Climate change will affect Antarctic krill Euphausia superba, krill-dependent predators, and fisheries in the Southern Ocean as areas typically covered by sea ice become ice-free in some winters. Research cruises conducted around the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula during winters with contrasting ice conditions provide the first acoustic estimates of krill biomass, habitat use, and association with top predators to examine potential interactions with the krill fishery. Krill abundance was very low in offshore waters during all winters. In Bransfield Strait, median krill abundance was an order of magnitude higher (8 krill m ), and this pattern was observed in all winters regardless of ice cover. Acoustic estimates of krill biomass were also an order of magnitude higher (~5 500 000 metric tons [t] in 2014) than a 15 yr summer average (520 000 t). Looking at krilldependent predators, during winter, crabeater seals Lobodon carcinophagus were concentrated in Bransfield Strait where ice provided habitat, while Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella were more broadly distributed. Krill overwinter in coastal basin environments independent of ice and primary production and in an area that is becoming more frequently icefree. While long-term projections of climate change have focused on changing krill habitat and productivity declines, more immediate impacts of ongoing climate change include increased risks of negative fishery−krill−predator interactions, alteration of upper trophic level community structure, and changes in the pelagic ecology of this system. Development of management strategies to mitigate the increased risk to krill populations and their dependent predators over management timescales will be necessary to minimize the impacts of long-term climate change.

The fluorescence and scattering properties of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus at Station ALOHA as measured by flow cytometry (termed the FCM phenotype) vary with depth and over a variety of time scales. The variation in FCM phenotypes may reflect population selection or physiological acclimation to local conditions. Observations before, during, and after a storm with deep water mixing show a short-term homogenization of the FCM phenotypes with depth, followed by a return to the stable pattern over the time span of a few days. These dynamics indicate that, within the upper mixed-layer, the FCM phenotype distribution represents acclimation to ambient light. The populations in the pycnocline (around 100 m and below), remain stable and are invariant with light conditions. In samples where both cyanobacteria coexist, fluorescence properties of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are tightly correlated providing further evidence that FCM phenotype variability is caused by a common environmental factor or factors. Measurements of the dynamics of FCM phenotypes provide insights into phytoplankton physiology and adaptation. Alternatively, FCM phenotype census of a water mass may provide information about its origin and illumination history.

Cáhuil Lagoon in central Chile harbors distinct microbial communities in various solar salterns that are arranged as interconnected ponds with increasing salt concentrations. Here, we report the metagenome of the 3.0- to 0.2-µm fraction of the microbial community present in a crystallizer pond with 34% salinity.

Primary production and heterotrophic bacterial activity in the Antarctic Ocean are generally low during the austral winter. Organic carbon is considered to be a major factor limiting bacterial metabolism, but few studies have investigated the bioavailability of organic matter during winter. Herein, the chemical composition and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) were investigated in surface (5–100 m) and mesopelagic (200–750 m) waters off the northwestern Antarctic Peninsula during August 2012. Concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were low (42 ± 4 µmol L−1) and showed no apparent spatial patterns. By contrast, the composition of DOM exhibited significant spatial trends that reflected varying ecosystem productivity and water masses. Surface distributions of chlorophyll‐a and particulate organic carbon depicted a southward decline in primary productivity from open waters (60.0°S–61.5°S) to ice‐covered regions (61.5°S–62.5°S). This trend was evident from concentrations and DOC‐normalized yields of dissolved amino acids in the surface waters, indicating decreasing DOM bioavailability with increasing latitude. A different pattern of DOM bioavailability was observed in the mesopelagic water masses, where amino acids indicated highly altered DOM in the Circumpolar Deep Water and bioavailable DOM in the Transitional Weddell Water. Depth distributions of amino acid yields and compositions revealed hot spots of elevated bioavailable DOM at ∼75 m relative to surrounding waters at most ice‐free stations. Relatively low mole percentages of bacterially derived d‐amino acids in hot spots were consistent with an algal source of bioavailable DOM. Overall, these results reveal the occurrence and spatial heterogeneity of bioavailable substrates in Antarctic waters during winter.

We have cloned and characterized for the first time an allograft inflammatory factor 1 (Sn-AIF-1) from the Antarctic sea urchin. We report the cloning of Sn-AIF-1 cDNA and the characterization of its expression in coelomocytes after a bacterial challenge. The cDNA Sn-AIF-1 has a size of 608 bp and encodes a polypeptide of 151 aa. The deduced amino acid sequence has a putative size of 17.430 Da, an isoelectric point of 4.92, and shows 2 elongation factor handlike motifs that normally bind calcium ions. BLAST analysis revealed close matches with other known AIF-1. The deduced amino acid sequence of Sn-AIF-1 showed high homology with AIF-1 in vertebrates such as fish, mice, and humans; and in the case of invertebrates, the major degree of identity (55%) was with a predicted sequence of the purple sea urchin AIF-1, and 52% corresponded to a sponge. Expression of Sn-AIF-1 mRNA was analyzed by qPCR. Sn-AIF-1 mRNA expression was measured from coelomocytes after a bacterial challenge using RT-PCR and revealed that the gene was upregulated after 24 h. Sn-AIF-1 could participate in the inflammatory response, particularly in the activation of coelomocytes and their survival.