Localised intermittent upwelling intensity has increased along South Africa’s south coast due to El Niño–Southern Oscillation phase state

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase state is reported to drive interannual variability in sea temperatures along South Africa’s south coast through its influence on wind-induced upwelling processes. Whether ENSO drives the intensity of localised, abrupt, intermittent upwelling is less well known. To explore this relationship, we used an index of localised, extreme (>2 °C anomaly), intermittent upwelling intensity, derived from in situ sea temperature data within the Tsitsikamma National Park Marine Protected Area, and quantified the relationship between annual cumulative upwelling intensities (1991–2013) with an annual ENSO index, namely the Southern Oscillation Index. We found that ENSO phase state modulates the cumulative intensity of extreme intermittent upwelling events during an annual period, with more and greater events during La Niña phases compared with El Niño phases. Furthermore, these extreme upwelling events have increased with time along South Africa’s south coast as ENSO phase state becomes more intense and variable. Our findings support the emerging notion that the biological effects of climate change may be manifested through increased environmental variability rather than long-term mean environmental changes as ENSO is predicted to remain the dominant driver of local climate patterns in the future.     

Paleoceanographic events of the southern Okinawa Trough during last 20 000 years

Presentaddress:NanjingInstituteofGeologyandPaleontology,ChineseAcademyofSciences,Nanjing210008,ChinaINTRODUCTloNTheOkinawaTrough(NNE-SSW),thedeeperwaterbasinoftheEastChinaSea,liesbe-tween24'~3O"N,122"~13o'E(seeFig.l).Itssouthernpartiswideranddeeperthanthenorthernpart,withthemaximumwaterdepthof2719metersinthesouthwest.ThemostimPOrtanthydrographiccharacteristicinthisareaistheKuroshiocurrentwhichflowsalongthewestbankoftheokinawaTrough-(about2oo~5oometersindepth).Itinnu-encesthedep…     

山西近40年极端降水特征分析

利用山西108个国家级地面气象观测站1979—2018年日降水量资料,采用百分位法定义极端降水事件,应用气候趋势系数、Mann-Kendall (M-K)检验等方法,研究山西极端降水特征及其变化规律。结果表明:(1)山西极端降水出现在3—10月之间,发生频次呈现“山区多、盆地少”的特点,平均强度表现为“北中部小、南部大”的空间分布特征。(2)山西极端降水持续时间以1 d为主,局地性特征明显,发生大范围极端降水事件的概率较低。(3)近40年,山西极端降水事件呈明显增多趋势,影响范围不断扩大,强度略有增强,没有突变发生。各区域极端降水的长期变化差异较大;北部强度显著增强,范围明显扩大且在1986年发生突变;中部极端降水日数和强度显著增多增强,并分别在2001、1992年发生突变;南部极端降水变化趋势微弱。     

Indian summer monsoon variability during the holocene as recorded in sediments of the Arabian Sea: Timing and implications

Indian monsoon precipitation fluctuated significantly during the Holocene and a reliable reconstruction of the timing of the events and their implications is of great benefit to our understanding of the effect and response of low latitude climate systems to the forcing factors. We have carried out high-resolution terrigenous proxy studies on a laminated sediment core from the Oxygen Minimum Zone of the eastern Arabian Sea margin to reconstruct the summer monsoon-controlled precipitation changes during the Holocene. The temporal variation in the terrigenous proxy indicators of this core, in combination with other high-quality cores from the Arabian Sea, suggests several abrupt events in monsoon precipitation throughout the Holocene. The early Holocene monsoon intensification occurred in two abrupt steps at 9500 and 9100 years BP and weakened gradually thereafter, starting at 8500 years BP. A weakening in precipitation recorded at ∼7000 years BP, synchronous with similar conditions in India. One of the most significant weak monsoon periods recorded in our studies lies between 6000 and 5500 years BP. Spectral analysis of the precipitation records reveals statistically significant periodicities at 2200, 1350, 950, 750, 470, 320, 220, 156, 126, 113, 104 and 92 years. Most of these millennial-to-centennial cycles exist in various monsoon records as well as the tree ring Δ¹⁴C data and/or other solar proxy records. We suggest that throughout the Holocene, externally, small changes in solar activity controlled the Indian monsoon to a large extent, whereas internally, non-solar causes could have influenced the amplitude of decadal-to-centennial oscillations.     

