The effect of thermal pollution on benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the Mediterranean shoreface adjacent to Hadera power plant (Israel)

The thermal pollution patch of Hadera power plant was used as a natural laboratory to evaluate the potential long-term effects of rise in Eastern Mediterranean SST on living benthic foraminifera. Their sensitivity to environmental changes makes foraminifera ideal for this study. Ten monthly sampling campaigns were performed in four stations located along a temperature gradient up to 10 °C from the discharge site of heated seawater to a control station. The SST along this transect varied between 25/18 °C in winter and 36/31 °C in summer. A significant negative correlation was found between SST in all stations and benthic foraminiferal abundance, species richness and diversity. The total foraminiferal abundance and species richness was particularly low at the thermally polluted stations especially during summer when SST exceeded 30 °C, but also throughout the entire year. This indicates that thermal pollution has a detrimental effect on benthic foraminifera, irrelevant to the natural seasonal changes in SST.     

The dilution and dispersion of ballast water discharged into Goderich Harbor

Observations are presented on dilution and dispersion rates of ballast water discharged under normal operational conditions at the semi-enclosed port of Goderich, Ontario. The ballast water was tagged with Rhodamine-WT dye and microscopic magnetically-attractive tracer particles. Maximum concentrations of dye immediately after discharge were diluted to 1-5% of initial ballast tank concentrations, and within 3 days had decreased to less than 0.1% of initial concentrations. Inside the harbor, there was 10-20% of the ballast water still present after 2 days, consistent with a flushing rate of 0.8-1.15 day⁻¹. Magnetic particles were collected up to 7.5 km outside the harbor after one day, consistent with a dilution factor of order 10⁵ outside the harbor. The results of this study are discussed in the context of ballast water discharge standards proposed by the International Maritime Organization to minimize the introduction of aquatic nonindigenous species through ships’ ballast water and sediments.     

Phytoplankton community characteristics in the coastal waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea

Remote sensing applications are important in the fisheries sector and efforts were on to improve the predictions of potential fishing zones using ocean color. The present study was aimed to investigate the phytoplankton dynamics and their absorption properties in the coastal waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea in different seasons during the year 2010 to 2011. The region exhibited 73 genera of phytoplankton from 19 orders and 41 families. The numerical abundance of phytoplankton varied from 14.235×103 to 55.075×106 cells/L. Centric diatoms dominated in the region and the largest family identified was Thalassiosiraceae with main genera as Skeletonema spp., Planktionella spp. and Thalassiosira spp. Annual variations in abundance of phytoplankton showed a typical one-peak cycle, with the highest recorded during premonsoon season and the lowest during monsoon season. The species diversity index of phytoplankton exhibited low diversity during monsoon season. Phytoplankton with pigments Chlorophyll a, Chlorophyll b, Chlorophyll c, peridinin, diadinoxanthin, fucoxanthin, β-carotene and phycoerythrobilin dominated in these waters. The knowledge on phytoplankton dynamics in coastal waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea forms a key parameter in bio-optical models of pigments and productivity and for the interpretation of remotely sensed ocean color data.     

The impact of topography on social factors,a case study of Montenegro

Relationships between environmental and social factors have long been studied by geographers.Nowadays,GIS-aided statistical analysis provides new tools to explore these relationships.In order to detect the impact of topography on social factors,we selected the country of Montenegro as a case example due to its high topographic variability.We compared the spatial pattern of population,settlements and ethnic minorities to physical geographic factors,especially to topography,but lithology and land cover data were also taken into consideration.We found that certain factors are closely correlated,e.g.the settlement density linearly decreases with elevation,while the characteristic settlement area shows an exponential increase upwards.The population density is not related to absolute elevation,but it is in close correlation with height（i.e.elevation relative to the local minimum）.Population change and illiteracy are also topography-related social factors.On the contrary,the variable ethnic pattern of Montenegro is influenced by historical,political and economic effects rather than by environmental factors or topographic features.As a conclusion we state that in the scale of a country or a region,the environment can strongly impact some social factors.     

