Assessing the Validity of Seismo-Acoustic Predictor Equations for Obtaining Seabed and Sub-Surface Sediment Physical Properties

The interdependence between the seismo-acoustic properties of a marine sediment and its geotechnical/physical parameters has been known for many years, and it has been postulated that this should allow the extraction of geotechnical information from seismic data. Though in the literature many correlations have been published for the surficial layer, there is a lack of information for greater sediment depths. In this article, a desktop study on a synthetic seafloor model illustrates how the application of published near-surface prediction equations to subsurface sediments (up to several tens of meters burial depth) can lead to spurious predictions. To test this further, acoustic and geotechnical properties were measured on a number of sediment core samples, some of which were subjected to loading in acoustically-equipped consolidation cells (oedometers) to simulate greater burial depth conditions. For low effective pressures (representing small burial depths extending to around 10 meters subsurface), the general applicability of established relationships was confirmed: the prediction of porosity, bulk density, and mean grain size from acoustic velocity and impedance appears generally possible for the investigated sedimentary environments. As effective pressure increases through, the observed relationships deviate more and more from the established ones for the near-surface area. For the samples tested in this study, in some instances increasing pressure even resulted in decreasing velocities. There are several possible explanations for this abnormal behavior, including the presence of gas, overconsolidation, or bimodal grain size distribution. The results indicate that an appropriate depth correction must be introduced into the published prediction equations in order to obtain reliable estimates of physical sediment properties for greater subsurface depths.     

Chemical composition and acute toxicity in the water after in situ burning--a laboratory experiment

The chemical composition and toxicity of a water soluble fraction (WSF) of oil versus the underlying water after in situ burning (ISB), has been studied in a laboratory experiment. A system for allowing water sampling after ISB was developed. Seawater samples and oil were collected prior to and immediately after ISB, and chemical analysis was conducted. The chemical characterization of the water showed that the disappearance of water soluble oil components during ISB was insignificant. Acute toxicity tests with the marine copepod Calanus finmarchicus and Microtox® bioassay was performed to establish LC₅₀/EC₅₀ values of the water. The results were compared with regular WAF systems with unburned weathered oil, and indicated no increase in toxicity in the underlying water after ISB.     

Extreme flows and unusual water levels near a Caribbean coral reef: was this a case of a “perfect storm”?

Observations of currents aimed to study the flow near a spawning aggregation reef, Gladden Spit off the coast of Belize, reveal unusually strong currents on 19–20 October 2009 (the current speed was over 1?m?s^?1, when the mean and standard deviation are 0.2?±?0.12?m?s^?1). During this short time, the water level was raised by 60–70?cm above normal in one place, but lowered by 10–20?cm in another location just 2?km away. The temperature dropped by over 2°C within a few hours. Analyses of local and remote sensing data suggest that a rare combination of an offshore Caribbean cyclonic eddy, a short-lived local tropical storm, and a Spring tide, all occurred at the same time and creating a “perfect storm” condition that resulted in the unusual event. High-resolution simulations and momentum balance analysis demonstrate how the unique shape of the coral reef amplified the coastal current through nonlinear flow–topography interactions. The suggested mechanism for the water level change is different than the classical wind-driven storm surge process. The study has implications for the influence of external forcing on mixing processes and physical–biological interactions near coral reefs.     

Seagrass ecophysiology meets ecological genomics: are we ready?

In March 2011, the Ecophysiology and Genetics Working Groups of the European Science Foundation COST Action ES 0906, entitled Seagrass Productivity: From Genes to Ecosystem Management, organized an exploratory workshop entitled “Linking Ecophysiology and Ecogenomics in Seagrass Systems”. The goal of the workshop was to discuss how to integrate comparative gene expression studies with physiological processes such as photosynthetic performance, carbon and nitrogen utilization and environmental adaptation. The main questions discussed for integrative research related to mechanisms of carbon utilization, light requirements, temperature effects and natural variation in pH and ocean acidification. It was concluded that the seagrass research community is still in the nascent stages of linking ecophysiology with genomic responses, as carbon and nitrogen metabolism of seagrasses have not been sufficiently well studied. Likewise, genomic approaches have only been able to assign meaningful interpretations to a handful of differentially expressed genes. Nevertheless, the way forward has been established.     

Modelling the effect of climate change on the wave climate of the world’s oceans

This paper analyses the trends and the future projections of significant wave height in several ocean areas at different parts of the world. It uses a stochastic Bayesian hierarchical space-time model, with a regression component with atmospheric levels of CO₂ as covariates in order to estimate the expected long-term trends and make future projections towards the year 2100. The model was initially developed for an area in the North Atlantic ocean, and has been found to perform reasonably well there, and it is now investigated how the model performs for other ocean areas. 11 new ocean areas have been analysed with the model, and this paper presents the results pertaining to the estimated long-term trends and future projections of monthly maximum significant wave height for each of the 12 ocean areas.     

