Studies on the Coral Reefs of the South China Sea: From Global Change to Oil-Gas Exploration

Studies on the coral reefs of the South China Sea (SCS) was the theme of the 6th Session of the 3rd Conference on Earth System Science (CESS) in Shanghai, 2014. This session discussed the most recent study developments on the SCS coral reefs, including coral reefs’ responses to global changes, coral reefs’ records on past climatic variations, and the activities about constructions and oil gas explorations in the coral reefs areas of the SCS. Disturbed by intensive anthropogenic activities and global climate warming, coral reefs in the SCS have declined dramatically, reflecting the up to 80% decrease of living coral cover and many areas having less than 20% of living coral cover. Geochemical data of SCS coral skeletons clearly show that since the Industry Revolution, the pollution situation of the SCS have dramatically increased and the seawater pH values have been continuously lowering, i.e. oceanic acidification. All these environmental phenomenon are further stressing the healthy development of the coral reef ecosystem in the SCS. Meanwhile, the poor coral reef ecosystems in the SCS are facing more anthropogenic disturbances such as coastal developments and engineering constructions. Obviously, the SCS coral reefs will be faced with more environmental challenges in the coming future. We therefore suggest that the policy makers should realize the extreme importance and the fragile of the coral reef ecosystems, and scientifically and with great cautions design construction project when in coral reef areas. We initiated the concept of “green engineering” for future developments in coral reef areas. Coral reefs are widely spreading in the whole SCS, and most of them developed since Miocene. Variations in coral reef structures provide good future oil-gas exploration. Because the SCS coral reefs have a long-developing history and a wide spatial distribution, they provide great potential in recording past environmental changes.     

安徽巢湖地区中二叠统栖霞组灰岩中燧石成因

安徽省巢湖地区中二叠统栖霞组以发育一套滨海沼泽－浅海碳酸盐台地环境为主的细碎屑岩至碳酸盐岩沉积建造为特征,灰岩中常见结核状及条带状燧石。燧石多为椭球状和串珠状,部分燧石与灰岩间发育宽约0.5 cm的过渡带。镜下观察灰岩为微晶生物碎屑灰岩;过渡带也多由微晶方解石组成,多数钙质生物壳体被石英充填或半充填,扫描电镜下可见方解石微溶、石英充填溶孔的现象;燧石主要为隐晶及微晶石英,生物碎屑类型与灰岩中基本一致,且多被石英交代。岩石学特征表明死亡的生物在腐烂降解过程中形成的有机酸抑制了碳酸钙的沉淀,并使部分生物碎屑及灰泥发生溶蚀,胶质二氧化硅沉淀,形成燧石结核。燧石中w(Al)/w(Al+Fe+Mn)平均值为0.63,远大于热水沉积硅质岩的最大值0.35;Fe/Ti平均值为9.5,小于热水成因的最小值20;Al-Fe-Mn三角图投点位于非热液成因区域;燧石中Al₂O₃含量平均值为0.20%,远高于MgO、Na₂O、K₂O的含量。分析认为,该区燧石结核的二氧化硅可能来源于陆源物质。     

The co-location of offshore windfarms and decapod fisheries in the UK: Constraints and opportunities

The offshore wind sector in the UK is expanding rapidly and is set to occupy significant areas of the coastal zone, making it necessary to explore the potential for co-location with other economic activities. The presence of turbine foundations introduces hard substrates into areas previously dominated by soft sediments, implying that artificial reef effects may occur, with potential benefits for fisheries. This review focuses on the possibilities for locating fisheries for two commercially important decapods, the brown crab Cancer pagurus and the European lobster Homarus gammarus, within offshore wind farms.Existing understanding of habitat use by C. pagurus and H. gammarus suggests that turbine foundations have the potential to act as artificial reefs, although the responses of these species to noise and electromagnetic fields are poorly understood. Offshore wind farm monitoring programmes provide very limited information, but do suggest that adult C. pagurus associate with turbine foundations, which may also serve as nursery areas. There was insufficient deployment and monitoring of rock armouring to draw conclusions about the association of H. gammarus with offshore wind farm foundations. The limited information currently available demonstrates the need for further research into the ecological and socio-economic issues surrounding fishery co-location potential.     

