Life histories of large,grazing copepods in a subarctic ocean gyre: Neocalanus plumchrus,Neocalanus cristatus, and Eucalanus bungii in the Northeast Pacific

Life histories for the dominant, larger copepods of the subartic Pacific have been constructed by sampling from weatherships patrolling Ocean Station P (50°N, 145°W) during 1980 and 1981. Neocalanus plumchrus reproduced at depths below 250 m from July through February. Copepodite stages were present in surface layers from October through August with a large peak in numbers and biomass in spring. Fifth copepodites prepared for diapuse in 38 days during spring and descended to depths below 250 m. They commenced immediately to mature, and the females reproduced without renewed feeding. This schedule contrasts with that of the population in the Strait of Georgia, which remains in diapause from July to January and matures exclusively in January and February. There appears to be a difference between the coastal and oceanic habitats in preparing the diapausing individuals for maturation.Maturation of the diapausing stock of N. plumchrus maintained constant adult populations, averaging 714 males m^?2 from June through October and 1,434 females m^?2 from August through January. This constancy, together with the exponential pattern of decline in the diapause stock from September through February, suggests that density of adults may regulate maturation of fifth copepodites. Offspring of individuals delaying maturation and, thus, reproduction would benefit from the resulting moderation of intraspecific competition, probably that among copepodites.Reproduction of Neocalanus cristatus also occurred below 250 m, and, while spawning was continuous through the year, there was a substantial peak in November. That resulted in a peak of abundance for early copepodite stages in mid-winter, and a peak for the fifth copepodite stage in June. Stocking of the population of fifth copepodites in diapause below 250 m occurred from July through October. Some fifth copepodites were present in surface layers through the entire summer, and some younger copepodites persisted through the summer in progressively declining abundance just below the mixed layer. In autumn 1980 resurgence of early copepodite populations was rapid, occurring during the course of a prolonged October storm. The storm may have improved the habitat either by cooling the mixed layer or by resupplying nutrients to the euphotic zone.Eucalanus bungii reproduced in the mixed layer in early May and in early July. The first event was a spawning by females that had previously spawned in 1979 and then had returned to diapause. The second, heavier spawning (more females, more eggs per female) was by newly matured females from stocks that had overwintered as fifth copepodites. Nauplii peaked sharply in abundance on 19 July, one week after the peak in spawning. First and second copepodites peaked on 1 August, and all had advanced to the third copepodite stage by September. The diapause stock was established by September, principally between 250 and 500 m, and consisted of copepodite stages from third to sixth. Duration of the E. bungii life cycle appears to be typically two years. New nauplii develop as far as the third or fourth copepodite stage during their first summer, then enter diapause. The second summer they advance to the fifth copepodite stage and reenter diapause. Fifth copepodites mature in their third summer at two years of age. The males remain at depth and mate without subsequent feeding. Females migrate at night to the mixed layer where spawning occurs. About 20% of females that had already spawned in 1980 reentered diapause. They would reproduce again in their fourth summer at three years of age. All aspects of the life cycle suggest low mortality rates for copepodite stages, particularly at depth in the habitat occupied during diapuse. There can be no premium on rapid reproduction for E. bungii in the subartic Pacific, and there must even be benefit from spreading reproduction between years. This iteroparity may amount to a “bet-hedging” tactic, the young from a given mother having more than one chance to find sustaining conditions. It also produces gene flow between the year classes of the biennial life cycle.     

Dilute-acid trace-metal fraction in northeastern Gulf of Mexico sediments

Variations in dilute-acid (partial digest) metal concentrations in bottom sediments from 49 stations on the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida continental margin are investigated with the aid of ordination and other multivariate statistical techniques. Total iron, carbonate content, clay fraction and water depth correlate well with the overall leachable sediment metal values for pooled station replicates over four sampling periods. Individual metal concentrations also are correlated with these and other environmental parameters using stepwise multiple linear regression techniques. A weak positive association between Ba, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and V burdens in the demersal fishSyacium papillosum and the dilute-acid leachable sediment metal TOC and carbonate concentrations is demonstrated.     

