Low-frequency variability of the North Equatorial Current bifurcation in the past 40 years from SODA

The low-frequency variability of the North Equatorial Current (NEC) bifurcation during 1958 to 2001 was investigated with the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) 2.0.2 dataset.In agreement with recent observations,the NEC bifurcation latitude (NBL) shifted northward as depth increases, from about 12.7°N near the surface to about 17.1°N at depths around 500 m for the annual average. This study reveals that the interannual variations of NBL,with five years period,mainly focused on the upper 500 m with amplitude increasing as depth increased.The NBL shifted southward in the past 40 years,which was more significant in the subsurface at more than -0.02°/a.The NBL manifests itself in the transports of NMK (NEC-Mindanao Current (MC)-Kuroshio) system in strong relationship with MC (0.7) and Kuroshio (-0.7).The EOF analysis of meridional velocity off the Philippine coast shows that the first mode,explaining 62% of variance and 5 years period,was highly correlated with the southward shift of NBL with coefficient at about 0.75.The southward shift of NBL consists with the weakening of MC and strengthening of Kuroshio,which exhibited linear trends at -0.24Sv/a and 0.11Sv/a.Both interannual variation and trend of NBL were closely related to the variation of NMK system.     

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     

太平洋年代际海洋变率研究进展

随着“气候变率与可预报性研究”（CLIVAR计划）的实施，年代际气候变率研究已经成为国际气候研究的一个新热点，由于海洋特别是海洋次表层具有巨大的热损性，海洋环流在年代际气候变率中所起的作用已得到越来越多的重视。但迄今为止，海洋以什么方式参与到年代际气候变化中，海洋次表层在年际和年代际时间尺度上起到什么作用这些与海洋环流有关的问题仍未得到解决，而这些问题的解决将有助于建立一种完备的年代际气候变化机制的理论，文章通过对近10a来国内外在该领域内研究进展的回顾，提出了一个关于太平洋年际变化（如ENSO循环）和年代际变化（如PDO循环）相互作用的猜想，为今后在国内开展相关研究提供了一些设想。     

Abundance of the introduced seastar, Asterias amurensis, and spatial variability in soft sediment assemblages in SE Tasmania: Clear correlations but complex interpretation

The northern Pacific seastar, Asterias amurensis, was first collected in southeast Tasmania in 1986. Mistaken for the endemic asteroid Uniophora granifera, its true identity was not realised until 1992. It is now a conspicuous predator in soft sediment habitats in this region, and is considered a major threat to native assemblages and commercial species. We examined the structure of soft sediment assemblages at different spatial scales in southeast Tasmania, and correlated spatial variation in community composition with seastar abundances. We found that the structure of soft sediment assemblages is highly variable at a range of spatial scales from metres to tens of kilometres. Clear differences in the composition of assemblages and abundances of major taxa were detected between areas with and without seastars and between areas with low and high seastar densities. However, the nature of these patterns suggests that they are more likely due to differences in sediment characteristics than due to impacts of the seastar. Thus, spatial differences in soft sediment assemblages might have been erroneously attributed to seastars without detailed information on important physical factors such as sediment characteristics. A second survey, using larger sampling units (1 m²) but across a more limited spatial extent, targeted bivalves and heart urchins that were identified as important prey of the seastar in observations of feeding and in experimental studies. Large-scale patterns of abundance and size structure were consistent with seastar effects anticipated from small-scale experimental and feeding studies for some, but not all, species. While the field survey ultimately provided evidence about the presence or absence of seastar impacts at large-scales, the identification of key ecological variables in experimental and feeding studies proved crucial to both the design and interpretation of patterns observed in the large-scale surveys. Overall, this work highlighted the necessity to consider multiple lines of evidence rather than relying on a single ‘inferential’ test, in the absence of pre-impact data.     

Numerical study of the summer temperature decrease induced by the enhancement of estuarine circulation in Fukuoka Bay

The Princeton Ocean Model with realistic bottom topography has been used to investigate the summer temperature decrease in the past 25 years in Fukuoka Bay. The vertical mixing of the model is expressed by a scheme that effectively includes the influences of interannual variations of tidal currents and wind. The results show that the historical temperature decrease in summer has been caused by tidal currents and wind weakening in the past 25 years in Fukuoka Bay. The weakening of tidal currents and wind gives rise to weakening of the vertical mixing, and to enhancement of the estuarine circulation in the bay. The enhancement of the estuarine circulation activates the inflow of open-ocean water toward Fukuoka Bay. Coastal water in summer has therefore tended to be colder and more saline in the past 25 years. This interannual variation in coastal waters is called “open-oceanization” in this study. On the basis of the numerical model, it is anticipated that the temperature will decrease by 0.2°C in the next 25 years in Fukuoka Bay if the tide and wind weaken persistently as in the present bay.     

Decadal-scale morphologic variability of managed coastal dunes

Coastal dunes located in densely populated areas provide various services to man, such as protection against flooding during storm surges. Since coastal dunes are dynamic features, the level of protection they provide varies in time. Therefore, management interventions are often undertaken to stabilize the dunes to reduce the natural variability. This study provides quantitative insight into the morphologic variability of managed foredunes over time spans of decades. We used Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis on a 45 year data set of annually surveyed dune profiles along 97 km of the Netherlands' coast. On average, 70% of the deviations from the time-averaged profiles could be related to cross-shore coherent changes in foredune shape as mapped onto EOF 1. These changes are often largely due to morphologic developments occurring near the dunefoot. Changes in dune shape were coherent over time as well as in the longshore direction albeit with different characteristic patterns along the coast. These results show that managed foredunes may still exhibit considerable morphologic variability that should not be ignored in long-term dune safety assessment studies.     

伽马射线暴的光度-光变复杂度关系

伽马射线暴的光变复杂度是描述其光变曲线复杂程度的物理量.由已知红移的伽马射线暴,Reichart等人发现其光变复杂度与各向同性光度之间有正相关性(LαVα,α在1.77～3.5之间),即光变越复杂,光度越高.此相关性类似于造父变星的周光关系,可用来估计伽马暴的距离和红移.调研、分析了各种光变复杂度的定义、算法和光变复杂度-各向同性光度关系的拟合结果,最后对光变复杂度和光度之间的关系做了总结和展望.     

One zone modeling of irregular variability of stellar convective envelope

One zone modeling of the irregular variability of red super-giants is intended with regard to the nonlinear coupling of finite amplitude pulsation with convection. The nonlocal mixing length is employed for the evaluation of the convective flux, the turbulent pressure and the turbulent power of temperature fluctuations. The radial pulsation and the Boussinesq convection are assumed for simplicity. The one zone is defined as the layer having the entropy maximum and the minimum at the bottom and at the top, respectively. The quasi-adiabatic approximation is consistent with this definition in fixing the zone to the same mass range. The spatial derivatives are evaluated under the assumption of homologous changes with the equilibrium homologous parameters. Then, a set of 6 simultaneous first order nonlinear ordinary differential equations are obtained as the one zone representation of the irregular variability of the convective envelope.