Warm‐temperate,marine, carbonate sedimentation in an Early Miocene,tide‐influenced,incised valley; Provence,south‐east France

The Saumane‐Venasque compound palaeovalley succession accumulated in a strongly tide‐influenced embayment or estuary. Warm‐temperate normal marine to brackish conditions led to deposition of extensive cross‐bedded biofragmental calcarenites. Echinoids, bryozoans, coralline algae, barnacles and benthic foraminifera were produced in seagrass meadows, on rocky substrates colonized by macroalgae and within subaqueous dune fields. There are two sequences, S1 and S2, the first of which contains three high‐frequency sequences (S1a, S1b and S1c). Sequence 1 is largely confined to the palaeovalley with its upper part covering interfluves. Each of these has a similar upward succession of deposits that includes: (i) a basal erosional surface that is bored and glauconitized; (ii) a discontinuous lagoonal lime mudstone or wackestone; (iii) a thin conglomerate generated by tidal ravinement; (iv) a transgressive systems tract series of cross‐bedded calcarenites; (v) a maximum flooding interval of argillaceous, muddy quartzose, open‐marine limestones; and (vi) a thin highstand systems tract of fine‐grained calcarenite. Tidal currents during stages S1a, S1b and S1c were accentuated by the constricted valley topography, whereas basin‐scale factors enhanced tidal currents during the deposition of S2. The upper part of the succession in all but S1c has been removed by later erosion. There is an overall upward temporal change with quartz, barnacles, encrusting corallines and epifaunal echinoids decreasing but bryozoans, articulated corallines and infaunal echinoids increasing. This trend is interpreted to be the result of changing oceanographic conditions as the valley was filled, bathymetric relief was reduced, rocky substrates were replaced as carbonate factories by seagrass meadows and subaqueous dunes, and the setting became progressively less confined and more open marine. These limestones are characteristic of a suite of similar cool‐water calcareous sand bodies in environments with little siliciclastic or fresh water input during times of high‐amplitude sea‐level change wherein complex inboard antecedent topography was flooded by a rising ocean.     

Occurrence of brackish water phytoplankton species at a closed coral reef in Nansha Islands, South China Sea

The phytoplankton assemblage of Zhubi Reef, a closed coral reef in Nansha Islands (South China Sea, SCS) was studied in June 2007. A total of 92 species belonging to 53 genera and four phyla have been identified. The dominant taxa in the lagoon were the diatom Chaetoceros and cyanobacteria Nostoc and Microcystis, while in reef flats were cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum, dinoflagellates Gymnodinium and Prorocentrum. The species richness and diversity were consistently lower in the lagoon than in reef flats. Classification and nMDS ordination also revealed significant dissimilarity in phytoplankton community structure between the reef flat and lagoon, with statistical difference in species composition and abundance between them (ANOSIM, p = 0.025). Nutrient concentrations also spatially varied, with ammonium-enrichment in the lagoon, while high Si-concentration existed in reef flat areas. Both nutrient levels and currents in SCS may play important roles in determining the composition and distribution of microalgae in Zhubi Reef and SCS.     

Carbonate deposits on submerged seamounts in the northwestern Pacific Ocean

Abstract   The lithology of shallow-water carbonates collected from 19 sites on 16 seamounts in six areas of the northwestern Pacific Ocean using the Deep-sea Boring Machine System are described. The areas include the Amami Plateau, Daito Ridge, Oki-Daito Ridge, Urdaneta Plateau, Kyushu-Palau Ridge and Ogasawara Plateau. Chronological constraint is provided by calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, larger foraminiferal biostratigraphy and strontium (Sr) isotope stratigraphy. Large amounts of shallow-water carbonates accumulated on the seamounts during the Oligocene, a relatively cool period, whereas limited carbonate deposits formed during the Early Miocene, a relatively warm period. This might indicate that deposition of shallow-water carbonates on seamounts in the northwestern Pacific Ocean was not necessarily controlled by climatic conditions, but was related to volcanism and tectonics that served as foundations for reef/carbonate-platform formation. Remarkable differences in biotic composition exist between Cretaceous and Cenozoic shallow-water carbonates. Late Cretaceous shallow-water carbonates are distinguished by the occurrence of rudists, solenoporacean algae and microencrusters. Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene shallow-water carbonates are dominated by Halimeda or nummulitid and discocyclinid larger foraminifers. Scleractinian corals became common from the Oligocene onward. Nongeniculate coralline algae and larger foraminifers were common to abundant throughout the Eocene to the Pleistocene. The replacement of major carbonate producers in the shallow-water carbonate factory during post-Cretaceous time is in accordance with previous studies and is considered to reflect a shift in seawater chemistry.     

