Factors governing abundance of hydrolyzable amino acids in the sediments from the N.W. European Continental Margin (47–50°N)

Fifty-six samples representing 6 sediment cores taken along the N.W. European Continental Margin from the shelf, slope and abyssal plain of the Goban Spur and Meriadzek Terrace were quantitatively analysed for total hydrolyzable amino acids (THAA) and clay minerals. In descending order, the five most abundant amino acids making up more than 70% of the total were: aspartic acid, glycine, serine, alanine and glutamic acid. Clay mineral proportions were typical for the N.E. Atlantic, in order of descending abundance: illite, kaolinite, chlorite, smectite and mixed layers.The Meriadzek Terrace area is characterised by fine grain suspension sedimentation with a low pelagic carbonate input and the lowest content of THAA. In contrast, the Goban Spur transect is characterised by much higher carbonate inputs and more vigorous hydrodynamics as judged from granulometry and the high abundance of minerals of shelf and continental origin and a generally higher THAA content. The pelagic portion of THAA deposited at the sea floor is more readily mineralised during early diagenesis than the more ‘refractory', clay mineral-associated continental portion. Along this margin the average mineralization of THAA down to 25 cm in the sediment is about 54%. There is a significant affinity between chlorites and amino acids which we suggest may involve the formation of ionic bonds between the octahedral layers of the clay and the amino acids.     

Production of methyl bromide and methyl chloride in laboratory cultures of marine phytoplankton II

Methyl halides (monohalomethanes), especially methyl bromide, are known to contribute significantly to ozone destruction in the stratosphere. Budgets of natural and anthropogenic methyl bromide suggest that marine organisms may be the source of a significant proportion of the total global production. Since phytoplankton are abundant in surface waters, they are obvious candidates. Cultures of nine phytoplankton species were grown in CO₂-enriched, nitrate-limited medium in sealed glass vessels. Species tested include Chaetoceros calcitrans, Isochrysis sp., Porphyridium sp., Synechococcus sp., Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Tetraselmis sp., Prorocentrum sp., Emiliania huxleyi and Phaeocystis sp. Methyl bromide (CH₃Br) and methyl chloride (CH₃Cl) concentrations were determined by bubbling the cultures with high-purity air, cryotrapping the effluent and analyzing it on a gas chromatograph with an electron capture detector. The Phaeocystis sp. samples were monitored with GCMS. Cell population, bacterial population, Chl a, pH, and nitrate concentration were monitored for periods of at least two weeks. CH₃Cl was produced by all cultures. CH₃Br was absent in Tetraselmis sp. and Isochrysis sp. cultures, but present in all the others. Methyl iodide (CH₃I) was present in most cultures but could not be quantified due to analytical limitations. CH₃I and CH₃Br production was fastest in stationary phase and continued long after cell division had ceased. Axeic cultures of Phaeocystis sp. achieved almost identical production rates of CH₃Cl and CH₃Br as xenic cultures of the same species. Species from tropical waters had faster CH₃Cl and CH₃Br production rates than temperate species. Scaling the observed production rates using global standing stock estimates for Chl a and particulate nitrogen indicate that phytoplankton can account for only a fraction of the CH₃Cl and CH₃Br believed to be produced in the ocean. Calculations based on the estimated global biomass of Phaeocystis sp. and E. huxleyi blooms show that their contribution is insignificantly small.     

Responses of marine phytoplankton in iron enrichment experiments in the northern North Sea and northeast Atlantic Ocean

Short-term iron enrichment experiments were carried out with samples collected in areas with different phytoplankton activity in the northern North Sea and northeast Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1993. The research area was dominated by high numbers of pico-phytoplankton, up to 70,000 ml⁻¹. Maximum chlorophyll a concentrations varied from about 1.0 μg l⁻¹ in a high-reflectance zone (caused by loose coccoliths, remnants from a bloom of Emiliania huxleyi) and about 3.5 μg l⁻¹ in a zone in which the phytoplankton were growing, to about 0.5 μg l⁻¹ in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. From the high-reflectance zone to the northeast Atlantic Ocean, nitrate concentrations increased from 0.5 μM to 6.0 μM. Concentrations of reactive iron in surface water showed an opposite trend and decreased from about 2.6 nM in the high-reflectance zone to <1.0 nM in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. In the research area, no signs of true iron deficiency were found, but iron enrichments in the high-reflectance zone, numerically dominated by Synechococcus sp., resulted in increased nitrate uptake. Ammonium uptake was hardly affected. Strong support for the effect of Fe on cell physiology is given by the increase in the f-ratio. Net growth rates of the phytoplankton (changes in cell numbers over 24 h) were almost unchanged. Phytoplankton collected from the northeast Atlantic Ocean, did not show changes in the nitrogen metabolism upon addition of iron. Net growth rates in these incubations were low or negative, with only slightly higher values with additional iron.     

In situ velocity profiles in gassy sediments: Kiel Bay

Acoustic behavior of gas-bearing sediments is significantly different from that of gas-free sediments. In situ velocity profiles and acoustic signal characteristics in gas-bearing sediments of the upper several meters of the sea floor in Kiel Bay are presented in this study. Observed velocities in gas-bearing sediments are both higher and lower than those of the gas-free sediments. Small amounts of gas appear to cause signal reverberation without much attenuation. whereas large amounts of gas cause substantial attenuation.     