地震数据的稀疏高斯束分解方法

本文研究了地震数据的稀疏分解问题.提出了一种用高斯束稀疏分解表示地震数据的方法.这是一个拟0范数约束优化问题.在求解拟0范数极小化问题的过程中,通过扫描同相轴的方法实现高斯束稀疏分解,数值实现上提出了使用一种快速单调下降的梯度优化方法.本文提出的稀疏优化方法同时具有去噪的功能,数据模拟试验表明了本方法的可行性和可靠性.     

地磁长期变化与全地幔对流过程可能的联系

地球内部磁场的变化时间从数月到数十亿年不等。地磁场是由液态外地核对流产生的,从而受到从地核到地幔底部热流的影响。地磁场的变化在很大程度上被认为是随机的,但是它的长期变化可能与地幔对流过程中的热流变化有关。在过去的500Ma中,古地磁行为与地表过程的联系在始于约180Ma前的中生代中晚期尤为显著。地球发电机模拟表明,侏罗纪中期到白垩纪中期之间发生了磁极快速反转时期到持久稳定时期的转变,这或许是球对称的或者赤道方向的核幔边界热流的减少所触发的。该热流的减少可能与核幔边界处地幔柱顶冠活动的减弱有关,或者与真极移有关,亦或与二者同时有关。     

地球早期地幔的冷凝结晶始于核幔边界或下地幔

JGR(Journal of Geophysical Research:Solid Earth)于2012年10月12日,发表了题为"Multi-technique equation of state for Fe2SiO4melt and the density of Fe-bearing silicate melts from 0to 161GPa"的文章指出,地球早期地幔的冷凝结晶可能始于核幔边界或下地幔。地球形成初期,地幔可能是一个整体熔融或局部熔融的巨大岩浆洋,其深度直达核幔边界。尽管目前地幔的物质大多都是固     

对J C Savage关于“沿圣安德烈斯断层蠕变部分的无震滑动和垂直断层应变”所作评论的回复

太平洋板块与希拉内华达大峡谷微板块间的相对运动大多数是通过沿圣安德烈斯断层的走向滑动来调整的。在圣安德烈斯断层中部（CSAF）,沿走向的滑动近于以无震断层蠕变的形式发生（Thatcher,1979;Titus等,2006;Rolandone等,2008;Ryder and Burgmann,2008）。     

Mapping the pollutants in surface riverine flood plume waters in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The extent of flood plume water over a 10 year period was mapped using quasi-true colour imagery and used to calculate long-term frequency of occurrence of the plumes. The proportional contribution of riverine loads of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, total suspended sediments and Photosystem-II herbicides from each catchment was used to scale the surface exposure maps for each pollutant. A classification procedure was also applied to satellite imagery (only Wet Tropics region) during 11 flood events (2000-2010) through processing of level-2 ocean colour products to discriminate the changing characteristics across three water types: "primary plume water", characterised by high TSS values; "secondary plume water", characterised by high phytoplankton production as measured by elevated chlorophyll-a (chl-a), and "tertiary plume water", characterised by elevated coloured dissolved and detrital matter (CDOM+D). This classification is a first step to characterise flood plumes.     

Contaminants in cetaceans from UK waters: status as assessed within the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme from 1990 to 2008

Since 1990, tissue samples from UK-stranded and -bycaught cetaceans have been available for study of contaminant burdens. These have been used to study spatial and temporal trends in concentrations in UK waters, and to investigate potential associations between contaminants and health status. We describe the current status of cetaceans (primarily harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena) in UK waters in relation to pollution. Concentrations of BDEs, HBCD, and the organochlorine pesticides are declining. In contrast, concentrations of CBs have plateaued following earlier reductions due to regulation of use, and further reductions are likely to take decades. Blubber PCB concentrations are still at toxicologically significant levels in many harbour porpoises and regularly occur at even higher levels in bottlenose dolphins and killer whales due to their higher trophic level in marine food chains. Further reductions in PCB inputs into the marine environment are needed to mitigate risk from PCB exposure in these species.