Abb's Head Research Articles

St Abbs Head phlebovirus – a separate virus species or a strain of Uukuniemi phlebovirus?

St Abbs Head virus (SAHV), member of Phlebovirus genus (family Phenuiviridae, order Bunyavirales), belongs to the largest group of negative strand RNA viruses. All phleboviruses share a genome structure that comprises three segments of negative-sense or ambi-sense RNA. The viral genome is composed of the small (S), medium (M) and large (L) RNA segments. The S segment encodes the nucleocapsid (N) protein, the M segment encodes the precursor for the viral glycoproteins (Gn and Gc) and the L segment encodes the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Some viruses within the genus also encode non-structural proteins within their S or M segments. SAHV was isolated from a pool of Ixodes uriae ticks collected at a seabird colony in Berwickshire, Scotland in 1979. There were quite a few related bunyaviruses found in tick and bird samples on the East Coast of Scotland and England in the 70s and 80s. Recently we have sequenced a sample of SAHV using next generation sequencing technology. The results suggested that this virus is very closely related to the Uukuniemi phlebovirus (UUKV). To determine how similar are SAHV and UUKV, we compared virus growth in various mammalian, bird and tick cell lines.

Parasites of flatfish in relation to sewage sludge dumping

Variations in the occurrence of gastrointestinal metazoan parasites in flatfish were examined in relation to sewage sludge dumping at an ‘accumulating’ and two ‘dispersing’ dump sites in Scottish coastal waters. The gross disturbance of the benthic communities at the Garroch Head disposal site in the Firth of Clyde and absence of the intermediate hosts of particular parasites was not reflected in the parasite fauna of the long rough dab, Hippoglossoides platessoides. Results indicate that this flatfish host is highly mobile and intermixing within the population masked any localized effects of sludge dumping on parasite transmission at the dump site. The common dab, Limanda limanda, is considered to be relatively static at the St Abb's Head and Bell Rock disposal sites off the Firth of Forth where no evidence of effects of sewage sludge dumping on its metazoan parasite fauna was detected. This is consistent with the results of chemical and biological monitoring of the sites. The value of a parasite‐based index of the biological effects of sewage sludge dumping is discussed.

Aerospace Safety

A Cessna 172N Skyhawk aircraft was planned to fly from Birmingham to Edinburgh via Gamston, Ottringham, Newcastle and St Abb's Head. No problems were encountered during the flight north and the aircraft was transferred from Scottish radar to Edinburgh approach at 23.37 hrs as it turned at St Abbs. At 23.43 hrs the pilot reported level at 4,000 ft amsl and was advised that he had 26 track miles to touch‐down. During the next seven minutes Edinburgh gave the pilot two heading changes and then a descent to 3,000 ft amsl. As he was being given this descent clearance at 23.50 hrs, the pilot became aware of a change in the engine note; he activated the carburettor heat and checked the engine temperature and pressure gauges. The temperatures were normal, but the oil pressure indicated zero; the pilot reported this to Edinburgh and then stated that the engine was losing power.

Late caledonian lamprophyre dyke swarms of South-Eastern Scotland

Cale-alkaline lamprophyre (minette) dykes in the eastern Southern Uplands of Scotland form part of a swarm nearly parallel to the inferred Iapetus Suture, stretching from the Ards Peninsula of Northern Ireland to St. Abbs Head in the east. The dykes are clustered close to several small granitoid bosses, but appear to be younger than the plutons and their associated porphyrite-porphyry dykes. Mica- (minette and kersantitic-minette) and hornblende-lamprophyres are present further west near Hawick where no intermediate-acid plutons or dykes occur. The lamprophyres have enrichments in LILE and LREE and relative depletions of HFS elements typical of subduction-related ultrapotassic magmas. These incompatible element enrichments are present in rocks with high Mg number and Ni and Cr contents, which combined with experimental constraints, their fine-grained nature and presence of chilled margins, imply a near-primary status for the least evolved varieties. High values of LREE, LILE, La/Nb, La/Yb, s Sr and low ɛ Nd imply derivation from a previously metasomatised source. The minettes were probably derived from a source containing garnet and phlogopite, and the hornblende varieties from a shallower source in the stability field of amphibole. The minettes of the eastern Southern Uplands have not provided a parental component to the 410 Ma. granitoids which were derived from a more depleted source. The similarity of the lamprophyres to those in the Lake District south of the Iapetus Suture is taken to indicate underthrusting of Lake District lithosphere beneath the Southern Uplands. Emplacement of lamprophyre dyke swarms is likely to be structurally controlled, and the presence of the main swarm in the Southern Uplands may indicate the sub-surface trace of the Iapetus Suture.

