ALBERT

Description: Three specimens of the rare giant squid (genus Architeuthis, 18 nominal species) are described from the waters around southern Africa. Consideration of their internal and external morphology, including beaks, radula, statocyst and statolith give no reason to suppose that the three specimens do not pertain to the same species. A standardized data collection form and a summary of existing morphometric data are presented for the first time and the morphology and systematics of the genus are discussed. The value of various systematic characters is examined and certain guidelines are proposed, with an appeal for a more scientific approach to Architeuthis studies. Features of the internal anatomy, including the female reproductive tract, are described and illustrated and the beak dimensions are used to evaluate existing regression formulae for beak and body parameters. The statocyst and statolith are described and illustrated in full, the statolith for the first time, and are compared with those of other squids. The value of recent data from trawl-caught specimens, as well as indirect evidence, is cited to replace speculation in discussions on distribution and habitat. Our specimens suggest that the waters off the south-western coast of Africa may be one of the natural habitats of Architeurhis, during both feeding and spawning periods of the life cycle.

Description: Benthoctopus piscatorum appears to be a multiple spawner. In the ovary of one specimen about 50 eggs were found at various stages of development.

Description: The diet of King Penguins Aptenodytes patagonica at Possession Island was studied in February 1989 by analysis of 20 stomach contents collected from adult birds, just before they fed their single chicks. The mean mass of the samples was 1.84 kg, equivalent to 15% of the unladen adult body-mass. Fish accounted for 99.8% and squids for 0.2% by mass. The main prey were mesopelagic myctophid fish which live in dense shoals and perform a daily vertical migration. Subadults/adults of Electrona carlsbergi and juveniles and subadults/adults of Krefftichthys anderssoni represented 73.7 and 13.4% of the diet by mass, respectively. No difference was found in the diet of male and female King Penguins. Comparison of individual samples suggests that these birds catch a large quantity of fish from only a limited number of shoals. The mean caloric content of the food was 7 kJ/g wet mass. The total energy requirement of each chick during its initial period of growth was estimated to amount to 328,000 kJ, equivalent to 55 kg of food. The rate at which energy was delivered to the chick was calculated to be 50 W during this period.

Description: In Loligo forbesi Steenstrup, the female reproductive system consists of the ovary and accessory reproductive organs which include the oviducal gland, the nidamental gland, the accessory nidamental gland and seminal receptacle. Histological studies were made on the accessory reproductive organs of female L. forbesi. The various changes observed during maturation are described and the functional significance discussed. The secretions produced by the oviducal gland and nidamental gland apparently form the egg coats. The seminal receptacle serves to store spermatozoa after mating. The function of the accessory nidamental gland is unknown.

Description: WHILE ammonites and all other ectocochleate cephalopods became extinct, nautiloids survived relatively unchanged from the Ordovician, suggesting that they are unusually well adapted to their niche. Here we obtain high-resolution tracks of Nautilus positions and depths, combined with telemetered jet pressures, which clarify both its lifestyle and economics. Nautilus is more active in nature than in captivity1, but its energy costs are lower than projected2,3. Viewing Nautilus as 'vertic', rather than benthic, resolves this contradiction. Records show that the cost of transport is the same in any direction within a vertical plane. Living on a reef face swept by a lateral current means that vertical movements4,5 sample large areas for chemical trails. A detected trail can be followed upcurrent in the slow-moving boundary layer, but no effort is wasted on horizontal movement without good prospects for food; long-range movements are downcurrent and made by drifting. Once fed, a Nautilus can reduce its energy costs by moving to deeper, cooler waters, where a single meal can last for months.

