Pigment characterization for the 2011 bloom in Qinhuangdao implicated "brown tide" events in China

A large-scale bloom occurred from May to June in 2011 in sea area near Qinhuangdao of the Bohai Sea, leading to huge damage of the scallop culture industry. Similar blooms have been observed in this region for three years. The causative species of the bloom, which dominated the phytoplankton community with the maximum cell density around 109 cell/L, could not be identified with morphological features due to the small cell size (~2 mm). A pigment analytical method was then adopted to analyze the pigment profile of the phytoplankton samples collected from the blooming sea area. It was found that pico-sized (<2 mm), nano-sized (2-20 mm), and bulk phytoplankton samples had similar pigment profile, representing the pigment signature of the bloom-causative species. The major pigments detected included 19-butanoyloxyfucoxanthin (But-fuco), fucoxanthin (Fuco), diadinoxanthin (Diad) and chlorophyll a (Chl a), and high content of But-fuco was the most significant characteristics of the phytoplankton samples. Based on the pigment composition and content, the bloom-causative species could be tentatively identified as pelagophyte, "type 8" group of haptophyte, or silicoflagellate. Some unique features of the bloom, such as the extremely high cell density, small-sized and But-fuco containing cells, occurring in early summer, and the feeding-cessation effects on scallops, suggest it be a "brown tide" event similar to those reported in the east coast of the United States of America. The recurrent "brown tide" events and their dramatic impacts on the shellfish mariculture industry in Qinhuangdao need close attention in the coming years.     

Flood seasonality across Scandinavia—Evidence of a shifting hydrograph?

Fluvial flood events have substantial impacts on humans, both socially and economically, as well as on ecosystems (e.g., hydroecology and pollutant transport). Concurrent with climate change, the seasonality of flooding in cold environments is expected to shift from a snowmelt‐dominated to a rainfall‐dominated flow regime. This would have profound impacts on water management strategies, that is, flood risk mitigation, drinking water supply, and hydro power. In addition, cold climate hydrological systems exhibit complex interactions with catchment properties and large‐scale climate fluctuations making the manifestation of changes difficult to detect and predict. Understanding a possible change in flood seasonality and defining related key drivers therefore is essential to mitigate risk and to keep management strategies viable under a changing climate. This study explores changes in flood seasonality across near‐natural catchments in Scandinavia using circular statistics and trend tests. Results indicate strong seasonality in flooding for snowmelt‐dominated catchments with a single peak occurring in spring and early summer (March through June), whereas flood peaks are more equally distributed throughout the year for catchments located close to the Atlantic coast and in the south of the study area. Flood seasonality has changed over the past century seen as decreasing trends in summer maximum daily flows and increasing winter and spring maximum daily flows with 5–35% of the catchments showing significant changes at the 5% significance level. Seasonal mean daily flows corroborate those findings with higher percentages (5–60%) of the catchments showing statistically significant changes. Alterations in annual flood occurrence also point towards a shift in flow regime from snowmelt‐dominated to rainfall‐dominated with consistent changes towards earlier timing of the flood peak (significant for 25% of the catchments). Regionally consistent patterns suggest a first‐order climate control as well as a local second‐order catchment control, which causes inter‐seasonal variability in the streamflow response.     

GIS-based assessment of landslide susceptibility on the base of the Weights-of-Evidence model

The major scope of the study is the assessment of landslide susceptibility of Flysch areas including the Penninic Klippen in the Vienna Forest (Lower Austria) by means of Geographical Information System (GIS)-based modelling. A statistical/probabilistic method, referred to as Weights-of-Evidence (WofE), is applied in a GIS environment in order to derive quantitative spatial information on the predisposition to landslides. While previous research in this area concentrated on local geomorphological, pedological and slope stability analyses, the present study is carried out at a regional level. The results of the modelling emphasise the relevance of clay shale zones within the Flysch formations for the occurrence of landslides. Moreover, the distribution of mass movements is closely connected to the fault system and nappe boundaries. An increased frequency of landslides is observed in the proximity to drainage lines, which can change to torrential conditions after heavy rainfall. Furthermore, landslide susceptibility is enhanced on N-W facing slopes, which are exposed to the prevailing direction of wind and rainfall. Both of the latter geofactors indirectly show the major importance of the hydrological conditions, in particular, of precipitation and surface runoff, for the occurrence of mass movements in the study area. Model performance was checked with an independent validation set of landslides, which are not used in the model. An area of 15% of the susceptibility map, classified as highly susceptible, “predicted” 40% of the landslides.     

