Palaeolandscape reconstructions at the German North Sea coast are essential for the understanding of coastal changes and dynamic landscape-forming processes. This study contributes to reconstructing Holocene coastal changes in the back-barrier area of the East Frisian island of Norderney and draws conclusions on the local palaeogeography. Five sediment cores were analysed in terms of sedimentology (grain-size distribution), geochemistry (TOC, TIC, N, C/N), microfauna (foraminifers and ostracods) and 13 radiocarbon dates. In order to identify driving environmental factors and support the facies interpretation, multivariate statistics (PCA) were carried out. Additional cores from the surrounding area (WASA Project and ‘Landesamt für Bergbau, Energie und Geologie’ (LBEG) Hannover) enabled correlation of the investigated cores over a transect of ~6 km, showing six depositional environments, which can be used for landscape reconstruction. Deposition starts with periglacial (aeolian and glaciofluvial) Pleistocene sediments, with subsequent pedogenesis followed by swamp conditions that develop into a salt marsh. The overlying tidal-flat sediments are partially cut by (fossil and recent) channel deposits. A hiatus at the base of the tidal-flat deposits that spans some 3000 years hints at their reworking caused by a combination of antrophogenic coastal protection measures and the impact of storms. Furthermore, based on the profile correlation and the age data, a widespread salt-marsh area with a minimum age of ~4000 cal BP is defined for the ‘Hohes Riff’ in the southwestern back-barrier of Norderney Island.

The intertidal coastline of Ceredigion, Wales, comprises a patchwork of unstable sand and cobble beaches, and stable bedrock areas and boulder-fields. The last two shoreline types support rock-pools with growths of the red alga Corallina officinalis, the thalli of which are a popular substrate for calcareous epiphytes. Replicate samples of C. officinalis (four per site) were taken from (a) three bedrock sites (Ceinewydd, Aberystwyth Victoria Rocks and Castle Rocks) and (b) three boulder-fields (Llanon, Aberaeron lower shore (Aberaeron LS), Llanina) on the lower shore. The middle shore boulder field at Aberaeron (Aberaeron MS) was also sampled. These replicates were examined for calcareous meiofauna (63–2000 μm) not previously examined as a community: spirorbids, foraminifera, gastropods, bryozoans, ostracods and ophiuroids. These were assigned to sessile and vagile modes of life. The sessile association overwhelmingly dominated bedrock coastlines and the Aberaeron MS, while the vagile association was at its most abundant on the Corallina from lower shore, stable boulder-fields. Gastropods were almost entirely limited to Corallina on boulder-fields. We hypothesize that the boulders induce low-energy turbulence among breaking waves, allowing the less firmly attached vagile meiofauna to dominate on C. officinalis in rock-pools in lower shore boulder-fields. The small attachment area of sessile organisms allows them to settle bedrock sites in greater densities than do vagile organisms at boulder-field sites, which are presumed to require larger foraging areas.

The influence of nutrient loading and other anthropogenic stressors is thought to be greater in low inflow, microtidal estuaries, where there is limited water exchange. This 11-month study compared spatial changes in macrofaunal communities adjacent to regions that varied in land cover in Oso Bay, Texas, an estuarine secondary bay with inflow dominated by hypersaline discharge, in addition to discharge from multiple municipal wastewater treatment plants. Macrofauna communities changed in composition with distance away from a wastewater treatment plant in Oso Bay, with the western region of the bay containing different communities than the head and the inlet of the bay. Ostracods were numerically dominant close to the wastewater discharge point. Macrobenthic community composition is most highly correlated with silicate concentrations in the water column. Silicate is negatively correlated with salinity and dissolved oxygen, and positively correlated with nutrients within the bay. Results are relevant for environmental management purposes by demonstrating that point-source discharges can still have ecological effects in hydrologically altered estuaries.

The Sea of Japan (also termed the East Sea) has a circulation system isolated from the Pacific Ocean and East China Sea. The East Asian winter monsoon drives the circulation system and cools the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) to form the Japan Sea Intermediate–Proper Water (JSIPW). The intermediate water conveys oxygen to deep-sea floors, which is available for benthic animals. During the Pliocene (3.5–2.8 Ma), Temperate Intermediate Water (TIW) was formed under the weak winter monsoon, and extinct ostracod TIW taxa were found. Little is known about early Pleistocene intermediate water and the extinction mode of benthic ostracods. We studied radiolarians and ostracods from deep-sea sediments between 2.0 and 1.3 Ma (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage [MIS] 77 to MIS 41) at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1426, Sea of Japan. The ostracod faunas contained TIW and JSIPW taxa. The radiolarian subtropical-water taxa and the JSIPW ostracods indicate a small influx of the TWC and the JSIPW. The TIW occasionally expanded to the middle bathyal zone. By analogy with the relationship between the modern JSIPW and winter monsoon, weak winter monsoon possibly caused gentle temperature gradients in the water column and the expansion of the TIW. The JSIPW taxa expanded their ranges into the deep sea during interglacial periods.

