Thermoregulation has been suggested to influence mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) evolution. Previous studies revealed that the mitochondrial protein-coding genes of fish living in temperate climates have smaller dN/dS (Non-synonymous substitution rate/Synonymous substitution rate) than tropical species. However, it is unknown whether different geographic populations of one fish species experience stronger selective pressures between cold and warm climates. The biological characteristics of the Japanese sand lance, Ammodytes personatus in the North-western Pacific is well-suited for assessing the performance of mtDNA evolution among separate geographic populations. In this study, we focused on the mitochondrial ATP6 gene of A. personatus using 174 individuals from eight different sea temperature populations. Two distinct haplotype lineages and a significant population structure (P = 0.016) were found in this species. The frequencies of the two lineages varied with the changes of annual sea temperature. The southern lineage (lineage A, dN/dS = 0.0384) showed a larger dN/dS value than the northern lineage (lineage B, dN/dS = 0.0167), suggesting that sea temperature greatly influences the evolution of the two lineages. The result provides robust evidence of local adaptation between populations in A. personatus.

When large quantities of bottom soil are brought up by the dredge or grab, the problem of sieving the material within a reasonable time presents itself. The usual practice is to wash the soil through a sieve or series of sieves, the finest being of the order of 1–2 mm aperture, according to the nature of the soil or the size of the animals to be collected. It is usually necessary to agitate the soil either by spraying with a hose or by shaking the sieve in a bath of water, in order that finer particles may pass through the sieve. Many of the more delicate animals are damaged by these methods, and Spooner & Moore (1940), working on the Tamar estuary, found it necessary to mix the mud carefully by hand with water to make a ‘soup’ before it could be sieved without damage to the fauna. For work at sea Hartman (1955) describes a machine by which sieving was accomplished with the aid of water sprays and mechanical agitation of the sieves with power provided by an electric motor.

Amongst Gunnar Thorson's concluding remarks in his review on marine-bottom communities (Thorson, 1957) he noted that a sequel to the study of macrobenthic parallel communities should be a detailed analysis of the meiobenthos and microbenthos within these communities, adding that the work by Remane and his collaborators in shallow water and on beaches in Kiel Bay indicated that the meiobenthos is likely to show a pronounced uniformity within these communities. Many qualitative sub tidal meiobenthic surveys have followed (e.g. Gerlach (1958) for the nematodes; Por (1964) for the copepods) but it is only very recently that wide-scale quantitative work of the type pioneered by Petersen (1913) for the macrofauna has been applied to the meiofauna (Drzycimski (1969) and Soyer (1970) for the copepods; Ward (1973) and Tietjen (1977) for the nematodes). Around the coasts of Great Britain the only subtidal meiobenthic survey is that by Ward (1973,1975) of the nematode genera of Liverpool Bay, although quantitative faunal and environmental data are available for a number of sublittoral stations (Mclntyre (1964) and Wells (1965) for muddy deposits in Loch Nevis and the Fladen North Sea ground; Warwick & Buchanan (1970) for fine sand and silt deposits off the Northumberland coast; and Mclntyre & Murison (1973) for shallow fine sand in Firemore Bay).

A population of the mud shrimp, Upogebia major, inhabiting Kasaoka Inlet had a higher frequency of intersex males compared to other populations in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. This population also featured a high prevalence of the branchial epicaridean parasite, Gyge ovalis, and inhabited a tidal flat characterized by increasingly softer sediments going into the lower tidal areas. We examined the rates at which infection co-occurred with intersex features and checked whether infection patterns varied with intersex occurrence according to host size and tidal level position. Fewer specimens were both intersex and infected than those having only one of either condition; infection was not a significant predictor of intersex. However, infection in young hosts that recovered from the parasite could be associated with the intersex morphologies and account for the majority of cases that were intersex but parasite-free. Deletions of the cuticular ridge (CRD) between the first and second abdominal segment and tidal level position were correlated with intersex. Lower tidal zone mud shrimp were, respectively, three and four times more likely to be intersex and exhibit CRD than those in the upper tidal zone. Potentially inclusive factors that may influence these trends are higher rates of early infection and increased exposure to sediment-bound pollutants in mud shrimp inhabiting the lower tidal areas.

