The life cycle of a species of the genus Bougainvillia (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa), found in the southern Mediterranean Sea, Italy, is here described. Hydroid colonies produced immature medusae with two tentacles and two ocelli per bulb and four unbranched oral tentacles. The number of tentacles and ocelli, which remained constant during the entire life cycle, are here considered diagnostic characters to identify the present as a new species. Female medusae lived up to 47 days (with an average of 30 days) when reared at 17°C, while males, reared at the same temperature, were short-lived, concluding their life cycle in no more than 15 days. The medusa of this species resembles B. ramosa var. nana described by Hartlaub in 1911 on the basis of few specimens and no polyp stage. After the complete life cycle has been observed, and given its peculiar medusa stage, Hartlaub's subspecies (variant) must be promoted to species rank as Bougainvillia nana.

This is the first account of the effects of drainage water from an abandoned coal mine on the seaweed community of the intertidal rocky shore in the British Isles. At St Monans, Scotland, along a 250 m transect, the brown climax species Fucus spiralis showed a low abundance in sampling quadrats (17.5%) and small plant size (3.5 cm), close to the outfall, compared to stations at increasing distance from the drainage source. Immediately below the outfall the fucoid community was replaced by a mixture of 12 species of freshwater, brackish and marine Chlorophyta, which did not occur, or only scarcely occurred, at any other transect station. At high tide, ferrous iron concentrations in the water were highest near the source (15.5 mg/l), while salinity was at its lowest (1.1 psu). Accordingly, iron tissue concentrations of apical segments of F. spiralis were also at their highest (12 mg Fe/g dry weight). Reproductive development of F. spiralis may have been inhibited close to the source.

Exploration of the New England and Corner Rise Seamounts produced four new species of chrysogorgiid octocorals with the spiral iridogorgiid growth form. Three species are described as new in the genus Iridogorgia and one is described in the new genus Rhodaniridogorgia. Both genera have representatives in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Iridogorgia magnispiralis sp. nov., is one of the largest octocorals encountered in the deep sea and seems to be widespread in the Atlantic.

Three new species of Crambe are described from the upper and middle-southern coast of Chile, south-east Pacific. Crambe chilensis sp. nov. and C. amarilla sp. nov. are astroclone bearing species, while C. maldonadoi sp. nov. has sphaeroclones as asterose desmas. Morphological characters of Crambe were re-evaluated to consider this unsuspected high diversity of Crambe in the south-east Pacific. The main characters for the distinction of Chilean species as well as of other Crambe species were the live-colour; the shape and size of asterose desmas and (sub)(tylo)styles; the shape, number of categories and size-range of anchorate isochelae; and the presence/absence and dimensions of spined microxeas. An identification key for the Crambe of the world is provided. If astroclone and sphaeroclone desma-bearing species groups would represent two distinct evolutionary lineages, then the south-eastern/eastern Pacific Region would have been occupied by two evolutionary lineages with distinct life histories. The relatively high diversity of Crambe in the Chilean temperate coast, together with its occurrence in New Zealand's Oligocene, is suggestive of a likely wide distribution in Panthalassa, which contrasts to earlier suggestions of wide distribution in the Tethyan Realm only.

We tried to find discriminating features for sperm whale clicks in order to distinguish between clicks from different whales, or to enable unique identification. We examined two different methods to obtain suitable characteristics. First, a model based on the Gabor function was used to describe the dominant frequencies in a click, and then the model parameters were used as classification features. The Gabor function model was selected because it has been used to model dolphin sonar pulses with great precision. Additionally, it has the interesting property that it has an optimal time–frequency resolution. As such, it can indicate optimal usage of the sonar by sperm whales. Second, the clicks were expressed in a wavelet packet table, from which subsequently a local discriminant basis was created. A wavelet packet basis has the advantage that it offers a highly redundant number of coefficients, which allow signals to be represented in many different ways. From the redundant signal description a representation can be selected that emphasizes the differences between classes. This local discriminant basis is more flexible than the Gabor function, which can make it more suitable for classification, but it is also more complex. Class vectors were created with both models and classification was based on the distance of a click to these vectors. We show that the Gabor function could not model the sperm whale clicks very well, due to the variability of the changing click characteristics. Best performance was reached when three subsequent clicks were averaged to smoothen the variability. Around 70% of the clicks classified correctly in both the training and validation sets. The wavelet packet table adapted better to the changing characteristics, and gave better classification. Here, also using a 3-click moving average, around 95% of the training sets classified correctly and 78% of the validation sets. These numbers lowered by only a few per cent when single clicks, instead of a moving average, were classified. This indicates that, while the features may show too much variability to enable unique identification of individual whales on a click by click basis, the wavelet approach may be capable of distinguishing between a small group of whales.

