Palynology and petroleum potential of the Kazhdumi Formation (Cretaceous: Albian–Cenomanian) in the South Pars field,northern Persian Gulf

The Kazhdumi Formation of the Bangestan Group is a well-known source rock that has produced abundant oil in most petroleum fields in the Zagros Basin, which stretches from northwest to southwest Iran over hundreds of kilometres. The formation reaches a thickness of 230 m at the type section in northwest Zagros but thins out to 40–50 m in wells studied from the South Pars giant petroleum field, where it comprises mainly grey shales with occasional intercalations of marls and sandstones. South Pars, best known as the Iranian part of the world's largest non-associated gas field, contains small quantities of oil above and below the Kazhdumi Formation.     

Landscape-scale analysis of ecosystem risk and returns: A new tool for ICZM

Management of the coastal zone often focuses on “islands” of high value ecosystems, in terms of economic value or conservation. However, integrated management requires landscape-level analysis of all ecosystem values. The biodiversity portfolio analysis (BPA) method is derived from the logic used in share (equity) portfolio management in terms of balancing within a portfolio the returns with the risks. Optimising the returns from a share portfolio, or a suite of ecosystems in a landscape, is dependent on the relationship between the units in terms of risk and return. Three case studies are then presented to test the applicability of the BPA method at the international (North West Europe), regional (Durham Heritage Coast, UK) and local (part of South Uist, Outer Hebrides, UK) spatial scale. The Biodiversity Portfolio Analysis for NW Europe showed that risk and return were highly correlated in the studied Member States. The ranking of risk and return, with the highest first, was Ireland > UK > France=Netherlands > Belgium. For these Member States the risks to ecosystem service provision were positively correlated with GNI (r=0.97, P<0.01); suggesting that the higher the economic importance of coastal and marine resources in a Member State the more at risk the resources are. The regional and local case studies were more focussed on providing information on which to base Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) decision making; both case studies used stakeholder participation to determine risks and returns. The conclusions from these two case studies show how the BPA method can be useful in terms of setting ICZM priorities and in addressing local coastal issues. The BPA involves making a number of assumptions, however, it does provide coastal managers with a potential tool to strategically plan due to increased awareness of the interaction between the ecosystems in the portfolio.There is a need for such techniques, which involve stakeholder participation and which create objective outcomes, to support the implementation of ICZM.     

Seasonal cycles and long-term trends of plankton in shelf and oceanic habitats of the Norwegian Sea in relation to environmental variables

The plankton abundance data of the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) route from Bergen or Rotterdam to Weather Station Mike (6444^′N, 2E) from 1949 to 1981 were analysed for long-term trends and seasonal production cycles, and were related to environmental data. The data were explored using the canonical correlation analysis and nonparametric techniques like the Nadaraya–Watson regression. While large copepods such as Calanus spp. and Metridia lucens did not show any temporal trends, a sharp decrease in the abundances of smaller copepods and phytoplankton was observed after 1960. The temporal trends were not related to the NAO, but did show a correlation with the wind direction. Seasonal abundance curves showed that production of both phytoplankton and zooplankton taxa started earlier in coastal water compared to Atlantic water. From the 1950s to the 1970s most taxa showed a delay in the start of the seasonal production cycles, indicating a reduction in the length of the productive cycle. This may to some extent explain the reduced abundance of smaller copepods, phytoplankton and other species during the 1960s and 1970s.     

Rapid visualization of plankton abundance and taxonomic composition using the Video Plankton Recorder

Traditional methods for determining spatial distributions of planktonic taxa involve net, pump, and bottle collections followed by the tedious and time-consuming task of plankton sample analysis. Thus, plankton ecologists often require months or even years to process samples from a single study. In this paper, we present a method that allows rapid visualization of the distribution of planktonic taxa while at sea. Rapid characterization of plankton distributions is essential in the dynamic physical environment, where biological and physical patterns can change quickly. Such a “sample-and-observe” capability is necessary for mapping ephemeral features (such as patches, eddies, jets, plumes) and determining appropriate locations to conduct more localized sampling, including in situ observational studies. We describe the techniques used in imaging the plankton, analyzing the video, and visualizing the data. We present an example of at-sea data analysis conducted aboard R.V. Columbus Iselin on Georges Bank in May 1994 and visualizations of the 3-dimensional distribution of selected planktonic taxa in a 2 × 2 km × 90 m volume of seawater. A video of the image processing and visualization is included on the CD-ROM accompanying this volume and is an essential part of this paper.     

