Size Selective Predation by the Asteroid Pisaster ochraceus on the Bivalve Mytilus calif ornianus: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Abstract. When simultaneously presented with equal numbers of four sizes of clumped Mytilus californianus (20, 35, 55 and 85 mm shell length), Pisaster ochraceus (arm length of 70-110mm R) showed a preference for the medium sizes (35 and 55mm length). Prey-size preference was positively correlated with predator size. Mean prey-digestion times (insertion of the stomach, opening of the valves and digestive period) decreased significantly following fiiing of an artificial gape between the valves of mussels. When presented with different sizes of clumped filed mussels, starfish still chose medium mussels, indicating that stomach insertion, valve opening, and digestion rate may not be important constraints determining size selective predation. Measurements of the force required to dislodge mussels from the substratum and conspecifics showed an increasing exponential relationship with mussel size. Size selective feeding may be an energy maximizing and time minimizing strategy, where energy gained from choosing larger mussels is balanced against disproportionately increased costs in energy and time of removing large mussels from the substratum.     

Flow properties of turbidity currents in Bute Inlet, British Columbia

Bute Inlet, a fiord along the southwestern coast of British Columbia, Canada, includes a sea-floor sedimentation system 70 km in length which resembles those developed on some large submarine fans. Turbidity currents originate at the head of the flord on the submerged delta fronts of the Homathko and Southgate rivers. They move downslope for about 30 km within a single large incised channel, spill onto a depositional area termed the channel lobe complex, and finally spread out over a low-relief distal splay area that passes 55 km downslope into a flat basin floor. During the present study, turbidity currents in Bute Inlet were studied using sea-floor morphology, bottom sediment distribution, and in-situ instrument packages. The mean velocities of the most recent flows, estimated from surface sediment grain size, has varied between 100–120 cm s^–1 in the incised channel, 20–50 cms^–1 in the channel lobe complex, and < 5 cm s^–1 on the basin floor. Velocities based on channel morphology are poorly constrained but are in the range of 160-425 cm s^–1 in the upper part of the incised channel and 66 cm s^–1 in the lower channel. Calculated flow densities range from 1.049 to 1.028g cm^–3. Turbidity flows monitored in 1986 using submerged instrument packages exceeded 32 m in thickness in the upper part of the incised channel, where the maximum measured velocity was 330 cm s^–1. At the head of the channel lobe complex the maximum velocity had declined to 75 cm s^–1. The density of the monitored flows is estimated at 1.025-1.03g cm^–3. The cored sediments and channel morphology yield estimates of mean flow velocities that are generally greater than those measured by the in-situ instrument packages and estimated from modern surface sediments. The former suggest past flow velocities up to 500 cm s^–1 in the incised channel, about 20 cm s^–1 in spillover deposits along the lower part of the incised channel, and 100-140 cm s^–1 in the distal splay. The contrast between the velocities of modern and past flows suggests that past flows may have been considerably larger and more energetic than those presently occurring in Bute Inlet. The size properties of sediments in the monitored turbidity flows suggest a strong vertical size gradient in the suspended load during transport. The surface and cored sediments fine downslope from the channel lobe complex to distal splay area. Distinctive sedimentary sequences are recognized in cores from the spillover lobes, channel lobe complex, distal splay, and basin floor depositional areas. Many individual turbidites grade downslope from massive T_a divisions in the channel lobe complex and probably in the incised channel to T_a divisions overlain by slurried divisions on the distal splay and largely slurried beds on the basin floor. These facies suggest that individual currents commonly evolve from largely cohesionless suspensions in the incised channel and channel lobe complex to dilute cohesive slurries downslope on the distal splay and basin floor. Many flows in Bute Inlet fail to develop a traction state of sedimentation and the resulting turbidites lack well-developed T_b. T_c, and T_d divisions.     

Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Studies of Contact Metamorphism of Carbonate Rocks

O¹⁸/O¹⁶ and C¹²/C¹³ ratios have been determined for carbonaterocks and coexisting minerals from two contact metamorphic aureolesat Birch Creek, California and Marble Canyon, Texas. The peliticmetasediments and granitic intrusions of the Birth Creek localitywere also analyzed for their O¹⁸/¹⁶ and D/H ratios. Oxygen andcarbon isotope fractionations in coexisting dolomite and calciteare interrelated but show no obvious correlation with sampledistance from the intrusive contact. Small-scale oxygen isotopicexchange effects between rock units are observed within a fewfeet of the intrusive-country rock contacts and the marble-schistcontacts at Birch Creek. Oxygen isotopic temperatures obtainedfrom quartz—biotite fractionations in the biotite schistsof Birch Creek show a systematic decrease with increasing distanceaway from the intrusive contact; the isotopic contact temperatureis calculated to be 535–45°C. Low O¹⁸/¹⁶ and C¹³/¹²ratiosof the contact metamorphic marbles generally correlate wellwith presence of calc-silicate minerals, indicating that theCO₂ liberated during metamorphic decarbonation reactions isenriched in both O¹⁸and C¹² relative to the carbonates. Materialbalance calculations indicate that the liberated CO₂ is about5 per mille richer in O¹⁸ and about 6 per mille richer in C¹³than coexisting calcite.     

Airline networks and the international diffusion of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

In fewer than four months in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread from China to 25 countries and Taiwan, becoming the first new, easily transmissible infectious disease of the twenty-first century. The role of air transport in the diffusion of the disease became obvious early in the crisis; to assess that role more carefully, this study relates the spatial-temporal pattern of the SARS outbreak to a measure of airline network accessibility. Specifically, the accessibility from those countries that were infected by SARS, beginning with China, to other countries was measured using airline schedules. The country-pair accessibility measure, along with other country-level factors relevant to the disease, were tested as determinants of the speed with which SARS arrived in infected countries as well as its failure to arrive in most countries. The analyses indicate that airline network accessibility was an especially influential variable but also that the importance of this variable diminished in the latter weeks of the outbreak. The latter finding is partly attributable to public health measures, particularly health screening in airports. The timing and geography of those measures are reviewed using data from media reports and interim World Health Organization (WHO) documents during the outbreak. The uneven effort to curtail the international diffusion of SARS suggests further planning is needed to develop a concerted response to contain future epidemics.     

Origin of Basalt Magmas: An Experimental Study of Natural and Synthetic Rock Systems

Natural basalts and eclogites were investigated experimentallyat a series of temperatures in the pressure range 1 atm to 40kb and with water pressures 1 to 10 kb. Some runs were alsomade on related synthetic systems at 10 and 33 kb. The two principal magma types recognized by field investigators—tholeiiteand alkali basalt types-appear to be separated by equilibriumthermal divides at 1 atm. The principal divides were found byexperiment at elevated pressures to give way to a new set ofequilibrium thermal divides resulting from a new mineralogy.The change of the equilibrium thermal divides with pressureleads to the derivation of the two principal magma trends fromthe same bulk composition. The melting behavior of basalts and eclogites indicates thatboth are the partial melting products of a more primitive rock(e.g. garnet peridotite). In the region of magma generation(below 60 km) the parental material, presumed to be garnet peridotite,yields an eclogitic magma and its fractionation depends on thegarnet and omphacite of the eclogite, not on plagioclase andclinopyroxene of a basaltic magma. Increase of the garnet constituentsin the magma at high pressure by effective removal of omphaciteor shift of the garnet-omphacite boundary ‘surface’will give rise to a tholeiite-type magma at low pressure. Similarly,increase of the omphacite constituents in the magma at highpressure by physical or physicochemical means will give riseto an alkali basalt-type magma at low pressure. In general,alkali basalt-type magmas are to be expected to be generatedat greater depths than tholeiite-type magmas from the same primarysource rock. Establishment of the two major basalt series takes place inthe region of generation; additional minor diversification ofeach series may come about after emplacement in or on the crustby crystal settling, oxidation or reduction, gas fluxing, contamination,and other processes. The derivative magmas are greatly restrictedby the course of liquid thermal descent imposed at generation. Pressure-temperature limits established experimentally suggestthat the basalt-eclogite transformation may be responsible forthe Mohorovii discontinuity under the continents, but not underthe oceans. The field of stability of basalt is drastically reduced in thepresence of water, and amphibolite is produced. The meltingof amphibolite takes place over a much greater range of temperaturethan basalt. At 10 kb water pressure the beginning of meltingof amphibolite closely approaches that of granite. Partial meltingof amphibolite may yield anorthositic liquids having a relativelylow anorthite content at exceptionally low temperatures. Eclogiteitself is not stable in the presence of water and gives placeto amphibolite or pyroxene hornblendite. Magmas which crystallizeto basalt, gabbro, or eclogite must have had a low water-contentat the time of crystallization. Fifteen rock and twenty-three mineral analyses as well as numerouspartial chemical analyses of experimental products were madeby J. H. Scoon in the course of the investigation. These chemicalanalyses bear on many mineralogical and petrological problems.     

