Microbial Biomass and Organic Nutrients in the Deep-Sea Sediments of the Central Indian Ocean Basin

In order to assess the impact of deep-sea mining on the in situ benthic life, we measured the microbial standing stock and concentration of organic nutrients in the deep-sea sediments of the Central Indian Ocean Basin in the Indian pioneer area. Sediments were collected using box core and grab samples during September 1996. The total bacterial numbers ranged from 10 10 -10 11 cells per g -1 dry weight sediment. There was a marginal decrease in the number of bacteria from surface to 30 cm depth, though the subsurface section registered a higher number than did the surface. The highest numbers were encountered at depths of 4-8 cm. The retrievable number of bacteria were two orders less in comparison with the direct total counts of bacteria. An almost homogeneous distribution of bacteria, total organic carbon, living biomass, and lipids throughout the depth of cores indicates active microbial and benthic processes in the deep sea sediments. On the other hand, a uniform distribution of total counts of bacteria, carbohydrates, and total organic carbon in all the cores indicates their stable nature and suggests that they can serve as useful parameters for long-term monitoring of the area after the benthic disturbance. Further studies on temporal variability in this region would not only verify the observed norms of distribution of these variables but would also help to understand restabilization processes after the simulated benthic disturbance.     

Late Pleistocene-Holocene Paleoclimatic History of the Southern Kerala Basin, Southwest India

The South Kerala Sedimentary Basin (SKSB) constitutes one of the most significant landward extensions of the southwest offshore sedimentary basins of India, and is situated between 8^o45^' and 10^o15^' N latitudes. With a maximum width of about 20 km and incorporating a 700 m thick sedimentary succession ranging in age from Early Miocene to Holocene, this belt lies almost entirely under water or alluvium-covered coastal plains. In this study, we use two continuously cored bore holes at Eruva (7.25m deep) and Muthukulam (3m deep) separated by a distance of about 7km to investigate the depositional environment as well as paleo ecology of the depocentre and climatic aspects during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Results from C¹⁴ dating of shell fragments from Eruva (depth zone: 2.10–6.64m) yielded ages in the range of 36.2 to 42.5 kyBP corresponding to the late Pleistocene. Wood fragments in the Muthukulam core sample (depth zone: 1.27–3.00m) gave C¹⁴ ages in the range of 3.7 to 7.2 kyBP indicating a Holocene history. The lower half of the Eruva bore hole indicates a marginal marine environment with an abundant supply of terrestrial carbonaceous debris probably corresponding to a period of abnormally high rainfall recorded in many parts of the globe covered by the Asian summer monsoon. The sediments in the upper part of this bore hole indicate a continuation of this environment but with much less input of terrestrial organic carbon. The lower part of the bore hole from this locality, corresponding to the Holocene transgression, is similar to the lower part of Eruva bore hole in the case of TOC. Deposition took place in water bodies with considerable marine influence but receiving high amounts of terrestrial plant debris-mostly in the form of finely divided particles mixed with mud. This transgressive sequence was also deposited during a time when the Asian summer monsoon was abnormally high in intensity as indicated by many examples in India, Africa, Madagascar and elsewhere. It is significant that during the deposition of this part, the sea level was probably the same as present or higher suggesting possible lowering of the stream velocities and resultant deposition of only muddy sediments laden with terrestrial organic material along the coast. The upper part of the section shows a progressively reduced rainfall pattern culminating in a period of very low precipitation with the development of a paleosol, which is traceable all over the SKSB where Late Holocene sediments are available. This period also witnessed aeolian activity modifying the sand ridges in the ridge-runnel systems formed by the Holocene regression.     

