The STRATAGEM project: Stratigraphic development of the glaciated European margin

The EC-funded STRATAGEM project ran from 2000 to 2003 and was a study of the Neogene evolution of the glaciated northeast Atlantic margin from Lofoten to Porcupine, an area extending over nearly 20 degrees of latitude. An extensive seismic, borehole and sample database has been used, much of it supplied by the oil industry. The main products of STRATAGEM have been an integrated, unified stratigraphic framework in the form of an atlas documenting and illustrating the detailed stratigraphy of the entire margin, and a detailed evolution model for this margin. A brief summary of the background to, and organisation of, the project is presented, together with an outline of the main objectives, the physiographic setting of the area and the database.     

Simulation of Hydrophysical Processes in Coastal Regions of the Sea

In the present work, we generalize the results of our investigations in the field of simulation of hydrophysical and ecological processes in coastal regions of various seas and some closed basins. The developed and applied mathematical models and the results of numerical experiments are briefly analyzed.     

Salt Diapirs, Salt Brine Seeps, Pockmarks and Surficial Sediment Creep and Slides in the Canary Channel off NW Africa

Circular to elliptical mounds in the Canary Channel with reliefs of 75 to 375 m and diameters of 4 to 8 km partially surrounded by moats with reliefs of 25 to 75 m, were formed by piercement of the seafloor by Mesozoic evaporites. Several long gullies, < 1km wide, with abrupt terminations and pockmarks associated with these mounds were probably eroded by dense brine and hydrocarbon seeps. The salt brines that eroded the gullies were formed where salt diapirs intersect the seafloor, or in the subsurface by circulating ground water heated by igneous activity along the Canary Ridge. If the brines originated in the subsurface they reached the seafloor along faults. Displacement of the surficial sediments by sliding and creep is probably the result of the expulsion of hydrocarbons and/or vertical motion of the Mesozoic evaporites. Microtopographic features along or near the east flank of the Canary Ridge are the creation of uplift of the ridge, hydrothermal activity, mass wasting processes and turbidity currents.     

Imposex still evident in eastern Australia 10 years after tributyltin restrictions

A survey of imposex in Thais orbita (Neogastropoda) along the New South Wales (NSW) coast, Australia, found imposex was still widespread 10 years after a partial ban on tributyltin (TBT) based antifouling paints. Transplant experiments also revealed that imposex was induced in T. orbita over a period of 9 weeks in Sydney Harbour, NSW. A comparison of the imposex data with that collected shortly after the introduction of restrictions on TBT revealed a general decline in imposex frequency occurring at open coast sites, an exception being the site at South West Rocks. Sites located within harbour/bay areas did not display a decline in imposex frequency but a decline in the severity of imposex was apparent. The observed decrease in imposex values in T. orbita may reflect a general decrease of butyltin contamination within the coastal environment. However, the persistence of contamination "hotspots" within harbours and bays remains a concern.     

Phototoxicity of pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene to embryo-larval stages of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pose a greater hazard to aquatic organisms than previously demonstrated, due to their potential to cause photo-induced toxicity when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The consequences of photo-induced toxicity are reported here for embryo-larval stages of the pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, following exposure to pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene. During laboratory investigations, significant increases in toxicity were observed in the presence of environmentally attainable levels of UV-radiation, compared with embryos exposed to PAH alone, at levels previously deemed to have little acute biological effect. The phototoxicity of pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene completely inhibited the development to the D-shell larval stage when embryos were simultaneously exposed to 5 microg l(-1) PAH and ultraviolet light (UVB = 6.3 +/- 0.1 microW/cm2 and UVA = 456.2 +/- 55 microW/cm2). A linear relationship was also demonstrated for benzo[a]pyrene phototoxicity with decreasing UV light intensity.     

