Barbados is a small island some 300 miles north of the closest mainland shore, South America. Its position, 13° North, 59° West, places it to the east of the Antilles, from which it is separated by the Tobago Trench. While located in the North Equatorial Current, it is on the northern edge of the influence of the South Equatorial Current, and is the first island of the West Indian group that these currents pass before entering the Caribbean Sea travelling westward parallel to the shores of South America. The island has an area of 166 square miles, and is roughly triangular in shape, twenty-one miles long and eleven miles wide. The nearly 300,000 people living there make it one of the most heavily populated countries in the world.

Marine biological collections were made at Tanquary Fjord during the summer of 1963 and 1964 under a contract between McGill University and the Defence Research Board of Canada. Exploratory collecting was done in 1963 by Mr. B. Frost and Mr. J. Haight, which included widespread sampling of plankton, temperatures, and salinities. During the summer of 1964 (May 8 - August 25) plankton collections and related measurements were taken by the author and an assistant. The 1964 program was designed to make all data easily comparable by sampling at standard depths, at equal time intervals, and as close to the same location as possible. This gave a continuous record throughout the season of all changes which occurred. [...]

No description available.

No description available.

This is the first attempt to study the circumglobal pelagic planktonts of the Family Phronimidae collected from all oceans. Before Vosseler (1901) published his work on the systematics of the phronimid species, the sexual dimorphism and the age variation in these animals proved confusing to the taxonomists. Synonyms of the species were mostly made at this period. [...]

Rock pools can be found in most rocky intertidal marine environments across the globe. Despite the vast body of literature describing the organization of ecological communities and biota inhabiting the greater rocky intertidal, very little effort has been given to rock pools. As a result they are far less understood than the adjacent emergent intertidal, particularly with respect to their fish communities. This is mostly due to the relative small size of rock pool fishes, their cryptic behaviour and morphologies, the relative difficulty in sampling intertidal fish utilizing conventional methods, and the low economic value of rock pool fishes. Rock pool fishes may have significant ecological value, as they are involved in structuring intertidal communities. Due to reduced environmental fluctuations within rock pools, these habitats may serve as crucial refuges from adjacent stressors. Furthermore, rock pools may play an important role in the early life histories of sub-littoral fish species that utilize these habitats as juveniles, some of which are valuable to fisheries as adults. It has been suggested that due to the lack of exposure at low tide, rock pools do not represent a true intertidal habitat, as organisms are not subject to the full range of environmental fluctuations seen in adjacent habitats. There is unequivocal evidence indicating that, like the surrounding emergent substrata, conditions in rock pools are highly regulated by the tidal cycle and that the degree of environmental fluctuations will vary greatly with intertidal height and degree of exposure of individual pools, much like patterns seen in adjacent habitats. Fishes inhabiting rock pools can be broadly categorised into groups based on their major zoographic provinces, life history traits and their behavioural affinities, on top of basic taxonomic categorizations. Global patterns indicate two main rock pool fish communities, those of Gondwanan origin and those of Laurasian origin. South African rock pools are relatively well studied from a taxonomic perspective compared to elsewhere, however, like the rest of the globe, factors influencing their fish communities are far less understood. The aim of this study was to determine which, if any, physical and biological rock pool characteristics have any significant influence on the Abundance, Diversity and Community of fishes at Goukamma MPA, South Africa. This site was chosen due to a lack of previous surveys of rock pool fishes at this site and because of a need for an inventory of faunal communities in protected areas in South Africa. The shoreline within the reserve is dominated by sandy shores and interspersed with mixed rock-based habitats. Aelonite platforms form mixed shores and are found along areas west of the Goukamma estuary. Hard, predominantly older Table Mountain Sandstone layers are found along the eastern shore near Buffalo Bay. Rock pools are found at both shore types. Aelonite platforms were formed geologically recently from sand dunes formed during the interglacial periods of the Pleistocene and as a result are relatively flat and easily eroded into circular pools by loose rocks. The hard table mountain sandstone pools formed in cracks and faults caused by geological tilting action, and tend to long and thin rather than circular. Fifty-five rock pools were sampled, to investigate the influence of spatial (Location and Headland), temporal (Season), abiotic (Area, Height, Depth, Rugosity) and biological (Rock, Algae,) characteristics of rock pools on the distribution, abundance, diversity and community composition of rock pool fishes. A total of 747 fishes, representing seven families and 16 species were collected, using a non-lethal anesthetic, clove oil. Clinus cottoides, Parablennius cornutus and Caffrogobius caffer were the most dominant species, together making up almost 85% of the fish community. Total fish Abundance was not found to significantly change with any of the variables. The Shannon-Wiener Species Diversity Index for the whole of Goukamma was 1.64, however, it differed significantly among Locations, was greatest in pools of larger Area, lower Heights and higher cover of Rock. Community was found to significantly change with Location and was significantly influenced by Area, Rugosity, Height and Depth. Rock pool fish communities in South Africa show clear biogeographical patterns. These patterns show five distinct bioregions along the South African coastline in that familial distributions tend to be broken by the same oceanographic barriers seen in the distributions of many other marine taxa. The results suggest that rock pool fishes tend to exhibit distinct preferences to pools of certain typology and will seldom move over even small distances in search of new pools. Overall the study followed past findings from studies of similar type, both within South African and elsewhere.

