In Situ Measurement of Pinna nobilis Shells for Age and Growth Studies: A New Device

Abstract. Pinna nobilis Linnaeus 1758 is an endemic bivalve mollusc in the Mediterranean Sea, where it inhabits seagrass meadows, especially Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile. It is the largest bivalve in the Mediterranean, reaching lengths up to 120 cm. In its natural habitat, P. nobilis lives with the anterior part of the valve buried in the seabed, attached to Posidonia rhizomes by byssus threads.
This habit makes it impossible to measure its total length directly in situ. As the only way to determine the individual age is the relationship between age and total length, several equations have been proposed to estimate total length by relating it to the unburied parts of the shell. Such measurements are essential to ecological studies that consider age, growth, and population dynamics, and that evaluate the environmental factors that affect this species.
Accurately estimating total length depends on the accuracy and precision of the method employed to measure the unburied shell parts. In this paper, we point out the lack of precision of the instruments and methods used until now; we also demonstrate the reason for this imprecision. A new device to measure unburied parts of Pinna nobilis with a precision comparable to that obtained when measuring extracted valves is described. This device is unaffected by substratum type and reduces measurement time. The latter is a very important feature, because these procedures are usually performed whilst SCUBA diving. Finally, a growth equation has been fitted to the measurements obtained with the new device from a population located in Moraira (Alicante, western Mediterranean).     

象牙海岸Issia地区铌钽砂矿的研究(英文)

在西非的象牙海岸Issia地区分布着许多铌钽矿床,包括原生矿和砂矿。原生矿产在分带很好的伟晶岩中。这个地区发育着许多花岗岩和花岗伟晶岩。伟晶岩可分为:(1)分异不好的伟晶岩,无矿化;(2)含Be伟晶岩,分带较好,见绿柱石;(3)含Be-Nb-Ta的伟晶岩,分带很好,是矿体;(4)Be-Nb-Ta-Li伟晶岩,分带很好,是矿体。除了10多个原生矿外,还有许多砂矿。砂矿有两种类型:一种近原生矿的坡积砂矿,另一种是经河流冲刷搬运后的冲积砂矿。我们选择了Etienne-Meguhe砂矿作为近原生矿的坡积砂矿的代表,Bemadi矿作为河流冲积型的砂矿的代表,对这两种类型的砂矿的风化、搬运、沉积机理进行了比较研究。研究发现不同的搬运距离和搬运模式对铌钽砂矿的主要矿物——铌钽铁矿的化学性质没有什么影响,而其物理形态则发生了变化。坡积型砂矿的铌钽铁矿常与石英、长石等矿物连生,其颗粒大小与原生的Nb-Ta伟晶岩中的铌钽铁矿一致;经河流冲积而形成的砂矿中,铌钽铁矿颗粒变小、轮廓变得圆滑,几乎无连生矿物,但矿体集中,常在河流的冲积扇中分布,易开采。     

ISIS IR: The first infrared fibre-fed spectrograph

ISIS IR is the first attempt to use fibre optics for near infrared spectroscopy (1.8m). It is a field spectrograph (2D spectroscopy), and can work at various resolving powers (up to 25000). It can be transported anywhere, and soon it will be used at CFHT with one NICMOS 3-based camera.Département d'Astrophysique Extragalactique et de Cosmologie     

Ozone production due to emissions from vegetation burning

Ozone has been observed in elevated concentrations by satellites over areas previously believed to be background. There is meteorological evidence, that these ozone plumes found over the Atlantic Ocean originate from vegetation fires on the African continent.In a previous study (DECAFE-88), we have investigated ozone and assumed precursor compounds over African tropical forest regions. Our measurements revealed large photosmog layers at altitudes from 1.5 to 4 km. Both chemical and meteorological evidence point to savanna fires up to several thousand km upwind as sources.Here we describe ozone mixing ratios observed over western Africa and compare ozone production ratios from different field measurement campaigns related to vegetation burning. We find that air masses containing photosmog ingredients require several days to develop their oxidation potential, similar to what is known from air polluted by emissions from fossil fuel burning. Finally, we estimate the global ozone production due to vegetation fires and conclude that this source is comparable in strength to the stratospheric input.     