Fairweather atmospheric electricity at Antarctica during local summer as observed from Indian station,Maitri

Surface measurements of the atmospheric electrical parameters like Maxwell current, electric field and conductivity studied at the Indian station, Maitri (70.75° S, 11.75° E, 117 m above mean sea level), Antarctica, during austral summer have been analyzed for the years 2001 to 2004. A total of 69 days were selected which satisfied the ‘fairweather’ conditions, i.e., days with absence of high winds, drifting or falling snow, clouds, and fog effects. The diurnal variation curve of electric field and vertical current averaged for 69 fairweather days is a single periodic with a minimum at 03:00 UT and a maximum near 19:00 UT, which is very similar to the Carnegie curve. The correlation coefficient between these measured parameters has a high value (more than 0.9) for all the days. During fairweather days the measured current and field variations are similar and hence it is clear that the conductivity is more or less stable. During magnetically disturbed days, the dawn-dusk potential drop has clear influences on the diurnal variation and it modifies the conductivity. Apart from the day-to-day variation in low latitude thunderstorm activity, there are diurnal, seasonal, inter-annual variations in the electric potential and the currents, as well as solar influences on the measured parameters. This study will help us to examine the impact of solar and geophysical phenomena like solar flares, geomagnetic storms and substorms on the global electric circuit.     

Estimation of wave period statistics using numerical coastal wave model

We used field and model wave data to investigate that zero crossing and average wave period distribution follow Gamma distribution. Since Gamma CDF is an infinite power series, further mathematical treatment is difficult. Hence its shape parameter is approximated to the nearest integer to arrive at Erlang distribution. An expression is derived from Erlang distribution to estimate various mean wave periods and significant wave period and validated by relative root mean square (RRMS) error criteria. It is shown by mathematical logic that the significant wave period distribution follows Erlang (or Gamma) distribution and is validated. The average of one-third and one-tenth highest wave periods (T _s ) estimated from Erlang distribution are in accordance with the values computed from recorded buoy and numerical coastal wave model wave period data. The predicted T _s values from coastal wave model wave period data underestimates the values from buoy wave period data.     

Characteristics of spectral aerosol optical depths over India during ICARB

Spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, carried out regularly from a network of observatories spread over the Indian mainland and adjoining islands in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, are used to examine the spatio-temporal and spectral variations during the period of ICARB (March to May 2006). The AODs and the derived Ångström parameters showed considerable variations across India during the above period. While at the southern peninsular stations the AODs decreased towards May after a peak in April, in the north Indian regions they increased continuously from March to May. The Ångström coefficients suggested enhanced coarse mode loading in the north Indian regions, compared to southern India. Nevertheless, as months progressed from March to May, the dominance of coarse mode aerosols increased in the columnar aerosol size spectrum over the entire Indian mainland, maintaining the regional distinctiveness. Compared to the above, the island stations showed considerably low AODs, so too the northeastern station Dibrugarh, indicating the prevalence of cleaner environment. Long-range transport of aerosols from tshe adjoining regions leads to remarkable changes in the magnitude of the AODs and their wavelength dependencies during March to May. HYSPLIT back-trajectory analysis shows that enhanced long-range transport of aerosols, particularly from the west Asia and northwest coastal India, contributed significantly to the enhancement of AOD and in the flattening of the spectra over entire regions; if it is the peninsular regions and the island Minicoy are more impacted in April, the north Indian regions including the Indo Gangetic Plain get affected the most during May, with the AODs soaring as high as 1.0 at 500 nm. Over the islands, the Ångström exponent (α) remained significantly lower (～1) over the Arabian Sea compared to Bay of Bengal (BoB) (～1.4) as revealed by the data respectively from Minicoy and Port Blair. Occurrences of higher values of α, showing dominance of accumulation mode aerosols, over BoB are associated well with the advection, above the boundary layer, of fine particles from the east Asian region during March and April. The change in the airmass to marine in May results in a rapid decrease in α over the BoB.     