Millennium scale environment changes of the Okhotsk Sea during last 80 kyr and their phase relationship with global climate changes

The paper presents the records of several paleoproductivity proxies (PP) (biogenic opal and Ba (Si_bio, Ba_bio), organic carbon (C_org) and carbonate Ca_carb, chlorin and benthic foraminifera abundance (BFA)) in sediments of the Okhotsk Sea for the last 80 kyr with a resolution of ∼100–300 years. The sediment age model was based on the AMS ¹⁴C data, records of benthic foraminifera δ¹⁸O, paleointensity of the Earth’s geomagnetic field and magnetic susceptibility. PP values demonstrate series of severe prolonged productivity drops in the Okhotsk Sea followed by a sharp increase during the last glaciation. On the basis of quantitative estimations of the paleoproductivity in the Okhotsk Sea during the cold MIS 2 and warm Holocene (Gorbarenko and Goldberg, 2005), it is suggested that the millennium scale relationship in productivity-climate changes of this basin was similar: an increase in the sea’s productivity was related with regional climate warming and vice-versa. The PP records of productivity/climate oscillations in the Okhotsk Sea during MIS 2–4 occurred contemporaneously with the North Atlantic cold Heinrich events (HE) and Greenland Dansgaard-Oyeshger interstadial (DOI). Observed successions of prolonged climate cooling events followed by rapid, abrupt warming are similar to climate and environmental oscillations in the N. Atlantic and Greenland, that confirms the millennium-scale climate changes synchronicities in the Northern Hemisphere including the far NW Pacific, the hydrology and climate conditions of which are close to those of the Okhotsk Sea. Synchronism of the N. Hemisphere severe cooling (including the Okhotsk Sea) with the Antarctic warming suggests that mechanisms of the “seesaw” effect (Blunier and Brook, 2001) in the low latitude heat redistribution between high latitudes of both hemispheres were more complicated than direct NADW formation forcing and encompasses the global atmospheric reorganization. Within the PP used a closer connection in the Okhotsk Sea millennium oscillations was observed for the C_org, BFA and chlorin; Ba_bio increases more closely to DOI. Si_bio variability does not show any evident correlation with productivity changes.     

Response of oceanic organisms to abiotic events in the Paleogene

Climate fluctuations with the optimum in the Early Eocene and subsequent cooling were the main abiotic factor that controlled the development of the oceanic biota in the Paleogene. The Paleogene represented the transitional stage from the greenhouse climate of the Mesozoic to the partly glacial Neogene and was characterized by changes in the distribution of the temperatures in the ocean with the replacement of the dominant latitudinal thermal circulation by the largely meridional thermohaline one. The climate changes were also determined by other factors: the opening and closure of seaways between basins, the position of major currents, volcanic activity, the sea-level fluctuations, the composition of the hydro- and atmosphere, and others. These changes were, in turn, determined by factors of higher order, primarily, by tectonic movements: vertical and horizontal (motions of lithospheric plates). The contribution of impact events to this process is also highly probable. All these factors influenced, via the hydrological and hydrochemical parameters of the water column, the evolution of the oceanic biota: their distribution areas, the sizes of the organisms, the diversity of the communities, the bioproductivity, and the mass extinction (for example, the extinction of 30–50% of the benthic foraminifers at the Paleocene-Eocene transition in response to the abrupt temperature increase). The Eocene-Oligocene transition (38 Ma ago) was marked by a global biotic crisis, the most significant one in the Cenozoic, when the abyssal part of the ocean was filled with cold water to form the psychrosphere. At least five major impact events, which preceded the Oligocene mass extinction of the biota, occurred in the terminal Eocene (36–35 Ma ago).     

Relationship between Indian Ocean dipole and ENSO and their connection with the onset of South China Sea summer monsoon

1Introduction Indian Ocean dipole(IOD),a kind of localcharacteristics of variation of sea surface temperature(SST)in the Indian Ocean,behaves with an oppo-site SSTA symbol between the east and west parts ofthe tropical Indian Ocean(Yu and Liu,2004;Rongand…     

Historical Gorda Ridge t-phase swarms: relationships to ridge structure and the tectonic and volcanic state of the ridge during 1964–1966

