ALBERT

Description: Distributions of the species of Foraminifera (living and dead) forming the greater part of the foraminiferal faunas in marshes in Poponesset Bay, Massa- chusetts, have been studied. Eight stations were sampled bimonthly for one year (August, 1956 to September, 1957). The marsh environments vary from almost non-marine (with tidal influence) to near marine. Arenoparrella mexicana, Haplo- phragmoides hancocki, Tiphotrocha comprimata, and Trochammina macrescens de- crease with increasingly marine conditions, whereas Jadammina polystoma and Trochammina inflata increase. Other species such as Ammobaculites dilatatus, Am- motium salsum, Miliammina fusca, and Protelphidium tisburyense fluctuate inde- pendently of the degree of brackish or marine conditions. Unknown factors govern- ing micro- and macroenvironments probably play an important part in controlling distributions. Suggested factors are type of vegetation, chemical factors, pH, nutrients and food. Calcareous specimens are rapidly destroyed after death pre- sumably due either to the ability of the living form to resist acidity or to a postu- lated increase in acidity immediately below the sediment surface, more probably the latter. This destruction of the tests is of importance in the interpretation of ancient marsh environments. Many species, including the calcareous ones, had their largest living populations in June or September and their smallest in December or February. There were some exceptions such as Miliammina fusca which showed an increase in winter. The total living populations were greatest in June and lowest in December, which may be related to maximum temperature and time of greatest reduction in temperature respectively. Multiple sampling showed that distribu- tions at any one station were fairly uniform although nearby samples in different microenvironments in some cases vary considerably.

Description: In Britain Octopus vulgaris occurs on the Channel coast and only very rarely on other coasts. In Brittany and the Channel Islands it frequently makes its lair at low water, but on the English side of the Channel it does not come so close inshore except in abnormal years of high sea temperatures. The discovery of Octopus larvae of various sizes, from newly hatched to 6·0 mm. (mantle length), in plankton hauls taken to the north of the Channel Islands, proves that the species has a much longer planktonic life than hitherto supposed. The water circulation in the English Channel, as indicated by drift bottles, is admirably suited to the dispersal of larvae to our shores from breeding centres on the coasts of Brittany and the Channel Islands.

Description: During 1950, the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris Lamarck) was to be found along the south coast of England in greater numbers than at any time since Garstang (1900) reported on the ‘plague’ on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall in 1899–1900. In earlier papers (Rees, 1950, 1952) the distribution of the octopus in our northern waters was reviewed, and it was demonstrated that this species is an immigrant which breeds on our south coast only rarely. It reaches these coasts by being brought there as a planktonic larva by the water circulation in the English Channel and by migrations of the adult. The most important factor in controlling the movements of the adult, however, might be expected to be the water temperature in the English Channel—where the species is at the northern limit of its breeding range and might therefore be extremely sensitive to slight changes in temperature.

Description: The steady motion of a liquid drop in another liquid of comparable density and viscosity is studied theoretically. Both inside and outside the drop, the Reynolds number is taken to be large enough for boundary-layer theory to hold, but small enough for surface tension to keep the drop nearly spherical. Surface-active impurities are assumed absent. We investigate the boundary layers associated with the inviscid first approximation to the flow, which is shown to be Hill's spherical vortex inside, and potential flow outside. The boundary layers are shown to perturb the velocity field only slightly at high Reynolds numbers, and to obey linear equations which are used to find first and second approximations to the drag coefficient and the rate of internal circulation.

Description: Based on a set of approximate equations for long waves over an uneven bottom, numerical results show that as a solitary wave climbs a slope the rate of amplitude increase depends on the initial amplitude as well as on the slope. Results are also obtained for a solitary wave progressing over a slope onto a shelf. On the shelf a disintegration of the initial wave into a train of solitary waves of decreasing amplitude is found. Experimental evidence is also presented.