Video image selection studies of granules,pores, and penumbral flows near a large sunspot

An excellent high-resolution movie in the green continuum was produced by shift-and-add treatment of two 60-min videotapes obtained at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. We have studied the digitized images by direct measurement, cross-correlation techniques, and correlation tracking. The seeing-limited resolution was about 0.3 arc sec.While the cross-correlation lifetime for granules is about five minutes, we find that actually tracking the growth and decay of a granule gives lifetimes from 10 to 22 minutes, the longest lifetimes pertaining to the largest granules. The longer lifetime comes from tracking the granule while it undergoes large changes in size and shape, while the cross-correlation lifetime is just the time in which it grows by a factor two. All the granules followed began as small elements, grew to some size, and either faded (88%), exploded (2%) or were hit by an exploding granule (10%). The major variation in granule structure appears to be due to substantial variations in the dark lanes, which often double in width.The granulation shows the typical exploding granule behavior; we find the probability that any granule will be affected by an exploding granule during its lifetime to be 10%. We also observed a larger scale explosion covering about 10 granules. This explosion was marked by rapid (1 km s^–1) outward flux of the granules.We tracked the development of six small pores, one of which could be followed for two hours. The latter showed four maxima of absorption separated by about 30 min each, virtually disappearing in between. Another was observed to form in about 20 min, but no changes occur in less than granule lifetime.We confirm the inflow in penumbral fibrils observed by Muller. The inflow velocity is about 0.5 km s^–1, and all bright spots disappear into the umbra. The inflow which affects bright and dark features in the penumbral fibrils, is also observed in the smaller spots. We surmise that the Evershed flow is limited to the areas between the bright fibrils. We confirm granular outflow outside the penumbra.     

Evidence for rapid ice flow and proglacial lake evolution around the central Strait of Magellan region,southernmost Patagonia

This paper presents a detailed palaeoglaciological reconstruction of ice sheet dynamics in the Seno Skyring, Seno Otway and Strait of Magellan region of the former Patagonian Ice Sheet, with a particular focus on previously hypothesised zones of rapid ice flow and the evolution of proglacial lakes. Geomorphological mapping from a combination of satellite imagery and oblique and vertical aerial photographs reveals a variety of glacial landforms that are grouped into several discrete flow‐sets and associated ice margin positions. The most distinct features are represented by flow‐sets of highly elongate streamlined glacial lineations on both sides of the Strait of Magellan. Based on the shape and dimensions of the flow‐sets and their abrupt lateral margins, a transverse and longitudinal variation in glacial lineation length and elongation ratio, and the reported presence of a potentially deformable bed and thrust moraines, the flow‐sets are interpreted as zones of rapid ice flow within the Otway and Magellan lobes. We hypothesise that this provides evidence for contemporaneous surge‐like advances within the lobes, which may explain the asymmetry in the lobate margin positions on either side of the strait. The mechanisms that initiated rapid flow are unclear, but are likely to have been influenced by internal factors such as a change in thermal/hydrological conditions at the bed. The topography of the region suggests ice‐dammed lakes would have formed as the ice lobes retreated. The westernmost of the former lakes, Lake Skyring, is delimited by a series of palaeo‐shorelines surrounding the present‐day lake Laguna Blanca and we reconstruct lake evolution based on manipulation of a digital elevation model. The size and orientation of meltwater channels and a large outwash plain indicate that Lake Skyring drained eastwards towards the Strait of Magellan, probably quite rapidly. We conclude that the potential for quasi‐independent surge‐like behaviour within adjacent lobes raises the possibility that, during climate‐driven ice expansion, some advances in this region may have been partly controlled by secondary internal feedback mechanisms. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulations of planet migration driven by planetesimal scattering

