Marine debris from the Oregon Dungeness crab fishery recovered in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: identification and oceanic drift paths

Two Dungeness crab trap tags and floats lost off the State of Oregon, USA during the 2006-2007 fishing season were recovered 4years later in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI): on Lisianski Island on July 15, 2010; and on Kure Atoll on December 10, 2010. This is the first documented recovery of marine debris from Oregon fisheries in the NWHI. We simulate the oceanic drift tracks of the derelict fishing gear with the Ocean Surface Current Simulator (OSCURS) model using estimated loss dates in Oregon based on interviews with the crab trap owners and known recovery sites and dates in the NWHI. These data confirm the US Pacific Northwest as a source of marine debris deposited in the NWHI and provide enhanced understanding of the oceanic drift pathways of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean.     

Ecology of testate amoebae (thecamoebians) in subtropical Florida lakes

Fifty-seven surface sediment samples from 35 Florida lakes were collected to study testate amoebae. Seven genera, 17 species, and 28 strains were identified in the 46 sediment samples from 31 lakes that contained testate rhizopods. Seven species accounted for ≥90% of the individuals in all samples. Sediment total phosphorus (TPsed), organic matter (OM), and total carbon:total nitrogen ratio (TC:TN) were measured to assess the effect of these variables on thecamoebian assemblages. OM content was the only sediment variable that influenced presence/absence of thecamoebians. Samples with <5% OM contained no thecamoebians. Lakes with multiple surface sediment samples showed high Morisita–Horn similarity values (0.74–0.99), indicating that all sites at which samples were collected in a lake provided representative thecamoebian assemblages. No relationship was observed between thecamoebian diversity indices and sediment variables. Lake trophic state and pH were examined to explore potential water column influences on thecamoebian communities. Highest thecamoebian diversity indices were found in mesotrophic to eutrophic lakes with pH near 8.0. These results suggest that water column conditions have a greater influence on thecamoebian assemblages than do sediment variables. We used multivariate analysis to evaluate the relations between water quality variables and testate rhizopod assemblages. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that alkalinity and pH are the water column variables that most influence the relative abundance of species. Thecamoebians thus hold promise as bioindicators of acidification in Florida lakes. Thecamoebian remains in lake sediment cores should be useful to infer past anthropogenic shifts in lake pH.     

Inflow and lake controls on short-term mass accumulation and sedimentary particle size in a High Arctic lake: implications for interpreting varved lacustrine sedimentary records

Sedimentary processes were monitored in a varved lake in the Canadian High Arctic through three melt seasons and revealed that seasonal sediment deposition rates were highly dependent on short-lived inflow events driven by high suspended sediment concentrations that varied with runoff intensity. Our results illustrate that in accordance with the suspended sediment discharge into the lake, the rate of sediment accumulation changed over short distances down-lake, in a given year. This result indicates that there is a rate and accumulation dependence on short-lived, intense inflow conditions. In addition, there was strong evidence for substantial decoupling between deposition rate and mean grain size of sedimentary deposits. These results have important implications for paleoclimate interpretation of annually laminated sedimentary records from dynamic lake environments and suggest that grain size measures may not be representative proxies of inflow competence. Grain size indices based on a measure of the coarser fraction, rather than the bulk sediment, may be more appropriate to use as a link between contemporary runoff processes and sedimentary characteristics.     

The Sunyaev–Zel'dovich temperature of the intracluster medium

The relativistic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effect offers a method, independent of X-ray, for measuring the temperature of the intracluster medium (ICM) in the hottest systems. Here, using N -body/hydrodynamic simulations of three galaxy clusters, we compare the two quantities for a non-radiative ICM, and for one that is subject both to radiative cooling and to strong energy feedback from galaxies. Our study has yielded two interesting results. First, in all cases, the SZ temperature is hotter than the X-ray temperature and is within 10 per cent of the virial temperature of the cluster. Secondly, the mean SZ temperature is less affected by cooling and feedback than the X-ray temperature. Both these results can be explained by the SZ temperature being less sensitive to the distribution of cool gas associated with cluster substructure. A comparison of the SZ and X-ray temperatures (measured for a sample of hot clusters) would therefore yield interesting constraints on the thermodynamic structure of the intracluster gas.     

