The goldfish pituitary

Summary In the goldfish, Carassius auratus, morphological and functional aspects of the pituitary gland were studied at the ultrastructural level and six cell types could be distinguished in the pars distalis. Acidophilic cells of the rostral pars distalis were identified as prolactin cells, the chromophobic cells of the rostral pars distalis as ACTH cells, the non-globular basophilic cells of the rostral and the proximal pars distalis as TSH cells, the globular basophils of the proximal pars distalis as gonadotropic cells and the acidophils of the proximal pars distalis as somatotrophs.Besides some of the well established criteria of morphological and functional identification of different cell types, two new approaches have been used in the present study. One was to express the electron density of secretory granules objectively by means of a photometric method. It was found that both types of acidophilic cells which produce the proteohormones prolactin and somatotropin respectively, had granules with the highest electron densities. The basophilic cells producing the glycoproteins gonadotropin and TSH respectively, possessed granules of intermediate electron density whereas the chromophobic cells storing the peptide hormone ACTH had granules of lowest densities. The second new approach was the administration of the synthetic mammalian releasing hormones LH-RP and TRF, which helped in identifying gonadotropic and thyrotropic cells respectively. In the goldfish there is evidence for the presence of only one type of gonadotropic cell.Supported by a grant of the Science Research Council of Great Britain to Professor Sir Francis Knowles, F.R.S. The electron microscope used was provided by the Medical Research Council of Great Britain. The integrating photometer IPM2 was kindly on loan from Messrs. Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany. For technical advice we are greatly indebted to Mr. P. K. Kaul, B. E., M.I. Struct. E., C. Eng.     

The ultrastructure of the sinus gland of Carcinus maenas (Crustacea: Decapoda)

Summary The sinus gland of Carcinus maenas consists of the swollen axonal endings of the neurosecretory cells of the major ganglia and acts as a storage release centre for the membrane bound neurosecretory material. These neurosecretory granules fall into five different types based on size and electron density. Their contents are released by exocytosis of the primary granules or smaller units budded from the primary granules.I thank Professor E. Naylor for his constant advice and Professor E. W. Knight-Jones, Department of Zoology, University College, Swansea, for the provision of laboratory facilities. I am grateful to the Science Research Council for the financial support. Finally, I thank the Electron Microscope Unit, Southampton General Hospital, where the work was completed.     

Electron microscopy of the skin of the teleost,Hippoglossoides elassodon

Summary The normal skin of the pleuronectid fish, Hippoglossoides elassodon, is described by light and electron microscopy. The epidermis consists of 5 to 9 layers of cells, the majority of which are squamous cells and the minority mucous cells. The squamous cells are characterized by numerous desmosomes and associated cytoplasmic filaments. The mucous cells accumulate mucous droplets in vacuoles of Golgi origin and are observed apparently in the process of releasing their content at the free surface. The dermis consists of alternating lamellae composed of typical collagen fibers. Pigment cells are of three types: melanophores, iridophores (guanophores), and lipophores.This work was supported by Public Health Service Research Grant CA-08158 from the National Cancer Institute.     

Modelling Mediterranean pasture dynamies

Pasture vegetation in an open woodland of Quercus rotundifolia subjected to periodic ploughing was sampled in spring during 8 consecutive years. The frequency of herbaceous species was recorded in a total of 69 permanent plots located on 5 adjacent sites with similar lithology, slope and orientation but differing in age since previous ploughing.Vegetation dynamics expressed as trajectories of permanent plots in a non-metric multidimensional scaling space has been modelled in terms of evironmental variables. By fitting a generalized linear model, the dynamics are shown to be related to years since last ploughing, geographical location of plots, total annual rainfall and November rainfall. Meteorological patterns of the sampling period are also described.Abbreviations GLM = Generalized Linear Model - NMDS = Non-metric Multi-Dimensional Scaling - UPGMA = Unweighted Pair-Group Method using Arithmetic Averages     

Buried seed populations on the volcano Mt. Usu,northern Japan,ten years after the 1977–78 eruptions

In 1987, a study on buried seed populations was conducted in the crater basin of Mt. Usu, a volcano located in northern Japan, where the vegetation had beeen almost completely destroyed by eruptions in 1977 and 1978. The former vegetation had consisted of grassland and broad-leaved forest. In the areas formerly occupied by this grassland and forest, 2128.0 and 1985.3 seeds per square meter, respectively, were extracted from 12 blocks of the former topsoil using a floattion method. This revealed that many seeds were still viable even after ten years of burial under thick volcanic deposits. The seeds were distributed more in sandy soil than in rocky soil of the former topsoil. Twenty-five species, most of which favored grassland, were detected in both the former grassland and forest. From comparison of α-and β-diversities between the grassland and forest, the structure of the buried seed population was considered likely to have been more diverse in the forest than in the grassland. The determinants of composition of the buried seed populations were discussed with reference to the former vegetation and soil characteristics.     

