Phytoplankton production in two east coast estuaries: Photosynthesis-light functions and patterns of carbon assimilation in Chesapeake and Delaware Bays

Chesapeake Bay is a large and productive estuary that has received close scrutiny in recent years because of indications that its water quality and biota have been damaged by man's activities. Data on primary production for the estuary as a whole, however, are surprisingly sparse. We describe here the distribution of photosynthetic carbon assimilation by phytoplankton in Chesapeake Bay, and relate productivity patterns to hydrographic characteristics of the estuary. Between March 1982 and April 1983, a series of four cruises was conducted on Chesapeake Bay, and two cruises on the urbanized Delaware Bay for comparison. The upper Chesapeake and Delaware were highly turbid with high concentrations of suspended particulate matter and dissolved inorganic nutrients. Low chlorophyll concentrations were usually found in these areas of high turbidity, despite the abundance of nutrients, suggesting light limitation. Application of Wofsy's (1983) model of phytoplanton growth confirmed this suggestion. Chlorophyll and productivity maxima usually occurred seaward of the turbidity maxima where light penetration increased and suffient nutrients were present to support active phytoplankton growth. Further seaward of the chlorophyll maxima in the Chesapeake, the photic zone depth increased, concentrations of nutrients decreased, and phytoplankton biomass decreased, suggesting that nutrient availability, rather than light, controlled phytoplankton growth in the lower portion of the estuary. In contrast to the Chesapeake, Delaware Bay was more turbid, had generally higher nutrient concentrations, and was lower in phytoplankton productivity. The chlorophyll maxima and region of rapid phytoplankton growth occurred further toward the lower estuary and shelf regions in Delaware Bay because the high turbidity extended further seaward. Nutrients were never depleted at the shelf end of the estuary sufficiently to retard phytoplankton growth. Photosynthesis-irradiance (P-I) curves from simulated in situ and constant intensity incubations showed a strong correlation of the light-limited slope (a^B) with the light-saturated rate ( ) on each cruise. Spatial variations in corresponded to patterns of phytoplankton abundance, as did integral production (PP) and carbon-based growth rates (μ_C, μ_m), and photosynthetic parameters varied significantly with temperature.     

Tectonics of short-offset,slow-slipping transform zones in the FAMOUS area,Mid-Atlantic Ridge

ANGUS photographs and ALVIN observational data from Fracture Zones A and B on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 37°N were examined for structural and sedimentological indications of the area's tectonics. Both transform fault zones are characterized by volcanic rubble, breccias, chalks, and undisturbed sediments typical of slow-slipping transforms.The photographic data consist of 16 camera-sled traverses from the FAMOUS Expedition using the ANGUS deep-towed camera system. These data cover several different morphotectonic provinces along the strike of both slow-slipping (2 cm yr^-1) fracture zones. ALVIN data come from two dives in the central part of Fracture Zone B. The two fracture zones differ in their distribution of fractured and sheared chalks which indicate regions of strike-slip deformation along the transform. Evidence of shearing is confined to a very narrow region in the center of FZ A, whereas the zone of shear deformation is as much as 6 km wide across FZ B. Other differences include the morphology and depth of the transform valleys and their contiguous nodal basins and the extent of exposures of fresh-looking volcanic ridges in the nodal basin.     

Monitoring the status of a mechanical cable while in operation by means of the acoustic emission method

The mechanical cable is an essential element in towing operations, remote control of equipment, salvage operations, civil engineering applications, etc.Failure of these cables can result in loss of life and loss of equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obviously then, sensors that can indicate the condition of these cables so that the risk to their continued use and their remaining safe life can be determined when in operation are very important from the point of view of commercial and military interest.This paper presents a brief review of research into failure mechanisms of various cables and the acoustic emission signatures of the various cables under simulated loading. The development of a specific operational monitor for a towed cable system is also given.     

Facies recognition of some Tertiary coals applied to prediction of oil source rock occurrence

Coals are oil source rocks in many of the Tertiary basins of Southeast Asia. The precursors of these hydrogen rich and oxygen poor coals are coastal plain peats which have mainly developed in an everwet and tropical climate. In these environments water flow and reworking can concentrate liptinitic kerogen in preference to vitrinitic kerogen. The distribution, petrography and chemistry of the coaly Miocene source rocks present in the Kutai Basin are described. The recognition of environmental controls on the accumulation of potentially oil-prone coals and coaly shales in deltaic environments is an aid to predictive source bed recognition in petroleum exploration. Comments on the environment of deposition of coaly sediments in the basins of the Norwegian Sea are discussed with reference to their possible oil and/or gas sourcing potential. The Triassic - Jurassic coals of the Haltenbanken area may become more oil-prone towards the delta margins, and facies mapping could aid oil exploration in this area.     

