Spatial mode estimation for functional random fields with application to bioturbation problem

This work provides a useful tool to study the effects of bioturbation on the distribution of oxygen within sediments. We propose here heterogeneity measurements based on functional spatial mode. To obtain the mode, one usually needs to estimate the spatial probability density. The approach considered here consists in looking each observation as a curve that represents the history of the oxygen concentration at a fixed pixel.     

Generalized total least squares to characterize biogeochemical processes of the ocean

The chemical composition of the global ocean is governed by biological, chemical, and physical processes. These processes interact with each other so that the concentrations of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen (mainly from nitrate, nitrite, ammonium), and phosphorous (mainly from phosphate), vary in constant proportions, referred to as the Redfield ratios. We construct here the generalized total least squares estimator of these ratios. The significance of our approach is twofold; it respects the hydrological characteristics of the studied areas, and it can be applied identically in any area where enough data are available. The tests applied to Atlantic Ocean data highlight a variability of the Redfield ratios, both with geographical location and with depth. This variability emphasizes the importance of local and accurate estimates of Redfield ratios.     

Intensive use of Lagrangian trajectories to quantify coastal area dispersion

Ocean Dynamics - Coastal waters are subject to great environmental and anthropogenic pressures. The diffusion and the transport of these waters are a key element for environmental, ecological and...     

Seasonal and Diurnal Ozone Variations: Observations and Modeling

Ozone mixing ratios observed by the Bordeaux microwave radiometer between 1995 and 2002 in an altitude range 25–75 km show diurnal variations in the mesosphere and seasonal variations in terms of annual and semi-annual oscillations (SAO) in the stratosphere and in the mesosphere. The observations with 10–15 km altitude resolution are presented and compared to photochemical and transport model results.Diurnal ozone variations are analyzed by averaging the years 1995–1997 for four representative months and six altitude levels. The photochemical models show a good agreement with the observations for altitudes higher than 50 km. Seasonal ozone variations mainly appear as an annual cycle in the middle and upper stratosphere and a semi-annual cycle in the mesosphere with amplitude and phase depending on altitude. Higher resolution (2 km) HALOE (halogen occultation experiment) ozone observations show a phase reversal of the SAO between 44 and 64 km. In HALOE data, a tendancy for an opposite water vapour cycle can be identified in the altitude range 40–60 km.Generally, the relative variations at all altitudes are well explained by the transport model (up to 54 km) and the photochemical models. Only a newly developed photochemical model (1-D) with improved time-dependent treatment of water vapour profiles and solar flux manages to reproduce fairly well the absolute values.     

西菲律宾海末次冰期以来的浊流沉积及其古环境意义

菲律宾海西部吕宋岛岸外MD98－2188钻孔揭示末次冰期以来发生过数次浊流沉积事件。研究发现浊流沉积层具有密度高、颜色亮度大等物理特征,含有较多粗沉积组分和翼足类化石碎片,说明其来源于浅海沉积物。本文运用AMS 14C测年和浮游有孔虫氧同位素建立精细的年龄模式,发现浊流沉积层段主要与末次盛冰期、冰期Heinrich变冷事件以及氧同位素4期等低海平面时期相对应,推测与千年尺度北半球气候冷期相关的海平面快速上升可能是西菲律宾海浊流沉积的触发原因。这对于认识快速气候变化的环境后果和开展西菲律宾海晚第四纪地层划分对比都有重要意义。     

Influence of food supply on the δ13C signature of mollusc shells: implications for palaeoenvironmental reconstitutions