Description: Whether the study of external morphology can increase our knowledge of shallow-water octopuses and their biology is tested by multivariate morphometric analyses. The extent of morphological variation among 20 species from the Atlantic and eastern tropical Pacific Oceans is explored, and four hypotheses are addressed: (1) that octopuses show secondary sexual dimorphism; (2) that remote, ostensibly conspecific populations are morphologically distinct; (3) that morphometric characters contribute to resource partitioning among sympatric species; and (4) that morphology is predictably associated with habitat. Results of principal components analysis show most species to be very similar in shape. Arm length contributes most shape variation; other characters contribute little. Principal components and size-free discriminant analyses refute each of the hypotheses considered. The morphological similarity of isolated Atlantic populations may be a symplesiomorphy, but information on the planktonic phase of the octopus lire cycle supports the possibility of dispersal across the Atlantic Ocean. Size, not directly treated here, may significantly affect some aspects of octopus biology. Increased female size may evolve due to selection for increased fecundity and intraspecific niche partitioning. Size may also indicate interaction within and among species. Characters of shape, deemed essential to species descriptions, do not appear to be able to identify most specimens, nor to increase our understanding of octopus biology.

Description: The stomach contents of 1522 adult seals (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) and 673 pups, which were collected around the West and South Coasts of Southern Africa, were examined and cephalopod prey identified. About 20 cephalopod species (some identifications were uncertain) were found in the stomachs, of which only six were significant: Loligo vulgaris reynaudii. Sepia spp., Octopus sp., Todaropsis eblanae, Todarodes angolensis and Ocythoe tuberculata. This list suggests that A. pusillus feeds exclusively on the continental shelf, frequently on or near the bottom. Among adults, cephalopod prey varied in importance around the coast. It was most important on the South Coast of South Africa where it comprised 35.0% of the weight of all prey, of which L. v. veynaudii constituted about 88%. On the West Coast cephalopods comprised about 26.6% by weight of all prey, and Octopus sp. predominated, whereas in Namibian waters cephalopods were least important, constituting only 3.4% by weight of all prey, with Todarodes angolensis and Octopus sp. being most significant. Among pups (aged 8–10 months) in the Lüderitz (Namibia) area, cephalopods were about 16.9% of prey by weight, of which Ocythoe tuberculata, small Sepia spp. and Octopoda were most important.

Description: The structure of the reproductive systems of mature males and females of the nektonic, oceanic squid Thysanoteuthis rhombus are described. The main peculiarities of the female system are relatively low capacity oviducts, set in a tight spiral, and hypertrophically developed oviducal glands with a very large second section. The male reproductive system is characterized by a long, narrow Needham's sac containing 10–15 large spermatophores 80–100 mm in length. The mesentery supporting the gonad, and protruding into it dorsally, is a characteristic feature in both sexes. The hectocotylus structure differs markedly from that in other squids and resembles that of sepiids. The reproductive system of T. rhombus possesses primitive features (pattern of gonad attachment and hectocotylus) but mostly secondary characters (small oviducts, very large oviducal glands and ovary). The complex morpho-ecological adaptations of T. rhombus are reflected in the distinctive features of the reproductive system.

Description: Seasonal variation in the diet of common seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Moray Firth, north-east Scotland, was determined from analysis of faecal samples collected at haul-out sites during each month of 1988. Data on diet of common seals in 1987 are also presented. Limitations of the methods available for quantification of diet are discussed. Although some of the observed variation in diet from month to month may reflect changes in the sampling regime, a clear seasonal pattern was apparent, with clupeids predominating in the winter and sandeels in the summer. The trends observed are consistent with opportunistic feeding on the most abundant Prey.

Description: The cephalopod fauna collected during six surveys carried out in the bathyal basin of the north-western Mediterranean is discussed. Samples were taken at depths mainly between 1000 and 2000 m. Ten species were identified. Bathypolypus sponsalis and Neorossia caroli were the commonest species. Small individuals of both these species occurred at greater depths than did larger individuals, suggesting up-slope ontogenetic migration. The depth ranges recorded for all species collected are discussed and compared to the results of previous studies found in the literature.

Description: There has been concern about recent temperature trends and the future effects of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere1,2; but instrumental records only cover a few decades to a few centuries and it is essential that proxy data sources, such as pollen spectra from peats and lake sediments, be carefully interpreted as climate records. Several workers have shown statistically significant associations between the modern pollen rain and climatic parameters, an approach that by-passes the recognition of pollen/vegetation units. Statistically defined equations that associate abiotic and biotic elements are called transfer functions. We report here on the application of transfer function equations to nine middle and late Holocene peat and lake sediment sequences from northern Canada (Fig. 1).

