Late Quaternary Seasonal Sea-Ice History of the Northeastern Japan Sea

The Late Quaternary sea-ice history of the northeastern Japan Sea is discussed on the basis of the occurrence of dropstones and ice-rafted debris (IRD) in fine sediment cores. IRD was found in all strata except those from the Holocene and oxygen isotope stage 5.5. The largest expansion of sea ice was recognized at the last glacial maximum (LGM; oxygen isotope stage 2), when the southern margin of seasonal sea ice was probably located in the vicinity of the Matsumae Plateau. The margin might occasionally have expanded further southward to off the Oga Peninsula. Sea ice expanded southward from mid-stage 5 to the LGM in response to global cooling, but with much fluctuation. Sea ice remained during deglaciation until around 10 ka, but after 10 ka it retreated northward rapidly in response to global warming and changes in surface water conditions. Greater fluctuations in IRD were found in core GH95-1208 collected from off Rumoi, Hokkaido, Japan. More IRD was found in sediments from late stage 3, late stage 5, and early stage 6. The fluctuations were not concordant with global climate changes (based on the standard oxygen isotope curve), and may have been controlled by regional climate factors such as the strength of the winter monsoon, which is related in turn to high-latitude atmospheric circulation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Imaging of Buried Archaeological Materials: The Reflection Properties of Archaeological Wood

Effective marine archaeological site management demands detailed information on not only the spatial distribution of artefacts but also the degradation state of the materials present. Although sonar methods have frequently been used in an attempt to detect buried wooden shipwrecks they are currently unable to indicate their degradation state. To assess the sensitivity of acoustic measurements to changes in the degradation state of such material, and hence the potential for sonars to quantify degradation, laboratory measurements of compressional wave velocity, as well as bulk density for oak and pine samples, in varying states of decay, were undertaken. These data enabled the calculation of theoretical reflection coefficients for such materials buried in various marine sediments. As wood degrades, the reflection coefficients become more negative, resulting in the hypothesis that the more degraded wood becomes, the easier it should be to detect. Typical reflection coefficients of the order of −0.43 and −0.52 for the most degraded oak and pine samples in sand are predicted. Conversely, for wood exposed to seawater the predicted reflection coefficients are large and positive for undegraded material (0.35 for oak, 0.18 for pine) and decrease to zero or slightly below for the most degraded samples. This indicates that exposed timbers, when heavily degraded, can be acoustically transparent and so undetectable by acoustic methods. Corroboration of these experimental results was provided through comparison with high resolution seismic reflection data that has been acquired over two shipwrecks.     

Multi-decadal synthesis of benthic–pelagic coupling in the western arctic: Role of cross-shelf advective processes

Using geographic information systems (GIS) software and geostatistical techniques, we utilized three decades of water-column chlorophyll a data to examine the relative importance of autochthonous versus allochthonous sources of reduced carbon to benthic communities that occur from the northern Bering to the eastern Beaufort Sea shelf. Spatial trend analyses revealed areas of high benthic biomass (>300 g m⁻²) and chlorophyll (>150 mg m⁻²) on both the southern and northern Chukchi shelf; both areas are known as depositional centers for reduced organic matter that originates on the Bering Sea shelf and is advected northward in Anadyr and Bering shelf water masses. We found a significant correlation between biomass and chlorophyll a in the Chukchi Sea, reflective of the strong benthic–pelagic coupling in a system that is utilized heavily by benthic-feeding marine mammals. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between biomass and chlorophyll in the Beaufort Sea, which by comparison, is considerably less productive (biomass and chlorophyll, <75 g m⁻² and <50 mg m⁻², respectively). One notable exception is an area of relatively high biomass (50–100 g m⁻²) and chlorophyll (80 mg m⁻²) near Barter Island in the eastern Beaufort Sea. Compared to other adjacent areas in the Beaufort Sea, the chlorophyll values in the vicinity of Barter Island were considerably higher and likely reflect a long-hypothesized upwelling in that area and close coupling between the benthos and autochthonous production. In the Bering Sea, a drop in benthic biomass in 1994 compared with previous measurements (1974–1993) may support earlier observations that document a decline in biomass that began between the 1980s and 1990s in the Chirikov Basin and south of St. Lawrence Island. The results of this study indicate that the benthos is an excellent long-term indicator of both local and physical advective processes. In addition, this work provides further evidence that secondary production on arctic shelves can be significantly augmented by reduced carbon advected from highly productive adjacent shelves.     

