Simultaneous exposure of English sole (Parophrys vetulus) to sediment-associated xenobiotics: Part 1—uptake and disposition of 14C-polychlorinated biphenyls and 3H-benzo[a]pyrene

English sole (Parophrys vetulus) were exposed to environmentally realistic levels of sediment-associated ³H-benzo[a]pyrene (3 μg BaP/g sediment, dry weight) and ¹⁴C-Aroclor 1254 (1 μg PCBs/g), separately and together, for up to 10 days. BaP and its metabolites in tissues reached steady-state concentrations by the first day of the exposure, whereas PCBs did not approach steady-state concentrations until the tenth day of exposure. Simultaneous exposure of sole to BaP and PCBs, relative to separate exposure to the xenobiotics, significantly increased the concentrations of BaP-derived radioactivity and decreased the concentrations of PCB-derived radioactivity in some tissues and bile. Accumulation of PCB-derived radioactivity, estimated as the burden in tissues, was significantly greater (4- to 13-fold) than that of BaP-derived radioactivity throughout the experiments and regardless of the type of exposure. The rank of the concentrations of PCB-derived radioactivity in tissues and bile was: bile ～ liver > brain > kidney ～ gill > skin ～ blood ～ muscle and for BaP-derived radioactivity the order was: bile > liver > gill > kidney > skin ～ blood > muscle > brain. BaP-derived radioactivity in liver and bile was present primary (85–99%) as metabolites, whereas PCB-derived radioactivity was present equally as parent compounds and metabolites in bile and primarily (98 %) as parent compounds in liver. Hydrolysis of bile from PCB/BaP-exposed sole with β-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase released 35 % of the BaP-derived radioactivity and 32 % of the PCB-derived radioactivity as primary metabolites. A much higher proportion of the BaP-derived radioactivity (64 %) than the PCB-derived radioactivity (13 %) in bile was unaffected by the enzyme treatment, indicating differences in the conjugation of the primary metabolites of PCBs and BaP. The results suggest that in contaminated environments the tissue to sediment concentration ratios for PCBs would exceed that for BaP and its metabolites; however, BaP would be continually absorbed and metabolized by sole to potentially carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds. In addition, the tissue levels of these toxic compounds may be increased by simultaneous exposure to PCBs.     

Simulation of wave power devices

Classical frequency and time domain models of a single degree of freedom wave power device are presented. In the time domain, a convolution integral is conventionally used to represent the fluid dynamic radiation force, characterised by added mass and damping in the frequency domain. This integral is replaced by an approximate ordinary differential equation (ODE) model which is faster and more convenient in simulations. A time domain model of the fluid dynamics of an oscillating water column (OWC) device is derived to illustrate the technique. Digital simulations of the OWC are used to compare the accuracy of the classical and ODE models. The simulation of the ODE model runs about six times as fast as the classical model based on convolution, yet characterises the fluid dynamics accurately.     

Impact of Two "El Niño" Events of Different Intensity on the Hypoxic Soft Bottom Macrobenthos off the Central Peruvian wast

Abstract. Monthly changes in the community structure of hypoxic soft-bottom macrobenthos have been studied at a station at 34 m depth in Ancón Bay (Peru) before and during two El Niño (EN) events. Of these events, 1982-83 is considered the strongest, and 1991–93 one of the most prolonged in the 20th century. On the oceanographic scale, EN 1982–83 ranges as "very strong", whereas EN 1991–93 ranges as "moderate".
The thermal anomalies at the station during EN 1982–83 (+ 7.8 °C) were almost twice those of EN 1991–93 (+ 4.1 °C). However, the community changes were not in all cases proportional to the extent of warming. Species numbers increased in a similar way (up to 24 species from near zero in each of the two events), but maximum faunal density was five times higher, and mean biomass was twice as high in 1982–83 compared with the event a decade later. Species diversity was slightly higher during EN 1982–83, whereas successional and trophic changes occurred on a broader scale during EN 1991–93. On the whole, the impact of the long-lasting event on the small soft-bottom macrofauna was not much weaker than that of the exceptionally strong event.
The authors discuss the mechanisms which may be responsible for the differences and similarities encountered in the benthic community dynamics during these two events. Both in the unusually strong and the unusually long EN, the community revealed a pattern of early biological response several months ahead of the onset of local warming which marks the official begin of EN. The question is addressed to what extent the increase of certain parameters in the benthic community could be used for predictive purposes.     

