ALBERT

Description: The influence of photoperiodicity on hatching of Loligo forbesi and Loligo vulgaris embryos was investigated under different experimental light-dark (LD) conditions. The transition from light to dark stimulated hatching and functions as a "Zeitgeber" or synchronizer. Independent of the timing and duration of the dark period most embryos hatched soon after termination of the light period. Embyros which had developed in constant light, showed no hatching rhythm at all. If these embryos were exposed to a dark shock most embryos hatched soon after the onset of darkness. A twilight shock, in which the light was reduced by 50% (i.e. 50 µE s -1m-²), could not simulate hatching. Embryos which were kept from stage X on in an artifically controlled LD cycle, preferentially hatch in a period which coincides with the period at which darkness usually occured when placed in constant illumination from stage XX onwards.

Description: A correlation of the Campanian–Maastrichtian boundary is attempted using foraminiferal and nannoplankton data from two areas: the eastern North Atlantic and northwestern Germany. The Boreal benthic and Tethyan planktonic foraminiferal zonation schemes are applied to Site 548A, where both foraminiferal groups occur frequently. A direct comparison of both biozonations reveals that the base of the Maastrichtian, according to planktonic foraminifers, has to be placed in the Upper Campanian of the Boreal benthic foraminiferal biozonation, which concurs with the nannoplankton results. The Tethyan Middle and Upper Maastrichtian are probably equivalent to the Upper Maastrichtian in the Boreal sense. The bases of the Maastrichtian substages are thus diachronous between the Boreal and Tethyan realms. Palaeotemperatures (which were estimated using the oxygen isotopic composition of the Goban Spur chalks) indicate, in combination with palaeowind directions, that the faunal and floral distribution pattern recorded is the result of a stable, warm water outflow from the northwest European epicontinental seas through the Channel area to the Celtic Shelf sea and Goban Spur. This mechanism appears to have been a dominant separating factor of the Boreal and Tethyan bioprovinces on the western European Shelf.

Description: The results of an examination of one quarry within the gneisses of the Bartica Assemblage are described and the validity of these results throughout the whole of the Bartica Assemblage is discussed. The foliation and banding of the gneisses at Kereti Quarry are mainly the results of tectonism; concomitant metamorphism within the Amphibolite Facies was succeeded by a two-phase metasomatism involving successive additions of Na and K. These results appear valid throughout the Bartica Assemblage and it is further suggested that the main rock type distribution in the Bartica Assemblage is also controlled by tectonism.

Description: Textural differences in the occurrence of microcline define augen gneisses, subhedral porphyroblastic gneisses and euhedral porphyroblastic gneisses within the Bartica Assemblage, British Guiana. The introduction of microcline is metasomatic and the nature of the porphyroblasts appears to be a reflection of tectonic control during their development.

Description: The groundmass of andesitic dykes at Sezaki, southwest Japan, has trachytic texture and contains microscopic shear zones. The shear zones comprise a conjugate pair formed by flattening of the solidifying dyke rock, probably caused by the magma pressure of the still molten part of the dyke. This pressure shortened the solidifying rock perpendicular to the dyke margins and caused it to extrude parallel to the magma flow direction. The groundmass shears indicate that locally the magma flowed 60° upward in the dykes. It is concluded that while groundmass shears are a useful indicator of flow direction in dykes, phenocryst alignment in dykes is strongly influenced by magma-pressure flattening and thus may be a poor indicator of flow direction.

