Thermal Energy Balance Analysis of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Using a Mesoscale Meteorological Model Incorporating an Urban Canopy Model

The summer climate around the Tokyo metropolitan area has been analysed on an urban scale, and the regional characteristics of the thermal energy balance of a bayside business district in the centre of Tokyo (Otemachi) have been compared with an inland residential district (Nerima), using a mesoscale meteorological model incorporating an urban canopy model. From the results of the analysis, the mechanism of diurnal change in air temperature and absolute humidity in these areas is quantitatively demonstrated, with a focus on the thermal energy balance. Moreover, effective countermeasures against urban heat-islands are considered from the viewpoint of each region’s thermal energy balance characteristics. In addition to thermal energy outflux by turbulent diffusion, advection by sea-breezes from Tokyo Bay discharges sensible heat in Otemachi. This mitigates temperature increases during the day. On the other hand, because all sea-breezes must first cross the centre of Tokyo, it has less of a cooling effect in Nerima. As a result, the air temperature during the day in Nerima is higher than that in Otemachi.     

Effect of iron enrichment on the dynamics of transparent exopolymer particles in the western subarctic Pacific

Dynamics of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) was studied during the first in situ iron-enrichment experiment conducted in the western subarctic Pacific in July–August 2001, with the goal of evaluating the contribution of TEP to vertical flux as a result of increased primary production following iron enrichment in open ocean ecosystems. Subsequent to the enhancement of phytoplankton production, we observed increase in TEP concentration in the surface layer and sedimentation of organic matter beneath it. Vertical profiles of TEP, chlorophyll a (Chl a) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were obtained from six depths between 5 and 70 m, from a station each located inside and outside the enriched patch. TEP and total mass flux were estimated from the floating sediment traps deployed at 200 m depth. Chl a and TEP concentrations outside the patch varied from 0.2 to 1.9 μg L⁻¹ and 40–60 μg XG equiv. L⁻¹, respectively. Inside the patch, Chl a increased drastically from day 7 reaching the peak of 19.2 μg L⁻¹ on day 13, which coincided with the TEP peak of 189 μg XG equiv. L⁻¹. TEP flux in the sediment trap increased from 41 to 88 mg XG equiv. m⁻² d⁻¹, with 8–14% contribution of TEP to total mass flux. This forms the basic data set on ambient concentrations of TEP in the western subarctic Pacific, and evaluation of the effect of iron enrichment on TEP.     

Responses of diatoms to iron-enrichment (SEEDS) in the western subarctic Pacific, temporal and spatial comparisons

Phytoplankton species composition was analyzed inside and outside of the iron-enriched patch during the SEEDS experiment. Before the iron-enrichment, the phytoplankton community consisted of similar proportions of pico-, nano- and micro-sized phytoplankton, and the micro-phytoplankton was dominated by the pennate diatom Pseudo-nitzschia turgidula. Although all the diatoms, except the nano-sized Fragilariopsis sp., increased during the two weeks of the observation period, the flora in the patch dramatically changed with the increase of phytoplankton biomass to a centric diatom-dominated community. Neritic diatoms, especially Chaetoceros debilis, showed higher growth rates than other diatoms, without any delay in the initiation of growth after the enrichment, and accounted for 90% of the micro-phytoplankton after day 9. In contrast, the oceanic diatoms showed distinct delays in the initiation of growth. We conclude that the responses of the diatoms to the manipulation of iron concentration were different by species, and the fast and intensive response of the phytoplankton to iron-enrichment resulted from the presence of a small amount of neritic diatoms at the study site. The important factors that determine the dominant species in the bloom are the potential growth rates under an iron-replete condition and the growth lag. Abundant species in the patch are widely distributed in the North Pacific and their relative contributions in the Oyashio area and at Stn KNOT are high from spring to summer. However, a characteristic difference of species composition between the SEEDS bloom and natural blooms was the lack of Thalassiosira and Coscinodiscus species in the patch, which usually account for a major part of the phytoplankton community under blooming conditions in the western North Pacific.     

