南海北部海面风速概率分布特征

利用南海北部的浮标、石油平台观测的海面风资料,分析了0~200 km范围内,不同离岸距离站点的风速的概率分布特征。观测结果指出,各站平均风速一般最大值出现在冬季,最小值出现在夏季,具有明显的季节变化特征,并且平均风速随着离岸距离的增大也逐渐增大。对于离岸距离较近的区域（100 km以内）,海面风基本符合双参数的Weibull分布,但对于100 km以外的海面风速概率分布与Weibull分布存在明显差异,随着离岸距离的增大,平均风速和风速标准偏差也相应增大。风速平均值与风速标准偏差的比值较小时,Weibull分布的偏斜度基本为正值,当比值较大时偏斜度转为负值。随着离岸距离的增大,出现与Weibull分布不一致的情况越来越多,且与对应的Weibull分布相比,其偏斜度越小,风速概率分布越不能用Weibull分布进行较好拟合。     

Comparisons of sea surface height variability observed by pressure-recording inverted echo sounders and satellite altimetry in the Kuroshio Extension

Satellite-measured along-track and gridded sea surface height (SSH) anomaly products from AVISO are compared with in situ SSH anomaly measurements from an array of 43 pressure-recording inverted echo sounders (PIESs) in the Kuroshio Extension. PIESs measure bottom pressure (P _bot) and round-trip acoustic travel time from the sea floor to the sea surface (τ). The P _bot and τ measurements are used to estimate, respectively, the mass-loading and steric height variations in SSH anomaly. All comparisons are made after accurate removal of tidal components from all data. Overall good correlations are found between along-track and PIES-derived SSH anomalies with mean correlation coefficient of 0.97. Comparisons between the two measurements reveal that the mass-loading component estimated from P _bot is relatively small in this geographical region. It improves regression coefficients about 5?% and decreases mean root-mean-squared (rms) differences from 7.8 to 6.4?cm. The AVISO up-to-date gridded product, which merges all available satellite measurements of Jason-1, Envisat, Geosat Follow-On, and TOPEX/Poseidon interlaced, shows better correlations and smaller rms differences than the AVISO reference gridded product, which merges only Jason-1 and Envisat. Especially, the up-to-date gridded product reveals 6.8?cm rms improvement on average at sites away from Jason-1 ground tracks. Gridded products exhibit low correlation (0.75–0.9) with PIES-derived SSH in a subregion where the SSH fluctuations have relatively high energy at periods shorter than 20?days.     

Climate variability and tropical tuna: Management challenges for highly migratory fish stocks

The 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement facilitates the creation of regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) to govern harvests of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks. The stability and success of these organizations will depend, in part, on how effectively they can maintain member nations’ incentives to cooperate despite the uncertainties and shifting opportunities that may result from climate-driven changes in the productivity, migratory behavior, or catchability of the fish stocks governed by the RFMO. Such climatic impacts may intensify incentives for opportunism, and create other management challenges for the RFMOs now governing tropical tuna fisheries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.     

Spatial variation of abundant picoeukaryotes in the subtropical Kuroshio Current in winter

To understand the importance of picoeukaryotes in the biogeochemical cycle in the subtropical Kuroshio Current, a year-round survey of the hydrography and the distribution of picoeukaryotes were conducted in four oceanographic cruises from October 2012 to July 2013. In comparison with other seasons, the highest abundancy of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes, with concentrations >10⁴ cells/ml, was observed around the eastern boundary of the Kuroshio in the winter. Accordingly, the composition of picoeukaryotes in this cold season was further studied by a metabarcoding analysis of the 18S rRNA gene. The majority of picoeukaryotes comprised Alveolata, followed by Haptophyta and Stramenopiles. Their composition was diverse in the waters affected by the Kuroshio and in the offshore province. For Haptophyta, in contrast to clade A prevailing in the Kuroshio waters, clade B1, which was considered the host of uncultivated diazotrophic cyanobacterium group A (UCYN-A), appeared only in the offshore area. Similarly, in Stramenopiles, Pseudo-nitzschia spp. and MAST-1D, respectively, dominated in the Kuroshio-influenced and offshore areas. While Alveolata was the most abundant group, the distributions of all lineages were similar. The association between picoeukaryote succession and hydrographic change is yet to be fully understood. Our results will assist future studies on the community composition of picoplankton and their relationship with marine ecology in the region.     

The interplay of sediment characteristics,depth, water temperature,and ocean currents shaping the biogeography of lancelets (Subphylum Cephalochordata) in the NW Pacific waters

