Early reproductive success of the hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) from five sites in Long Island Sound

Early reproductive success of hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) in Long Island Sound was measured to determine whether pollution may have adverse effects on fragile recruitment to fisheries. Clams were collected at five sites in 1987 when ready to spawn naturally, along with water from within 39 cm of the bottom. Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), copper, and cadmium were measured in the mature gonad and were found to be generally low. Clams were spawned and the gametes were collected and cultured both in their respective site waters and in reference laboratory seawater. In both site and reference seawater, embryos of clams from the most highly industrialized area (Bridgeport) with higher contaminant levels exhibited more irregularity in chromosome numbers and greater larval abnormality, possible indicators of long-term sublethal effects. Fertilization and early meiotic success at 1 to 1 1/2 h were significantly lower (p≤0.05) for clams from Norwalk (55%) than for those from Greenwich (75%). At 48 h, mortality was lowest for Greenwich larvae and highest for Norwalk larvae in their respective site waters, but the mortality for these two sites was significantly lower than for other sites in reference water. This suggests sporadically poor environmental quality. Milford larvae also had significant mortality. Population-level significance of pollution effects on clam reproduction will depend on how contaminated the environment is over the entire reproductive season of the clams in Long Island Sound, and over how large a portion of the spawning grounds.     

Determining Titan surface topography from Cassini SAR data

A technique, referred to as SARTopo, has been developed for obtaining surface height estimates with 10 km horizontal resolution and 75 m vertical resolution of the surface of Titan along each Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) swath. We describe the technique and present maps of the co-located data sets. A global map and regional maps of Xanadu and the northern hemisphere hydrocarbon lakes district are included in the results. A strength of the technique is that it provides topographic information co-located with SAR imagery. Having a topographic context vastly improves the interpretability of the SAR imagery and is essential for understanding Titan.SARTopo is capable of estimating surface heights for most of the SAR-imaged surface of Titan. Currently nearly 30% of the surface is within 100 km of a SARTopo height profile. Other competing techniques provide orders of magnitude less coverage.We validate the SARTopo technique through comparison with known geomorphological features such as mountain ranges and craters, and by comparison with co-located nadir altimetry, including a 3000 km strip that had been observed by SAR a month earlier. In this area, the SARTopo and nadir altimetry data sets are co-located tightly (within 5-10 km for one 500 km section), have similar resolution, and as expected agree closely in surface height. Furthermore the region contains prominent high spatial resolution topography, so it provides an excellent test of the resolution and precision of both techniques.     

Regional geomorphology and history of Titan’s Xanadu province

Titan’s enigmatic Xanadu province has been seen in some detail with instruments from the Cassini spacecraft. The region contains some of the most rugged, mountainous terrain on Titan, with relief over 2000 m. Xanadu contains evolved and integrated river channels, impact craters, and dry basins filled with smooth, radar-dark material, perhaps sediments from past lake beds. Arcuate and aligned mountain chains give evidence of compressional tectonism, yet the overall elevation of Xanadu is puzzlingly low compared to surrounding sand seas. Lineations associated with mountain fronts and valley floors give evidence of extension that probably contributed to this regional lowering. Several locations on Xanadu’s western and southern margins contain flow-like features that may be cryovolcanic in origin, perhaps ascended from lithospheric faults related to regional downdropping late in its history. Radiometry and scatterometry observations are consistent with a water-ice or water-ammonia-ice composition to its exposed, eroded, fractured bedrock; both microwave and visible to near-infrared (v-nIR) data indicate a thin overcoating of organics, likely derived from the atmosphere. We suggest Xanadu is one of the oldest terrains on Titan and that its origin and evolution have been controlled and shaped by compressional and then extensional tectonism in the icy crust and ongoing erosion by methane rainfall.     

Titan's diverse landscapes as evidenced by Cassini RADAR's third and fourth looks at Titan

Cassini's third and fourth radar flybys, T7 and T8, covered diverse terrains in the high southern and equatorial latitudes, respectively. The T7 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) swath is somewhat more straightforward to understand in terms of a progressive poleward descent from a high, dissected, and partly hilly terrain down to a low flat plain with embayments and deposits suggestive of the past or even current presence of hydrocarbon liquids. The T8 swath is dominated by dunes likely made of organic solids, but also contain somewhat enigmatic, probably tectonic, features that may be partly buried or degraded by erosion or relaxation in a thin crust. The dark areas in T7 show no dune morphology, unlike the dark areas in T8, but are radiometrically warm like the dunes. The Huygens landing site lies on the edge of the T8 swath; correlation of the radar and Huygens DISR images allows accurate determination of its coordinates, and indicates that to the north of the landing site sit two large longitudinal dunes. Indeed, had the Huygens probe trajectory been just 10 km north of where it actually was, images of large sand dunes would have been returned in place of the fluvially dissected terrain actually seen—illustrating the strong diversity of Titan's landscapes even at local scales.     

海湾扇贝不同种群在磷酸葡萄糖变位酶基因位点的遗传结构与性状

１９９５年１月－１９９６年１２月,采用水平淀粉凝胶电泳技术,对美国海湾扇贝５个野生种群和１个养殖种群在磷酸葡萄糖变位酶基因位点（Ｐｇｍ）的遗传结构及相关性状进行了分析,共发现７个等位基因。ＭＶ（Ｍａｒｔｈａｓ Ｖｉｎｅｙａｒｄ Ｉｓｌａｎｄ）、ＮＹ（Ｌｏｎｇ Ｉｓｌａｎｄ）、ＣＴ（Ｓｔｏｎｉｎｇｔｏｎ）种群间等位基因频率分布无明显差异,内湾封闭性环境和人工近亲繁殖分别使ＷＦ（Ｗｅｌｌｆｌｅｅｔ）、     

Biophysical and Spectral Characteristics of Cool- and Warm-Season Grasslands under Three Land Management Practices in Eastern Kansas

Grasslands are the largest of the Earth's four major vegetation types and are among the most agriculturally productive lands. Grassland management practices alter biophysical factors, such as plant species composition, soil structure and chemistry, and primary productivity. Large-scale changes in land management practices can have significant impacts on available natural resources, therefore impacting a regional socioeconomics. For these reasons, an improved understanding of the geographic distribution of changing land management practices and how these changes affect grassland biophysical characteristics of an area is critical to improve land use planning and practices. This study investigated the spectral characteristics, as measured using satellite remotelysensed data, of three land management practices [grazing, haying, and management under Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)] on areas dominated by cool- and warm-season grasslands. The satellite imagery was acquired in May, July, and September in 1997 over Douglas County, Kansas. Biomass, vegetation cover, and species richness data were collected around the satellite overflight periods. Our results indicate that the biophysical characteristics and spectral reflectances are significantly different among the three management practices over cool- and warm-season grasslands. Interestingly, sites grazed by livestock had the highest species richness and the highest forb cover, although the total cover is almost the same as the other practices, and they have the highest near-infrared reflectance throughout the growing season.