Short-term environmental variability in cold-water coral habitat at Viosca Knoll,Gulf of Mexico

The Lophelia pertusa community at Viosca Knoll (VK826) is the most extensive found to date in the Gulf of Mexico. As part of a multi-disciplinary study, the physical setting of this area was described using benthic landers, CTD transects and remotely operated vehicle observations. The site was broadly characterised into three main habitats: (1) dense coral cover that resembles biogenic reef complexes, (2) areas of sediment, and (3) authigenic carbonate blocks with sparse coral and chemosynthetic communities. The coral communities were dominated by L. pertusa but also contained numerous solitary coral species. Over areas that contained L. pertusa, the environmental conditions recorded were similar to those associated with communities in the north-eastern Atlantic, with temperature (8.5–10.6 °C) and salinity (～35) falling within the known species niche for L. pertusa. However, dissolved oxygen concentrations (2.7–2.8 ml l^?1) and density (σ_Θ, 27.1–27.2 kg m^?3) were lower and mass fluxes from sediment trap data appeared much higher (4002–4192 mg m^?2 d^?1). Yet, this species still appears to thrive in this region, suggesting that L. pertusa may not be as limited by lower dissolved oxygen concentrations as previously thought. The VK826 site experienced sustained eastward water flow of 10–30 cm s^?1 over the 5-day measurement period but was also subjected to significant short-term variability in current velocity and direction. In addition, two processes were observed that caused variability in salinity and temperature; the first was consistent with internal waves that caused temperature variations of 0.8 °C over 5–11 h periods. The second was high-frequency variability (20–30 min periods) in temperature recorded only at the ALBEX site. A further pattern observed over the coral habitat was the presence of a 24 h diel vertical migration of zooplankton that may form part of a food chain that eventually reaches the corals. The majority of detailed studies concerning local environmental conditions in L. pertusa habitats have been conducted within the north-eastern Atlantic, limiting most knowledge of the niche of this species to a single part of an ocean basin. Data presented here show that the corals at VK826 are subjected to similar conditions in temperature, salinity, and flow velocity as their counterparts in the north-east Atlantic, although values for dissolved oxygen and density (sigma-theta: σ_Θ) are different. Our data also highlight novel observations of short-term environmental variability in cold-water coral habitat.     

Evaluation of biotite-garnet geothermometers: application to the English River subprovince,Ontario

In recent years, there have been numerous calibrations of the biotite-garnet Fe-Mg exchange geothermometer. The Eastern Lac Seul region of the English River subprovince, Ontario, provides an excellent field area in which to compare these calibrations.Trend surface analysis using the temperatures obtained from garnet cores and matrix biotites-showed almost identical trends in the eastern Lac Seul region regardless of the calibration used. The absolute temperatures and the precision of each calibration do, however, show large variation. Geothermometers based solely on lnK_D were found to give more precise results than the calibrations that attempt to incorporate non-Fe-Mg components. The Perchuk and Lavrent'eva (1983) thermometer yields the most precise and accurate results. If a sufficient number of samples are collected over a region, it can be used to estimate metamorphic temperature trends to ±30° C. Metamorphism and migmatization of the English River subprovince occurred during the Kenoran orogeny, 2.68 b.y. ago. Our results show that a thermal anticline has been preserved, with temperatures of 600° C at the north and south contacts with Uchi and Wabigoon Greenstone belts, increasing to 725 °C at the center of the subprovince. A garnet-cordierite in isograd occurs at 650° C and an orthopyroxene in isogradat 700° C.     

The control of maturity and kerogen type on quantitative analytical pyrolysis data

Quantitative pyrolysis-gas chromatography has been performed on 96 kerogen samples isolated from 17 wells on the Norwegian Continental shelf. Petrographic and bulk geochemical measurements were also performed on the samples, and a combined data set of 117 variables for each sample was analysed using principal components analysis (PCA). This approach provides an objective and reproducible means of kerogen characterisation, which can be easily automated. In addition to objective kerogen characterisation and facile visualisation of facies and maturity related chemical trends, the method has the potential to allow objective prediction of key geochemical parameters such as maturity level from pyrogram data.     