Geophysiology and Parahistology of the Interactions of Organisms with the Environment*

Abstract. Ecology and Global Ecology (GE) are terms by which the relations between the organism (or living matter as a whole) and the environment (or Earth as a whole) have been treated for almost a century. Geophysiology and Parahistology (PH) are terms slowly replacing older scientific thoughts jointly with an increasing number of modifications and alterations of the Darwinian Evolution (DE) concept. Somehow Geophysiology and Parahistology seem to describe evolution in a non-Darwinian domain. According to V.I. Vernadsky (1929,1930,1988) - the great Russian naturalist and biogeochemist - the biogeochemical processes on Earth are controlled by the force of living matter rather than by species associations developing in and with individual ecosystems as expressed by darwinian evolutionary terms. He also claimed that Goethe was incorrectly regarded as a predecessor of DE by some authors (including Darwin) and that “Natur” (nature) and “Lebendige Natur” (the totality of creatures) are two very different things for Goethe. Detailed analyses of microbial mat systems in the German Wadden Sea and in artificial hypersaline WInogradsky columns have shown that the totality of creatures and matter around them i.e., the “lebendige Natur”sensu Goethe or “living matter”sensu Vernadsky of such environments control to a considerable extent the structure, stability. and (geo-)morphology of sediments and thereby the geological structure of the living Earth. These structures do not follow the rules of sedimentation formulated by the laws of Stokes They represent growth structures (Aufwuchs), whose physics and dynamics are controlled by complex fractal systems. The factors controlling the ultimate shape and stabilisation potential of the eventually resulting rocks and fossils are comparable to tissue development in macroorganisms. Also, certain microbial associations in the sub-recent and in the fossil record may be compared to metazoan tissues. Chemical gradients in the sedimentary column, regulated by the interplay of living matter and sluggish (slow-reactive to non-reactive) compounds, combine to create a pattern of porosity and structure of the resulting deposits that clearly indicates microbial influences and especially those of extracellular polymeric substances on the morphology and texture. The combined effects of microbiota or living matter on the sedimentary record are described as parahistology of sediments in analogy of the histology of tissue on a geological scale. This conceptual living tissue made up of microbially generated rocks and ore deposits cycled through metabolic processes and forced into tissue-like structures by microbial biofilms and mats may extend down to the upper mantle of Earth and far up into the stratosphere when Earth is regarded as a living entity over geological periods. We may have to conceive Earth as a living specimen, which is breathing at a frequency of thousands of years instead of the normal physiological breathing rate of man or an insect. Macroorganisms in all terrestrial systems represent the transport and logistic media, which, however, utterly depend on myriads of intra-, inter-, and extracellular microbial symbiotic partners.     

Scaling analysis of deposition from turbidity currents

Many oil-bearing sedimentary deposits are formed by the settling of particles from turbidity currents. Modeling sedimentary processes that form these turbidites enables the calculation of properties such as extent, depth, porosity and permeability of hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs. This paper estimates the extent and thickness of turbidites from the initial conditions of the turbidity flow. This is achieved by the application of scaling analysis of the partial differential equations that govern the dynamics of and deposition from turbidity currents. We apply the results of scaling analysis to five modern submarine fans. The predicted and actual values of the dimensions of the fan deposits match well. We then compare the derived results against tabulated sizes of ancient turbidites. The comparisons are good as long as we correctly identify the flow regimes in which the deposition took place. The good agreements observed in the two cases show that the estimates obtained using scaling analysis can provide useful first-guess values for the dimensions of the deposits.     

Estimation of Contamination of ERS-2 and POSEIDON Satellite Radar Altimetry Close to the Coasts of Australia

It is broadly acknowledged that the precision of satellite-altimeter-measured instantaneous sea surface heights (SSH) is lower in coastal regions than in open oceans, due partly to contamination of the radar return from the coastal sea-surface state and from land topography. This study investigates the behavior of ERS-2 and POSEIDON altimeter waveform data in coastal regions and estimates a boundary around Australia's coasts in which the altimeter range may be poorly estimated by on-satellite tracking software. Over one million 20 Hz ERS-2 (March to April 1999) and POSEIDON (January 1998 to January 1999) radar altimeter waveform data were used over an area extending 350 km offshore Australia. The DS759.2 (5'resolution) ocean depth model and the GSHHS (0.2 km resolution) shoreline model were used together to define the coastal regions. Using the 50% threshold retracking points as the estimates of expected tracking gate, we determined that the sea surface height is contaminated out to maximum distance of between about 8 km and 22 km from the Australian shoreline for ERS-2, depending partly on coastal topography. Using the standard deviation of the mean waveforms as an indication of the general variability of the altimeter returns in the Australian coastal region shows obvious coastal contamination out to about 4 km for both altimeters, and less obvious contamination out to about 8 km for POSEIDON and 10 km for ERS-2. Therefore, ERS-2 and POSEIDON satellite altimeter data should be treated with some caution for distances less than about 22 km from the Australian coast and probably ignored altogether for distances less than 4 km.     

Application of the Genetic Algorithm to the Problem of Reconstruction of Missing Data

We study the problem of reconstruction (interpolation and extrapolation) of the vertical profiles of hydrochemical and hydrobiological elements according to incomplete sets of data with simultaneous filtration of short-period components based on expansions in empirical orthogonal functions. The genetic algorithm is used to compute the coefficients of expansion of profiles with missing data. We present the results of processing the data arrays on oxygen, chlorophyll A, and biogenic elements collected in the Black Sea in 1982–1993. The mean error of reconstruction of the profiles enables us to conclude that the proposed method has considerable advantages over the conventional approaches.