Young-of-the-year oyster,Crassostrea virginica,reproduction in coastal Georgia

Young-of-the-year (YOY) oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in the Gulf of Mexico mature sexually and spawn in their first year. This study determined whether YOY oysters in the southeastern United States also mature and spawn in their first year. In 1991 and 1993, 300 YOY oysters were marked in May and 20–30 were sampled in subsequent months along with 20 adult controls. Two sites were chosen in 1991 (House Creek and Skidaway River) and one in 1993 (Skidaway River). At House Creek, YOY oysters were mature and spawned in September. YOY oysters at Skidaway spawned in October. Adult oysters did not appear to spawn in 1991. In 1993, the adult oysters spawned in August and September whereas, the YOY oysters spawned heavily in October. Oyster recruitment in coastal Georgia extends through October. The potential contribution of YOY oysters to this late season set is substantial, given that the YOY oysters are relatively large (≈4 cm) and are found in greater numbers than the adults. Oysters are capable of having two, if not more, generations within one year, prior to exposure of disease-causing organisms. Also, this particular reproductive strategy would increase the oysters suitability as a test subject in population genetic studies.     

Phase relations between Ca3Fe 2 3 +Si3O12-Fe 3 2 +Fe 2 3 +Si3O12 garnet and CaFeSi2O6-Fe2Si2O6 pyroxene solid solutions

Editorial responsibility: J. Hoefs     

Structural,dynamic and anthropic conditions that trigger the emergence of the levee effect: insight from a simplified risk-based framework

ABSTRACT

Levees are the most common structural solution to prevent flooding, reduce damage and generate benefits through more investment/economic activity in floodplain areas. While being relatively easy to build, levee effectiveness can be compromised by poor design and substandard construction methods and maintenance, thus increasing failure probability. Further, levees might increase societal vulnerability by instilling a sense of safety, the so-called “levee effect”. To cope with these phenomena, we develop a risk-based framework that quantifies residual risk under levee breaching and the levee effect, by disentangling its structural, dynamic and anthropic components, thus contributing to a better understanding of the phenomena at different spatial scales and the definition of flood risk policies. Through an illustrative example, we show how residual risk might become larger than under natural conditions, as function of the scale of interest, e.g. an area, a line at a given distance from the river, or a point within the floodplain.     

Signification de la présence de radon 222 dans les fluides géothermiques

The²²²Rn content of a subterranean fluid depends on the physico-chemical nature of the media through which the fluid passes and on the time spent by the fluid in the various geological formations encountered. Consequently,²²²Rn measurement in a geofluid gives a clue to the subsurface transport conditions of this geofluid. Simple models are proposed for various types of buried structures connected with the surface by a geothermal well; they all lead to the²²²Rn concentration expressed as a function of the flow-rate of the carrier fluid. In real systems, the variations of this concentration with flow-rate would allow the type of structure feading the well to be determined, and, in propitious circumstances, the volume of the possible reservoir to be estimated.     

四川峨眉麦地坪剖面震旦系—寒武系界线的新认识及有关化石群的记述

研究剖面位于峨眉山东坡,距峨眉县城约14公里。峨眉山区在大地构造上处于川滇南北向构造带的东侧——峨眉山块断带。震旦系-寒武系出露在蛾眉山背斜两翼,构造简单,地层连续,化石丰富。此剖面先后经过多人研究。     

Respiratory response of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) to suspended solids

Oxygen consumption rates were measured individually for mixed groups of male, female, and immature striped bass,Morone saxatilis, in filtered Patuxent River, Maryland, water and in filtered water containing suspensions of either fuller’s earth or Patuxent River sediment. Oxygen consumption was determined at fixed swimming speeds at two temperatures, 15 and 22.5°C. Oxygen consumption of striped bass in filtered 15°C water increased as swimming speed increased. At 22.5°C, the same range of swimming speeds had no effect on rates of oxygen consumption. Similar data were obtained with fish swimming at the same speeds in water containing 0.79 g per liter fuller’s earth particles (15°C), and among those swimming at 31.7 and 49.0 cm per s in water containing 1.32 g per 1 Patuxent River sediment (22.5°C). Male and female striped bass respiration rates were similar under all test conditions. At 15°C, striped bass oxygen consumption rates during exposure to fuller’s earth while swimming at 8.6 and 31.7 cm per s did not differ from rates of fish swimming at the same speeds in filtered water. At 49.0 cm per s, rates were significantly depressed. Respiration rates of fish exposed to Patuxent River sediment at 22.5°C while swimming at 31.7 and 49.0 cm per s were significantly lower than those of fish in filtered water. Respiratory response of striped bass to suspended particle stress was manifested by depressed oxygen consumption. This is considered a short-term response to an acute stress. This response and the potential for hematological response to chronic suspended particle stress are discussed.     