The U.S. Navy’s Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) hydrophone arrays are extemely efficient receptors of a high-frequency earthquake energy phase known as the t(ertiary)-wave, or t-phase (Fox et al., 1994). After a nearly 30-year hiatus in such studies, SOSUS arrays are again being utilized to detect t-phases and to locate seismic and volcanic events occurring along the Gorda seafloor spreading center (Fox et al., 1995; Fox and Dziak, 1998). Earlier, Northrop et al. (1968) also used other military arrays to infer tectonic structure along the Gorda Ridge. From October 1964 through December 1966, over 600 low-magnitude earthquakes occurred along the Gorda Ridge. Nearly all of these events had magnitudes below the detection thresholds of land-based seismic networks. Northrop et al. (1968) interpreted the geographic distribution of these events as evidence for a nascent fracture zone near the midpoint of the ridge. In the present study, the spatial distributions of these older data and, for the first time, their temporal distributions as well, were examined with respect to detailed bathymetry of the ridge that was acquired in the early 1980s. This analysis, of 570 on-axis and 74 off-axis events, led to the following observations: (1) nearly all of the Gorda Ridge t-phase events occurred in discreet swarms centered about the ridge axis, (2) most of the events within each of 8 (of 9) observed swarms occurred mainly along single ridge segments, and, (3) reconfirming the earlier Northrop et al. (1968) conclusion, most of the events originated in the region of a major change in the strike of the ridge axis. During the 27-month interval that the ridge was observed, relatively few t-phase events took place along the northernmost segment of the Gorda Ridge where the 1996 eruption occurred. However, a unique sequence of small events which visually resemble the events associated with a Juan de Fuca Ridge eruption in 1993 (Fox et al., 1995) and a Gorda Ridge eruption in 1996 (Fox and Dziak, 1998) may have been associated with an eruption on the ridge during 1965.     

西太平洋暖池海域上层海洋热盐含量初步研究

基于2001年1月～2014年7月期间的Argo温盐剖面资料，利用循环平稳经验正交函数（CSEOF）分解、最大熵谱分析和相关分析等方法，研究了西太平洋暖池海域上层海洋热盐含量的空间分布、季节和年际变化特征，并探讨了其影响机制。结果表明，暖池海域近表层与次表层热含量逐年变化呈反位相变化模态，同样盐含量变化趋势也不尽相同。无论热含量还是盐含量，都存在着明显的季节和年际变化。CSEOF分析表明，暖池海域热含量第一模态空间场具有显著的东—西反相位年际振荡，盐含量第一模态则呈正-负-正的三极子模态，但时间序列显示，热含量在2007年以后经过3次位相调整，而盐含量2007年以后只经过一次位相调整，且这种年际变化都与ENSO事件有关，且热含量相比于盐含量受ENSO影响更大。El Niño期间，暖池海域西部热含量减少， 东部增加，La Niña期间则相反；研究海域南北部盐含量在El Niño期间增加，中部（暖池高温中心）减少，La Niña期间则相反；进一步分析表明，热含量变化主要受到局地风场以及纬向流的影响，而盐含量变化则受淡水通量和纬向流的影响。     

Effects of virus infection on expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins in the unicellular marine algae Emiliania huxleyi

The authors have investigated the biochemical events by which marine algal virus infection induces cell cycle arrest. The key G₂/M-phase regulatory proteins are analyzed by immunobloting in unicellular Emiliania huxleyi, suggesting that virus induced cell cycle arrest is related with virus''s effect on cyclins and cyclin dependent kinases. E. huxleyi virus (EhV) represses Cdc2/cyclinB complex activity by inhibiting the activity of Cdc2 kinase in a phosphorylation-related manner, blocking host cells G₂/M checkpoint. Dephosphorylated/inactive Cdc25C combined with up-regulation of Wee1 expression at early infect period appears to be important mechanisms by which EhV represses Cdc2/cyclinB complex activity that is required for entry into M phase. This study has allowed us to confirm that algal virus infection leads to selective activation or inhibition of certain cell-cycle factors, which may play a significant role in establishing a more efficient environment for viral gene expression and DNA replication.     

Spreading-rate dependence of hydroacoustic and teleseismic seismicity of ridge-transform systems: East Pacific Rise,Galapagos Ridge,and Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Seismicity in ocean ridge-transform systems reveals fundamental processes of mid-ocean ridges, while comparisons of seismicity in different oceans remain rare due to a lack of detection of small events. From 1996 to2003, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA/PMEL) deployed several hydrophones in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the northern Atlantic Ocean.These hydrophones recorded earthquakes with small magnitudes, providing us with...     

2013年赤道波动调制下的东印度洋春季Wyrtki急流季节内变化研究

A strong spring Wyrtki jet(WJ) presents in May 2013 in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. The entire buildup and retreat processes of the spring WJ were well captured by two adjacent Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers mounted on the mooring systems. The observed zonal jet behaved as one intraseasonal event with the significant features of abrupt emergence as well as slow disappearance. Further research illustrate that the pronounced surface westerly wind burst during late-April to mid-May, associated with the active phase of a robust eastwardpropagating Madden–Julian oscillation in the tropical Indian Ocean, was the dominant reason for the rapid acceleration of surface WJ. In contrasting, the governing mechanism for the jet termination was equatorial wave dynamics rather than wind forcing. The decomposition analysis of equatorial waves and the corresponding changes in the ocean thermocline demonstrated that strong WJ was produced rapidly by the wind-generated oceanic downwelling equatorial Kelvin wave and was terminated subsequently by the westward-propagating equatorial Rossby wave reflecting from eastern boundaries of the Indian Ocean.     