Compared to oxygen isotopes, the carbon isotope composition of biogenic carbonates is less commonly used as proxy for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions because shell δ¹³C is derived from both dissolved inorganic (seawater) and organic carbon sources (food), and interactions between these two pools make it difficult to unambiguously identify any independent effect of either. The main purpose of this study was to demonstrate any direct impact of variable food supply on bivalve shell δ¹³C signatures, using low/high rations of a ¹³C-light mixed algal diet fed to 14-month-old (adult) cultured Japanese Crassostrea gigas under otherwise essentially identical in vitro conditions during 3 summer months (May, June and July 2003, seawater temperature means at 16, 18 and 20 °C respectively) in experimental tanks at the Argenton laboratory along the Brittany Atlantic coast of France. At a daily ration of 12% (versus 4%) oyster dry weight, the newly grown part of the shells (hinge region) showed significantly lower δ¹³C values, by 3.5‰ (high ration: mean of −5.8  ± 1.1‰, n = 10; low ration: mean of −2.3  ± 0.7‰, n = 6; ANOVA Scheffe’s test, p < 0.0001). This can be explained by an enhanced metabolic activity at higher food supply, raising ¹³C-depleted respiratory CO₂ in the extrapallial cavity. Based on these δ¹³C values and data extracted from the literature, and assuming no carbon isotope fractionation between food and shell, the proportion of shell metabolic carbon would be 26  ± 7 and 5  ± 5% for the high- and low-ration C. gigas shells respectively; with carbon isotope fractionation (arguably more realistic), the corresponding values would be 69  ± 14 and 24  ± 9%. Both groups of cultured shells exhibited lower δ¹³C values than did wild oysters from Marennes-Ol éron Bay in the study region, which is not inconsistent with an independent influence of diet type. Although there was no significant difference between the two food regimes in terms of δ¹⁸O shell values (means of 0.1  ± 0.3 and 0.4  ± 0.2‰ at high and low rations respectively, non-significant Scheffe’s test), a positive δ¹³C vs. δ¹⁸O relationship recorded at high rations supports the interpretation of a progressive temperature-mediated rise in metabolic activity fuelled by higher food supply (in this case reflecting increased energy investment in reproduction), in terms not only of δ¹³C (metabolic signal) but also of δ¹⁸O (seawater temperature signal). Overall, whole-shell δ¹⁸O trends faithfully recorded summer/winter variations in seawater temperature experienced by the 17-month-old cultured oysters.     

Magnetic record of El Niño Southern Oscillation in Late Pleistocene sediments from Mucubají lake (western Venezuela)

El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an internal forcing of the climate system. This event has an actual frequency of 2 to 8 years. Evidence from a paleoclimate proxy database of gray scale (GS), in samples from Pallcacocha lake in Ecuador, indicates that the ENSO had a frequency of 35 to 75 years during the Late Pleistocene. In this work we explored the possible relationship between the ENSO proxies (GS) from Pallcacocha and magnetic parameters from sediments sampled at the Mucubají lake in Mérida, Venezuela (i.e. mass-specific magnetic susceptibility, magnetic remanence S ratio and susceptibilitynormalized saturation isothermal remanent magnetization). After applying a Lanczos bandpass filter to the rock magnetic and the GS data, in order to remove, as much as possible, frequencies associated to any periodic event other than ENSO, we found significant correlations between GS and magnetic parameters for the period between 12450 and 10560 cal. yrs BP. These relationships were obtained using an Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), a hybrid algorithm that combines fuzzy logic with neural networks. The results show that the magnetic parameters obtained in Mucubají are able to explain 50.5% of the total variance of the ENSO proxy in a range of 35 to 75 years in Pallcacocha, which is roughly the same percentage of the total variance of the temperature in the Venezuelan Andes, explained by the ENSO at present times. In this way we have inferred a possible influence of the ENSO in the Venezuelan Andes during the Late Pleistocene.     

Decadal evolution of anthropogenic CO2 in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s

Monthly observations accumulated over more than a decade at the DYFAMED time-series station allow us to estimate the temporal evolution of anthropogenic CO₂ in the western Mediterranean Sea. This objective is reached by using recognized interpolation procedures to reconstruct the incomplete distributions of measured total dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity. These reconstructed fields, associated with those available for dissolved oxygen and temperature, are used to estimate the distribution of anthropogenic CO₂. This is done with the recently developed Tracer combining Oxygen, inorganic Carbon, and total alkalinity (TrOCA) approach. The main results indicate that (1) the concentrations of anthropogenic CO₂ are much higher than those found in the Atlantic Ocean (the minimum concentration at the DYFAMED site is 50 μmol kg⁻¹), and (2) the temporal trend for anthropogenic CO₂ is decreasing, especially in the intermediate and the deep layers of the water column at the DYFAMED site. This decrease in anthropogenic CO₂ is significantly correlated with a decrease in the dissolved oxygen and with an increase in both salinity and temperature. These trends are discussed in the light of recent published works that propose explanations for the observed increases in salinity and temperature that occurred in the western basin since the 1950s. We conclude that the decrease in anthropogenic CO₂ probably resulted from an invasion of old water masses. Different hypotheses on the origin of these water masses are considered and several arguments indicate that the eastern Mediterranean transient (EMT) could have played an important role in the observed decrease in anthropogenic CO₂ concentrations at the DYFAMED site.