Short‐term microscale topographic changes of coastal bedrock on shore platforms

We report a series of short‐term (diurnal) rock surface monitoring studies on inter‐ and supra‐tidal shore platforms using a traversing micro‐erosion meter at two sites, Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand, and Apollo Bay, Victoria, Australia. Statistically signi?cant day‐to‐day changes were measured. Surface rise and lowering occurred at rates above instrument error, with a maximum range of 3·378 mm between 1·697 mm (lowering) and ‐1·681 mm (rise). Individual measurements showed rises greater than 2 mm. These daily variations reveal that surface lowering and rise occur at a much shorter time scale than previously reported from other studies. The patterns observed suggest wetting and drying is the most likely process causing surface changes at these temporal scales. We argue that traversing micro‐erosion meter studies operating at a short‐term time scale of day‐to‐day provide meaningful results that open new opportunities for studying rock weathering and erosion in a coastal environment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Type III radio burst productivity of solar flares

We study the statistical relationship between type III radio bursts and optical flares, using the comprehensive flare data base at the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (Boulder, Colorado), and the radio observations obtained with the ARTEMIS multichannel spectrograph in Nancay (France), operating at 500–100 MHz.At variance with previous results, we find that type III probability of occurrence depends only weakly upon the spatial extension of the flare observed in H, but strongly upon its brightness. We also confirm that type III probability increases with proximity to sunspots and with mass motions (surges and prominence activity); in addition, our statistical data are consistent with both relations holding at fixed flare brightness. Thus, some of the conditions favorable to type III occurrence are characteristic of compact flares, while others are characteristic of large and long-duration flares, which are often related to mass ejections. This apparent paradox suggests that particle acceleration and magnetic expansion are at work simultaneously in the ejection of electron streams out of flaring sites.     

Trophic structure and pathways of biogenic carbon flow in the eastern North Water Polynya

In the eastern North Water, most of the estimated annual new and net production of carbon (C) occurred during the main diatom bloom in 1998. During the bloom, at least 30% of total and new phytoplankton production occurred as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and was unavailable for short-term assimilation into the herbivorous food web or sinking export. Based on particle interceptor traps and ²³⁴Th deficits, 27% of the particulate primary production (PP) sank out of the upper 50 m, with only 7% and 1% of PP reaching the benthos at shallow (≈200 m) and deep (≈500 m) sites, respectively. Mass balance calculations and grazing estimates agree that ≈79% of PP was ingested by pelagic consumers between April and July. During this period, the vertical flux of biogenic silica (BioSi) at 50 m was equivalent to the total BioSi produced, indicating that all of the diatom production was removed from the euphotic zone as intact cells (direct sinking) or empty frustules (grazing or lysis). The estimated flux of empty frustules was consistent with rates of herbivory by the large, dominant copepods and appendicularians during incubations. Since the carbon demand of the dominant planktivorous bird, Alle alle, amounted to ≈2% of the biomass synthesized by its main prey, the large copepod Calanus hyperboreus, most of the secondary carbon production was available to pelagic carnivores. Stable isotopes indicated that the biomass of predatory amphipods, polar cod and marine mammals was derived from these herbivores, but corresponding carbon fluxes were not quantified. Our analysis shows that a large fraction of PP in the eastern North Water was ingested by consumers in the upper 50 m, leading to substantial carbon respiration and DOC accumulation in surface waters. An increasingly early and prolonged opening of the Artic Ocean is likely to promote the productivity of the herbivorous food web, but not the short-term efficiency of the particulate, biological CO₂ pump.     

A three-component ocean bottom seismograph for controlled source and earthquake seismology

A three-component pop-up ocean-bottom seismograph was built at the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences in 1978. It is constructed around a buoyant 71 cm diam aluminium alloy forged sphere which contains three 4.5 Hz orthogonal geophones and an external hydrophone. The instrument will record continuously in analogue mode for over eight days using a modified reel-to-reel tape-recorder running at 1.5 mm s^-1. The geophones have a bandwidth of 2–25 Hz and the hydrophone bandwidth is 5–40 Hz. Ballast release is by pre-set clock or by acoustic command.Fifty-four deployments have been carried out in five cruises for the loss of only one instrument. Good recordings of dropped weights, airguns, explosions and earthquakes have been obtained.     

The effect of supplementary dietary copper on copper and metallothionein levels in the fish, dab, Limanda limanda

Common dab were fed a casein based diet containing copper at a concentration of 1·4 mg copper kg⁻¹ (dry weight) or a similar diet supplemented with 200 mg copper kg⁻¹. Fish were sampled after 10 weeks and 20 weeks and hepatic and renal copper, zinc and metallothionein concentrations were measured. All hepatic cytosolic copper in test and control fish co-eluted from Sephadex G-75 with metallothionein, as did some of the cytosolic zinc. After 20 weeks there was three times as much of this metallothionein-bound copper in the livers of the test fish compared to the control fish, although metallothionein concentration was little elevated. On the basis of these results it is proposed that cytosolic liver copper concentration or heat stable liver copper concentration can be used as an indication of excess dietary copper in the dab Limanda limanda.     

Acetate in recent anoxic sediments: Direct and indirect measurements of concentration and turnover rates

While acetate is generally regarded as an important intermediate in the mineralization of organic matter in anoxic sediment systems, some quantitative studies in marine systems (including our own) have measured acetate oxidation rates in excess of sulphate reduction rates where sulphate is known to be the principal electron acceptor. We revisited Skan Bay, Alaska, where we had previously made such observations, for a reexamination of acetate turnover. Measurements of acetate concentrations, production rate, oxidation rate and sulphate reduction rate as well as bioenergetic considerations led to the conclusion that acetate oxidation rate in 15–18-cm deep sediment is 1·1–1·5 μM h⁻¹. The possibility that previous measurements were high because of a non-citric-acid-cycle pathway of acetate oxidation (suggested by recent laboratory studies) was excluded. It appears that our previous turnover measurements were high mainly because of high acetate concentrations. Procedures used for the isolation of porewater for acetate determination may influence results to an extent not previously recognized.     

Dynamic and static analysis of a marine riser

A frequency domain normal mode solution is presented for the dynamic response of an unbuoyed marine riser subjected to periodic excitation from a surface vessel in the direction of wave propagation. The variable tension beam-column equation is solved in terms of normal modes of free vibration of the riser and the rigid body displacement. Drag forces on the riser are represented by Morison's formula taking account of the velocity of the riser and wave-induced fluid velocity. A periodic solution for the flexural motion of the riser and the bending stress is then obtained by means of an iterative solution of the frequency response function. The drag force induced stresses arising from a linearly varying current are also determined. The results presented compare favourably with those obtained by other methods.     

An analytic study of impact ejecta trajectories in the atmospheres of Venus,Mars, and Earth

Calculations have been made to determine the effects of atmospheric drag and gravity on impact ejecta trajectories on Venus, Mars, and the Earth. The equations of motion were numerically integrated for a broad range of body sizes, initial velocities, and initial elevation angles. A dimensionless parameter was found from approximate analytic solutions which correlated the ejecta range, final impact angle, and final impact velocity for all three planets.