Impact of Two "El Niño" Events of Different Intensity on the Hypoxic Soft Bottom Macrobenthos off the Central Peruvian wast

Abstract. Monthly changes in the community structure of hypoxic soft-bottom macrobenthos have been studied at a station at 34 m depth in Ancón Bay (Peru) before and during two El Niño (EN) events. Of these events, 1982-83 is considered the strongest, and 1991–93 one of the most prolonged in the 20th century. On the oceanographic scale, EN 1982–83 ranges as "very strong", whereas EN 1991–93 ranges as "moderate".
The thermal anomalies at the station during EN 1982–83 (+ 7.8 °C) were almost twice those of EN 1991–93 (+ 4.1 °C). However, the community changes were not in all cases proportional to the extent of warming. Species numbers increased in a similar way (up to 24 species from near zero in each of the two events), but maximum faunal density was five times higher, and mean biomass was twice as high in 1982–83 compared with the event a decade later. Species diversity was slightly higher during EN 1982–83, whereas successional and trophic changes occurred on a broader scale during EN 1991–93. On the whole, the impact of the long-lasting event on the small soft-bottom macrofauna was not much weaker than that of the exceptionally strong event.
The authors discuss the mechanisms which may be responsible for the differences and similarities encountered in the benthic community dynamics during these two events. Both in the unusually strong and the unusually long EN, the community revealed a pattern of early biological response several months ahead of the onset of local warming which marks the official begin of EN. The question is addressed to what extent the increase of certain parameters in the benthic community could be used for predictive purposes.     

The relationship between the canonical ENSO and the phase transition of the Antarctic oscillation at the quasi-quadrennial timescale

A correlation analysis is performed to investigate the relationship between El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Antarctic oscillation (AAO) at the quasi-quadrennial (QQ) timescale.It is found that the cold tongue index (CTI) and the AAO index (AAOI) are negatively correlated with about a 7-month lead-time,while they are positively correlated with about a 15-month lag-time.To further explore this relationship,complex empirical orthogonal function analysis is employed in the QQ sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies from 1951 to 2002.The results indicate that,during the ENSO cycle,there exists one kind of global tropical wave of wavenumber 1 (GTW1) propagating eastward.With the traveling of GTW1,the tropical SLP anomaly tends to intrude into the southern mid-latitudes.Accordingly,three strong signals travel synchronously along the circumSouth-Pacific path,and a relatively weak signal extends eastward and poleward over the South Ocean in the Atlantic-Indian Ocean sector.Following the propagation of these signals,the AAO phase tends to be reversed progressively.As a result,there exists an evident lead-lag correlation between CTI and AAOI.It can be concluded that ENSO plays a key role in the phase transition of AAO at the QQ timescale.It is also noticed that this regular relationship is only evident in the canonical ENSO events,for which sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies extend westward from the tropical eastern Pacific.On the other hand,the similar relationships are not found among those atypical ENSO events for which SST anomalies spread eastward from the central Pacific,such as the 1982-1983 ENSO event.     

Interaction of the reasons for the mass biota extinctions in the Phanerozoic

The consideration of the conditions during the mass extinctions has shown that a series of factors, including mutually independent tectonic movements, variations in the sea level and climate, volcanism, asteroid impacts, changes in the composition of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, the dimming of the atmosphere by aerosols at volcanism and impact events, etc., had a harmful affect during some periods of time (a hundred thousand years to millions of years). Some of the listed events occurred for a long period of time and could not have caused the abrupt catastrophic death of organisms on a global scale. The examination of the hierarchy of the major events allows us to distinguish the primary terrestrial (volcanism) and cosmic (impact events) reasons for the mass extinctions. The coeval mutually independent events testify to the common external reasons for the higher order beyond the solar system. These events are suggested to be related with the orbital movement of the solar system around the galaxy’s center, the intersection of the galactic branches, and the oscillations of the solar system’s position relative to the galactic plane. These reasons influence the processes on the Earth, including the internal and external geospheres, and activate the impacts of asteroids and comets. Under their effect, two main subsequences of events are developed: terrestrial, leading to intense volcanism, and cosmic impact events. In both cases, harmful chemical elements and aerosols are vented to the atmosphere, thus resulting in the greenhouse effect, warming, the dimming of the atmosphere, the prevention of photosynthesis, the ocean’s stagnation, and anoxia with the following reduction of the bioproductivity, the destruction of the food chains, and the extinction of a significant part of the biota.     

