Present knowledge of the non-marine invertebrate fauna of the Outer Hebrides

1981 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-321
Author(s):  
A.R. Waterston
Keyword(s):  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
Land Snails ◽  
Vegetative Cover ◽  
Invertebrate Fauna ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
The North ◽  
Outer Hebrides ◽  
Shell Deposit ◽  
Glacial Relict ◽  
Migrating Birds

SynopsisThe Outer Hebrides, because of their apparent isolation, attracted zoologists in the past who looked for new species and subspecies and some sought to explain the origin of the invertebrate fauna by exotic land connections in preglacial times. These expectations were largely unfulfilled and the speculations are unsupported by geologists or geomorphologists. The non-marine invertebrate fauna is examined from published records, museum collections and special field surveys and the lists total over 2500 species, of which approximately one-third are of general occurrence in the Outer Hebrides. Three species of mites are new to the British fauna and over 700 species, mainly insects, are additions to the Hebridean fauna. The fauna is impoverished compared with the mainland and this may be due to climate and the lack of variety of habitats and the low structure of the vegetative cover. Upland species occur on the moors and some descend to sea level, possibly on account of the low mean temperature in summer. Species with a north western distribution occur in the Odonata, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. Species with a discontinuous distribution are discussed and it is suggested that some reached the islands by natural means and others by human agency and there is no evidence of refugia for a glacial relict fauna. Examples are given of insects with a south western distribution arriving by sea in driftwood and five amphiatlantic species, including a freshwater sponge, which may have been brought by migrating birds, a wrack-fly, two strand-line beetles and a mite, which may have been distributed by the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift.There are no endemic species, but a few so-called subspecies of insects may be restricted to the Outer Hebrides. Changes in the fauna are traceable in a stratified Flandrian shell deposit in Harris, where two species have become extinct, and some insects have also become extinct in St Kilda during the last century. Some of the most conspicuous land snails have arrived in historic times and the most rapid coloniser has been a brackish-water snail which has spread throughout the islands since 1933.

Abrupt mortality of marine invertebrates at the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition in a shallow inlet of the Goldthwait Sea

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1894-1908
Author(s):  
Andréanne Bourgeois-Roy ◽  
Hugo Crites ◽  
Pascal Bernatchez ◽  
Denis Lacelle ◽  
André Martel
Keyword(s):  
Mytilus Edulis ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
The North ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity ◽  
Shell Deposit ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rapid Environmental Change

The late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition period was characterized by rapid environmental change. Here, we investigate the impact of these changes on the marine invertebrates living in a shallow inlet of the post-glacial Goldthwait Sea. The site is located near Baie-Comeau (QC, Canada), where a number of remarkably well-preserved shell deposits are found along the Rivière aux Anglais Valley on the north shore of the St. Lawrence maritime estuary. Seven phyla of marine invertebrates with a minimum of 25 species or taxa were inventoried in a shell deposit, dominated by a community of Hiatella arctica with Mytilus edulis and barnacles composing the subcommunity. The majority of taxa identified in the shell deposit are boreal and sub-Arctic species; however, temperate species that exist today in the St. Lawrence maritime estuary have not been found. Based on marine invertebrate diversity and δ18O(CaCO3) of Mytilus edulis, the water in the shallow inlet of the Goldthwait Sea must have been cold and saline. The range of AMS 14C ages from 15 Mytilus edulis, constrained to 10,900 and 10,690 cal. yr BP, and exceptional state of preservation of adult and juvenile molluscan specimens suggest the abrupt mortality of entire invertebrate communities due to changing hydrodynamic conditions that included the combined effect of freshwater discharge from the receding Laurentide Ice Sheet and rapid isostatic uplift.

scholarly journals First records of the order Polycladida (Platyhelminthes, Rhabditophora) from reef ecosystems of Alagoas State, north-eastern Brazil, with the description ofThysanozoon alagoensissp. nov.