This is the first study on coral diseases in the Wakatobi Marine National Park (WMNP), south-east Sulawesi. It aimed to provide baseline knowledge of coral disease prevalence and coral health in this remote region. Results indicate a low disease prevalence of 0.57% with only two known diseases occurring within the sampling unit, white syndrome (0.42%) and tumours (0.15%). They affected 15 taxonomic groups from a total of 32 taxonomic groups. The presence of black-band disease (BBD), skeletal eroding band (SEB) disease and Porites ulcerative white spot disease (PUWSD) was identified outside the study area. A large number of corals were affected by previously undescribed conditions (9.7% of colonies). The impact of lesions named as green spot, green band, pigmented spot, and flatworm infestation is not known and represents an important area for future studies.

This study presents a comparison of distribution and abundance of dominant megafaunal species at the TAG hydrothermal mound on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from 1994 to 2004. A geographical information system (GIS) database was compiled from georeferenced observations of faunal abundances at 534 locations on the TAG hydrothermal mound, determined by image analysis of ROV dive footage from November 2004. These data are compared with observations from submersible dives in 1994 to assess changes in the extent and population density of aggregations of the shrimp Rimicaris exoculata at the central black smokers of TAG. The GIS database was also used to assess changes in abundance and distribution of the anemone Maractis rimicarivora by simulating the path of a biotransect conducted in 1994 and 1995. There was no evidence of a decline in the extent of shrimp aggregations at the central black smokers of TAG between 1994 and 2004. This result indicates that occasional exposure to high-intensity submersible lighting, which took place during several scientific expeditions in the intervening period, does not pose an immediate conservation threat to populations of R. exoculata. Similarly, there were no significant differences in the distribution and abundance of anemones between 1994 and 2004. These results indicate a constancy in the identity, distribution and abundance of dominant species at TAG that contrasts with other vent sites where quantitative time-series have been established. The reproductive pattern of R. exoculata was also examined by dissection and direct measurement of oocytes from females collected in September 1994 and November 2004, providing the first comparison of reproductive development in samples from different months for this species. There was no significant difference in oocyte size–frequency distributions of females collected in these samples, indicating a lack of seasonal reproduction in R. exoculata.

The morphology and infraciliature of a new marine ciliate, Tachysoma multinucleata sp. nov., collected from the Jawol Island near Incheon, Korea, were investigated using live observation and protargol impregnation. The new species is characterized by: size in vivo about 65×25 μm, body oval to ellipsoid. Three frontal, one buccal, four frontoventral, three ventral and two pretransverse cirri. Fifteen to 22 left and 13–21 right marginal cirri and about 21–27 adoral membranelles. Cortical granules fine and yellowish, arranged around cirri and dorsal cilia. Usually 12–26 macronuclear nodules. Three dorsal kineties. Marine habitat.

Esperiopsis koltuni, a new species of the sponge family Esperiopsidae, is described from deep water of the Sea of Okhotsk. The new species has a unique growth form: there is a basal plate with radiating cylindrical branches, whose oval flat distal parts bear filament-like outgrowths. Megascleres are arranged differently in the main part of branches and in their distal flat parts. The dermal membrane contains isochelae with protruding alae and abundant sigmancistras. Microscleres are represented by large anchorate spatuliferous isochelae, small isochelae, sigmas and sigmancistras. Esperiopsis koltuni sp. nov. is hermaphroditic, with parenchymella larva. The larval skeleton consists only of sigmas and sigmancistras. Esperiopsis koltuni sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from other Esperiopsis species by dimensions and combination of spicule types. In particular, it is the only species in the genus with three different size categories of styles. The new species lacks the aquiferous system, has a characteristic body plan with symmetrical lateral expansions, an unusual arrangement of microscleres in the dermal membrane and true sigmancistras. Moreover, prey capture by a filament-like outgrowth of the flat distal part was observed. All of these characteristics indicate that Esperiopsis koltuni sp. nov. is a carnivorous sponge.