Lancelets (or amphioxus) are often found within the soft bottom of shallow tropical and temperate seas. The present study is the first to provide a fine‐scale biogeography of five species of lancelets (Asymmetron lucayanum, Branchiostoma belcheri, Branchiostoma japonicum, Epigonichthys cultellus, and Epigonichthys maldivensis) in the NW Pacific and examine the effects of multiple environmental parameters. From multivariate analyses, the distribution and abundance patterns of lancelets were explained by a combination of factors comprising depth, temperature of the collecting month, mean temperature of the coldest month in the year, medium particle size and silt/clay ratio of the sediments. In addition, ocean currents also affect their distribution range. The major occurrence of A. lucayanum and E. maldivensis was associated with the warm Kuroshio current, but E. maldivensis exhibited higher tolerance to low salinity and low temperature, and preferred substrata of slightly larger grain size, a lower ratio of suspended sediments, and deeper water. The closely related B. belcheri and B. japonicum exhibited fine‐scale habitat differentiation, and B. japonicum was abundant along the southern coast of China, where the salinity is lower in winter because of the China Coastal Current and the substratum is composed of very coarse sand with suspended sediments. Branchiostoma belcheri occurred in low abundance and was only recorded in Northern Taiwan and the Taiwan Banks. Epigonichthys cultellus was found only at the Taiwan Banks, which had deep water, coarse sand, and a negligible amount of suspended sediments.     

Organochlorines in Hong Kong Fish

Muscle samples from 15 species of fish (n=1) purchased from markets in Hong Kong and 10 liver samples of tilapia (Tilapia mossambica) collected from the Shing Mun River were analysed for organochlorines (polychlorinated biphenyls, ΣDDTs, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexanes, chlordanes, mirex and dieldrin). Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were detected in 15 market fish samples but the levels were very low (around 1 ng g⁻¹). PCB levels in tilapia livers collected from Tai Wai (29.3–65.1 ng g⁻¹) were higher than those from Fo Tan (3.5–23.2 ng g⁻¹) suggesting that there may be some local point soucres. ΣDDTs were detected in all samples, ranging from 3.3 to 75.6 ng g⁻¹ in the market fish and from 7.1 to 88.8 ng g⁻¹ in tilapia. The DDE/DDT ratios in the market fish (0.12–0.75) showed higher variability than those of tilapia (0.30–0.46), suggesting that some of the market fish may have been collected from areas where DDT was recently used. Results of this preliminary study show that organochlorine levels in Hong Kong market fish are low and do not cause any concern for human consumption. An on-going monitoring program, however, is recommended.     

Biomarker-based Seawater Temperatures of Winter Sinking Particles and Core-top Sediment in the Ulleung Basin of the East Sea

Ocean Science Journal - This study evaluates the application of biomarkerbased temperature proxy data (alkenone with its resultant $$U_{37}^{K'}$$ index and glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether...     

Coastal management in Tanga, Tanzania: a decentralized community-based approach

This paper describes a new initiative in coastal management in northeastern Tanzania. The region is within the equatorial part of the Western Indian Ocean. The priority environmental issues being faced include declining fish catches, use of destructive fishing techniques, mangrove cutting and coastal erosion. There is a widespread perception among the users of the coastal resources that management of these issues is inadequate. This programme initiative is developing flexible, community-based approaches to identifying the problems and to take achievable actions. The programme provides training in a wide range of skills and appropriate technical methods for government officials, extension workers and villagers. A collaborative process is evolving that includes participatory appraisals, village environmental committees, facilitation by government extension workers, technical advise and supervision by district technical teams, and regional-wide workshops with key players. Village initiatives taken so far include new by-laws, gear inspection, reef zoning and closures. A number of village mariculture projects are being piloted.     

Downscaling projections of climate change in Sao Tome and Principe Islands,Africa

Sao Tome and Principe is a small insular African country extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels and impacts such as inundation, shore line change, and salt water intrusion into underground aquifers. Projections of climate change have considered coarse model resolutions. The objective of this work is to dynamically downscale the global model projections to 4-km resolution and to assess the climate change in the Sao Tome and Principe islands. The global climate projections are provided by the Canadian Earth System Model under two Representative Concentration Pathways greenhouse gas scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The downscaling is produced by the Eta regional climate model. The baseline period is taken between 1971 and 2000, and the future climate period is taken between 2041 and 2070. The 2-m temperature simulations show good agreement with station data. The model simulates temperature more accurately than precipitation. The precipitation simulations systematically show underestimation and delay of the rainy and the dry seasons by about 1 month, a feature inherited from the global climate model. In the middle of the 21st century, projections show the strongest warming in the elevated parts of the Sao Tome Island, especially in February under RCP8.5. Warmer nights and warmer days become more frequent in the islands when compared with those in the present. While under RCP4.5, precipitation increases in the islands; under RCP8.5, it decreases everywhere in both islands. Heavy precipitation rates should increase, especially in the south-southwestern parts of the Sao Tome islands. Detailed spatial variability of the temperature and precipitation changes in the islands can only be revealed at very high spatial model resolution. Implications for the potential energy production from two major river basins are assessed in this work.     

Three-dimensional,periodic, ‘halo’ orbits

A largely numerical study was made of families of three-dimensional, periodic, halo orbits near the collinear libration points in the restricted three-body problem. Families extend from each of the libration points to the nearest primary. They appear to exist for all values of the mass ratio , from 0 to 1. More importantly, most of the families contain a range of stable orbits. Only near L₁, the libration point between the two primaries, are there no stable orbits for certain values of . In that case the stable range decreases with increasing , until it disappears at =0.0573. Near the other libration points, stable orbits exist for all mass ratios investigated between 0 and 1. In addition, the orbits increase in size with increasing .