Petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments of Southampton water estuary

The sediments of Southampton Water were analysed for petroleum hydrocarbons to determine the fate of petrochemical refinery waste in the estuary. Much of the petroleum hydrocarbons appears to be removed by adsorption onto estuarine sediments close to source. Surface sediment concentrations range from 3·1mg/g dry weight near a refinery to 0·5 mg/g dry weight at locations distant from the refinery.The absence of any change with depth in total hydrocarbon concentrations from some sediment cores and the presence of distinct ‘oil’ horizons in others suggests that mixing of sediments in the area is very random. Sedimentation rates in areas where a distinct oil horizon was observed ranged from 1 to 3cm a year.     

Evidence for microbiological manganese oxidation in the river Tamar Estuary, South West England

Water samples from the Tamar Estuary oxidized manganese when supplemented with Mn²⁺ (2 mgl⁻¹). The rates of oxidation were depressed in the presence of various metabolic inhibitors. The effect of Mn²⁺ and temperature on the rate of manganese oxidation suggested that a biological process was largely responsible for converting Mn²⁺ to Mn⁴⁺. Rates of manganese oxidation were much higher in freshwater (3·32 μgl⁻¹ h⁻¹ in water containing 30 mgl⁻¹ of suspended matter) than in saline water (0·7 μgl⁻¹ h⁻¹ in water of salinity 32‰) containing the same amount of particulate matter. The rate of manganese oxidation was proportional to the particulate load (up to 100 mgl⁻¹ particulates).     

Microbial Diversity in Nankai Trough Sediments at a Depth of 3,843 m

Dense populations of bivalves, primarily Calyptogena sp., were observed at cold seeps of the Nankai Trough. Bacterial input to the sediment was estimated through determination of phospholipid ester-linked fatty acid (PLFA) and DNA profiles. Results indicated a bacterial biomass of 10⁹ cells (g dry wt)^-1 while individual fatty acid profiles revealed a predominance of monounsaturated fatty acids, mainly 18:1 isomers. The presence of these fatty acids can be interpreted to reflect a response to low temperature and a predominance of psychrophilic bacteria. DNA fragments encoding bacterial ribosomal RNA small-subunit sequences (16S rDNA) were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction method using DNA extracted directly from the sediment samples. From the sequencing results, at least 19 kinds of bacterial 16S rDNAs related to mostly the Proteobacteria and a few gram-positive bacteria were identified. These results suggest that the bacterial community in the Nankai Trough sediments consists of mainly bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria , , and subdivisions. Bacteria belonging to the and subdivisions, which are known to include epibiont and sulfate reducing bacteria, respectively, were mostly detected in the sediment obtained from inside the area of the Calyptogena community, and the -Proteobacteria may function to supply reduced sulfur to bacterial endosymbionts of Calyptogena.     

Bioavailability: the organism as sensor

The use of a system of continuous culture of phytoplankton at constant population density, the ‘cage-culture’ turbidostat, as a monitor of the bioavailability of pollutant materials, is illustrated. In the case of proposed dredge spoils from two polluted areas, it is shown that bulk analyses for scheduled materials cannot be equated with bioavailability. Monitoring for the effect of the whole pollutant mixture on a properly chosen test population could obviate the necessity for chemical analyses for each component.     

Tritium profiles in the Weddell Sea

Tritium data were collected between 1985 and 1987 on several cruises of the German research icebreaker “Polarstern” to the Weddell Sea. Maximum tritium concentrations in the surface waters are of the order of 200 mTU. The minimum values observed in the Weddell Sea Deep Water at about 1000 m depth are about 15–40 mTU. The bottom waters show tritium concentrations of about 70–100 mTU in the central gyre, increasing to about 120 mTU in the northwestern corner of the Weddell Sea. The overflowing Ice Shelf Water observed on the continental slope west of the Filchner Depression has tritium concentrations close to those of the surface waters, indicating rapid renewal of this water mass. The data reflect the rapid renewal of the bottom waters in the northwestern corner of the Weddell Sea and the mixing of bottom water from this boundary current into the bottom waters of the central Weddell Gyre.     

Phytoplankton biomass and size fractions in surface waters of the Australian sector of the southern ocean

We collected surface water along the 142nd E meridian from Tasmania to Antarctica in December 1999. We measured temperature, salinity and total chlorophyll a; additionally, we collected suspended particle size fractions and used fluorometric analysis to determine the quantity of chlorophyll a in each of four cell size classes: picoplankton (<3 μm), two nanoplankton fractions (3–10 μm and 10–20 μm) and microplankton (> 20 μm). Changes in temperature and salinity show that we crossed 6 water masses separated by 5 fronts. We found low abundance (<0.2 mg m⁻³) of chlorophyll in all size classes, with the exception of higher values near the continent (0.2 to 0.4 mg m⁻³). Lowest chlorophyll values (<0.1 mg m⁻³) were found in the Polar Frontal Zone (51° to 54°S). Microplankton made up the largest portion of total chlorophyll throughout most of the region. We conclude that biomass of all phytoplankton fractions, especially pico-and nanoplankton, was constrained by limiting factors, most probably iron, throughout the region and that ecosystem dynamics within a zone are not circumpolar but are regionalized within sectors.     

Thin-Shell Magnetohydrodynamic Equations for the Solar Tachocline

We present a new system of equations designed to study global-scale dynamics in the stably-stratified portion of the solar tachocline. This system is derived from the 3D equations of magnetohydrodynamics in a rotating spherical shell under the assumption that the shell is thin and stably-stratified (subadiabatic). The resulting thin-shell model can be regarded as a magnetic generalization of the hydrostatic primitive equations often used in meteorology. It is simpler in form than the more general anelastic or Boussinesq equations, making it more amenable to analysis and interpretation and more computationally efficient. However, the thin-shell system is still three-dimensional and as such represents an important extension to previous 2D and shallow-water approaches. In this paper we derive the governing equations for our thin-shell model and discuss its underlying assumptions, its context relative to other models, and its application to the solar tachocline. We also demonstrate that the dissipationless thin-shell system conserves energy, angular momentum and magnetic helicity.