The first record of the genus Stylopoma (Bryozoa: Cheilostomatida) is reported from the Mediterranean Sea with the description of Stylopoma inchoans sp. nov. from a single specimen collected in the 19th Century. Its affinities to recently described Indo-Pacific species are discussed.

The variability in density estimates of intertidal, infaunal benthos due to the shape and tidal orientation of sampling devices is discussed. Although all intertidal sampling devices are fundamentally of the same design, three different cross-sections were investigated, square, circular and rectangular, with the first two of common use in intertidal sampling. Results demonstrated that tidal orientation of the sampling device does not induce variability in density estimates. Furthermore, no difference in density estimate could be detected between the square and circular cores, both having a very similar cross-section. In contrast, some species exhibited significant differences when comparing rectangular vs square/circular cores combined. It is postulated that these are caused by species-specific small-scale spatial patterns.

Limaria hians functions as a keystone species in construction of a highly diverse biogenic habitat. An investigation to quantify the biodiversity of two L. hians beds was carried out during the winter and summer seasons at two sites on the west coast of Scotland. Cores were taken semi-randomly through 100% L. hians nest material, organisms removed, identified and enumerated. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the data were used to establish temporal and locational differences. A total of 7275 individuals were found representing 282 species from 16 phyla. Univariate analysis revealed significant differences between the species richness of the two populations, whilst multivariate analysis illustrated differences in the assemblage compositions between sites and times. This study showed that in terms of richness and diversity these beds are among the most important biogenic habitats in the UK.

The mackerel (Scomber scomber) is a pelagic and migratory fish, which during the warmer months of the year frequents the coastal waters in the northern temperate region of the Atlantic. The whole form of the fish is evidently well fitted for swift motion and the free-swimming mode of life. The spindle-shaped outline of the body, its perfect curves and rounded surfaces, the absence of all irregular projections which would tend to retard forward movement, the great muscular development of the tail, and the deep forking of the caudal fin, combine to produce an almost ideal adaptation for propulsion at high speed through the water.

The cryptic invasion of the Asian macroalga Codium fragile (Suringar) Hariot ssp. fragile on north-eastern Atlantic shores has been long considered a classical example of a successful invader that has competitively displaced native congeners. Yet, the lack of quantitative information about morphologically similar native congeners, namely Codium tomentosum Stackhouse and C. vermilara (Olivi) Delle Chiaje, has hindered interspecific comparisons and ecological predictions. From September 2002 to 2005, we made extensive intertidal surveys on 12 northern and 26 southern rocky shores of the English Channel, specifically documenting the abundance, distribution and identity of Codium assemblages. On the north side of the English Channel, the native C. tomentosum and alien C. fragile were both sparsely distributed in intertidal pools in Devon. In contrast, the natives were absent from and the alien was locally abundant in shallow lagoons and rocky reefs around Bembridge and Whitecliff on the Isle of Wight. Finally, in the Channel Islands off the Atlantic coast of France, Codium spp. were abundant in pools and on low-shore emergent substrata with native species predominating. Patterns of distribution varied substantially among Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney, despite their close proximity. The regional variation in the algal distributions merits further investigation to determine whether the pattern is produced by: (1) anthropogenic activities and effects; (2) ecological interactions; (3) oceanographic factors; or (4) some combination of these.

The common goby, Pomatoschistus microps (Krøyer), is a small, euryhaline gobiid fish which ranges along the coasts of continental Europe from the Mediterranean to Trondheim, Norway, and also penetrates into the Baltic Sea (Miller, 1973). This species, which can be very abundant, is generally distributed in estuaries, salt marsh and shore pools (Wheeler, 1969; Miller, 1971) and experiences a higher degree of environmental heterogeneity than most of the other European gobiids (Wallis & Beardmore, 1984a).

The age and growth of Kwangtung skate, Dipturus kwangtungensis, in the waters off northern Taiwan were estimated from 422 specimens collected between July 2006 and July 2008 at the Tashi fishing market in north-eastern Taiwan. The sexes-combined relationship between total length (TL) and centrum diameter (D) was estimated as follows: TL = 14.11D0.888 (N = 411, r 2 = 0.94, P < 0.001). Growth band pairs (comprised of translucent and opaque bands) in vertebrae were determined to form once annually, based on the centrum edge analysis. Up to 14 band pairs were found for both sexes. The von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF), two-parameter VBGF, the Robertson function, and the Gompertz function were used to fit the observed length-at-age data. The Akaike information criterion corrected indicated that the Gompertz function best fit the observed length at age data. Sex-specific growth functions were not significantly different; the sexes-combined growth parameters were estimated as follows: asymptotic length (L ∞ ) = 96.7 cm TL, growth coefficient (k G) = 0.144 year−1 and constant (t 0) = 5.45 year (N = 364, P < 0.01).