Star formation in galaxies falling into clusters along supercluster-scale filaments

With the help of a statistical parameter derived from optical spectra, we show that the current star formation rate of a galaxy, falling into a cluster along a supercluster filament, is likely to undergo a sudden enhancement before the galaxy reaches the virial radius of the cluster. From a sample of 52 supercluster-scale filaments of galaxies joining a pair of rich clusters of galaxies within the two-degree Field Redshift Survey region, we find a significant enhancement of star formation, within a narrow range between ∼2 and  3  h ⁻¹₇₀ Mpc  of the centre of the cluster into which the galaxy is falling. This burst of star formation is almost exclusively seen in the fainter dwarf galaxies  ( M _B ≥−20)  . The relative position of the peak does not depend on whether the galaxy is a member of a group or not, but non-group galaxies have on average a higher rate of star formation immediately before falling into a cluster. From the various trends, we conclude that the predominant process responsible for this rapid burst is the close interaction with other galaxies falling into the cluster along the same filament, if the interaction occurs before the gas reservoir of the galaxy gets stripped off due to the interaction with the intracluster medium.     

The AzTEC mm-wavelength camera

AzTEC is a mm-wavelength bolometric camera utilizing 144 silicon nitride micromesh detectors. Here, we describe the AzTEC instrument architecture and its use as an astronomical instrument. We report on several performance metrics measured during a three-month observing campaign at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and conclude with our plans for AzTEC as a facility instrument on the Large Millimetre Telescope.     

Spitzer IRAC infrared colours of submillimetre-bright galaxies

High-redshift submillimetre-bright galaxies identified by blank field surveys at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths appear in the region of the Infra Red Array Camera (IRAC) colour–colour diagrams previously identified as the domain of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our analysis using a set of empirical and theoretical dusty starburst spectral energy distribution (SED) models shows that power-law continuum sources associated with hot dust heated by young (≲100 Myr old), extreme starbursts at z > 2 also occupy the same general area as AGNs in the IRAC colour–colour plots. A detailed comparison of the IRAC colours and SEDs demonstrates that the two populations are distinct from each other, with submillimetre-bright galaxies having a systematically flatter IRAC spectrum (≳1 mag bluer in the observed [4.5]–[8.0] colour). Only about 20 per cent of the objects overlap in the colour–colour plots, and this low fraction suggests that submillimetre galaxies powered by a dust-obscured AGN are not common. The red infrared colours of the submillimetre galaxies are distinct from those of the ubiquitous foreground IRAC sources, and we propose a set of infrared colour selection criteria for identifying SMG counterparts that can be used even in the absence of radio or Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) 24 μm data.     

Statistical fraud detection in a commercial lobster fishery

In this study we introduce the first step towards a statistical model for the reliability of fisheries data. We applied Benford's Law to catch data from the Atlantic Canadian lobster (Homarus americanus) fishery's lobster fishery areas (LFAs) 33 and 34 and compared our results to those using observations from the “grey zone” (a highly regulated lobster fishery shared by Canada and United States) and a fishery with a different regulatory regime (snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio). Non‐conformity with Benford's Law is often considered as an indicator of human manipulation of accounting data. We found that observations from the grey zone conformed to the distribution predicted by Benford's Law, whereas observations from snow crab and both lobster fishery areas did not conform.     

The function of freshwater crayfish gastroliths and their occurrence in perch,trout, and shag stomachs

It is considered that the function of the gastroliths is to provide a readily available store of calcium for rapid initial hardening of the exoskeleton. The presence of crayfish gastroliths in stomachs of trout, perch, and shags is noted and it is suggested that while small crayfish are taken at any stage of the moult cycle, larger crayfish are taken after ecdysis while the exoskeleton is soft.     

Muscle myogens in the New Zealand Galaxiidae

The muscle myogen proteins of 10 species of the family Galaxiidae exhibited a high degree of species specificity when separated by starch gel electrophoresis. Non‐diadromous, non‐lacustrine species had some variation in the proteins present, while diadromous and lacustrine species, except for Galaxias maculatus, had remarkably uniform muscle myogen electrophero‐grams. The variation can be explained by polymorphism and mosaic evolution of isolated freshwater populations. It was found that previously erected specific and generic categories, except for G. vulgaris, are clearly defined by differences in muscle protein. The standardised electropherogram types obtained were subjected to cluster analysis using both squared Euclidean distance and the complement of Jacard's coefficient with average sorting strategy. A principal component analysis was also carried out. The first two components of the principal component analysis widely spaced the three genera included in this study (Salmo, Galaxias, and Neochanna), with N. burrowsius occupying an intermediate position between Galaxias and Neochanna. Previous workers have considered this species to be a connecting link between the two genera. The dendrogram produced by using squared Euclidean distance (which included all available information) first clustered the types into Salmoniidae and Galaxiidae. The latter were split into the genus Neochanna and the genus Galaxias which was then subdivided into stout‐bodied species (G. argenleus and G. jasciatus) and slender‐bodied species. G. brevipinnis and G. vulgaris types were further separated from the three alpine Galaxias species and G. maculatus. The substantial agreement of these results with previous taxonomic efforts indicates that electrophoretic data can be a valid taxonomic tool.