Spatial changes in a macrozoobenthic community along environmental gradients in a shallow brackish lagoon facing Sendai Bay, Japan

The spatial distribution, abundance, and assemblage structure of macrozoobenthos were examined at 45 stations in a brackish lagoon (Idoura Lagoon, Japan) to examine the animal–environmental relations in estuarine soft-bottom habitats. We found a total of 23 taxa; the polychaetes Heteromastus sp., Hediste spp., and Prionospio japonica and the isopod Cyathura muromiensis numerically dominated the community. Cluster analysis and one-way analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) identified seven groups of stations that had significantly different macrozoobenthic communities; these were subsequently consolidated into five habitat groups according to their association with environmental characteristics. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that salinity, silt-clay content, and the oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) of the sediment strongly affected the macrozoobenthos distribution pattern in the lagoon, whereas other factors (e.g., relative elevation of the habitat and sediment organic content) had much weaker effects. Similarity percentages (SIMPER) procedures indicated that the polychaete Notomastus sp. and the bivalve Macoma contabulata were specific to habitats with low salinity and reduced mud, whereas the bivalve Nuttallia olivacea was specific to sandy bottoms. Heteromastus sp. and Hediste spp. achieved their highest densities in rather oxidized sediments. The acid-volatile sulfide (AVS) content in the sediment was suggested as another possible factor affecting macrozoobenthic density. Our results clearly demonstrate that macrozoobenthic assemblages in estuarine soft-bottoms have high spatial heterogeneity on a small scale (e.g., hundreds of meters) related to physical and chemical environmental changes. Our data also suggested the importance of sediment redox condition (e.g., ORP and AVS content) and sediment grain size as structuring factors in estuarine soft-bottom communities as well as the salinity in the habitat.     

九龙江口浮游植物群体对盐度胁迫的快速适应

Mixing of freshwater and seawater creates the well-known salinity gradients along the estuaries. In order to investigate how phytoplankton respond to the acute salinity changes, we exposed natural phytoplankton assemblies from the Jiulong River Estuary to differential saline field water while continuously monitoring their photosynthetic performances under both indoor-and outdoor-growth conditions. When the natural cell assemblies from salinity 30 field water were exposed to series low saline field water(salinity 25, 17, 13 and 7.5), the effective Photosystem II quantum yield(ΔF/F_m′) decreased sharply, e.g., to one-fifth of its initials after 5 min exposure to salinity 7.5 field water, and then increased fast during the following 40 min and almost completely recovered after 320 min. During such an exposure process, non-photochemical quenching(NPQ) sharply increased from 0 to 0.85 within 5 min, and then decreased to nearly 0 within the following 70 min. When these cells re-acclimated to salinity 7.5 field water were exposed to series high saline field water(salinity 13, 17, 25 and 30), a similar response pattern was observed, with the decreased ΔF/F_m′ accompanied with increased NPQ, and followed by the recovery-induced increase in ΔF/F_m′ and decrease in NPQ. A similar response pattern as ΔF/F_m′to the acute osmotic stress was also observed in the photosynthetic carbon fixation capacity according to radiocarbon(~(14)C) incorporation. Our results indicate that estuarine phytoplankton assemblies could rapidly recover from the acute osmotic stress, implying a potential cause for their frequent blooms in coastal-estuarine waters where despite drastically varying salinity, available nutrients are abundant due to the land-derived runoffs or mixing-caused relaxations from sediments.     