Dynamical and microphysical characteristics of Arctic clouds using integrated observations collected over SHEBA during the April 1998 FIRE.ACE flights of the Canadian Convair

Summary The purpose of this study is to better understand the dynamical and microphysical processes within Arctic clouds, which occurred in April 1998 over the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) ship during the First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) Regional Experiment Arctic Cloud Experiment (FIRE.ACE). The observations from the four cases in the present study were collected by instruments mounted onboard the National Research Council (NRC) Convair, as well as, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite, the SHEBA surface based NOAA Doppler radar (35GHz, Ka-Band), and the NOAA depolarization lidar (0.523µm) measurements. The aircraft observations were collected at 32Hz (3-m scale). The Meteorological Services of Canada (MSC) lidar (1.064µm) was operated onboard the Convair-580. The AVHRR observations, representing a 5-km horizontal resolution, were used to estimate particle size, phase, and optical thickness. Constant altitude flight legs were made at about 100m over the ocean surface. Vertical air velocity (w), reflectivity and Doppler velocity, and backscatter and depolarization ratio values were used to define the size of the important dynamical structures. Ice crystal number concentration (N_i), ice water content (IWC), droplet number concentration (N_d), liquid water content (LWC) and characteristic particle size and shape were summarized for each case. The effective radius (r_eff) values for liquid clouds obtained from in-situ and AVHRR observations were found comparable. The large variability in IWC can be due to undetected ice crystals at small size ranges. Mixed phased conditions in the AVHRR retrievals complicated the comparisons with in-situ data. N_i was found to be directly related to the history of the air-parcel dynamics e.g., w. The variability and differences in the parameters obtained from various platforms can be attributed to their instrumental capabilities, resolution, as well as the cloud development.     

Two scales for the frequency dependence of the scattering of pulsar radio emission

We have measured the pulse broadening by scattering at 40, 60, and 111 MHz for the pulsars PSR B0809+74, B0950+08, B1919+21, and B2303+30. The frequency dependence of the scatter-broadening parameter is analyzed based on these measurements and data from the literature. The dependence obtained purely from the literature data is not consistent with the theory, and the scattering magnitudes differs considerably from the data of the catalog of 706 pulsars of Taylor et al. A two-component model for the frequency dependence of the scattering of the pulsar radio emission in the interstellar medium is proposed. Allowing for the presence of two scattering scales removes both inconsistencies between the observational data for these four pulsars and differences between the observed and theoretical frequency dependences for the scattering, as well as the need to invoke anomalous scattering magnitudes. The data of the catalog of Taylor et al. need to be corrected for the difference in the scattering magnitudes in the two branches of the frequency dependence.     

Modeling of emission spectra of the flaring red dwarf EV Lac: Active regions,flares, and microflares

Echelle spectrograms of the flaring red dwarf EV Lac obtained on the Nordic Optical Telescope are used to study the chromosphere of the star during the impulsive flare of 23:19 UT on August 30, 1994, and in two nearby time intervals when UBV RI photometry showed the star to be in a quiescent state. The high spectral resolution of the observations enabled the detection of broad Balmer emission wings in the nonflaring state, which are interpreted as evidence for microflares. Semiempirical models for active regions in the chromosphere, flares, and microflares are constructed and used to compare the main physical characteristics of these structures. The place of the detected microflares in the overall energetics of flare events in EV Lac is discussed.     

Solar-Blind Diamond Detectors for Lyra, the Solar VUV Radiometer on Board Proba II

Fabrication, packaging and experimental results on the calibration of metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors made on diamond are reported. LYRA (Lyman- RAdiometer onboard PROBA-2) will use diamond detectors for the first time in space for a solar physics instrument. A set of measurement campaigns was designed to obtain the XUV-to-VIS responsivity of the devices and other characterizations. The measurements of responsivity in EUV and VUV spectral ranges (40–240 nm) have been carried out by the Physkalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany at the electron storage ring BESSY II. The longer wavelength range from 210 to 1127 nm was measured with monochromatic light by using a Xe-lamp at IMO-IMOMEC. The diamond detectors exhibit a photoresponse which lie in the 35–65 mA/W range at 200 nm (corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 20–40%) and indicate a visible rejection ratio (200–500 nm) higher than four orders of magnitude.