Fifty species of polychæte worms are listed which have not hitherto been recorded from the Clyde Sea area, and an account is given of the morphological differences which some of them show from the available descriptions. Of the fifty new records, nine are new to British waters, including one described as a new species, Amage scotica (Ampharetidæ).

The major sources of domestic and industrial wastes being discharged into the estuary and firth are described and quantified. The effects of these inputs on the quality of the receiving waters, in terms of their dissolved oxygen and micronutrient levels, are discussed.

In the estuary, nitrate is shown to behave in an essentially conservative manner in the winter months; the ammonia distribution exhibits summer maxima as a direct result of the effluent waste inputs; the orthophosphate distribution is characterised by considerable losses in the upper reaches. The data on lateral distributions of micronutrients show marked gradients.

In the firth the significant improvements in waters off the Edinburgh coastline are described. The influence of the existing major discharges on water quality is shown occasionally to extend to the eastern limit of the firth for ammonia and orthophosphate.

The Upper Palaeozoic bedrock, which is of sedimentary and volcanic origin, is briefly described. The origin of the Forth as a series of depressions in the bedrock surface probably owes much to erosion of a pre-existing Tertiary landscape during phases of Quaternary glaciation. The late Quaternary history of the area is described, relating the distribution of the sediments deposited in the Forth to climatic events and changes in relative sea-level. Since the acme of the last main glaciation about 20,000 years ago, late Devensian marine and estuarine sediments have been deposited on the underlying glacial till sheet at altitudes ranging from more than 120 m below O.D. to at least 46 m above O.D. Similarly, raised and buried beaches and their deposits occur at altitudes from 40 m above O.D. down to around 10 m below O.D. in the estuary. During the Flandrian, sea-level has fluctuated, reaching its maximum (about 11 to 15 m above O.D.) about 6500 years ago. The typical deposit of this period is the carse clay which forms a series of extensive, fertile raised mudflats around the estuary. The calcareous marine faunas of the carse clay and older deposits are outlined.

This chapter has two linked objectives. The first is to sketch the process of human occupance of the lowland rain forest zone in West Africa, and illustrate (by means of a case study) the current circumstances of human settlement at the forest margins. The second is to bring the category ‘indigenous peoples’ under review, and to point out some of the pitfalls associated with the use of this term in the context of the West African forest frontier. All parts of the forest zone in West Africa have a long and complex history of occupation and use. In consequence, I shall argue that it is rarely, if ever, realistic to think of forest country as a residuum of empty land not yet passed into human ownership and use, but that it is equally distorting to treat the local groups currently found in possession of the forest edge as sole custodians. Forest resources have over time become part of the fabric of wider community life in West Africa, up to and beyond the national level, and narrow definitions of the category ‘indigenous peoples’ are to be avoided. Rather than search for putative forest indigenes, living in greater harmony with nature than incoming settlers (a usage reflecting Amazonian experience) it would be better, I suggest, to consider the term ‘indigenous peoples’ as covering all groups in West Africa with effective local knowledge of the forest. An eventual aim should be to understand how the experience of forest occupance has passed into the make-up of the institutions and values of civil society throughout the forest zone in West Africa today, regardless of whether or not these groups have a current direct connection to surviving areas of high forest. This is a much broader sociological agenda than conservationists have been prepared to tackle so far, but the threatened forests of West Africa are also complex human landscapes of considerable historical depth, and this human complexity is, in my judgement, no less worthy of understanding and conservation than the envelope of non-human biodiversity from which is has emerged. In fact, the two sets of issues are inextricably intertwined.

The effluents from about half of Scotland's population and industry drain to the Clyde Estuary and Firth, where they cause a number of problems of contamination and pollution. This paper outlines historical aspects of urban growth, effluent production and disposal, pollution and pollution control. The sources, nature, quantities and main effects of effluents discharged are described, as is recent national and international legislation intended to prevent or control pollution. Reference is also made to the determination of licence conditions for effluent discharges by means of the Environmental Quality Objective/Environmental Quality Standard approach.

