TL;DR: Some fishes have evolved high salinity stress tolerance (euryhalinity), favoring adaptive radiation in a climate of rapidly changing and fluctuating salinity.
Abstract: Salinity represents a critical environmental factor for all aquatic organisms, including fishes. Environments of stable salinity are inhabited by stenohaline fishes having narrow salinity tolerance ranges. Environments of variable salinity are inhabited by euryhaline fishes having wide salinity tolerance ranges. Euryhaline fishes harbor mechanisms that control dynamic changes in osmoregulatory strategy from active salt absorption to salt secretion and from water excretion to water retention. These mechanisms of dynamic control of osmoregulatory strategy include the ability to perceive changes in environmental salinity that perturb body water and salt homeostasis (osmosensing), signaling networks that encode information about the direction and magnitude of salinity change, and epithelial transport and permeability effectors. These mechanisms of euryhalinity likely arose by mosaic evolution involving ancestral and derived protein functions. Most proteins necessary for euryhalinity are also critical for other biological functions and are preserved even in stenohaline fish. Only a few proteins have evolved functions specific to euryhaline fish and they may vary in different fish taxa because of multiple independent phylogenetic origins of euryhalinity in fish. Moreover, proteins involved in combinatorial osmosensing are likely interchangeable. Most euryhaline fishes have an upper salinity tolerance limit of approximately 2× seawater (60 g kg −1 ). However, some species tolerate up to 130 g kg −1 salinity and they may be able to do so by switching their adaptive strategy when the salinity exceeds 60 g kg −1 . The superior salinity stress tolerance of euryhaline fishes represents an evolutionary advantage favoring their expansion and adaptive radiation in a climate of rapidly changing and pulsatory fluctuating salinity. Because such a climate scenario has been predicted, it is intriguing to mechanistically understand euryhalinity and how this complex physiological phenotype evolves under high selection pressure.
TL;DR: It appears as if C. polykrikoides is a stenohaline organism that prefers high salinities, indicative of offshore waters, and temperature had the greatest influence on the growth rate, followed by salinity, and then the interaction between temperature and salinity.
Abstract: The effects of temperature, salinity and irradiance on the growth of the harmful red tide dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides were examined in the laboratory. From 60 different combinations of temperature (10-30°C) and salinity (10-40) under saturated irradiance, C. polykrikoides exhibited its maximum specific growth rate of 0.41 day -1 at a combination of 25°C and salinity of 34. Optimum growth rates of >0.3 day -1 were observed at temperatures ranging from 21 to 26° C and at salinities from 30 to 36. The organism did not grow at temperatures ≤10°C and only grew at salinities >30 if the temperature was >15°C. It was able to grow in temperatures ranging from 15 to 30° C and at salinities from 20 to 36. These values closely resembled those observed for this species in situ. It appears as if C. polykrikoides is a stenohaline organism that prefers high salinities, indicative of offshore waters. Temperature had the greatest influence on the growth rate, followed by salinity, and then the interaction between temperature and salinity. The optimum irradiance for growth was >90 μmol m -2 s -1 . Photoinhibition did not occur at 230 μmol m -2 s -1 , which was the maximum irradiance used in this study.
TL;DR: The data suggest that (1) glycosylglycerol accumulation is not unique to marine cyanobacteria, and (2) the upper salinity limit for growth may be linked to organic solute accumulation, rather than habitat, with glucosyl Glycerol-accumulating isolates having a greater potential for growth in salt-stressed conditions than sucrose accumulators.
