ALBERT

Description: Spirula spirula has stimulated considerable interest since it was first discovered. It is a member of one of the two genera of sepioids to frequent oceanic water (the other being Heteroteuthis); it has a unique spiral shell which acts as a buoyancy mechanism and can withstand considerable pressure (Denton, Gilpin-Brown & Howarth, 1967); and, until the capture by the Danish Oceanographical expeditions it was considered very rare, only 12 specimens having been captured. The Dana expeditions caught 193 individuals from 1909 to 1931 and these were described by Kerr (1931) and Bruun (1943,1955). Most of these were caught in the waters around the Canary Islands of the North Atlantic. Bruun (1943) arranged the specimens according to month and size and claimed that two size groups could be distinguished. The specimens were taken over a wide geographical area, in several years and during the months of February (1 specimen), March (40), April (3), May (8), June (1), August (1) and October (23). His conclusion concerning growth depends entirely upon his decision to split the March sample into two year-groups; those above 1.9 cm in ventral mantle length he put in a separate year-class to those below 1.9 cm in ventral mantle length. This division was arbitrary and, one suspects, based on a belief that a one-year life-span was likely. Clearly the growth of Spirula requires further study based on a larger collection and the present paper is an attempt to fulfil this need.

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: Mutterkorn, das Dauermycel des auf Roggenähren wuchernden Fadenpilzes Claviceps purpurea, enthält eine Gruppe hellgelber, schwach saurer, optisch aktiver Farbstoffe. Obwohl die ersten Präparate dieser Farbstoffe schon vor fast 100 Jahren von DRAGENDORFF und Mitarb. (14) isoliert wurden, konnte deren Strukturaufklärung im wesentlichen erst in den letzten Jahren durchgeführt werden. Dies ist darauf zurückzuführen, daß für die Reindarstellung der schwer trennbaren, teilweise diastereomeren Farbstoffe leistungsfähige chromatographische Methoden entwickelt werden mußten (1, 27, 29, 47). Als sich gezeigt hatte, daß diese Farbstoffe eine Naturstoffgruppe aus mehr als 10 Vertretern mit sehr ähnlichen Strukturen bilden, wurde für sie der Sammelname Ergochrome und eine einfache Nomenklatur vorgeschlagen (19, 25, 29).

Description: The distinguishing features of the common squid of British waters, Loligo forbesi, are summarized, and contrasted with those of L. vulgaris. The life-cycle and growth of L. forbesi are described, based on samples from trawl catches off Plymouth. This species seems to be an annual - young squid first appear in the trawl in late May, when their length is about 10 or 11 cm. Subsequent growth is rapid, and the males reach 30 cm and the females 25 cm by November. Spawning takes place mainly in December-January, but may continue into the spring. Neither sex survives beyond a single spawning season. Hatching of the spawn probably takes 30–40 days, and if the young squid taken in the trawl in late May hatched in the early part of the same year, a growth rate of about 25 mm/month would be required. Known growth rates for other species of Loligo are about 20 mm/month, so that indicated for L. forbesi does not seem to be impossibly high. The life-cycle is summarized in Fig. 8. There is also a summer spawning population, which grows to a rather smaller size at maturity, and which also seems to be annual. During the summer L. forbesi ranges throughout the English Channel and southern North Sea, particularly in inshore areas. In October the squid migrate farther offshore and tend to occupy the western part of the Channel. Values for total weight of squid/2 h trawl are given, on a monthly basis, for 1966–9. The largest quantities are usually taken in October and November, the highest single figure being 30.54 kg/2 h trawl, in November 1967.

