Amino acids and hexosamines in the Hess Rise core during the past 220,000 years

Core sediment samples collected from the Hess Rise, North Pacific, were analyzed for 20 common amino acids (AA) and two hexosamines (HA) to understand the relation between glacial–interglacial variations and deposition/preservation of sedimentary organic matter (OM). The sediments are predominantly carbonaceous (carbonates 35–80%). AA-based parameters—aspartic acid/glycine ratio and serine+threonine relative mole content—suggest that calcareous plankton was the major source of OM in these sediments. This inference is supported by the similarity in distribution patterns of AA and HA contents with that of organic carbon. Low values of AA/HA and glucosamine/galactosamine ratios (average 4.4 and 1.1, respectively) imply that much of the planktonic OM was replaced by microbial OM. The relative molar concentration of two nonprotein AA (β-alanine and γ-aminobutyric acid) varied with age of sediments; i.e., they were less abundant in recent sediments and more abundant in the oldest sediments. This trend is an indicator of extremely slow but continuous enzymatic degradation of proteinaceous OM within the sediments. So far, bulk OM has been believed to be one of the best proxies for estimation of primary productivity. However, it may be an underestimate, even for the late Quaternary sediments. Comparison of AA and HA content variations with SPECMAP stack revealed their enhanced deposition and preservation during glacial periods relative to interglacial periods. This, in turn, affected not only the planktonic production in surface waters but also the benthic community, including bacteria on the seafloor.     

Atmospheric Deposition Connected with Marine Primary Production,Nitrogen Cycle: A Review

Atmospheric Deposition (AD) provides external nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe) supporting the growth of phytoplankton in oceans and thereby exerts obvious impacts on carbon and nitrogen cycles and climate change associated. Specifically, the external nutrients derived from atmospheric deposition can promote the marine primary production and nitrogen fixation that enhance the ocean capacity in absorbing CO₂; AD may also change a few pathways of carbon and nitrogen cycles in oceans and increase the emissions of biogenic aerosol and radioactive gases such as N₂O, DMS, etc. Due to the underlying important impacts on climate and environmental change, AD and processes related have become the hot topics of multidisciplinary studies in the areas of ocean and atmospheric sciences, and the focus of some international core projects such as Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS), an International Study of Marine Biogeochemical Cycles of Trace Elements and Their Isotopes (GEOTRACES) and Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER). With the severe air pollution and high frequencies of Asian dust events, as the downwind areas of big cities and dust sources, the East China Sea and adjacent North Pacific have received increasing influences of AD. Limited studies showed that the increase of AD indeed caused significant influence on carbon and nitrogen cycles in these immediately related oceanic areas and the study there would have a signature effect on global oceans. A multidisciplinary study on the impacts of AD in oceans, e.g., combing molecular biology and experimental ecology techniques to study primary production processes, utilizing isotopic techniques to trace the change of the nitrogen cycle, new evidences of ocean-biogenic aerosol emissions, etc. would be the focus in the future.     

北太平洋涡旋振荡研究进展

从观测事实和动力机制两方面,对近年发现的新的气候模态——北太平洋涡旋振荡（NPGO）的研究成果进行系统总结。NPGO的空间结构表现为北太平洋上海表高度异常（SSHA）的正负中心呈南北偶极子分布,当NPGO位于正位相时,南北涡流都加强,这种加强是由风应力旋度及风生涌流所驱动的。关于NPGO的机制研究发现,NPGO是中纬太...     

Marine tephrochronology of the Mt. Edgecumbe Volcanic Field, Southeast Alaska, USA

The Mt. Edgecumbe Volcanic Field (MEVF), located on Kruzof Island near Sitka Sound in southeast Alaska, experienced a large multiple-stage eruption during the last glacial maximum (LGM)-Holocene transition that generated a regionally extensive series of compositionally similar rhyolite tephra horizons and a single well-dated dacite (MEd) tephra. Marine sediment cores collected from adjacent basins to the MEVF contain both tephra-fall and pyroclastic flow deposits that consist primarily of rhyolitic tephra and a minor dacitic tephra unit. The recovered dacite tephra correlates with the MEd tephra, whereas many of the rhyolitic tephras correlate with published MEVF rhyolites. Correlations were based on age constraints and major oxide compositions of glass shards. In addition to LGM-Holocene macroscopic tephra units, four marine cryptotephras were also identified. Three of these units appear to be derived from mid-Holocene MEVF activity, while the youngest cryptotephra corresponds well with the White River Ash eruption at ∼ 1147 cal yr BP. Furthermore, the sedimentology of the Sitka Sound marine core EW0408-40JC and high-resolution SWATH bathymetry both suggest that extensive pyroclastic flow deposits associated with the activity that generated the MEd tephra underlie Sitka Sound, and that any future MEVF activity may pose significant risk to local population centers.     

夏季东亚和西北太平洋地区的气候变异及其机理

夏季东亚气候异常和西北太平洋地区有着密切的联系,表现为不同纬度间强烈的相互作用。由于这一地区的不同纬度间相互作用对东亚夏季气候异常具有重要的影响,最近20年,对这种相互作用的表现形式、三维空间分布、形成机理,及其与欧亚大陆遥相关波列和热带海温的关系等都做了大量的研究。对这些研究进行综述,侧重点放在近10年以来的研究工作,并对还需进一步研究的问题进行一些探讨。