Mudstone compaction curves in basin modelling: a study of Mesozoic and Cenozoic Sediments in the northern North Sea

Basin modelling studies are carried out in order to understand the basin evolution and palaeotemperature history of sedimentary basins. The results of basin modelling are sensitive to changes in the physical properties of the rocks in the sedimentary sequences. The rate of basin subsidence depends, to a large extent, on the density of the sedimentary column, which is largely dependent on the porosity and therefore on the rate of compaction. This study has tested the sensitivity of varying porosity/depth curves and related thermal conductivities for the Cenozoic succession along a cross‐section in the northern North Sea basin, offshore Norway. End‐member porosity/depth curves, assuming clay with smectite and kaolinite properties, are compared with a standard compaction curve for shale normally applied to the North Sea. Using these alternate relationships, basin geometries of the Cenozoic succession may vary up to 15% from those predicted using the standard compaction curve. Isostatic subsidence along the cross‐section varies 2.3–4.6% between the two end‐member cases. This leads to a 3–8% difference in tectonic subsidence, with maximum values in the basin centre. Owing to this, the estimated stretching factors vary up to 7.8%, which further gives rise to a maximum difference in heat flow of more than 8.5% in the basin centre. The modelled temperatures for an Upper Jurassic source rock show a deviation of more than 20 °C at present dependent on the thermal conductivity properties in the post‐rift succession. This will influence the modelled hydrocarbon generation history of the basin, which is an essential output from basin modelling analysis. Results from the northern North Sea have shown that varying compaction trends in sediments with varying thermal properties are important parameters to constrain when analysing sedimentary basins.     

On characterizing the temporal dominance patterns of model parameters and processes

Diagnostic analyses of hydrological models intend to improve the understanding of how processes and their dynamics are represented in models. Temporal patterns of parameter dominance could be precisely characterized with a temporally resolved parameter sensitivity analysis. In this way, the discharge conditions are characterized, that lead to a parameter dominance in the model. To achieve this, the analysis of temporal dynamics in parameter sensitivity is enhanced by including additional information in a three‐tiered framework on different aggregation levels. Firstly, temporal dynamics of parameter sensitivity provide daily time series of their sensitivities to detect variations in the dominance of model parameters. Secondly, the daily sensitivities are related to the flow duration curve (FDC) to emphasize high sensitivities of model parameters in relation to specific discharge magnitudes. Thirdly, parameter sensitivities are monthly averaged separately for five segments of the FDC to detect typical patterns of parameter dominances for different discharge magnitudes. The three methodical steps are applied on two contrasting catchments (upland and lowland catchment) to demonstrate how the temporal patterns of parameter dynamics represent different hydrological regimes. The discharge dynamic in the lowland catchment is controlled by groundwater parameters for all discharge magnitudes. In contrast, different processes are relevant in the upland catchment, because the dominances of parameters from fast and slow runoff components in the upland catchment are changing over the year for the different discharge magnitudes. The joined interpretation of these three diagnostic steps provides deeper insights of how model parameters represent hydrological dynamics in models for different discharge magnitudes. Thus, this diagnostic framework leads to a better characterization of model parameters and their temporal dynamics and helps to understand the process behaviour in hydrological models. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi-directional wave spectra from marine X-band radar

The signal measured by heave–pitch–roll directional wave buoys yields the first four coefficients of a Fourier series. Data adaptive methods must be employed to estimate a directional wave spectrum. Marine X-band radars (MRs) have the advantage over buoys that they can measure “model-free” two-dimensional (2D) wave spectra. This study presents the first comprehensive validation of MR-derived multi-directional wave characteristics. It is based on wave data from the 2010 Impact of Typhoons on the Ocean in the Pacific (ITOP) experiment in the Philippine Sea, namely MR measurements from R/V Roger Revelle, Extreme Air–Sea Interaction (EASI) buoy measurements, as well as WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) modeling results. Buoy measurements of mean direction and spreading as function of frequency, which do not require data adaptive methods, are used to validate the WW3 wave spectra. An advanced MR wave retrieval technique is introduced that addresses various shortcomings of existing methods. Spectral partitioning techniques, applied to MR and WW3 results, reveal that multimodal seas are frequently present. Both data sets are in excellent agreement, tracking the evolution of up to 4 simultaneous wave systems over extended time periods. This study demonstrates MR’s and WW3’s strength at measuring and predicting 2D wave spectra in swell-dominated seas.