Effects of vegetation and sewage load on mangrove crab condition using experimental mesocosms

Constructed wetlands, especially mangroves, have been studied for their usefulness in sewage treatment but the effects of mangrove vegetation and a sewage load on mangrove macrofauna have been given little attention. Ocypodid crabs are important components of mangrove forests and constitute good bioindicators of the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole. In constructed mangrove mesocosms, three vegetation treatments (bare substratum, and Avicennia marina and Rhizophora mucronata seedlings) were subjected to 0, 20, 60 and 100% sewage loads from a nearby hotel. The physiological condition of introduced Uca annulipes and Uca inversa was evaluated in terms of their RNA/DNA ratio after one, five and twelve months, and used as an indicator of ecological function in the system. Crab condition in 0% sewage load was similar to that of wild crabs throughout, suggesting no significant effects of the mesocosms on their RNA/DNA ratio. Overall, both species coped well with the administered sewage loads, suggesting good ecological function in the system. Both species manifested similar patterns in RNA/DNA ratio, being more affected by seasonal fluctuations than by sewage load and vegetation presence and type. Higher RNA/DNA ratios were recorded in the long compared to the short rainy season. Sewage enhanced crab condition in the bare substratum and R. mucronata treatments, especially after one year, probably as a result of enhanced food availability. Uca inversa may be more sensitive to sewage pollution than U. annulipes. In A. marina, no difference in crab condition was observed between sewage loads, and this mangrove yielded the best reduction in sewage impacts. Our results support the usefulness of constructed mangrove areas in sewage treatment, especially if planted with A. marina and inhabited by physiologically healthy ocypodid crabs to enhance the system's performance.     

MedFlux: Investigations of particle flux in the Twilight Zone

The MedFlux project was devised to determine and model relationships between organic matter and mineral ballasts of sinking particulate matter in the ocean. Specifically we investigated the ballast ratio hypothesis, tested various commonly used sampling and modeling techniques, and developed new technologies that would allow better characterization of particle biogeochemistry. Here we describe the rationale for the project, the biogeochemical provenance of the DYFAMED site, the international support structure, and highlights from the papers published here. Additional MedFlux papers can be accessed at the MedFlux web site (http://msrc.sunysb.edu/MedFlux/).     

南海北部陆坡海域内波谱特征

本文对1998年南海季风实验中定点观测的声学多普勒流速剖面仪（Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler,ADCP）海流数据进行频谱分析,结果表明南海北部地区内波之间的非线性作用的强弱影响着该海域的内波谱特征。在季节性温跃层（水深22m和58m）中,由于存在着强的非线性作用,内波带的谱斜率趋于σ^-1和σ^-2之间,而且较高能量的潮谐波频率的峰值随着频率呈现少见的一。递减。在季节性温跃层（水深130m）以下,内波非线性相互作用较弱,观测的内波带谱特征与标准Garrett-Munk内波谱相似,均显示了σ^-2的谱斜率。     

Estimates of global M_2 internal tide energy fluxes using TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data

TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data from October 1992 to June 2002 are used to calculate the global barotropic M2 tidal currents using long-term tidal harmonic analysis. The tides calculated agree well with ADCP data obtained from the South China Sea (SCS). The maximum tide velocities along the semi-major axis and semi-minor axis can be computed from the tidal ellipse. The global distribution of M2 internal tide vertical energy flux from the sea bottom is calculated based on a linear internal wave generation model. The global vertical energy flux of M2 internal tide is 0.96 TW, with 0.36 TW in the Pacific, 0.31 TW in the Atlantic and 0.29 TW in the Indian Ocean, obtained in this study. The total horizontal energy flux of M2 internal tide radiating into the open ocean from the lateral boundaries is 0.13 TW, with 0.06 TW in the Pacific, 0.04TW in the Atlantic, and 0.03 TW in the Indian Ocean. The result shows that the principal lunar semi-diurnal tide M2 provides enough energy to maintain the large-scale thermohaline circulation of the ocean.     

