Journal articles on the topic 'Marine laboratories – History'

Herein we consolidate the information available concerning the biodiversity of batoid fishes in the northern Gulf of Mexico, including nearly 70 years of survey data collected by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mississippi Laboratories and their predecessors. We document 41 species proposed to occur in the northern Gulf of Mexico. However, the validity of several of these reports and their associated data is questioned. In addition, we provide information and remarks concerning the distribution, conservation status, taxonomy and recorded history for each species covered.

The Mediterranean islands are known as natural laboratories of evolution with a high level of endemic biodiversity. However, most biodiversity assessments have focused mainly on terrestrial and marine fauna, leaving the freshwater animals aside. Crete is one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean Basin, with a long history of isolation from the continental mainland. Gammarid amphipods are often dominant in macrozoobenthic communities in European inland waters. They are widely used in biomonitoring and exotoxicological studies. Herein, we describeGammarus plaitisisp. nov., endemic to Cretan streams, based on morphological characters and a set of molecular species delimitation methods using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I and 16S rRNA genes as well as nuclear 28S rDNA, ITS1 and EF1-alpha genes. The divergence of the new species is strongly connected with the geological history of the island supporting its continental origin.

In China, the development of 14C dating is closely related to that of liquid scintillation counting (LSC). New demands are continuously made on LSC by 14C dating, and at the same time, the development of LSC promotes 14C dating. Benzene synthesis for 14C sample preparation was first developed in China in 1974 by the 14C Laboratory of the Department of History, Peking University. This has laid the foundation for 14C dating by β counting with LS counters. Initially, we used a modified conventional LS counter. Despite its poor detection efficiency and high background, it did make a great contribution to 14C dating and LSC in China. Additional 14C laboratories were established for the fields of archaeology, geology, geography, vertebrate paleontology, marine geology and seismology, for which 14C dating is becoming an important research tool. At present, over 50 14C laboratories have been established in China; 90% of the labs use LS counters for β counting, most of which are manufactured in China. 14C dating in China has been primarily concerned with sample synthesis techniques. Since 1979, we have developed three types of LS counters. One is of conventional design; the others are with anticoincidence shielding. We describe here an anticoincidence-shielded LS counter.

ABSTRACT In November 1997 and again in January 1998, U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office San Francisco Bay, California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), the National Park Service, and the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary responded to “mystery” oil spill incidents in the Point Reyes National Seashore, California area. These spill responses were unique because they were primarily wildlife recovery and rehabilitation operations; very little oil was sighted despite wildlife impacts that rank the event as the fourth worst in California history. A large-scale investigation including the use of multiple laboratories to identify the source of the oil has established a connection between the two spills, but no responsible party has been identified to defray the response costs. As a result of the spills, a significant effort is underway in Northern California to better define the role of wildlife operations within the incident command system and to rethink its organization and protocols. Other lessons to apply to future responses involve the funding issues revolving around the difference between response efforts and natural resource damage assessment when the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF) is the primary source of funding.

AbstractThis article addresses the heritage of Grotius's concept of common goods (res communes) as developed in his seminal work Mare liberum. This contribution identifies the basic tenets of Grotius's thinking on the nature of common property and identifies the relevance of these ideas for the present day management of global commons, i.e., the areas and natural resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Successively, the article examines the regimes for: the deep seabed, the high seas, and marine mammals; outer space, particularly the moon; the two polar regions; and the atmosphere, in particular the ozone layer and the climate system. The article demonstrates how some of the original tenets of Grotius's concept of res communis – in particular the idea of inexhaustibility – can no longer be upheld and how the freedom of access to the global commons has become increasingly qualified and supplemented, if not replaced by a new law of international co-operation aimed at conservation and sustainable use of natural wealth and resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. The global commons function as laboratories for the testing of new principles of international law and new forms of international co-operation, which can be said to clearly build upon the Grotian heritage.

Bones were recorded in the skeleton of some species of Iraqi turtle Mauremys rivulata; the objectives of this study came in light of current conditions, environmental developments, talents and techniques of biological studies taking place in the country, need for an anatomy guide in river turtles of Iraqi species, to identify all kinds of similarities and differences with their preaching, this work or study has become written in response to those modern needs. It is designed to be one of the resources for those interested in biological studies, beginners or professionals, and veterinarians, distinguishing them from marine and global species. Turtles were dissected in the laboratories of the Research Center and Museum of Natural History / the University of Baghdad. The specimen was dissected by removing the abdominal cortex, muscles, and internal viscera and imaging the bone starting from the skull to the hind leg bones. This first study was in Iraq. Keywords: Turtles (Mauremys rivulata), anatomy, skeleton, bone, Iraq