Montagu's blenny, Coryphoblennius galerita was reared to late larval stage under laboratory conditions. The adult male guarded the eggs and aerated them with its tail during the incubation period. The larvae had a small amount of yolk on hatching and although they appeared to be feeding on the variety of food introduced, no food was observed in the gut. The gas bladder, observable above the gut in all larvae, was filled with gas only in the one specimen, killed at 45 mm T.l., which survived after the yolk was utilized, and in some 4 mm specimens taken from the plankton off Mweenish.

Descriptions are given of the larval stages and of juveniles taken from rock pools.

This paper summarizes the available information on the distribution and biology of Maxmuelleria lankesteri. This large echiuran was described almost a century ago but its local abundance and potential importance as a bioturbator were recognized only recently. The species is widespread around the British and Irish coasts, most commonly in fine muds. A deep-burrowing, nocturnal deposit feeder, M. lankesteri is unlikely to be seen by divers, but its presence can be deduced from the form of ejecta mounds and proboscis tracks. The worms are very difficult to capture intact. Body size in a sample from Loch Sween, Argyll, was approximately normally distributed. Very small individuals are rarely found. Developing oocytes were found in the coelom over the spring and summer. Mature eggs accumulate in the gonoducts, with maximum loads found from October to December, possibly indicating a single annual spawning during the winter. Despite intensive examination of a large number of adult females, no dwarf males were found, leaving open the question of their existence. The large, yolky eggs indicate lecithotrophy or direct development. Larval stages have not been recognized. The apparent scarcity of developmental stages and of very small adults suggests that recruitment may be sparse and infrequent.

Several recent papers have dealt with the development of members of the ascidian family Pyuridae (Hirai, 1941; Berrill, 1948; Millar, 1951; Sebastian, 1953), but the total number of species with known larvae is still only five, in spite of the large size of the family.

The present paper deals with the embryonic development, the larva, and the post-larval development of Pyura microcosmus (Savigny).

The potential use of fatty acid (FA) profile as a dietary tracer in juvenile Chinese horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus was assessed in a feeding experiment. Selected feed was provided to the juveniles at various growth stages according to their food sources in the wild: larval and adult brine shrimp Artemia salina for the first six months, followed by a mixture of short-neck clam Ruditapes philippinarum and greasyback shrimp Metapenaeus ensis for a further six months. Juvenile horseshoe crab haemolymph and tissues of book gill, opisthosomal spine, chelicera and swimming leg were sampled after the feeding experiment. The FA profiles revealed that the juvenile haemolymph and various tissues had a total of 23–24 FA components. The major FA components consisted of saturated (palmitic and stearic) at 22–34%, monosaturated (oleic) at 7–34% and polyunsaturated (eicosapentaenoic and arachidonic) FAs at 9–27%. According to principal component analysis, the FA signatures of juvenile haemolymph were greatly influenced by the shift of food sources from brine shrimp to clam and shrimp meat, whereas the FA profiles of different tissues were more resistant to the nutrient alteration. The present findings confirmed that the FA profile of both juvenile haemolymph and different tissues reflected the FA composition of recent and previous diets, respectively; and thus may be useful in indicating the foraging information of juvenile horseshoe crabs in the field.

The object of these investigations, discussed in full in Part I, is an attempt to correlate the catches of the drift-net herring fishery with the conditions in the plankton at the time of fishing, and if possible to establish useful indications as to suitable and unsuitable waters for fishing. In Parts II and III the zooplankton-herring correlations in the English and Scottish fisheries have been dealt with separately. The phytoplankton material with which this section deals is not so extensive, so that the data from both fisheries will be dealt with together. The pioneer observations of Pearcey (1885) in regard to the herring, of Bullen (1908) inregard to the mackerel, and the fact that fishermen have for long regarded what they call “weedy” or “stinking” water as a bad sign for fishing, have been referred to in Part I, page 148.