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: Twenty-four out of 240 fishes caught by bottom lines at 366–3333 m had something in their stomachs. Stomach contents included parts of cephalopods, fish, cetaceans and bottom-living invertebrates, thin rubber sheet and terrestrial mammal bones. The material provides evidence that four species of cephalopod are at least partially demersal and suggests a means by which the tapeworm Phyllobothrium could pass from its secondary to its primary host. During the five biological cruises of R.R.S. ‘Discovery’ between 1967 and 1971 a total of 31 bottom lines with 1483 hooks were fished in depths of water between 366 and 3333 m. The stomachs of the 240 fish caught were examined and 216 (90%) proved to be empty. The high incidence of empty stomachs is thought to be due to frequent loss of food during the ascent from great depths and accounts for our poor knowledge of the feeding habits of demersal fish living at depths exceeding 400 m. The present collection of food from 25 stomachs (24 from ‘Discovery’ collections and one from a fish caught by Mr G. R. Forster from R. V. ‘Sarsia’) of fish belonging to 11 species (Table 1) probably gives little indication of the usual diet of the fish concerned, but its nature prompts some useful speculation and the rarity of such observations justifies placing them on record (Bigelow & Schroeder, 1948; Marshall, 1954). All the fish were caught on lines which lay on the bottom for several hours and it is our firm belief that they were hooked while on or very near the bottom.

Description: The bottom sediments of Sörfjord, West Norway, contain unusually high concentrations of Ag, Ba, Bi, Cd, Cu, In, Pb, Sb, Sn, and Zn. The concentrations of Zn and Pb reach ∼ 10% by weight in some sediments. The concentrations of most of the elements are positively correlated, those of Pb, Cd, and Cu with Zn being particularly well developed; correlations also exist between Sb and Zn, and Ag and Cu. The concentrations of the metals in the bottom sediments decrease southwards and northwards from a locality close to a source of industrial waste.

Description: Genaue Untersuchungen der Foraminiferenfauna in drei Sedimentkernen aus dem Tiefseeboden des äquatorialen Atlantischen Ozeans von der Schwedischen Tiefsee-Expedition an Bord des M. S. „Albatroß“ 1947/48 haben die Ergebnisse über die Schichtung der Tiefseeablagerungen an Hand des Materials von der Deutschen „Meteor“-Expedition 1925/27 nicht nur bestätigt, sondern in vielen Punkten stark erweitert. Die allgemein übliche stratigraphische Gliederung des jüngeren Quartärs kann in den Tiefseesedimenten des äquatorialen Atlantischen Ozeans durch die Schwankungen der pelagischen Foraminiferenfauna einwandfrei nachgewiesen werden. In alluvialem Material ist das Klimaoptimum (s. Kern 227 auf Abb. 3) deutlich zu erkennen, in den Ablagerungen der letzten Eiszeit (Würm) die Untergliederung in die drei Stadien (WI, II, III) und die dazwischenliegenden Interstadiale möglich. Die Grenze Würmeiszeit/Letztes Interglazial kann klar festgelegt werden (s. Abb. 3), und der 9,09 m lange Kern 227 aus dem Gebiet der Kapverdischen Inseln reicht vielleicht bis in die Sedimente aus dem zweiten Interglazial. Durch die wechselnde Zusammensetzung der pelagischen Foraminiferenfauna sind somit innerhalb der Tiefseeabsätze deutlich die Klimaschwankungen der jüngsten Vergangenheit erkennbar; d. h. die Stratigraphie der jungquartären Tiefseesedimente ist im wesentlichen durch Klimaänderungen bedingt.

Description: Durch Bestimmung der Foraminiferenanzahl in I g Sediment wird die biostratigraphische Untersuchungsmethode, die mittels einer qualitativen und quantitativen Erfassung der Foraminiferenfauna in den Tiefseekernen der deutschen „Meteor”-Expedition und schwedischen „Albatroß”-Expedition durchgeführt werden ist, auf ihre Richtigkeit hin geprüft. Die Untersuchung hat die Anwendbarkeit dieser stratigraphischen Methode bestätigt. Sie hat daneben wiederum gezeigt, daß die Verbreitung und Entwicklung der einzelnen Foraminiferenarten vor allem von der Temperatur des Meerwassers abhängig sind; andere Faktoren wie Phosphatgehalt des Wassers usw. scheinen in dieser Hinsicht eine mehr untergeordnete Rolle zu spielen. Unter gewissen Voraussetzungen können Tiefseekerne durch Bestimmung der Foraminiferenanzahl je 1 g Sediment in groben Zügen stratigraphisch gegliedert werden; auch kann die Individuenanzahl der einzelnen Foraminiferenarten aus der Foraminiferenanzahl in 1 g Sediment und aus der prozentualen Zusammensetzung der Gesamtfauna errechnet werden. Mit den hier gewonnenen Erkenntnissen wird versucht, die engen Bezichungen zwischen dem prozentualen Anteil der Warmwasserforaminiferen in der Gesamtfauna und dem CO2-Gehalt des Sedimentes, dieOvey im Kern 241 der schwedischen „Albatroß”-Expedition beobachtet hat, zu deuten.