The sea-ice impacted Southern Ocean, south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is one of the most important regions on earth for the cycling of carbon and distribution of heat and freshwater around the globe. Here, along-isopycnal upwelling of warm, carbon-rich circumpolar deep water coincides with the annual growth and melt of Antarctic sea ice that represents one of the world's largest surface water transformations. The air-sea-ice buoyancy exchanges and biological processes that change the surface water properties therefore have global consequences, as they set the properties of downwelling intermediate waters that enter the upper branch of the global thermohaline circulation. The region hosts some of the largest uncertainties in global climate models. The reason for this stems from two sources. Firstly, the spatio-temporal resolution of global climate models is limited by computational constraints such that smaller scale processes need to be parameterized. Secondly, the challenges associated with making observations in or near sea ice and in the harsh and remote conditions of the Southern Ocean means that the region is sparsely sampled, and as such, the parameterizations of the small scale and turbulent terms in global climate models are validated based only on a few in situ samples. This thesis concerns the observation and interpretation of (sub)meso- to micro scale turbulence and its implications in the sea ice impacted Southern Ocean. I aimed to understand the 0.01-1 km scale physical and biological processes that drive changes in the properties of the upper ocean following sea ice melt, using groundbreaking sustained high temporal and spatial resolution observations made by gliders. There are three main findings. Firstly, we find that sea ice melt by introducing a lateral freshwater gradient enhances stirring of submesoscale flows (0.1-10 km) and therefore lateral variability in the upper ocean, but simultaneously constrains vertical fluxes between the ocean interior and surface by enhancing stratification. Secondly, turbulent diapycnal mixing and double diffusive convection (0.1-1 m scales) drive the warming of the subsurface winter water, therefore mediating fluxes between the ocean interior and surface. Finally, phytoplankton respond favourably to larger volume sea ice that enhances winter mixing of nutrients from the deep reservoir and to upper ocean stratification in the summer. The preliminary evidence from this study suggests that the resultant higher intensity phytoplankton bloom translates to enhanced short term carbon export but not necessarily long term export. Overall, we show, using observations, that the variability and transport of heat and freshwater flux in the sea ice impacted Southern Ocean are sensitive to sea ice, with downstream impacts on phytoplankton, the biological carbon pump and ultimately the upper cell of the meridional overturning circulation.

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This thesis represents the first dedicated study of the application of computational photography in marine science. It deals chiefly with the acquisition and use of photogrammetrically derived 3D organism models. The use of 3D models as 'virtual specimens' means that they may be securely archived and are accessible by anyone in any part of the world. Interactive 3D objects enhance learning by engaging the viewer in a participatory manner, and can help to clarify features that are unclear in photographs or diagrams. Measurements may be taken from these models for morphometric work, either manually or in an automated process. Digital 3D models permit the collection of novel metrics such as volume and surface area, which are very difficult to take by traditional means. These, and other metrics taken from 3D models, are a key step towards automating the species identification process. Where an organism changes over time, photogrammetry offers the ability to mathematically compare its shape before and after change. Sponge plasticity in response to stress and injury is quantified and visualised here for the first time. An array of networked underwater cameras was constructed for simultaneous capture of image sets. The philosophy of adapting simple, cheap consumer hardware is continued for the imaging and quantification of marine particulates. A restricted light field imaging system is described, together with techniques for image processing and data extraction. The techniques described are shown to be as effective as traditional instruments and methods for particulate measurement. The array cameras used a novel epoxy encapsulation technique which offers significant weight and cost advantages when compared to traditional metal pressure housings. It is also described here applied to standalone autonomous marine cameras. A fully synchronised autonomous in situ photogrammetry array is now possible. This will permit the non-invasive archiving and examination of organisms that may be damaged by recovery to the surface.

The West Greenland coast is a typical fjord region with a considerable development of local deepwater basins. The majority of the West Greenland fjords are of the typcial bottom configuration, with a well-developed threshold at the mouth, which normally rises to within 100 or 200 m of the surface. Such a fjord has been named an "Arctic" type fjord by Stephensen (1916), because the bottom water is arctic in character, having a negative temperature and low salinity. Ameralik fjord (Latitude 64o 3' N., Longitude 52o 30' W.) (map) is in this category. [...]