This series represents a secondary level of scientifiic publishing. All issues employ thorough internal scientific review; some issues employ external scientific review. Reviews are --by design --transparent collegial reviews, not anonymous peer reviews. All issues may be cited in formal scientific communications. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NE-148Editorial Notes on Issues 122-152 in the NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NE Series Editorial ProductionFor Issues 122-152, staff of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center's (NEFSC's) Ecosystems Processes Division have largely assumed the role of staff of the NEFSC's Editorial Office for technical and copy editing, type composition, and page layout. Other than the four covers (inside and outside, front and back) and first two preliminary pages, all preprinting editorial production has been performed by, and all credit for such production rightfully belongs to, the authors and acknowledgees of each issue, as well as those noted below in "Special Acknowledgments." Special AcknowledgmentsDavid B. Packer, Sara J. Griesbach, and Luca M. Cargnelli coordinated virtually all aspects of the preprinting editorial production, as well as performed virtually all technical and copy editing, type composition, and page layout, of Issues 122-152. Rande R. Cross, Claire L. Steimle, and Judy D. Berrien conducted the literature searching, citation checking, and bibliographic styling for Issues 122-152. Joseph J. Vitaliano produced all of the food habits figures in Issues 122-152. Internet AvailabilityIssues 122-152 are being copublished, i.e., both as paper copies and as web postings. All web postings are, or will soon be, available at: www.nefsc.nmfs.gov/nefsc/habitat/efh. Also, all web postings will be in "PDF" format. Information UpdatingBy federal regulation, all information specific to Issues 122-152 must be updated at least every five years. All official updates will appear in the web postings. Paper copies will be reissued only when and if new information associated with Issues 122-152 is significant enough to warrant a reprinting of a given issue. All updated and/or reprinted issues will retain the original issue number, but bear a "Revised (Month Year)" label. Species NamesThe NMFS Northeast Regions policy on the use of species names in all technical communications is generally to follow the American Fisheries Societys lists of scientific and common names for fishes (i.e., Robins et al. 1991 a ), mollusks (i.e., Turgeon et al. 1998 b ), and decapod crustaceans (i.e., Williams et al. 1989 c ), and to follow the Society for Marine Mammalogy's guidance on scientific and common names for marine mammals (i.e., Rice 1998

Existing reconstructions of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (WNAO) are based on terrestrial proxies and historical documents. No direct high-resolution, long-term records from marine settings are available for this major climate-dictating phenomenon, which severely affects a variety of economic aspects of our society. Here we present a 245 yr proxy WNAO index based on shells of the long-lived marine bivalve mollusk Arctica islandica. Variations in annual rates of shell growth are positively correlated with WNAO-related changes in the food supply. Maximum amplitudes in frequency bands of 7-9 and 5-7 yr fall exactly within the range of instrumental and other proxy WNAO indices. These estimates were obtained for specimens collected live, 2000 km apart, in the central North Sea and on the Norwegian Shelf. Hence, the WNAO influences hydrographic regimes of large regions of the ocean. Our study demonstrates that A. islandica can reliably reconstruct WNAO dynamics for time intervals and regions without instrumental records. Our new tool functions as a proxy for the WNAO index prior to the twentieth-century greenhouse forcing and has the potential to further validate other proxy-based WNAO records.

No abstract

The cornucopia of chilly winters: Ocean quahog (Arctica islandica L., Mollusca) master chronology reveals bottom water nutrient enrichment during colder winters (North Sea). -Senckenbergiana marit., 32 (1/2): 165-175, 6 figs., 1 tab.; Frankfurt a.M.]We studied variations in annual shell growth rates of ten live-collected Arctica islandica specimens from three localities at the Dogger Bank in the central North Sea. Synchronous growth curves from contemporaneous specimens enabled the construction of a 65-year multi-locality master chronology.Stepwise multiple linear correlation analysis indicated a highly significant (p < 0.01) negative relationship between annual shell growth and winter sea surface temperatures (SST) during the period of 1953 to 1995. Up to 27.5% of the variation in the annual shell growth is explained by winter temperature. We explain the higher growth levels in colder winters by higher food supply. During warmer winters both the stratification and bottom water currents in the study area seem to be stronger and prevent downwardmixing of nutrients as well as settlement of food on the sea floor. During colder winters, however, the stratification weakens and phytoplankton produced in the cold surface layer reaches the sea floor. Longterm changes in shell growth rates are thus directly connected to hydrographic changes in the North Sea, which in turn are related to fluctuations of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).Our study demonstrates the usefulness of Arctica islandica for long-term, high-resolution environmental reconstructions and contributes to further understanding natural and anthropogenic variability in the environmental history of the North Sea.