Description: The modifying effect of base bleed on the steady separated flow past a two-dimensional bluff body is considered. Detailed experimental results are presented for Reynolds numbers R between 50 and 250 and for bleed coefficients b in the range 0 to 0·15. The streamline pattern near the object is found to be strongly affected by small changes in the rate of bleed, with the recirculating closed wake disappearing altogether for b 〉 0·15. Nevertheless, the qualitative dependence on R of the physical dimensions of the near-wake region and the associated streamwise pressure profile appear to be unaffected by base bleed.

Description: This paper is concerned with the propagation of small amplitude gravity waves over a flow with non-uniform velocity distribution. For such a flow Burns derived a relation for the velocity of propagation in terms of the velocity distribution of the mean flow. This result is derived here in another way and some of its implications are discussed. It is shown that one of these is hardly acceptable physically. Burns's result holds only when a real value of the propagation velocity is assumed; the mentioned difficulties vanish if complex values are allowed for, implying damping or growth of the waves. Viscous effects which are the cause of damping or growth are important in the wall layer near the bottom and also at the critical depth, which is present when the wave speed is between zero and the fluid velocity at the free surface.In § 2 the basic equations for the present problem are given. In § 3 exchange of momentum and energy between wave and primary flow is discussed. This is analogous to what happens at the critical height in a wind flow over wind-driven gravity waves. In § 4 the viscous effects at the bottom are included in the analysis and the complex equation for the propagation velocity is derived. Finally in § 5 illustrations of the theory are given for long waves over running flow and for the flow along a ship advancing in a wavy sea. In these examples a negative curvature of the mean velocity profile is shown to have a stabilizing effect.

Description: As they propagate through a gas, fluctuating pressure signals of moderate amplitude and of ultrasonic frequency are affected by amplitude dispersion, by relaxation damping and, particularly in ‘shock layers’, by diffusive damping. We derive a ‘high frequency’ theory including all these effects, for disturbances of arbitrary wave form excited by a wide variety of boundary conditions. By introducing a phase variable α, and taking account of non-linearity, we show how the signal propagates along the rays of linear acoustics theory, with constantly changing wave profile.Relaxation dampens the signal, as for linear acoustics, and also diminishes amplitude dispersion. A criterion for shock formation is given, and the importance of non-linearity for signal attenuation exhibited. As shocks form, α surfaces coalesce and diffusive mechanisms are accentuated. Whitham's area rule is shown to be relevant for unsteady three-dimensional flows in relaxing gases, and is used to compute the attentuation of an ultrasonic beam. Supersonic relaxing flow over a wavy wall is also analyzed, and focusing effects are discussed.

Description: An electrically conducting fluid is contained above a horizontal plane. A uniform vertical magnetic field is applied externally and the plane is maintained at a uniform temperature except for a point or a line heat source. Density variations are ignored except where they give rise to buoyancy forces.(i) The point heat source. Non-linear effects are small sufficiently far from the source. The resulting buoyancy forces interact with the magnetic forces to maintain a radial inflow towards the heat source. This fluid then escapes vertically as a jet, its structure now depending on the additional influence of viscosity. The perturbations of the temperature distribution and the magnetic field due to the motion are obtained. Finally, the effects of these perturbations back on to the fluid velocity are considered. The most striking features of the perturbations are (a) the action of the jet as a line source of heat for the fluid in the outer regions, (b) the large (compared to other perturbations) eddy in the jet.(ii) The line heat source. The temperature distribution and magnetic field are weakly perturbed only if the thermal and electrical conductivities are sufficiently small. Similar results are obtained, as in (i) above, provided ε (a dimensionless number characterising the strength of thermal convection: see (1.32), (3.24)) is less than ¼. However, even for small ε, the effects of thermal convection cannot be ignored. Hence, superimposed on the jet is an eddy (driven by buoyancy forces) whose flux of fluid increases indefinitely with its height above the plane. When ε 〉 ¼, the results suggest that numerous eddies will be formed.