Basin-scale distribution of prokaryotic phylotypes in the epipelagic layer of the Central South Pacific Ocean during austral summer

In the present study, we used catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization to quantify the abundance of five bacterial (Alphaproteobacteria, SAR11, Gammaproteobacteria, SAR86, and Bacteroidetes) and two archaeal (Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota) phylotypes in the epipelagic layer (0–200 m) of the Central South Pacific Ocean along 170°W from 0° to 40°S. We found that the distribution patterns of these phylotypes differed from each other. All phylotypes except Gammaproteobacteria were particularly abundant at the surface water of the equatorial region, whereas Gammaproteobacteria was relatively abundant in the area from the southern part of the South Pacific Ocean. SAR11, affiliated with Alphaproteobacteria was the dominant phylotype at all depths, throughout the study area. The abundance of SAR11 significantly increased with chlorophyll a concentration, suggesting that phytoplankton could affect their distribution pattern. There was a positive correlation between Bacteroidetes abundance and water temperature, suggesting that the temperature gradient could be a critical factor determining their distribution in the South Pacific Ocean. Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota were more abundant at the equatorial region than in other study areas. Euryarchaeota abundance significantly decreased with depth, and increased with chlorophyll a concentration. This suggests that there was ecological interaction between Euryarchaeota and phytoplankton in the equatorial surface. Our data indicate that distinct hydrographic properties such as seawater temperature, salinity, and the concentrations of chlorophyll a and nutrients can principally control the basin-scale distribution of different prokaryotic phylotypes in the epipelagic layer of the Central South Pacific Ocean.     

Tail emission of prompt gamma-ray burst jets

Tail emission of the prompt gamma-ray burst (GRB) is discussed using a multiple emitting sub-shell (inhomogeneous jet, sub-jets or mini-jets) model, where the whole GRB jet consists of many emitting sub-shells. One may expect that such a jet with angular inhomogeneity should produce spiky tail emission. However, we found that the tail is not spiky but is decaying roughly monotonically. The global decay slope of the tail is not so much affected by the local angular inhomogeneity but affected by the global sub-shell energy distribution. The fact that steepening GRB tail breaks appeared in some events prefers the structured jets. If the angular size of the emitting sub-shell is around 0.01–0.02 rad, some bumps or fluctuations appear in the tail emission observed frequently in long GRBs. If the parameter differences of sub-shell properties are large, the tail has frequent changes of the temporal slope observed in a few bursts. Therefore, the multiple emitting sub-shell model has the advantage of explaining the small-scale structure in the observed rapid decay phase.     

The 17-month periodicity of sunspot activity

A statistical study of sunspot activity during 1969 to 1986 was carried out by using the number of sunspot groups and their areas. We found a 17-month periodicity, which is consistent with the 500-day periodicity of flare occurrence (Ichimoto et al., 1985).Contributions from the Kwasan and Hida Observatories, University of Kyoto, No. 281.     

Flare activity in AM Canum Venaticorum

Flare activity on AM CVn was observed photometrically at 16^h20^m UT of 20 February, 1990. The amplitude of the flare is about 0.2 mag. The shape of the flare and the subsequent amplitude enhancement of the 1051 s period are quite similar to those previously observed by Mararet al. (1988).     

Natural groundwater of a gas field utilizable for a bioremediation of trichloroethylene-contamination

Groundwater from a shallow aquifer in Mobara, a city in a natural gas field in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, was found to contain a significant amount of dissolved methane (<3.1 mM) along with nitrate, phosphate and methane-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs, <9.9×10⁶ MPN ml^–1) which can degrade trichloroethylene (TCE). This water exhibited high methanotroph growth activity and rapid degradation of TCE. This water was introduced into a TCE-contaminated aquifer. The concentration of TCE at the monitoring well 2 m down-gradient of the injection pit decreased from 128 g L^–1 before the injection to less than the lower detection limit of 12.5 g L^–1 after the injection, while it decreased only slightly (to 86 g L^–1) when control water was injected. These results demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing a natural groundwater resource containing methane and methanotrophs without any additives for bioremediation of a TCE-contaminated site.     

Chaos in cosmic ray air showers

Unexpected chaotic features are found in time series of arrival time intervals of successive air showers with (E > 3 × 10¹⁴ eV). Over 99 % of air shower arrival time intervals obey the Poisson distribution law representing stochastic behaviors, but occasionally there are air showers showing real chaotic behaviors as distinguished from both random and colored noises. With two systems of the Kinki university installations, we found 13 cases showing chaotic time series in 3.36 yr with the system-1 and the 1.37 yr with the system-2. Five out of 10 chaotic air showers of the Kinki installation are detected during the same time zone also by the Osaka City university installation which is at 115 km distance from the Kinki one. In a remarkable example of September 19, 1991, the correlation dimension was observed to have dropped from about 4 to the minimum of 1.3 and recovered smoothly in about 38 h. The chaos structure in this case is detected in nearly the same time zone at the Ohya station of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, which is separated from the Kinki one by 460 km. Formation of chaos structure due to energetic cosmic ray dust particles is suggested. Progress of cosmic ray physics may be expected with the study of air showers marked with chaos.     

塔里木盆地南缘自然与人文历史变迁的耦合关系

通过对里大盆地南缘自然与人文变迁的耦合关系研究,表明其自然生态环境演化、人文历史变迁是自然因素与人文力量综合作用的结果。若气候湿润、水量丰沛,则有利于绿洲经济、文化生产的迅速发展提高。反之,则环境恶化、沙漠化过程加快、绿洲废弃。早期自然环境因素的影响所占比重大,而后期人文力量起主导作用。自然条件决定了环境的特征及其演化的内在基础,人类活动是本地最活跃、最能动的因素。这在自然生态环境特别脆弱的地区表     

Diurnal variations in streamflow and water quality during the summer dry season

In a headwater basin covered with boreal forest in northern Japan, the summer dry flow was monitored each summer from 1985 to 1993. Streamflow and specific electrical conductance fluctuated diurnally and these variations were attributed to daytime evapotranspiration. In 1989, the daytime reduction in streamflow and conductance were accompanied by a reduction in the HCO^?₃ concentration. The low flow hydrograph was separated into two components using HCO^?₃ and Cl^? concentrations in August 1989, assuming low flow to be a mixture of delayed subsurface flow and of quick shallow flow. The slight diurnal variation in the ratio of shallow flow to subsurface flow caused the diurnal variation in conductance by changing the HCO^?₃ concentration.     

Relation between hard X-ray spectra and electron energy spectra

The relationship between hard X-ray spectra and energetic electron spectra in solar X-ray bursts is investigated, and a simplified cross-section for bremsstrahlung which is applicable to the region of mildly relativistic energies is proposed. Using the proposed cross-section, we solve an integral equation to obtain the electron energy spectrum. The validity of the proposed cross-section is checked by comparing the spectrum calculated by the exact Bethe-Heitler formula. A good agreement between two calculated spectra is obtained up to 10 MeV energy with an accuracy of 20 %.