No abstract

This study presents the first direct evidence, based on biochemical analysis of fresh material, that certain benthic foraminifera feed selectively on specific components of seasonally deposited phytodetritus in their natural environment. Three abundant species of benthic foraminifera, the calcareous species Globocassidulina subglobosa and Quinqueloculina seminula and the agglutinated species Thurammina albicans, collected after the deposition of phytoplankton bloom material at a shelf site (560 m water depth) west of the Antarctic Peninsula in March 2001, showed significant differences in their fatty acid profiles compared to the surrounding phytodetritus. Furthermore, the 2 calcareous species contained significantly higher amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) than were found in their presumptive phytodetrital food source, indicating that the foraminifera discriminate between, and selectively feed on, the different components of the deposited material. Possible implications for the benthic food web are discussed.

Availability of and access to data and biosamples are essential in medical and translational research, where their reuse and repurposing by the wider research community can maximize their value and accelerate discovery. However, sharing human-related data or samples is complicated by ethical, legal, and social sensitivities. The specific ethical and legal requirements linked to sensitive data are often unfamiliar to life science researchers who, faced with vast amounts of complex, fragmented, and sometimes even contradictory information, may not feel competent to navigate through it. In this case, the impulse may be not to share the data in order to safeguard against unintentional misuse. Consequently, helping data providers to identify relevant ethical and legal requirements and how they might address them is an essential and frequently neglected step in removing possible hurdles to data and sample sharing in the life sciences. Here, we describe the complex regulatory context and discuss relevant online tools—one which the authors co-developed—targeted at assisting providers of sensitive data or biosamples with ethical and legal questions. The main results are (1) that the different approaches of the tools assume different user needs and prior knowledge of ethical and legal requirements, affecting how a service is designed and its usefulness, (2) that there is much potential for collaboration between tool providers, and (3) that enriched annotations of services (e.g., update status, completeness of information, and disclaimers) would increase their value and facilitate quick assessment by users. Further, there is still work to do with respect to providing researchers using sensitive data or samples with truly ‘useful’ tools that do not require pre-existing, in-depth knowledge of legal and ethical requirements or time to delve into the details. Ultimately, separate resources, maintained by experts familiar with the respective fields of research, may be needed while—in the longer term—harmonization and increase in ease of use will be very desirable.

Astrammina rara, Crithionina delacai, and Notodendrodes hyalinosphaira are 3 of the largest and most abundant members of the foraminiferal assemblage at a shallow-water (28 to 32 m) site in Explorers Cove, Antarctica. This study summarizes observations from 2 decades of research, during which we employed laboratory-based feeding experiments and fatty acid biomarker analysis to characterize trophic dynamics and ecological roles of the 3 species. In feeding experiments, A. rara consumed a variety of co-occurring metazoans (several Crustacea, Mollusca, Echinodermata, and a Nephtys species). C. delacai, N. hyalinosphaira, and a number of other foraminiferal species from Explorers Cove successfully trapped Artemia sp. nauplius prey in a setup designed to examine the efficiency of prey capture. Fatty acid analyses on samples from early (November 7, 2001) and late (January 31, 2002) austral summer revealed that the 3 species contained substantial amounts (33 to 45.5%) of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are produced by microalgae, indicating the downwards transfer of carbon from sea-ice associated primary production. In the case of A. rara, this may be due to the ingestion of herbivorous metazoa, rather than direct uptake of microalgal material. A. rara contained significantly (p < 0.05) higher amounts of the zooplankton biomarkers 20:1(n-9) and 22:1(n-11), and C. delacai contained more PUFAs early, compared to late, in the season. Two morphotypes of N. hyalinosphaira had different fatty acid profiles, indicating distinct trophotypes. Our results illustrate specific adaptations to different trophic resources in these protists, and they demonstrate the potential impact that large carnivorous species of Foraminifera may have on the structure of benthic communities where they are abundant.

This article explores discourses of `political correctness' (`PC') in a corpus of articles gathered from three broadsheet newspapers in the UK between 1994 and 1999. Using the software package WordSmith Tools (Scott, 1999) two types of analysis were undertaken: first, a numerical count of so-called `PC'-related terms (`political correctness', `politically correct', etc.) in each of the three newspapers; and second, a compilation of the `keywords' which occurred most frequently within the corpus in relation to the term `political correctness'. Our study reveals an overall decline in the use of `PC'-related terms throughout the period in question, but suggests some interesting shifts in the way in which discourses of `political correctness' have been drawn upon as a means of framing debates over the British Labour Party.