Change of multifractal thermal characteristics in the western Philippine sea upper layer during internal wave-soliton propagation

The upper layer (above 140 m depth) temperature in the western Philippine Sea near Taiwan was sampled using a coastal monitoring buoy (CMB) with 15 attached thermistors during July 28–August 7, 2005. The data were collected every 10 min at 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 m using the CMB sensors, and every 15 sec at 15 different depths between 25 m and 140 m. Internal waves and solitons were identified from the time-depth plot of the temperature field. Without the internal waves and solitons, the power spectra, structure functions, and singular measures (representing the intermittency) of temperature field satisfy the power law with multi-scale characteristics at all depths. The internal waves do not change the basic characteristics of the multifractal structure. However, the internal solitons change the power exponent of the power spectra drastically, especially in the low wave number domain; they also break down the power law of the structure function and increase the intermittency parameter. The physical mechanisms causing these different effects need to be explored further.     

Gravity field analysis of Sio Guyot: An isostatically compensated seamount in the Mid-Pacific Mountains

Positive gravity anomalies indicate two dense conduits or eruptive centers beneath the northern summit of Sio Guyot, western Mid-Pacific Mountains. The low amplitude of the positive anomalies and the gravity lows flanking the guyot can be explained by crust 2.5 times the normal Pacific Ocean crustal thickness extending to a depth of 22 ± 2 km. The excess mass of the seamount is 100% locally isostatically compensated by the mass deficit below; this compensation may result from flexural loading and voluminous sill injection near a former ridge-crest transform fault system trending roughly ENE and NNW.     

Thermodynamic characterization of the partitioning of iron between soluble and colloidal species in the Atlantic Ocean

Recent electrochemical measurements have shown that iron (Fe) speciation in seawater is dominated by complexation with strong organic ligands throughout the water column and have provided important thermodynamic information about these compounds. Independent work has shown that iron exists in both soluble and colloidal fractions in the Atlantic Ocean. Here we have combined these approaches in samples collected from a variety of regimes within the Atlantic Ocean. We measured the partitioning of Fe between soluble (< 0.02 μm) and colloidal (0.02 to 0.4 μm) size classes and characterized the concentrations and conditional stability constants of Fe ligands within these size classes. Results suggest that equilibrium partitioning of Fe between soluble and colloidal ligands is partially responsible for the distribution of Fe between soluble and colloidal size classes. However, a significant fraction of the colloidal Fe was inert to ligand exchange as soluble Fe concentrations were generally lower than values predicted by a simple equilibrium partitioning model.In surface waters, strong ligands with conditional stability constants of 10¹³ relative to total inorganic Fe appeared to dominate speciation in both the soluble and colloidal fractions. In deep waters these ligands were absent, and instead we found ligands with stability constants 12–15 fold smaller that were predominantly in the soluble pool. Nevertheless, significant levels of colloidal Fe were found in these samples, which we inferred must be inert to coordination exchange.     

The differences between a wing and a planing plate in two-dimensional flow

The normal force coefficient on a flat planing surface having arbitrary heave and pitch motion in two-dimensional flow is compared with the lift coefficient of a thin wing in an infinite fluid. Despite the totally different derivations, they are found to be identical (at large Froude numbers and low trim angles and allowing for the wing's interaction with twice as much fluid) at low reduced frequencies. For higher frequency motions, the wing's angle of attack induced lift and its pitch and heave damping are less than those of a planing surface, but the acceleration terms remain identical. The differences at the higher reduced frequencies are due to the fact that, in invisad irrotational flow, the planning plate cannot leave a vortex wake, whereas a wing does.It seems to follow that the “virtual mass” planing hull analysis can be applied to “quasi-static” problems involving wings and bodies in an infinite fluid without the slenderness restriction originally imposed by Jones (1946). Certainly, it is remarkable that the so called “quasi-steady” forces on a two-dimensional wing can be obtained in a few lines of elementary analysis. On the other hand, the method fails entirely when used to compute the pitching moment on a two-dimensional plate, even though it has been found to give good results for the three-dimensional case (Payne, 1981c).This work is offered as a very incomplete study of an intriguing relationship between two very different bodies of analysis. Much more work will need to be done before the relationship between the two approaches will be fully understood.     

Transport and accumulation of organochlorines in the ovaries of Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus)

The role of vitellogenin in the transport of organochlorines was investigated in Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) by exposing them through the diet to o,p′-DDT at a concentration of 10.8 μg/100 g fish/day for 14 days or Aroclor 1254 (PCB) at a concentration of 0.5 mg/100 g fish/day for 30 days during gonadal recrudescence. Tissue samples were taken from the fish at various times after initial exposure, and o,p′-DDT and PCBs were extracted in acetonitrile and analyzed by gas chromatography. Analysis of the ovarian tissue collected 2 and 3 weeks from the start of exposure revealed that the o,p′-DDT concentration increases as the gonadosomatic index (GSI) increases (r² = 0.63), with accumulation ranging from less than 1% to as much as 8% of the total dosage. Interestingly, o,p′-DDT did not accumulate in the testes during the same exposure period. Accumulation of PCBs was found to be 40 times higher in the ovaries than in the testes. Gel filtration of plasma from exposed females showed that o,p′-DDT elutes in the low density lipoprotein and vitellogenin fractions. Control plasma incubated with o,p′-DDT at 4 °C for 16 h followed by chromatography on Sepharose 6B gave similar results with an o,p′-DDT concentration of 0.6μg/mg protein in the vitellogenin fraction. Furthermore, both o,p′-DDT and PCBs were found to bind to purified croaker vitellogenin. These results suggest that lipoproteins, including vitellogenin, are involved in the transport and accumulation of organochlorines in the ovaries of exposed fish.     

NPZ Models of Plankton Dynamics: Their Construction, Coupling to Physics, and Application

Nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton (NPZ) models have been in use in oceanography for at least three decades, and are still a common research tool. Given the discoveries of the last two decades, particularly concerning the role of bacteria in the plankton, there are questions as to whether NPZ models can still be supported as a useful tool in planktonic research. Here I review the construction of NPZ models, and some of the physical platforms they have been coupled to. I then discuss the applications of NPZ-physical models, and conclude that they still constitute an important and viable research tool, provided that the questions being explored are clearly stated. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.