Characterization of the depositional environments of the Ebro Delta (western Mediterranean) by the study of sedimentary lipid markers

Nowadays, there is a growing demand for high-quality vegetal protein food products, such as pulses and lentils in particular. However, there is no scientific evidence on the nutritional and morphometric characterization of the main lentil cultivars in the Western Mediterranean area. For this reason, the aim of this work is to carry out a morphometric and nutritional characterization of the main Spanish lentil cultivars. Nutrient content assessment was performed on dry matter. The results showed that all studied cultivars are large and heavy lentils, except for the cultivar “Pardina”. They have high protein levels, ranging from 21% to 25%, which is higher than those found in any other pulse, as well as a high carbohydrate content, greater than 59% in all cases. Fiber content was higher than expected in “Armuña” and “Rubia Castellana” cultivars, ranging from 6% to 6.6%, and exceptionally high in the case of the cultivar “Pardina”, which reached 7.8%. Conversely, very low values were found for fat content, varying between 0.5% and 0.9%. Ca, Fe and Mg levels were remarkably higher (from 550 ppm to 851 ppm, from 98 ppm to 139 ppm and from 790 ppm to 989 ppm, respectively) than those found for other lentil cultivars, especially the high Mg content in the cultivars “Jaspeada” and “Microjaspeada”, both above 955 ppm. Clear differentiation was found between the cultivars “Rubia Castellana”, “Pardina” and those included in the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) “Lenteja de la Armuña”. Overall, lentil cultivars included in the PGI “Lenteja de la Armuña” showed better morphometric and nutritional characteristics than cultivars “Pardina” or “Rubia Castellana”.

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Biochemical Characterization of Cassiopea andromeda (Forsskål, 1775), Another Red Sea Jellyfish in the Western Mediterranean Sea

Marine Drugs ◽

10.3390/md19090498 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (9) ◽

pp. 498

Author(s):

Gianluca De De Rinaldis ◽

Antonella Leone ◽

Stefania De De Domenico ◽

Mar Bosch-Belmar ◽

Rasa Slizyte ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Antioxidant Activity ◽

Biochemical Characterization ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Enzymatic Digestion ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Western Mediterranean Sea ◽

Blue Growth ◽

Jellyfish Species ◽

Italian Coasts

Increasing frequency of native jellyfish proliferations and massive appearance of non-indigenous jellyfish species recently concur to impact Mediterranean coastal ecosystems and human activities at sea. Nonetheless, jellyfish biomass may represent an exploitable novel resource to coastal communities, with reference to its potential use in the pharmaceutical, nutritional, and nutraceutical Blue Growth sectors. The zooxanthellate jellyfish Cassiopea andromeda, Forsskål, 1775 (Cnidaria, Rhizostomeae) entered the Levant Sea through the Suez Canal and spread towards the Western Mediterranean to reach Malta, Tunisia, and recently also the Italian coasts. Here we report on the biochemical characterization and antioxidant activity of C. andromeda specimens with a discussion on their relative biological activities. The biochemical characterization of the aqueous (PBS) and hydroalcoholic (80% ethanol) soluble components of C. andromeda were performed for whole jellyfish, as well as separately for umbrella and oral arms. The insoluble components were hydrolyzed by sequential enzymatic digestion with pepsin and collagenase. The composition and antioxidant activity of the insoluble and enzymatically digestible fractions were not affected by the pre-extraction types, resulting into collagen- and non-collagen-derived peptides with antioxidant activity. Both soluble compounds and hydrolyzed fractions were characterized for the content of proteins, phenolic compounds, and lipids. The presence of compounds coming from the endosymbiont zooxanthellae was also detected. The notable yield and the considerable antioxidant activity detected make this species worthy of further study for its potential biotechnological sustainable exploitation.

