Strength estimation and stress–dilatancy characteristics of natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments under high effective confining pressure

Acta Geotechnica - Gas production by depressurization can significantly increase the effective stress in hydrate-bearing sediments. Therefore, strength and deformation characteristics of sediments...     

Simultaneous seeing measurement through the Subaru Telescope in the visible and near-infrared bands for the wavelength dependence evaluation

Stellar images have been obtained under natural seeing at visible and near-infrared wavelengths simultaneously through the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea. The image quality is evaluated by the full-width at the half-maximum (FWHM) of the stellar images. The observed ratio of FWHM in the V-band to the K-band is 1.54 ± 0.17 on average. The ratio shows tendency to decrease toward bad seeing as expected from the outer scale influence, though the number of the samples is still limited. The ratio is important for simulations to evaluate the performance of a ground-layer adaptive optics system at near-infrared wavelengths based on optical seeing statistics. The observed optical seeing is also compared with outside seeing to estimate the dome seeing of the Subaru Telescope.     

Aircraft Observations of Air-mass Modification Over the Sea of Okhotsk during Sea-ice Growth

In order to quantitatively investigate the role of leads and sea-ice in air-mass modification, aircraft observations were conducted over the partially ice-covered Sea of Okhotsk. We investigated two cold-air outbreak events with different sea-ice concentrations. In both cases, the difference between the temperatures of surface air and the sea surface (ΔT) dropped rapidly with the accumulated fetch-width of leads up to about 35-40 km, and then decreased very slowly. The surface sensible heat flux originating from open water was about 300 W m⁻² within a few kilometres from the coast and decreased with increasing accumulated fetch-width. The sensible heat flux was about 100 W m⁻² on average. These results indicate that the downwind air-mass modification depends mainly on the total (accumulated) extent of open water. The total buoyancy flux calculated by the joint frequency distribution method correlated very well with ice concentration. Such a relationship was not clear in the case of the moisture flux . The ratio between rising thermals and cold downdrafts differed significantly between upwind and downwind regions; that is, the buoyancy flux was dominated by in the developing stage of the boundary layer, while also became important after the development of the boundary layer.     

Lethality of increasing CO2 levels on deep-sea copepods in the western North Pacific

The first CO₂ exposure experiments on several species of pelagic copepods inhabiting surface and deep layers in the western North Pacific were conducted. Living organisms were collected from two layers between the surface and 1,500 m between latitudes of 11 and 44°N, and they were exposed aboard ship to various pCO₂ up to about 98,000 μatm. Mortality of copepods from both shallow and deep layers in subarctic to subtropical regions increased with increasing pCO₂ and exposure time. Deep-living copepods showed higher tolerance to pCO₂ than shallow-living copepods. Furthermore, deep-living copepods from subarctic and transitional regions had higher tolerances than the subtropical copepods. The higher tolerances of the deep-living copepods from subarctic and transitional regions may be due to the adaptation to the natural pCO₂ conditions in the subarctic ocean.     

Taylor-Görtler vortices expected in the air flow on sea surface waves—I

Taylor-Grörtler vortices are longitudinal vortices resulting from a centrifugal instability. They are generated in the flow having a curved streamline with an increasing velocity in the direction of decreasing curvature.It is shown that the air flow above wind waves and swells also satisfies locally the condition of the centrifugal instability. Numerical calculations indicate the possibility of generation of Taylor-Görtler vortices on the trough of sea waves. For example, when a wind of about 12.2 m/s at 10-m level is blowing over sea waves of the wave length of 15 m like the swell, the critical water wave height beyond which the vortices may be generated is about 0.5 m, and the critical wave length and the height of center of the generated vortices are about 24 m and 3.7 m, respectively. Further, about the relations between the generation of vortices and wind waves, it is shown that the condition of their generation is satisfied at the trough of waves for early stages of the wave generation.In conclusion, it is expected that the Taylor-Görtler vortices change the wind profile along the sea surface, and also, play some part in the growth of wind waves, especially in the formation of their three dimensional structure.     

Latitudinal Differences in the Planktonic Biomass and Community Structure Down to the Greater Depths in the Western North Pacific

As part of the research program WEST-COSMIC Phase I (1997–2001), vertical profiles down to the greater depths (0–2000 m or 5800 m) of the plankton community structure composed of heterotrophic bacteria, phytoplankton, protozooplankton and metazooplankton were studied at one station in each subarctic (44°N) and in transitional region (39°N), and two stations in subtropical region (30°N and 25°N); all in 137–155°E in the western North Pacific Ocean. The biomass of all four taxonomic groups decreased rapidly with increasing depths at all stations, although the magnitude of depth-related decrease differed among the groups. As plankton community structure, metazooplankton biomass and bacterial biomass occupied >50% of the total in 0–2000 and 2000–4000 or 5000 m strata, respectively, at subarctic and transitional stations, while bacterial biomass contributed to >50% of the total consistently from 0 through 4800 or 5800 m at subtropical stations. Metazooplankton biomass integrated over the greater depths exhibited a clear latitudinal pattern (high north and low south), but this was not the case for those of the other taxonomic groups. As a component of metazooplankton, an appreciable contribution of diapausing copepods to the metazooplankton was noted at subarctic and transitional stations, but they were few or nil at subtropical stations. As protozooplankton assemblages, heterotrophic microflagellates (HMF) and dinoflagellates were two major components at subarctic and transitional stations, but were only HMF predominated at subtropical stations. From biomass ratios between heterotrophic bacteria, HMF and dinoflagellates, “sinking POC-DOC-heterotrophic bacteria-HMF-heterotrophic dinoflagellates” link was proposed as a microbial food chain operative in the deep layer of the western North Pacific. All results are discussed in the light of latitudinal differences in the structure and functioning of plankton community contributing to the ‘biological pump’ in the western North Pacific Ocean. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Experimental study on strong interaction between regular waves and wind waves—I