An iterative method for boundary element solution of large offshore structures using the GMRES solver

The GMRES approach is used to solve complex matrix solution arising from boundary element analysis of large offshore structures. This makes it possible to solve problems with large numbers of panels on a workstation with a much smaller memory than typical high performance computers. The speed of the solver is compatible with direct solvers when the enough RAM is available. Otherwise, an iteration procedure can be used. By using an out-of-core treatment, typical RAM requirement is reduced to a size approximately linearly proportional to the panel number n instead of being proportional to n². The code is first verified with direct solver for cases with small number of panels. The applicability to large offshore structure of the model is demonstrated for a TLP case.     

The abyssal bounty fan and lower Bounty Channel: evolution of a rifted-margin sedimentary system

The Bounty Channel and Fan system provides the basis for a model for deep-sea channel and fan development in a rifted continental margin setting. The sedimentary system results from an interplay between tectonics (fan location; sediment source), turbidity currents (sediment supply), geostrophic currents (sediment reworking and distribution) and climate (sea level, and hence sediment supply and type). Today, sediment is shed from the collisional Southern Alps, part of the Pacific/Indo-Australian plate margin, and passes east across the adjacent shelf and into the Otago Fan complex at the head of the Bounty Trough. Paths of sediment supply, and locations of sediment deposition, are controlled by the bathymetry of the Bounty Trough, with axial slopes as high as 37 m/km (2°) towards the trough head, diminishing to around 3.5 m/km (0.2°) along the trough axis. The Bounty Fan is located 800 km further east, where the Bounty Channel debouches onto abyssal oceanic crust at the mouth of the Bounty Trough. The Bounty Fan comprises a basement controlled fan-channel complex with high leveed banks exhibiting fields of mud waves, and a northward-elongated middle fan. Channel-axis gradients diminish from 6 m/km (0.35°) or more on the upper fan to less than 1 m/km (<0.06°) on the lower fan. Parts of the left bank levee and almost the entire middle fan are being eroded and re-entrained within a Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC), which passes along the eastern New Zealand margin at depths below 2000 m. The DWBC is the prime source of deep, cold water flow into the Pacific Ocean, with a volume of ca. 20 Sv and velocities up to 4 cm/s or greater. The mouth of the Bounty Channel, at a depth of 4950 m at the south end of the middle fan, acts as a point source for an abyssal sediment drift entrained northward under the DWBC at depths below 4300 m. The Bounty Fan probably originated in the early to middle Neogene, but has mostly been built during the last 3 Myr (Plio-Pleistocene), predominantly as climate-controlled sedimentary couplets of terrigenous, micaceous mud (acoustically reflective; glacial) and biopelagic ooze (acoustically transparent; interglacial), deposited under the pervasive influence of the DWBC.     

Surfactant components of marine organic matter as agents for biogeochemical fractionation and pollutant transport via marine aerosols

The role of surfactant organic matter in marine aerosol production has been studied under conditions in which there is a large coverage of whitecaps on the sea surface. To improve the knowledge of matter exchange and pollutant recycling from the sea surface into the atmosphere, a spray drop adsorption model (SDAM) was developed and the validity of the proposed model verified by the following experimental results: (1) an increase of surfactant matter on the sea surface during rough sea conditions (‘surface wave concentration'); (2) an (hyperbolic-like) increase of the enrichment ratio (ER) of surfactant fluorescent organic matter (SFOM), made up predominantly by humic substances (HS), as the particle size decrease; (3) a similar behaviour for elements with pollutant properties, and which are known to interact with HS and other surfactant materials, considered pollution tracers. An additional laboratory experiment, based on the adsorption model conditions, gives enrichment ratio greater than unity for K and Ca. The first results on marine aerosols trapped in marine clouds (at 1000 m above sea level and at 100 km from the coast) seem to further support the proposed model and its ability to predict the transition from saline to almost entirely organic particles for the smaller fractions of marine aerosols. The possible contribution of these particles to the recycling and to the long range transport of pollutants via marine aerosols has been considered.     

Prediction of hydrodynamic forces on submarine pipelines using an improved Wake II Model

The hydrodynamic force model for prediction of forces on submarine pipelines as described includes flow history effect (wake effects) and time dependence in the force coefficients. The wake velocity correction is derived by using a closed-form solution to the linearized Navier–Stokes equations for oscillatory flow. This is achieved by assuming that the eddy viscosity in the wake is only time dependent and of a harmonic sinusoidal form. The forces predicted by the new Wake (Wake II) Model have been compared to Exxon Production Research Company Wake Model in terms of time histories (force shape) and magnitudes of peak forces. Overall, the model predictions by the Wake II Model are satisfactory and represent a substantial improvement over the predictions of the conventional models. The conventional force models representing adaptations of Morison's equation with ambient velocity and constant coefficients give predictions that are in poor agreement with the measurements especially for the lift force component. The Wake II Force Model can be used for submarine pipeline on-bottom stability design calculations for regular waves with various pipe diameters.