Taxonomic lists for all marine species have been compiled to form the Register of Antarctic Marine Species, which currently includes over 8,200 species. SCAR-MarBIN has brought together over 1 million distribution records for Southern Ocean species, forming a baseline against which future change can be judged. The sample locations and numbers of known species from different regions were mapped and the depth distributions of benthic samples plotted. Our knowledge of the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean is largely determined by the relative inaccessibility of the region. Benthic sampling is largely restricted to the shelf; little is known about the fauna of the deep sea. The location of scientific bases heavily influences the distribution pattern of sample and observation data, and the logistical supply routes are the focus of much of the at-sea and pelagic work. Taxa such as mollusks and echinoderms are well represented within existing datasets with high numbers of georeferenced records. Other taxa, including the species-rich nematodes, are represented by just a handful of digital records.
Topics: Animals; Antarctic Regions; Biodiversity; Classification; Marine Biology; Oceans and Seas; Seawater
PubMed: 20689841
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011683 -
Marine Drugs Nov 2017Oceans have shown to be a remarkable source of natural products. The biological properties of many of these compounds have helped to produce great advances in medicinal... (Review)
Review
Oceans have shown to be a remarkable source of natural products. The biological properties of many of these compounds have helped to produce great advances in medicinal chemistry. Within them, marine natural products containing an oxepanyl ring are present in a great variety of algae, sponges, fungus and corals and show very important biological activities, many of them possessing remarkable cytotoxic properties against a wide range of cancer cell lines. Their rich chemical structures have attracted the attention of many researchers who have reported interesting synthetic approaches to these targets. This review covers the most prominent examples of these types of compounds, focusing the discussion on the isolation, structure determination, medicinal properties and total synthesis of these products.
Topics: Animals; Biological Products; Humans; Marine Biology
PubMed: 29140270
DOI: 10.3390/md15110361 -
Marine Pollution Bulletin Sep 2018Seagrasses, marine flowering plants, provide a wide range of ecosystem services, defined here as natural processes and components that directly or indirectly benefit...
Seagrasses, marine flowering plants, provide a wide range of ecosystem services, defined here as natural processes and components that directly or indirectly benefit human needs. Recent research has shown that there are still many gaps in our comprehension of seagrass ecosystem service provision. Furthermore, there seems to be little public knowledge of seagrasses in general and the benefits they provide. This begs the questions: how do we move forward with the information we have? What other information do we need and what actions do we need to take in order to improve the situation and appreciation for seagrass? Based on the outcomes from an international expert knowledge eliciting workshop, three key areas to advance seagrass ecosystem service research were identified: 1) Variability of ecosystem services within seagrass meadows and among different meadows; 2) Seagrass ecosystem services in relation to, and their connection with, other coastal habitats; and 3) Improvement in the communication of seagrass ecosystem services to the public. Here we present ways forward to advance seagrass ecosystem service research in order to raise the profile of seagrass globally, as a means to establish more effective conservation and restoration of these important coastal habitats around the world.
Topics: Alismatales; Aquatic Organisms; Conservation of Water Resources; Ecosystem; Humans; Marine Biology; Oceans and Seas; Public Opinion
PubMed: 28938998
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.09.014 -
Marine Drugs May 2015Marine ecosystems cover more than 70% of the globe's surface. These habitats are occupied by a great diversity of marine organisms that produce highly structural diverse... (Review)
Review
Marine ecosystems cover more than 70% of the globe's surface. These habitats are occupied by a great diversity of marine organisms that produce highly structural diverse metabolites as a defense mechanism. In the last decades, these metabolites have been extracted and isolated in order to test them in different bioassays and assess their potential to fight human diseases. Since traditional extraction techniques are both solvent- and time-consuming, this review emphasizes alternative extraction techniques, such as supercritical fluid extraction, pressurized solvent extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, pulsed electric field-assisted extraction, enzyme-assisted extraction, and extraction with switchable solvents and ionic liquids, applied in the search for marine compounds. Only studies published in the 21st century are considered.