2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (8) ◽  
pp. 1653-1666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Bahia ◽  
Vinicius Padula ◽  
Mônica Dorigo Correia ◽  
Hilda H. Sovierzoski
Keyword(s):  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
Brazilian Coast ◽  
Invertebrate Fauna ◽  
Histological Sections ◽  
The North ◽  
Eastern Brazil ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
First Time ◽  
A New Species

The 230 km long coast of Alagoas State, in north-eastern Brazil, has diverse reef ecosystems, made from corals and of sandstone, that harbour a wide range of marine invertebrate fauna. Little is known about turbellarians of the order Polycladida in most parts of the Brazilian coast, with no record from Alagoas up to date. To fill this gap expeditions were conducted on the reefs from the central coast of Alagoas, where 11 Polycladida species were found:Pericelis cata, Enchiridium evelinae, Pseudoceros bicolorand a possible new colour variation of this species,Pseudoceros rawlinsonae, Pseudobiceros pardalis, Thysanozoon brocchii, Thysanozoon alagoensissp. nov.,Armatoplana leptalea, Adenoplana evelinae, Latocestus brasiliensis, Phaenocelis medvedica. The species are described in detail through photos of live specimens and histological sections. The present work adds six species to the north-eastern Brazilian coast, one of them a new species, and all 11 species are for the first time reported from Alagoas State. Also, it is the first time thatPhaenocelis medvedica, Adenoplana evelinae, Latocestus brasiliensisandArmatoplana leptaleaare illustrated by full colour photos of live specimens and histological sections.

Preliminary investigation of emerging suburban landsliding in Gisborne, New Zealand

2022 ◽  
pp. qjegh2021-087
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Cook ◽  
Martin S. Brook ◽  
Jon Tunnicliffe ◽  
Murry Cave ◽  
Noah P. Gulick
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Rainfall Event ◽  
Slope Instability ◽  
Antecedent Soil Moisture ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Coastal City ◽  
The North

Recently uplifted, soft Pleistocene sediments in northern New Zealand are particularly vulnerable to landsliding because they are often underlain by less permeable, clay-rich Neogene mudstone/siltstone rocks. Typically, instability is rainfall-induced, often due to a high intensity rainfall event from extra-tropical cyclones, following wetter months when antecedent soil moisture has increased. Using remote sensing, field surveys and laboratory testing, we report on some emerging slope instability hazards in the eastern suburbs of the coastal city of Gisborne, on the North Island. Retrogressive failure of the main landslide (at Wallis Road) is ongoing and has already led to the abandonment of one home, while an adjacent landslide (at Titirangi Drive) appears to be in an incipient phase of failure. The Wallis Road landslide has been particularly active from mid-2017, with slumping of the headscarp area transitioning to a constrained mudflow downslope, which then descends a cliff before terminating on the beach. In contrast, the incipient Titirangi Drive landslide at present displays much more subtle effects of deformation. While activity at both landslides appears to be linked to rainfall-induced increases in soil moisture, this is due to the effects of prolonged periods of rainfall rather than the passage of high intensity cyclonic storms.

Biodiversity and the biogeographic relationships of the Amphipoda: Gammaridea on the French coastline

2004 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Dauvin ◽  
Denise Bellan-Santini
Keyword(s):  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
English Channel ◽  
Latitude Range ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Cool Temperate ◽  
Amphipoda Species ◽  
Central Atlantic ◽  
Warm Temperate

