SM Offices, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid (Spain) 2003

Like a lying steel giant. Like a train, like a boat. A building with a metal skin on the edge of the highway. = Como un gigante de acero tumbado. Como un tren, como un barco. Un edificio de piel metálica al borde de la carretera.

De novo assembly and annotation of a transcriptome during xylogenesis in Pinus canariensis Chr. Sm. ex DC

Nowadays, there is a great amount of genomic and transcriptomic data available about forest species, including ambitious projects looking for complete sequencing and annotation of different gymnosperm genomes [1, 2]. Pinus canariensis is an endemic conifer of the Canary Islands with re-sprouting capability and resilience against fire and mechanical damage, as result of an adaptation to volcanic environments. Additionally, this species has a high proportion of axial parenchyma compared with other conifers, and this tissue connects with radial parenchyma allowing transport of reserves. The most internal tracheids stop accumulating water [3], and get filled of resins and polyphenols synthesized by the axial parenchyma; this is the so-called ?torch-heartwood? [4], which avoids decay. This wood achieves very high prices due to its particular resistance to rot. These features make P. canariensis an interesting model species for the analysis of these developmental processes in conifers. In this study we aim to perform a complete transcriptome annotation during xylogenesis in Pinus canariensis, using next-generation sequencing (NGS) -Roche 454 pyrosequencing-, in order to provide a genomic resource for further analysis, including expression profiling and the identification of candidate genes for important adaptive features.

Sm-Nd isotope and Mn/Ca ratios for cleaned Neogloboquadrina pachyderma from ODP Hole 105-647A (Table 1)

The neodymium (Nd) isotope composition of ancient seawater is a potentially useful tracer of changes in continental inputs and ocean circulation on timescales of a few ka. Here we present the first Nd isotope record for seawater using sedimentary foraminifera cleaned using standard oxidative-reductive techniques. The data, along with Mn/Ca ratios, suggest that cleaned foraminifera provide a reliable record of Nd in seawater and hold out the prospect of using Nd in foraminifera to examine changes in seawater that accompany glacial-interglacial climatic cycles. The principal potential problem to be overcome with the use of forams as records of trace elements in ancient seawater is their diagenetic Fe-Mn coatings. These contain large amounts of Nd and other trace elements but can be cleaned off using highly reducing reagents. Mn(Ca ratios for the majority of the cleaned sedimentary foraminifera analysed here lie within the range (10-100 µmol/mol) that has yielded success in studies of transition elements in forams. Mass-balance modelling suggests that for residual Mn/Ca ratios <100 µmol/mol, Nd added to the foram in the coating will never shift the measured Nd isotope composition significantly away from the seawater value acquired by the foram test in the water column. Additionally, Nd concentrations measured in cleaned sedimentary foraminifera are comparable with those for a modern sample that has never encountered diagenetic fluids. Finally, core-top planktonic foraminifera for two sites have Nd isotope compositions that are identical to local surface seawater. The data we present here for Labrador Sea forams over the past 2.5 m.y. are interpreted in terms of changes in the seawater isotopic composition. The data show a pronounced shift from epsilon-Nd values of ~-12 to ~-19 in the period 2.5-1.5 Ma. This change is interpreted to result from the initiation of Northern Hemisphere glaciation and the increased derivation of Labrador Sea Nd via ice-rafting from Archaean terranes in central Canada. In combination with stable isotope and foraminiferal relative species abundance data, the new Nd data are consistent with the surface hydrography of the Labrador Sea being dominated by a fluctuating balance between cold, polar waters containing unradiogenic Nd and warm, subtropical waters containing more radiogenic Nd. The major change in Labrador Sea Nd that is observed in the past 2.5 Ma can, on its own, account for the change in the Nd isotope composition of North Atlantic Deep Water over the same time period.

Estimates of %NCW bathing deep North Atlantic (IODP Site 306-U1313) over the past ~3.3 Ma

The circulation and internal structure of the oceans exert a strong influence on Earth's climate because they control latitudinal heat transport and the segregation of carbon between the atmosphere and the abyss (Sigman et al., 2010, doi:10.1038/nature09149). Circulation change, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean, is widely suggested (Bartoli et al., 2005, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2005.06.020; Haug and Tiedemann, 1998, doi:10.1038/31447; Woodard et al., 2014, doi:10.1126/science.1255586; McKay et al., 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1112248109) to have been instrumental in the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation when large ice sheets first developed on North America and Eurasia during the late Pliocene, approximately 2.7 million years ago (Bailey et al., 2013, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.004). Yet the mechanistic link and cause/effect relationship between ocean circulation and glaciation are debated. Here we present new records of North Atlantic Ocean structure using the carbon and neodymium isotopic composition of marine sediments recording deep water for both the Last Glacial to Holocene (35-5 thousand years ago) and the late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene (3.3-2.4 million years ago). Our data show no secular change. Instead we document major southern-sourced water incursions into the deep North Atlantic during prominent glacials from 2.7 million years ago. Our results suggest that Atlantic circulation acts as a positive feedback rather than as an underlying cause of late Pliocene Northern Hemisphere glaciation. We propose that, once surface Southern Ocean stratification (Sigman, et al., 2004, doi:10.1038/nature02357) and/or extensive sea-ice cover (McKay et al., 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1112248109) was established, cold-stage expansions of southern-sourced water such as those documented here enhanced carbon dioxide storage in the deep ocean, helping to increase the amplitude of glacial cycles.