Numerical Simulations of the Impacts of Land-Cover Change on a Southern Sea Breeze in South-West Western Australia

A sea-breeze event in south-west Western Australia is simulated using the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS) version 6.0. The model is evaluated against high resolution soundings as well as station observations and is shown to reproduce the qualitative features of the sea breeze well. Sensitivity tests are carried out to investigate the effects of historical land-cover change and changes in soil moisture on the dynamics of the sea breeze. It is found that land-cover change alone, i.e., a change from wooded grasslands to bare soil, with no change in soil moisture initialisation, does not significantly alter the overall structure of the sea breeze but results in higher surface winds due to the reduced vegetation roughness length, which leads to enhanced surface moisture advection inland. On the other hand, land-cover change in conjunction with increased soil moisture results in a considerably weaker, shallower, and less penetrative sea breeze, and delays its onset and duration. A sea-breeze scaling analysis highlights the impact of increasing soil moisture on reducing the sea-breeze volume flux scale.     

Alkali granite-syenite-carbonatite association in Munnar Kerala,India; implications for rifting,alkaline magmatism and liquid immiscibility

Occurrence of carbonatite is reported from the Munnar area, Kerala, where an alkali granite-syenite-carbonatite association is seen emplaced along the intersection zone of the Attur and Kerala fault-lineaments. The carbonatites are of two varieties, a calcite-rich sovite and a very coarse grained, calcite and dolomite bearing alvikite. Higher levels of SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and CaO are characteristic of these as compared to the composition of typical carbonatites. The transition element levels are high whereas the incompatible elements show lower values. The low Sr values, lower amount of apatite and absence of rare metal minerals preclude a primary carbonatite magma. The associated syenite and alkali granite have higher K₂O, K₂O/Na₂O, K/Rb, K/Ba and transition element levels. Petrochemical features suggest the rock association to be a result of separation of an immiscible fraction of less viscous carbonate liquid during cooling and ascent from a more viscous polymerized alkali silicate phase. The pre-requisites for melt equilibration and liquid immiscibility were achieved through volatile degassing related to crustal warping and rifting. The unique alkaline association of Munnar, which shows spatial relationships with deep-seated faults as well as a probable triple-point junction, is suggested to be a signature of late Precambrian alkaline magmatism which manifested in the Indian shield as a precursor to the rifting of the continental margin.     

IMPLICIT NONLINEAR NORMAL MODE INITIALIZATION:A MULTIGRID APPROACH

The implicit nonlinear normal mode initialization (INMI) is applied to a tropical limited area shallow water modelin spherical coordinates.The boundary condition for the INMI scheme is based on the boundary formulation of themodel.The INMI scheme is found to be very efficient in suppressing spurious gravity wave oscillation and providing awell balanced initial data set for the model.The INMI scheme involves solving a number of elliptic type equations withvarying complexity.and hence an efficient numerical technique is required for solving such equations.In order to makeINMI computationally more attractive,we are employing the multigrid method for solving all the elliptic type equationsin the INMI scheme.The numerical procedures for the development of such multigrid solvers are briefly described.     

Estimation of near surface soil moisture in a sloping terrain of a Himalayan watershed using ENVISAT ASAR multi‐incidence angle alternate polarisation data

Soil moisture is one of the important input variables in hydrological and water erosion models. The extraction of information on near surface soil moisture from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is well established mostly for flat terrain and using low incidence angle single polarisation data. The ENVISAT advanced SAR (ASAR) data available in multiple incidence angles and alternate polarisation modes were investigated in this study for soil moisture estimation in sloping terrain. The test site was Sitla Rao watershed in the Lesser Himalayas of northern India. Empirical models were developed to estimate near surface soil moisture in bare agricultural fields using alternate polarisation ASAR data. Both soil moisture and surface roughness field measurements were performed during the satellite passes. Backscatter from medium incidence angle (IS‐4) and vertical‐vertical (VV) polarisation signal is correlated better with volumetric soil moisture content compared to other incidence angles. The model parameters were further improved, and soil moisture estimation was refined by combining medium incidence angle (IS4) vertical‐horizontal polarisation response as another variable along with VV polarisation response. The effect of slope on the radar backscatter was minimized by incorporating local incidence angles derived from an ASTER DEM. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.