ALBERT

Beschreibung: The squid Nototodarus gouldi (McCoy, 1888) was caught by bottom trawl in Port Phillip Bay, Australia in February 1985. The squid accumulates in its digestive gland high levels of trace metals, with up to 100 μg Cd g-1 dry tissue, 1 200 μg g-1 copper and 1 500 μg g-1 zinc and up to 24 Bq g-1 of the naturally occurring radionuclide polonium-210. The molecular binding of these elements in six squid was investigated using column chromatography. Two poorly resolved copper peaks were associated with proteins of average molecular weights of 11 500 and 18 000. The two squid containing the highest levels of cadmium in their digestive glands (44 and 88 μg g-1) had cadmium associated with a peak of molecular weight intermediate between the copper-binding peaks, but this peak was absent from squid containing lower levels of cadmium. Zinc was associated with ligands of less than 1 500 molecular weight. The 210Po eluted with proteins of greater than 70 000 molecular weight, and there was no evidence of binding to low molecular weight proteins. Different mechanisms appear to be involved in the binding and control of the four elements.

Beschreibung: Microheterotrophic dissolved free amino acid (DFAA) utilization, and microbial community and bacterial community carbon production and growth were studied using 3H-labeled organics as tracers in marine surface-film and subsurface (10 cm) waters off Baja California in November 1983. DFAA utilization was generally more rapid during the day (0.14 to 0.38 nM h-1) than at night (0.04 to 0.14 nM h-1) in surface-film and subsurface waters, but the percent of utilized amino acid which was respired was always greater during the night (22 to 57%) compared to the day (14 to 18%). Utilization of DFAA-carbon was estimated to range from 0.3 to 5.3 μg C l-1 d-1 for all stations studied. In six of the 8 samples examined, the percentage of microbial carbon accounted for by the bacterial component of the population (1.4 to 5.9%) was strikingly similar to the percentage of microbial carbon production accounted for by bacterial carbon production (1.9 to 5.1%). In all of these six samples, total microbial specific-growth rates and bacterial specific-growth rates were approximately equivalent (0.9 to 2.2 d-1 for the microbial community; 0.7 to 1.9 d-1 for bacteria). The two exceptions were samples apparently influenced by transient flagellate populations migrating into the surface or subsurface waters at night. These observations support the conclusion that surface films contain unique and highly active microbial populations.

Beschreibung: There are over 1000 foraminiferal species presently living in marine environments, but relatively few of these can be used as direct indicators of sea level. We detail here certain assemblages occupying marsh environments that can be used for that purpose. Marsh foraminiferal assemblages have been shown to occur worldwide within narrowly defined vertical zones some of which extend less than 10 cm in total vertical range. These assemblage zones, once known, can be relocated in paleo-marsh deposits and accurately related to paleo-sea level. The key to success of these organisms as sea-level indicators is that their primary controlling factor appears to be elevation above mean sea level. Other foraminiferal assemblages are controlled by a series of parameters (eg. salinity, temperature, dissolved O2, etc.) which often have no direct relationship with actual water depth. Under appropriate circumstances, some information concerning sea level can be derived from other foraminiferal assemblages using indirect means. For instance areas which have undergone substantial emergence often contain small basins which, prior to emergence, were marine. The marine sediments at the bottom can be identified using foraminifera and the sill elevation of the basin can then be related to some prior sea-level stand. Both these methods have imperfections, but in areas where both emergence and submergence have taken place they can be combined to obtain a relatively complete sea-level history.

Beschreibung: Using seabirds as sampling devices on two cruises in the northwestern Weddell Sea, we investigated the species and lengthfrequency distribution of micronekton in surface waters. Our micronekton samples are among the first ever collected simultaneously in both ice-covered and adjacent ice-free waters in the Antarctic using the same technique. Changes in the abundance or presence of certain crustacean, squid, and fish species were related to the presence of ice, and to distance from the ice edge. Length-frequency distributions representing age- or sex-classes of fish and krill were also affected by proximity to the ice edge. Our data indicate that the proximity of sampling to pack ice may affect our perception of the composition of micronektonic communities, and that the marginal ice zone is an important area for juvenile age-classes of pelagic fish and krill.

Beschreibung: The Pantelleria Rift system is a wide zone of post-Miocene northwest-trending grabens and horsts beneath the Sicily Strait. The central grabens host volcanics of predominantly alkalic composition which are exposed on the islands of Pantelleria and Linosa. On the Maltese Islands, along the northeastern shoulder of the rift, an Oligocene-Miocene carbonate succession exposed above sea level allows structural analysis and determination of shallow crustal stresses within the otherwise largely submarine rift system. An older northeast-trending set of normal faults is probably the expression of an Oligocene-Miocene crustal extension event which produced continental rifts in western Europe and led to passive margin formation in the western Mediterranean. Younger northwest-trending grabens of the Pantelleria Rift system cut the older faults almost at right angles and define a zone of lithospheric stretching between Tunisia and Sicily. The northwest-trending grabens which subsided dramatically since the beginning of Pliocene time appear to be connected by east-trending dextral and, more rarely, north-trending sinistral transforms. Displacement along the transforms is probably in the order of a few kilometres. In-situ stress measurements carried out on the Maltese Islands show maximum horizontal compression (SH) parallel to the rift. This suggests that in general σ1 (vertical) and σ2 (horizontal and parallel to the rift) are of about the same magnitude; both exceed σ3 (Sh) which trends northeasterly. Slight intraplate convergence in a NW-SE direction seems to be more than balanced by extension in a NE-SW direction. Neotectonics of the region possibly reflects an asthenospheric flow pattern which became established during the Messinian salinity crisis. The mechanism of recent intraplate deformation of the Pelagian shelf has relevance for the understanding of more anciently subsided platforms of the Apulian Plate.