scholarly journals A New Genus Of Microsporidian Parasite (Hepatosporidae; Microsporidia) Found In The Oocytes Of Ribbon Worms From The North Pacific Genus Maculaura (Heteronemertea; Nemertea)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara M. Robbins ◽  
Svetlana A. Maslakova ◽  
George von Dassow

An intracellular microsporidian parasite was first observed within oocytes of Maculaura alaskensis, a small pilidiophoran nemertean, commonly found on sandflats along the Pacific coast of North America. Infected oocytes have large vesicles containing dozens to hundreds of diplokaryotic, ellipsoid spores measuring 1.3 by 2.3 μm. A partial small subunit nuclear ribosomal 18S gene sequence isolated from the microsporidian does not match any known microsporidian sequences in the public databases. Phylogenetic analysis groups it with Hepatospora eriocheir in a sister clade to the Enterocytozoonidae. All the known life stages of this parasite are contained within a membranous envelope. This microsporidian was identified in M. alaskensis, Maculaura aquilonia, Maculaura oregonensis, and Maculaura cerebrosa in Coos Bay, Oregon, in M. alaskensis from Newport, Oregon, and in M. aquilonia collected in Juneau, Alaska. This is, to our knowledge, the first species of microsporidia found to directly infect nemertean host cells.

Paleobiology ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geerat J. Vermeij

Geographical restriction to refuges implies the regional extinction of taxa in areas of the previous range falling outside the refuge. A comparison of the circumstances in the refuge with those in areas from which the taxa were eliminated is potentially informative for pinpointing the causes of extinction. A synthesis of data on the geographical and stratigraphical distributions of cool-water molluscs of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans during the late Neogene reveals four patterns of geographical restriction, at least two of which imply that climatic cooling was not the only cause of extinction during the last several million years. These four patterns are (1) the northwestern Pacific restriction, involving 15 taxa whose amphi-Pacific distributions during the late Neogene became subsequently restricted to the Asian side of the Pacific; (2) the northwestern Atlantic restriction, involving six taxa whose early Pleistocene distribution is inferred to have been amphi-Atlantic, but whose present-day and late Pleistocene ranges are confined to the northwestern Atlantic; (3) a vicariant Pacific pattern, in which many ancestral amphi-Pacific taxa gave rise to separate eastern and western descendants; and (4) the circumboreal restriction, involving six taxa whose early Pleistocene distribution, encompassing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, became subsequently limited to the North Pacific. Like the Pliocene extinctions in the Atlantic, previously studied by Stanley and others, the vicariant Pacific pattern is most reasonably interpreted as having resulted from regional extinction of northern populations in response to cooling. The northwestern Pacific and Atlantic restrictions, however, cannot be accounted for in this way. In contrast to the northeastern margins of the Pacific and Atlantic, the northwestern margins are today characterized by wide temperature fluctuations and by extensive development of shore ice in winter. Northeastern, rather than northwestern, restriction would be expected if cooling were the overriding cause of regional extinction. Among the other possible causes of extinction, only a decrease in primary productivity can account for the observed northwestern and circumboreal patterns of restriction. Geographical patterns of body size and the distribution of siliceous deposits provide supporting evidence that primary productivity declined after the Miocene in the northeastern Pacific, but remained high in the northwestern Pacific, and that productivity in the Pacific is generally higher than it is in the Atlantic. The patterns of geographical restriction in the northern oceans thus provide additional support to previous inferences that reductions in primary productivity have played a significant role in marine extinctions.


2006 ◽  
Vol 134 (12) ◽  
pp. 3567-3587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda M. Keller ◽  
Michael C. Morgan ◽  
David D. Houghton ◽  
Ross A. Lazear

Abstract A climatology of large-scale, persistent cyclonic flow anomalies over the North Pacific was constructed using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) global reanalysis data for the cold season (November–March) for 1977–2003. These large-scale cyclone (LSC) events were identified as those periods for which the filtered geopotential height anomaly at a given analysis point was at least 100 m below its average for the date for at least 10 days. This study identifies a region of maximum frequency of LSC events at 45°N, 160°W [key point 1 (KP1)] for the entire period. This point is somewhat to the east of regions of maximum height variability noted in previous studies. A second key point (37.5°N, 162.5°W) was defined as the maximum in LSC frequency for the period after November 1988. The authors show that the difference in location of maximum LSC frequency is linked to a climate regime shift at about that time. LSC events occur with a maximum frequency in the period from November through January. A composite 500-hPa synoptic evolution, constructed relative to the event onset, suggests that the upper-tropospheric precursor for LSC events emerges from a quasi-stationary long-wave trough positioned off the east coast of Asia. In the middle and lower troposphere, the events are accompanied by cold thickness advection from a thermal trough over northeastern Asia. The composite mean sea level evolution reveals a cyclone that deepens while moving from the coast of Asia into the central Pacific. As the cyclone amplifies, it slows down in the central Pacific and becomes nearly stationary within a day of onset. Following onset, at 500 hPa, a stationary wave pattern, resembling the Pacific–North American teleconnection pattern, emerges with a ridge immediately downstream (over western North America) and a trough farther downstream (from the southeast coast of the United States into the western North Atlantic). The implications for the resulting sensible weather and predictability of the flow are discussed. An adjoint-derived sensitivity study was conducted for one of the KP1 cases identified in the climatology. The results provide dynamical confirmation of the LSC precursor identification for the events. The upper-tropospheric precursor is seen to play a key role not only in the onset of the lower-tropospheric height falls and concomitant circulation increases, but also in the eastward extension of the polar jet across the Pacific. The evolution of the forecast sensitivities suggest that LSC events are not a manifestation of a modal instability of the time mean flow, but rather the growth of a favorably configured perturbation on the flow.


Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Francisco Omar López-Fuerte ◽  
David Alfaro Siqueiros Beltrones ◽  
María del Carmen Altamirano-Cerecedo

A taxonomic analysis of diatoms found on Phyllodictyon pulcherrimum yielded a total of 244 diatom taxa (all illustrated) within 27 orders, 45 families, and 86 genera. The Taxa were briefly documented in a list including identification references and morphometric data. Thirty-eight of the taxa identified at the species and infraspecific levels represent new records for the coasts of Mexico. Seven were recorded for the first time on the American continent: Auricula flabelliformis, A. pulchra, Campylodiscus scalaris, Coscinodiscus mesoleius, Dimeregramma fulvum, Navicula palpebralis var. angulosa, and Seminavis barbarae, and one, Nitzschia fusiformis, for the Pacific Ocean. This is the second record of the chlorophyte P. pulcherrimum in the north Pacific and the third for Mexican waters. The results confirm that surveying rare macroalgae species as hosts for epiphytic diatoms provides opportunities to seek new records of diatom taxa, or even new taxa, in regions around the world.


1993 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 2608-2625 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Pearcy ◽  
Joseph P. Fisher ◽  
Mary M. Yoklavich

Abundances of Pacific pomfret (Brama japonica), an epipelagic fish of the North Pacific Ocean, were estimated from gillnet catches during the summers of 1978–1989. Two size modes were common: small pomfret <1 yr old, and large fish ages 1–6. Large and small fish moved northward as temperatures increased, but large fish migrated farther north, often into the cool, low-salinity waters of the Central Subarctic Pacific. Lengths of small fish were positively correlated with latitude and negatively correlated with summer surface temperature. Interannual variations in the latitude of catches correlated with surface temperatures. Large catches were made in the eastern Gulf of Alaska (51–55°N) but modes of small pomfret were absent here, and large fish were rare at these latitudes farther to the west. Pomfret grow rapidly during their first two years of life. They are pectoral fin swimmers that swim continuously. They prey largely on gonatid squids in the region of the Subarctic Current in the Gulf of Alaska during summer. No evidence was found for aggregations on a scale ≤1 km. Differences in the incidence of tapeworm, spawning seasons, and size distributions suggest the possibility of discrete populations in the North Pacific Ocean.


1965 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Margolis ◽  
Hilda Lei Ching

The generic diagnoses of Bacciger and Pentagramma are emended. Recognized as members of the genus Bacciger are the type, B. bacciger (Rudolphi, 1819), from the Mediterranean, Black, and Azov Seas; B. nicolli Palombi, 1934, from Atlantic waters near the British Isles; and B. opisthonemae Nahhas and Cable, 1964, from Jamaican waters. Pentagramma consist of P. symmetricum Chnlkova, 1939, the type, from the Black and Azov Seas and P. petrowi (Layman, 1930) n. comb, from the northern part of the North Pacific region. Synonyms of P. petrowi are Monorcheides(?) petrowi Layman, 1930: Orientophorus sayori Yamaguti, 1942; Faustula sayori (Yamaguti, 1942); Orientophorus petrowi (Layman, 1930); and Bacciger petrowi (Layman, 1930). Pentagramma petrowi is redescribed and additional details of morphology are included for P. symmetricum, B. bacciger, and B. nicolli. Measurements of the species discussed and extensive host and locality records are tabulated.


Author(s):  
Jørgen B. Kirkegaard

From bathyal depths in the Bay of Biscay, southwest of the British Isles, 89 species of polychaetes are described, among which are two new species, one new genus, and one new Combination, i.e. Pholoe fauveli sp. nov., Paracapitella southwardi n.gen., n. sp., and Galathowenia oculata, new combination. Of the species taken, 52 % are also known from abyssal depths. The bathyal polychaete fauna of the North Atlantic seems to be common with that of the Arctic and the North Pacific.


2016 ◽  
Vol 184 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-157
Author(s):  
Alexander Ya. Efimkin

Smoothtongue Leuroglossus schmidti is a small mesopelagic fish species common for subarctic waters. It rises to the upper epipelagic layer at night for feeding and preys mainly on euphausiids, copepods and amphipods. Its mean index of stomach fullness reaches 68 ‱ in the epipelagic layer, but it almost doesn’t feed deeper than 200 m, judging by a little food in the stomach. In the Bering Sea, euphausiids dominate in its diet and the portion of copepods is small. In the ​​Okhotsk Sea, each of these two groups provides a half of the diet. In the North Pacific, the portion of copepods is 63 % on average, euphausiids are the second important prey, and amphipods occur in the diet occasionally. Daily ration of smoothtongue is about 1.4 %.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document