Sublittoral hard-substratum communities off Orkney and St Abbs (Scotland)

During the summer of 1990 the sublittoral communities on hard substrata were investigated at 32 localities off Orkney and St Abbs (Scotland). The environment in both places has an open coast character, with small seasonal fluctuations in temperature and salinity and a high transparency of the water. The major governing environmental factors are the available amount of daylight and the degree of exposure to water movement. For the photic zone two different communities, dominated by foliose algae, are described. Under exposed conditions a widespread community is found, dominated by red algae in the middle structural layer and characterized by a dense canopy of Laminaria hyperborea. Under more sheltered conditions a community occurs in which brown and green algae become more abundant in the middle structural layer, while the top layer is formed by Laminaria saccharina and Saccorhiza polyschides. In the aphotic zone, under exposed conditions, a community is found which consists of a number of variants, with a dominance of the suspension feeders Pomatoceros triqueter and Alcyonium digitatum or bryozoans and hydrozoans. These variants are found in different regions, depths and angles of inclination of the substrata. Comparable variants have also been found off Helgoland (German Bight). Under sheltered conditions the suspension feeders become of minor importance and the community is dominated by encrusting red algae. In a surge tunnel in the photic zone off St Abbs Head, a community dominated by Dendrodoa grossularia and Clathrina coriacea is present.

Reconnaissance excavations on early historic fortifications and other royal sites in Scotland, 1974-84: 1, excavations near St Abb's Head, Berwickshire, 1980

The headland known as St Abb's Nunnery was shown to bear a late med secular hall and enclosing wall, identifiable as Rampart Hall. The preferred site for the 7th century Anglian monastery is Kirk Hall, where a massive turf bank may be identified as the monastic vallum. This had been preceded by two timber palisades, one of them 14C-dated to 7th-8th centuries AD. Au(adp)

Monitoring the effects of the disposal at sea of Lothian Region sewage sludge

SynopsisUntil the late 1970s Edinburgh and the surrounding areas employed a series of relatively short sea outfalls to dispose of sewage to tidal waters. A centralised sewage treatment facility was provided in 1977, with disposal of liquid effluent by long sea outfall. The residual wet solids are dumped at two sites in the North Sea off the Firth of Forth. The sites, one near Bell Rock (56 25N 02 10W) and one ten miles north of St Abb's Head (56 04·5N 02 07·25W) are used on a rotational basis. The macrofauna at both sites shows a normal polychaete-dominated community exhibiting the normal low number/high diversity characteristics of many unimpacted communities in the North Sea. In general, seasonal differences in mean concentrations of lead, copper and zinc in sediments were small and within the limits of statistical variation. The concentrations of mercury and cadmium were mainly low and close to the detection limits of the analytical methods employed. The monitoring data from Bell Rock and St Abb's Head demonstrate that the dumping operation has had little effect on the benthic environment and that the macrobenthos showed no signs of stress due to the addition of sewage sludge.

The proteins and RNAs of St. Abb's Head virus, a Scottish Uukuvirus.

The proteins and RNAs of St. Abb's Head virus have been analysed, and were found to be characteristic of the Uukuvirus genus of the family Bunyaviridae. Two glycoproteins, G1 and G2 (mol. wt. 62K and 75K), and a nucleocapsid protein, N (mol. wt. 25K), were detected in infected cells by immunoprecipitation; the synthesis of N preceded the synthesis of G1 and G2. The glycoproteins were relatively cysteine-rich compared to the N protein, and the unglycosylated forms of G1 and G2 (using the inhibitor tunicamycin) had a mol. wt. of about 58K. Translation in vitro of mRNA from infected cells gave two immunoprecipitable products which are thought to be equivalent to N and G1/G2. Three RNA species were found in St. Abb's Head virus nucleocapsids, and were estimated to be 8500 bases (L), 3600 bases (M) and 1900 bases (S) in length. At least one additional virus-specific RNA species was detected in infected cells. The similarity between the proteins and RNAs of St. Abb's Head virus and Uukuniemi virus (the prototype of the genus) is discussed.

