Can industrial pollution cause intersexuality in the amphipod, Echinogammarus marinus?

Following recent studies, in which intersex and/or reproductive abnormalities have been observed in a number of crustaceans in association with pollution, the prevalence of intersexuality in the amphipod, Echinogammarus marinus was monitored at sites receiving industrial discharges for one year in 2002/2003. Based upon reports of intersexuality occurring in amphipods due to feminising microsporidian parasites, the occurrence, and role of microsporidian parasites in causing intersex was investigated through histological examination. Results demonstrate a significantly higher prevalence of intersex organisms was found at sites receiving industrial discharges throughout the year when compared to a reference site, with the phenotype of intersex (intersex male and intersex female) varying in its dominance between impacted sites. Intersex specimens were significantly more likely to be infected with microsporidian parasites at sites receiving discharges than reference sites, however relatively few specimens (normal or intersex) were infected at reference sites suggesting parasitism is not the only cause of intersex. The direct/indirect role of pollution in the observed intersexuality is discussed.     

The Millstone Grit (namurian) of the southern pennines viewed in the light of eustatically controlled sequence stratigraphy

The overall lithological succession in the Millstone Grit of the southern Pennines was most probably controlled by glacial-eustatic sea-level oscillations and may be interpreted in terms of the systems tracts of sequence stratigraphy. Bands containing thick-shelled goniatites represent ‘condensed sections’ formed at times of maximum flooding. Turbidite-fronted deltas, marking major basin-filling episodes, resemble ‘lowstand systems tracts’. However all sand influxes did not necessarily occur during lowstands. Millstone Grit sheet deltas and elongate deltas resemble lobate and birdfoot deltas in Recent ‘highstand systems tracts’. The prograding fluviodeltaic complexes at the tops of some major turbidite-fronted deltas were braid deltas. So was the sheet-like channel complex of the Rough Rock at the top of the Millstone Grit, but this was probably part of a ‘highstand systems tract’.