The physiological rates of a normally omnivorous marine rotifer, Encentrum linnhei, were measured under the steady-state chemostat conditions in which the physiological state of the food-algae was kept constant whilst the rotifer growth rate was changed to preset levels. The specific clearance rate ranged between 50 and 100 μl/μg rotifer C/day (1.5–3.0 μ/rot/day) and varied hyperbolically with growth rate, a similar curve was obtained with the specific ingestion rate which varied between 1–2 μg C/μg rot C/day. A mean respiration rate of 0.45 μg C/μg rot C/day was obtained from oxygen consumption measurements. About 60‰ of ingested energy was found to be egested as paniculate matter and 9–4 °0 dissipated as heat, the latter comparing with a theoretical figure of 4–5‰.

From rates, transfer efficiencies were obtained giving a mean net growth efficiency (K2) of 38‰ and a mean overall growth efficiency (K1 of 15‰. A curvilinear increase of Kl with growth rate contrasts with linear and hyperbolic responses found with brachionid rotifers.

Otolith microstructure analysis was used to determine daily growth rate and hatching periods of young of the year (YOY) annular seabream, Diplodus annularis, collected by using beach seine from Çanakkale shallow waters between January and December 2007. Total length of the YOY D. annularis was between 20 and 85 mm and the daily ages ranged between 27 and 205 d. Somatic growth rate, estimated by fitting a linear regression to the age–length data set, was calculated as 0.369 mm d−1. Seasonal changes in the growth rate of the YOY D. annularis have been found to be 0.381, 0.369, 0.357 and 0.308 mm d−1 for individuals that hatched in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. Analysis of covariance indicated that there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the growth rates between the seasons. Hatching period of the YOY D. annularis was estimated to occur between March and September, with relatively higher hatching frequency in June.

Newtoniellinae is a worldwide marine group of cold-water, deep-sea species, comprising the genera Cerithiella, Paramendax and Trituba. Prior to this study, the subfamily was represented in Brazil by four species of Cerithiella. The present contribution adds new Brazilian records of two of these species, Cerithiella amblytera and Cerithiella enode, in addition to new records of two species previously known only from Cuba and the south-eastern USA, respectively: Cerithiella sigsbeana comb. nov. and Cerithiella producta. Two new species of Cerithiella from Brazil are described: Cerithiella atali sp. nov. has a pointed protoconch identical to the species described in the previously synonymized genus Stilus; Cerithiella candela sp. nov. has the teleoconch very similar to Cerithiella pernambucoensis, but is differentiated by the protoconch morphology. Also, a new species of Trituba is described, Trituba anubis sp. nov., which is the second species of this genus recorded for the western Atlantic. Eumetula axicostulata comb. nov. and Eumetula vitrea comb. nov., both from the western Atlantic but not recorded from Brazil, are transferred from the genus Cerithiella. This study increases from four to nine the number of known species of Newtoniellinae from Brazil.

The worldwide population of the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) encompasses seven subpopulations among the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It has experienced declines across parts of its distribution, with the subpopulation of the South-west Atlantic listed as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List. The main threats to this subpopulation include its interaction with fisheries, coastal development, pollution and climate change. In this study, we sequenced mitochondrial DNA from 52 leatherback turtles in Brazil and combined these with published data from other Atlantic Ocean rookeries. The haplotype diversities of the Atlantic population rookeries ranged from 0.112 to 0.533 and are not directly proportional to current rookery sizes. The Brazilian rookery, despite recording low nest numbers per year, had the second-highest haplotype diversity among all Atlantic rookeries (h = 0.532). A mixed-stock analysis revealed that the South American pelagic aggregate is primarily composed of individuals from West Africa (84%), with contributions from the North Atlantic rookeries (14%). Leatherback turtles appear to have a complex phylogeographic pattern, showing evidence of multiple colonization events and a lack of isolation by distance. Our novel dataset, based on DNA sequences of 695 base pairs, will provide baseline data needed to understand population dynamics in the region, building comprehensive population assessments to support and develop management strategies. Having both the only known regular rookery in the South-west Atlantic, and a mixed-origin foraging area for the species along its coast, Brazil has a key role in the conservation of the leatherback turtle.