Spatial distribution, diversity and composition of bacterial communities in sub-seafloor fluids at a deep-sea hydrothermal field of the Suiyo Seamount

Spatial distribution, diversity, and composition of bacterial communities within the shallow sub-seafloor at the deep-sea hydrothermal field of the Suiyo Seamount, Izu-Bonin Arc, Western Pacific Ocean, were investigated. Fluids were sampled from four boreholes in this area. Each borehole was located near or away from active vents, the distance ranging 2–40 m from active vents. In addition, fluids discharging from a natural vent and ambient seawater were sampled in this area. We extracted DNA from each sample, amplified bacterial 16S rRNA genes by PCR, cloned the PCR products and sequenced. The total number of clones analyzed was 348. Most of the detected phylotypes were affiliated with the phylum Proteobacteria, of which the detection frequency in each clone library ranged from 84.6% to 100%. The bacterial community diversity and composition were different between hydrothermal fluids and seawater, between fluids from the boreholes and the vent, and even among fluids from each borehole. The relative abundances of the phylotypes related to Thiomicrospira, Methylobacterium and Sphingomonas were significantly different among fluids from each borehole. The phylotypes related to Thiomicrospira and Alcanivorax were detected in all of the boreholes and vent samples. Our findings provide insights into bacterial communities in the shallow sub-seafloor environments at active deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields.     

Enzymatic Approach to Fungal Association with Arthropod Guts: A Case Study for the Crustacean Host, Nihonotrypaea harmandi, and Its Foregut Fungus, Enteromyces callianassae

Abstract. In the callianassid shrimp Nihonotrypaea harmandi (Bouvier 1901), the trichomycete fungus Enteromyces callianassae Lichtwardt 1961 occurs exclusively on the foregut lining. The enzymes from both the shrimp and the fungus apparently hydrolyze certain nitrogen and carbon compounds in detritus. The activities of various proteases and carbohydrases contained in the foregut juice were compared between fungus-infected shrimps collected from a sandflat in Kyushu, Japan (51 % infection rate) and uninfected shrimps from a nearby sandflat. The concentration of enzymatically hydrolyzable amino acids (EHAA) in sediment liberated by the foregut juice with fungi was slightly lower than that by 0.1 mg·ml^-1 proteinase-K and significantly higher than that by the foregut juice without fungi. In both foregut juices, substantial enzyme activities were recorded for proteinase(s), peptidases, amylase, cellulase and β-1,3-glucanase, and minimal ones for maltase and cellobiase. Of the commercial substrates examined, only in the case of the mixture of 16 kinds of dipeptides was a significantly higher enzyme activity in the foregut juice with fungi observed. In the process of EHAA liberation from sediment, peptidases secreted by the fungus most probably act as a supplement to the endogenous secretion by the shrimp. This may explain the higher shrimp growth rate recorded for the population with fungi. However, the significantly higher sediment EHAA concentration of the sandflat inhabited by this population versus the population without fungi could be another crucial factor explaining the site difference in shrimp growth rate.     

泰国北部Inthanon带混杂岩碎屑锆石U-Pb年龄及碎屑岩岩石学和地球化学研究：对古特提斯消减和汇聚的启示

The accretionary complex related to the Pa-leo-Tethys subduction was developed along western margin of the Indochina Block in northern Thailand. The provenance, source rock compositions, and sedi-ment supply system of the accretionary complex were reconstructed based on the petrography and geochem-istry of clastic rocks, U-Pb dating of detrital zircons.     

Does the water retained in a filter paper affect the chlorophylla measurement?

The present study investigated the effects of water seeped in a filter paper on the variations of chlorophylla measurement. As little as 184 l water retained in a 25 mm diameter GF/F filter paper after filtration resulted in the settlement of 60% chlorophylla at the bottom 20% of the extractant (90% acetone) in the extraction tube. More than one order difference in concentration of chlorophylla was found between the uppermost 20% and the bottom 20% of the extractant. Chlorophylla is trapped at the bottom by a pycnocline created by the water seeped into the filter paper and by chlorophylla itself, which is heavier than the extractant. Once the extractant was well mixed, good reproducibility of measurement was obtained. White precipitation occurred during the mixing of seawater sample and the extractant and was not found to affect the measurement of chlorophylla. The dilution of the extractant by the seawater seeped in the filter paper during extraction probably did not affect the extraction efficiency.     

Ultra-rapid earth rotation determination with VLBI during CONT11 and CONT14

We present earth rotation results from the ultra-rapid operations during the continuous VLBI campaigns CONT11 and CONT14. The baseline Onsala–Tsukuba, i.e., using two out of the 13 and 17 stations contributing to CONT11 and CONT14, respectively, was used to derive UT1-UTC in ultra-rapid mode during the ongoing campaigns. The latency between a new observation and a new UT1-UTC result was less than 10 min for more than 95% of the observations. The accuracy of the derived ultra-rapid UT1-UTC results is approximately a factor of three worse than results from optimized one-baseline sessions and/or complete analysis of large VLBI networks. This is, however, due to that the one-baseline picked from the CONT campaigns is not optimized for earth rotation determination. Our results prove that the 24/7 operation mode planned for VGOS, the next-generation VLBI system, is possible already today. However, further improvements in data connectivity of stations and correlators as well in the automated analysis are necessary to realize the ambitious VGOS plans.     

