Atmospheric, oceanic and hydrological contributions to seasonal variations in length of day

 The annual and semiannual residuals derived in the axial angular momentum budget of the solid Earth–atmosphere system reflect significant signals. They must be caused by further excitation sources. Since, in particular, the contribution for the wind term from the atmospheric layer between the 10 and 0.3 hPa levels to the seasonal variations in length of day (LOD) is still missing, it is necessary to extend the top level into the upper stratosphere up to 0.3 hPa. Under the conservation of the total angular momentum of the entire Earth, variations in the oceanic angular momentum (OAM) and the hydrological angular momentum (HAM) are further significant excitation sources at seasonal time scales. Focusing on other contributions to the Earth's axial angular momentum budget, the following data are used in this study: axial atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) data derived for the 10–0.3 hPa layer from 1991 to 1997 for computing the missing wind effects; axial OAM functions as generated by oceanic general circulation models (GCMs), namely for the ECHAM3 and the MICOM models, available from 1975 to 1994 and from 1992 to 1994, respectively, for computing the oceanic contributions to LOD changes, and, concerning the HAM variations, the seasonal estimates of the hydrological contribution as derived by Chao and O'Connor [(1988) Geophys J 94: 263–270]. Using vector representation, it is shown that the vectors achieve a close balance in the global axial angular momentum budget within the estimated uncertainties of the momentum quantities on seasonal time scales. Received: 6 April 2000 / Accepted: 13 December 2000     

Primary production and fluxes of organic carbon to the seabed in the Eurasian arctic seas, 2003–2012

The primary production and fluxes of organic matter to the seabed and their variations were estimated in the Greenland, Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas in 2003–2012 on the basis of satellite and in situ data. When counting the open water area with the assumptions made for the assessment of the primary production in the sea areas hidden under clouds, an increase in primary production was recorded in all these seas, the total production (phytoplankton and ice algae) has grown from 250 × 10⁶ to 400 × 10⁶ t of C per year over the last ten years. The calculation of the OM flux to the seabed showed growth for certain seas from 4 to 12% per year.     

The upper Bajocian of the Crimean Mountains: Paleogeography and sedimentation conditions from palynological data

Based on the spore-pollen data, the mineral composition of clay rocks, analyzed structures and facies, and a general paleogeographic analysis, the sedimentation conditions and landscapes of islands located during the Late Bajocian in the region of the present-day the Crimean Mountains have been reconstructed. It is shown that the sublatitudinally elongated insular land zone had a width of 30 km, the heights of the islands were no more than 1 km, with steep mudflow-affected northern slopes and with an extensive river system on the southern slopes.     

Impact of royalties from forest resources on community development in Boki Local Government in Cross River State,Nigeria

The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which royalties generated from forest resources contributed to community development in Boki Local Government area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The study used questionnaire survey of house-hold heads and Interview with focus groups to obtain data for this study. A total of 224 household heads representing 20 % of the available house-hold heads in the area was used for the study. The data collected were presented using tables and charts while an inferential statistics (Pearson’s Product Moment correlation) was employed to test the hypothesis of the study. The result of the analysis revealed that there exist a positive correlation coefficient of 0.911 which indicates a strong and positive relationship between royalties collected from forest resources and the number of developmental projects in the study area. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that more efforts be directed towards the monitoring and regulation of forest resource exploration activities in the area to ensure that royalties collected are directed towards the establishment of more developmental projects in the area so as to impact more positively on the living standard of the people.