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Molecular characterization of gaseous and particulate oxygenated compounds at a remote site in Cape Corsica in the western Mediterranean Basin

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-21-8067-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (10) ◽

pp. 8067-8088

Author(s):

Vincent Michoud ◽

Elise Hallemans ◽

Laura Chiappini ◽

Eva Leoz-Garziandia ◽

Aurélie Colomb ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Carbon ◽

Carboxylic Acids ◽

Organic Aerosol ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Water Soluble ◽

Molecular Composition ◽

Particle Phase ◽

Western Mediterranean Basin ◽

Partitioning Coefficients

Abstract. The characterization of the molecular composition of organic carbon in both gaseous and aerosol is key to understanding the processes involved in the formation and aging of secondary organic aerosol. Therefore a technique using active sampling on cartridges and filters and derivatization followed by analysis using a thermal desorption–gas chromatography–mass spectrometer (TD–GC–MS) has been used. It is aimed at studying the molecular composition of organic carbon in both gaseous and aerosol phases (PM2.5) during an intensive field campaign which took place in Corsica (France) during the summer of 2013: the ChArMEx (Chemistry and Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment) SOP1b (Special Observation Period 1B) campaign. These measurements led to the identification of 51 oxygenated (carbonyl and or hydroxyl) compounds in the gaseous phase with concentrations between 21 and 3900 ng m−3 and of 85 compounds in the particulate phase with concentrations between 0.3 and 277 ng m−3. Comparisons of these measurements with collocated data using other techniques have been conducted, showing fair agreement in general for most species except for glyoxal in the gas phase and malonic, tartaric, malic and succinic acids in the particle phase, with disagreements that can reach up to a factor of 8 and 20 on average, respectively, for the latter two acids. Comparison between the sum of all compounds identified by TD–GC–MS in the particle phase and the total organic matter (OM) mass reveals that on average 18 % of the total OM mass can be explained by the compounds measured by TD–GC–MS. This number increases to 24 % of the total water-soluble OM (WSOM) measured by coupling the Particle Into Liquid Sampler (PILS)-TOC (total organic carbon) if we consider only the sum of the soluble compounds measured by TD–GC–MS. This highlights the important fraction of the OM mass identified by these measurements but also the relative important fraction of OM mass remaining unidentified during the campaign and therefore the complexity of characterizing exhaustively the organic aerosol (OA) molecular chemical composition. The fraction of OM measured by TD–GC–MS is largely dominated by di-carboxylic acids, which represent 49 % of the PM2.5 content detected and quantified by this technique. Other contributions to PM2.5 composition measured by TD–GC–MS are then represented by tri-carboxylic acids (15 %), alcohols (13 %), aldehydes (10 %), di-hydroxy-carboxylic acids (5 %), monocarboxylic acids and ketones (3 % each), and hydroxyl-carboxylic acids (2 %). These results highlight the importance of polyfunctionalized carboxylic acids for OM, while the chemical processes responsible for their formation in both phases remain uncertain. While not measured by the TD–GC–MS technique, humic-like substances (HULISs) represent the most abundant identified species in the aerosol, contributing for 59 % of the total OM mass on average during the campaign. A total of 14 compounds were detected and quantified in both phases, allowing the calculation of experimental partitioning coefficients for these species. The comparison of these experimental partitioning coefficients with theoretical ones, estimated by three different models, reveals large discrepancies varying from 2 to 7 orders of magnitude. These results suggest that the supposed instantaneous equilibrium being established between gaseous and particulate phases assuming a homogeneous non-viscous particle phase is questionable.

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Evaluating the surface circulation in the Ebro delta (northeastern Spain) with quality-controlled high-frequency radar measurements

Ocean Science ◽

10.5194/os-11-921-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 921-935 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

P. Lorente ◽

S. Piedracoba ◽

J. Soto-Navarro ◽

E. Alvarez-Fanjul

Keyword(s):