Abstract: The intracellular concentrations of low-molecular weight carbohydrates and quaternary ammonium compounds present in 26 axenic isolates of unicellular cyanobacteria have been studied over a range of external salinity from freshwater up to 300% seawater (100%=35‰ S). In all cases, a single carbohydrate, either sucrose or glucosylglycerol, was identified as the principal organic osmoticum, showing major variation in response to the external salt concentration; quaternary ammonium compounds were present in osmotically insignificant amounts. Glucosylglycerol was accumulated as primary osmoticum by nine of the isolates from saline habitats and by five of the freshwater isolates; trace amounts of sucrose were also prsent. The remaining twelve freshwater strains accumulated sucrose as sole osmoticum. Glucosylglycerol-accumulating strains grew over the widest salinity range (up to 200 to 250% seawater), whether isolated from saline or non-saline habitats. Sucrose-accumulating strains were more stenohaline, growing only in up to 50 to 100% seawater and showing no sustained growth in hypersaline media (>100% seawater). The data suggest that (1) glycosylglycerol accumulation is not unique to marine cyanobacteria, and (2) the upper salinity limit for growth may be linked to organic solute accumulation, rather than habitat, with glucosylglycerol-accumulating isolates having a greater potential for growth in salt-stressed conditions than sucrose accumulators.
TL;DR: Four freshwater taxa groups are compared, to investigate similarities and differences in ion transport processes and what ion transport mechanisms suggest about the toxicity of these or other ions in freshwater.
Abstract: Anthropogenic sources increase freshwater salinity and produce differences in constituent ions compared with natural waters. Moreover, ions differ in physiological roles and concentrations in intracellular and extracellular fluids. Four freshwater taxa groups are compared, to investigate similarities and differences in ion transport processes and what ion transport mechanisms suggest about the toxicity of these or other ions in freshwater. Although differences exist, many ion transporters are functionally similar and may belong to evolutionarily conserved protein families. For example, the Na+ /H+ -exchanger in teleost fish differs from the H+ /2Na+ (or Ca2+ )-exchanger in crustaceans. In osmoregulation, Na+ and Cl- predominate. Stenohaline freshwater animals hyperregulate until they are no longer able to maintain hypertonic extracellular Na+ and Cl- concentrations with increasing salinity and become isotonic. Toxic effects of K+ are related to ionoregulation and volume regulation. The ionic balance between intracellular and extracellular fluids is maintained by Na+ /K+ -adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase), but details are lacking on apical K+ transporters. Elevated H+ affects the maintenance of internal Na+ by Na+ /H+ exchange; elevated HCO3- inhibits Cl- uptake. The uptake of Mg2+ occurs by the gills or intestine, but details are lacking on Mg2+ transporters. In unionid gills, SO42- is actively transported, but most epithelia are generally impermeant to SO42- . Transporters of Ca2+ maintain homeostasis of dissolved Ca2+ . More integration of physiology with toxicology is needed to fully understand freshwater ion effects. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:576-600. Published 2016 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.
TL;DR: This study exposed the coral Fungia granulosa to strongly increased salinity levels in short‐ and long‐term experiments to disentangle temporal and compartment effects of the coral holobiont, and highlights that bacterial community composition in corals can change within days to weeks under altered environmental conditions.
Abstract: Scleractinian corals are assumed to be stenohaline osmoconformers, although they are frequently subjected to variations in seawater salinity due to precipitation, freshwater run-off and other processes. Observed responses to altered salinity levels include differences in photosynthetic performance, respiration and increased bleaching and mortality of the coral host and its algal symbiont, but a study looking at bacterial community changes is lacking. Here, we exposed the coral Fungia granulosa to strongly increased salinity levels in short- and long-term experiments to disentangle temporal and compartment effects of the coral holobiont (i.e. coral host, symbiotic algae and associated bacteria). Our results show a significant reduction in calcification and photosynthesis, but a stable microbiome after short-term exposure to high-salinity levels. By comparison, long-term exposure yielded unchanged photosynthesis levels and visually healthy coral colonies indicating long-term acclimation to high-salinity levels that were accompanied by a major coral microbiome restructuring. Importantly, a bacterium in the family Rhodobacteraceae was succeeded by Pseudomonas veronii as the numerically most abundant taxon. Further, taxonomy-based functional profiling indicates a shift in the bacterial community towards increased osmolyte production, sulphur oxidation and nitrogen fixation. Our study highlights that bacterial community composition in corals can change within days to weeks under altered environmental conditions, where shifts in the microbiome may enable adjustment of the coral to a more advantageous holobiont composition.