Uncertainty in predictions of oil spill trajectories in open sea

A method is introduced to calculate and to account for the uncertainties in the predictions of oil spill trajectories using a classic oil spill model. The method considers the output of the oil spill model as a function of random variables, which are the input parameters, and calculates the standard deviation of the output results which gives a measure of the uncertainty of the model given the uncertainties of the input parameters.Instead of a single trajectory that is calculated by the oil spill model using the mean values of the parameters, a band of trajectories can be defined when various simulations are done taking into account the uncertainties of the input parameters. This band of trajectories defines envelopes of the trajectories that are likely to be followed by the spill given the uncertainties of the input.The method is applied to an oil spill that occurred in open sea near Madeira Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, in December 1989. The simulations allow the understanding of how a change in the wind direction drove the spill towards the Islands.The envelope of likely trajectories that is obtained with the uncertainty modelling shows a band of trajectories that is in better agreement with the observations than the single trajectory simulated by the oil spill model, based on mean parameters.     

Reconstruction of sea surface dimethylsulfide in the North Pacific during 1970s to 2000s

We proposed an empirical equation of sea surface dimethylsulfide (DMS, nM) using sea surface temperature (SST, K), sea surface nitrate (SSN, μM) and latitude (L, °N) to reconstruct the sea surface flux of DMS over the North Pacific between 25°N and 55°N: ln DMS = 0.06346 · SST − 0.1210 · SSN − 14.11 · cos(L) − 6.278 (R² = 0.63, p < 0.0001). Applying our algorithm to climatological hydrographic data in the North Pacific, we reconstructed the climatological distributions of DMS and its flux between 25 °N and 55 °N. DMS generally increased eastward and northward, and DMS in the northeastern region became to 2–5 times as large as that in the southwestern region. DMS in the later half of the year was 2–4 times as large as that in the first half of the year. Moreover, applying our algorithm to hydrographic time series datasets in the western North Pacific from 1971 to 2000, we found that DMS in the last three decades has shown linear increasing trends of 0.03 ± 0.01 nM year^− 1 in the subpolar region, and 0.01 ± 0.001 nM year^− 1 in the subtropical region, indicating that the annual flux of DMS from sea to air has increased by 1.9–4.8 μmol m^− 2 year^− 1. The linear increase was consistent with the annual rate of increase of 1% of the climatological averaged flux in the western North Pacific in the last three decades.     

Temperature fluctuations in the atmospheric surface layer over the thermally inhomogeneous underlying surface

The influence of both spatial and temporal temperature inhomogeneities of the underlying surface on the temperature field in an unstably stratified atmospheric surface layer is considered. The methods of correlation and spectral analyses are proposed to estimate statistical characteristics of surface-air temperature fluctuations caused by both turbulent mixing and inhomogeneities in the temperature of the underlying surface. Analysis of experimental data obtained from measurements in the atmospheric surface layer yields estimates for the contribution made by the time-dependent thermal properties of the underlying surface to the total variance of air-temperature fluctuations. It is shown that the additional air-temperature fluctuations generated by surface-temperature inhomogeneities and unrelated to shear flow may reach 70% and 30% of the total variance of measured fluctuations under variable cloudiness and clear skies, respectively. For the height z = 2 m within the wave-number range 2 × 10^?3 rad m^?1 < k < 0.1 rad m^?1, the contribution made by a spatial surface-temperature inhomogeneity to the variance of air-temperature fluctuations does not exceed 10% of the total variance. Correlation and spectral analyses of experimental data make it possible to isolate the spectra of properly turbulent fluctuations from the measured fluctuations and thus to obtain more accurate values of the universal function of similarity theory for temperature in the range of small wave numbers beyond the inertial range.     

Thermohydrodynamics of the ocean decay of nonlinear oscillations in a bounded basin of variable depth

We study the time decay of surges of a liquid in a round shallow-water basin of variable depth. The dependence of the logarithmic decrement of oscillations on the bottom topography and wind velocity is analyzed. The role of convective acceleration and bottom friction in the formation of both the level of vertical displacement of the surface of the basin and the velocity field of horizontal wave currents is estimated. __________ Translated from Morskoi Gidrofizicheskii Zhurnal, No. 2, pp. 3–11, March–April, 2006.