In Situ Measurement of Pinna nobilis Shells for Age and Growth Studies: A New Device

Abstract. Pinna nobilis Linnaeus 1758 is an endemic bivalve mollusc in the Mediterranean Sea, where it inhabits seagrass meadows, especially Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile. It is the largest bivalve in the Mediterranean, reaching lengths up to 120 cm. In its natural habitat, P. nobilis lives with the anterior part of the valve buried in the seabed, attached to Posidonia rhizomes by byssus threads.
This habit makes it impossible to measure its total length directly in situ. As the only way to determine the individual age is the relationship between age and total length, several equations have been proposed to estimate total length by relating it to the unburied parts of the shell. Such measurements are essential to ecological studies that consider age, growth, and population dynamics, and that evaluate the environmental factors that affect this species.
Accurately estimating total length depends on the accuracy and precision of the method employed to measure the unburied shell parts. In this paper, we point out the lack of precision of the instruments and methods used until now; we also demonstrate the reason for this imprecision. A new device to measure unburied parts of Pinna nobilis with a precision comparable to that obtained when measuring extracted valves is described. This device is unaffected by substratum type and reduces measurement time. The latter is a very important feature, because these procedures are usually performed whilst SCUBA diving. Finally, a growth equation has been fitted to the measurements obtained with the new device from a population located in Moraira (Alicante, western Mediterranean).     

北黄海盆地区域地质特征

北黄海盆地位于黄海的北部，由于勘探程度低，研究投入少，使得它成为我国迄今为止尚未发现油气的惟一海区。随着我国在南黄海盆地和朝鲜在北黄海盆地东部发现油气，如何实现北黄海盆地油气突破，成为我们研究的焦点。结合该区现有资料和前人研究成果，对北黄海盆地的地球物理场和地质构造特征进行了全面的论述，并在此基础上，对该区油气资源远景作了初步评价。     

Change of multifractal thermal characteristics in the western Philippine sea upper layer during internal wave-soliton propagation

The upper layer (above 140 m depth) temperature in the western Philippine Sea near Taiwan was sampled using a coastal monitoring buoy (CMB) with 15 attached thermistors during July 28–August 7, 2005. The data were collected every 10 min at 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 m using the CMB sensors, and every 15 sec at 15 different depths between 25 m and 140 m. Internal waves and solitons were identified from the time-depth plot of the temperature field. Without the internal waves and solitons, the power spectra, structure functions, and singular measures (representing the intermittency) of temperature field satisfy the power law with multi-scale characteristics at all depths. The internal waves do not change the basic characteristics of the multifractal structure. However, the internal solitons change the power exponent of the power spectra drastically, especially in the low wave number domain; they also break down the power law of the structure function and increase the intermittency parameter. The physical mechanisms causing these different effects need to be explored further.     

化学生态调控对鳌山湾氮磷营养盐的影响

鳌山湾,是一个营养类型特殊的海湾,湾中基本无径流输入,呈“C”字形,封闭性较强,水较浅,湾内主要有筏式扇贝养殖和底播贝类养殖,沿岸有滩涂池塘养殖.根据1996年11月至1998年5月的调查结果得知,鳌山湾海域为贫营养海域[1,2].为探讨贫营养海域进行化学生态调控的可能性,利用鳌山湾的封闭性,根据其水交换规律[3],于1999年6月首次对鳌山湾进行了全湾规模较大的化学生态调控试验,旨在有效提高鳌山湾的营养水平,为今后在贫营养海域合理发展海水养殖业提供科学依据,获得了十分理想的效果.     

Møre Margin: Crustal structure from analysis of Expanded Spread Profiles

Analysis in both the x—t and —p domains of high-quality Expanded Spread Profiles across the Møre Margin show that many arrivals may be enhanced be selective ray tracing and velocity filtering combined with conventional data reduction techniques. In terms of crustal structure the margin can be divided into four main areas: 1) a thicker than normal oceanic crust in the eastern Norway Basin; 2) expanded crust with a Moho depth of 22 km beneath the huge extrusive complex constructed during early Tertiary breakup; 3) the Møre Basin where up to 13–14 km of sediments overlie a strongly extended outer part with a Moho depth at 20 km west of the Ona High; and 4) a region with a 25–27 km Moho depth between the high and the Norwegian coast. The velocity data restricts the continent-ocean boundary to a 15–30 km wide zone beneath the seaward dipping reflector wedges. The crust west of the landward edge of the inner flow is classified as transitional. This region as well as the adjacent oceanic crust is soled by a 7.2–7.4 km s^–1 lower crustal body which may extend beneath the entire region that experienced early Tertiary crustal extension. At the landward end of the transect a 8.5 km s^–1 layer near the base of the crust is recognized. A possible relationship with large positive gravity anomalies and early Tertiary alkaline intrusions is noted.     