The genus Neomonoceratina, which dominated the ostracod assemblage in the uppermost part of the Akasaki Formation (Miroku Group) of the Kyushu Island, Japan, is associated with the benthic foraminifer Ammonia cf. beccarii, mollusca Terebralia? sp. and Anomia sp., and the oogonium of Charophyceae, indicating a marine-to-brackish estuarine environment involving inflowing freshwater. This is the first record of Eocene coastal-estuarine ostracods from the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent and demonstrates that different pre-Neogene coastal-estuarine ostracod assemblages flourished in this region. The assemblages comprised five ostracod species (including one novel species) assigned to the genera Neomonoceratina, Paijeiborchella, Propontocypris and Parakrithella. These species exhibited genus-level links with the Eocene borehole cores along the continental shelf of the East China Sea and other areas of Kyushu. Fossil data of characteristic Eocene coastal-estuarine genera collected worldwide indicate that different characteristic genera inhabited each region. For example, Neomonoceratina originated on the Indian subcontinent by the Early Paleocene period at the latest, along with the northern drift of the Indian subcontinent. These species subsequently diversified west and east with the equatorial current and counter-current via the Tethys and reached the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent among the various eastwards-migrating species, where one genus ultimately adapted to the coastal-estuarine environment. Notably, the coastal-estuarine ostracod assemblage of the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent differs completely from that of the Tethys during the Eocene period. Our results suggest that coastal-estuarine ostracod assemblages are a powerful tool for palaeogeographic reconstruction.

Freshwater Ostracoda collected in ephemeral pond-waters derived from Tropical Storm Allison (2001, Texas) recorded the unusually low oxygen-isotope values of that storm. Therefore, the potential clearly exists, in locations where tropical cyclones make landfall, to obtain a long-term record of tropical cyclone activity from fossil ostracode calcite.

Silicified beyrichiocopid and podocopid ostracods from limestone nodules derived from the middle part of the Ichinotani Formation within the Hida Gaien Terrane of central Honshu Island, Japan, are associated with fusulinid foraminifera that indicate strata of the middle Moscovian (Pennsylvanian, Carboniferous). This is a rare record of ostracods from the Palaeozoic of Japan and the first systematic description of ostracods from the Carboniferous of the Hida Gaien Terrane. The fauna comprises six ostracod species (two new) assigned to the genera Amphissites, Kirkbya, Bairdia, Aechmina and Healdia, and additional material of possible cavellinids. The numerical dominance of ornamented beyrichiocopids such as Kirkbya and Amphissites, along with smaller numbers of smooth podocopids such as Bairdia, indicates an ‘Eifelian mega-assemblage’ ecotype (sensu G. Becker), that is typical of mid Palaeozoic shallow marine, high-energy environments in a fore-reef ecosystem.

A Lower Devonian silicified ostracod fauna has been recovered from limestone interbeds in the Büyükdere section of the Kozyatağı Member of the Pendik Formation. Forty-one species belonging to 33 genera have been recognized. Twenty-three are already known, and 15 are described in open nomenclature. One genus and three species (Omerliella rectangulata gen. et sp. nov., Microcheilinella istanbulensis sp. nov. and Roundyella goekchenae sp. nov.) are described. Silicified larval stages of trilobites, agglutinated foraminifers and conodonts co-occur with the ostracods. The ostracod assemblages are ‘mixed faunas’, between the epineritic Eifelian Mega-Assemblage, representative of high-energy environments, and the basinal Thuringian Mega-Assemblage, representative of low-energy environments. The conodont faunas of the Pendik Formation represent the serotinus, patulus and partitus biozones of the late Emsian – earliest Eifelian. The Emsian ostracods of NW Turkey show numerous species-level links between the Western Pontides (Istanbul Terrane) and assemblages of contemporaneous faunas of the Cantabrian Mountains (Spain), Morocco and Thuringia (Germany), and of similar biofacies. This supports the notion that the Istanbul Terrane, Armorican terrane-collage and northern margins of Gondwana were in geographical proximity in late Early Devonian time.