It is a difficult task to trace the historical events leading to the application of acoustics in fisheries research. The first echo-sounders giving successful results were constructed just before World War I in order to measure ocean depths. But it took some years until the echo-sounding technique was applied in fisheries. According to Fridriksson and Hodgson (1955), fish shoals were probably first observed by the French navigator, R. Rallier du Baty who in 1926 noted, when on a trip to Newfoundland, that the sounder in his ship was giving abnormal signals which he attributed to a shoal of cod. In Japan Kimura (1929) made experiments of fish detection with acoustics in small ponds. Several other reports from around 1930 show that fish shoals were detected in the open sea with echo-sounders (Balls 1945; Fridriksson and Hodgson 1955.)

Microsporogenesis in cultured material of Azolla microphylla was studied with the light and transmission electron microscopes. The first formed sporangium, a megasporangium, aborts and several microsporangia develop below. Initially, a single sporogenous cell is present, surrounded by a single layered tapetum and the microsporangial wall. Subsequently, several sporogenous cells are connected by plasmodesmata. The microspore mother cells are less densely cytoplasmic than the tapetal cells. Callose-like material is deposited around the microspore mother cells, but disappears before meiosis. The tetrads of microspores contain well defined organelles but less dense cytoplasm than the surrounding periplasmodium. Electron dense material deposited on the plasma membrane of the microspores eventually forms the endospore. The unornamented exospore develops by continued deposition of electron dense material. Degeneration of the periplasmodium gives rise to membranous material which appears to form a template for the massulae.

The spatial distribution of different physiological groups of bacteria (nitrifying bacteria, nitrate respiring bacteria, clostridia, phototrophic bacteria, sulphate reducing bacteria and methanogens) has been determined in the surface sediments of Kingoodie Bay in the Tay Estuary. The overall distribution of the different microbial populations is largely dependent upon the presence or absence of O2, i.e. populations of obligate aerobes were greater at the surface where O2 was present, but with increasing depth and hence anoxia were successively displaced by populations of facultative and then strictly anaerobic bacteria. Thus, maximum rates of nitrification, an oxygen dependent process, were recorded in the 0–10 mm depth horizon (098 μg of N per g dry weight of sediment per day) while nitrate respiration rates were maximal in the 10–20 mm horizon (2.92 μg N per g dry weight of sediment per day). Dissimilatory sulphate reduction at 20–30 mm depth (102.1 n mol SO42 reduced g dry weight sediment -1.d -1). Methanogenesis was similarly recorded at all depths investigated but higher rates were recorded at 40–50 mm depth (22.64 n mol CH4 produced g dry weight sediment -1.d -1). These data are discussed in relation to the physico-chemical factors which arc generated in these estuarine sediments and which not only govern the spatial organisation of individual microbial populations but also modulate their metabolic activities.

Outside Ireland the Royal Dublin Society is perhaps best known for its annual International Horse Show, but it has in its long history contributed to many other aspects of Irish life. The Dublin Society, as it was called up to 1821 when it assumed the title Royal on King George IV becoming its patron, was founded in 1731 for the purpose of ‘improving husbandry, manufactures and other useful arts and sciences’. Since that time the Society has done much to foster an understanding of the relationship of science to industry and one of the Society's important committees is known as the Committee for Science and its Industrial Applications. The Society's original library became the nucleus of the National Library for Ireland, its Botanical Gardens the National Botanical Gardens and, indeed, as one speaker said at a Dublin meeting recently, ‘there were very few scientific or cultural organisations in Ireland which did not owe their origin to the activities of the Society’.

Recently discovered fragments of the armour of the ostracoderm Corvaspis are described, together with similar material from Vestspitsbergen and Podolia. The fossils have been obtained from Lower Old Red Sandstone deposits of Upper Downtonian–Lower Dittonian age. Large, thick, median plates, small irregular plates, orbital and ridge plates, and small, thick polygonal scales are present amongst the material. The characteristic external ornamentation of smooth, narrow ribs of dentine and a marginal band of small, smooth irregular tubercles is present on all plates. Two species are distinguished by their slightly differing ornamentation: Corvaspis kingi is known from the three regions named, C. graticulata sp. nov. comes from somewhat higher in the Vestspitsbergen sequence, and bears a finer ornamentation. A new family of heterostracans is erected to contain the genus, which in general structure may have been somewhat akin to the Drepanaspidæ, although no complete reconstruction can yet be attempted.

