Secretion of a Highly Sulphated Acid Mucopolysaccharide by the Brittle-star, Ophiocomina nigra
THE secretion of a mucus from the tube-feet of ophiuroids is well known1, although the chemical nature of this substance has not been investigated. In a study of the feeding mechanisms of ophiuroids, I find that Ophiocomina nigra (Abildgaard), a common littoral species widespread in the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean, in addition to the mucin of the tube-feet, secretes all over the body surface an abundant mucus used in conjunction with a detritus-feeding mechanism. Attempts to find the source of this secretion have revealed two types of mucus glands previously undescribed for the species.
MUCUS SECRETION WITHIN THE SPINES OF OPHIUROID ECHINODERMS
A histological examination has been carried out of the spines of ten species of ophiuroids. Eight species proved to have mucous glands in the spines. The glands were of two types (1) multicellular aggregations of pyriform cells with elongate necks (Amphiura filiformis, A. chiajei, Acrocnida brachiata), (2) glands of varying shape but with distinctly fibrillar contents (Amphipholis, Ophiactis, Ophiopholis, Ophiothrix). All of the glands exhibited the staining reactions of an acid mucopolysaccharide with the exception of the fibrillar glands in Ophiopholis which were strongly PAS positive but negative for acid mucopolysaccharide. Ophiopholis was unique in possessing scattered single pyriform acid mucopolysaccharide secreting cells in addition to the PAS positive fibrillar glands. 
 
 
 
The two species of Ophiura which were examined did not have glands in the spines. Possible functions of the gland secretions are discussed.
Ocean predictive skill assessments in the South Atlantic: Crowd-sourcing of student-based discovery
Autonomous Underwater Gliders have over a decade long history of successful regional deployments serving scientific, societal and security needs in application areas ranging from pole to pole and including the full range of water depths from shallow coastal seas to the deep ocean. Glider deployments covering the basin scale are much fewer, but are a growing capacity as demonstrated by the Woods Hole to Bermuda line that crosses the Gulf Stream, the Atlantic Crossing line that follows the Gulf Stream, and the basin circling flights now being conducted as part of the Challenger Glider Mission. The next step in the evolution of the global Challenger mission is to enable an ensemble of modelers from different institutions and agencies to participate in a meaningful way. This process with be formalized in 2014 by leveraging the data management tools of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the education tools of the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Ocean Observing Initiative (OOI). The Education Visualization (EV) tools developed by the OOI's Education and Public Engagement (EPE) Implementing Organization (IO) are currently being configured through the cyber OOI net to display real time OOI glider data with intuitive interactive browser-based tools, reducing the barriers for student participation in sea exploration and discovery. Through U.S. IOOS, forecast ocean data will be harvested from the ephemeral ocean snapshots produced by an ensemble of ocean models along the same glider tracks as Challenger. The parallel observed and forecast datasets, both evolving in real time, will be accessible through the same OOI EV tools, enabling student participation in a crowd-sourced ocean predictive skill experiment. The result will satisfy one of the important goals of the Challenger mission by enabling students to assess of the quality of the ensemble of available global scale ocean models. Student research team projects that use the new model data comparison capabilities will be conducted during the summer of 2014. Students will compare an ensemble of the global ocean models along the high velocity transport pathways by gliders on basin-scale missions, such as one that traverses the northern side of the South Atlantic gyre along the Brazilian shelfbreak. The lasting impact of the Challenger mission will be a global fleet available to respond to events, an assessment of the ocean models along the fastest ocean transport pathways, and the establishment of a network of gliderports for global response.