Integrated GIS-based estimate of plankton and benthos biomasses in the Barents Sea

The quantitative characteristics and biomass distribution of plankton and benthos in the Southern Barents Sea are estimated by using geographic information system technologies. A database from a computer atlas of the Barents Sea is used to calculate the summary, total, and mean biomass. The quantitative parameters of plankton are estimated via creating a synthetic digital map, reflecting the joint distribution of phytoplankton, meso-and macrozooplankton in a raster format. The total and mean biomass of benthos is calculated via digitizing published cartographic data with subsequent processing of the digital cartogram. The obtained results are compared with estimates made earlier by other researchers. Generalizing characteristics, such as biomass production, P/B-coefficient, and ecological efficiency are calculated.     

Spatial distribution of water mass pollution characteristics in the Barents Sea

Digital databases on 444 stations were used to carry out statistical analysis of regularities in the spatial distribution of Barents Sea water pollution. The analysis was focused on the concentrations in water of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) and toxic organic compounds: hexachlorocyclohexanes, hexachlorobenzene, chlordans, DDT, polychlorbiphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and normal paraffins. The statistical analysis of data on pollutants was carried out along two major directions in their distribution: the vertical—in the surface and bottom water layers; and the horizontal—over water masses. Reliable differences were identified in the pollution level of different water masses of the Barents Sea. The frontal zone was found to concentrate pollution.     

Attenuation mechanisms in fractured fluid-saturated porous rocks: a numerical modelling study

Seismic attenuation mechanisms receive increasing attention for the characterization of fractured formations because of their inherent sensitivity to the hydraulic and elastic properties of the probed media. Attenuation has been successfully inferred from seismic data in the past, but linking these estimates to intrinsic rock physical properties remains challenging. A reason for these difficulties in fluid-saturated fractured porous media is that several mechanisms can cause attenuation and may interfere with each other. These mechanisms notably comprise pressure diffusion phenomena and dynamic effects, such as scattering, as well as Biot's so-called intrinsic attenuation mechanism. Understanding the interplay between these mechanisms is therefore an essential step for estimating fracture properties from seismic measurements. In order to do this, we perform a comparative study involving wave propagation modelling in a transmission set-up based on Biot's low-frequency dynamic equations and numerical upscaling based on Biot's consolidation equations. The former captures all aforementioned attenuation mechanisms and their interference, whereas the latter only accounts for pressure diffusion phenomena. A comparison of the results from both methods therefore allows to distinguish between dynamic and pressure diffusion phenomena and to shed light on their interference. To this end, we consider a range of canonical models with randomly distributed vertical and/or horizontal fractures. We observe that scattering attenuation strongly interferes with pressure diffusion phenomena, since the latter affect the elastic contrasts between fractures and their embedding background. Our results also demonstrate that it is essential to account for amplitude reductions due to transmission losses to allow for an adequate estimation of the intrinsic attenuation of fractured media. The effects of Biot's intrinsic mechanism are rather small for the models considered in this study.     

A possible mechanism of stimulation of seismic activity by ionizing radiation of solar flares

A possible mechanism of earthquake triggering by ionizing radiation of solar flares is considered. A theoretical model and results of numerical calculations of disturbance of electric field, electric current, and heat release in lithosphere associated with variation of ionosphere conductivity caused by absorption of ionizing radiation of solar flares are presented. A generation of geomagnetic field disturbances in a range of seconds/tens of seconds is possible as a result of large-scale perturbation of a conductivity of the bottom part of ionosphere in horizontal direction in the presence of external electric field. Amplitude-time characteristics of the geomagnetic disturbance depend upon a perturbation of integral conductivity of ionosphere. Depending on relation between integral Hall and Pedersen conductivities of disturbed ionosphere the oscillating and aperiodic modes of magnetic disturbances may be observed. For strong perturbations of the ionosphere conductivities amplitude of pulsations may obtain ~10² nT. In this case the amplitude of horizontal component of electric field on the Earth surface obtains 0.01 mV/m, electric current density in lithosphere –10^–6 A/m², and the power density of heat release produced by the generated current is 10^–7 W/m³. It is shown that the absorption of ionizing radiation of solar flares can result in variations of a density of telluric currents in seismogenic faults comparable with a current density generated in the Earth crust by artificial pulsed power systems (geophysical MHD generator " Pamir-2” and electric pulsed facility " ERGU-600”), which provide regional earthquake triggering and spatiotemporal variation of seismic activity. Therefore, triggering of seismic events is possible not only by man-made pulsed power sources but also by the solar flares. The obtained results may be a physical basis for a novel approach to solve the problem of short-term earthquake prediction based on electromagnetic triggering phenomena.     

Influence of oceanological conditions on the distribution and biological features of the mass squid species in the South Kuril region

The distribution of the three mass commercial cephalopod species (the Japanese common squid Todarodes pacificus, the neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii, and the boreal clubhook squid Onychoteuthis borealijaponica) on the Pacific side of the South Kuril Islands is analyzed in relation to oceanological conditions using the data of scientific catches of squids and oceanographic observations obtained by Japanese and Russians research vessels in August–September of 1994–1999. With respect to the extension of the waters of subtropical origin, three types of oceanological conditions are distinguished: the “conventionally cold” (1996, 1997), “conventionally warm” (1998, 1999) and “conventionally normal” (1994, 1995) conditions. It is shown that conventionally cold years are more favorable for the fishery of the Japanese common squid and the boreal clubhook squid and conventionally normal years are favorable for the fishery of all three squid species, while conventionally cold years are only favorable for the fishery of the neon flying squid. Particular features of the distribution and biology of each of the squid species considered are discussed.     