A recent inventory of the benthic Gammaridea: Amphipoda species on the French continental coastline catalogued 495 species. An analysis of the biodiversity and the biogeographic relationships that exist between the French Amphipoda: Gammaridea, living on the coastline that extends along 10° latitude range in the temperate region between 41° and 51° North and the other gammaridean faunas living in the north-eastern Atlantic has drawn the pattern of diversity in this marine invertebrate group on a large biogeographical scale. Gammaridean amphipods exhibit a latitudinal gradient over the total number of species, including the continental shelf species and the bathyal species. There are four main fauna groups, which correspond to the biogeographical zones of the north-eastern Atlantic: (1) a cold arctic and cool-temperate Svalbard and Norwegian coastal fauna; (2) a cool-temperate boreal and Boreal–Lusitanian United Kingdom, Irish and English Channel shallow fauna; (3) a warm-temperate Lusitanian Bay of Biscay and subtropical central Atlantic fauna; and (4) a subtropical Mediterranean fauna. The French fauna appears particularly rich, presenting 44% of the 1119 species recorded in the north-eastern Atlantic along the 50° latitude range (30°N–80°N).  This is obviously due to France's intermediate latitudinal location within the Lusitanian temperate biogeographical zone, which produces a biogeographical cross between the boreal fauna in the north and the warm temperate and sub-tropical fauna in the south.

scholarly journals Detoured flight direction responses along the southwest coast of Lake Erie by night-migrating birds

The Auk ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David V Gesicki ◽  
Erica L Cech ◽  
Verner P Bingman
Keyword(s):  
Lake Erie ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Western Basin ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Infrared Observations ◽  
The North ◽  
Flight Direction ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Topographical Feature ◽  
Migrating Birds

Abstract Migratory birds encounter the Great Lakes while moving through eastern North America toward breeding grounds to the North, which offers a good opportunity to study variation in migratory behavior as birds face a potentially influencing topographical feature. Using passive infrared technology, we documented the direction of relatively low-flying, nocturnal, mostly passerine migration in spring along the southern coast of Lake Erie’s western basin. We examined the extent to which spring migrants flew across Lake Erie as a continuation of the inland, northeasterly broad front migratory direction, as determined by weather radar and infrared observations, or displayed a tendency to deviate to more closely follow the direction of the coastline. We found that an estimated 62% of all low-flying migrants deviated their flight directions toward the coast of Lake Erie at 2 coastal sites, Cedar Point and Ottawa, which were characterized by northwest–southeast oriented coastlines. Migrants at a third coastal location, Maumee Bay, which has a more east–west oriented coastline, did not display similarly deviated flight directions. We found that even when winds were energetically favorable for a lake crossing, many migrants still routinely displayed deviated flight directions that approached paralleling the coastline. Further, the mean flight direction at one site, Ottawa, shifted more in the direction of the coastline as the night progressed, suggesting that time of night could influence the shift to a more coastal flight direction. The data indicate that the western basin of Lake Erie acts as a salient topographical feature influencing the flight directions of nocturnal migrants. The data further suggest that birds are making active decisions while in flight, based on current environmental and physiological conditions, about whether to continue to cross Lake Erie or take a coastal detour.

scholarly journals Estimating Origins of Three Species of Neotropical Migrant Songbirds at a Gulf Coast Stopover Site: Combining Stable Isotope and Gis Tools

The Condor ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith A. Hobson ◽  
Steve Van Wilgenburg ◽  
Leonard I. Wassenaar ◽  
Frank Moore ◽  
Jeffrey Farrington
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Stopover Site ◽  
Avian Migration ◽  
The North ◽  
Gis Tools ◽  
Migrating Birds ◽  
Wood Thrushes