Chemical models of vitrinite reflectance evolution

A global kinetic model of vitrinite reflectance evolution is developed to illustrate a new approach to vitrinite reflectance modelling. The method utilizes quantitative pyrolysisgas Chromatographic data from isolated vitrinite kerogens to derive the concentrations of structurally specific moieties (alkylphenol precursors) in vitrinite kerogens as a function of rank. This data set is used to calibrate a gaussian distributed activation energy model for phenol-precursor loss from vitrinites using published burial histories. Phenol yield is then correlated with vitrinite reflectance. The predictive vitrinite reflectance model based on this phenol system is tested against a well from the US Gulf Coast area, the results being compared with a Lopatin model of the same well. This type of vitrinite reflectance model is numerically compatible with current generation kinetic models of hydrocarbon production from source rock kerogens, and has a better heating rate independence than Lopatin's method.

---

Zusammenfassung Um eine neue Annäherung an das Modellieren der Vitrinit-Reflexion zu demonstrieren, wurde ein global-kinetisches Modell der Entwicklung der Vitrinit-Reflexion erstellt. Die Methode verwendet Daten von quantitativer Pyrolyse-Gas Chromatographie isolierten Vitrinitkerogens, um die Konzentration von strukturspezifischen Moieten (Alkylophenol-Vorläufer) in Vitrinitkerogen als Funktion der Reihenfolge zu erhalten. Verwendet werden diese Daten, um ein nach Gauss verteiltes Aktivierungsenergiemodell zu kalibrieren, das mit Hilfe von veröffentlichten Ablagerungsgeschichten den Phenol-Vorläuferverlust von Vitriniten beschreibt. Die Phenol-Ausbeute wird dann mit der Vitrinit-Reflexion korreliert. Das auf dem Phenolsystem basierende Vitrinit-Reflexionsmodell wird in einem Test einem Bohrloch an der amerikanischen Golfküste gegenübergestellt. Die Ergebnisse werden mit dem Lopatinmodell des selben Bohrlochs verglichen. Diese Art eines Vitrinit-Reflexionsmodells ist numerisch wettbewerbsfähig mit der heutigen Generation kinetischer Modelle der Kohlenwasserstofferzeugung aus Trägergesteinskerogenen. Außerdem ist seine Unabhängigkeit von der Erhitzungsrate größer als mit der Lopatin-Methode.

---

Résumé L'auteur présente un modèle cinétique global de l'évaluation du pouvoir réflecteur de la vitrinite, afin d'illuster une approche nouvelle dans la modélisation de ce pourvoir réflecteur. Cette méthode utilise des données quantitatives fournies par la pyrolyse combinée à la Chromatographie en phase gazeuse et relatives à des kérogènes de vitrinite. A partir de ces données, on exprime les concentrations des fractions à structure spécifique dans les kérogènes vitrinitiques en fonction du degré d'évolution. A partir de cet ensemble de données, on établit un modèle de l'énergie d'activation selon une distribution gaussienne, applicable à la perte de phénol-précurseur dans les vitrinites, en se référant à cet effet aux déroulements historiques de l'enfouissement fournis par la littérature. La production de phénol est alors mise en relation avec le pourvoir réflecteur de la vitrinite. Le modèle du pouvoir réflecteur prévisible, basé sur ce système des phénols a été contrôlé dans un forage de la côte du golfe du Mexique (USA), et les résultats comparés à ceux du modèle de Lopatin appliqué au même forage. Le modèle présenté est numériquement compatible avec les modèles cinétiques habituels qui rendent compte de la production d'hydrocarbure à partir des kérogènes des roches-mères; il présente une meilleure indépendance que la méthode de Lopatin par rapport au taux d'échauffement.

---

, , , .. , , - , . , . . , . ; ; .

     

Inversion for seismic anisotropy using genetic algorithms1

A general inversion scheme based on a genetic algorithm is developed to invert seismic observations for anisotropic parameters. The technique is applied to the inversion of shear-wave observations from two azimuthal VSP data sets from the Conoco test site in Oklahoma. Horizontal polarizations and time-delays are inverted for hexagonal and orthorhombic symmetries. The model solutions are consistent with previous studies using trial and error matching of full waveform synthetics. The shear-wave splitting observations suggest the presence of a shear-wave line singularity and are consistent with a dipping fracture system which is known to exist at the test site. Application of the inversion scheme prior to full waveform modelling demonstrates that a considerable saving in time is possible whilst retaining the same degree of accuracy.