Large,solid particles in the clouds of Venus: Do they exist?

The discovery of large, solid particles in the clouds of Venus is one of the most significant findings of Pioneer Venus because it means that a substantial mass of the clouds is composed of a material other than sulfuric acid. The evidence which suggests that solid particles form a distinctive size mode is reexamined. The mode is defined by a discontinuity between two size ranges of the Pioneer Venus particle size spectrometer. This discontinuity could represent a real size mode. However, it could also be an artifact of the measurement technique. R. G. Knollenberg (1984) discusses several possible instrumental effects which might have caused this discontinuity. It is hypothesized herein that such effects did occur and that the large particles are really the tail of the mode 2 sulfuric acid particle size distribution and are not a separate mode of solid particles. Using such a revised size distribution, it is shown that all of the Pioneer Venus and Venera optical data from the lower clouds can be explained with sulfuric acid droplets without introducing any solid particles. As a by-product of this analysis, it is also found that the upper clouds of Venus must contain a material with a higher refractive index than sulfuric acid. A small quantity of sulfur could account for this observation.     

Jupiter: New retrieved thermal profiles and ammonia distributions

New thermal profiles of Jupiter are retrieved from recent far infrared spectral measurements and for H₂ mixing ratios varying from 0.8 to 0.94. The effective temperature corresponding to the inferred thermal profile is 123.15 ± 0.35°K. Far-infrared brightness temperature spectra computed from these profiles are compared to experimental data including measurements made at high spectral resolution in the NH₃ν₂ band at 10 μm and in NH₃ pure rotational bands between 40 and 110 μm. It is found that a strong depletion of NH₃ does occur in the Jovian stratosphere and that ammonia seems to be undersaturated in the upper troposphere.     

Some comments on the limb shift of solar lines

We searched for a variation with heliographic latitude of the solar limb effect by comparing the relative wavelengths of weak and strong Fraunhofer lines. The blue shifts associated with the limb effect appear 9%±5% larger in the polar radius vector than in an equatorial radius vector at cos = 0.5. This should perhaps be interpreted as an increase with latitude of either solar convection or of convective overshoot. Recent observations of poleward meridional flows of 30m s^–1 should be corrected for this limb effect variation. This correction increases this flow velocity to 70 m s^–1. A search for a similar variation in plages and in network boundaries had negative results, the variation being +1%±5% and -1%±6% respectively.Now at the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. 85721, U.S.A. The MMTO is jointly operated by the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution.The Sacramento Peak Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under contract AST 78-17292 with the National Science Foundation.     

Thermoluminescence of the lunar surface

Observations of the lunar luminescence are reported for a dozen of specific Moon features using the line-depth method with a high resolution spectroscopic technique. The data indicate a variation of the Moon proper emission as a function of the phase angle which is interpreted as a proof of the thermoluminescent origin of this emission.     

La Formation glaciaire de la Mambéré (République Centrafricaine): Reconstitution paléogéographique et implications à l'échelle du Paléozoique africain

The Mambéré Formation constitutes a horizontal unit located in the western and southwestern part of the Central African Republic. Stratigraphical and sedimentological study provides strong argument to attribute these deposits a glacial origin. A palaeogeographical reconstruction has been outlined in order to precise the age of the formation. Two main categories of glacial deposits have been recognized:

glaciogenic deposits made of basal tills (with facetted pebbles) and flow tills (with flattened blunt pebbles);

reworked glacial deposits formed of sandstones and conglomeratic sandstones, in continuous beds, lenses or isolated blocks, together with siltstones and bedded sandstones.

The southerly provenance of the detrital material is demonstrated by quartz grain surface analysis and heavy-mineral study. This material results essentially from the dismantling of the Precambrian Schistoquartzitic Complex and secondarily from the Granitogneissic Complex. According to the palaeomagnetic polar paths and the migration of the glacial centers over the African continent during the Palaeozoic, the Mambéré Formation may be attributed a Lower Silurian age by reference to similar formations observed in Cameroon or a Lower Carboniferous age by comparison with the glacial formations reported from Niger and Egypt.