Trace element accumulation in the muscles of reef fish collected from southern new Caledonian lagoon: Risk assessment for consumers and grouper Plectropomus leopardus as a possible bioindicator of mining contamination.

Flesh of 141 fish specimens collected along the southern coast of New Caledonia, close to the mining industry Prony Resources New Caledonia, were analyzed for 10 elements (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni and Zn). The leopard coral grouper Plectopomus leopardus revealed significant spatial variations for Cr, Fe, Mn and Zn and size-dependent accumulation of Hg. Sanitary risk assessment suggests that Hg and Me-Hg could potentially be a concern for heavy fish consumers. A previous study in New Caledonia had demonstrated the capacity of P. leopardus to differentially accumulate Ag, Cd, Cu, Hg and Zn and as such its potential as bioindicator specie to monitor contamination status in urban areas (Metian et al., 2013). Our results demonstrate that this specie can also to be used as a bioindicator to monitor the contamination status of Cr, Fe and Mn in New Caledonian lagoon in relation to mining activities.

Human activities as a driver of spatial variation in the trophic structure of fish communities on Pacific coral reefs.

Anthropogenic activities such as land-use change, pollution and fishing impact the trophic structure of coral reef fishes, which can influence ecosystem health and function. Although these impacts may be ubiquitous, they are not consistent across the tropical Pacific Ocean. Using an extensive database of fish biomass sampled using underwater visual transects on coral reefs, we modelled the impact of human activities on food webs at Pacific-wide and regional (1,000s-10,000s km) scales. We found significantly lower biomass of sharks and carnivores, where there were higher densities of human populations (hereafter referred to as human activity); however, these patterns were not spatially consistent as there were significant differences in the trophic structures of fishes among biogeographic regions. Additionally, we found significant changes in the benthic structure of reef environments, notably a decline in coral cover where there was more human activity. Direct human impacts were the strongest in the upper part of the food web, where we found that in a majority of the Pacific, the biomass of reef sharks and carnivores were significantly and negatively associated with human activity. Finally, although human-induced stressors varied in strength and significance throughout the coral reef food web across the Pacific, socioeconomic variables explained more variation in reef fish trophic structure than habitat variables in a majority of the biogeographic regions. Notably, economic development (measured as GDP per capita) did not guarantee healthy reef ecosystems (high coral cover and greater fish biomass). Our results indicate that human activities are significantly shaping patterns of trophic structure of reef fishes in a spatially nonuniform manner across the Pacific Ocean, by altering processes that organize communities in both "top-down" (fishing of predators) and "bottom-up" (degradation of benthic communities) contexts.

[Primary adrenal angiosarcoma]. / Angiosarcome primitif surrénalien.

We report the case of a 69-year-old man who presented with an adrenal angiosarcoma which had been discovered during prostatic adenocarcinoma staging. Twenty-two cases have been reported in the literature. All of them were of epithelioid type. Because of the epithelioid appearance and frequent expression of epithelial immunohistochemical markers, they can be confounded with adrenal carcinomatous metastases. Careful screening for vascular differentiation and immunohistochemistry with endothelial markers are essential for the diagnosis.