Description: Organic detritus passing from the sea surface through the water column to the sea floor controls nutrient regeneration, fuels benthic life and affects burial of organic carbon in the sediment record. Particle trap systems have enabled the first quantification of this important process. The results suggest that the dominant mechanism of vertical transport is by rapid settling of rare large particles, most likely of faecal pellets or marine snow of the order of 〉200 μm in diameter, whereas the more frequent small particles have an insignificant role in vertical mass flux4–6. The ultimate source of organic detritus is biological production in surface waters of the oceans. I determine here an empirical relationship that predicts organic carbon flux at any depth in the oceans below the base of the euphotic zone as a function of the mean net primary production rate at the surface and depth-dependent consumption. Such a relationship aids in estimating rates of decay of organic matter in the water column, benthic and water column respiration of oxygen in the deep sea and burial of organic carbon in the sediment record.

Description: The Stilbonemutinue (marine free-living nematodes) arc remarkable for cctosymbiotic bacteria, which cover the greatest part of their body in a highly ordered and species specific pattern. Using SEM we describe the main types of symbiotic cover and give evidence for the role of the bacteria in the nutrition of their host on the basis of stable carbon isotope ratios. In experimental systems the worms migrated repeatedly across a sulfide gradient during 12 h when sulfide concentrations were low, but stayed above the sulfide maximum at high concentrations. The migration across the chemocline exposes the symbionts alternately to reduced sulfur compounds and oxygen; this constitutes an alternative strategy to the ventilation/circulation systems in symbiotic macrofauna from sulfidic habitats

Description: THE vestimentiferan tubeworm Riftia pachyptila is found around hydrothermal vent areas in the deep sea. Intracellular bacterial chemoautotrophic symbionts use the oxidation of sulphide from the effluent of the vents as an energy source for CO2 fixation. They apparently provide most or all of the nutritional requirements for their gutless hosts1–5. This kind of symbiosis has since been found in many other species from various other phyla from other habitats6–9. Here we present results that the bacteria of R. pachyptila may cover a significant fraction of their respiratory needs by the use of nitrate in addition to oxygen. Nitrate is reduced to nitrite, which may be the end product (nitrate respiration)10 or it may be further reduced to nitrogen gas (denitrification)11. This metabolic trait may have an important role in the colonization of hypoxic habitats in general by animals with this kind of symbiosis.

Description: Growth of the shallow-water gorgonian Lophogorgia ceratophyta was investigated in an infralittoral station located in La Spezia Gulf, Ligurian Sea. Mean annual height growth rate was estimated to be 2.57 cm · a-1. The fractal dimension of the colonies was found to gradually evolve in complexity, exhibiting a simpler branching pattern in younger specimens. The maintenance of a low, invariable ramification complexity as an optimal choice in managing relationships between water and the colony's living tissues is also discussed.

Description: THE supply of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is not considered to limit oceanic primary productivity1, as its concentration in sea water exceeds that of other plant macronutrients such as nitrate and phosphate by two and three orders of magnitude, respectively. But the bulk of oceanic new production2 and a major fraction of vertical carbon flux is mediated by a few diatom genera whose ability to use DIG components other than CO2, which comprises 〈 1% of total DIC3, is unknown4. Here we show that under optimal light and nutrient conditions, diatom growth rate can in fact be limited by the supply of CO2. The doubling in surface water pCO2 levels since the last glaciation from 180 to 355 p.p.m.5,6 could therefore have stimulated marine productivity, thereby increasing oceanic carbon sequestration by the biological pump.

Description: To study the impact of the gradient of primary production between the southern, central, and northern Red Sea, benthic metabolism and standing stocks were investigated in the axial trough between 17°N and 27°N. Data on sediment chloroplastic pigments, macrofauna and meiofauna abundance, particulate adenylate, protein and carbohydrate biomass, as well as electron transport activity of the sediment community give evidence for an enhanced benthic standing stock and activity in the southern Red Sea south of 18°N; this is related to the increased primary productivity in the area south 16°N. Despite a large primary production only small benthic standing stocks were found in all areas investigated; they are much smaller than in other parts of the world's deep oceans with comparable primary production. The low benthic biomass is caused by two factors: a large proportion of particulate organic carbon is remineralized in the water column, while only a relatively small amount sediments to the sea floor; nearly all sedimented particulate organic matter is respired by the benthic community of the deep Red Sea and only a minute proportion is used for the production of benthic biomass.