马尔可夫链模型在地下水水位预测中的应用

作者将鲁南地区一水文观测孔的９２次地下水水位月平均监测数据,划分了１０种状态范围,运用马尔可夫链模型,对未来地下水水位进行状态范围预测。在与实际监测资料进行对比的基础上,验证了马尔可夫链理论在地下水水位预测中的可行性及可靠性,并对运用中的具体问题进行了探讨。     

Sensitive response of desert vegetation to moisture change based on a near-annual resolution pollen record from Gahai Lake in the Qaidam Basin, northwest China

We present a 50-year pollen record at near-annual resolution from Gahai Lake in the Qaidam Basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Chronology of a 22-cm short core was established by ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs analysis. The pollen results at 0.5 cm intervals show large changes in Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratios from < 0.2 to 0.95 in the last 50 years. High (low) A/C ratios represent increase (decrease) in steppe pollen production, which correspond to high (low) relative humidity observed at nearby Delingha weather station. On the basis of good correspondence with instrumental records and carbonate content from Gahai Lake, we conclude that A/C ratio is sensitive to moisture change and can be a very useful index in reconstructing paleoclimate of arid regions. Comparison with pollen and snow accumulation data from Dunde ice core suggests that effective moisture at low and high elevations shows the opposite relationship when mountain precipitation was extremely high, possibly due to topography-induced uplifting and subsiding air dynamics.     

Triangulated spherical splines for geopotential reconstruction

We present an alternate mathematical technique than contemporary spherical harmonics to approximate the geopotential based on triangulated spherical spline functions, which are smooth piecewise spherical harmonic polynomials over spherical triangulations. The new method is capable of multi-spatial resolution modeling and could thus enhance spatial resolutions for regional gravity field inversion using data from space gravimetry missions such as CHAMP, GRACE or GOCE. First, we propose to use the minimal energy spherical spline interpolation to find a good approximation of the geopotential at the orbital altitude of the satellite. Then we explain how to solve Laplace’s equation on the Earth’s exterior to compute a spherical spline to approximate the geopotential at the Earth’s surface. We propose a domain decomposition technique, which can compute an approximation of the minimal energy spherical spline interpolation on the orbital altitude and a multiple star technique to compute the spherical spline approximation by the collocation method. We prove that the spherical spline constructed by means of the domain decomposition technique converges to the minimal energy spline interpolation. We also prove that the modeled spline geopotential is continuous from the satellite altitude down to the Earth’s surface. We have implemented the two computational algorithms and applied them in a numerical experiment using simulated CHAMP geopotential observations computed at satellite altitude (450 km) assuming EGM96 (n _max = 90) is the truth model. We then validate our approach by comparing the computed geopotential values using the resulting spherical spline model down to the Earth’s surface, with the truth EGM96 values over several study regions. Our numerical evidence demonstrates that the algorithms produce a viable alternative of regional gravity field solution potentially exploiting the full accuracy of data from space gravimetry missions. The major advantage of our method is that it allows us to compute the geopotential over the regions of interest as well as enhancing the spatial resolution commensurable with the characteristics of satellite coverage, which could not be done using a global spherical harmonic representation. The results in this paper are based on the research supported by the National Science Foundation under the grant no. 0327577.     

GPS现代化后L2C的信号质量分析

分析了L2C码的主要作用,比较了GPS现代化后L2载波信噪比的变化特点,阐述了伪距观测值的噪声水平。     

基于边缘分析的海面溢油检测

提出一种基于边缘检测的快速溢油信息提取方法, 首先对溢油图像进行ROA(radio of average)边缘检测, 根据检测结果进行AOI(area of interest)提取, 然后使用改进的Weibull-CFAR检测算法对AOI进行溢油检测, 并与全局CFAR检测结果进行对比。实验结果证明, 所提出的方法对于非均匀灰度SAR图像溢油检测准确性较好、效率较高, 特别适用于大图像的快速溢油检测。