ALBERT

Description: The identity of substrate-inhibitor specificity with respect to several choline esters and organophosphorus compunds was demonstrated for the cholinesterases of the optical ganglion of the squid Ommastrephes bartrami, inhabiting the South Atlantic and the Great Australian Bight. Two cholinesterases with different properties were found in optical ganglia of these squid.

Description: A single layer of cells secretes the hard cephalopod beaks. The beccublasts are tall columnar cells that separate the beak from the surrounding buccal muscles, and must serve to attach these muscles to the beak. Within the cell layer there are three types of cells. The first, and most frequently found contain cell-long fibrils. These fibrils may have contractile and tensile properties. Complex trabeculae extend from the beccublasts into the matrix of the beak. The fibrils are attached to these trabeculae and at the other end of the cells they are anchored near to the beccublast-muscle cell interface, closely associated with the muscles that move the beak. The second group of cells contain masses of endoplasmic reticulum the cysternae of which are arranged along the long axis of the cell. These cells also contain dense granules and are probably the major source of beak hard tissue. It is probable that each cell secretes its own column of beak hard tissue. The third group of cells contains a mixture of fibrils and secretory tissue. In the beccublast layer there are changes in the proportion of the three types of cells depending upon the region sampled. In the region where growth is most active there are mostly secretory cells, whereas near the biting and wearing tip there are mainly anchoring type cells.

Description: Several tissues (e.g. kidney, blood, digestive gland) in oceanic cephalopods which do not exhibit in vivo bioluminescence, luminesce when homogenized in the presence of air or when simply exposed to air in a vial (blood). The source of the luminescence appears to be a luciferin: treatment of kidney homogenates and blood with a photophore extract presumably containing luciferase resulted in a 20-fold increase in light production. Luminescence was also found in the renal fluid, which may be the source of luminescent clouds produced by squids. The variability in luminescence found in some tissues of cephalopods appeared to be related to feeding. Luminescence was also detected in the digestive glands of midwater octopods.

Description: The means of detecting downwelling light for counterillumination in several midwater animals has been examined. Eyes and extraocular photoreceptors (drosal photosensitive vesicles in the enoploteuthid squid Abraliopsis sp. B and pineal organs in the myctophid fish Myctophum spinosum) were alternately exposed to overhead light or covered by a small opaque shield above the animal and the bioluminescent response of the animal was monitored. Covering either the eyes or the extraocular photoreceptors resulted in a reduction in the intensity of counterillumination. Preliminary experiments examining the bioluminescent feedback mechanism for monitoring intensity of bioluminescence during counterillumination in the midwater squid Abralia trigonura indicated that the ventral photosensitive vesicles are responsible for bioluminescent feedback.

Description: Infrared and Mössbauer spectroscopy show that the extent of the reduction of nontronite is dependent on the chemical composition of the nontronite and on the nature of the reducing agent. Hydrazine reversibly reduces about 10% of the iron in all of the nontronites studied irrespective of composition and it is suggested that the resulting ferrous iron occurs only in distorted octahedral sites. Similar conclusions are reached for the dithionite reduction of the nontronites containing little tetrahedral iron, but for those with more than one in eight silicons replaced by iron, changes brought about by dithionite treatment are irreversible due to dissolution of appreciable quantities of iron. Results from both spectroscopic techniques suggest that iron in tetrahedral sites is preferentially dissolved and that up to 80% of the structural iron can be reduced. Evidence is presented for the formation in these extensively reduced nontronites of a small amount of a mica-like phase resembling celadonite or glauconite, and, as dithionite is used for the pretreatment of soils, the implication of this observation is briefly discussed. The use of deuterated hydrazine as a reducing agent has enabled the nontronite absorption band near 850 cm-1 to be assigned to a Si-O (apical) stretching vibration, which is inactive in the infrared for perfect hexagonal symmetry, but which is activated by distortions in the tetrahedral layer