The proteins expressed in vivo and in vitro by an orbivirus of the Kemerovo serogroup isolated from Ixodes uriae ticks from St. Abb's Head, Scotland.

The genome of FT363 virus, a member of the Kemerovo serogroup of orbiviruses, was shown to consist of 10 segments of dsRNA. Examination of the intracellular proteins expressed by this virus in Vero cells showed the presence of 9 major and several minor products. Similar results were obtained by translation of the virus dsRNA in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate. Comparison of in vivo and in vitro products by immunoprecipitation using polyclonal FT363 ascitic fluid showed a difference in the numbers of polypeptides precipitated. The significance of these results is discussed.

Spatial and temporal distributions of dominant epiphytes on the stipes of Laminaria hyperborea (Gunn.) Fosl. (Phaeophyta:Laminariales) in S.E. Scotland

The epiphytic flora of the stipes of Laminaria hyperborea (Gunn.) Fosl. at St. Abbs Head, Berwickshire, Scotland has been examined. Four species Palmaria palmata (L.) O. Kuntze, Ptilota plumosa, (C. Ag.) Huds., Membranoptera alata (Huds.) Stackh., and Phycodrys rubens (L.) Batt. make up > 95% of the epiphyte biomass. The species show two distinct patterns of zonation, one with depth the other with respect to position on the host stipe. Palmaria is found on the upper parts of the stipes at 1 and 2 m depth, with the three other species found lower on the stipe. At 6 m depth Ptilota occupies the position on the stipe where Palmaria had occurred in the shallower water. In the deepest samples (12m) Ptilota was absent and its position on the stipe was occupied by Phycodrys and Membranoptera. This zonation is reflected in the biomass of the epiphyte species, Palmaria is restricted to the shallow waters, Ptilota reaches its greatest biomass at intermediate depths while Membranoptera and Phycodrys are most abundant at 6 m and below. Palmaria, Membranoptera, and Phycodrys show similar patterns of seasonal changes in epiphyte biomass with a peak in September and a decline in winter. Ptilota, which in the British Isles is considered to be a species of northern distribution, shows an earlier peak biomass and a correspondingly earlier decline in abundance.

Disposal of Sewage Sludge to Sea – Engineering Aspects

The selection of the sewage sludge dumping site in the Firth of Clyde off Garroch Head is compared with the selection of sites near Bell Rock and St. Abbs Head off the Forth Estuary, Scotland, almost three-quarters of a century later. Details are given of the special shore facilities which are required to dispatch sewage sludge to sea, and specific features of purpose built sludge ships are described. Reference is then made to the factors involved when discharging sludge at the sea dumping site. The emphasis in the paper is on the engineering aspects of the facilities required and operations involved in the sea disposal of sewage sludge.

Orbiviruses and bunyaviruses from a seabird colony in Scotland.

Viruses isolated from ticks (Ixodes uriae) and a kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) from a seabird colony at St. Abb's Head, Scotland, were shown by complement fixation tests (CFT) to be antigenically related to the Uukuniemi and Kemerovo serogroups. Electron microscopic examination of cell cultures infected with the Kemerovo group viruses revealed particles characteristic of orbiviruses, 72 +/- 3 nm in diam., with an inner core 37 +/- 3 nm in diam., in association with intracytoplasmic, densely staining granular areas, and with fibrillar and tubular structures. Cell cultures infected with the Uukuniemi group viruses revealed characteristic bunyavirus particles, 94 +/- 7 nm in diam., with a closely adherent envelope. Both orbi- and bunyaviruses were isolated from two tick pools and the kittiwake. A third tick pool contained an orbivirus which cross-reacted with the other isolates in CFT and fluorescent antibody tests, but was distinguished from them by neutralization tests.

