Summary of time requirements and potential improvements for Marine Recorder data entry.

The contract work has demonstrated that older data can be assessed and entered into the MR format. Older data has associated problems but is retrievable. The contract successfully imported all datasets as required. MNCR survey sheets fit well into the MR format. The data validation and verification process can be improved. A number of computerised short cuts can be suggested and the process made more intuitive. Such a move is vital if MR is to be adopted as a standard by the recording community both on a voluntary level and potentially by consultancies.

Continuous Plankton Records - Persistence In Time-Series And The Population-Dynamics Of Pseudocalanus-Elongatus And Acartia-Clausi

Rates of population increase in early spring and the sizes of overwintering stocks were calculated for the planktonic copepods Pseudocalanus elongatus and Acartia clausi for a set of areas covering the open waters of the north-east Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea for the period 1948 to 1979. For both species, the rates of population increase were higher in the open ocean than in the North Sea and appear to be related to temperature. The overwintering stocks in the North Sea were larger than those in the open ocean and are probably related to phytoplanton concentration. P. elongatus shows higher overwintering stocks and lower rates of population increase than A. clausi, resulting in different levels of persistence in the stocks of the two species. It is suggested that this difference in persistence is responsible for differences between the two species with respect to geographical distribution in summer and different patterns of year-to-year fluctuations in abundance.

Long-Term Retrospective Analysis of Mackerel Spawning in the North Sea: A New Time Series and Modeling Approach to CPR Data

We present a unique view of mackerel (Scomber scombrus) in the North Sea based on a new time series of larvae caught by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey from 1948-2005, covering the period both before and after the collapse of the North Sea stock. Hydrographic backtrack modelling suggested that the effect of advection is very limited between spawning and larvae capture in the CPR survey. Using a statistical technique not previously applied to CPR data, we then generated a larval index that accounts for both catchability as well as spatial and temporal autocorrelation. The resulting time series documents the significant decrease of spawning from before 1970 to recent depleted levels. Spatial distributions of the larvae, and thus the spawning area, showed a shift from early to recent decades, suggesting that the central North Sea is no longer as important as the areas further west and south. These results provide a consistent and unique perspective on the dynamics of mackerel in this region and can potentially resolve many of the unresolved questions about this stock

Does Gender Matter? Women Business Angels and the Supply of Entrepreneurial Finance

There is a substantial literature on the relationship between gender and access to finance. However, most studies have been concerned with access to debt finance. More recently, the focus of this research has broadened to examine women and venture capital. This article extends the focus further by examining the role of women in the business angel market, which is more important than the formal venture capital market in terms of both the number of ventures supported and total capital flows. Based on a detailed analysis of business angels in the U.K., the study concludes that women investors who are active in the market differ from their male counterparts in only limited respects. Future research into women business angels, and the possible existence of gender differences, needs to be based on more fully elaborated standpoint epistemologies that focus on the experience of the woman angel investor per se, and center on the examination of the role of homophily, social capital, networking, and competition in investment behavior.