The interannual variability of megafaunal assemblages in the Arctic deep sea: Preliminary results from the HAUSGARTEN observatory (79°N)

Although megafaunal organisms play an important role in deep benthic ecosystems and contribute significantly to benthic biomass in the Arctic little is known about their temporal dynamics. Here, we assessed the interannual dynamics of megafaunal organisms from the HAUSGARTEN observatory in the Fram Strait, an area where the effects of climatic forcing are particularly evident. We analysed three congruent camera transects taken in 2002, 2004 and 2007. Environmental parameters were measured in order to be able to put our faunal results into an environmental context.Our results indicate that although the densities of megafaunal species show different patterns over time, most exhibit an overall decrease between 2002 and 2007 and total megafaunal densities decreased regularly from 2002 to 2004 to 2007 (12.16±0.96 to 7.41±0.43 ind m⁻²). This concurs with a steady increase in bottom-water temperatures and a decrease in the total organic content and microbial biomass of surficial sediments at the same time period. Although suspension feeder densities also decreased, predator/scavenger and deposit feeder densities have declined to such an extent that suspension feeders accounted for almost 100% of the megafauna in 2007. It could thus be argued that the trophic diversity at the central HAUSGARTEN station (2500 m) has decreased. Temperature-related changes in the production of the surface layers may lead to changes in the quality and/or quantity of particles exported to the deep seafloor. The densities of deposit feeders (i.e. holothurians) peaked (1.14±0.13 ind m⁻²) in 2004, the year following the longest ice cover. These results indicate the importance of ice-related export of particles to the deep seafloor and highlight the need for time-series transects, especially in an era when productive marginal ice zones tend to disappear with the receding sea ice. Although there is a general consensus that the Arctic is in a transition towards a warmer state, only continued observation will allow us to assess if the interannual changes observed are a result of decadal cycles related to the Arctic and North Atlantic Oscillation or if they are indicators of long-term change.     

利用特色叠前深度偏移技术消除崎岖海底影响——以珠江口盆地番禺—流花地区应用为例

叠前深度偏移技术可有效地进行复杂构造成像,针对不同的地质条件,需要应用不同的处理技术。针对陆架坡折带崎岖海底造成的地震成像差、构造畸变等问题,选择使用了如下叠前深度偏移技术:通过海平面叠前深度偏移技术得到精确的海底成像;通过约束速度反演、加入断层控制建立初始速度模型;采用百分比扫描速度分析对速度模型进行迭代修改,进而快速得到较为收敛的速度体;在此基础上再采用Kirchhoff积分法进行偏移。在珠江口盆地番禺—流花地区应用上述技术,基本消除了崎岖海底对下伏地层的影响,改善了断层和地层成像,并落实了该地区的构造圈闭。     

从海洋内部研究海洋

几百年来,人类总是从海洋外面——在船上或者岸上研究海洋。随着技术的最新发展,人类现在可以从海洋内部来研究海洋。简要讨论了海底观测系统和活动观测平台为各领域的海洋研究提供的空前机遇,并指出中国发展海洋科学必须对这一新趋势给予密切注意。     

加拿大海王星:科学、运行、管理

加拿大海王星是世界最大的海底缆接科学观测网,于2009年开始运行.它连接了位于不同水深和不同海洋地质环境的大批观测仪器,把数据连续不断地通过互联网传给科学家和大众.海王星的建立是为了推动地震过程和大地构造、海底地下流体、海洋生物与气候变化、深海生态系统、工程和信息科学等五大科学命题的研究.为最大程度地推动国际合作,加速科学发展步伐,它的系统使用完全开放,数据全部免费公开,这在科学史上前所未见.这种全方位、全开放的复杂庞大的科研系统需要高超的管理方法和优良的学术环境.     

Physical sedimentology experiments with sulfuric acid solutions: Implications for Mars?

Physical sedimentology experiments have shown that sulfuric acid solutions may have formed some surface features seen on Mars. Recent data returned from Mars show the presence of jarosite, sulfate salts, hematite, phyllosilicates, and opaline silica, all of which precipitate from some terrestrial sulfuric acid solutions. There is a plethora of geochemical, mineralogical, and sedimentological data indicative of past sulfuric acid systems on Mars, but there has never been a comprehensive study published regarding sulfuric acid as a physical sedimentological agent. In the laboratory, we ran liquids of various compositions over sediments in order to test how these liquids entrain, transport, and deposit sediments. Pure water and concentrated sulfuric acid solutions produced the same general features, such as channels, gullies, and alluvial fans. However, sulfuric acid solutions yielded some distinct sedimentary features not produced by pure water runs. These features, narrow, deeply incised channels of consistent widths, rounded discrete fans, and air bubble “craters”, are similar to some Martian landscape features. These experimental results indicate that acid solutions should be considered a possible sedimentological agent on Mars.     