The growth rate response of bacterial communities to the potential increase of dissolved organic matter (DOM) produced by the copepod Acartia tonsa was assessed in experiments conducted in three stations representing three contrasting aquatic environments (coastal embayment, shelf and ocean). Bacterial assemblages were inoculated in filtered seawater where A. tonsa had previously grazed. Utilization of DOM over time was evaluated after the addition of bacterial inoculums as the biomass changes in both ‘control’ and ‘copepod’ treatments. In the embayment and ocean a high bacterial growth was observed in the treatments with seawater where copepod were feeding. Additional field measurements of bacterial, primary production and zooplankton biomass support the idea that bacterial communities living in oceanic environments can be efficient to utilize the newly available substrate. Copepods play a key role not only as conveyors of carbon up through the classical food-web, but also generated significant amounts of bacterial substrate in the microbial loop food-web.

The effects of the exposure of two tintinnids (Favella taraikaensis and Eutintinnus sp.) to the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense were studied, using the non-toxic dinoflagellate Scrippsiella trochoidea as a control. The tintinnid F. taraikaensis showed backward swimming and cellular lysis after a few minutes in the presence of the toxic dinoflagellate A. tamarense in high concentration (280–700 cells ml-1). At low concentrations of A. tamarense (30–120 cells ml-1) no swimming alterations were observed, but cellular lysis occurred after 48 hours. No changes in the swimming patterns were observed when Eutintinnus sp. was exposed to either toxic dinoflagellates or cell-free filtrate, or when F. taraikaensis was exposed to cell-free filtrate. However, both tintinnids suffered cellular lysis after 48 hours of exposure. Favella taraikaensis and Eutintinnus sp. remained healthy after preying on the non-toxic S. trochoidea for 48 hours. In selectivity experiments, F. taraikaensis avoided cells of the toxic dinoflagellates during the dark phase. Our results suggest that tintinnids could play a regulatory role when the toxic blooms are initiating and the toxic cell concentrations remain still low in the northern Patagonian gulfs of Argentina. Since tintinnids are affected by substances released by A. tamarense, predation on dinoflagellates would not occur during the peak of the bloom.

This study analyses the possible relationships between body size and length of cnidae from different tissues of the sea anemone Oulactis muscosa. We describe the cnidom, providing new qualitative and quantitative data. Our description adds spirocysts for tentacles and acrorhagi, and is more precise about the ranges and types of basitrichs, microbasic b-mastigophores, and holotrichs. We distinguish two types of holotrichs in the acrorhagi, and differentiate between microbasic b-mastigophores and basitrichs in the actinopharynx and mesenterial filaments. A relationship between cnida length and body weight was not demonstrated. The results are based on a complete account of cnida types from all tissues, and considering the great number of capsules measured (5400) and the modern statistical tools employed, we think that a normal distribution of cnida lengths is uncommon, perhaps refuted. This finding is very important when a quantitative analysis of cnidae is necessary and an adequate statistical tool must be used. We have shown that generalized linear models are an alternative and therefore analyses can be done with parametric methods despite the non-normal distribution of cnida size. The use of these statistical tools should be generalized since appropriate package for analyses (like the R package) are available from the web and the obtained results are robust and powerful.

Marine populations are typically connected over greater spatial scales than their terrestrial counterparts due to many species having a highly dispersive, planktonic larval phase. However, high levels of larval mortality in the plankton may reduce connectivity between populations. The effect of turbulence on larval mortality was investigated under natural conditions in a field experiment. Larvae were collected before and after being subjected to turbulent tidal flow from a marine reserve, with differential mortality being observed between taxa. Thin-shelled veligers of gastropods and bivalves showed significantly increased mortality, while barnacle nauplii and cyprids, bryozoan cyphonaute larvae and polychaete trochophores showed no effect of turbulent tidal transport. Where appropriate, marine reserve design should account for the reduced connectivity between populations associated with turbulent tidal transport between reserve and adjacent areas.