Using the Mellor–Yamada mixing scheme in seasonally ice-covered seas—Corrigendum to: Parameterization of vertical mixing in the Weddell Sea [Ocean Modelling 6 (2004) 83–100]

A coding error in the s-Coordinate Primitive Equation Model (SPEM) has led to misleading statements about the behaviour of the Mellor–Yamada level 2 parameterization of vertical mixing. It has been claimed that the scheme removes static instability only very slowly and preserves statically unstable stratifications for an unrealistic long time. This note corrects this statement by demonstrating that the Mellor–Yamada mixing scheme, if implemented correctly, tends to overestimate rather than underestimate vertical mixing in seasonally ice-covered seas. Similar to other mixing schemes with the same behaviour, this leads to spurious open ocean deep convection, an unrealistic homogenization of the water column, and a significant reduction of sea ice volume.     

Variations in wave direction estimated using first and second order Fourier coefficients

In most design applications such as alignment of the berthing structure and breakwater alignment, it becomes necessary to determine the direction of design wave. There are two different approaches to determine wave direction. One involves the use of first order Fourier coefficients (mean wave direction) while the other uses second order Fourier coefficients (principal wave direction). Both the average wave direction over the entire frequency range (0.03–0.58 Hz) and the direction corresponding to the peak frequency are used in practice. In the present study, comparison is made on wave directions estimated based on first and second order Fourier coefficients using data collected at four locations in the west and east coasts of India. Study shows that at all locations, the mean and principal wave directions for frequencies ranging from 0.07 to 0.25 Hz (±0.5 times peak frequency) co-vary with a correlation coefficient of 0.99 but at lower and higher frequencies, difference between the parameters is large. Average difference between the mean wave direction at peak frequency and the average over the frequency related to spectral energy more than 20% of maximum value is less, around 13°. Study shows that average difference in the sea and swell directions is around 39°.     

关于南海暖水季节和年际变化的研究

阐述了研究南海暖水的意义 ,综述了关于南海暖水的现状 ,提出了关于南海暖水季节和年际变化方面应该研究的问题     

南海南部粉红色 Globigerinoides ruber 冰期旋回及影响因素

对南海南部ODP1143站氧同位素11-5e期大约2ka分辨率的粉红色Globigerinoides ruber进行分析,发现其冰期／间冰期旋回与代表全球冰量的底栖有孔虫氧同位素(δ^18O)的变化相反,即在间冰期时含量低,而冰期时高,与其他海区的记录相反。海水表层温度和温跃层深度转换函数结果以及碎壳率的变化显示,在一定的温度背景下,温跃层深度的变化可能是控制粉红色G．ruber冰期旋回的主要因素,而这段时期南海南部溶解作用的影响则不明显。     

Competition within the marine microalgae over the polar dark period in the Greenland Sea of high Arctic

Abstract-With the onset of winter, polar marine microalgae would have faced total darkness for aperiod of up to 6 months. A natural autumn community of Arctic sea ice microalgae was collected fordark survival experiments from the Greenland Sea during the ARKTIS-XI/2 Expedition of RV Po-larstern in October 1995. After a dark period of 161 days, species dominance in the algal assemblagehave changed from initially pennate diatoms to small phytoflagellates (<20μm). Over the entire darkperiod, the mean algal growth rate was-0.01 d~(-1). Nearly all diatom species had negative growthrates, while phytoflagellate abundance increased. Resting spore formation during the dark period was ob-served in less than 4.5% of all cells and only for dinoflagellates and the diatom Chaetoceros spp. We as-sume that facultative heterotrophy and energy storage are the main processes enabling survival during thedark Arctic winter. After an increase in light intensity, microalgal cells reacted with fast growth withindays. Phytoffa     

A method to estimate the forces exerted by internal solitons on cylindrical piles

Internal soliton is the large amplitude wave existing in the pycnocline, induced by internal tide in the condition of special bottom topography. During its propagation process, the induced disturbance can bring about strong convergence of sea water and sudden strong current (wave-induced-current), which can cause severe threat to the ocean engineering structures, such as oil drilling platform and pipeline. In this paper, Morison’s empirical method, modal separation and regression analyses are introduced to estimate the forces and torques exerted by internal soliton on cylindrical piles. As an example, a limited set of observational data recording a passage of the internal soliton near Dongsha Islands is used to estimate the horizontal velocity and its acceleration in a vertical section for computing the force and torque on a supposed pile, and the estimation results are reasonable. It is shown that, the higher number of the modes retained in the calculation, the better the estimation of velocity profile fits the observational one. A better overall approximation to the real solution can be reached if there are more observational current data acquired in a whole vertical profile.