Implications of the saltation–abrasion bedrock incision model for steady‐state river longitudinal profile relief and concavity

The saltation–abrasion model predicts rates of river incision into bedrock as an explicit function of sediment supply, grain size, boundary shear stress and rock strength. Here we use this experimentally calibrated model to explore the controls on river longitudinal profile concavity and relief for the simple but illustrative case of steady‐state topography. Over a wide range of rock uplift rates we find a characteristic downstream trend, in which upstream reaches are close to the threshold of sediment motion with large extents of bedrock exposure in the channel bed, while downstream reaches have higher excess shear stresses and lesser extents of bedrock exposure. Profile concavity is most sensitive to spatial gradients in runoff and the rate of downstream sediment fining. Concavity is also sensitive to the supply rate of coarse sediment, which varies with rock uplift rate and with the fraction of the total sediment load in the bedload size class. Variations in rock strength have little influence on profile concavity. Profile relief is most sensitive to grain size and amount of runoff. Rock uplift rate and rock strength influence relief most strongly for high rates of rock uplift. Analysis of potential covariation of grain size with rock uplift rate and rock strength suggests that the influence of these variables on profile form could occur in large part through their influence on grain size. Similarly, covariation between grain size and the fraction of sediment load in the bedload size class provides another indirect avenue for rock uplift and strength to influence profile form. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Buried paleo-channels on the New Jersey continental margin: channel porosity structures from electromagnetic surveying

We report on a marine electromagnetic (EM) survey across two portions of the New Jersey continental margin that have been previously shown to contain buried paleo-channels. The EM method used provides bulk porosity estimates to depths of around 20 m below the seafloor and is thus able to place porosity constraints on the nature of the channel infill and the contrast in physical properties across the channel boundaries. Our data show that a key condition for the channels to have an electrical signature is that they incise an underlying regional unconformity, R, thought to represent a subaerially eroded surface, exposed during the late Wisconsinan glaciation. Channels that cut R are seen through increases in apparent porosity. Another seismically imaged channel sequence, which lies within the outer-shelf sediment wedge sequence above R, does not have an electrical signature, indicating that the sediments above and below the channel boundaries have similar physical properties.     

瞬变电磁法在煤矿水害防治中的应用

煤层附近的富水区(带)严重威胁着煤矿的生产安全，探明地下煤层附近富水区的赋存和断层、裂隙的发育情况，可以有效地指导煤矿水害的防治工作。对于含水地层及富水区，瞬变电磁法在多测道剖面上具有典型响应特征，据此可以查明地下水分布情况。在山东某煤田和河南某矿，应用瞬变电磁勘探，准确地查明了煤层顶底板富水区。．     

瑞雷波勘探在地下洞穴探测中的应用

利用瑞雷波勘探方法进行地下洞穴探测，在实际处理过程中，对场地所测得的面波频散曲线进行分类、归纳，并利用动力触探曲线对各种特征曲线所反映的地下洞穴情况进行标定，从而确定整个测区洞穴的空间分布规律。     

海底热液活动区地微生物学研究中的分子生物学技术

海底热液活动区微生物生态及其相关研究一直是近年来海洋地微生物学研究的热点之一。有关发现不断挑战着人们对微生物的代谢机理、生存极限、元素地球化学循环作用等方面的传统认识。与传统的富集培养方法相比,主要基于16S rRNA基因和特征性功能基因系统的发育分析等技术为研究这一极端环境中栖息的微生物群落提供了更为系统和全面的手段。这些技术包括基因文库构建(16S rRNA和其它功能基因)、变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)、末端限制性片段长度多态性分析(T-RFLP)、荧光原位杂交(FISH)以及定量PCR等。目前,上述技术手段广泛应用于全球海底热液活动区地微生物学的研究,在丰富地球物种多样性、调查微生物参与的元素地球化学循环过程、研究微生物与矿物的相互作用以及生命起源与演化等方面取得了大量的研究成果。简要介绍了常规分子生物学技术的基本原理及其在海底热液活动区地微生物学研究中的应用现状。