Imbalance in the carbonate budget of surficial sediments in the North Atlantic Ocean: variations over the last millenium?

Fluxes contributing to the particulate carbonate system in deep-sea sediments were investigated at the BENGAL site in the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (Northeast Atlantic). Deposition fluxes were estimated using sediment traps at a nominal depth of 3000 m and amounted to 0.37±0.1 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹. Dissolution of carbonate was determined using flux of total alkalinity from in situ benthic chambers, is 0.4±0.1 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹. Burial of carbonate was calculated from data on the carbonate content of the sediment and sedimentation rates from a model age based on ¹⁴C dating on foraminifera (0.66±0.1 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹). Burial plus dissolution was three times larger than particle deposition flux which indicates that steady-state is not achieved in these sediments. Mass balances for other components (BSi, ²¹⁰Pb), and calculations of the focusing factor using ²³⁰Th, show that lateral inputs play only a minor role in this imbalance. Decadal variations of annual particle fluxes are also within the uncertainty of our average. Long-term change in dissolution may contribute to the imbalance, but can not be the main reason because burial alone is greater than the input flux. The observed imbalance is thus the consequence of a large change of carbonate input flux which has occured in the recent past. A box model is used to check the response time of the solid carbonate system in these sediments and the time to reach a new steady-state is in the order of 3 kyr. Thus it is likely that the system has been perturbed recently and that large dissolution and burial rates reflect the previously larger particulate carbonate deposition rates. We estimate that particulate carbonate fluxes have certainly decreased by a factor of at least 3 and that this change has occurred during the last few centuries.     

The dimensions of sand ripples in full-scale oscillatory flows

New large-scale experiments have been carried out in two oscillatory flow tunnels to study ripple regime sand suspension and net sand transport processes in full-scale oscillatory flows. The paper focuses on ripple dimensions and the new data are combined with existing data to make a large dataset of ripple heights and lengths for flows with field-scale amplitudes and periods. A feature of the new experiments is a focus on the effect of flow irregularity. The combined dataset is analysed to examine the range of hydraulic conditions under which oscillatory flow ripples occur, to examine the effects of flow irregularity and ripple three-dimensionality on ripple dimensions and to test and improve existing methods for predicting ripple dimensions.The following are the main conclusions. (1) The highest velocities in a flow time-series play an important role in determining the type of bedform occurring in oscillatory flow. Bedform regime is well characterised by mobility number based on maximum velocity in the case of regular flow and based on the mean of the highest one tenth peak velocities in the case of irregular flow. (2) For field-scale flows, sand size is the primary factor determining whether equilibrium ripples will be 2D or 3D. 2D ripples occur when the sand D₅₀ ≥ 0.30 mm and 3D ripples occur when D₅₀ ≤ 0.22 mm (except when the flow orbital diameter is low). (3) Ripple type (2D or 3D) is the same for regular and irregular flows and ripple dimensions produced by equivalent regular and irregular flows follow a similar functional dependence on mobility number, with mobility number based on maximum velocity in the case of regular flow and based on the mean of the highest one tenth velocities in the case of irregular flow. For much of the ripple regime, ripple dimensions have weak dependency on mobility number and ripple dimensions are similar for regular and irregular flows with the same flow orbital amplitude. However, differences in ripples produced by equivalent regular and irregular flows become significant at the high mobility end of the ripple regime. (4) Ripple dimensions predicted using the Wiberg and Harris formulae are in poor agreement with measured ripple dimensions from the large-scale experiments. Predictions based on the Mogridge et al. and the Nielsen formulae show better overall agreement with the data but also show systematic differences in cases of 3D ripples and ripples generated by irregular flows. (5) Based on the combined large-scale data, modifications to the Nielsen ripple dimension equations are proposed for the heights and lengths of 2D ripples. The same equations apply to regular and irregular flows, but with mobility number appropriately defined. 3D ripples are generally smaller than 2D ripples and estimates of 3D ripple height and length may be obtained by applying multipliers of 0.55 and 0.73 respectively to the 2D formulae. The proposed modified Nielsen formulae provide an improved fit to the large-scale data, accounting for flow irregularity and ripple three-dimensionality.     

Parameter sensitivity of three Kalman filter schemes for assimilation of water levels in shelf sea models

In applications of data assimilation algorithms, a number of poorly known assimilation parameters usually need to be specified. Hence, the documented success of data assimilation methodologies must rely on a moderate sensitivity to these parameters. This contribution presents a parameter sensitivity study of three well known Kalman filter approaches for the assimilation of water levels in a three dimensional hydrodynamic modelling system. The filters considered are the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), the reduced rank square root Kalman filter (RRSQRT) and the steady Kalman filter. A sensitivity analysis of key parameters in the schemes is undertaken for a setup in an idealised bay. The sensitivity of the resulting root mean square error (RMSE) is shown to be low to moderate. Hence the schemes are robust within an acceptable range and their application even with misspecified parameters is to be encouraged in this perspective. However, the predicted uncertainty of the assimilation results are sensitive to the parameters and hence must be applied with care. The sensitivity study further demonstrates the effectiveness of the steady Kalman filter in the given system as well as the great impact of assimilating even very few measurements.     

Assessment of the impact of the planetary scale on the decay of blocking and the use of phase diagrams and enstrophy as a diagnostic

It was shown that abrupt changes in the large-scale structure of atmospheric flows may lead to the rapid decay of blocking. Analysis of phase diagrams made it possible to identify when sharp changes occurred in the dynamics of the system. The connection of these changes to the decay of blocking was estimated for three blocking events in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition to phase diagrams, enstrophy was used as a diagnostic tool for the analysis of blocking events. From the results of this analysis, four scenarios for the decay mechanisms were determined: (i) decay with a lack of synoptic-scale support, (ii) decay with an active role for synoptic processes, and (iii–iv) either of these mechanisms in the interaction with an abrupt change in the character of the planetary-scale flow.     

Analysis of seabed instability using element free Galerkin method

Wave-induced seabed instability, either momentary liquefaction or shear failure, is an important topic in ocean and coastal engineering. Many factors, such as seabed properties and wave parameters, affect the seabed instability. A non-dimensional parameter is proposed in this paper to evaluate the occurrence of momentary liquefaction. This parameter includes the properties of the soil and the wave. The determination of the wave-induced liquefaction depth is also suggested based on this non-dimensional parameter. As an example, a two-dimensional seabed with finite thickness is numerically treated with the EFGM meshless method developed early for wave-induced seabed responses. Parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of wavelength, compressibility of pore fluid, permeability and stiffness of porous media, and variable stiffness with depth on the seabed response with three criteria for liquefaction. It is found that this non-dimensional parameter is a good index for identifying the momentary liquefaction qualitatively, and the criterion of liquefaction with seepage force can be used to predict the deepest liquefaction depth.