Population dispersal in the brittle-star Ophiocomina nigra (Abildgaard) (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea)

Author(s):  
J. B. Wilson ◽  
N. A. Holme ◽  
R. L. Barrett

A number of species of ophiuroid are known to occur in dense clusters on the sea-bed. Aggregations of Ophiothrix fragilis (Abildgaard) have been recorded from the English Channel by Allen (1899), Vevers (1951, 1952), Barnes (1955), Ancellin (1957), Cabioch (1961, 1967, 1968), Holme (1966), Warner (1969, 1971), and by Allain (1974). Beds of the same species have been found in the Irish Sea by Jones (1951) and by Brun (1969), on the west coast of Ireland by Könnecker & Keegan (1973) and Keegan (1974), and on the west coast of Scotland, where it is widespread in sea lochs and elsewhere around the coast (McIntyre, 1956, and personal communication, 1975). Records of Ophiothrix fragilis from the North Sea have been summarized by Ursin (1960). In the Mediterranean, aggregations of Ophiothrix quinquemaculata (D.Ch.) have been described by Guille (1964, 1965) from off the south coast of France, and by Czihak (1959) from the Adriatic. Hurley (1959) gives underwater photographs of Ophiocomina bollonsi Farquhar from the Cook Strait, New Zealand. Further examples of aggregation in ophiuroids and other echinoderms are cited by Reese (1966), Mileykovskiy (1967) and by Warner (1978).

Author(s):  
J. R. Lumby

Comparison of the conceptions which have hitherto been held in regard to the hydrography of the English Channel with those which are offered as a result of the recent activities of the Atlantic Slope Committee, shows that a difference exists which, in the writer's opinion, lies in the interpretation of the material, rather than in the fundamental differences in the material itself. For example, it is stated that the physical character of the water in the English Channel is conditioned, especially in the summer months, by that of the North Sea water rather than by that of the Atlantic water. “En plein été, en août, les eaux chaudes de la mer du Nord affluent dans la Manche.” A similar regimen is suggested for the waters of the Irish Sea, which are said to be derived from the northward. Carruthers shows that the normal water movement in the eastern part of the English Channel is through Dover Straits into the Southern Bight, this movement appearing to be more persistent along the bottom than on the surface. Furthermore, one of the two months in which reversal of this direction appears least likely to occur is August.


Author(s):  
R.P. Briggs ◽  
R.J.A. Atkinson ◽  
M. McAliskey ◽  
A. Rogerson

Histriobdella homari is a polychaete annelid belonging to the Order Eunicida and Family Histriobdellidae. Histriobdella homari is normally found in the gill chambers or among the eggs of the lobster Homarus vulgaris from the English Channel (Roscoff) and in the southwestern part of the North Sea (George & Hartmann-Schroder, 1985). Two independent sightings of H. homari living on the pleopods of Nephrops norvegicus from the Irish Sea and Clyde Sea area are reported.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Patrick Galliou ◽  

As one of the peripheral regions of Europe, the Armorican peninsula is often believed to have been a cultural backwater, one that was hardly ever reached by the major cultural and technological changes taking place in late prehistoric continental cultures. For people living away from the ocean, the latter is often seen as an obscure threat, an awful obstacle, a liquid wall isolating continental masses and cultures from one another. However, the ocean was always used as a passageway, a link between peoples, and, later regions bordering the Atlantic, from the south of the Iberian Peninsula to the North Sea (Cunliffe 2001: 21–63). In this vast sea-space, the Armorican peninsula, situated at the articulation between two maritime zones — the Bay of Biscay to the south, the Irish Sea and the English Channel to the north — was a place where various cultural influences would come into contact and thrive. Far from being a dead end, it was perfectly integrated, during the various phases of its long history, in the major cultural and technological currents running along the western façade of Europe.


Author(s):  
D. J. Crisp

Balanus porcatus(da Costa) is a widely distributed northern species, being found in the Arctic Ocean as far as 80° N., and in the northernmost extensions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its southern limits are closely related to water temperatures. Whereas on the east coast of America, where the Labrador current flows southward, it extends to Long Island (lat. 40° N., see Pilsbury, 1916), on the west European coast it scarcely penetrates the English Channel (lat. 51° N.). It is found in some abundance however in the North Sea, the Skagerrak and Kattegat (Krüger, 1927), the Irish Sea, and off the west coast of Scotland and Ireland. The present survey is probably representative of its breeding habits in regions near the southern limits of its range.


Author(s):  
R.P. Harris ◽  
G.-A. Paffenhöfer

INTRODUCTIONThe copepod Temora longicornis Miiller is one of the common zooplankton species in the North Sea and adjacent waters. All developmental stages have been recorded throughout the year off the west coast of Sweden, Temora being considered more common in offshore than inshore waters (Eriksson, 1973). In Loch Striven on the west coast of Scotland it was abundant only in summer, living mainly near the surface (Marshall, 1949). Similarly in the English Channel off Plymouth Temora is present mainly during the summer months (Digby, 1950). T. longicornis was found throughout the year in the Northfrisian Waddensea with temperatures ranging from ca. 1–20 °C (K¨nne, 1952).


1. A chart of co-tidal and co-range lines for the North Sea was prepared at the Tidal Institute in the year 1923, and the methods then used have now been further developed and improved and applied to the English Channel, the Irish Sea, and their approaches. The methods used depend largely upon the known dynamical equations connecting the currents with the gradients of the elevations. If any assumption be made as to the values of the range of tide and the relative phases of the elevation and currents, then we can deduce from this information at one station, not only the directions of the co-tidal and co-range lines at that point, but also the degree of separation of the lines for any given unit of phase or range. This criterion, applied to speculative charts hitherto published, suffices at once either to verify or to condemn the charts. Again, without any assumptions at all, from the gradients at a number of stations on a line of small curvature, starting at a point at which the elevation is known, the elevations at all points along the line can be computed by simple methods of numerical integration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 142-144
Author(s):  
John Kennedy

Review(s) of: The medieval cultures of the Irish sea and the North Sea: Manannan and his neighbors, by MacQuarrie, Charles W., and Nagy, Joseph Falaky Nagy (eds), (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019) hardcover, 212 pages, 1 map, 4 figures, RRP euro99; ISBN 9789462989399.


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