In Chapter 11 of Our Mutual Friend, Dickens noted that “Mr Podsnap had even acquired a peculiar flourish of his right arm in often clearing the world of its most difficult problems, by sweeping them behind him”. With a surname redolent of a kitchen botanist, Mr Podsnap no doubt realised that problems are mere opportunities for the theatrically dextrous. Perhaps the act of sweeping provides forward momentum to capitalise on yet more problems. In plant biotechnology, many of the problems confronting mankind are opportunities to employ exciting science.

Evolution of new forms of organisms must be accompanied by evolution of the informational processes which regulate the development of these new forms. During plant phylogeny, products of metabolism have become phytohormones through the evolution of receptor molecules. Although nothing is known about these receptor molecules, it is suggested that the schizaeaceous ferns are the most primitive group in which a gibberellin-like substance acts as a signal for morphogenesis, and that their antheridiogen pheromones, which stimulate antheridium formation and spore germination, are the ancestors of the gibberellin hormones which influence seed plant development. Chemical and biological evidence for this suggestion is discussed.

The entire soil-plant-atmosphere continuum must be analysed to elucidate how xylem anatomy relates to water flow in plants. Measurements of water potential gradients and volume of water flow per unit time are needed to obtain values of hydraulic conductance per unit length. By comparing values of hydraulic conductance per unit length along the plant, the regions where xylem structure restricts water flow can be determined. Previous studies of fern water relations demonstrated that very large water potential gradients occurring in stipes of certain ferns were closely correlated with reduced conducting area of stipe xylem. A new study on Cyrtomium falcatum showed that the water potential gradient was relatively small and constant along the stipe and rachis; however, a much larger gradient occurred from the rachies into the pinnae. Hydraulic conductance per unit length varied with the leaf area to be supplied, leading to the fairly constant water potential gradient along the rachis.. The measured hydraulic conductance per unit length was only half the value predicted from the Hagen-Poiseuille equation. Although the Hagen-Poiseuille equation overestimated the measured value by a factor of 2, it did support the assumption that conduit number and lumen diameter are the principal determinants of water conductance in the xylem.

Only a relatively small part of the vast and varied terrain of human experience is mapped in the record we know as history; and over the charted area the paths along which human industries and institutions have developed are not always well marked. Looking back along these paths our view has the advantages and defects of hindsight. Of some of these paths we have only a limited view; some seem to have started from nothing, in the foreground of that terrain, although it is certain that that cannot have been. Other paths we can see clearly, stretching far back, and few so clearly as the fisheries path; this path goes back past Christ on the shores of Galilee, past the pharaohs on the Nile and Chinese sages by their ponds, past Indians on the American north-west coast, Eskimoes in the Arctic, and the Scandinavians, to man in his most primitive condition.

In order to investigate and demonstrate objective modelling of proteins as a basis for drug design, we have sought to model several proteins in particularly persuasive circumstances. This is either (a) by filing the results of the model with an independent institution prior to X-ray determination of their structure, or (b) by using wholly automatic, general and reproducible methods, or (c) most often by both. Results suggest the ability to predict the core of the protein to an accuracy of about 1 Å rms deviation between predicted and experimental all-atom coordinates, and of surface loops in the range 1-4 Å rms deviation. Although the upper end of the latter scale seems disturbing, it turns out that many of the surface loops show such large variations for the same protein as studied by different crystallographic groups, particularly when no common protein is used as a starting point for refinement in both cases. Recognising the dynamic nature of some loops on enzymes, and including in the calculation the ability to handle dynamics over long timescales, allows analysis and refinement of enzyme inhibitors as pharmaceuticals. Here we analyse these aspects, particularly by reference to X-ray crystallography data.

