Description: Nonmammalian tooth-bearing vertebrates usually replace their teeth throughout life. Much about how a replacement pattern is generated has been learned from zebrafish. However, to understand general mechanisms of tooth replacement, advantage can be taken from studying other, “nonmodel” species. We have mapped the patterns of tooth replacement in widely divergent aquatic osteichthyans using 2D charts, in which one axis is time, the other linear spacing along the tooth row. New teeth that are generated simultaneously are considered part of the same odontogenic wave. Using this approach, it appears that a similar, general pattern underlies very distinctive dentitions in distantly related species. A simple shift in spacing of odontogenic waves, or in distance between subsequent tooth positions along a row (or both), can produce dramatically different dentitions between life stages within a species, or between closely related species. Examples will be presented from salmonids, cyprinids, and cichlids. Our observations suggest that lines linking subsequent positions may have more biological significance than replacement waves (usually linking alternate positions), often used to explain the generation of patterns. The presence of a general pattern raises questions about common control mechanisms. There is now increasing evidence, at least for the zebrafish, to support a role for stem cells in continuous tooth renewal and control of replacement patterns.

Description: The aim of this study was to elucidate the foraging ecology of South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) on the Patagonian shelf. Data from satellite tags revealed that male sea lions use a much larger part of the shelf than females and often reach areas close to the shelf break, which may be related to the highly productive shelf break front. The data also showed a high site fidelity, both towards feeding grounds and haul-out sites. Calculations of food consumption revealed that the impact that males have on their prey resources depends on the time that the animals spend at sea, and thus the distance to suitable foraging grounds. A new non-electronic release-mechanism was developed for the recovery of dead reckoners that were used to study the diving behaviour of sea lions. The diving data supported the expectations that males, because of their larger size, had a greater diving capacity than females, which lead to a greater dive efficiency at depths greater than 45m. The use of an Area-Interest-Index to determine space usage revealed that sea lion foraging trips can be divided into distinctive travel and foraging phases. Differences in this index were also visible on the scale of individual dives.

Description: The spatio-temporal pattern of peak Holocene warmth (Holocene thermal maximum, HTM) is traced over 140 sites across the Western Hemisphere of the Arctic (0–180°W; north of ∼60°N). Paleoclimate inferences based on a wide variety of proxy indicators provide clear evidence for warmer-than-present conditions at 120 of these sites. At the 16 terrestrial sites where quantitative estimates have been obtained, local HTM temperatures (primarily summer estimates) were on average 1.6±0.8°C higher than present (approximate average of the 20th century), but the warming was time-transgressive across the western Arctic. As the precession-driven summer insolation anomaly peaked 12–10 ka (thousands of calendar years ago), warming was concentrated in northwest North America, while cool conditions lingered in the northeast. Alaska and northwest Canada experienced the HTM between ca 11 and 9 ka, about 4000 yr prior to the HTM in northeast Canada. The delayed warming in Quebec and Labrador was linked to the residual Laurentide Ice Sheet, which chilled the region through its impact on surface energy balance and ocean circulation. The lingering ice also attests to the inherent asymmetry of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that predisposes the region to glaciation and modulates the pattern of climatic change. The spatial asymmetry of warming during the HTM resembles the pattern of warming observed in the Arctic over the last several decades. Although the two warmings are described at different temporal scales, and the HTM was additionally affected by the residual Laurentide ice, the similarities suggest there might be a preferred mode of variability in the atmospheric circulation that generates a recurrent pattern of warming under positive radiative forcing. Unlike the HTM, however, future warming will not be counterbalanced by the cooling effect of a residual North American ice sheet.

Description: The Denmark Strait overflow is the major gateway for dense water from the Nordic Seas into the North Atlantic and thus it constitutes an important part of the thermohaline circulation under present-day climate conditions. This study focuses on the regional to basin wide dynamics of the Denmark Strait overflow for present-day and Last Glacial Maximum conditions. It contributes to the Research Unit Ocean Gateways located at the University of Kiel which addresses the question how ocean gateways might have affected climate in the past.The volume transport of the overflow is likely to be controlled by hydraulic constraints, thus the transport is set by the relative density contrast between the water masses north and south of the Denmark Strait and the height of dense water above sill level. By using high resolution numerical models it is investigated how the volume transport can be best described using existing hydraulic theories. Hydraulic constraints are shown to be valid over a wide parameter range which allows to transfer this theory to LGM conditions. During the LGM both bathymetry and hydrography have been different and the relative importance of the individual effects is disentangled using a high-resolution numerical model. The drop in eustatic sea-level and glaciated shelves in this area had a comparable smaller effect than the reduced density contrast. In addition to buoyancy forcing wind stress might play a role in setting the overflow transport. In a regional model of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge an influence of wind stress on the overflow can be shown. Therefore, wind stress changes due to different phases of the NAO are expected to imprint a signal on the overflow transport. The same holds for wind field changes from Last Glacial Maximum to present-day conditions. Even though the wind stress was increased the density difference between Nordic Seas and North Atlantic supports almost no buoyancy forcing of the overflows thus the Denmark Strait overflow was probably reduced to less than 0.5 Sv during Last Glacial Maximum summer. However, it is proposed that the increased LGM wind stress is an important factor in keeping the Nordic Seas ice free during summer. The heat transport associated with the volume transport is generally reduced for the Last Glacial Maximum with a pronounced reduction if the Denmark Strait is additionally closed e.g. by iceberg blocking. The relation connecting hydraulic constraints and volume transport was implemented in a global climate model to improve the representation of the Denmark Strait overflow in that model. It results in an increased Atlantic meridional overturning and the associated northward heat transport. A close correlation between overflow representation and climate in northern Europe can be shown. This emphasises the impact of the Denmark Strait overflow on climate even though the response in overturning due to the representation is less than expected from previous studies. There is nearly no stabilising effect of the overflow for large scale freshwater perturbations but a weak effect if the system is perturbed locally in the Labrador Sea.