Carbon balance in a salt marsh: Interactions of diffusive export, tidal deposition and rainfall-caused erosion

Studies of the concentrations of particulate and dissolved organic carbon in the Duplin River, of the tidal exchange of POC and DOC in the marsh, of the standing stock and movement of Spartina alterniflora wrack in the Duplin, and of the removal of carbon from the surface of the marsh by rain were conducted at Sapelo Island, Georgia in order to test three hypotheses about export of carbon from the Duplin River watershed. We found that the gradients in POC and DOC concentrations are such that carbon is being transported down the Duplin River throughout the year, although in smaller quantities than previously believed. In contrast, almost all tidal exchanges within the marsh result in deposition of carbon. Most of this deposited carbon is subsequently eroded as a result of rain falling on the exposed marsh surface, and is washed back into the tidal creeks. This cycle of deposition and erosion is a possible mechanism keeping POC in the thin aerobic surface layer of the marsh, thus increasing its availability to detritivores and aerobic microbes. The standing stock of wrack is only a fraction of the S. alterniflora produced each year, and its export is a negligible term in the carbon balance equation.     

Modeling erosion of sedimentary coasts in the western Russian Arctic

Morphodynamic modeling is employed in the present work to predict the long-term evolution (over the next 100 years) of typical sedimentary coasts in the western Russian Arctic. The studied objects are the coasts of Varandey (the Barents Sea), Baydaratskaya Bay and Harasavey (the Kara Sea). The model developed takes into account both the short-term processes (storm events) and long-term factors (for example, changes in sea level, inter-annual variations in gross sediment flux, lack or excess of sediment supply). Predicted and observed morphological changes in coastal profiles are shown to agree well for time scales ranging from weeks to decades. It is revealed that under given environmental conditions, the morphological evolution is strongly influenced by storm surges and associated wind-driven circulation. The water level gradient created by a surge generates a seaward flow at the bed. This outflow is shown to be an important destructive mechanism contributing to the erosion and recession of Arctic coasts. The rate of change is found to depend on both the exposure of the coast (relative to the direction of dominant winds) and its height above the sea. The open coast of Varandey is expected to retreat as much as 300–500 m over 100 years, while recession of the less exposed coasts of Baydaratskaya Bay would not exceed about 100 m/century. If long-term sediment losses are insignificant, the rate of erosion decays with time and the morphodynamic system may tend toward equilibrium. It is concluded that the expected relative sea-level rise (up to 1 m over the nearest 100 years) is non-crucial to the future coastal evolution if an erosion activity is already high enough.     

无公害刺参稳产健康养殖新技术

本文针对目前刺参养殖中存在的问题,简单明了叙述刺参无公害健康养殖一系列新技术和新方法,对推动海参养殖业持续、稳定、健康发展,起到积极作用和效果。     

Formation of ‘Beach Rock’ at Siesta Key, Florida and its influence on barrier island development

Seaward-dipping strata of carbonate-cemented shell debris located along the coast of Siesta Key on the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula have long been interpreted to be beachrock equivalent in age to the Pleistocene Anastasia Formation (Stage 5e) of the east coast of Florida. Detailed examination of thin sections along with radiometric dating and isotopic analyses demonstrates clearly that this is a Holocene deposit that is not beachrock but was lithified in a meteoric environment. Whole rock dates, dates from shells only, and from cement only demonstrate that these beach deposits were in place by at least 1800 yr BP and might have been there as long ago as 4300 yr BP. This means that some type of barrier island was in place at that time. Previous investigations have depicted Siesta Key as having a maximum age of 3000 yr with these deposits being located about 2 km landward of the beach deposits. This suggests that the beach deposits might have been the site of the original position of Siesta Key. These data also indicate that sea level must have been near its present position at the time that these foreshore beach deposits were deposited; sometime between 1800 and 4300 yr ago. This scenario indicates that sea level along this coastal reach probably reached its present level at least about 2000 yr ago.     

Analysis of Offshore Oil Pipeline Floating Laying

-Based on the calculation model for the floating laying of the offshore oil pipeline, this paper analyses in detail the internal force, and deformation of the pipeline under a definite structural form (pipeline and buoy) and the way of pulling. The obtained results can be used for the buoy deployment, structure design, and the determination of pulling parameters (the pulling force of the cable and its length, etc.), providing an effective analysis method for floating pipeline-laying. A calculation example is given to show the related calculation process and the main results are analyzed and discussed.     