Description: A subtropical front was observed in the area south and southeast of the Azores during cruises of FS Meteor and FS Poseidon in early 1982. The front has a basically west–east extension, with considerable meandering observed. Meso-scale eddies are found on both sides. The overall flow pattern corresponds to earlier results on geopotential differences in the upper northeast Atlantic, but the baroclinic transport of the order of 107 m3 s−1 is found to be concentrated in a 60-km wide jet. We suggest here that the current band is part of the gyre circulation, resulting from a branching of the North Atlantic Current.

Description: Circumpolar surface waters dominate the circulation of the Southern Ocean and sustain one of the ocean's largest standing stocks of biomass thereby producing a significant output of biogenic components, mainly diatoms, to the bottom sediments. Generally transit of biogenic matter from the sea surface to the sea floor affects nutrient regeneration fuels benthic life and transfers signals to the sediment record1–5. Reliable quantification of the relationship between biological production, fractionation of skeletal and tissue components and bottom sediment accumulation depends on direct vertical flux measurements from sediment trap deployments6–9, which have proved to be most scientifically productive10–13. We now present data on vertical mass fluxes from the Southern Ocean and evidence for strong biogeochemical fractionation between organic carbon-, nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing compounds, siliceous and calcareous skeletal remains, and refractory aluminosilicates.

Description: IN 1989, the submersible Nautile discovered one of the most active hydrothermal fields on the modern ocean floor, in the Lau back-arc basin (Fig. 1). The field contains high-temperature white and black smokers, and as we report here, its characteristics contrast strongly with those of the hydrothermal fields found at normal mid-ocean ridges. The main differences are the acidity (pH as low as 2), chemistry and temperature (up to 400 °C) of the hydrothermal fluids, the composition of the ore deposits, and the volcanic and tectonic environments. The fluids also have very high concentrations of trace metals, and primary gold is present in the accompanying mineral deposits. Our data show that these back-arc deposits in the Lau Basin are intermediate between typical mid-ocean-ridge mineralization and massive sulphide deposits of the Kuroko type.

Description: Observations of large and abrupt climate changes recorded in Greenland ice cores have spurred a search for clues to their cause. This search has revealed that at six times during the last glaciation, huge armadas of icebergs launched from Canada spread across the northern Atlantic Ocean, each triggering a climate response of global extent.

Description: The presence of several typically northern hemisphere foraminiferal species in the upper Miocene and Recent deposits of the Río de la Plata, Paraná river and adjacent areas, and their absence along the Brazilian coast strongly suggests that in the late Miocene the Caribbean and the Southern Atlantic were linked by a marine connection. This connection was first envisioned by H. von Ihering, who called it the ‘Arm of the Tethys’. It was represented by a very broad strait which ran meridionally across the South American continent. In the Pliocene it shrank considerably and its salinity was lowered by Andean river runoff. At the end of the Pliocene - beginning of the Pleistocene it gave rise to the Paraná river, a series of brackish water lakes and lagoons, and the Río de la Plata. □Foraminifera, arm of the Tethys, South America.

Description: Analysis of aeolo-marine dust deposits in the subtropical eastern Atlantic enables the strength of the major wind patterns during the late Quaternary to be evaluated and gives an insight into the climate of North Africa.

Description: ALTHOUGH anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide have today created a greater atmospheric CO2concentration in the Northern than in the Southern Hemisphere, a comparison of interhemispheric CO2 profiles from 1980 and 1962 led Keeling and Heimann1,2 to conclude that, before the Industrial Revolution, natural CO2 sources and sinks acted to set up a reverse (south to north) gradient which drove about one gigatonne of carbon each year through the atmosphere from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere. At steady state, this flux must have been balanced by a counter flow of carbon from north to south through the ocean. Here we present a means to estimate this natural flux by a separation of oceanic carbon anomalies into those created by biogenic processes and those created by CO2 exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. We find that before the Industrial Revolution, deep water formed in the northern Atlantic Ocean carried about 0.6 gigatonnes of carbon annually to the Southern Hemisphere, providing support for Keeling and Heimann's proposal. The existence of this oceanic carbon pump also raises questions about the need for a large terrestrial carbon sink in the Northern Hemisphere, as postulated by Tans et al.3, to balance the present global carbon budget.