Marine Radar Beacons

In this paper the author sketches the historical development of radar beacons: the different types are classified in relation to code and frequency employed and the benefits and drawbacks of more recently proposed types of beacon are discussed.The paper was presented at a Marine Electronics Symposium sponsored by the Society of Electronic and Radio Technicians at the University of Southampton in July 1976.The military use of responder beacons before 1945 led to secondary radar systems, such as Rebecca-Eureka, Oboe, and IFF, giving facilities for target location at long range with an accuracy and identification not available from a primary radar system. The desirability of these advantages in civilian systems was recognized but the absence of military urgency and considerations of cost led to delay. Although responder beacons became an essential part of the Air Traffic Control System, extension into the marine field did not succeed until the U.K. Ministry of Transport Safety of Navigation Committee set up a Technical Committee and Working Party in 1962 to investigate the conditions governing the marine installation of responder beacons as a navigational aid. This committee recommended that responder beacons (alternatively called racons) should be set up to an agreed specification at selected sites around the UK coast, to become the first civil marine navigational racon system. The co-operation of the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment, Trinity House, and Kelvin Hughes made possible the installation and operation of three racons—on the Liverpool Bar LV, the Kish LV, and St. Abb's Head LH—to provide operational experience on which the committee's recommendations were based, followed by the setting up of the complete system.

Notes: (4) Roman Fragments from Castle Dykes near Cockburnsparth and from St Abb's Head

A fragment of vessel glass from Castle Dykes was found within the enclosure, a short distance north of the north end of the southern of the two surviving sections of the rampart, the central part of which is obliterated. It cannot be closely dated. A small piece of rim of hard grey ware, dating between AD 150 and 250 is of interest as suggesting early occupation of St Abb's Head. no Roman site is recorded in either district, and relics are generally so scarce that it seems more probable that there is some connection in date than that their occurrence on these sites is fortuitous.

Fifth Migration Report of the British Ornithologists Club

WE have before us the fifth annual report of the migration committee of the British Ornithologists Club, containing the data with regard to the arrival and dispersal within England and Wales of our common migratory birds during the autumn of 1908 and the spring and early summer of 1909, scheduled and tabulated as in former years. The report, which is longer than any of its predecessors, summarises a vast number of observations sent in by numerous voluntary observers, and by the keepers of the coastwise lighthouses and lightships. These data, compiled with an infinitude of labour and care, will always retain their value as a contribution to our knowledge of the movements of the species dealt with within the narrow limits of the area of reference. Even such apparently dry details-composed solely of names and figures-present (among those, for instance, sent in from the lonely sea-girt stations dotting our shores from The Hanois to St. Abbs Head) an interesting and fascinating picture of that wild, inexplicable rush of our feathered friends in a commingled horde fleeing as from judgment to come, which every autumn blindly compels to the southward, but to what latitudes we know not yet for certain.

Nudibranchiata Collected in the North Sea by the s.s. “Huxley” during July and August, 1907

During July and August, 1907 (Voyages XCII, XOIII, XCIV, XCV, and XCVI), the s.s. Huxley worked a series of stations reaching from near Cromer to St. Abb's Head more or less parallel with the coast line, and also a series further to the north, and extending around the eastern borders of the Dogger Bank.

XIX. The Geology of Kyle

The District —The middle portion of Ayrshire “that bears the name of Auld King Kyle ” is separated from Carrick on the south by the River Doon, and from Cunningham on the north by the River Irvine. It contains the district drained by the Ayr and its tributaries—the Lugar, the Coyle, the Greenock, and the Fail, along with the northern slope of the Doon valley, the country sloping to the south, watered by the Irvine and its affluents—the Burn Anne and the Cessnock, and some 15 miles of the upper portion of the Nith basin. It is divided from the shires of Lanark and Dumfries on the east by a ridge of hilly ground, rising in some places to elevations of more than 1000 feet. Its greatest extent from east to west is nearly 25 miles, and from north to south 24½ miles. It has a low and sandy coast-line of nearly 13 miles, on which are situated the thriving sea-ports of Irvine, Troon, and Ayr. In treating of the geology of this district it will be needful to arrange and describe the various formations in consecutive order, beginning with the lowest—the Silurian. There is found in the south of Scotland, stretching right across the country from St. Abb's Head on the east to the North Channel on the west, a broad strip of elevated land, including the Lammermoor and Lowther Hills, known as the Southern Highlands, composed of rocks belonging to the Silurian system. Strata forming the lower portion of This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

6. Geology and Petrology of St Abb's Head

The observations recorded in this paper have reference chiefly to the coast-sections at St Abb's Head and Coldingham Shore. The district was geologically surveyed some twenty-five years ago by my brother, Dr A. Geikie, and subsequently described by him in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Since the publication of that memoir, no further examination of the ground in question appears to have been made. During the past summer I visited the neighbourhood, principally for the purpose of studying the igneous rocks which are so well exposed in sea-coast sections. At the date of the Government Survey of Eastern Berwickshire the aid of the microscope had not yet been invoked by field-geologists for the purpose of determining rock-species, and I was therefore curious to compare the igneous rocks of that region with those of similar age which I had studied elsewhere in Scotland, and more especially with the bedded and intrusive porphyrites and tuffs of the Cheviot Hills and the Sidlaws.