Description: The asymmetry of the continental margin around southern Africa can be related to Mesozoic sediment thicknesses, which were in turn controlled by the local structural setting. On the west coast, the Orange Basin sediments were built out as a thick wedge over the margin of the continent by discharge from the Orange River, whereas on the Agulhas Bank, sedimentation was confined to continental areas. Off the east coast the extremely narrow margin of the continent did not form an effective trap for sediments, which were readily carried beyond it. Cainozoic sediments are thin, and modify the Mesozoic sediment pile only locally on the outer shelf and slope.

Description: Three species of Foraminifera, which were ususally regarded as members of the Ammonia beccarii (L.)-group or closely related, are investigated. The material comes mainly from the lagoon of Cochin and from the shelf off Cochin (SW-India), Malabarcoast). Sections and Stereoscan-microphotographs revealed considerable differences in the internal structure (double or simple septae, different shape of the tooth-plates, areal or interiomarginal situation of the septal apertures). This leads to the conclusion, that only one species (Rotalia beccarii var. sobrina SHUPACK 1934) is a true Ammonia. Rotalia beccarii var. tepida CUSHMAN 1926 should be put to the genus Discorbis, Rotalia pauciloculata PHLEGER & PARKER 1951 is regarded as a species of Pseudoeponides. Some ecological observations are added.

Description: A new method is proposed for determining absolute surface water paleotemperatures by means of Globigerina bulloides d’Orbigny. This method is based on the relationship between the percentage of sinistral specimens in a population of the species mentioned and the temperature of the water. The advantages and disadvantages of the method proposed are discussed.

Description: Eighty-seven specimens of Bathothauma lyromma from the ‘Discovery’ collections have provided new information on this unusual species. The size range represented is sufficient to trace the development from small larvae to near adult. Information on sexual development is also given. Twenty-nine specimens from opening-closing nets show that Bathothauma occupies the depth range 100–1250 m, with smaller specimens living at shallower depths than the larger ones.

Description: A female blue-ringed octopus, Hapalochlaena sp. (probably lunulata), was maintained in an aqarium for nearly 3 months, during which time it spawned and cared for the eggs until hatching. The young are planktonic. Embryonic development does not differ markedly from that observed in other octopods, uniting certain features of the development of Octopus vulgaris and Eledone cirrosa. In terms of reproductive biology and development, the species differs from the lesser blue-ringed octopus Hapalochlaena maculosa in its mode of spawning, egg size and mode of life of its young. These differences correspond to conditions recorded for Octopus spp. and Eledone spp.

Description: Shipworms or Teredinidae may be dispersed either as adults in floating wooden objects or as pelagic larvae drifting near the sea surface. Five shipworm species, i.e., half of those having an amphi-Atlantic geographical distribution, are known also to have pelagic phytoplanktotrophic larvae which can be carried by ocean currents. From a series of 742 plankton samples taken from throughout the temperate and tropical North Atlantic Ocean, it can be shown that shipworm larvae are not uncommon in the open sea. Teredinid veligers were found in 19% of all samples taken. One species of larvae, identical in all details to that described by Rancurel (1965), is particularly prevalent and is tentatively identified as Teredora malleolus (Turton). A definitive identification will be possible only after the pelagic larvae of the other Atlantic species are known. The larvae of Teredora malleolus are found throughout the North Atlantic Gyre and the adjacent temperate and tropical seas, and from scattered records in the South Equatorial Current. Larvae of other unidentified Teredinidae species were also found. The distance that larvae may be transported depends upon the length of pelagic larval development and the velocity of the currents. From the known current velocities it can be shown that, even in a few weeks, larvae may be dispersed many hundreds of kilometers. The geographical distribution of shipworm larvae suggests that they are carried along the coasts of continents and even across ocean basins, and that this dispersal must be an important factor in the geographical distribution of the adult forms and in the maintenance of genetic continuity between populations otherwise isolated from one another.