The interaction between mechanically generated regular waves and wind waves is experimentally investigated in a wind-wave tunnel. It is shown that the growth process of regular waves is divided into the four distinct stages as follows: (1) almost independent coexistence of wind waves and regular waves, (2) attenuation of wind waves with simultaneous growth of regular waves, (3) rapid growth of regular waves after disappearance of wind waves, and (4) transition of regular waves to wind waves after the wave breaking. At the second stage there is an apparent relation between the attenuation of wind waves and the growth of regular waves. This fact suggests that there is some strong nonlinear interactions which transfers energy effectively from wind waves to regular waves.     

Netplankton Chlorophyll Biomass along 175°E in the Pacific Ocean

An analysis is presented of data on chlorophyll a concentrations of the total and the netplankton (>10 μm), determined either in April to June or in August to September from 48°N to 15°S along 175°E in the Pacific Ocean during 6 years by the NOPACCS (Northwest Pacific Carbon Cycle Study). Particular attention was given to the variability of absolute concentrations of the netplankton chlorophyll a and their percentage shares of the total chlorophyll a concentration. Below 0.2 μg l⁻¹ of surface total chlorophyll a, the netplankton chlorophyll a showed low percentage shares (such as 12.7% on average) with a large variation, but above 0.2 μg l⁻¹ it was 35.9% on average with less variation, showing an accelerated increase at high total chlorophyll a concentrations. High netplankton chlorophyll a concentrations in surface waters were observed at high latitudes, in waters having high chlorophyll a concentrations at sub-surface depth, and in equatorial upwelling. The percentage shares of netplankton in the total chlorophyll a in the euphotic zone were 8.5% and 25.9% above and below 0.2 μg l⁻¹, respectively, although the data points scattered over a wide range (from 7.2% to 53.8%) depending on differences in water masses, depths and seasons. High chlorophyll a concentrations and high percentage shares of netplankton corresponded to high ambient nitrate plus nitrite concentrations. Integrated netplankton chlorophyll a concentrations in the euphotic zone varied from 0.7 to 19.5 mg m⁻² in waters below 0.2 μg l⁻¹ of surface total chlorophyll a, and from 2.0 to 29.5 mg m⁻² above 0.2 μg l⁻¹, and the percentage shares of netplankton for the former were 7.4% on average and 23.7% for the latter. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Simplified technique for the rapid determination of phytoplankton pigments by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

A simplified technique for the rapid analysis of photosynthetic pigments in marine phytoplankton is described. The pigments extracted in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) are injected directly into the reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatograph fitted with a photodiode array detector. We developed a new stepwise program; that is methanol-water (7525 v/v), methanol, methanol-acetone (8020) and methanol-acetone (6535). This program gives a good separation of at least 13 carotenoids, and 10 chlorophylls and their derivatives, completed within 20 min. The quantitative precision is high; the maximum standard error was less than 6%. The stability of pigments in DMF were also considered for application of this technique to the lab work on board the ship.     

Chlorophyll distribution and photosynthetic activity in the north and equatorial Pacific Ocean along 155°W

The distribution of chlorophylla and photosynthetic characterestics of phytoplankters were investigated along 155°W between 50°N and 15°S during the KH-69-4 cruise of the R. V. Hakuh Maru (Aug. 12–Nov. 13, 1969). High concentrations of chlorophylla (more than 0.2 mg Chla/m³) were observed above the depths of 150 m at all stations except in 17°N, 5°S and 15°S. North of 20°N, the depths of chlorophyll accumulation shifted from near the surface to 50–100 m with southwards. In the equatorial region, chlorophyll accumulation centered at a depth of about 70 m and ranged vertically between 10 and 150 m. In all cases in the present study area, chlorophyll accumulation occurred within the euphotic zone (above the depth corresponding to 1% of the surface illumination), and except in the subarctic and some equatorial waters, this was usually prevalent in the lower half of the euphotic zone.The photosynthetic activities (initial slope of P vs I curve) of samples from the depths of chlorophyll accumulation were similar to, or lower than, those of shallow samples from the depths of upper half of the euphotic zone. At the depths of chlorophyll accumulation, calculatedin situ photosynthesis was high in the central Pacific and equatorial waters but low in the subarctic waters.