Preprocessing of gravity gradients at the GOCE high-level processing facility

One of the products derived from the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the gradiometer reference frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. To use these gravity gradients for application in Earth scienes and gravity field analysis, additional preprocessing needs to be done, including corrections for temporal gravity field signals to isolate the static gravity field part, screening for outliers, calibration by comparison with existing external gravity field information and error assessment. The temporal gravity gradient corrections consist of tidal and nontidal corrections. These are all generally below the gravity gradient error level, which is predicted to show a 1/f behaviour for low frequencies. In the outlier detection, the 1/f error is compensated for by subtracting a local median from the data, while the data error is assessed using the median absolute deviation. The local median acts as a high-pass filter and it is robust as is the median absolute deviation. Three different methods have been implemented for the calibration of the gravity gradients. All three methods use a high-pass filter to compensate for the 1/f gravity gradient error. The baseline method uses state-of-the-art global gravity field models and the most accurate results are obtained if star sensor misalignments are estimated along with the calibration parameters. A second calibration method uses GOCE GPS data to estimate a low-degree gravity field model as well as gravity gradient scale factors. Both methods allow to estimate gravity gradient scale factors down to the 10⁻³ level. The third calibration method uses high accurate terrestrial gravity data in selected regions to validate the gravity gradient scale factors, focussing on the measurement band. Gravity gradient scale factors may be estimated down to the 10⁻² level with this method.     

Inversion Reconstruction of Gravity Potential Based on Gravity Gradients

A new method was developed for the inversion reconstruction of gravity potential. This method offers the possibility to determine the potential function and all of its important derivatives using the common inversion of gravity gradients and the first derivatives of potential. Gravity gradients can be originated from Torsion balance measurements, while the first derivatives of potential can be derived from the deflections of the vertical data. Different fields having great importance can be originated from this reconstructed potential function at any points of the investigated area. The advantage of this method is that the solution can be performed by a significantly over-determined inverse problem. Test computations were performed for the inversion reconstruction of gravity potential. There were 248 torsion balance measurements and 13 points where the deflections of the vertical are known in our test area. This inversion algorithm is rather stable. Gravity potential, the first and the second derivatives of the potential were determined for the test area by this suggested method. This method gives a good possibility for a useful geodetic application; deflections of the vertical based on torsion balance measurements can be determined for the whole area for each torsion balance stations.     

准噶尔盆地热历史

准噶尔盆地从石炭一二叠纪的“热盆”（古地温梯度0．05-0．07℃／m）演变成新生代典型的“冷盆”（地温梯度0.02－0.023℃／m），使盆地两套主要烃源岩：二叠系和侏罗系烃源岩热演化程度（成熟度）具有明显的差异。二叠系径源岩成熟度普遍很高，大部分达到过成熟阶段；而侏罗系烃源岩成熟度则很低，即使埋深超过5000m，实测镜质组反射率R°％仅为0．5－0．6，相当于生油初期（低成熟）阶段。通过应用Waples模型和Sweeney－Burnham模型两种方法对盆地13口深井进行古地温梯度拟合计算表明：对于热演化过程主要发生在白垩纪之前，高地温梯度背景下的8口深井，烃源岩热演化受压力的影响小，成熟度相对较高；而对于热演化过程主要发生在白垩纪之后、低地温梯度背景下的5口井，烃源岩热演化受压力的影响较大，成熟度异常偏低，实测镜质组反射率低于用Waples模型和Sweeney－Burnham模型计算的镜质组反射率。     

Geothermal gradients and heat flow in the Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin,Arctic Canada

Thermal gradients have been calculated and heat flow estimates made for 34 petroleum exploration wells along four regional profiles crossing the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin of northern Canada. The geothermal gradients vary from 22 mKm^–1 to 44 mKm^–1. Four sets of possible thermal conductivity values were used to calculate a range of heat flow values for each well. Generally low heat flow is observed in wells within the deeper portions of the basin and higher heat flow values occur in wells along the Aklavik Arch Complex which forms the southeastern margin of the basin.The contribution to heat flow by heat generation below the Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin fill sediments has been considered. The heat flow contribution from sub-Mesozoic sedimentary strata and underlying basement is highest along the basin-bounding Aklavik Arch Complex. The decrease in heat flow from below the basin fill sediments toward the basin depocenter may be related to basinward crustal thinning and corresponding reductions in intra-crustal radiogenic heat production.     

