Comparative assessment of nitrogen fixation rate by 15N2 tracer assays in the South China Sea

Nitrogen fixation is one of the most important sources of new nitrogen in the ocean and thus profoundly affects the nitrogen and carbon biogeochemical processes. The distribution, controlling factors, and flux of N₂ fixation in the global ocean remain uncertain, partly because of the lack of methodological uniformity. The 15N₂ tracer assay (the original bubble method → the 15N₂-enriched seawater method → the modified bubble method) is the mainstream method for field measurements of N₂ fixation rates (NFRs), among which the original bubble method is the most frequently used. However, accumulating evidence has suggested an underestimation of NFRs when using this method. To improve the availability of previous data, we compared NFRs measured by three 15N₂ tracer assays in the South China Sea. Our results indicate that the relationship between NFRs measured by the original bubble method and the 15N₂-enriched seawater method varies obviously with area and season, which may be influenced by incubation time, diazotrophic composition, and environmental factors. In comparison, the relationship between NFRs measured by the original bubble method and the modified bubble method is more stable, indicating that the N₂ fixation rates based on the original bubble methods may be underestimated by approximately 50%. Based on this result, we revised the flux of N₂ fixation in the South China Sea to 40 mmol/(m2·a). Our results improve the availability and comparability of literature NFR data in the South China Sea. The comparison of the 15N₂ tracer assay for NFRs measurements on a larger scale is urgently necessary over the global ocean for a more robust understanding of the role of N₂ fixation in the marine nitrogen cycle.     

Late Eocene–early Miocene provenance evolution of the Crocker Fan in the southern South China Sea

There are many large-scale Cenozoic sedimentary basins with plentiful river deltas, deep-water fans and carbonate platforms in the southern South China Sea. The Crocker Fan was deposited as a typical submarine fan during the late Eocene–early Miocene, and stretches extensively across the entire Sarawak–Sabah of the northern Borneo area. However, systematic analyses are still lacking regarding its sediment composition and potential source suppliers. No consensus has been reached yet on the provenance evolution and sedimentary infilling processes, which seriously impeded the oil-and-gas exploration undertakings. By combining with sedimentary-facies identification, heavy mineral assemblages, elemental geochemistry and detrital zircon U-Pb dating, this paper aims to generalize an integrated analysis on the potential provenance terranes and restore source-to-sink pathways of the Crocker Fan. In general, the Crocker Fan was initially formed over the Cretaceous–lower/middle Eocene Rajang Group by an angular Rajang unconformity. The continual southward subduction of the proto-South China Sea resulted in magmatic activities and subsequent regional deformation and thrusting along the Lupar Line in the northern Borneo. The lowermost Crocker sequence is featured by a thick conglomerate layer sourced from in-situ or adjacent paleo-uplifts. From the late Eocene to the early Miocene, the Crocker Fan was constantly delivered with voluminous detritus from the Malay Peninsula of the western Sundaland. The Zengmu Basin was widely deposited with delta plain and neritic facies sediments, while the Brunei-Sabah Basin, to the farther east, was ubiquitously characterized by turbiditic sequences. The Crocker Fan successions are overall thick layers of modest-grained sandstones, which formed high-quality reservoirs in the southern South China Sea region.     

东海西湖凹陷平北地区表层沉积物特征及其成因初探

对研究区域的３７０个站位,１０８４个样品进行了粒度分析,对其中的部分样品进行了重矿物、古生物的分析和鉴定,发现东海西湖凹陷平片地区表层改造砂的特征与一般的规律有较大的差别,这种独特的表层沉积物特征的形成原因主要和所处的地貌部位有关。     

Seasonal Study of Methane and Nitrous Oxide in the Coastal Waters of the Southern Baltic Sea

Atmospheric and dissolved methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) were measured in the unique coastal ecosystem of theBoddenwaters, including the western Oder estuary, (southern Baltic Sea) during five campaigns between 1994 and 1997. The CH₄saturations, ranging from 105–15 500%, showed great spatial and temporal variability with maximum values in September and minimum values in December. The N₂O saturations were in the range of 91–312% with a maximum in March. Enhanced concentrations of both gases were observed only in the western Oder estuary near the mouth of the Peene River. Thus, we conclude that the distributions of CH₄and N₂O in the investigatedBoddenwaters are, directly or indirectly, linked to the Peene River runoff and not to the Oder River. Our estimate of the annual CH₄emissions from theBoddenwaters to the atmosphere indicates a significant contribution (c. 17%) to the overall CH₄emissions from the Baltic Sea. In contrast, theBoddenwaters represent only a small source for atmospheric N₂O.CH₄production rates estimated from sediment slurry experiments revealed a significant spatial variability and indicated that methanogenic activity was related to acetate consumption in the surface sediment layer. Sedimentary CH₄production might depend on different amounts of accumulation of organic material.     