AbstractMeasurement of stable-hydrogen isotopes (δD) in feathers of migrating birds can provide information on where feathers were grown in North America, at least to an approximate band of latitude. This approach has greatly increased our ability to investigate aspects of avian migration and stopover ecology, since origins of unmarked individuals at migration stopover sites can be estimated for the first time. However, few studies have explored the power of combining isotope measurements with geographic information system (GIS) methods. We measured δD values in feathers of hatching-year (HY) Swainson's Thrushes (Catharus ustulatus; n  =  60), Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina; n  =  113), and Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis; n  =  158) at Ft. Morgan Peninsula, Alabama (30°10′N, 88°00′W), a migration stopover site along the Gulf coast. By applying an elevation-corrected hydrogen isotope basemap for birds in North America, we derived a GIS surface depicting expected feather δD values across the continent. We then used GIS to constrain the possible origins of the sampled populations by considering only values falling within the North American breeding ranges of the species. We depicted likely origins of migrating birds by the 50% and 75% tolerance limits of the data. Our GIS analysis indicated that our captured populations represented much-reduced regions of possible origin based on the North American breeding distributions. Gradients in abundance data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) allowed us to further narrow possible origins within isotopic boundaries for Wood Thrushes and Gray Catbirds. This exercise provided a means by which priority regions and habitats could be assessed at large continental scales based on actual productivity. We suggest the combination of isotopic and GIS tools provides a powerful means to derive conservation priorities and to investigate key factors involved in the ecology of avian migration and stopover.

Aegiochus gracilipes (Hansen, 1895) a senior synonym of Aegiochus tara Bruce, 2009 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Aegidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4803 (2) ◽  
pp. 388-392
Author(s):  
LAUREN E. HUGHES ◽  
NIEL L. BRUCE ◽  
KAREN OSBORN
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Characters ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Senior Synonym ◽  
Outer Hebrides ◽  
Immature Specimen

Aegiochus gracilipes Hansen, 1895 was described from a single immature specimen accompanied by three figures (Hansen 1895). Hansen (1916) subsequently reported the species without figures. Over the next 100 years A. gracilipes only appeared in the literature as a citation in larger review and cataloguing studies. Most significantly, Bruce (2009) transferred A. gracilipes from Aega Leach, 1815 to Aegiochus Bovallius, 1885, as part of a broader study redefining the morphological characters used to distinguish Aegiochus. To the present day A. gracilipes, described from the north-eastern Atlantic off the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, is known only from the original figures and its limited primary description. 

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO OIL SPILL AND HURRICANE IMPACTS

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 980-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolien Debusschere ◽  
Dianne Lindstedt ◽  
Qiang Tao ◽  
Irving A. Mendelssohn ◽  
Qianxin Lin
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Minimal Effect ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Scale Analysis ◽  
Vegetative Cover ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Negative Effect

ABSTRACT The effects of a 1992 oil spill and hurricane on salt marsh recovery on a Louisiana barrier island was evaluated through a combination of landscape- and community-scale analyses. Landscape-scale analyses indicated that the hurricane had a profound effect on island land cover and morphology. The analyses indicated that the oil spill had minimal effect on island vegetation. The landscape analysis detected changes in vegetative cover in areas where oiling occurred in 1992. Field surveys identified additional small areas where oil had a negative effect on land cover. The community-scale analysis detected fine-scale vegetative responses to the spill.

The non-marine invertebrate fauna of Deception Island (Maritime Antarctic): a baseline for a comprehensive biodiversity database

Polar Record ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 36 (199) ◽  
pp. 297-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.H. Downie ◽  
P. Convey ◽  
S.J. McInnes ◽  
P.J.A. Pugh
Keyword(s):  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
South American ◽  
Deception Island ◽  
Maritime Antarctic ◽  
Invertebrate Fauna ◽  
American Immigrant ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Small Collection ◽  
Biodiversity Database ◽  
Immigrant Species

AbstractA small collection of samples from terrestrial and fresh-water habitats on Deception Island in the Maritime Antarctic South Shetland archipelago yielded 14 invertebrate taxa, including four species, which are new to the island. The database of the total Deception fauna contains 57 invertebrate taxa. These, like the flora, show evidence of posteruption colonisation by Antarctic and South American immigrant species, and historic human impact. This baseline inventory allows future monitoring of natural and anthropogenic changes to invertebrate fauna of Deception Island.

Land Snails, Sand Dunes, and Archaeology in the Outer Hebrides

2015 ◽  
Vol 901 ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
Matt Law ◽  
Nigel Thew
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Land Snails ◽  
Outer Hebrides
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