High Frequency ◽

Marine Protected Area ◽

Accuracy Assessment ◽

Surface Current ◽

Radar Data ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Hf Radar ◽

Ebro Delta ◽

Ebro River ◽

Surface Circulation

Abstract. The Ebro River delta is a relevant marine protected area in the western Mediterranean. In order to promote the conservation of its ecosystem and support operational decision making in this sensitive area, a three-site standard-range (13.5 MHz) CODAR SeaSonde high-frequency (HF) radar was deployed in December 2013. The main goal of this work is to explore basic features of the sea surface circulation in the Ebro deltaic region as derived from reliable HF radar surface current measurements. For this aim, a combined quality control methodology was applied: firstly, 1-year long (2014) real-time web monitoring of nonvelocity-based diagnostic parameters was conducted to infer both radar site status and HF radar system performance. The signal-to-noise ratio at the monopole exhibited a consistent monthly evolution, although some abrupt decreases (below 10 dB), occasionally detected in June for one of the radar sites, impacted negatively on the spatiotemporal coverage of total current vectors. It seemed to be sporadic episodes since radar site overall performance was found to be robust during 2014. Secondly, a validation of HF radar data with independent in situ observations from a moored current meter was attempted for May–October 2014. The accuracy assessment of radial and total vectors revealed a consistently high agreement. The directional accuracy of the HF radar was rated at better than 8°. The correlation coefficient and root mean square error (RMSE) values emerged in the ranges [0.58–0.83] and [4.02–18.31] cm s−1, respectively. The analysis of the monthly averaged current maps for 2014 showed that the HF radar properly represented basic oceanographic features previously reported, namely, the predominant southwestward flow, the coastal clockwise eddy confined south of the Ebro delta mouth, or the Ebro River impulsive-type freshwater discharge. The EOF analysis related the flow response to local wind forcing and confirmed that the surface current field evolved in space and time according to three significantly dominant modes of variability.

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Prologue

Perturbation, Behavioural Feedbacks, and Population Dynamics in Social Animals ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198849834.003.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-4

Author(s):

Daniel Oro

Keyword(s):

Stable State ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Ebro Delta ◽

Suitable Habitat ◽

World Population ◽

Ancient Greek ◽

Critical Transitions ◽

Social Species ◽

Long Time ◽

Eventual Collapse

The idea of combining social species, information, perturbations, and nonlinear responses related to dispersal originated naively a long time ago, in the Gulf of Roses in the western Mediterranean. As a kid, I used to spend holidays in a tiny village nearby the ruins of Empuries, a magical place where an ancient Greek colony was founded in 575 BC, later occupied by the Romans. I remember going to the beach where I would place my towel sheltered from the wind behind a large section of the ancient Greek dock built on huge stones. More than 2100 years later, one can still enjoy the mosaics, the temple columns, and the large walls protecting the Roman city from the outside. Once, while visiting this place with my parents, I asked them why that magnificent settlement was abandoned, vanished, and was buried by dust, but I did not get a convincing answer (even now, I would not be able to answer this question if asked by my own kids). Archaeologists believe that the collapse of Empuries was caused by a combination of factors, namely the appearance of other flourishing communities (Barcino and Tarraco, or Barcelona and Tarragona as they are known today) and a perturbed environmental regime, caused by an accumulation of sediments resulting from a nearby river, which disabled the use of the harbour. These factors likely contributed to dispersal, which ended up in the abandonment of the city. In any case, my wonderings about Empuries remained dormant for the next 40 years. But these questions slowly awakened when one of my fieldwork studies monitoring Audouin’s gulls at the Ebro Delta was unexpectedly affected by a perturbation that began in the mid-1990s. This breeding patch, which came to hold almost 75% of the total world population of this once endangered species, has collapsed in recent times, but strikingly it remained apparently resilient for many years (Figure P1). The Ebro Delta shared with Empuries the characteristic of being an exceptionally suitable habitat allowing a population to flourish, prior to eventual collapse. Empuries and the Ebro Delta represent all of the issues I have come to be interested in as a researcher: a social group thriving in a favourable patch, perturbations generating dispersal, and a nonlinear response leading to patch extinction (as a form of a new stable state). Some years ago a reading of Marten Scheffer’s book about critical transitions was also very inspiring. Understanding why Empuries and the Ebro Delta collapsed has intrigued my curiosity over the past several years, and has led me to take the leap in writing this book....

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