From examination of the ratios of strontium to calcium laid down as a lifetime record in the otoliths of sea trout Salmo trutta from Gotland, Baltic Sea, it was found that: (1) the shortest stream was used mostly by precociously emigrant or coastally hatched spawners; (2) longer streams had more fish that underwent normal smoltification; (3) sea-caught fish were predominantly coastally hatched (presumably near stream mouths). Furthermore, some otoliths showed no evidence of a freshwater history at all, raising the possibility of a contingent of the coastal population that does not depend on riverine spawning. The results emphasize the importance of the coastal zone as natal and early life habitat for sea trout in the Baltic, particularly with respect to a potential change to a warmer climate which may exacerbate conditions within small, ephemeral trout streams. 2001 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction is marked globally by elevated concentrations of iridium, emplaced by a hypervelocity impact event 66 million years ago. Here, we report new data from four independent laboratories that reveal a positive iridium anomaly within the peak-ring sequence of the Chicxulub impact structure, in drill core recovered by IODP-ICDP Expedition 364. The highest concentration of ultrafine meteoritic matter occurs in the post-impact sediments that cover the crater peak ring, just below the lowermost Danian pelagic limestone. Within years to decades after the impact event, this part of the Chicxulub impact basin returned to a relatively low-energy depositional environment, recording in unprecedented detail the recovery of life during the succeeding millennia. The iridium layer provides a key temporal horizon precisely linking Chicxulub to K-Pg boundary sections worldwide.

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