John Lloyd Williams was an authority on the arctic-alpine flora of Snowdonia during the late nineteenth century when plant collecting was at its height, but unlike other botanists and plant collectors he did not fully pursue the fashionable trend of forming a complete herbarium. His diligent plant-hunting in a comparatively little explored part of Snowdonia led to his discovering a new site for the rare Killarney fern (Trichomanes speciosum), a feat which was considered a major achievement at the time. For most part of the nineteenth century plant distribution, classification and forming herbaria, had been paramount in the learning of botany in Britain resulting in little attention being made to other aspects of the subject. However, towards the end of the century many botanists turned their attention to studying plant physiology, a subject which had advanced significantly in German laboratories. Rivalry between botanists working on similar projects became inevitable in the race to be first in print as Lloyd Williams soon realized when undertaking his major study on the cytology of marine algae.

This course is designed so that topics in invertebrate paleontology are discussed in the context of reefs and their change through time. The goal is to help undergraduate students connect modern conservation issues with an enlightened appreciation of the fossil record. Using reefs as the centralizing theme of the course allows key concepts (invertebrate taxonomy and systematics, form and function, evolution, etc.) to be emphasized while exploring the importance of biogenic buildups—and communities that inhabited ecosystems adjacent to those “engines of evolution”—from the past to the present. Students who satisfactorily complete the course achieve seven main learning objectives: They 1) are intimately familiar with the fossil record of marine invertebrate life; 2) understand the evolutionary history of reefs and the ecological roles played by key reef-building invertebrates through time; 3) are able to engage in discussions about paleontological data published in the primary literature; 4) are knowledgeable about the value of paleontological evidence for shedding insights into the decline of ancient and living reefs; 5) gain experience working collaboratively and thinking outside-of-the-box to explore solutions to societal problems linked with the degradation of modern coral reefs; 6) improve scientific writing; and 7) develop a personal style for communicating scientific information to the general public. During classroom discussions, laboratories, a field trip, and museum visit, students explore the anatomy, ecology, evolutionary history, and life-sustaining ecosystem services of shelly animals and associated marine organisms that coexisted in reefs and adjacent habitats past and present. Evolutionary events, including the Cambrian “explosion,” mass extinctions, and gaps in reef existence, are linked to dramatic physical (tectonic) and climatic changes that occurred in Earth's past. Emphasizing evidence for the impact of global change on ancient reef communities alerts students to the value of paleontological data for predicting how modern reefs—and invertebrates living in interconnected marine ecosystems—will respond as the Sixth Extinction gains traction. That topic is the focus of an optional extended study (nine-day field trip offered in alternate years during spring break) of modern and Pleistocene reefs on San Salvador Island, Bahamas.

Attempts sponsored by the Admiralty's Board of Invention and Research (BIR) to train sea lions as submarine trackers from November 1916 to mid–1917, when there was considerable concern about the depredations of U–boats, involved a unique collaboration between Fellows of The Royal Society and music-hall celebrities. The official establishment, with its scientific advisers and somewhat reluctant naval representatives, met the world of music hall and circus entertainment, when sea lion ‘captains’ were called upon to assist their counterparts in the Royal Navy. Admiralty documents in the Public Record Office indicate that in 1916 Professor W.H. Bragg, F.R.S. of Section II of the BIR had been approached by ‘Captain’ Joseph Woodward, a music–hall sea lion trainer, who recommended his animals as a possible solution to the U–boat menace. Woodward's recommendation was taken seriously, and he was in due course taken on by the BIR as a consultant, provider of sea lions and experimenting participant. Experiments and trials took place in public swimming baths in Glasgow and Westminster, at Lake Bala and finally on the Solent, under the general supervision of Dr E.J. Allen, F.R.S., Director of the Marine Biological Association laboratories in Plymouth, and with the regular participation of Sir Richard Paget, Secretary of Section II, and Woodward's brother, Captain Fred. At first the aim was to train muzzled animals prior to meals to ignore fish alongside them in a tank in favour of an artificial underwater sound, after a conditioned approach to which they would be rewarded with food. Training would then be transferred to open water, using a submarine as the sound and food source, which the animals might learn to follow without the distraction of fish or of sounds other than those associated with submarines. Woodward's work consisted of a successful application of the same principle of conditioned response which Pavlov made quantifiable in his dogs, and the trials themselves represented a very unusual alliance between science and the performing arts.