Hydrographic profiling across the East China sea shelf edge by an underwater sliding vehicle with CTD sensors

Temperature, salinity and density structures were observed on Sept. 23 and 24, 1986 at one vertical section across the East China Sea shelf edge by an advanced type of towed vehicle with CTD sensors which was developed by the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center. The vehicle was towed at a speed of 2.5 m s⁻¹ down to 150 m depth and at intervals of 170–500 m width. The observed profile was 50 km long on Sept. 23 and 70 km long on Sept. 24 along the cross-shelf section. An on-ship acoustic Doppler current profiler was simultaneously used to measure current velocities at depths of 20, 50 and 100 m.Interesting features were noticed. Firstly, there was a vertical displacement of pycnoclines at the lower edge of the surface mixed layer accompanied by vertical inversion of the salinity and temperature in the vicinity of the shelf edge. Pycnoclines were displaced upward by 12 m toward the outer edge on Sept. 23 and by 20 m on Sept. 24. On Sept. 23, the salinity inversion took place in a layer 20 m thick and 8 km wide, whereas the temperature inversion took place in a layer 8 m thick and 1.5 km wide. These vertical inversions were probably generated by vertical shear of tidal currents which was observed by the Doppler current profiler. These results throw light on understanding the vertical mixing process of stratified water on the continental shelf edge. Secondly, an intrusion of the shelf water into the Kuroshio water was observed along pycnoclines below the surface mixed layer 60 to 70 m deep in the Kuroshio region outer break. The measurement was successful in showing a horizontal mixing process of the shelf water and the Kuroshio water which could not be found out by standard CTD observations.     

Nature of accretion related to Paleo-Tethys subduction recorded in northern Thailand: Constraints from mélange kinematics and illite crystallinity

We reconstructed the accretion process related to Paleo-Tethys subduction recorded in northern Thailand, based on mélange and thrust structures, and metamorphic temperatures derived from illite crystallinity data. Mélange formation was characterized by hydrofracturing and cataclastic deformation, with mud injection under semi-lithified conditions followed by shear deformation and pressure solution. Illite crystallinity data suggest metamorphic temperatures below 250 °C during mélange formation. The combined structural and metamorphic data indicate that during mélange formation, the accretionary complex related to Paleo-Tethys subduction developed at shallow levels within an accretionary prism. Asymmetric shear fabrics in mélange indicate top-to-south shear. After correction for rotation associated with collision between the Indian and Eurasian continents, the trend of the Paleo-Tethys subduction zone is estimated to have been N80 °E. We conclude that the Paleo-Tethys was subducted northward beneath the Indochina Block from the Permian to Triassic.     

Inversion for laterally heterogeneous upper mantle S-wave velocity structure using iterative waveform inversion

In contrast to previous work, which treats the Earth's lateral heterogeneity as an infinitesimal perturbation to a spherically symmetrical starting model, we conduct iterative linearized waveform inversion for the Earth's laterally heterogeneous structure. We use the Direct Solution Method (DSM) (Geller et al. 1990a) to calculate synthetic seismograms and their partial derivatives for a laterally heterogeneous earth model. We invert surface-wave data from the IDA and GEOSCOPE networks. We expand the lateral heterogeneity of rigidity in spherical harmonics up to angular order number 8 and use three parameters to specify the depth dependence of each harmonic, giving us a total of 240 unknowns. The short-wavelength lateral heterogeneity (s = 4, 6 and 8) in the deeper part of the upper mantle obtained by this study differs significantly from M84A. The relative improvement in the variance reduction as compared with model M84A is about 20 per cent for the IDA data and more than 100 per cent for the GEOSCOPE data.     

Simulating the carbon balance of a temperate larch forest under various meteorological conditions

Background  

Changes in the timing of phenological events may cause the annual carbon budget of deciduous forests to change. Therefore, one should take such events into account when evaluating the effects of global warming on deciduous forests. In this article, we report on the results of numerical experiments done with a model that includes a phenological module simulating the timing of bud burst and other phenological events and estimating maximum leaf area index.     

Palaeoceanography of the Miocene (Tortonian) deposits of the Pre-Apulian zone,western Greece,as recorded by foraminifer and stable isotope records

An integrated faunal and geochemical dataset has been generated by the study of a late Miocene (early Tortonian) sedimentary section outcropping at Manassi, Levkas Island (eastern Mediterranean). Quantitative analysis of benthic foraminifers from the 25-m-thick section indicates changes of bottom palaeoecological conditions in this part of the eastern Mediterranean, during the analyzed time interval. Benthic foraminifer assemblages are typical of a bathyal environment and testify to relatively oxygenated conditions with low to moderate food supply alternating with periods with an increase in organic matter content. The long-term palaeoceanographic analyses indicate an anti-estuarine circulation model based on the benthic foraminifer and stable isotope results, which evolved in a strong estuarine circulation. The positive relationship existing between the plankton δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C, in most of the record, agrees well with the hypothesis of a variable contribution of runoff. In three stratigraphic levels, samples record heavy bottom water δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C values and light surface δ¹⁸O values, representing a wet, warm, estuarine climate with a stratified water column. In two stratigraphic levels, samples have depleted δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values for both surface and bottom waters. These two samples represent wet, warm climates with some ocean mixing and stratification. The stable isotope signal of foraminifer tests from the Manassi section was influenced by the global temperature changes, but the local factors also played an important role. The palaeoenvironments derived from stable isotope analysis in this study are interpreted as responses to the local tectonic instability together with monsoon intensities that enhanced continental runoff, characteristic for the time interval studied in the study area. Due to the limited data available from this study, no correlations with the precessional, obliquity, or eccentricity cycles can be made.