Search results for " Antarctica"

Limnology and Aquatic Microbial Ecology of Byers Peninsula: A Main Freshwater Biodiversity Hotspot in Maritime Antarctica

2019

Here we present a comprehensive review of the diversity revealed by research in limnology and microbial ecology conducted in Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) during the last two decades. The site constitutes one of the largest ice-free areas within the Antarctic Peninsula region. Since it has a high level of environmental protection, it is less human-impacted compared to other sites within the South Shetland archipelago. The main investigations in Byers Peninsula focused on the physical and chemical limnology of the lakes, ponds, rivers, and wetlands, as well as on the structure of their planktonic and benthic microbial communities, and on the function…

Relationship between weather regimes and atmospheric rivers in East Antarctica.

2021

25 pages; International audience; Here, we define weather regimes in the East Antarctica—Southern Ocean sector based on daily anomalies of 700 hPa geopotential height derived from ERA5 reanalysis during 1979–2018. Most regimes and their preferred transitions depict synoptic-scale disturbances propagating eastwards off the Antarctic coastline. While regime sequences are generally short, their interannual variability is strongly driven by the polarity of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Regime occurrences are then intersected with atmospheric rivers (ARs) detected over the same region and period. ARs are equiprobable throughout the year, but clearly concentrate during regimes associated with …

Bulk carbonate isotope stratigraphy from CRP-3 core (Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica): evidence for Eocene–Oligocene palaeoclimatic evolution

2005

Bulk carbonate isotope compositions and carbonate petrography from upper Eocene and lower Oligocene siliciclastic sediments of the CRP-3 sediment core (Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica) have been investigated with the aim of contributing to reconstruction of the Antarctic Cenozoic palaeoclimate. Most of the carbonate is calcite cement occurring as patches, nodules and horizons and consisting of equant and/or drusy sparry calcite, pervasive blocky calcite and rare poikilotopic calcite spar. 18O-depleted values (from −17 to −8 δ‰) of the CRP-3 carbonates suggest that the precipitating fluids were a mixing between marine and meteoric waters from melting glaciers. The δ18O record exhibits a numb…

Theoretical Study of Primary Reaction of Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B as the Starting Point To Understand Its Promiscuity

2014

Pseudozyma antarctica lipase B (PALB) is a serine hydrolase that catalyzes the hydrolysis of carboxylic acid esters in aqueous medium but it has also shown catalytic activity for a plethora of reactions. This promiscuous activity has found widespread applications. In the present paper, the primary reaction of PALB, its native hydrolytic activity, has been studied using hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) potentials. Free energy surfaces, obtained from QM/MM Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, show that the reaction takes place by means of a multi-step mechanism where the first step, the activation of the carbonyl group of the substrate and the nucleophilic attack of Ser1…

Improved synthesis of Bn5CpRu(CO)2Cl and its application as racemization catalyst in preparative-scale metalloenzymatic dynamic kinetic resolution of…

2010

An improved gram-scale synthesis of Bn5CpRu(CO)2Cl is reported based on heating of pentabenzylcyclopentadiene with Ru3(CO)12 at 160 °C under argon atmosphere in mesitylene followed by addition of chloroform, continued heating, and evaporation of the solvents. Subsequent washing of unreacted ligand precursor with hexane provided pure title compound in 77 % yield. In combination with Candida antarctica lipase B (CAL-B) (Novozym 435), this complex forms a highly active racemization catalyst for metallo-enzymatic dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of secondary alcohols as demonstrated in the present work by converting 100 g of racemic 1-phenylethanol to (R)-1-phenylethanol in >99 % ee and 93 %…

South Pole glacial climate reconstruction from multi-borehole laser particulate stratigraphy

2013

AbstractThe IceCube Neutrino Observatory and its prototype, AMANDA, were built in South Pole ice, using powerful hot-water drills to cleanly bore>100 holes to depths up to 2500 m. The construction of these particle physics detectors provided a unique opportunity to examine the deep ice sheet using a variety of novel techniques. We made high-resolution particulate profiles with a laser dust logger in eight of the boreholes during detector commissioning between 2004 and 2010. The South Pole laser logs are among the most clearly resolved measurements of Antarctic dust strata during the last glacial period and can be used to reconstruct paleoclimate records in exceptional detail. Here we use…

Solar UV-B radiation affects leaf quality and insect herbivory in the southern beech tree Nothofagus antarctica

2004

We examined the effects of solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation on plant-insect interactions in Tierra del Fuego (55°S), Argentina, an area strongly affected by ozone depletion because of its proximity to Antarctica. Solar UV-B under Nothofagus antarctica branches was manipulated using a polyester plastic film to attenuate UV-B (uvb-) and an Aclar film to provide near-ambient UV-B (uvb+). The plastic films were placed on both north-facing (i.e., high solar radiation in the Southern Hemisphere) and south-facing branches. Insects consumed 40% less leaf area from north- than from south-facing branches, and at least 30% less area from uvb+ branches than from uvb-branches. The reduced herbivory …

Re-enrichment of cratonic lithospheric mantle beneath an evolving rift: Mantle xenoliths from East Antarctica

2006

Dicarbonylchloro(pentabenzylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium as Racemization Catalyst in the Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of Secondary Alcohols

2009

Dicarbonylchloro(pentabenzylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium has been prepared and its structure confirmed by X-ray analysis. This complex shows excellent catalytic activity and modest stability against air in racemization reactions of secondary alcohols. In Candida antarctica lipase B (CAL-B) catalyzed dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of 1-phenyl- and 1-(furan-2-yl)ethanol compounds, the new complex shows improved performance as an alcohol racemization catalyst in comparison with its well-known pentaphenylcyclopentadienyl analogue, hitherto considered as the leading catalyst candidate. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)

Synthesis of Oxetane-Functional Aliphatic Polyesters via Enzymatic Polycondensation

2012

Synthesis, characterization, and thermal properties of a series of oxetane-functional aliphatic polyesters are investigated. The incorporation of the acid-sensitive 3,3-bis(hydroxymethyl)oxetane (BHMO) into polymers is achieved by using the enzyme CALB (Candida antarctica Lipase B) as a catalyst. This mild synthetic strategy provides well-defined, oxetane-functional polyesters. The enzymatic polycondensation allows for the synthesis of a series of aliphatic polyesters containing various ratios of the difunctional monomers sebacic acid, 1,8-octanediol, and BHMO with molecular weights between 5000–9800 g mol−1 and polydispersity indices (Mw/Mn) in the range of 1.25 and 1.92. Furthermore, cros…