The State of the Adriatic Sea Centered on the Small Pelagic Fish Populations

Abstract. The paper provides an overview of the state of the small pelagic fish in the Adriatic Sea. The North Adriatic is reviewed for the 1976–1998 period and the South Adriatic for the 1987–1998 period. First the fluctuations in time and in space of the pelagic biomass, as a whole and per species, are presented. Then the dramatic collapse of anchovy stock and its apparent association with the decrease of surface temperature is discussed. Finally the changes of the anchovy and sardine catches are compared and analysed with respect to their abundances in the sea. The conclusion is that acoustic and satellite methods are able to provide a large amount of information on the variability in the pelagic populations; this is essential for an appropriate management of these resources. There is still a need, however, to refine the methods and to integrate this kind of information with further environmental data (including natural predators).     

A First Generation Stochastic Bioeconomic Analysis of Algal Bloom Control in a Coastal Lagoon (Sacca di Goro, Po River Delta)

Abstract. In this work we have developed a very simple stochastic mathematical model of Ulva spp. growth to quantitatively evaluate the economic costs of algal harvesting and the related benefits in terms of avoided'economic loss'of clam production due to an effective prevention of algal blooms and the consequent anoxic crises. Algal growth was simulated by means of a discrete time difference equation of Ulva biomass where the finite growth rate depends only upon water temperature. In order to explicitly include environmental variability, a seasonal autoregressive model calibrated on available data was used to simulate water temperature. Different harvesting scenarios were analysed in terms of the number of harvesting vessels employed and the threshold biomass of Ulva at which vessels start to operate. Costs of algal harvesting and disposal, as well as monetary damages resulting from the collapse of clam production as a consequence of algal blooms, were assessed by interviewing the managers of the Clam Fishermen's Union of Goro. A Monte Carlo approach was used to estimate the mean and total statistical distribution of costs and benefits of different harvesting strategies. Our analysis shows that the most cost-effective management policy is attained with 4–6 vessels operating at low algal density able to harvest as much Ulva as possible with intensive and short interventions at the beginning of the seasonal growth.     

缢蛏滤除率与颗粒选择性的实验研究

利用4种不同大小的单细胞藻类作为饵料研究缢蛏（Sinonovacula constricta）的滤除率以及缢蛏对不同大小料颗粒的选择性。实验结果表明：3种规格缢蛏对4种单细胞藻类的滤除率表现出相同的变化规律，即随藻类规格的增大，缢蛏的滤除率亦逐渐变大，并且大规格缢蛏的滤除率变化最显著；在饵料颗粒选择性的实验中，小规格缢蛏对大规格（ESD＝8.83），藻类具有较高的选择性，中规格缢蛏对藻类的选择性不明显，而大规格缢蛏则对小规格（ESD＝4.46）藻类具较高的选择性。     

台湾岛以东A-24C及A-50C岩芯中的放射虫化石与沉积环境

根据对台湾岛以东海域A-24C,A-50C岩芯中放射虫化石的分析结果,并借助WP3岩芯有孔虫,δ^18O曲线分析,测试资料,对两岩芯地层作了对比与划分,结果显示：两岩芯的上部（A-24C为0～30cm,A-50C为0～35cm）属全新世沉积;下部（A-24C为30～234cm,A-50C为35～163cm）属晚期更新世沉积。 两岩芯中放射虫丰度、分异度的变化与黑潮主流线的摆动密度相关。末次冰期时的低海面导致黑潮主流线移至研究区（125℃E）以东,放射虫丰度,分异度出现低值,有的层位出现零值,而随着海面回升,黑潮逐渐移至现在的位置,放射虫的丰度,分异度出现高值,另外综合该区分析资料,推算两岩芯的平均沉积速率为A-24C岩芯全新世3cm,晚期更新世12.6cm,A-50C岩芯全新世2.9cm,晚更新世12.4cm,晚期更新世沉积速率均大于全新世。     

Note on solar hard X-ray bursts

Observationally solar X bursts fall into three different categories : soft X bursts (E < 10 keV), deka-keV bursts (10–150 keV), and very hard X bursts or deci-MeV bursts (200–1000 keV). The first kind is quasi-thermal, the last kind is non-thermal. The real existence of the third kind of burst looks probable but has not yet been proved by direct observations. The difference between deci-MeV and deka-keV bursts may mainly be a matter of geometry of the emitting plasma.     