Description: The response of the global climate system to smoke from burning oil wells in Kuwait is investigated in a series of numerical experiments using a coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model with an interactive soot transport model and extended radiation scheme. The results show a decrease in surface air temperature of ~4 °C in the Gulf region. Outside this region the changes are small and statistically insignificant. No weakening of the Indian summer monsoon is observed.

Description: ISOTOPE ratios and concentrations of incompatible trace elements are remarkably successful in discriminating the tectonic origin and magmatic source components for basalts1–5. But problems remain with discriminating the tectonic origin of some tholeiites, especially where field relations and other geological evidence are ambiguous. For example, the tectonic origin of basalts from the Troodos ophiolite (Cyprus) has been debated for several decades. Most workers have been unable to distinguish between an island-arc and/or back-arc origin for the ophiolite6–8. Here we use volatile, K2O and TiO2 contents from ∼250 fresh submarine volcanic glasses to discriminate between tholeiites from different tectonic regimes. K2O÷H2O ratios are lower (〈0.70) in spread ing-centre glasses than in those from island arcs and intraplate oceanic islands. Back-arc-basin basalts can generally be separated from mid-ocean-ridge basalts by their high H2O contents. Using this information, we show that some fresh glasses from the Troodos ophiolite have a clear back-arc-basin affinity.

Description: Statoliths of cephalopods are small, hard calcareous stones which lie within the cartilaginous skulls of octopods, sepioids and teuthoids1. Fossil statoliths, clearly belonging to genera which are alive today, have previously been described from 11 Cenozoic deposits spanning from the Eocene to the Pleistocene in North America2–5. Such statoliths are of particular interest because they provide a means of studying the evolution of living cephalopod groups which have no calcareous shells, including the cosmopolitan and numerous teuthoids and octopods. Here, the first cephalopod statoliths to be recognized in European deposits are described and identified as Loligo sp. They are compared with the North American fossil Loligo species and statoliths removed from the two living Loligo species of Europe.

Description: Basalts from the Reykjanes Ridge contain noble gases delivered from the non-degassed lower mantle by the Iceland plume. These lower mantle gases are thought to be a mixture of planetary and solar components, as would be expected if the Earth accreted from fine silicate particles.

Description: Maturation in the onychoteuthid squid Moroteuthis ingens was found to be irreversible, with death following shortly after sexual maturation and spawning. Both males and females were found with spent gonads. The ovary reaches very large sizes in mature females and probably prevends feeding by constricting the caecum. There was also a marked difference in the tissue with an inelastic, gelantinous appearence. Histological examination of the mantle wall revealed that the tissue breakdown was due to a drastic histolysis of muscle tissue and, to a lesser extent, collagen fibres. Mature males also showed some tissue breakdown and loss of muscle fibres but this was not as dramatic as in the females. These features are considered in relation to processes contributing to terminal maturation in M. ingens.

Description: Strandings of the giant squid, Architeuthis monachus (Steen-strup), have always stirred attention because of the rarity and enormous size of these cephalopods. These animals have never been observed in their natural habitat and little is known about their physiology and ecology. Stranding of giant squids in Newfoundland waters has been correlated with the inflow of warm water, suggesting that increased temperature may be causing their death1. Squids have also been carried to the Norwegian coast with the warm North Atlantic current2 and on 23 August 1982 a live specimen was caught off Radöy near Bergen, Norway (Fig. 1). This catch gave an unprecedented opportunity to study the effects of temperature on the oxygen binding properties of blood from the giant squid. The present finding of an excess of a fourfold decrease in O2 affinity when temperature is increased from 6.4 to 15°C strongly suggests that giant squids may suffocate from arterial desaturation when increased ambient temperatures are experierced.