A study was made of the efficiency of a commercially available hydraulic dredge design in use on the west coast of Scotland and of the annual biomass production of two different razor clam (Ensis spp.) beds within the Clyde Sea area. These two parameters, viz fishing efficiency and population annual production, are fundamentally important to any proper attempt to assess the long term sustainability of a fishery. The hydraulic dredge used in this study was found to have an absolute efficiency of 90.1% when expressed in terms of the collected wet weight biomass, representing the first time that the efficiency of a hydraulic dredge of this nature has been measured rather than simply inferred from track width. This indicates that this dredge design has the potential to remove the majority of a clam population, including undersized immature individuals, within a 45 cm swath in a single tow. Annual production estimates were also made for two separate razor clam beds. One population of Ensis siliqua was located in Irvine Bay and the other two populations (one E. siliqua and one E. arcuatus) occurred in a mixed bed on Hunterston Sands. Each location was sampled quantitatively on a regular basis using the same hydraulic dredge. Dredged areas were measured by SCUBA divers so that the population densities could be calculated for each sampling event. Size-classes within each population were identified from siphonal shell breadth measurements and production estimates were calculated using a size-cohort analysis procedure designed for stocks exhibiting recruitment but that do not have separable age-classes. Production of all three populations was low during the study (1.82–18.08 g AFDW 10 m-2) as were the production/biomass estimates (0.01–0.11). These data indicate that populations of Ensis spp. on the west coast of Scotland are slow-growing and typical of K-selected species. These data highlight the conflicting pressures facing any razor clam fishery: the design of extremely efficient hydraulic gear and the slow-growth of the target species. It is clear that the future commercial exploitation of these species will need very careful management to ensure sustainability and avoid fishery over-depletion.

Recordings of a group of foraging sperm whales usually result in a mixture of clicks from different animals. To analyse the click sequences of individual whales these clicks need to be separated, and for this an automatic classifier would be preferred. Here we study the use of a radial basis function network to perform the separation. The neural network's ability to discriminate between different whales was tested with six data sets of individually diving males. The data consisted of five shorter click trains and one complete dive which was especially important to evaluate the capacity of the network to generalize. The network was trained with characteristics extracted from the six click series with the help of a wavelet packet-based local discriminant basis. The selected features were separated in a training set containing 50 clicks of each data set and a validation set with the remaining clicks. After the network was trained it could correctly classify around 90% of the short click series, while for the entire dive this percentage was around 78%.

The genus Stoeba has 11 recognized species. Herein we describe a new species of Stoeba endemic from two oceanic archipelagoes off north-eastern Brazil (Fernando de Noronha and São Pedro e São Paulo), constituting the first record of this genus for the western Atlantic. Stoeba latex sp. nov. is characterized by its thickly encrusting to massive shape, stretched surface, brownish-red colour, and spiculation of calthrops and sanidasters with well developed spines; dichotriaenes and oxeas are absent. Stoeba and Dercitus are very closely related genera, and should probably be merged. The genus Stoeba now contains the following valid species: S. dissimilis, S. exostotica, S. extensa, S. lesinensis, S. natalensis, S. occulta, S. pauper, S. plicata, S. reptans, S. simplex, S. syrmatita and S. latex sp. nov. Several other species still await description. A key to the valid species of Stoeba is given.

Tubiclavoides striatum, a new species of an athecate hydroid, was found on mud volcanoes, inactive carbonate chimneys, and cold-water coral stands in the Gulf of Cadiz (south-western Iberian Peninsula, Atlantic Ocean). The new family Tubiclavoididae and the new genus Tubiclavoides are proposed to accommodate the new species. The new hydroid is characterized by scattered filiform tentacles, sporosacs developing among the tentacles and hydrocauli covered with striated perisarc, often subdivided into imbricating cones. A full description and illustrations are provided, as well as some notes on the ecology and distribution of the new species.