Climate and vegetation in China II. Distribution of main vegetation types and thermal climate

The authors examined relationships between Kira's warmth index (WI) and four other important thermal indices: the sums of daily mean temperatures above 5°C and 10°C, Thornthwaite's potential evapotranspiration (PE) and Holdridge's annual biotemperature. The thermal records of 671 meteorological stations evenly located all over China were used to make these comparisons. Close correlations were found within the four relationships, and accordingly WI was used to analyse the thermal distributions of the main vegetation types. Vegetation types around the 671 stations were read from a vegetation map with a scale of 1/4000000. Vegetation types at 269 stations corresponded to the natural or seminatural vegetation, and 29 vegetation types were distinguished by arranging the 269 data into the same or similar types. The geographical distribution of these 29 types and the corresponding main climatic features were described. The relations between WI and distribution of these vegetation types were discussed in detail. As a result, WI values (°C month) corresponding to the vegetation zones could be summarized as follows: (1) arctic or alpine vegetation zone: 0–15; (2) boreal or subalpine vegetation zone: 15-(50–55); (3) cool-temperate vegetation zone: (50–55)–(80–90); (4) warm-temperate vegetation zone: (80–90)–(170–180). These values almost coincided with Kira's values. Chinese postgraduate student in Japan sent by the Chinese Government.     

Histochemical characterization of myotomal muscle in the roach, Rutilus rutilus (L.)

A histochemical study of the myotomal muscles in the roach revealed three main muscle regions: red, intermediate and white. These were distinguished on the basis of glycogen content, succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), and myofibrillar ATPase (mATPase) activity. Except for the red fibre region, none of these described regions is homogeneous. The principal new findings are the toniclike fibre, the presence of a transitional zone with two fibre types, and the mosaic organization of the white fibre region. The significance of this type of myotome architecture in relation to the locomotion of the species is discussed.     

Plant growth in relation to a rain incident in Wadi Agag,South Egypt

Plant growth in the extremely arid southern part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt is supported by the torrential moisture stored in the subsurface layers of wadi-fill deposits. The space-time stratification of the soil moisture and corresponding adaptive stratification of root systems lead to the niche separation of the species. The survivorship of all studied plants except Zilla spinosa, has a low mortality at early and middle life, but a rapid change to high mortality at a later stage. Zilla spinosa shows the high juvenile and low adult mortality which related significantly to the population density.     

Distribution and hydraulic significance of large woody debris in a lowland Australian river

The line-intersect technique was used to measure the loading of large woody debris in a 1.8 km reach of the Thomson River, Victoria (catchment area of 3540 km²). A debris census (measuring every item present) was done over 0.775 km of this reach. The transect technique over-estimated the actual loading revealed by the census. The loading of debris 0.01 m in diameter for the total 1.8 km reach was 0.0172 m³ m^–2, which is higher than that measured in many headwater streams in other parts of the world. The volume loading of debris measured from low level aerial photographs was only 4.8% of the value estimated by the line-intersect technique. The line-intersect estimates were biased due to non-random orientation of debris in the stream (causing estimated errors of +8% for volume loading and +16% for surface area loading). It is recommended that to avoid this problem, when using the line-intersect transect technique in lowland rivers, each line should comprise at least two obliquely-angled transects across the channel. The mean item of debris (0.1 m in diameter) had a trunk basal diameter of 0.45 m, a length of 7.4 m, and volume of 0.7 m³. The riparian trees and the in-channel debris were of similar dimensions. The debris tended to be close to the bed and banks and was oriented downstream by the flow at a median angle of 27°. Because of this orientation, most debris had a small projected cross-sectional area, with the median value being only 1 m². Thus, the blockage ratio (proportion of projected area of debris to channel cross-sectional area) was also low, ranging from 0.0002 to 0.1, with a median value of 0.004. The average item of debris, which occupied only 0.4% of the cross-section, would have minimal influence on banktop flow hydraulics, but the largest items, which occupied around 10%, could be significant. Judicious re-introduction of debris into previously cleared rivers is unlikely to result in a large loss of conveyance, or a detectable increase in flooding frequency.