Diatom Assemblage and Productivity Changes during the Last 340,000 Years in the Subarctic Pacific

Diatoms represent the major part of the microfossils preserved in the subarctic Pacific sediments. During the warm climate intervals the diatom accumulation rate (DAR) tended to increase, whereas it tended to decrease during the cold intervals. Principal component (PC) analysis of the fossil diatom assemblages in Piston Core KH99-3 ES samples from the subarctic Pacific was carried out to investigate the paleoceanographic conditions of the area. PC1 (59.9% of the total variance) was represented by Neodenticula seminae, a characteristic species representing the high nutrient concentrations, which dominated during the interglacial periods. The DAR and PC changes can be attributed to a global origin that is influenced by the nutrient change due to intermediate water change and to a local one that is explained by the change of upwelling region. The analysis of PC2 (17.1% of the total variance) indicates the change of water mass in the western subarctic Pacific. During Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 2 and 3, the western subarctic Pacific region was significantly influenced by the sea-ice, which may have been derived from the coastal region or a proximal marginal sea. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Chlorophyll a Biomass of Netplankton in Surface Waters in the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean in Austral Summer

Chlorophyll a of total and particles retained on 30 μm mesh plankton net were both determined in surface waters along two cruise tracks ranging from the Subtropical water to the marginal ice zone in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean in austral summer. Total surface chlorophyll a in the study area was mostly less than 1 μg chl a 1⁻¹, and showed distributions with no obvious trend associated with different waters masses of the Antarctic and the Subantarctic, although total chlorophyll a concentrations changed greatly within each water mass. Particularly low concentrations of chlorophyll a were detected in the marginal ice zone. Chlorophyll a contained in 30 μm netplankton made up 5∼60% of total chlorophyll a: large near the marginal ice zone and becoming small with travel towards the north. High percentage shares of netplankton chlorophyll a were confirmed even in low total chlorophyll a concentrations in summer in the Southern Ocean. A positive relation was observed between the percentage of 30 μm netplankton and the “average total chlorophyll a”, although there was great scatter. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Occurrence and seasonal variations of algal toxins in water, phytoplankton and shellfish from North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia

A number of marine microalgae are known to produce toxins that can accumulate in shellfish and when eaten, lead to toxic and potentially fatal reactions in humans. This paper reports on the occurrence and seasonal variations of algal toxins in the waters, phytoplankton and shellfish of Southeast Queensland, Australia. These algal toxins include okadaic acid (OA), domoic acid (DA), gymnodimine (GD), pectenotoxin-2 (PTX-2) and pectenotoxin-2-seco acid (PTX-2-SA), which were detected in the sampled shellfish and phytoplankton, via HPLC-MS/MS. Dissolved OA, PTX-2 and GD were also detected in the samples collected from the water column. This was the first occasion that DA and GD have been reported in shellfish, phytoplankton and the water column in Queensland waters. Phytoplankton tows contained both the toxic Dinophysis and Pseudo-nitzschia algae species, and are suspected of being the most likely producers of the OA, PTX-2s and DA found in shellfish of this area. The number of cells, however, did not correlate with the amount of toxins present in either shellfish or phytoplankton. This indicates that toxin production by algae varies with time and the species present and that number of cells alone cannot be used as an indicator for the presence of toxins. The presence of OA and PTX-2s were more frequently seen in the summer, while DA and GD were detected throughout the year and without any obvious seasonal patterns.     

X-ray observations of PSR B1259−63 near the 2007 periastron passage

PSR B1259−63 is a 48-ms radio pulsar in a highly eccentric 3.4-yr orbit with a Be star SS 2883. Unpulsed γ-ray, X-ray and radio emission components are observed from the binary system. It is likely that the collision of the pulsar wind with the anisotropic wind of the Be star plays a crucial role in the generation of the observed non-thermal emission. The 2007 periastron passage was observed in unprecedented details with Suzaku , Swift , XMM–Newton and Chandra missions. We present here the results of this campaign and compare them with previous observations. With these data we are able, for the first time, to study the details of the spectral evolution of the source over a 2-month period of the passage of the pulsar close to the Be star. New data confirm the pre-periastron spectral hardening, with the photon index reaching a value smaller than 1.5, observed during a local flux minimum. If the observed X-ray emission is due to the inverse Compton (IC) losses of the 10-MeV electrons, then such a hard spectrum can be a result of Coulomb losses, or can be related to the existence of the low-energy cut-off in the electron spectrum. Alternatively, if the X-ray emission is a synchrotron emission of very high-energy electrons, the observed hard spectrum can be explained if the high-energy electrons are cooled by IC emission in Klein–Nishina regime. Unfortunately, the lack of simultaneous data in the TeV energy band prevents us from making a definite conclusion on the nature of the observed spectral hardening and, therefore, on the origin of the X-ray emission.     

Determination of the oxidation state of radiogenic Pb in natural zircon using X-ray absorption near-edge structure

We examined the L_III-edge Pb X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) of three natural zircon samples with different amounts of radiation doses (1.9 × 10¹⁵ to 6.8 × 10¹⁵ α-decay events/mg). The results suggest that the oxidation state of radiogenic Pb in the zircon sample with the highest radiation dose is divalent. The XANES spectra of the two other samples with lower radiation doses suggest that radiogenic Pb(II) is present, and further that some Pb may be tetravalent. This is the first work on the determination of the oxidation state of radiogenic Pb in natural zircon using XANES.     

Field Survey of the 1996 Irian Jaya Earthquake Tsunami in Biak Island

Runup data in Biak Island and itsnearby islets are described with discussions oftsunami magnitude and a few characteristics such aswitnessed arrival times, wave periods and wavenumbers. From an engineering viewpoint, a relationbetween inundation depth and current velocity on landis also described with relations between inundationdepth and degree of damage to houses and between sanderosion depth and current velocity in backshoreregion, based on data collected from the present andpast tsunamis.