Description: In this paper we examine the steady, two-dimensional convective motion which occurs in a horizontal circular cylinder whose wall is non-uniformly heated. One observes several qualitatively different physical phenomena depending on the wall temperature distribution and the value of the Rayleigh number. The low-Rayleigh-number behaviour for the single convective cell heated from below is related to the classical Rayleigh stability problem. The critical Rayleigh number for the single circular cell is approximately five times the value for Rayleigh's multi-celluar configuration. The flow which exhibits a nearly parabolic velocity profile near the critical Rayleigh number, gradually changes to a rigidly-rotating-core behaviour as the Rayleigh number increases. The speed of core rotation is a function of the Prandtl number, whereas the boundary-layer thickness is primarily a function of the Rayleigh number. When the heating is from side to side, the solution shows that as the Rayleigh number increases the core motion is progressively arrested leaving a narrow circulating band of fluid adjacent to the wall. An oblique heating produces a hybrid phenomenon, a low-Rayleigh-number behaviour which is characteristic of the sideways heating case and a high-Rayleigh-number interior motion characteristic of the bottom heating case. To determine the core motion in the high-Rayleigh-number limit, Batchelor's work concerning the uniqueness of incompressible, exactly steady, closed streamline flows with small viscosity is extended to include flows with small thermal conductivity.

Description: Outer membrane (OM), cytoplasmic membrane (CM) and intracytoplasmic membranes (ICM) from the halophilic phototrophic purple sulphur bacterium Ectothiorhodospira mobilis 9903 were purified and characterized. The three membrane fractions were significantly different in regard to protein profiles on SDS-PAGE, and to the composition of amino acids, fatty acids and lipids. The presence of lipoproteins, the occurrence of lyso-phosphatidyl-ethanolamine and an increased content of saturated and short-chain fatty acids are characteristic properties of the OM. CM and ICM fractions are different on the basis of buoyant density, of protein profiles and amino acid composition, and due to the presence of succinate dehydrogenase activity in CM. In addition, CM and ICM showed significant differences in pigment content and absorption spectra.

Description: The energy flux in a finite-depth gravity-wave spectrum resulting from weak non-linear couplings between the spectral components is evaluated by means of a perturbation method. The fifth-order analysis yields a fourth-order effect comparable in magnitude to the generating and dissipating processes in wind-generated seas. The energy flux favours equidistribution of energy and vanishes in the limiting case of a white, isotropic spectrum. The influence on the equilibrium structure of fully developed wave spectra and on other phenomena in random seas is discussed briefly.

Description: The upper bathyal sea-pen Kophobelemnon stelliferum extends to depths of about 1600 m in the Porcupine Seabight, to the south-west of Ireland, but is rare below about 1150 m. Photographic data suggest that the species attains numerical abundances of more than 2 m−2and a wet weight biomass of at least 4 g m−2. The highest densities, however, do not necessarily correspond to the highest biomass values since there is a clear depth-related change in population structure. The largest sea-pens are restricted to the deeper parts of the bathymetric range of the species. There is also a marked change in the growth form at a total colony length of about 250 mm, with larger colonies having relatively more polyps than smaller ones. The sexes are separate in Kophobelemnon stelliferum and the sex ratio of colonies is about 1:1. The maximum oocyte diameter is about 800 μm, but there is no evidence of seasonal reproduction by this pennatulid in the Porcupine Seabight.

Description: The free-running locomotor activity rhythms of freshly-captured swimming crabs Liocarcinus holsatus and L. depurator have been studied in constant conditions in the laboratory. L. holsatus captured in the intertidal zone of sandy beaches showed strong circatidal activity rhythms with maximum activity at high tide. L. holsatus captured in the sublittoral zone had a clear tendency to show circadian activity rhythms with highest activity during day-time hours. L. depurator occurred only sublittorally and showed circadian activity patterns with highest activity during the night. Exposure to hydrostatic pressure cycles of tidal amplitude and periodicity, entrained strong circatidal activity rhythms in previously arhythmic L. holsatus. This activity pattern also showed a marked circadian component. Exposure to the same regime entrained a circadian rhythm, but not a circatidal rhythm in L. depurator. In the sublittoral zone L. depurator is active mainly during the night, whereas L. holsatus, is active mainly during the day. This may constitute a behavioural mechanism for minimizing competitive interactions between these two sympatric crabs