Annotated bibliography II of the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria

In this era of proliferating scientific information it is difficult to keep up with the literature, even in one's own field. Review articles are helpful in summarizing the status of knowledge. In oyster biology, several such published reviews have been of great help to working scientists. The outstanding contributions that come to' mind are those by Baughman (1948), Korringa (1952), Joyce (1972), Breisch and Kennedy (1980), and Kennedy and Breisch (198 I). If done well, such compilations serve as checkpoints, eliminating or vastly reducing the need to consult the literature in detail. On Long Island, New York, where the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria is the major commercial resource, we have felt the need for some time for a compendium of knowledge on this important mollusk. Several years ago my secretary, students, and I began to gather materials for an annotated bibliography. We have already published a collection of 2233 titles (McHugh et al. 1982), nearly all accompanied by abstracts, and in this publication we have added another 460. The experience has been rewarding. We have been surprised at the extent of the literature, much of it only remotely related to the shellfish industry itself, but nevertheless throwing light on the biology, physiology, and many other aspects of the scientific knowledge of hard clams. The following bibliography is divided into three parts. Part I comprises the bulk of the bibliography, while Parts 2 and 3 contain additional titles that we decided to include during editing, submission, and approval of the manuscript for publication. All three parts are indexed together, however. We also reexamined those titles in the previous bibliography (McHugh et al. 1982) which did not include abstracts. These are included in Parts 2 and 3 of this bibliography. Most of these contained no specific reference to Mercenaria mercenaria. A few searches were terminated for various reasons. (PDF file contains 66 pages.)

Entweicht Radioaktivität aus den Abfallfässern im nordostatlantischen Versenkungsgebiet?

Radioactivity measured in samples from the NEA-Dumping-Site not only emanated from dumped barrels. Just as everywhere on the world also fallout from former nuclear weapon tests can be found there. Radionuclides which can emanate from different sources do not tell anything about their origin. To assess the fractions from various sources activity ratios from radionuclides can be used. There are different activity ratios for fallout and for waste from peaceful nuclear power engeneering. The comparison of the ratios of the plutonium isotopes Pu-238 and the sum of Pu-239 and Pu-240 (Pu-238/Pu-239,240) in benthic samples from the dumping site and from reference sites without waste dumping gives a clear hint. In the sampling period from 1980 to 2000 for samples from the dumping site this ratio increases significantly from 1986 on. Radioactivity emanating from the dumped barrels is regarded as causing this.