Description: 1. Es wird eine neue Hydroidenart — Clavopsella quadranularia —aus der Kieler Forte beschrieben, deren wesentliches Merkmal die Tentakelstellung in bis zu vier Kreisen ist, die dicht unter dem Mundkegel zusammengedrängt stehen. 2. Da these Tentakelstellung den Diagnosen der Clavidae sowohl wie der der Bougainvilliidae widerspricht, war es notwendig, fur these Gattung und die Gattung Balella STECHOW 1919 (Synonym: BaleaNutting 1905), die mit zwei Tentakelkränzen versehen ist, die Familie der Cl 3. Bei der Bildung der Kolonien wechseln Gonosom und Trophosom regelmäßig ab, was dadurch zustande kommt, daß die Seitenhydranthen bzw. -zweige an den Stellen entstehen, an denen zuvor ein Gonophor gestanden hat. 4. Die Gonophoren der weiblichen Kolonien Bind heteromedusoid, diejenigen der M ännchen styloid. 5. Auf Grund der Beobachtungen während eines ganzen Jahres werden Biologie und Ökologie von Clavopsella quadranularia beschrieben. Experimente über die Resistenz gegenüber dem Salzgehalt zeigen, daß es sich um ein euryhalines Meerestier handelt, das auch rein marines Gebiet besiedeln kann. 6. Das styloide Gonophor der männlichen Kolonien könnte nach dem Homologiekriterium der Lagegleichheit in vergleichbaren Gefügesystemen (Remane 1952) als ein polypoides Styloid (Kü HN 1913) gedeutet werden. Dem widersprechen aber nach den Homologiekriterien der speziellen Qualität der Struktur und der Verknüpfung lurch Zwischenformen die Verhältnisse bei den weiblichen Kolonien, bei denen die medusoiden Gonophoren zudem noch in ganz entsprechender Weise angeordnet sind. Die männlichen Gonophoren sind demnach auch als Medusoide anzusehen. 7. Die von Kühn (1913) aufgestellten Typen des styloiden Gonophors werden diskutiert, und es wird festgestellt, daß das organoide Styloid eine rein theoretische Möglichkeit darstellt, in der Natur aber bisher nicht beobachtet werden konnte. Am Beispiel von C. quadranularia wind auf Grunt des Geschlechtsdimorphismus gezeigt, daß die fur polypoide Gonophoren sprechenden Merkmale in gleicher Weise in Kombination mit medusoiden Gonophoren auftreten können. Damit entfallen alle Kriterien fur polypoide Gonophoren. Bei den Thecata treten im fertilen Blastostyl polypoide Gonophoren auf, da das Blastostyl einem Hydranthen homolog ist. Um die Vorstellung auszuschließen, daß sich ein Gonophor lurch Einwanderung von Keimzellen aus einem Hydranthen entwickeln könnte, sollte der Begriff „polypoides Gonophor” ganz fortfallen und durch den Begriff „fertiles Blastostyl” ersetzt werden, das als letztes Stadium einer Medusoidreihe anzusehen ist. Von den drei Styloidtypen Kühns bleibt daher nur das medusoide Styloid — einfach „Styloid” genannt — bestehen, dem bei den Thecata als ein weiterer Reduktionsschritt das fertile Blastostyl folgen kann. Daraus ergibt sick, daß alle sessilen Gonophoren der Hydroiden einer Medusenreduktionsreihe angehören! 8. Aus diesem Ergebnis läBt sich ableiten, daB nicht ein Polyp sondern ein Meduse oder eine metagenetische Art als Stammform der Hydrozoen anzusehen ist

Description: Data presented and discussed here were collected continuously during April/May 1975 in the Bornholm Basin of the Baltic Sea. Sedimentation rates of particulate matter were recorded with 5 multisample sediment traps from different depths in the water column at 2 positions 170 km apart. Current meter data collected during the same period and depths indicated that the positions remained hydrographically distinct during the investigation. Particulate matter from the euphotic zone including diatom cells formed the bulk of the material collected by all traps. This flux of organic particles to the bottom was unimpeded by the strong density stratification present in the water column. The upper traps always collected less material than lower ones. This paradox has been ascribed to diminishing current speeds with depth, concomitant with an increase in sinking rates of phytoplankton and phytodetritus. Both factors influence the sampling efficiency of sediment traps, which are thought to have underestimated actual sedimentation rates here. A time lag of 2 to 3 weeks in bloom development seemed responsible for the characteristic differences between the two positions. The phase of major sedimentation at one position covered about 18 days, and a distinct sequence in the composition of the material collected by the 6 glasses of each trap indicated phases of a progressively deteriorating phytoplankton population in the water column contributing the particulate material. A total of 6.2 g C m-2 in 34 days was recorded at this station. Apart from a trap situated in an oxygen deficient layer which collected 0.44 g C m-2 of zooplankton corpses, zooplankton mortality was overestimated by the traps. Large-scale sedimencation of “fresh” organic matter produced by the spring bloom is probably a regular feature in areas with low over-wintering zooplankton populations and, as such, possibly has a direct stimulatory effect on growth and reproduction of the benthos.

Description: Laboratory data are presented on the distribution of cobalt between pyrite, chalcopyrite, and pyrrhotite. Pyrite-type deposits are used to show that the results enable one to estimate the temperatures of formation for copper mineralization. Recent years have seen extensive studies on element distributions between coexisting minerals in order to define mineralogical thermometers and barometers [1-3]. Detailed studies have been made of the thermodynamic basis of such distributions, as well as of the factors that influence component levels in coexisting minerals. Here we will not consider a theoretical analysis of the distribution, but we do note that trace elements appear in pyrite and chalcopyrite only below the 1 wt. % level, while the compositions of the minerals deviate only slightly from stoichiometric, with temperature the main parameter that controls the distribution.

Description: Since organic chemistry began, the chemistry of natural products from terrestrial organisms such as plants and fungi has been studied intensively; in contrast, marine species have received relatively little attention. However, in the last decade research in the field of marine products has increased sbstantially. The heightened interest in this area is attested by the appearance of the monumental treatise of Halstead on Poisonous and Venomous Marine Animals in 1965 (108), Baslow’s review on “Marine Pharmacology” in 1969 (14) and Scheuer’s recent book “Chemistry of Marine Natural Products” (160) in 1973. In addition Premuzic’s review devoted to the Chemistry of Natural Products Derived from Marine Sources, was published in volume 29 of this series in 1971 (152).