Crustal Structures of the Northernmost South China Sea: Seismic Reflection and Gravity Modeling

The South China Sea (SCS) is a marginal sea off shore Southeast Asia. Based on magnetic study, oceanic crust has been suggested in the northernmost SCS. However, the crustal structure of the northernmost SCS was poorly known. To elaborate the crustal structures in the northernmost SCS and off southwest Taiwan, we have analyzed 20 multi-channel seismic profiles of the region. We have also performed gravity modeling to understand the Moho depth variation. The volcanic basement deepens southeastwards while the Moho depth shoals southeastwards. Except for the continental margin, the northernmost SCS can be divided into three tectonic regions: the disturbed and undisturbed oceanic crust (8–12 km thick) in the southwest, a trapped oceanic crust (8 km thick) between the Luzon-Ryukyu Transform Plate Boundary (LRTPB) and Formosa Canyon, and the area to the north of the Formosa Canyon which has the thickest sediments. Instead of faulting, the sediments across the LRTPB have only displayed differential subsidence offset of about 0.5–1 s in the northeast side, indicating that the LRTPB is no longer active. The gravity modeling has shown a relatively thin crust beneath the LRTPB, demonstrating the sheared zone character along the LRTPB. However, probably because of post-spreading volcanism, only the transtension-shearing phenomenon of volcanic basement in the northwest and southeast ends of the LRTPB can be observed. These two basement-fractured sites coincide with low gravity anomalies. Intensive erosion has prevailed over the whole channel of the Formosa Canyon.     

Inverse reconstructions of ecosystem flows in investigating regime shifts: impact of the choice of objective function

Inverse analysis is increasingly used in ecosystem modelling to objectively reconstruct a large number of unknown flows or interactions from a small number of observations. This type of analysis may be useful in relating observed regime shifts in ecosystem structure to underlying processes. Inversions of ecosystem flow networks currently use a constrained least-squares solution which at the same time minimizes the squared norm (the sum of squares) of the reconstructed flows. This minimum norm (MN) inversion is thought to be a parsimonious solution to the ecosystem flow inverse problem, but it may well not reflect how ecosystems are organised. It has been proposed instead that ecosystems evolve to maximize energy/mass flows or that they maximize the information content of the network weighted by ecosystem flows (ascendancy). We used simulated inverse experiments, where inverse analyses are applied to simulations of flow networks, to explore objective functions different than the MN generally used. We could not compute inverse solutions that maximize ascendancy because the objective function is unbounded. We could calculate inversions that maximize flows; however, these generally overestimated the simulated flows, even though the simulations were designed to maximize flows. It appears that the ecosystem flow inverse problem is too under-determined (too few data relative to the number of unknowns) to allow the use of these maximizing goal functions. We introduce a new minimization that simultaneously minimizes the squared flows and the squared differences between flows. This smoothing minimization makes the inverse flows as even as possible and it helps with some technical issues with MN inversions. The simulated inverse experiments indicated that this smoothed norm (SM) is the most robust in comparative analyses of contrasting ecosystem states, such as those that can be associated with regime shifts. Like the MN inversion, the SM inversion has no ecological basis. However, it is a conservative norm that is less likely to produce false differences between the dynamics of regimes.     

威海地区高压岩石组合及其成因演化

利用矿物地质温压计估算变质高峰期温压条件、退变质作用温压条件。研究表明,本区为鲁苏构造带的北延部分,代表本区晚元古代华南陆块与华北陆块的碰撞及三叠纪华北陆块向华南陆块推覆事件的发生和演化。     

化学物质对硬壳蛤幼虫变态的诱导

用KCl、肾上腺素（EPI）、去甲肾上腺素（NE）、L—DOPA和GABA（γ-氨基丁酸）进行了不同浓度不同处理时间对硬壳蛤（Mercenaria mercenaria L ）幼虫变态诱导实验。结果表明，KCl、肾上腺素、去甲肾上腺素和DDOPA对硬壳蛤幼虫的变态均有诱导作用，而GABA的诱导作用不显著。KCl的最佳诱导浓度随处理时间不同而有所不同。处理时间为1～24，48，72h时KCl的最佳诱导浓度分别为33．56，20．13～26．85，13．42mmol／L。肾上腺素和去甲肾上腺素的诱导作用与浓度和处理时间均有关。肾上腺素的最佳处理浓度为100μmol／L，最佳处理时间均为8h，此时幼虫变态率提高最大，为36．97个百分点。当去甲肾上腺素的诱导浓度为100μmol／L，处理时间为8～16h时，幼虫变态率提高也较大，均大于18个百分点，死亡率增加，但均低于30个百分点，当去甲肾上腺素诱导浓度为500μmol／L时，虽然在8～16h的处理时间范围内，幼虫变态提高率也较大，均大于18个百分点，但当处理时间超过8h，在16～48h范围内，幼虫死亡率提高明显增大，均大于50个百分点。L-DOPA的适宜诱导浓度为10～50μmol／L，适宜处理时间为8～24h，此时幼虫变态率均提高30个百分点以上，最高可提高79．43个百分点。GABA的诱导作用较弱，最佳诱导浓度随处理时间的不同而有所不同，处理时间为24h和48h时，最佳诱导浓度为0．1μmol／L；处理时间为0．5～16h时，最佳诱导浓度为100μmol／L。     

Composition and Useful Properties of Tailings of Marine Manganese Nodules and Crusts

Marine manganese nodules and crusts, when processed, yield tailings which may be utilized for environmental and economic benefit. The key to the reasonable and effective utilization of these tailings lies in making a systematic appraisal of their composition and properties. This article gives an introduction to the investigation of manganese tailings properties. The tailings have a high iron and/or manganese content, high surface area, high porosity, and fine grain size. Some tailings have a high rare earth element content which is valuable. They may also have high SO₃, arsenic, and uranium contents which are harmful. Depending on the process used to produce the tailings, there will likely be some differences in chemical composition, mineral assemblages, surface area and adsorption capability, pore diameter and volume, density and pH. In assigning potentially beneficial applications for these tailings, these differences should be taken into account to optimize utilization.