Plankton dynamics and carbon flux in an area of upwelling off the coast of Morocco

A carbon flux study was carried out off the coast of Morocco, at 31°N, in a region characterized by the presence of a persistent cyclonic eddy. Two short-term (4 and 3 day) deployments of free-floating sediment traps were combined with water column sampling and rate process measurements as the ship followed the traps. For a period of 36 h between trap deployments, a hydrographic section was run along 31°30'N as part of a larger scale survey being carried out simultaneously on the R.V. A. von Humboldt. The first trap deployment was near the eastern margin of the eddy and the traps moved to the north and west in a frontal jet associated with its northern boundary. After the second deployment, which was at the recovery point of the first, the traps moved to the west and then to the southwest. Throughout the study, chlorophyll concentrations varied between 27 and 125 mg m⁻² (0–100 m), with highest concentrations in the upwelled water nearest the coast and in upwelled water generated within the cyclonic eddy. Particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) concentrations were relatively uniform (13.6±1.8 and 1.63±28 g m⁻² with phytoplankton carbon accounting for 16–85% of total POC. Bacterial carbon was 5% of total POC and mesozooplankton carbon concentrations were equivalent to 9% of total POC. Microzooplankton biomass was not assessed but POC:PON ratios in the water column were often high, suggesting there was sometimes a large detrital component in the POC. Primary production rates varied between 1.0 and 2.5 g C m⁻² day⁻¹. Bacterial consumption accounted for 50% of primary production. Metabolic rates suggested that copepods were ingesting more than 0.4 g C m⁻² day⁻¹. while filtration rates suggested that ingestion of phytoplankton carbon was only 0.2 g C m⁻²day⁻¹, even when phytoplankton constituted 85% of the POC. f-ratios (based on uptake rates for ¹⁵N-nitrate and ammonia) were between 0.1 and 0.4, and excretion by mesozooplankton could account for 40% of the daily ammonium uptake by phytoplankton. HPLC pigment analysis showed that when chlorophyll biomass was high, diatoms were dominant, whereas when it was low, small prymnesiophytes, chlorophytes and diatoms were all important. The composition of the fluoresecent pigments in material in the sediment traps indicated that intact phytoplankton and copepod faecal pellets were the main sources but the relative rates of sedimentation of pigment, POC and PON for the two trapping periods did not reflect differences that were observed in the overlying water column. This was likely to be the result of spatial heterogeneity and strong horizontal currents heterogeneity and strong horizontal currents within the euphotic zone. Thus, material collected at 100 m probably did not originate in the water column immediately overlying the traps and trapping efficiencies might also have been variable.     

Effects of an anisotropic overburden on azimuthal amplitude analysis in horizontal transverse isotropic media

Azimuthal amplitude variation in fractured media, commonly used to characterize fracture systems, is a function not only of reflection at the target but also of transmission through the overburden. This study investigates the sensitivity of amplitudes to various anisotropic overburden effects in horizontal transverse isotropic (HTI) media. Issues considered here are geometric spreading, transmission coefficients and attenuation due to fluid flow. Their influence on the azimuthal amplitude variation is evaluated quantitatively over a wide model space.
Only the variation of transmission coefficients with azimuth proves to be negligible. Geometric spreading alters the amplitude signature significantly over a relatively narrow range of models, and its influence increases with layer thickness. The most severe effect of an anisotropic fractured overburden is attenuation due to fluid flow between the cracks or the cracks and pores in the surrounding matrix. The relative changes in amplitudes between the symmetry directions due to anisotropic absorption are of the same order of magnitude as the changes in the reflection coefficient. The effect is significant over a very wide range of petrophysical parameters. Thus it leads to considerable problems in the amplitude analysis for almost any case of an overburden that contains cracks and pores. A correct amplitude analysis at the target will not be possible unless the effect of attenuation is removed.     

Regional application of a fish yield estimation procedure to lakes in north-east Germany

Primary production and total phosphorus, respectively, have recently been used as the main variables to estimate the fish yield potential of lakes. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimation procedure for regional applications, two major adaptations were implemented. Both the relations between total phosphorus and primary production as well as primary production and corresponding fish yield potential were adjusted to specific regional conditions in north-east Germany and production patterns in shallow lakes, respectively. Applied to 786 lakes, the adapted procedure led to estimated fish yield potentials in the range of 8 … 67 kg/ha · a with shallow lakes showing significantly higher potentials than stratified ones. A comparison of estimated yield potentials with current yield statistics revealed an improved conformity of estimates attained by using the adapted procedure.     

Fracture characterization from walkaround VSPs

A walkaround VSP is a novel acquisition geometry comprising multiple sources azimuthally distributed around a fixed multi-component receiver at approximately the same offset. Such a configuration allows the robust measurement of fracture-induced anisotropy by the analysis of certain seismic attributes with respect to azimuth.     

The effects of a variation of the radial viscosity profile on mantle evolution

The present paper describes a set of numerical experiments on the mantle's thermal evolution with an infinite Prandtl number fluid in a compressible spherical shell heated mainly from within. We used the anelastic liquid approximation with Earth-like material parameters. The usual variable-viscosity approach in mantle-convection models is the assumption of a temperature dependence only. The resulting thermal boundary layers are included in our model also, but an additional viscosity profile of the interior mantle was derived: The Birch–Murnaghan equation was employed to derive the Grüneisen parameter and other physical quantities as a function of depth from observational values provided by PREM. We computed the melting temperature and a new mantle viscosity profile, called eta3, using the Grüneisen parameter, Lindemann's law and some solid-state physics considerations. The new features of eta3 are a high-viscosity transition layer with rather high viscosity gradients at its boundaries, a second low-viscosity layer beginning under the 660-km discontinuity, and a strong viscosity increase in the central parts of the lower mantle. The rheology is Newtonian but it is supplemented by a viscoplastic yield stress, σ_y. A viscosity-level parameter, r_n, and σ_y have been varied. For a medium-sized Rayleigh-number–yield-stress area, eta3 generates a stable, plate-tectonic behavior near the surface and simultaneously thin sheet-like downwellings in the depth. Outside this area, three other types of solution were found. Not only the planforms but also the evolution of the Rayleigh number, the reciprocal Urey number, the Nusselt number, the surface heat flow, etc., have been studied. We repeated this investigation with two very different basic viscosity profiles, etaKL5a and etaKM, of other authors. A comparison reveals that eta3 facilitates the generation of surface plates and thin sheet-like downwellings in the depth considerably more than etaKL5a or even etaKM. The presence of two internal low-viscosity layers is obviously conducive for plateness and thin sheet-like downwellings. For an infinite yield stress, the thin cold sheet-like downwellings are reticularly connected. However, the distribution of the downwellings is more Earth-like if a realistic yield stress is added.