Monitoring in the marine environment is selectively reviewed and illustrated by examples of programmes covering water, sediments and biota at both global and site-specific levels. Against this background the monitoring work at Sullom Voe is considered, and the optimal approach to oil terminal monitoring is discussed.

For the onset of the phytoplankton spring bloom in temperate waters, the irradiance, the concentration of accumulated nutrients and the stability of the water column are of great importance. The “new” production in spring is produced mainly by chain forming diatoms.

The dissipation of the spring bloom is due to nutrient depletion in the stabilised surface layer, loss of cells by sinking and grazing by herbivorous zooplankton. After the nutrient concentration is lowered, the rate of production will depend primarily on the rate of replenishment of nutrients. In open ocean environments we find “regenerated production” which is due to exudated and excreted nutrient salts e.g. ammonium. The dominating group of phytoplankters are small flagellates. It is argued that a substantial part of the phytoplankton standing stock in spring is lost from the euphotic zone due to direct sinking of cells or accelerated sinking of cell-aggregates. It is postulated that faecal pellets of micro- and mesozooplankton are retained and recycled in the mixed layer, whereas macrozooplankton faecal strings transport a considerable amount of organic matter to the benthal.

The biological properties of the surface of helminth parasites are examined under three headings, morphology, digestive-absorptive function and defence. The concept of the host-parasite interface is explored.

Platyhelminth parasites are covered by a syncytial tegument with sunken parenchymal cell bodies. The surface is either microvillous or deeply folded, presenting a large surface area relative to volume. The acanthocephalan surface is structurally unique, possessing a branching pore-canal system. The majority of nematodes are surrounded by a thick cuticle composed of distinct layers; exceptions include the entomophilic nematodes.

The absorptive properties of the surface of helminth parasites are discussed and the published data on transtegumental transport of nutrient molecules examined. Most nematodes are impermeable to small molecules, but all other helminths utilise surface transport mechanisms. Cestodes and acanthocephalans lack a gut and the tegument becomes the major site of nutrient uptake.

Surface-bound enzymes have been described in several helminths and indicate the possible extent of surface digestion by parasites. Binding of host digestive enzymes to the helminth surface may also serve a protective as well as nutritional function.

Surface defence mechanisms are described whereby physiological interactions between host and parasite at the helminth surface effect evasion of the host's defences. The essence of these mechanisms is surface disguise.

Twenty-one species of seabirds breed regularly in Shetland, some of them in huge, spectacular, multi-species colonies on cliffs. The Sullom Voe Environmental Advisory Group Environmental Impact Statement (SVEAG 1976) provides a table showing the relative importance of seabird species in terms of Scotland and the British Isles. We have updated these data in the light of the Seabird Colony Register (Lloyd et al. 1991) and present data for seven species, vulnerable to oil pollution, in Table 1. It is clear that these populations are of national importance and indeed several are internationally important. Separately, an estimate was provided by SVEAG of the numbers of sea ducks and divers wintering in Shetland waters and updated estimates are given by Suddaby (1992) (Table 2). Chief among these is the eider duck (Somateria mollissima) which is apparently resident in Shetland throughout the year (Heubeck 1993a). In its Eighth Report, on Oil Pollution at Sea, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (1981) recognised the vulnerability of seabirds to oil pollution and this was clearly a matter of concern in Shetland and elsewhere when the flow of enormous quantities of crude oil into Sullom Voe via undersea pipelines and out of Sullom Voe by large tankers became a reality. The risk to seabirds of oil pollution is well documented (Bourne 1968; RSPB 1979). Dunnet (1974, 1980, 1982, 1987) has reviewed the situation in relation to the North Sea oil industry.

The fungal parasites of ferns and their allies have been largely neglected, both by pteridologists and mycologists. Greater interest is advocated in the light of recent studies of patterns of host specificity of such fungi on angiosperms, which have provided valuable insights into the systematics of these hosts. Our knowledge of the major groups of fungi reported as parasites of pteridophytes is reviewed, and their potential contribution to host classification and phylogeny discussed. The relationship of the Uredinales (rust fungi) and their fern hosts is examined in detail.