Sponge disease in the Adriatic Sea

A mass mortality episode involving three marine dyctioceratid sponges, Ircina variabilis, Sarcotragus spinosulus and Spongia officinalis, was observed on ‘Scoglio del Trave’ (Conero Promontory, North Adriatic Sea) in late summer 2009. In this area, calm sea and high temperatures throughout summer created unfavorable environmental conditions, leading to the outbreak of the disease. Affected specimens showed evident necrotic areas and portions with bare skeleton, and many specimens of S. spinosulus were covered with a white mat of cyanobacteria. In September 2009, about 22% of these demosponges suffered from this disease. The mortality event ceased when sea temperature dropped below 20 °C. Small specimens turned out to be more sensitive to the diseases, whereas the damaged tissues of large specimens were able to recover. In October, the damaged specimens were detached by the rough sea and more than 900 beached sponges were found along the 1‐km‐long beach, showing the seriousness of the phenomenon, which probably involved not only the area studied but also areas adjacent to it.     

Phyllosoma larvae of Jasus edwardsii (Hutton) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Palinuridae) and their distribution off the east coast of the North Island,New Zealand

The complete series of phyllosoma larval stages of spiny lobster lasus edwardsii are described. Eleven stages are recognised from specimens captured in plankton samples collected along a transect extending 185 km east of Castlepoint, North Island, New Zealand between July 1969 and December 1971. A table of distinguishing characteristics and a key for identification of stages are presented. First stage larvae occur between August and October and last stage larvae about 15 months later. Mortality through the phyllosoma stages is estimated to be 98%. Early stage larvae occur mainly inshore in Southland Current water in the upper 5 m, and later stage larvae occur more frequently offshore in East Cape Current water at 40–60 m depth.     

低氧对中华哲水蚤存活和繁殖影响的实验研究

为研究低氧对海洋浮游生物关键种存活、繁殖等的影响,作者采用了实验室模拟低氧环境的方法,研究了低溶解氧(dissolved oxygen, DO)浓度对中华哲水蚤(Calanus sinicus)致死率、产卵和孵化的影响.研究发现,中华哲水蚤对低氧环境比较敏感,当DO质量浓度为2 mg/L左右时,中华哲水蚤会在1 h内全部死亡;当DO质量浓度为3 mg/L左右时,中华哲水蚤会在96 h内全部死亡;当DO质量浓度为4~6 mg/L 时,基本无死亡,但对中华哲水蚤的产卵有明显抑制作用,首次产卵时间推迟,产卵周期缩短.当DO质量浓度为4 mg/L时,基本不产卵,当DO质量浓度为6 mg/L时,产卵量也仅为常氧组的15%左右.当DO质量浓度为4~6 mg/L时,中华哲水蚤所产卵的孵化率为常氧组的60%左右,但差异不显著.可见,低氧对中华哲水蚤的存活和繁殖均有抑制作用,长时间低氧很可能会降低中华哲水蚤的种群数量,甚至改变海洋生态系统结构.     

Ca2+、Mg2+对凡纳滨对虾仔虾生存的影响

采用静态急性毒性试验的方法,研究了48h内水质中不同的Ca2 、Mg2 浓度及Ca2 /Mg2 值对凡纳滨对虾(Litopenaeus vannamei)仔虾存活的影响。结果表明,适宜凡纳滨对虾仔虾生存的Ca2 、Mg2 质量浓度分别为30.41～351mg/L和8.72～863mg/L;最适Ca2 /Mg2 值范围为0.15～0.67。     

Impacts of solar UV radiation on grazing, lipids oxidation and survival of Acartia pacifica Steuer (Copepod)

UV radiation is known to affect aquatic primary producers and their grazers. However, little has been documented on its effects on zooplankton grazing. In this study, the authors investigated the effects of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400-700 nm), ultraviolet-A (UV-A, 320-400 nm) and ultraviolet-B (UV-B, 280-320 nm) radiation on grazing, mortality and lipids oxidation of the copepod Acartia pacifica collected from the Xiamen Bay. After 30 min of the exposures, the copepod was fed in darkness with the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum at two cell concentrations (2.5 × 10 4 and 2.5 × 10 5 cells/ml). At the low cell concentration, the individuals pre-exposed to PAR (218.0 W/m 2 )+UV-A (48.2 W/m 2 ) or PAR+UV-A+UV-B (2.1 W/m 2 ) showed suppressed clearance and grazing activities compared with those receiving PAR alone, by 22.7% and 17.1% for clearance and by 22.6% and 5.5% for grazing rates, respectively. However, the suppression on clearance and grazing became indistinctive at the high food concentration. Exposures to UV-A and UV-B led to increased lipid oxidation and higher mortality, furthermore, the mortality linearly increased with enhanced oxidation of lipid.     