Life cycle of intraseasonal oscillation of summer SST in the western South China Sea

Intraseasonal oscillation (ISO, times-cales of 30~90 d) of summer sea surface temperature (SST) in the western South China Sea is studied using harmonic and empirical orthogonal function analyses of microwave observations by the tropical rainfall measuring mission satellite. Each summer from May to September, two or three ISO events occur off South Vietnam, with a typical period of approximately 50 d. The life cycle of these events from the initiation to decay of SST anomalies is described.     

Assessing shipping water vertical loads on a fixed structure by convolution model and wet dam-break tests

Estimation of loads derived from shipping water events in naval and offshore structures is of importance to improve their structural design or to predict changes in their dynamics. For the case of vertical loads on deck of a fixed structure, it is possible to estimate analytically their evolution in time by considering the distribution of shipping water elevations. However, the classical approach to estimate this distribution (i.e., dam-break method) tends to overestimate the amount of water on deck and does not follow the generated decay trends observed experimentally. In the present work, the time evolution of the vertical loads due to shipping water events was studied analytically and experimentally. The validation of the use of a convolution model to estimate the time evolution of vertical loads is presented, aiming to improve the results obtained with classical approaches. A systematic experimental study has been conducted using the wet dam-break method to generate isolated shipping water events, measuring the slow-varying vertical loads on a rectangular fixed structure. A force balance and a high-speed camera have been used at the same sampling rate to monitor the vertical loads and the shipping water evolution on the deck. Results demonstrated that the use of the convolution model improved the representation of the time series of loads compared with the traditional dam-break approach. With this new method, it was possible to capture the peaks and the decay tendencies observed in the experimental data in an approximated way.     

低速十字路口交通流模型相图

研究由两个单车道构成低速十字路口交通流模型.模型中两车道上的车辆更新遵循无交通灯管制下的并行规则.依据构建相图的原则并采用局部占有概率方法,建立相图,给出相图中的各部分区域的流量表达式.两车道均采用周期边界条件和确定性FI模型进行数值模拟,模拟结果与理论分析精确一致.模型中两条车道的行车规则更接近实际道路交通,该结果为交通管理提供一定的指导作用.     

On the warm/cold regime shift in the South China Sea: Observation and modeling study

Remote sensing data sets and a high-resolution three-dimensional regional ocean model were utilized to investigate the shifting of warm/cold regime and the associated sea level variation in the South China Sea (SCS) during 2000–2003. Both the altimetry data and the model results showed an increase in the sea level (warm phase) followed by an abrupt decrease (cold phase) in the SCS during 2000–2003. Heat budget calculations performed with the model revealed excess heat advection from the western Pacific warm pool into the SCS during the warm phase than the cold phase. The warm phase, which occurred during La Niña episodes, resulted from the intrusion of abnormally warmer western Pacific water that increased the heat content and thus sea level in the SCS. The cold phase, which occurred during El Niño episodes, was triggered by a reduction in the net atmospheric heat flux followed by cold water advection into the SCS. Decrease in the rate of precipitation minus evaporation (P?E) also accounted for the falling of sea level during cold phase. The present study integrated the available remote sensing data and advanced numerical model to identify the time-dependent three-dimensional dynamic and thermodynamic forcing that are important in governing the warm/cold regime shift in the SCS.     

The 30–60-day oscillation in the East Asian summer monsoon and its time-dependent association with the ENSO

Based on 30–60-day oscillation in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), the relationship between its northward propagation and ENSO (El Niño and Southern Oscillation) was investigated. To explicitly describe the 30–60-day monsoonal evolution, an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis was carried out on the temporal-latitude section of the longitudinal average for 115°E–120°E. The principal 30–60-day EASM mode captures a northward propagation of well-organized intraseasonal oscillation (NISO). Using the associated time series of the first mode, we found a significant lagged correlation between interannual variability of the NISO and ENSO. Its lagged correlations with NINO indices have a quasi-biennial (QB) characteristic through the preceding summer and the concurrent summer. Their relationship was found by the regression analysis relating the low-level circulation to the ocean temperature. The western North Pacific anticyclone and the anticyclone-induced easterly vertical wind shear anomalies induce the dynamical linkage between the NISO and QB-type ENSO. It is shown that the NISO is more closely tied with QB-type ENSO in its phase than in its amplitude, and may be connected to the anomalous easterly wind and the eastward evolution of an oceanic Kelvin wave, which is associated with abrupt ENSO transition. The predictability on ENSO and NISO is examined through the canonical correlation analysis.