ALBERT

Description: Possible effects of ‘El Niño’ Southern Oscillation (ENSO) components ‘El Niño’ and ‘La Niña’ on populations of southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, were analysed. Changes in the cephalopod diet composition of moulting females at King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula were considered. The diet of female elephant seals sampled in 1991–1992 and 1992–1993 (El Niño years) were compared with those taken in 1995–1996 (La Niña year) at the same site and employing the same methodology. The squid Psychroteuthis glacialis constituted the main cephalopod prey of the seals. A reduction in the ‘Index of Biomass Ingested’ by female elephant seals (IBIF) of this prey species was observed in ‘El Niño’ years (1992, 1993) compared with the ‘La Niña’ year (1996). This reduction in biomass applied to all squid species in the seals' prey with the exception of Galiteuthis glacialis, which occurred in low numbers, but was more abundant during El Niño years than in the La Niña year.

Description: Miocene Ignimbrite ‘A’ on Gran Canaria contains three compositional endmember fiamme types(two rhyolites and one trachyte) each of which crystallized distinct feldspar. Various textural and compositional criteria are interpreted as reflecting a complex scenario within the magma chamber in which the crystals formed. About 25–30% of the feldspar phenocrysts contain evidence for magma mixing in the form of (1) partial to severe dissolution–resorption rims, (2) distinct zones of drastically different compositions and (3) overgrowth textures on formerly resorbed crystals. Four major types of zoning in the oligoclase to anorthoclase feldspars of ignimbrite ‘A’ include a normal and a reversely zoned type and two complexly zoned types. The feldspars with normal and reverse zonation show only minor compositional amplitudes between individual zones (ΔAb, Or ∼4%), whereas the complexly zoned types show compositional differences between zones of up to 18 mol % Ab and 20 mol % Or and are commonly associated with an internal dissolution surface. Complex zoning with large compositional amplitudes and dissolution textures is taken as evidence of crystal movements within the magma and across compositional boundaries between magma batches. A multiple ‘step-cycle’ model, involving growth and transport of a crystal into another magma batch and its return to the original host magma, is suggested by the data. Moreover, feldspars from one rhyolite compositional group are found to be substantially elevated in δ18O, suggesting an input of a high δ18O component to this rhyolite. The other endmember rhyolite appears to be related to the endmember trachyte by mainly crystal fractionation of anorthoclase feldspar. This observation is consistent with trace element and rare earth element concentrations for the magma endmembers and their feldspars, where contamination led to a depletion in incompatible trace elements and light rare earth elements in the contaminated rhyolite and its feldspar phenocrysts. We suggest that the combination of textural and compositional variation in ternary feldspar of peralkaline rhyolitic systems is well suited to reconstruct dynamic processes such as magma mixing and contamination in evolving rhyolitic magma chambers.

Description: Incubation experiments with natural phytoplankton revealed a relationship between CO2 concentration and the production of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP), with TEP production being linearly related to theoretical CO2 uptake rates.

Description: Lipid content, lipid class and fatty acid composition of four Southern Ocean cephalopod species – the myopsid Sepioteuthis australis and three oegopsids, Gonatus antarcticus , Moroteuthis robsoni and Todarodes spp. – were analysed. The lipid content of the digestive gland was consistently greater than that of the mantle, and was an order of magnitude greater in oegopsid species. The lipid class and fatty acid composition of the mantle and digestive gland also differed markedly in each species. Digestive gland lipid is likely to be of dietary origin, and large amounts of lipid in the digestive gland of oegopsids may accumulate over time. Thus the digestive gland is a rich source of fatty acid dietary tracers and may provide a history of dietary intake. However, the absolute amount of dietary lipid in the digestive gland of oegopsid species exceeds the absolute lipid content of mantle tissue. Therefore the overall lipid “signature” of an oegopsid may more closely resemble its prey species rather than its mantle tissue. When lipid techniques are used in dietary analysis of teuthophagous predators, squid may not be represented by a unique signature in analyses and their importance in the diets of predators may be underestimated.

Description: Uplift of the Rhenish Massif can be demonstrated by means of the stream-made river terrace system that accompanies the Rhine river and its tributaries along their way through or within this part of the Variscan fold and thrust belt. The height difference between a former valley floor, especially that of the Younger ‘Hauptterrasse’ (Main Terrace), and the recent one allows to quantify the uplift by the amount of downcutting erosion. The uplift velocity increased just after the BRUNHES / MATUYAMA boundary, i.e. about 0.8 Ma B.R Since that time, a domal uplift of more than 250 m is documented in the eastern Hunsriick and in the south-eastern Eifel. The area of this maximum height anomaly is situated just between the East-and West-Eifel Quaternary volcanic districts. Thus, causal connections are supposed. The domai uplift is affected by normal faulting partly inherited since Tertiary rifting.

Description: Squid of the genus Alloteuthis from the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean were identified as A. media. It is not possible to distinguish A. media from A. subulata by relative fin length. Both ‘species’ are probably intraspecific forms. Egg size varied from 1·5 to 2·3 mm. Oocyte maturation in the ovary occurs in batches. The potential fecundity is some 1000–4000 eggs, most of these being released during continuous spawning accompanied by female growth.

Description: Population dynamics of major Baltic calanoid copepod species in the Gotland Basin during the last two decades were characterized by a decline of Pseudocalanus elongatus associated with declining salinities, and an increase of Temora longicornis and Acartia spp. potentially due to warmer conditions. Additionally this study investigated the effect of predation by the major planktivorous fish species herring (Clupea harengus) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus) for the period 1977–1996 in the Gotland Basin (Central Baltic Sea). Examination of consumption by these fish species in relation to copepod production estimates showed a switch by herring from consuming mainly CV/VI of P. elongatus and T. longicornis, to preying on CII of the latter copepod. This switch was potentially due to increased competition with the drastically increased sprat stock since the late 1980s. Further, an increased predation pressure by sprat on CV/CVI of both copepod species in spring resulted in higher copepod mortality rates. In consequence, based on these results we suggest that the increase in the sprat stock since the late 1980s contributed to a decline of P. elongatus, and additionally prevented an even more pronounced temperature-driven increase in the T. longicornis stock, as was observed for Acartia spp., which was not significantly consumed.