Observations of the von Karman constant over open-ocean waves

Forty-six open-ocean observations of the von Karman constant k , estimated from the momentum flux, wind velocity, and air temperature differences observed at the Argus Island tower, yielded an average value of 0.40±0.18 for |Ri|⩽0.014, where Ri is the gradient Richardson number. This average value agrees with the determinations of k over land by U. Hogstrom (1988) and S.F. Zhang et al. (1988). Scatter in these oceanic data sets may be due in part to ocean-wave influence as well as to instrumental and statistical variability     

Dissipation observations of drag coefficients over the open ocean

Forty-three open-ocean observations of drag coefficients observed at Argus Island Tower near Bermuda by the dissipation technique resulted in constant drag coefficients for mean horizontal wind velocities between 7.8 and10.4 m .s^{1}in good agreement with the larger near-neutral data set of DeLeonibus and Simpson [1] and the neutral data of Large and Pond [2], both of whom observed10^{3}C_{10} = 1.2whereC_{10}is the drag coefficient at l0 m. Ratios of vertical-to-horizontal wind velocity spectral densities averaged over an inertial subrange of 0.8 to 1.6 Hz ranged from 0.7 to 1.07 in agreement with the Busch and Panofsky [3] result that isotropy is approached only when the observation height is much greater than the Nyquist wavelength.     

Continental shelf nurseries and recruitment variability in American plaice and yellowtail flounder on the Grand Bank: insights into stock resiliency

In 1994, a directed fishing moratorium was declared for Grand Bank American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides) and yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea) stocks because both stocks showed severe declines in abundance from heavy exploitation during the mid 1980s and early 1990s. Four years later, the fishery for yellowtail re-opened while the plaice stock has shown little recovery and the moratorium is still in effect. To assess the possible causes of the differences in recovery between species, we examined the spatial structure and environmental characteristics of the continental shelf nursery habitats of plaice and yellowtail, and their relationship to recruitment variability and overall population size. Depth plays a major influential role determining the spatial pattern and the abundance of juveniles of both species and in the case of plaice the spatial structure of the adult population also determines the amount of nursery area utilised by juveniles. Recruitment variability was higher in plaice than in yellowtail. We found year class synchrony in both species indicating that common environmental conditions and/or biological processes are affecting recruitment in a similar manner. Density-dependent regulation appears to be more severe in yellowtail and this should contribute to a more stable population when compared to plaice. These results are discussed in terms of resiliency of both stocks to over-exploitation.     

Complex statistics in Hamiltonian barred galaxy models

We use probability density functions (pdfs) of sums of orbit coordinates, over time intervals of the order of one Hubble time, to distinguish weakly from strongly chaotic orbits in a barred galaxy model. We find that, in the weakly chaotic case, quasi-stationary states arise, whose pdfs are well approximated by q-Gaussian functions (with 1 <?q < 3), while strong chaos is identified by pdfs which quickly tend to Gaussians (q =?1). Typical examples of weakly chaotic orbits are those that ??stick?? to islands of ordered motion. Their presence in rotating galaxy models has been investigated thoroughly in recent years due to their ability to support galaxy structures for relatively long time scales. In this paper, we demonstrate, on specific orbits of 2 and 3 degree of freedom barred galaxy models, that the proposed statistical approach can distinguish weakly from strongly chaotic motion accurately and efficiently, especially in cases where Lyapunov exponents and other local dynamic indicators appear to be inconclusive.