Evidence has mounted for some time that planet migration is an important part of the formation of planetary systems, both in the Solar System [Malhotra, R., 1993. Nature 365, 819-821] and in extrasolar systems [Mayor, M., Queloz, D., 1995. Nature 378, 355-359; Lin, D.N.C., Bodenheimer, P., Richardson, D.C., 1996. Nature 380, 606-607]. One mechanism that produces migration (the change in a planet's semi-major axis a over time) is the scattering of comet- and asteroid-size bodies called planetesimals [Fernandez, J.A., Ip, W.-H., 1984. Icarus 58, 109-120]. Significant angular momentum exchange can occur between the planets and the planetesimals during local scattering, enough to cause a rapid, self-sustained migration of the planet [Ida, S., Bryden, G., Lin, D.N.C., Tanaka, H., 2000. Astrophys. J. 534, 428-445]. This migration has been studied for the particular case of the four outer planets of the Solar System (as in Gomes et al. [Gomes, R.S., Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.F., 2004. Icarus 170, 492-507]), but is not well understood in general. We have used the Miranda [McNeil, D., Duncan, M., Levison, H.F., 2005. Astron. J. 130, 2884-2899] computer simulation code to perform a broad parameter-space survey of the physical variables that determine the migration of a single planet in a planetesimal disk. Migration is found to be predominantly inwards, and the migration rate is found to be independent of planet mass for low-mass planets in relatively high-mass disks. Indeed, a simple scaling relation from Ida et al. [Ida, S., Bryden, G., Lin, D.N.C., Tanaka, H., 2000. Astrophys. J. 534, 428-445] matches well with the dependencies of the migration rate:

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The need for international co-operation in the management of coastal environments

The coastal zones are areas of high biological productivity and intense human pressure. Environmental challenges arise from pollution and from urban and industrial development. Administrative, social and legal challenges centre upon the need for sound management of coastal zone resources, as an important component of national strategies for sustainability. A number of specific actions have been set out in Agenda 21, the principal product of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. But these need to be carried forward within cross-sectoral, integrated coastal area management procedures. International action is also needed because marine ecosystems rarely coincide with national boundaries, and are affected by international economic, social and legal decisions.

International scientific co-operation on marine issues is already well established, and many regional action plans and Conventions have been adopted. Technological co-operation is less advanced. Such efforts need to be intensified, and continuously adapted. Sound plans for the future must be based on good science, critical economic evaluation of resources, sensitive evaluation of social and cultural factors and of the needs of local communities, evaluation of the risks of climate change, sea-level rise and other changes, and monitoring as a basis for continuing adaptation.     

Behavior and effects of phosphorus in the system Na2O−K2O−Al2O3−SiO2−P2O5−H2O at 200 MPa(H2O)

The addition of phosphorus to H₂O-saturated and initially subaluminous haplogranitic (Qz–Ab–Or) compositions at 200 MPa(H₂O) promotes expansion of the liquidus field of quartz, a marked decrease of the solidus temperature, increased solubility limits of H₂O in melt at low phosphorus concentrations, and fractionation of melt out of the haplogranite plane (projected along an Or₂₈ isopleth) toward a peralkaline, silica-poor but quartz-saturated minimum composition. The partition coefficient for P₂O₅ between aqueous vapor and melt with an ASI (aluminum saturation index, mol Al/[mol Na+K])=1 is negligible (0.06), and consequently so are the effects of phosphorus on other melt-vapor relations involving major components. Phosphorus becomes more soluble in vapor, however, as the concentration of a NaPO₃ component increases via the fractionation of melt by crystallization of quartz and feldspar. The experimental results here corroborate existing concepts regarding the interaction of phosphorus with alkali aluminosilicate melt: phosphorus has an affinity for alkalis and Al, but not Si. Phosphorus is incorporated into alkali feldspars by the exchange component AlPSi_-2. For subaluminous compositions (ASI=1), the distribution coefficient of phosphorus between alkali feldspar and melt, D[P]Af/m, is 0.3. This value increases to D[P]Af/m=1.0 at a melt ASI value of 1.3. The increase in D[P]Af/m with ASI is expected from the fact that excess Al promotes the AlPSi_-2 exchange. With this experimental data, the P₂O₅ content of feldspars and whole rocks can reveal important facets of crystallization and phosphorus geochemistry in subaluminous to peraluminous granitic systems.