Application of chemical tracers to an estimate of benthic denitrification in the Okhotsk Sea

To estimate benthic denitrification in a marginal sea, we assessed the usefulness of \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) , a new tracer to measure the excess nitrogen gas (N₂) using dissolved N₂ and argon (Ar) with N* in the intermediate layer (26.6–27.4σ _θ ) of the Okhotsk Sea. The examined parameters capable of affecting \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) are denitrification, air injection and rapid cooling. We investigated the relative proportions of these effects on \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) using multiple linear regression analysis. The best model included two examined parameters of denitrification and air injection based on the Akaike information criterion as a measure of the model fit to data. More than 80 % of \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) was derived from the denitrification, followed by air injection. Denitrification over the Okhotsk Sea shelf region was estimated to be 5.6 ± 2.4 μmol kg^?1. The distribution of \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) was correlated with potential temperature (θ) between 26.6 and 27.4σ _θ (r = ?0.55). Therefore, we concluded that \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) and N* can act complementarily as a quasi-conservative tracer of benthic denitrification in the Okhotsk Sea. Our findings suggest that \({\text{N}}_{2}^{*}\) in combination with N* is a useful chemical tracer to estimate benthic denitrification in a marginal sea.     

Chemical evidence for the origin of the cold water belt along the northeastern coast of Hokkaido

In the southwestern Okhotsk Sea, the cold water belt (CWB) is frequently observed on satellite images offshore of the Soya Warm Current flowing along the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan, during summertime. It has been speculated that the CWB is upwelling cold water that originates from either subsurface water of the Japan Sea off Sakhalin or bottom water of the Okhotsk Sea. Hydrographic and chemical observations (nutrients, humic-type fluorescence intensity, and iron) were conducted in the northern Japan Sea and southwestern Okhotsk Sea in early summer 2011 to clarify the origin of the CWB. Temperature–salinity relationships, vertical distributions of chemical components, profiles of chemical components against density, and the (NO₃ + NO₂)/PO₄ relationship confirm that water in the CWB predominantly originates from Japan Sea subsurface water.     

Determination of the freshwater origin of Coastal Oyashio Water using humic-like fluorescence in dissolved organic matter

Coastal Oyashio Water (COW), defined as a water mass with a temperature lower than 2 °C and a salinity lower than 33.0, is distributed in the North Pacific Ocean off southeastern Hokkaido, Japan, from winter to spring. COW is rich in macronutrients and dissolved iron and is thus considered to affect the spring phytoplankton blooms in the Oyashio region. Although river water and sea-ice melt water have been considered freshwater end-members of COW, the contributions of these freshwater sources to COW have not been well described. In this study, the humic-like components in dissolved organic matter were first applied as a parameter to evaluate the freshwater end-members of COW in March 2015. Linear regressions with negative slopes were determined between the humic-like components and the salinity of COW. The intercepts of the regressions against the humic-like components were within the ranges of those observed for the local rivers of Hokkaido but were very different from those of sea ice. These findings suggest that river water contributed to the COW observed here as a freshwater end-member, although the contribution of sea-ice melt water to COW could not be evaluated. This novel approach also highlighted two different less-saline water masses in COW. The first was characterized by a lower temperature and relatively high levels of humic-like components, while the second was higher in temperature and had higher levels of humic-like components. It is suggested that these different characteristics are due to the contributions of water from different rivers and/or different effects of sea-ice melt water.     

Phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing in the Sea of Okhotsk during late summer of 2006

The Sea of Okhotsk is one of the most productive marine basins in the world ocean and plays an important role in transport of organic carbon and iron to the western subarctic Pacific. We report the first measurements of phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing rates in the Sea of Okhotsk, in late summer of 2006. The study area can be divided into two areas: nutrient-sufficient waters on the continental shelf along the east coast of Sakhalin Island and in the vicinity of Bussol Strait, and surface nutrient-depleted waters beyond the shelf break and in the vicinity of Sakhalin Bay. Phytoplankton growth rate in the studied area was strongly affected by nutrient availability, with high phytoplankton growth rate (0.55±0.14 d^?1) in the nutrient-replete region and severely depressed growth (0.03±0.05 d^?1) in the nutrient-depleted region. On the other hand, microzooplankton grazing rates in both the nutrient-replete and nutrient-depleted regions were approximately the same (0.26±0.20 d^?1 vs. 0.27±0.24 d^?1). Consequently, microzooplankton grazing consumed <50% of the phytoplankton growth in nutrient-rich waters but >3 times the phytoplankton growth in nutrient-depleted waters. Phytoplankton physiological condition as measured by the maximum photochemical quantum efficiency (F_v/F_m) of algal photosystem II (PS II) showed a general trend in agreement with the in situ growth rate of phytoplankton. In contrast to the phytoplankton community, picophytoplankton, especially the cyanobacteria Synechococcus, showed no nutrient effect on their growth, and the growth and mortality rates were well balanced, suggesting that they have a low nutrient requirement and their biomass was controlled principally by microzooplankton grazing.