Topics: Animals; Aquatic Organisms; Biological Products; Chromatography, Supercritical Fluid; Humans; Marine Biology; Microwaves; Solvents
PubMed: 26006714
DOI: 10.3390/md13053182 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Sep 2014With the rapid development of society and the economy, an increasing number of human activities have gradually destroyed the marine environment. Marine environment... (Review)
Review
With the rapid development of society and the economy, an increasing number of human activities have gradually destroyed the marine environment. Marine environment monitoring is a vital problem and has increasingly attracted a great deal of research and development attention. During the past decade, various marine environment monitoring systems have been developed. The traditional marine environment monitoring system using an oceanographic research vessel is expensive and time-consuming and has a low resolution both in time and space. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have recently been considered as potentially promising alternatives for monitoring marine environments since they have a number of advantages such as unmanned operation, easy deployment, real-time monitoring, and relatively low cost. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of marine environment monitoring using wireless sensor networks. It first describes application areas, a common architecture of WSN-based oceanographic monitoring systems, a general architecture of an oceanographic sensor node, sensing parameters and sensors, and wireless communication technologies. Then, it presents a detailed review of some related projects, systems, techniques, approaches and algorithms. It also discusses challenges and opportunities in the research, development, and deployment of wireless sensor networks for marine environment monitoring.
Topics: Computer Communication Networks; Environmental Monitoring; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Marine Biology; Oceans and Seas; Remote Sensing Technology; Wireless Technology
PubMed: 25215942
DOI: 10.3390/s140916932 -
Marine Pollution Bulletin Mar 2017The reporting of ecological phenomena and environmental status routinely required point observations, collected with traditional sampling approaches to be extrapolated... (Review)
Review
The reporting of ecological phenomena and environmental status routinely required point observations, collected with traditional sampling approaches to be extrapolated to larger reporting scales. This process encompasses difficulties that can quickly entrain significant errors. Remote sensing techniques offer insights and exceptional spatial coverage for observing the marine environment. This review provides guidance on (i) the structures and discontinuities inherent within the extrapolative process, (ii) how to extrapolate effectively across multiple spatial scales, and (iii) remote sensing techniques and data sets that can facilitate this process. This evaluation illustrates that remote sensing techniques are a critical component in extrapolation and likely to underpin the production of high-quality assessments of ecological phenomena and the regional reporting of environmental status. Ultimately, is it hoped that this guidance will aid the production of robust and consistent extrapolations that also make full use of the techniques and data sets that expedite this process.
Topics: Ecology; Environment; Environmental Monitoring; Marine Biology; Models, Theoretical; Remote Sensing Technology
PubMed: 28118970
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.028 -
Uirusu 2015Marine microalgae, in general, explain large amount of the primary productions on the planet. Their huge biomass through photosynthetic activities is significant to... (Review)
Review
Marine microalgae, in general, explain large amount of the primary productions on the planet. Their huge biomass through photosynthetic activities is significant to understand the global geochemical cycles. Many researchers are, therefore, focused on studies of marine microalgae, i.e. phytoplankton. Since the first report of high abundance of viruses in the sea at late 1980's, the marine viruses have recognized as an important decreasing factor of its host populations. They seem to be composed of diverse viruses infectious to different organism groups; most of them are considered to be phages infectious to prokaryotes, and viruses infecting microalgae might be ranked in second level. Over the last quarter of a century, the knowledge on marine microalgal viruses has been accumulated in many aspects. Until today, ca. 40 species of marine microalgal viruses have been discovered, including dsDNA, ssDNA, dsRNA and ssRNA viruses. Their features are unique and comprise new ideas and discoveries, indicating that the marine microalgal virus research is still an intriguing unexplored field. In this review, we summarize their basic biology and ecology, and discuss how and what we should research in this area for further progress.
Topics: DNA Viruses; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Marine Biology; Microalgae; Oceans and Seas; Phycodnaviridae; Phylogeny; RNA Viruses; Virology; Virus Replication
PubMed: 26923956
DOI: 10.2222/jsv.65.37