东海表层水体中的多环芳烃及其沉积通量估算

以东海陆架水体中溶解态多环芳烃(PAHs)含量为基础,引入颗粒相-水相间的物质吸附系数(Koc)计算悬浮颗粒物中PAHs有机碳归一化含量,结合陆架沉积物有机碳的年埋藏通量,估算东海陆架沉积物中PAHs沉积通量。结果显示:水体中溶解态的15种PAHs总含量为(701±392)ng/L,变化范围为412~1 032ng/L,PAHs组成以3环为主。计算得到的悬浮颗粒物中15种PAHs有机碳归一化含量为20~28μg/g,对应的PAHs沉积通量为150~210t/a。估算结果与实测沉积物中PAHs含量和沉积通量结果基本吻合,表明实验室模拟实验获取的化合物Koc值适用于东海颗粒相-水相间的分配模型,证实悬浮颗粒物有机碳含量在控制PAHs两相分布过程中起着重要作用。同时,该方法为海洋沉积物中PAHs沉积通量的估算提供一种新途径。     

Bottom-up control of phytoplankton growth in spring blooms in Central Yellow Sea,China

The source and significance of three nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorous and silicon – were investigated by a modified dilution method performed on seawater samples from the Central Yellow Sea (CYS), in spring blooming period of 2007. This modified dilution method accounted for the phytoplankton growth rate, microzooplankton grazing mortality rate, the internal and external nutrient pools, as well as nutrients supplied through remineralization by microzooplankton grazing. The results indicate that phytoplankton growth during the bloom is mostly contributed by internal nutrient pools (K_I=0.062–1.730). The external nutrient pools (K_E=<0–0.362) are also of importance for phytoplankton growth during the bloom at some sampling sites. Furthermore, the contribution of the recycled-nutrient pool by remineralization (K_R=<0–0.751) is significant when microzooplankton grazing rate was higher than 0.5 d⁻¹ during the spring phytoplankton blooms in the Central Yellow Sea. Compared with internal phosphorus, internal nitrogen and silicon contribute more to the phytoplankton production at most sampling stations.     

海岛礁光学和雷达影像基于改进非子采样小波变换的自动配准

Homologous feature point extraction is a key problem in the optical and synthetic aperture radar （SAR） image registration for islands. A new feature point extraction method using a threshold shrink operator and non-subsampled wavelet transform （TSO-NSWT） for optical and SAR image registration was proposed. Moreover, the matching for this proposed feature was different from the traditional feature matching strategies and was performed using a similarity measure computed from neighborhood circles in low-frequency bands. Then, a number of reliably matched couples with even distributions were obtained, which assured the accuracy of the registration. Application of the proposed algorithm to SPOT-5 （multi-spectral） and YG-1 （SAR） images showed that a large number of accurately matched couples could be identified. Additionally, both of the root mean square error （RMSE） patterns of the registration parameters computed based on the TSO-NSWT algorithm and traditional NSWT algorithm were analyzed and compared, which further demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The algorithm can supply the crucial step for island image registration and island recognition.     

一个两时间层分裂显格式海洋环流模式(MASNUM)及其检验

A two-time-level, three-dimensional numerical ocean circulation model（named MASNUM） was established with a two-level, single-step Eulerian forward-backward time-differencing scheme. A mathematical model of large-scale oceanic motions was based on the terrain-following coordinated, Boussinesq, Reynolds-averaged primitive equations of ocean dynamics. A simple but very practical Eulerian forward-backward method was adopted to replace the most preferred leapfrog scheme as the time-differencing method for both barotropic and baroclinic modes. The forward-backward method is of second-order of accuracy, computationally efficient by requiring only one function evaluation per time step, and free of the computational mode inherent in the three-level schemes. This method is superior to the leapfrog scheme in that the maximum time step of stability is twice as large as that of the leapfrog scheme in staggered meshes thus the computational efficiency could be doubled. A spatial smoothing method was introduced to control the nonlinear instability in the numerical integration. An ideal numerical experiment simulating the propagation of the equatorial Rossby soliton was performed to test the amplitude and phase error of this new model. The performance of this circulation model was further verified with a regional（northwest Pacific） and a quasi-global（global ocean simulation with the Arctic Ocean excluded） simulation experiments. These two numerical experiments show fairly good agreement with the observations. The maximum time step of stability in these two experiments were also investigated and compared between this model and that model which adopts the leapfrog scheme.