Oceanography and the Fluctuations in the Abundance of Marine Animals*

Abstract

IT is interesting to note that the observations we have of salinity and temperature cannot be correlated with the biological data. For many years past, Dr. H. W. Harvey has followed the temperature and salinity changes at the western end of the Channel, and during the period since 1924 he has found that the most conspicuous movements were large incursions of low-salinity water in May 1928 and in March and April 1936, while in 1932, 1933 and 1934 (especially in 1933) patches of water with unusually high salinity moved eastwards up the Channel. So far as can be seen, these movements show no correspondence with the marked biological changes which have occurred: it is in the phosphate data only that a correlation can be found.