The use of a 96-well electrochemical plate for the fast and sensitive detection of deoxynivalenol and nivalenol in wheat samples is shown. Deoxynivalenol and nivalenol are hydrolysed using a microwave hydrolysis procedure (2 min) which leads to the production of electroactive compounds that can be sensitively detected by the use of cheap screen-printed electrodes. A procedure of extraction with aqueous acetonitrile and a clean-up step was demonstrated to be suitable for the application with wheat samples providing suitable detection limit (LOD=1.1 µg/g) and working range (2-20 µg/g) for the determination of deoxynivalenol in cereals for feed consumption.

No abstract

Due to an ever-increasing demographic pressure, coastal areas are hotspots of anthropogenic impact on marine ecosystems. Understanding the extent and nature of these impacts is critical for developing effective conservation and management strategies to protect and restore coastal marine ecosystems and the services they provide. The Gulf of Naples is a coastal embayment in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Western Mediterranean Sea, which is severely impacted by human activities. Here, we discuss the intertwining of anthropogenic pressures and climate variations in regulating phytoplankton biomass dynamics in the Gulf and the presence of possible long-term changes. We analysed three decades of T-S, nutrient, and chlorophyll a data collected at a fixed station, the LTER-MC site. Despite some spikes in nutrient concentrations (up to 9.92 mmol m −3 for NO 3 − , 13.12 mmol m −3 for NH 4 + , 0.75 mmol m −3 for PO 4 3− , and 13.59 mmol m −3 for Si(OH) 4 ), median surface and depth-integrated concentrations are relatively low (0.73 mmol m −3 and 0.45 mmol m −3 for NO 3 − , 0.73 mmol m −3 and 0.47 mmol m −3 for NH 4 + , 0.07 mmol m −3 and 0.04 mmol m −3 for PO 4 3− , 1.61 mmol m −3and 1.44 mmol m −3 for Si(OH) 4 , respectively). Chlorophyll a concentrations, here taken as a proxy of phytoplankton biomass, occasionally display high values (up to 17.33 mg m −3 ) and fluctuating highs and lows lasting several months, with an overall median value of 1.37 mg m −3 at the surface, and 0.55 mg m −3 as integrated mean. These values are nine and three times higher than the offshore concentrations. The plankton food web at the site is mostly driven by terrestrial inputs. The effect of large-scalelong-term trends in nutrient inputs (e.g., phosphate load reduction) is comparable to that of local drivers, also because of the relatively shallow depth (75 m) of the station and its vicinity to the coastline. Importantly, the physical dynamics, despite the more closed morphology of the Gulf with respect to other bays in the Tyrrhenian Sea, efficiently removes excess nutrients and biomass, preventing dystrophic phenomena.

Plankton communities include both unicellular and multicellular organisms. An important unicellular component is represented by those protists (i.e., unicellular eukaryotes) that are non-strictly autotrophic organisms and consume bacteria and other protists. These organisms are an important link between primary producers and metazoans and are usually known as microzooplankton, protozooplankton, or mixoplankton, as many of them couple phagotrophic and photoautotrophic behaviours. Herein we report on the diversity of these organisms sampled at two sampling sites (coastal and offshore stations), at two depths (0 and 10 m), in the Gulf of Naples during the early autumn of 2020. Despite efforts to list plankton biodiversity of primary producers and metazoan grazers made in this area so far, protistan grazers are still poorly investigated and previous information date back to decades ago. Our survey identified dinoflagellates and oligotrich ciliates as the most abundant groups, while tintinnids were less quantitatively relevant. The taxonomic composition in samples investigated herein remarked that reported by previous studies, with the sole exception of the tintinnid Ascampbeliella armilla, which was never reported before. A coastal-offshore gradient in the taxonomical composition of protistan grazers was also observed, with some species more abundant within coastal waters and other better thriving in offshore ones. Surface and sub-surface communities also differed in terms of species composition, with the deeper communities in the two sites being more similar reciprocally than with communities at the surface. These differences were associated with distinct environmental conditions, such as light availability, as well with the standing feeding environment, arising potential implications in the functioning of the planktonic food web at the local scale.