The effect of submarine groundwater discharge on nutrient and salinity regimes in a coastal lagoon off Perth, Western Australia

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) into a coastal lagoon off Perth, Western Australia, contains nitrate and silicate in concentrations two orders of magnitude higher than those of the receiving waters. This discharge delivers enough nitrate to replace that dissolved in the lagoon water mass about every eight days and enough silicate to replace the lagoon silicate in about 48 days. The delivery rate of nitrate nitrogen by SGD is equal to about 48% of that required for observed growth rates of lagoon macrophytes. Surface salinity is lower close to the shore as a result of SGD. During calm conditions a salinity front was observed in the lagoon, with a nearshore pool of nutrient-enriched water floating above the more saline ocean water.     

Trophic accumulation and depuration of mercury by blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and pink shrimp (Penaeus duorarum)

Mercury concentrations in blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) collected from an area of mercury-contaminated sediments in Lavaca Bay, TX, USA, are more than an order of magnitude greater than concentrations in penaeid shrimp from the same area. Laboratory feeding experiments using mercury-contaminated fish as food showed that both blue crabs and pink shrimp (Penaeus duorarum) could accumulate mercury concentrations comparable to those in their food in 28 days. Calculated mercury assimilation efficiencies averaged 76% for blue crabs and 72% for pink shrimp. Significant depuration of mercury by blue crabs was not observed during a subsequent 28-day period, but pink shrimp lost mercury at a rate of about 0.012 day-1. Model calculations predict biomagnification factors of mercury of about two to three at steady state for both species. The large difference in observed concentrations of mercury in field-collected blue crabs and penaeid shrimp does not result from differences in efficiency of mercury assimilation from their food or from differences in excretion rates. It is more likely the result of differences in residence times in the contaminated area and of differences in feeding habits.     

Baroclinic Buoyancy-Inertia Joint Stability Parameter

At present, the barotropic buoyant stability parameter has been derived from a vertical virtual displacement of a water parcel. The barotropic inertial stability parameter in the eccentrically cyclogeostrophic, basic current field was derived in 2003 from a horizontal cross-stream virtual displacement of a parcel. By expressing acceleration of a parcel due to a virtual displacement, which is arbitrarily sloping within a vertical section across the basic current, in terms of natural coordinates, we derived the vertical component of baroclinic buoyant stability parameter B ₂ ², the horizontal component of baroclinic inertial stability parameter I ₂ ², the baroclinic joint stability parameter J ², its buoyant component B ² and its inertial component I ². B ² is far greater than I ₂ ², and when neglecting relative vorticity except for vertical shear, a downward convex curve of J ² plotted against the slope of a virtual displacement follows a trend of B ² curve. If a parcel displaces along a horizontal surface or an isopycnal surface, however, B ² vanishes, and J ² becomes equal to I ². Actual parcel is apt to displace not only along the bottom slope, but also along the sea surface and an isopycnal interfacial surface, which is approximately equivalent to an isentropic surface, preferred by lateral mixing and exchange of momentum. Such actual displacement makes B ² vanishing, and grants I ² an important role. The present analysis of I ² examining effects due to curvature and horizontal and vertical shear vorticities are useful in deepening our understanding of baroclinic instability in actual oceanic streams.     

Preconditioned Optimizing Utility for Large-dimensional analyses (POpULar)

I present the derivation of the Preconditioned Optimizing Utility for Large-dimensional analyses (POpULar), which is developed for adopting a non-diagonal background error covariance matrix in nonlinear variational analyses (i.e., analyses employing a non-quadratic cost function). POpULar is based on the idea of a linear preconditioned conjugate gradient method widely adopted in ocean data assimilation systems. POpULar uses the background error covariance matrix as a preconditioner without any decomposition of the matrix. This preconditioning accelerates the convergence. Moreover, the inverse of the matrix is not required. POpULar therefore allows us easily to handle the correlations among deviations of control variables (i.e., the variables which will be analyzed) from their background in nonlinear problems. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of POpULar, we illustrate two effects which are often neglected in studies of ocean data assimilation before. One is the effect of correlations among the deviations of control variables in an adjoint analysis. The other is the nonlinear effect of sea surface dynamic height calculation required when sea surface height observation is employed in a three-dimensional ocean analysis. As the results, these effects are not so small to neglect.     

Trends in biorobotic autonomous undersea vehicles

The emergence of biorobotic autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) as a focus for discipline-integrated research in the context of underwater propulsion and maneuvering is considered within the confines of the Biorobotics Program in the Office of Naval Research. The significant advances in three disciplines, namely the biology-inspired high-lift unsteady hydrodynamics, artificial muscle technology and neuroscience-based control, are discussed in an effort to integrate them into viable products. The understanding of the mechanisms of delayed stall, molecular design of artificial muscles and the neural approaches to the actuation of control surfaces is reviewed in the context of devices based on the pectoral fins of fish, while remaining focused on their integrated implementation in biorobotic AUVs. A mechanistic understanding of the balance between cruising and maneuvering in swimming animals and undersea vehicles is given. All aquatic platforms, in both nature and engineering, except during short duration burst speeds that are observed in a few species, appear to lie within the condition where their natural period of oscillation equals the time taken by them to travel the distance of their own lengths. Progress in the development of small underwater experimental biorobotic vehicles is considered where the three aforementioned disciplines are integrated into one novel maneuvering device or propulsor. The potential in maneuvering and silencing is discussed.