The harbour porpoise is the only cetacean species native to German waters. Since human pressures are suggested to shorten their reproductive lifespan, basic knowledge on reproduction is strongly required. One parameter is the onset of sexual maturity in female harbour porpoises. Therefore, we investigated the first signs of sexual maturity for a period of almost two decades (1990-2016). Ovaries...

In addition, visual predators are generally less abundant in extremes of low temperature. The appropriate combination of conditions is rarely found in shelf sea waters, and the majority of the overwintering stock resides at depths of 600-2000m in the open ocean, especially in the Norwegian Sea and, it is assumed, in the Labrador/ Irminger Sea in the northwest Atlantic. In the Norwegian Sea, the...

Variability of the surface water partial pressure of CO2 in the North Sea H. Thomas, Y. Bozec, K. Elkalay, H. J. W. de Baar, A. V. Borges, and L.-S. Schiettecatte Canada Research Chair, Dalhousie University, Department of Oceanography, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Department of Carbon Chemistry, P.O. Box 59, Den Burg, Texe...

1. introduction the effect of climate of the earth's surface is the result of interaction of different levels of atmosphere and lithosphere. one of the factors which influences that interaction is the way the system pressure transcends it. in this way, the system pressure changes and can be changed and eventually may become an environmental hazard and geomorphodynamic phenomenon. hazards are an...

Within the framework of a Tyndall Centre research project, sea level and wave changes around the UK and in the North Sea have been analysed. This paper integrates the results of this project. Many aspects of the contribution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to sea level and wave height have been resolved. The NAO is a major forcing parameter for sea-level variability. Strong positive res...

The Baltic Sea is one of the most contaminated seas by the radioactive isotope of strontium in the world; therefore the activity of ⁹⁰Sr is regularly controlled. Due to that fact, seawater samples for ⁹⁰Sr determination were collected at 16 stations located in the southern Baltic Sea between 2005 and 2010. In this period average activity of ⁹⁰Sr was 7.8 Bq m⁻³ and varied within the range from 3...

During the austral summer of 2008, we carried out a high resolution survey of the microplankton communities along a south to north transect covering a range of environments across the Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean; high and low productivity, sea-ice to open water conditions, and over a number of oceanographic fronts and bathymetric features. Cluster analysis revealed five distinct communities that...

This study examines the tropical linkages to interdecadal climate fluctuations over the North Pacific during boreal winter through a comprehensive and physically based analysis of a wide variety of observational datasets spanning the twentieth century. Simple difference maps between epochs of high sea level pressure over the North Pacific (1900–24 and 1947–76) and epochs of low pressure (1925–4...

Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) has, in recent decades, been isolated from an increasing number of free-living marine fish species. So far, it has been isolated from at least 48 fish species from the northern hemisphere, including North America, Asia and Europe, and fifteen different species including herring, sprat, cod, Norway pout and flatfish from northern European waters. The h...

The rapid Arctic summer sea ice reduction in the last decade has lead to debates in the maritime industries on the possibility of an increase in cargo transportation in the region. Average sailing times on the North Sea Route along the Siberian Coast have fallen from 20 days in the 1990s to 11 days in 2012– 2013, attributed to easing sea ice conditions along the Siberian coast. However, the eco...