Differential Diagenesis of Limestone-Marl Alternations

灰岩-泥灰岩韵律层包括结核状灰岩到灰岩和泥灰岩互层,广泛分布在陆棚及深海环境中,出现于各地质时期,是研究高分辨率地层学和环境恢复的理想工具.但是成岩作用在灰岩-泥灰岩韵律层形成过程中的作用一直存在分歧,有的学者认为差异化学压实成岩作用加强了原始沉积的差异,有的学者认为成岩作用不仅能够强烈歪曲原始环境特征,还可以通过自身成岩作用形成与原始沉积特征类似的现象.灰岩-泥灰岩韵律层中的差异成岩作用是指泥灰岩中的不稳定碳酸盐矿物在海底成岩环境中经过溶解、迁移和在灰岩中再沉淀,导致灰岩层没有明显被压实,而泥灰岩层受到明显压实.本文重点评述了差异成岩作用发生的环境和过程,并对与之相关的胶结物来源问题和有机质在早期成岩过程中的作用进行了讨论.并以华南中二叠统栖霞组韵律层为例,探讨了差异成岩作用在其形成过程中的作用,最后对以后的研究方向进行了展望.     

石灰岩细观力学特性的颗粒流模拟

岩体地区地质灾害的发生和发展取决于岩石细观组分的运动学行为。研究岩石运动学行为时通常将岩石作为整体研究对象较多,而直接以细观组分为对象的研究较少。以石灰岩为例,根据室内试验获得的岩石力学性质指标,使用基于非连续介质理论的颗粒流方法,将材料离散成刚性颗粒组成的模型,把颗粒细观变化与宏观力学特性联系起来,建立了石灰岩的细观结构模型,获得了颗粒接触力、颗粒接触模量、接触连接强度和连接刚度比等细观力学参数。由于文中直接以细观成分为研究对象、反映了岩石和岩体组成的本质特点,所得结论不仅对含裂隙岩石本构关系研究具有广阔的应用前景,而且对岩体工程性质和地质灾害机制研究也具有重要的理论意义。     

Depth–transport functions and erosion–deposition diagrams as indicators of slope inclination and time-averaged traction forces: applications in tropical reef environments

The trigonometric relationship between slope inclination, the horizontally acting time‐averaged traction force and the vertical depth of transport allows the estimation of one factor, when both others are known. Depth–transport functions can be deduced by comparing the depth distributions of living organisms and their skeletal remains, and this paper simplifies this comparison using foraminifera in which a single test represents an individual. Differences in distribution parameters between living individuals and empty tests allow depth–transport functions to be determined; these functions differ between species at a single transect according to the varying buoyancies of the tests. Within a single species, differences in depth–transport functions between locations are based on either slope inclination or traction intensities. After establishing a mean depth–transport function by averaging species‐characteristic functions, the time‐averaged traction force acting on the studied transect can be calculated. Transport intensities are also estimated using an erosion–deposition diagram that combines the relative frequency distributions of living individuals and empty tests. The proportion of ‘eroded’, ‘parautochthonous’ and ‘allochthonous’ tests mirrors the influence of both slope inclination and traction force for the deposition of empty tests. To test the model, six species of symbiont‐bearing benthic foraminifers were investigated at two transects in front of a NW Pacific coral reef. One transect is distinguished by a strong slope flattening below the steep reef slope (30 m), whereas further steepening characterizes the equivalent part in the other transect. These differences are mirrored in the depth–transport functions as well as in the erosion–deposition diagrams of all species. The time‐averaged traction forces differ in intensities between transects, because of the position of the reef front with respect to the predominant wind direction. However, the form of the functions is identical and distinguished by an increase from the surface to 35 m depth, followed by a decrease down to 105 m. This can be explained by successive onshore and offshore forces acting on the shallow slope, such as the tropical cyclones that cross the region every summer.     

Impact of the tsunami and earthquake of 26th December 2004 on the vital coastal ecosystems of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands assessed using RESOURCESAT AWiFS data

Tsunami waves struck the Indian coast on 26th December 2004 affecting the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands. A quick assessment of the status of the vital coastal ecosystems has been made using pre- and post-tsunami Advance Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data of Indian satellite RESOURCESAT with an accuracy of 87–90% and the Kappa ranging from 0.8696 to 0.9053. Among the coastal ecosystems the coral reefs have suffered the maximum with the Nicobar reefs (69% eroded and 29% degraded) bearing the brunt more than the Andaman reefs (54% eroded and 22% degraded). Significant improvement to the condition of the reef damaged due to backwash has been noted. About 41% of the Sentinel reef area has undergone significant improvement. The continuance of the erosion of the southwestern Andaman reefs is due to the impact of recurring earthquakes. The impact on mangroves of both the groups of islands has been due to uprooting as well as inundation of seawater and resulting stagnation. Changes are expected in community structure of mangroves as a result of tsunami.