Preliminary experiments with the annual jellyfish Aurelia show that 

 animals in the laboratory do not die synchronously in the summer as pre- 

 viously assumed but can be maintained alive for at least seven additional 

 months in laboratory aquaria.^ ^ By controlling the animals' environment it 

 is hoped that individuals can be induced to perpetuate individual longevity 

 almost indefinitely. In this system, size, time and sexual maturity can be 

 separated as prime variables for an analysis of senescence for the first time 

 in a large, easily handled laboratory animal. 



Phytoplankton have long been assumed to remain within the lighted 

 surface layers of the ocean as a result of morphological and chemical modi- 

 fications of the cell.^- However, it has now been demonstrated that the 

 sinking rates of these plants fall within the speed- and wind-induced, small 

 scale circulation processes, indicating that the turbulent motion of the 

 sea can adequately account for phytoplankton flotation. 



It has been demonstrated that phytoplankton growth is prohibited or pre- 

 vented in waters over New York City's sewage dumping area." The toxicity 

 is increased by the addition of small amounts of trace metals and is partially 

 decreased by the addition of metal chelators indicating the toxicity results 

 of high concentrations of toxic metals in the sewage sludge. 



The relationship of changes in the earth's magnetic polarity to other 

 phenomena in evidence from the study of piston cores from the Antarctic 

 shows a strong relationship between changes in the earth's magnetic polarity 

 and earthquakes,^- volcanism, climatic changes, evolution and faunal ex- 

 tinction. There appears to be a direct correlation between these phenomena. 



There are now positive indications that major falls of tektites are re- 

 lated to changes in the polarity of the earth's magnetism.^' Present work is 

 concentrating on determining the frequency, causes, rates of change, and 

 prediction of future changes of these natural phenomena with reference 

 to environmental planning and hazards to mankind from the environment. 



Sediment cores obtained from Drift Station T-3 have been analyzed with 

 respect to geological, geophysical, biological and climatic history as well 

 as physical properties important to hydroacoustics applications.^^ Utilizing 

 established times of reversals of the earth's magnetic field strata in Arctic 

 cores have been dated and sedimentation rates established at 1.2.6 mm/ 1000 

 years during the last 4 million years. On the basis of analyses of inorganic 



" Hamner, William G., Unpublished results from progress report on NSF grant 

 GB-13663 to the University of California, Davis, 1969. 



^' Smayda, Theodore J., "On the Suspension and Sinking of Phytoplankton in the 

 Sea," Annual Review of Oceanography and Marine Biology, vol. VII, 1969. 



" Barber, Richard T., Unpublished results from progress report on NSF Grant 

 GB-7691 to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 1969. 



" Hays, J. D., "Paleo magnetically Controlled Cenozoic Radiolarian-Stratigraphy 

 in High and Low Latitudes," Abs. Geological Society of America. 



^'' Glass, B. P., Heezen, B. C, 1967, "Tektites and Geomagnetic Reversals," Scien- 

 tific American, vol. 317, p. 32-38. 



^^ Clark, D. L., Paleoecology and Sedimentation in Part of the Arctic Basin. Arctic 

 22(3): 233-243, 1969. 



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