珠江口水域鳓鱼生长和死亡参数估算

根据1996—1998年期间在珠江口及邻近海域采集的鳓鱼(Ilisha elongata Bennett)生物学资料，应用FiSATⅡ软件进行鳓鱼的生长和死亡参数估算。用ELEFANI技术拟合的von Bertalanffy生长方程参数分别为L∞=53．13cm(叉长)、κ=0．37a^-1及t∞=-0．62a，用Pauly经验公式计算的自然死亡系数为M=0．74，以长度变换渔获曲线法估算的总死亡系数为Z=2．53。运用Beverton-Holt模型分析该群体的最适捕捞死亡系数为F=2．5，最适开捕年龄和叉长分别为1．6龄和29．8cm，目前该群体已处于捕捞过度状态，尤其以捕捞幼鱼的问题较为突出。建议南海北部鳓鱼的最小可捕规格应为叉长30cm。     

An Epidemiology of Neighborhood Poverty: Causal Factors of Infant Mortality Among Blacks and Whites in the Metropolitan United States*

Despite overall declines in infant mortality over the past few decades, racial disparities between blacks and whites have persisted in the United States. This article considers the argument that racial differences in infant mortality are partially the result of the disproportionate concentration of blacks within extremely poor neighborhoods relative to whites. Using race‐specific measures of neighborhood‐level poverty, combined with metropolitan‐wide measures of infant mortality, it was determined that trends in infant mortality for both blacks and whites reflect the impact of an intergenerational effect associated with prolonged exposure to extremely poor neighborhoods. Racial disparities in infant mortality in the early 1980s can be accounted for by black – white differences in neighborhood poverty exposure. Results suggest, however, that black infant mortality during the early 1990s was much more strongly influenced by high‐risk natality behaviors among black women than by economic status or neighborhood influences.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Rabat: Urban Apartheid in Morocco . Janet Abu -Lughod . Marketplaces in a Developing Country: The Case of Western Nigeria . Isaac Ayinde Adalemo . Farming Development and Space: A World Agricultural Geography . Bernd Andreae . Section and Party: A Political Geography of American Presidential Elections, from Andrew Jackson to Ronald Reagan . J. Clark Archer and Peter J. Taylor . Women and Space: Ground Rules and Social Maps . Shirley Ardener , ed. European Progress in Spatial Analysis . R. J. Bennett , ed. The Origins of Academic Geography in the United States . Brian W. Blouet Geographic Perspectives on Global Problems . Ronald Reed Boyce . Seasonal Dimensions to Rural Poverty . Robert Chambers , Richard Longhurst and Arnold Pacey eds. The New Nationalism and the Use of Common Spaces: Issues in Marine Pollution and the Exploitation of Antarctica . Jonathan I. Charney , ed. Communications Tomorrow: The Coming of the Information Society . Edward Cornish , ed. The Design of Suburbia . Arthur Edwards . Explorer on the Northern Plains: Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren's Preliminary Report of Explorations in Nebraska and Dakota in the Years 1855–56–57. With an Introduction by Frank N. Schubert . The Changing Climate: Responses of the Natural Flora and Fauna . Michael J. Ford . Essentials of Physical Geography . Robert E. Gabler , Robert J. Sager , Sheila Brazier , and Daniel L. Wise. The Road to Jaramillo . William Glen . Valued Environments . John R. Gold and Jacquelin Burgess , eds. Proximity and Preference: Problems in the Multidimensional Analysis of Large Data Sets . Reginald G. Golledge and John N. Rayner , eds. A Search for Common Ground . Peter Gould and Gunnar Olsson , eds. Geography: Its History and Concepts . Arild Holt -Jensen . A Population Geography . Huw R. Jones . The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography, 3rd ed. Terry G. Jordan and Lester Rowntree . Urban Social Geography: An Introduction . Paul Knox . The Anatomy of Job Loss: The How, Why and Where of Employment Decline . Doreen Massey and Richard Meegan . The Information Society as Post-Industial Society . Yoneji Masuda . Map Librarianship, 2nd ed. Harold Nichols . India: Cultural Patterns and Processes . Allen G. Noble and Ashok K. Dutt , eds. The God that Limps: Science and Technology in the Eighties . Colin Norman . Geography: An Introductory Perspective . Robert E. Norris , Keith D. Harries and John D. Vitek . The Politics of Technology Assessment . David M. O'Brien and Donald A. Marchand . Ethnic Segregation in Cities . Ceri Peach , Vaughan Robinson and Susan Smith , eds. Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1980 . Bernard Quinn , Herman Anderson , Martin Bradley , Paul Goetting and Peggy Shriver . Energy in Australia: Politics and Economics . Hugh Saddler . Development from Above or Below? The Dialectics of Regional Planning in Developing Countries . Walter B. Stóuhr and D. R. Fraser Taylor , eds. Human Impact on the Ecosystem . Joy Tivy and Greg O'Hare . Plants and People: Vegetation Change in North America . Thomas R. Vale . The Mapmakers: The Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography from Antiquity to the Space Age . John Noble Wilford .