The ecophysiology of Phaeocystis globosa: A review

A straightforward ecophysiological characterization of Phaeocystis globosa is hampered by its complex polymorphic life cycle in whic flagellates and colonial cells express different physiological and morphological properties. There is also increasing evidence that, besides the existence of different species, the most widespread species Phaeocystis globosa (Scherffel) has to be subdivided into at least five different ecotypes which again differ in their ecophysiological properties. Most research has been performed on the P. globosa ecotype North European (English Channel/ North Sea isolates). From the available literature it must be concluded that flagellate cells are better competitors for light and phosphate than colonial cells, due to their superior uptake characteristics. To a limited extent this phenomenon is compensated in colonial cells by their ability to continue growth and cell division in the dark at the same rate as in the light, at the expense of extracellular colonial mucus. In contrast with other algal species, colonial cells of P. globosa are better competitors for nitrogen than for phosphorus.Flagellates transform into vegetative cells and form colonies in environments with irradiance levels of about 50 μE·m⁻²·s⁻¹ or more and an optimum phosphate concentration of 1 μM. A solid substrate and the presence of calcium are prerequisites for colony formation. In environments where phosphorus is limiting no new colonies are formed. There is some evidence that nitrate stimulates colony formation, whereas high ammonium values (above 1 μM) tend to suppress colony formation. Massive blooms of P. globosa colonies can be attributed to a combination of environmental conditions that induce colony formation and smaller grazing losses of colonial cells than of flagellates, rather than to superior ecophysiological characteristics of colonial cells.     

The role of shear and tensile failure in dynamically triggered landslides

Dynamic stresses generated by earthquakes can trigger landslides. Current methods of landslide analysis such as pseudo-static analysis and Newmark's method focus on the effects of earthquake accelerations on the landslide mass to characterize dynamic landslide behaviour. One limitation of these methods is their use Mohr–Coulomb failure criteria, which only accounts for shear failure, but the role of tensile failure is not accounted for. We develop a limit-equilibrium model to investigate the dynamic stresses generated by a given ground motion due to a plane wave and use this model to assess the role of shear and tensile failure in the initiation of slope instability. We do so by incorporating a modified Griffith failure envelope, which combines shear and tensile failure into a single criterion. Tests of dynamic stresses in both homogeneous and layered slopes demonstrate that two modes of failure exist, tensile failure in the uppermost meters of a slope and shear failure at greater depth. Further, we derive equations that express the dynamic stress in the near-surface in the acceleration measured at the surface. These equations are used to approximately define the depth range for each mechanism of failure. The depths at which these failure mechanisms occur suggest that shear and tensile failure might collaborate in generating slope failure.     

Seismic and electromagnetic controlled-source interferometry in dissipative media

Seismic interferometry deals with the generation of new seismic responses by crosscorrelating existing ones. One of the main assumptions underlying most interferometry methods is that the medium is lossless. We develop an ‘interferometry‐by‐deconvolution’ approach which circumvents this assumption. The proposed method applies not only to seismic waves, but to any type of diffusion and/or wave field in a dissipative medium. This opens the way to applying interferometry to controlled‐source electromagnetic (CSEM) data. Interferometry‐by‐deconvolution replaces the overburden by a homogeneous half space, thereby solving the shallow sea problem for CSEM applications. We demonstrate this at the hand of numerically modeled CSEM data.     

Equipartitioning is not sufficient for Green's function extraction

The extraction of the Earth's Green's function from field fluctuations is a rapidly growing area of research.The principle of Green's function extraction is often related to the requirement of equipartitioning,which stipulates that the energy of field fluctuations is distributed evenly in some sense.We show the meaning of equipartitioning for a variety of different formulations for Green's function retrieval.We show that equipartitioning is not a sufficient condition,and provide several examples that illustrate this point.We discuss the implications of lack of equipartitioning for various schemes for the reconstruction of the Green's function in seismology.The theory for Green's function extraction is usually based on a statistical theory that relies on ensemble averages.Since there is only one Earth,one usually replaces the ensemble average with a time average.We show that such a replacement only makes sense when attenuation is taken into account,and show how the theory for Green's function extraction for oscillating systems can be extended to incorporate attenuation.