Ge
reine hte,i
la had cde,ant,ia
in the catches was made to determine if the difference in
counts between net hauls and between stations could be accounted
for by the type of organism in the catch.
Although the catches
varied considerably both quantitatively and qualitatively,
there was strong evidence that activity of the samples was
not associated with the presence of any one group of organisms.
Autoradiographs of a dried plankton sample showed that the
activity was usually associated with inanimate objects, but
even when the organisms were active the association was not
with any one particular group (see Section 4.9.1).
evidence was obtained from the paired hauls,
Further
in which the
activity of the samples often varied but the composition of
the catch was similar.
For example, the catch in net B and
net D at Bogallua appeared similar in composition - foraminiferans
principally,
and some snails,
copepods and a few
miscellaneous eggs and arrow worms - but the sample from
net B was 7 times more active than the sample from net D
(1,160,000 d/m/g + 155,000 d/m/g).
Since net B was of finer
mesh then D (173 and 74 meshes per inch respectively)
it might
be thought that some small radioactive organism was escaping
the D net and was being caught in B, but microscopic examination of the catches did not demonstrate this to be true.
it
is believed that the fine-meshed net was more efficient in
capturing suspended,
Results.
inanimate radioactive particles.
The radioactivity in plankton samples is
recorded in Table 2.
oy
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23
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PE