Erosion rather than plant dieback as the mechanism of marsh loss in an estuarine marsh

Coastal marsh loss in Louisiana is attributed to plane dieback caused by processes that stress vegetation, and a common landscape pattern is broken marsh that expands at the expense of surrounding unbroken marsh. We tested the hypothesis that vegetation is more stressed in broken marsh than in adjacent unbroken marsh, as indicated by vegetation aboveground biomass, species diversity and soil Eh, on transects that extended from broken marsh to unbroken marsh at Marsh Island, Louisiana. Soil Eh, vegetation above-ground biomass and species diversity did not differ between broken marsh and unbroken marsh, and above-ground biomass was similar to that reported from other marshes. Thus, we rejected the hypothesis that marsh loss is related to vegetation stress. Two factors were related to vegetation vigour: soil drainage and soil bulk density. Surprisingly, significant soil drainage occurred in broken marsh but not in unbroken marsh. Above-ground biomass of the dominant plant, Spartina patens (Aiton) Muhl., was lowest where soil bulk density was less than 0-08 gcm⁻³, which illustrated the importance of mineral matter accumulation in submerging coastal marshes. The mechanism of marsh loss appeared to be erosion below the living root zone, as indicated by the vertical and often undercut marsh-water interface, and by the separation of sod clasts. This is different from more rapid marsh loss associated with plant stress which we observed in other Louisiana marshes only 135 km away, indicating that marsh loss mechanisms can vary spatially even within a relatively small region.     

MID-WINTER STEMFLOW DRAINAGE FROM BIGTOOTH ASPEN (POPULUS GRANDIDENTATA MICHX.) IN CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS

Under winter conditions, stemflow drainage in forested ecosystems is often assumed to be a negligible component of the hydrological cycle. This paper reports on mid-winter stemflow drainage from the broadleaved deciduous tree species Populus grandidentata. Stemflow volumes from this species at air temperatures of < 0°C were found to be comparable to rainfall-generated stemflow during summer. Over the three-month period January–March 1993, stemflow ranged from 5.4 to 9.9% of the incident gross precipitation. Expressed as depth equivalents per unit trunk basal area, these stemflow inputs ranged from 1.8 to 4.9 m. These concentrated mid-winter inputs of liquid water to the bases of canopy trees were attributable to: (1) snow interception by the leafless woody frame of each tree; (2) snow retention by glazed ice precipitation associated with the snowfall event; (3) increased temperature at the bark/snow interface caused by the low albedo of the bark tissue; and (4) convergence of snowmelt drainage from steeply inclined upthrust primary branches. The hydrological and ecological significance of liquid water inputs to the forest floor under sub-zero conditions are discussed. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.