Ecological requirements of ostracods in two limnocrene springs (Usta and Çetin Bey) were investigated between January 2000and July 2002 in Bolu, Turkey. Ten taxa (Candona neglecta, Darwinula stevensoni, Eucypris virens, Eucypris sp., Heterocyprisincongruens, Herpetocypris sp., Ilyocypris bradyi, Potamocypris sp., Scottia pseudobrowniana, Tonnacypris lutaria) werefound. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that species with wide cosmopolitan distribution could tolerate highlevels of changes in environmental variables. CCA explained about 80 % and 77 % of the relationships between species andenvironmental variables in Usta and Çetin Bey springs, respectively. Electrical conductivity and dissolved oxygen were the twomost influential factors on species occurrence in each spring. According to Spearman correlation analysis, there were no significantrelationships between the numbers of species and environmental variables in both springs. When dissolved oxygen showedsignificant negative correlations to electrical conductivity, water and air temperature in Usta spring, such correlation wasonly negatively significant (P <0.05, r = -0.46) between electrical conductivity and dissolved oxygen in Çetin Bey spring.Clustering analysis (UPGMA) of presence/absence data divided species into four main groups. Results may suggest that anthropogenicactivities were responsible for decreasing water quality of these springs and reducing species richness. Although increasingincentives for conservation of natural springs were proposed, Çetin Bey spring and especially Usta spring are now highlydegraded.

The ontogeny of the musculature and segments of the antennule of Heterocypris incongruens (Ramdohr, 1808) is documented. The musculature of the antennule of the juveniles indicates that during ontogeny the additional segments originate by existing segments dividing. Previously presented hypotheses are tested with these new data. Smith & Martens' (2000) hypothesis on the development of the antennule of Eucypris virens (Jurine, 1820) is supported and is expanded to cover other groups. There are five segments in the early juveniles of most species and some of these divide to form new segments during ontogeny. Additionally, some segments fuse together, and some segments divide and then fuse together again. Most divisions of segments produce two true segments, rather than annulations or secondary joints, but one species shows evidence of an annulation in the antennule.

Six species of the sub-family Cyclocypridinae were found in the Upper Miocene of the Turiec Basin, 4 of which are new Cypria isosceles, C. lenticulata, C. polyphema, C. bodergatiae. The differences in arrangement of the zone of the fusion on ventral margin were used to distinguish the species. The genus Cypria is represented in whole area of the Turiec Basin but the species are restricted to the ecologically well determined biotopes. Valve shape is compared with ecological stability of the paleobiotopes.

The Volkhov Regional Stage (Middle Ordovician) in the East Baltic preserves diverse fossil assemblages dominated by epibenthic suspension feeders. Brachiopods, ostracodes, conodonts, echinoderms and bryozoans are the main components of palaeocommunities obtained from clay horizons in the Putilovo section (St Petersburg region, Russia), whereas trilobites, machaeridians, hyolithids, graptolites, benthic foraminifers and gastropods are rare or occur sporadically. Brachiopod bioclasts volumetrically dominate the debris of the studied sediments. Quantitative faunal data are used to assess species diversity patterns, as expressed by the species richness (total number of species in the standardized sample size) and by the evenness or equitability of the community. The numerical abundance of particular taxa in each standardized sample was used to evaluate the density of the fauna. The communities in the Volkhov Stage in Putilovo Quarry reveal a remarkable stability throughout the studied interval and are characterized by high density (1000–6000 specimens per 100 g), relatively moderate species richness (10–15 species) and a moderately variable equitability (0.3–0.7) for the dominant fossil groups (conodonts, ostracodes and brachiopods). Ostracodes significantly increase in numbers within the upper part of the section. This confirms a shallowing of the basin during the late Volkhov interval. Small-scale variability of the diversity estimates does not correlate with the small-scale sea-level changes reconstructed for this part of the basin. It may be connected with error in diversity measurement, or the result of undetected environmental parameters. Variability estimates for different faunal groups are poorly correlated because particular groups have different environmental tolerances.