Latreutes pymoeus is a poorly studied tropical and sub-tropical shrimp species that mainly lives on sea grass beds. Samples were collected from sea grass beds of Inhaca Island, Mozambique, during August 2005 at neap/spring and low/high tides. Specimens were identified, sexed, counted and morphometric measurements were made. Ovigerous females were classified as small (carapace length (CL): 2.7–3.2 mm), medium (CL: 3.3–3.8 mm) and large (CL: 3.9–4.4 mm). Embryo masses were carefully removed from the pleopods with forceps, eggs staged and counted. On average, about 20% more males were found than females (0.64 ±0.25 and 0.56 ±0.28 ind m-2, respectively), but males were significantly smaller (2.25 ±0.32 and 2.60 ±0.47 mm CL for males and females, respectively). At 3.1 mm CL at least 50% of the females found carried embryos in the pleopods. Average (±SD) brood size increased significantly with female length (76 ±18, 133 ±64 and 205 ±61, for small, medium and large ovigerous females). The number of embryos decreased significantly over the incubation period for each size-class of the shrimp. Brood loss from embryonic Stage I to Stage IV for small, medium and large shrimp were 19.8%, 36.5% and 41.8%, respectively. Although an increase in brood loss was observed with increasing shrimp size, senescence did not seem to occur since larger shrimps carried a higher number of embryos and negative allometry was not recorded. Mean embryo volume, in the same development stage, was not significantly different among the small, medium and large shrimp, increasing significantly from 0.014 mm3 to 0.029 mm3 from the first to last embryonic stages.

Bathymetric distribution data were compiled on benthic Medusozoa (Cnidaria) of the Bay of Biscay and nearby seas. The area of study extended from 42°N to 48°30′N, and westwards to 10°W. The depth range of each species was traced in a review of the literature. The number of species in each of several depth zones is summarized here: intertidal, intertidal–30 m, 30–100 m, and thereafter at 100 m depth intervals throughout the entire column (0–5000 m). Some 200 species were included (six Scyphozoa, four Staurozoa, 190 Hydrozoa). Of these, 196 could be ascribed to the Coastal Realm (0–200 m) (118 exclusives; 60% of the fauna) and Deep Benthic Realm (200+m) (31 exclusives;16%), with 47 species inhabiting both (24%). Eighty-eight species (45%) were present intertidally. Biodiversity was highest above the summer thermocline (30 m) (133 species, 67%), and no species have been recorded from depths greater than 4706 m. Beyond the thermocline, biodiversity dropped with increasing depth. A significant change occurred in the 30–100 m interval (123 to 78 species; Distinctiveness=51%), although all intervals down to the 300 m isobath exhibited substantial changes. Most species in the Deep Benthic Realm thrive on the upper part of the slope (200–800 m; 50 species). Biodiversity appeared homogeneous across wide bathymetric ranges in deep bathyal and abyssal regions, perhaps due to unique vertical biocenological units. Thus, 15 species are known between 1400 and 2000 m, and four between 3100 and 4300 m. Fifty-four species were considered eurybathic (34%), with some showing impressive bathymetric ranges of over 4000 m, but most species were stenobathic (106, 66%).

As with data on benthic medusozoans from South Africa, the north-western Atlantic, the Arctic, and the warm western Atlantic (Bermuda), bathymetric biodiversity was highest in the first 100 m, with a substantial drop below that in species numbers on the shelf and at the beginning of the bathyal. While numbers of species may vary widely from one geographical region to another, such variations are due to differences in biodiversity in the upper 100 m. Hydroid species richness in the deep bathyal and abyssal is similar and always low. Worldwide, benthic medusozoan biodiversity is highest at shallow depths, and these organisms normally seem to be minor components of deep benthos. Very likely, the graph of biodiversity at increasing depth is similar worldwide for the Hydrozoa.

The aim of the present study was to update the existing knowledge of benthic hydroids from Svalbard waters. The material for the study was collected at several locations in the Svalbard region. The list of hydropolyps from the investigated area includes about 100 species. A total of 42 taxa was noted in the present study, 18 of which were reported for the first time in this area. One species is likely new to science. The analyses address the zoogeographical status of the species and the diversity of microhabitats. Arctic-boreal species were the main component of the hydroid assemblage, and eight types of substrata were colonized by the hydroids. Their highest biodiversity occurred on algae and bryozoans. Biological studies and faunal records used to monitor the Arctic region are of increasing importance in light of climate change and its influence on benthic community structure.