The aim of the study was to present the history of ichtyopathology in Poland and the main achievements of researchers who developed this discipline. The pioneer of ichtyopathological research in Poland was the ichtyologist prof. Teodor Spiczakov, founder of the first Fish Diseases Laboratory at the Jagiellonian University (JU) and initiator of fishery veterinary service. After the Second World War, dr Stanisław F. Śnieszko, a researcher from JU, established a laboratory in the United States, renamed the National Fisheries Center in 1977. In writing about the beginnings of ichthyopathology in Poland, one must also mention prof. Bronisław Kocyłowski, founder and head of the Department of Fish Diseases at PIW in Puławy and lecturer at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (WULS) and Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin. Prof. Eugeniusz Grabda also contributed to the development of ichtyopathology. He headed the Inland Fisheries Institute (IFI), Fish Disease Laboratory and the Department of Ichthyology with the Department of Fish Diseases at the Fishery Department of the Academy of Agriculture and Technology (AAT) in Olsztyn and co-founded the Department of Marine Fisheries at the Agricultural Academy and the Department of Fish Diseases in Szczecin. In Żabieniec near Warsaw, IFI established a new Ichtiohygiene Division, renamed the Division of Pathology and Fish Immunology, formerly headed by prof. Maria Studnicka and now by prof. Andrzej K. Siwicki. Veterinary inspection in Poland is conducted by the Fish Diseases Laboratory at ZHW under the substantive supervision of the National Veterinary Research Institute & National Reference Laboratories at Fish Diseases Unit in Puławy, headed by prof. Jerzy Antychowicz. Currently the Unit is the National Reference Laboratory for the diagnostics of diseases of aquaculture animals, run by prof. Michal Reichert. Prof. J. Antychowicz and dr. Jan Żelazny taught for many years at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the WULS in Warsaw and at AAT in Olsztyn. The Polish Academy of Sciences has a Department of Ichtiopatology and Fishery Management in Gołysz, headed by prof. Andrzej Pilarczyk, who studies the biological basis of fish farming. “Fish diseases” is a mandatory subject at faculties of veterinary medicine in Poland, and every graduate of veterinary medicine possesses a basic knowledge in this field. The Division of Fish Diseases and Biology in Lublin has been operating since 1963 and for many years was headed by prof. Maria Prost, an authority on the parasitology of fish. The current head of the Division is prof. Antonina Sopińska. The Division of Hygiene Veterinary Laboratory and Fish Diseases Laboratory (later Division of Ichtyopathology) at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Wrocław University af Environmental and Life Sciences were previously headed by prof. Zbigniew Jara, and now by dr Wiktor Niemczuk. At the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, prof. Andrzej K. Siwicki and dr Elżbieta Terech-Majewska run the Fish Disease Laboratory and Veterinary Laboratory for Diagnostics of Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles, carry out scientific research, teach and cooperate with fish farmers.

Research Infrastructures (RIs) are facilities, resources and services used by scientists to perform research and support innovation. A number of EU research infrastructures [e.g. e-Science and Technology European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (LifeWatch) European Research Iinfrastructures Consortium (ERIC); The European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information (ELIXIR); the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC ERIC); the European Research Infrastructure for Imaging Technologies in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (uroBioImaging ERIC)] have been building Virtual Research Environments (VREs), which include many virtual laboratories (vLabs) offering, one stop data access to scientists, high computational capacity and collaborative research platforms in support of the requirements of the digital science. This presentation gives examples on the use of the vLabs developed by LifeWatch ERIC which have subsequently been taken up as web services by other RIs. The RvLab operates on a high-performance computer cluster, and has been used in order to analyse various properties of taxon equality, with a focus on marine species. This taxonomic information on marine biota is organized and made publicly available through the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) that delivers more than 250,000 described valid species names. Although scientists consider an equal status (in terms of contribution to overall diversity) to each taxon used in taxonomy, biogeography, ecology and biodiversity, the question “are all taxa equal?” has never been tested at a global scale. We present evidence that this question can be addressed by applying relatedness indices (Taxonomic Distinctness) over the entire WoRMS metazoan tree. The virtual micro-CT laboratory (Micro-CT vLab), which can be used by the members of the scientific community interested in the digitisation methods and biological collections, makes the micro-CT data exploration of natural history specimens freely available over the internet. Micro-CT vLab makes it possible the online exploration and dissemination of micro-CT datasets, which are only rarely made available to the public due to their very large size and a lack of dedicated online platforms supporting the interactive manipulation of 3D data. Examples of how these vLabs can be used by other RIs are provided.