140kaBP以来南海西南部上升流影响区沉积记录及其古海洋环境变化

对南海西南部现代上升流区沉积物柱样BIS-187-61孔有机碳、生物蛋白石、碳酸盐等各沉积组分进行了详细的分析,试图探讨末次间冰期(MIS 5)以来南海西南部夏季上升流影响区沉积过程及其所反映的海洋环境变化过程。研究结果发现,140kaBP以来该孔沉积记录期总体表现为:碳酸盐百分含量冰期低间冰期高,主要受周边陆源物质输入稀释的控制,为典型的"大西洋型碳酸盐旋回",有机碳、生物蛋白石、碳酸钙以及陆源沉积物的堆积速率均在MIS 2期、MIS 4期和MIS 5e期出现高值。其中,MIS 2期和MIS 4期生源和陆源沉积堆积速率增加可能与冰期时冬季风增强及海平面下降导致陆源营养物质输入增加对初级生产力的刺激有关,也可能与陆源物质输入增加对海洋生源颗粒物输出的压载作用增强有关。而MIS 5e期南海海平面高度与现代相仿,间冰期较强的夏季风引起的越南沿岸上升流增强是导致该时段本研究区域表层初级生产力增强,沉积物总堆积速率及各组分堆积速率都相应增加的主要原因。     

Unit pockmarks associated with Lophelia coral reefs off mid-Norway: more evidence of control by ‘fertilizing’ bottom currents

High-resolution topographic mapping of Norwegian deep-water Lophelia coral reefs and their immediate surrounding seafloor has disclosed striking associations with small (<5?m diameter) ‘unit’ pockmarks. A total of four study areas with Lophelia reefs and unit pockmarks are here described and discussed. At the large Fauna reef, which spans 500?m in length and 100?m in width (25?m in height), there is a field of 184 unit pockmarks occurring on its suspected upstream side. Three other, intermediate-sized Morvin reefs are associated with small fields of unit pockmarks situated upstream of live Lophelia colonies. For two of the latter locations, published data exist for geochemical and microbial analyses of sediment and water samples. Results indicate that these unit pockmarks are sources of light dissolved hydrocarbons for the local water mass, together with nutrient-rich pore waters. It is suggested that the ‘fertilized’ seawater flows with the prevailing bottom current and feeds directly into the live portion of the Lophelia reefs. With an estimated growth rate of ~1?cm per year for the Morvin Lophelia corals, it would take between 1,000 and 2,000?years for the reefs to colonize the closest unit pockmarks, currently occurring 10–20?m from their leading (live) edges.     

Ex situ cultivation of Aplysinaaerophoba close to in situ conditions: ecological, biochemical and histological aspects

Sponges provide the largest number of biologically active natural products known from the marine environment and continue to be a very well studied phylum of marine fauna. The Mediterranean sponge Aplysina aerophoba accumulates brominated isoxazoline alkaloids such as Aplysinamisin-1, Aerophobin-2, Isofistularin-3 and the biotransformation product Aeroplysinin-1, which possesses, for example, antibiotic and cytotoxic properties. Until now, it is still being discussed which organisms – the sponge itself or associated microorganisms – are responsible for metabolite production. For cultivating Aplysina individuals under ex situ conditions, we surveyed relevant ecological factors in situ and controlled them in our aquarium system. We maintained A. aerophoba for more than 9 months and analysed changes of metabolite content and composition, microbial association as well as morphology in situ and ex situ under different light exposure. Although sponges showed slight reduction during maintenance, ex situ cultivation similar to in situ conditions provides a promising method to keep sponges and obtain their bioactive metabolites.     

Explicit stress–strain equations for modeling frictional materials

In this paper, a comprehensive study on simulating the shearing behavior of frictional materials is performed. A set of two explicit equations, describing the relationship among the shear stress ratio and the distortional strain and the volumetric strain, are formulated independently. The equations contain three stress parameters and three strain parameters and another parameter representing the nonuniformity of stress and strain during softening. All the parameters have clear physical significance and can be determined experimentally. It is demonstrated that the proposed equations have the capacity of simulating the complicated shearing behavior of many types of frictional materials including geomaterials. The proposed equations are used to simulate the stress–strain behavior for 27 frictional materials with 98 tests. These materials include soft and stiff clays in both reconstituted and structured states, silicon sands and calcareous sands, silts, compacted fill materials, volcanic soils, decomposed granite soils, cemented soils (both artificially and naturally cemented), partially saturated soils, ballast, rocks, reinforced soils, tire chips, sugar, wheat, and rapeseed. It has been demonstrated that the proposed explicit constitutive equations have the capacity to capture accurately the shearing behavior of frictional materials both qualitatively and quantitatively. A study on model parameters has been performed.