GIS支持下的长江口拦门沙泥沙冲淤定量计算

依据1842～1997年10幅不同年代的长江口海图资料,利用地理信息系统和数字化仪进行处理,建立不同时期的长江口水下数字高程模型,以此作为基础资料,实现了从横剖面、深泓线纵剖面、平面变化等不同角度对长江口拦门沙地区滩槽演变、岸线侵蚀、沙岛形成与变迁等进行研究.通过计算河槽容积,实现了对不同时段泥沙冲淤量的计算.结果表明,155a来拦门沙总的趋势是不断淤积,但不同时期淤积速度大不一样,个别时期甚至会发生一定程度的冲刷,这主要与动力条件的波动有关.1842～1997年,共淤积泥沙38.10亿t,平均每年淤积0.246亿t,约占长江来沙的5%,年均淤厚为1.1cm泥沙淤积部位主要在九段沙、横沙及横沙东滩、崇明东滩三处.发生冲刷的范围较小,仅占总面积的21.4%,主要在北槽,北港上段和南槽局部也有轻微的冲刷发生.     

Three‐dimensional simulation of tsunami run‐up around conical island

At the circular Babi Island in the Flores tsunami (1992) and pear shaped island in the Okushiri event (1993), unexpectedly large tsunami run‐up heights in the lee of conic islands were observed. The flume and basin physical model studies were conducted in the Coastal Hydraulic Laboratory, Engineering Research and Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide a better understanding of the physical phenomena and verify numerical models used in predicting tsunami wave run‐up on beaches, islands, and vertical walls. Reasonably accurate comparison of run‐up height of solitary waves on a circular island has been obtained between laboratory experimental results and two‐dimensional computation model results. In this study we apply three‐dimensional RANS model to simulate wave run‐up on conical island. In the run‐up computation we obtain that 3D calculations are in very good comparison with laboratory and 2D numerical results. A close examination of the three‐dimensional velocity distribution around conical island to compare with depth‐integrated model is performed. It is shown that the velocity distribution along the vertical coordinate is not uniform: and velocity field is weaker in the bottom layer and higher on the sea surface. The maximum difference (about 40%) appears at the time when solitary wave reached the circular island.     

浙江省海岸侵蚀及防治概述

浙江海岸侵蚀现象普遍存在。基岩海岸海蚀地貌发育,因其组成物质抗冲蚀能力强,岸线后退不明显;砂砾质海岸普遍发生侵蚀,尤其是无计划的人工挖沙,造成沙滩减小或消失;淤泥质海岸大多处于缓慢的淤涨状态,但由于自然条件的改变和人为作用的影响,某些岸段发生侵蚀,特别是受到台风暴潮的影响,岸线在短时间内出现大规模后退和滩面下蚀。侵蚀岸段主要见于杭州湾北岸澉浦至金丝娘桥岸段,杭州湾南岸临山至西三岸段及瓯江口北岸盘石至黄华岸段。淤泥质海岸后缘为滨海平原,组成物质为粘土质粉砂,抗冲蚀能力弱,为防止和减轻海岸侵蚀,沿岸建造各类海岸工程(海塘、丁坝、导堤等),提高防潮抗浪能力,在朝滩种植大米草,互花米草,消浪促淤明显。另外,在海岸开发活动中,应加强海岸侵蚀监测和综合管理。     

Nonparametric Estimates of the Sea State Bias for the Jason-1 Radar Altimeter

The Jason-1 sea state bias (SSB) is analyzed in depth from the first year of GDR products. Compared to previous missions, this work benefits from two aspects of the empirical determination of the SSB from the altimetric data themselves. First, from a methodological point of view, a nonparametric technique (NP) has been developed and largely tested on TOPEX/Poseidon 1, GFO and Envisat data. The NP estimator has proven to be a useful tool in the SSB estimation, and it is now mature enough to be used for a refined analysis. On the other hand, the SSB can be extracted from three different data sets (crossovers, collinear data, and residuals) with different characteristics. It is then possible to cross calibrate various estimations of the SSB models and to determine the most accurate one. A systematic comparison is made between these different estimates for the Jason-1 altimeter. The collinear and crossover data sets yield very similar estimates despite their difference of spatial and temporal distributions. These SSB models assure consistency with the TOPEX mission when comparing Jason-1 and TOPEX residuals during the tandem phase. Thanks to the present work, the impact of the short wavelengths filtering on the SSB estimation is evidenced. More generally, our understanding of potential errors affecting the sea surface height and their impact onto the SSB estimation is also improved.     

State Estimation of the North Pacific Ocean by a Four-Dimensional Variational Data Assimilation Experiment

A four-dimensional variational data assimilation system has been applied to an experiment to describe the dynamic state of the North Pacific Ocean. A synthesis of available observational records and a sophisticated ocean general circulation model produces a dynamically consistent dataset, which, in contrast to the nudging approach, provides realistic features of the seasonally-varying ocean circulation with no artificial sources/sinks for temperature and salinity fields. This new dataset enables us to estimate heat and water mass transports in addition to the qualification of water mass formation and movement processes. A sensitivity experiment on our assimilation system reveals that the origin of the North Pacific Intermediate Water can be traced back to the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea in the subarctic region and to the subtropical Kuroshio region further south. These results demonstrate that our data assimilation system is a very powerful tool for the identification and characterization of ocean variabilities and for our understanding of the dynamic state of ocean circulation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.