On the Occurrence of Lumpenus Lampetriformis and Gadiculus Argenteus off Aberdeen

I RECORDED and figured in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1884 the first species of Lumpenus lampetriformis obtained in Great Britain. It was a male 10.7 inches long, captured trawling by Prof. McIntosh, fifteen miles off St. Abb's Head. On June 20 I received a letter from Mr. Sim, of Aberdeen, inclosing a sketch of a fish which had become entangled in the net of a steam trawler, and which specimen he was good enough to forward for my inspection. It is a female of the same species 8.6 inches in length, in which he caudal fin differs from that of the male example in that its form is lanceolate. The second specimen, which I received at the same time from Mr. Sim, was that of a Gadiculus argenteas, Guichenot, which was cast up on the beach after a slight storm on April 13, 1885. To this latter fish a considerable amount of interest attaches itself. Pertaining to a genus whose habitat is considered intermediate between the littoral and deep-sea zones, I have been in doubt whether it has or has not been previously obtained off our shores. Couch labelled a fish of this species from the Porcupine Expedition as Macrourus linearis, and which is in the British Museum collection. Of it he wrote as follows:—“Much resembling a whiting, but shorter in proportion to its depth and with a much larger eye. Caught from a depth of 183 fathoms, muddy ground, 54° 10′ N. and 10° 59′ W. Length about 6 inches; no barb; the head short, eye large, mouth capacious, teeth small, dorsal fins three, anal two, tail a little concave, colour in spirit pale yellow. If we can suppose that a whiting can live at such a depth, we can suppose also that the eye might become larger and the body rather shorter, proportionally, but otherwise it is a distinct species and yet nearly alike; but from the latitude, and especially the longitude, it is scarcely a British fish.”

The Scottish Marine Station

THE equipment of the Research Station at Granton, Edinburgh, has now been increased by the construction of a system of large tanks provided with a constant circulation of sea-water. These tanks are arranged very nearly according to the plan described in the account of the station and its work which was published in April last. The aquarium itself occupies the ground-floor of the building, whose upper story forms the biological laboratory, and it consists of seven large tanks, five of which are shallow, and two deep, the latter being provided with glass fronts. The pump, which is driven by a steam-engine, the high-level reservoir, and the low-level reservoirs are situated at other parts of the premises. One of the deep tanks is being used for the study of the still mysterious life-history of Myxine glutinosa. Last week nearly 150 specimens of that animal were brought alive to the station from the neighbourhood of St. Abb's Head, where it is very abundant. These were successfully domiciled in the aquarium. As out of three specimens brought alive to the “Ark” (the floating laboratory belonging to the station) on May 1, and kept in a small glass aquarium about 15 inches long and 9 inches broad, two are still alive and healthy, there is good reason to hope that there will be no difficulty in keeping a large number alive for any length of time in a tank about 7 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet, which are the dimensions of the one now used for the purpose. It was found in the former experiment that the Myxine when left to themselves, burrowed into the layer of mud which had been placed at the bottom of the small aquarium, and lay for hours motionless, their bodies, with the exception of the extreme tip of the snout, being entirely buried. The snout is protruded for the purpose of respiration, a current of water passing constantly through the nostril into the œsophagus, and escaping at the two respiratory apertures. The normal condition of the animal when not actively engaged in the search for food is evidently to lie thus buried in mud. It is well known to fishermen, at least to those who are employed in line-fishing, that eellets, as Myxine are called by them, are met with almost exclusively on muddy ground. At the place where the creatures are more abundant than anywhere else in the neighbourhood of the Firth of Forth, namely, off St. Abb's Head, the sea-bottom throughout an extensive area consists of soft black mud. A quantity of this mud was brought to the station with the living specimens, and a layer of it 6 or 8 inches in depth placed at the bottom of the tank in which the Myxine were to be kept. The animals are now thickly scattered through the layer of mud, like earthworms in garden soil.