Certain aspects of the ecology and the biology of the foraminifera Ammonia beccarii were investigated.
The top 4 cm c replicate core samples from near the entrance to the West Passage of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, taken in 1963 were individually examined; presumed living and dead specimens were found at all four levels. Data on over 5,000 living and 7,500 dead specimens were collected from 283 samples.
The use of a two‐stage sampling technique for determination of an optimum number of samples is described. The frequency distributions of the numbers of both presumed living and dead A. beccarii could be normalized successfully with a log (X + 1) transformation.
At each of the four levels, the numbers of both living and dead individuals remained statistically constant, and the number of presumed living A. beccarii was the same in the three top 1‐cm levels but significantly greater there than at the fourth, while there were significantly fewer dead specimens in the first centimeter than in the third and fourth.
Salinity and silicate concentrations were studied at about fortnightly intervals for 21 months at a station near Barbados, W. Indies; latitude ~3~ ' N, longitude 59~ ' W. A sensitive inverse correlation was found to exist at 5 and 25 m, but not at greater depths. Salinity near the surface varied between 33.5 and 36.0 2~ and silicate between a little less than 1 and 4 ~g at/1. Low salinity water, rich in silicate, was found from February to July; salinity increased and silicate decreased from September to December. It is argued that the low salinity water at Barbados can be identified with the areas of reduced salinity found by RYTtI~R et al. (1967) about latitude 8 ~ to 10 ~ N, longitude 50 ~ to 55 ~ W, and that this water originates from the Amazon River. Local precipitation does not seem to be a significant factor.
The nighttime (N) and daytime (D) size–depth distributions of mesopelagic fish at Ocean Acre, a typical deepwater site in the North Sargasso Sea, are described using archival discrete-depth data from the surface to about 1500 m. The N/D abundance distributions n(z) for a representative group of 18 swtmbladdered species indicate that fish are concentrated in the 0–150 m euphotic zone at night and in the 400–1000 m zone during the day in spring, summer, and winter. Seasonal succession in the average life stage size classes of the bladdered group occurs, but all classes are present year-round due to the variety of specific spawning patterns. The noncoincident N/D depth niches of individual bladdered species apparently are organized to reduce competition. Normalized N/D depth distributions [Formula: see text] for the bladdered group are similar throughout the year, and appear to be determined, respectively, by the N distribution of zooplankton biomass and the D underwater light field, other hydrographic variables having little direct influence. Also, it seems likely that the form of [Formula: see text] is relatively insensitive to species composition for such groups. These hypotheses are verified qualitatively by comparing specific and group distribution properties at other ocean sites with those at Ocean Acre.
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