El Laboratorio de Hidrobiología Española (LHE) fue fundado en el Instituto General y Técnico de Valencia en 1912 por el catedrático de historia natural Celso Arévalo, y fue el primer centro concebido específicamente para el estudio de la ecología de aguas continentales en España. El LHE fue adscrito desde 1919 al Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid (MNCN), coincidiendo con el traslado de Arévalo a la capital, aunque el Instituto continuó alojándolo y financiándolo. El discípulo de Arévalo, Luis Pardo, quedó al cargo del LHE. A pesar del escaso apoyo por parte de la dirección del MNCN, desarrolló un apreciable trabajo científico. Pardo dejó el LHE en 1927, cuando partió a Madrid para buscar un mejor puesto de trabajo. El nuevo responsable pasó a ser Fernando Boscá, un joven naturalista con escasa experiencia, nieto del ilustre zoólogo y paleontólogo Eduardo Boscá e hijo de Antimo Boscá, el sucesor de Arévalo en el Instituto. Entre 1928 y 1931, Fernando Boscá realizó un esfuerzo personal por mantener abierto el LHE pese a la indiferencia de los responsables del MNCN y el obstruccionismo del director del Instituto de Valencia. Las tareas emprendidas consistieron en modestas investigaciones sobre la fauna dulce acuícola y marina del territorio valenciana, el mantenimiento de acuarios de investigación y diversas acciones de divulgación. El destino del LHE, sin embargo, estaba decidido y una anomalía administrativa puso fin a las actividades del LHE en 1932.

Background: The taxonomic order Anura is composed of frogs and toads, with approximately 6000 species worldwide, of which 900 species are found in Brazil. Rhinella marina, popularly known as “sapo-cururu,” is the most commonly found frog in Brazil. Although most of these animals are found in research laboratories and zoos, they are increasingly being reared as pets. Therefore, sedation or anesthesia is often necessary for these animals to facilitate medical care, complementary examinations, or surgical procedures. However, there are only a few reports of anesthesia in frogs. Therefore, the present report aimed to describe the anesthetic protocol for femoral osteosynthetic surgery in an adult cane toad.Case: An adult cane toad presented with a history of difficulty in moving the left hindlimb and loss of limb movements. Radiography showed a simple, complete, transverse, and closed average shaft of the left femur and bone shaft fracture deviation. The animal was referred for an osteosynthetic surgery to stabilize the fracture. Animal restraint was performed using humidified gloves on the operating table. As premedication, ketamine, meloxicam, and morphine were administered, and general anesthesia was induced with isoflurane through a face mask. The anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane through a drip on the animal's back for cutaneous absorption. Lidocaine (2%) anesthetic gel was applied on the incision line to complement the somatic analgesia. The fracture was fixed using an intramedullary Kirschner pin. The heart rate was measured based on the beep of the arterial pulse using a Doppler ultrasonic device, respiratory rate was recorded by visual observation of the animal’s respiratory motion, and body temperature was assessed using an esophageal digital thermometer—all of these remained stable during the procedure. Morphine, enrofloxacin, and meloxicam were administered postoperatively. The animal was discharged from the hospital seven days after the surgery, and 14 days later, the animal was deemed clinically stable with favorable wound healing.Discussion: Toads use their skin to breathe and maintain osmotic balance. Therefore, their skin is extremely sensitive to dehydration, requiring constant wetting. General anesthesia in amphibians is recommended for prolonged and painful procedures, as in the present case. Different anesthetics, analgesics, and associated drugs may be used. Ketamine is often used for chemical restraint in amphibians, and the induction and recovery times may vary due to sensitivity and drug resistance. Inhalational anesthesia with isoflurane may also be effective; in the present case, the anesthetic was administered using a mask placed on the frog’s skin, without any irritation. Analgesia is essential for any animal, and amphibians have opioid receptors that may be used as targets of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. As indicated for all species, the animal was monitored throughout the procedure. Assessment of heartbeat is the simplest way to monitor anesthesia using Doppler (on the heart or throat); in the present case, was placed on the axillary artery for clear auscultation. In addition, other parameters, such as temperature and primary respiratory movements, were monitored. Anesthetic recovery can take hours or even days, whereas excretion depends on the metabolic rate of each animal. In the present case, recovery was observed 4 h after completion of the procedure, using fresh water on the animal’s body to accelerate recovery, as indicated in the literature. This case demonstrated that anesthesia and medications used for anesthesia induction, maintenance, and recovery are safe in toads. For cane toads, during femoral osteosynthesis, this anesthetic procedure has never been described previously in the literature. Finally, such information can aid veterinarians in performing safe and adequate analgesic and anesthetic procedures for the wellbeing of animals.Keywords: amphibians, analgesia, surgery, skin absorption.