Effects of nitrogen and sulphide on macroinfaunal community: a microcosm study

A microcosm experiment was conducted to test the short-term effects of nitrogen (as TKN, total Kjeldahl nitrogen) and sulphide (as AVS, acid volatile sulphide) on macrobenthic infauna over a period of 8 weeks. The experiment consisted of four treatments using sediment cores (D: 8 cm, H: 20 cm) with addition of: I, nitrogen (N) to an in situ mean level of 0.48 mg Ng(-1) dw; II, sulphidic solution (S) to an in situ mean level of 318.8 microM S g(-1) dw; III, nitrogen and sulphidic solution (NS) to in situ mean levels of 0.45 mg Ng(-1) dw and 329.0 microM S g(-1) dw, respectively, and IV, control with no addition of N and S. Sediment cores were retrieved for analysis of infaunal composition after weeks 2, 4 and 8. A total of 646 specimens of macrobenthic infauna belonging to 27 species were recorded from the cores, in which polychaetes were the most abundant with respect to species and individual numbers. Mean species number and diversity H' of the control and N treatment was statistically higher than S and NS treatments, mean individual number of the S treatment was larger than the NS treatment, and mean evenness J of the S treatment was lower than the N and NS treatments as well as the control. Individual numbers also showed a significant increase from weeks 2 to 8, whereas evenness J decreased in weeks 4 and 8. Multivariate analyses of the faunal data suggested that benthic composition of the N treatment and control did not differ during the experimental period, but changes in benthic structure in S and NS treatments were evident. The present findings demonstrated the dose-response relationship of benthic species changes under controlled addition of N and S. The response to N and S additions in the sediment microcosms was in agreement with the general effects of organic enrichment on macrobenthic communities along a spatial gradient of organic pollution as described by Pearson and Rosenberg [Pearson, T.H., Rosenberg, R., 1978. Macrobenthic succession in relation to organic enrichment and pollution of the marine environment. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Review 16, 229-311]. However, in the present experiment, community changes in the treatments were observable in a short, temporal scale.     

An analytical technique for evaluation of coupled heat and mass flow coefficients in unsaturated soil

This study was done to evaluate a phenomenological approach for determining the coupled heat and water diffusion parameters. This technique requires the use of both theory and experimental data. The transport equation was solved analytically using nondimensional analysis. The calculated diffusion parameters of a compacted sand–bentonite-based material are presented. The agreement between the back calculated values and the experimental volumetric water content profiles was good. Practical application of the technique is also discussed.     

Graph-assisted landscape monitoring

The structure of computational spatial analysis has mostly built on data lattices inherited from cartography, where visualization of information takes priority over analysis. In these framings, spatial relationships cannot easily be encoded into traditional data lattices. This hinders spatial analysis that emphasizes how interactions among spatial entities reflect mutual inter-relationships. This paper explores how graph theoretic principles can support spatiotemporal analysis by enabling assessment of spatial and temporal relationships in landscape monitoring.     

Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase for?the?Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Beyond

The immense volume of data generated by the suite of instruments on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) requires new tools for efficient identifying and accessing data that is most relevant for research. We have developed the Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase (HEK) to fill this need. The HEK system combines automated data mining using feature-detection methods and high-performance visualization systems for data markup. In addition, web services and clients are provided for searching the resulting metadata, reviewing results, and efficiently accessing the data. We review these components and present examples of their use with SDO data.     

Oil-Spill Monitoring in the Coastal Waters of Hong Kong and Vicinity

In this study, we applied the edge-detection method of oil-spill monitoring to extract oil-spill features observed by the ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images over the coastal waters of Hong Kong and vicinity in northern South China Sea. Two examples in 2007 and 2008 over the coastal waters of the study area show that oil spills can be successfully detected by ASAR images at wind speeds around 4～ 6 m/s independent of wind direction. The study also shows that it could be helpful for evaluating the potential impacts of oil spills on the coastal environment in Hong Kong and vicinity.     

Effects of salinity on anatomical features and physiology of a semi-mangrove plant Myoporum bontioides

The effect of different concentrations of NaCl, 0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 mM, on the anatomical features and physiology of Myoporum bontioides was investigated. The photosynthetic rates (Pn) were significantly reduced by salt stress, with the lowest values at 400 mM NaCl. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA), proline and soluble sugar, as well as the activities of peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) increased at the beginning, but became similar to the control as the experiment proceeded. The NaCl effect on superoxide dismutase (SOD) was different from the other parameters, with a significant reduction at 400 mM NaCl at Day 7. Salt glands were found in both upper and lower epidermis, and the ratios of the thickness of palisade to spongy mesophyll tissues increased with NaCl concentrations. The medullary ray was clearly damaged by NaCl at levels of 200 and 300 mM. These results demonstrated that M. bontioides could adapt to a relatively low salinity, and was not a halophilous species.     

Structure and function of soil microbial community in artificially planted Sonneratia apetala and S. caseolaris forests at different stand ages in Shenzhen Bay,China

The present study examined the relationships between soil characteristics, microbial community structure and function in the forests artificially planted with exotic Sonneratia apetala at stand ages of 1-, 2-, 7-, 10- and 14-years and Sonneratia caseolaris of 1-, 4-, 7-, 10- and 14-years in Futian National Nature Reserve, Shenzhen Bay, China. The 7-years old forests of both Sonneratia species reached peak growth and had the highest content of nitrogen and phosphorus, enzymatic activities, including dehydrogenase, cellulase, phosphatase, urease and ß-glucosidase, except arylsulphatase which increased continuously with stand ages. The microbial community structure reflected by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles also reached the maximum value in the 7-years old forests and soil bacterial PLFAs in both forests were significantly higher than fungal PLFAs. The canonical correlation analysis revealed that differences in microbial structural variables were significantly correlated to the differences in their functional variables, and the highest correlation was found between the soil enzymatic activities and the content of carbon and nitrogen.     

Effects of hypoxia on biofilms and subsequently larval settlement of benthic invertebrates

Biofilms on submerged surfaces are important in determining larval settlement of most marine benthic invertebrates. We investigated if exposure of biofilms to hypoxia would alter the larval settlement pattern and result in a shift in benthic invertebrate community structure in the field. Biofilms were first exposed to hypoxia or normoxia in laboratory microcosms for 7 days, and then deployed in the field for another 7 days to allow for larval settlement and recruitment to occur. Using terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism of the 16S rRNA gene, this study showed that hypoxia altered the biofilm bacterial community composition, and the difference between the hypoxic and normoxic treatments increased with the time of exposure period. This study also demonstrated significantly different benthic invertebrate community structures as a result of biofilm exposure to hypoxia and that the hypoxic and normoxic treatments were dominated by Hydroides sp. and Folliculina sp., respectively.     

Free vibration of frame shear wall structures on flexible foundations

The finite strip method is used to study the effect of an elastic foundation on the natural frequencies of coupled frame shear wall structures. The solid wall in the structure is divided into several strip elements, the column is treated as a line element and the effect of the connecting beams is dealt with through the compatibility matrices which transfer their structural properties to the adjacent strip or line elements. The comparison functions which satisfy the boundary conditions of being free at the top and being spring supported at the bottom are used for the displacement field in the longitudinal direction. A series of numerical examples is presented to show the accuracy and applicability of the proposed method.