Environmental controls on food web regimes: A fluvial perspective

Because food web regimes control the biomass of primary producers (e.g., plants or algae), intermediate consumers (e.g., invertebrates), and large top predators (tuna, killer whales), they are of societal as well as academic interest. Some controls over food web regimes may be internal, but many are mediated by conditions or fluxes over large spatial scales. To understand locally observed changes in food webs, we must learn more about how environmental gradients and boundaries affect the fluxes of energy, materials, or organisms through landscapes or seascapes that influence local species interactions. Marine biologists and oceanographers have overcome formidable challenges of fieldwork on the high seas to make remarkable progress towards this goal. In river drainage networks, we have opportunities to address similar questions at smaller spatial scales, in ecosystems with clear physical structure and organization. Despite these advantages, we still have much to learn about linkages between fluxes from watershed landscapes and local food webs in river networks. Longitudinal (downstream) gradients in productivity, disturbance regimes, and habitat structure exert strong effects on the organisms and energy sources of river food webs, but their effects on species interactions are just beginning to be explored. In fluid ecosystems with less obvious physical structure, like the open ocean, discerning features that control the movement of organisms and affect food web dynamics is even more challenging. In both habitats, new sensing, tracing and mapping technologies have revealed how landscape or seascape features (e.g., watershed divides, ocean fronts or circulation cells) channel, contain or concentrate organisms, energy and materials. Field experiments and direct in situ observations of basic natural history, however, remain as vital as ever in interpreting the responses of biota to these features. We need field data that quantify the many spatial and temporal scales of functional relationships that link environments, fluxes and food web interactions to understand how they will respond to intensifying anthropogenic forcing over the coming decades.     

The Gambia River estuary: A reference point for estuarine fish assemblages studies in West Africa

The Gambia River is one of the last aquatic ecosystems in West Africa that has not yet been affected by strong environmental changes and human disturbances. In contrast to the neighbouring Casamance and Sine Saloum estuaries, the Gambia estuary is free of major climatic perturbation and remains a “normal” estuary, with a salinity range from freshwater to 39. The present paper aims to study the spatial and seasonal variability of fish assemblages in this estuary in terms of bio-ecological categories and of their relation with some environmental variables. Four surveys were conducted, from June 2001 to April 2002, in order to cover the major hydroclimatic events, at 44 sampling sites along the lower, intermediate and upper zones of the Gambia estuary (up to 220 km). Fish assemblages were sampled using a purse seine net, fish were identified to species level and environmental variables such as water depth, transparency, salinity, temperature and percentage oxygen saturation were measured. The main spatial structure of the fish assemblages and its seasonal changes were first studied using the STATIS-CoA multitable method. The combination of fish assemblages and environmental variables was then analysed using the STATICO method, designed for the simultaneous analysis of paired ecological tables. A total of 67 species were observed, belonging to all bio-ecological categories characterizing West African estuaries. The marine component of the community was largely dominant throughout the estuary, while the freshwater component was permanently observed only in the upstream zone. The main spatial structure was a longitudinal gradient contrasting marine and freshwater affinity assemblages, with strong seasonal variations. The most complete gradient was observed in December, at the beginning of the dry and cool season, while in June, at the end of the dry and warm season, there was the least structured gradient. The role of salinity, always correlated with temperature, was emphasized, while turbidity appeared to be another important factor. Oxygen and depth did not play a major role at the estuary scale. The relative importance of the bio-ecological categories varied according to the season and the distance to sea. Stable fish assemblages were observed in the lower zone at the end of the dry season, in the upper zone during the flood and in the middle zone throughout the year. In some situations, a relative inadequacy between fish assemblages and their environment was noticed. The present study contributes to the definition of the functioning of a “normal” West African estuary, the Gambia estuary, with balanced effects of marine and freshwater influences and the presence of all bio-ecological categories. The Gambia estuary can therefore be considered to be a reference ecosystem for further comparisons with other tropical estuarine ecosystems, subjected to natural or artificial perturbations.