Description: Kurzer Bericht über den Vortrag auf der Versammlung der Geologischen Vereinigung in Frankfurt a. M. am 8. Jan. 1938.

Description: A total of 618 cephalopods comprising 29 identified species and 98 young unidentified larvae were collected at 30° N 23° W in opening–closing rectangular midwater trawls (RMT combination net), an Isaacs Kidd midwater trawl equipped with an openingclosing bucket and a British Columbia midwater trawl. Discrete horizons were fished between the surface and 2000 m and day and night vertical distribution for the more common species is described. Material is sufficiently abundant to draw tentative conclusions on the vertical distributions of 16 species. These show a wide variety of migratory and non-migratory behaviour including diel migration, ontogenetic migration and static distribution at various depths and over various depth ranges.

Description: Two new species of cranchiid cephalopod are described. These were both collected by opening-closing midwater trawls (RMTs) when vertical series were fished in the North Atlantic from R.R.S. ‘Discovery’.

Description: A technique for rearing the loliginid squids Sepioteuthis sepioidea and Doryteuthis plei is reported. Specimens of the former were reared from eggs to sexually mature adults, and maintained for a maximum of 146 days; adult D. plei were maintained for 38 days. Choice and quantity of food was most important for the survival of all sizes, particularly young squid. Newly hatched specimens thrived on Mysidium columbiae. Both species fed at a rate of 30 to 60% of their body weight daily; starvation occurred when intake fell below 10 to 15%. Food conversion efficiency averaged between 10 to 20%. Growth was rapid and steady. S. sepioidea grew to a maximum of 105 mm and 77 g in less than 5 months; D. plei grew an estimated 20 mm/month. Experimental data indicate a lethal minimum salinity for both species at about 27‰. Lethal minimum and maximum temperatures for young S. sepioidea are 17.5° to 18.0°C, and 32.5° to 33.0°C, respectively. Young consume 0.64μl O2/mg wet weight/h. Opaque tanks, with a semi-natural bottom substrate and special ultra-violet (UV) illumination, are advantageous for rearing and maintenance.

Description: Analyses of bottom trawl samples and feeding experiments in the laboratory revealed a reproduction period ranging from late March to early August in Eledone cirrosa of the Catalonian Sea (Western Mediterranean). The embryonic development, studied for the first time on eggs laid in the laboratory, shows no basic difference from that of other Octopodiae. The newly hatched animals are planctonic; Morphologically, this feature is expressed by a relatively small arm-length.

Description: Five species of Sepiola were reared in the laboratory from egg to adult size. Spawning was achieved in 3 species of Sepiola afteer 5 to 7 months. The growth rate of the species reared did not depend upon temperature, which ranged from 12,5° to 20°C. A fairly constant size increase (2,5mm mantle length/month) was observed in Sepiola during the 5 months after hatching. In Sepietta, the same growth rate was observed until the fourth month after hatching, when it increased to the rate of 5 mm mantle length/month.

Description: The problems of reproduction of Octopus vulgaris and the seasonal distribution in the sea of planctonic larvae, benthonic juveniles and adults are discussed. The influence of environmental factors on growth is shown by experimental studies in the laboratory, and the difficulties of interpreting field data are emphazised.

Description: Mineral resources on and beneath the seafloor are briefly reviewed and the present and future economic value of specific mineral resources is discussed. The results obtained from the cruises of the German research vessel "Valdivia" during its first three years of operation are presented.

Description: Calcium carbonate in sediments can greatly effect the engineering properties of those sediments. Factors that may effect engineering properties are: 1) great variation in primary void ratios, (2) inherent strength of carbonate grains, (3) degree of sorting, (4) ratio between grains and matrix, (5) nature and amount of cement, and (6) depth of burial. Deep-sea carbonates appear to be anomalous but do exist in rather large quantities. Their existence must depend upon a combination of physico-chemical and organic-chemical factors that need to be investigated in much more detail.