Understanding the WMAP Cold Spot mystery

The Cold Spot (CS) at galactic coordinates (b = −57°, l = 209°) was discovered in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)data as a cosmic background anomaly. In order to assess the cosmological significance of the Spot, we examine its properties using the cluster analysis of the local extrema in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal. We also check the hypothesis that the CMB signal has a non-Gaussian tail, localized in the low-multipole components. We constructed a linear filter, dividing the signal into two parts: non-Gaussian and Gaussian. Using the filter scale as a variable, we can maximize the skewness and kurtosis of the smoothed signal and minimize these statistics. We discovered that the shape of the CS is formed primarily by the components of the CMB signal represented by the multipoles between 10 ≤ ℓ ≤ 20, with a corresponding angular scale of about 5°–10°. This signal leads to the modulation of the CMB on the whole sky, clearly seen at |b| > 30° in both the ILC andWCM maps, rather than in a single localized feature. After subtraction of this modulation, the remaining part of the CMB signal appears to be consistent with statistical homogeneity and Gaussianity. We therefore infer that the mystery of the WMAP Cold Spot reflects directly the peculiarities of low multipoles of the CMB signal, rather than a single local (isolated) defect or the manifestations of a globally anisotropic cosmology.     

Accurate estimators of power spectra in N-body simulations

A method to rapidly estimate the Fourier power spectrum of a point distribution is presented. This method relies on a Taylor expansion of the trigonometric functions. It yields the Fourier modes from a number of fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), which is controlled by the order N of the expansion and by the dimension D of the system. In three dimensions, for the practical value   N = 3  , the number of FFTs required is 20.
We apply the method to the measurement of the power spectrum of a periodic point distribution that is a local Poisson realization of an underlying stationary field. We derive an explicit analytic expression for the spectrum, which allows us to quantify – and correct for – the biases induced by discreteness and by the truncation of the Taylor expansion, and to bound the unknown effects of aliasing of the power spectrum. We show that these aliasing effects decrease rapidly with the order N . For   N = 3  , they are expected to be, respectively, smaller than  ∼10⁻⁴  and 0.02 at half the Nyquist frequency and at the Nyquist frequency of the grid used to perform the FFTs. The only remaining significant source of errors is reduced to the unavoidable cosmic/sample variance due to the finite size of the sample.
The analytical calculations are successfully checked against a cosmological N -body experiment. We also consider the initial conditions of this simulation, which correspond to a perturbed grid. This allows us to test a case where the local Poisson assumption is incorrect. Even in that extreme situation, the third-order Fourier–Taylor estimator behaves well, with aliasing effects restrained to at most the per cent level at half the Nyquist frequency.
We also show how to reach arbitrarily large dynamic range in Fourier space (i.e. high wavenumber), while keeping statistical errors in control, by appropriately 'folding' the particle distribution.     

The 3D skeleton: tracing the filamentary structure of the Universe

The skeleton formalism, which aims at extracting and quantifying the filamentary structure of our Universe, is generalized to 3D density fields. A numerical method for computing a local approximation of the skeleton is presented and validated here on Gaussian random fields. It involves solving equation     , where  ∇ρ  and     are the gradient and Hessian matrix of the field. This method traces well the filamentary structure in 3D fields such as those produced by numerical simulations of the dark matter distribution on large scales, and is insensitive to monotonic biasing.
Two of its characteristics, namely its length and differential length, are analysed for Gaussian random fields. Its differential length per unit normalized density contrast scales like the probability distribution function of the underlying density contrast times the total length times a quadratic Edgeworth correction involving the square of the spectral parameter. The total length-scales like the inverse square smoothing length, with a scaling factor given by  0.21 (5.28 + n )  where n is the power index of the underlying field. This dependency implies that the total length can be used to constrain the shape of the underlying power spectrum, hence the cosmology.
Possible applications of the skeleton to galaxy formation and cosmology are discussed. As an illustration, the orientation of the spin of dark haloes and the orientation of the flow near the skeleton is computed for cosmological dark matter simulations. The flow is laminar along the filaments, while spins of dark haloes within 500 kpc of the skeleton are preferentially orthogonal to the direction of the flow at a level of 25 per cent.     

Oxygen isotope composition of kaolinite rocks as an indicator of different stages of their lithogenesis

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

The solubility of MoO3 in aqueous solutions of HClO4 at T = 300°C and P = 100 bar by experimental data

The solubility of crystalline MoO₃ in aqueous solutions of HClO₄ at T = 300°C and P = 100 bar was determined in experiments. It was shown that the acidity of the solution is the determining factor of the solubility of molybdenum trioxide under hydrothermal parameters. The formation constant was calculated for the HMoO ₄ ^? neutral complex (pK ₀ = 3.50 ± 0.20).