Observability of the virialization phase of spheroidal galaxies with radio arrays

In the standard galaxy formation scenario plasma clouds with a high thermal energy content must exist at high redshifts since the protogalactic gas is shock heated to the virial temperature, and extensive cooling, leading to efficient star formation, must await the collapse of massive haloes (as indicated by the massive body of evidence, referred to as downsizing ). Massive plasma clouds are potentially observable through the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effects and their free–free emission. We find that the detection of substantial numbers of galaxy-scale thermal Sunyaev–Zel'dovich signals is achievable by blind surveys with next generation radio telescope arrays such as EVLA, ALMA and SKA. This population is even detectable with the 10 per cent SKA, and wide field of view options at high frequency on any of these arrays would greatly increase survey speed. An analysis of confusion effects and of the contamination by radio and dust emissions shows that the optimal frequencies are those in the range 10–35 GHz. Predictions for the redshift distributions of detected sources are also worked out.     

TIME-DISTANCE HELIOSEISMOLOGY WITH THE MDI INSTRUMENT: INITIAL RESULTS

In time-distance helioseismology, the travel time of acoustic waves is measured between various points on the solar surface. To some approximation, the waves can be considered to follow ray paths that depend only on a mean solar model, with the curvature of the ray paths being caused by the increasing sound speed with depth below the surface. The travel time is affected by various inhomogeneities along the ray path, including flows, temperature inhomogeneities, and magnetic fields. By measuring a large number of times between different locations and using an inversion method, it is possible to construct 3-dimensional maps of the subsurface inhomogeneities. The SOI/MDI experiment on SOHO has several unique capabilities for time-distance helioseismology. The great stability of the images observed without benefit of an intervening atmosphere is quite striking. It has made it possible for us to detect the travel time for separations of points as small as 2.4 Mm in the high-resolution mode of MDI (0.6 arc sec pixel^-1). This has enabled the detection of the supergranulation flow. Coupled with the inversion technique, we can now study the 3-dimensional evolution of the flows near the solar surface.     

MegaZ-LRG: a photometric redshift catalogue of one million SDSS luminous red galaxies

We describe the construction of MegaZ-LRG, a photometric redshift catalogue of over one million luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the redshift range  0.4 < z < 0.7  with limiting magnitude   i < 20  . The catalogue is selected from the imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 4. The 2dF-SDSS LRG and Quasar (2SLAQ) spectroscopic redshift catalogue of 13 000 intermediate-redshift LRGs provides a photometric redshift training set, allowing use of ann z, a neural network-based photometric-redshift estimator. The rms photometric redshift accuracy obtained for an evaluation set selected from the 2SLAQ sample is  σ _z = 0.049  averaged over all galaxies, and  σ _z = 0.040  for a brighter subsample  ( i < 19.0)  . The catalogue is expected to contain ∼5 per cent stellar contamination. The ann z code is used to compute a refined star/galaxy probability based on a range of photometric parameters; this allows the contamination fraction to be reduced to 2 per cent with negligible loss of genuine galaxies. The MegaZ-LRG catalogue is publicly available on the World Wide Web from http://www.2slaq.info .     

太平洋中部多金属结核稀土元素地球化学

用“海洋四号“调查船于１９８６－１９８８年在太平洋中部进行了３个航次调查，对所取样品运用仪器中子活化方法进行了ＲＥＥ分析。结果表明：多金属结核作为一种特殊类型的深海沉积物，特别富含ＲＥＥ。太平洋中部多金属结核大多具有Ｃｅ正异常。海山结壳ΣＲＥＥ最高，早期成岩型结核最低，水成型结核介于二者之间。早期成岩型结核Ｃｅ的正异常明显弱于水成型结核，甚至出现Ｃｅ的负异常。海山、丘陵区结核的ΣＲＥＥ高于平原、凹