Changes in Holocene (Flandrian) relative sea levels and coastal geomorphology in the lower Cree valley and estuary, SW Scotland, are inferred from detailed morphological and stratigraphical investigations. A graph of relative sea level changes is proposed for the area. Rising relative sea levels during the early Holocene were interrupted at c. 8300–8600 14C years B.P.(c. 9400–9900 calibrated years B.P.), when an extensive estuarine surface was reached at c. −1 m O.D., after which a fluctuating rise culminated at c. 6100–6500 14C B.P. (c. 7000–7500 calibrated years B.P.) in a prominent shoreline and associated estuarine surface measured at 7·7–10·3 m O.D. A subsequent fall in relative sea level was followed by a rise to a shoreline at 7·8–10·1 m O.D., exceeding or reoccupying the earlier shoreline over much of the area after c. 5000 14C B.P. (c. 5,800 calibrated years B.P.), before relative sea level fell to a later shoreline, reached after c. 2900 14C B.P. (c. 3100 calibrated years B.P.) at 5·5–8·0 m O.D., following which relative sea levels fell, ultimately reaching present levels. During these changes, a particular feature of the coastline was the development of a number of barrier systems. The relative sea level changes identified are compared with changes elsewhere in SW Scotland and their wider context is briefly considered.

In the present paper Candonopsis murchisoni n. sp., C. dani n. sp., C. williami n. sp., C. kimberleyi n. sp., and C. westaustraliensisn. sp., are described, while C. tenuis (Brady, 1886) is redescribed. All species have been collected in the subterraneanwaters of Western Australia. The new species are easily distinguishable from the existing world species in details of the carapace,walking leg, cleaning leg, furca and hemipenis. Because of new features found, revised diagnosis and a key to the worldspecies are provided. Some species, previously described in the genus Candonopsis Vavra, 1891, are considered as incertaesedis, while others are removed from this genus, which now contains 25 species. Finally, the authors propose the elevation ofthe subgenera Caribecandona Broodbakker, 1983 and Cubacandona Broodbakker, 1983 to the generic level.

Martenscypridopsis n. gen. and Martenscypridopsis materia n. sp. from Algerian inland waters are described. The new genus belongs to the group of genera in the subfamily Cypridopsinae where the right valve overlaps the left one both anteriorly and ventrally ; it is also the second genus within the subfamily where both sexes completely lack the furca. The new genus includes also the species Martenscypridopsis pygmea (Sars, 1924) n. comb., from South and Central Africa.

Two species of superfamily Cytheracea from Skadar Valley (Montenegro), are presented in this paper. Leptocythere pseudoproboscidea n.sp., collected in a spring is very close to Leptocythere proboscidea Klie, 1939, an endemic species of the Ohrid Lake. Paralimnocythere karamani (Petkovski, 1960) occurred in two localities : river and spring. Until now, this species was considered endemic in the Ohrid-Prespa region. Its known distribution is non extended westwards and its presence in Skadar Valley confirms exchanges between faunas of Ohrid and Skadar drainage areas.

Marine shelf siliciclastics of the early Cambrian Buen Formation of North Greenland have yielded the earliest abundant, well localised Bradoriida (Arthropoda) from the Laurentian part of North America: the shelf-dwelling Petrianna gen. nov. Petrianna apparently has a fairly rigid, phosphatic shell. Its assignment to the Cambriidae, a family markedly dissimilar morphologically from the phosphatocopines (the only Bradoriida hitherto regarded as having a primary phosphatic shell), implies rejection of the criterion of carapace composition in the ordinal/subordinal classification of Bradoriida.

Petrianna confirms the Bradoriida as a consistent component of the earliest arthropod faunas. Cambriids are currently known only from the early Cambrian of Greenland, Siberia and China and offer potential for correlation. Cambriid occurrences span parts of the Redlichiid, Olenellid and Bigotinid trilobite faunal realms but are known only from tropical/subtropical regions, thus indicating possible palaeolatitudinal controls on their distribution.

Cyclotron lapworthi (Groom, 1902), one of the few British Cambrian bradoriid ostracod species known from a large number of specimens, is redescribed. It has an interdorsum, thus indicating a hesslandonid affinity. The ontogeny of C. lapworthi does not demonstrate a clear distinction of its individual moult stages but does show marked changes in the development of nodes and lobes. C. lapworthi shows wide variation in carapace shape possibly indicating that its valves were thin and relatively flexible. In England and Canada C. lapworthi is restricted to the Upper Cambrian Olenus Zone. C. lapworthi may also occur coevally in the Upper Cambrian of Sweden.