Authigenic carbonates from the eastern Black Sea as an archive for shallow gas hydrate dynamics – Results from the combination of CT imaging with mineralogical and stable isotope analyses

Authigenic carbonates associated with cold seeps provide valuable archives of changes in the long-term seepage activity. To investigate the role of shallow-buried hydrates on the seepage strength and fluid composition we analysed methane-derived carbonate precipitates from a high-flux hydrocarbon seepage area (“Batumi seep area”) located on the south-eastern Black Sea slope in ca. 850 m. In a novel approach, we combined computerized X-ray tomography (CT) with mineralogical and isotope geochemical methods to get additional insights into the three-dimensional internal structure of the carbonate build-ups.     

帕劳群岛附近海域延绳钓渔场大眼金枪鱼(Thunnus obesus)的环境偏好

2005年8—12月,利用金枪鱼延绳钓渔船对帕劳群岛附近海域进行调查,研究大眼金枪鱼的环境偏好。所获数据包括:①温度、盐度、溶解氧垂直分布,测定的钓钩深度;②作业参数;③渔场气象数据;④渔获统计数据。分析方法和步骤为:①应用逐步回归的方法,建立钓钩预测深度计算模型;②根据温度、盐度、溶解氧垂直分布曲线、预测深度、取样数据,利用统计和聚类分析的方法分析大眼金枪鱼的环境偏好。结果表明:①在帕劳群岛附近海域,大眼金枪鱼偏好的水层为180.0—219.9m、水温范围为11.0—12.9℃、盐度范围为34.50—34.99、溶解氧范围为3.00—3.99mg/L;②一般情况下,水温及其体温的变化决定成熟大眼金枪鱼的活动水层,其偏好的水温为10.0—14.0℃;③大眼金枪鱼的适盐性较广;④溶解氧高于门限值(0.8mg/L)时,大眼金枪鱼的分布由其它环境因子决定。     

Methods for monitoring tidal flushing in large animal burrows in tropical mangrove swamps

The typically anaerobic nature of mangrove sediments provides significant challenges to the mangrove trees and biota inhabiting them. The burrowing activities and flow of water through the numerous and complex animal burrows perforating the sediments of mangroves have a major influence on the biogeochemistry of the sediments and are important to the enhancement of nutrient and oxygen exchange. Two new methods are presented for monitoring the tidal flushing of Sesarma messa and Alpheus cf macklay burrows in a Rhizophora stylosa mangrove forest – by measuring oxygen content of burrow water and by determining the change in fluorescence of a dye tracer through tidal inundation. A case study using the first of these showed oxygen consumption rates at the burrow wall deep within the burrow were found to be between 210 and 460 μmol O₂ m⁻² h⁻¹. The influx of oxygen during a flood tide was found to be significant and indicated that approximately 40% of the burrow water is flushed during a single tidal event. However, the high consumption rate of oxygen within the burrow resulted in the oxygen concentration remaining at or below one-third of the oxygen content of the flooding tidal water. A test application of the second method, using rhodamine dye as a tracer, indicated that the exchange of water between the burrow and the flooding tide was found to be in the order of 30% of the burrow volume. These new techniques provide a means to further study the nutrient exchange within these burrow systems and verify the initial findings that several tidal inundations are necessary to completely flush the burrows.     

Assessing fish quality status in transitional waters,within the European Water Framework Directive: Setting boundary classes and responding to anthropogenic pressures

Validation of the AZTI's Fish Index (AFI), proposed for the Basque Country (northern Spain), in assessing fish quality within the Water Framework Directive (WFD), is undertaken. The response to anthropogenic pressure is investigated, in setting the boundaries between the different quality status classes. Hence, 12 estuaries were sampled, at different frequencies, between 1989 and 2007, by means of a beam trawl. Significant (p < 0.0001) correlations were found between the AFI and oxygen saturation and ammonia. Oxygen quality standards are used to set boundaries between quality classes. Then, the AFIs obtained are compared with different anthropogenic pressures, including urban and industrial discharges, engineering works and dredging. The effects of the removal of some of these pressures are also studied. The total number of pressures within an estuary shows significant (p < 0.009) negative correlation with AFI, explaining between 51 and 62% of the variability in fish quality. The impact of pressures upon fish and demersal assemblages is detected as required by the WFD. Nonetheless, further investigation and intercalibration of the methods used, are necessary.     

The restoration of fishing services and the conveyance of risk information in the Southern California Bight

Southern California's marine areas are heavily contaminated with dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorinated-biphenyls (PCBs), and fish consumption advisories (FCAs) have been issued throughout the region. Between 2002 and 2003, the Montrose Angler Survey, a large-scale survey of subsistence anglers, was developed and implemented on site in Orange and Los Angeles counties. This survey was intended to assist natural resource trustees in the development of restoration programs that will address injuries to natural resources and restore lost economic services for anglers, but the data were never fully analyzed. The trustees have shown a clear preference for ecological restoration programs that may take years to improve fishing services. In contrast, this analysis, which includes a random-parameter fishing site choice model, demonstrates that simple, inexpensive programs such as better signage to warn of FCAs and transportation to clean sites have the potential to yield substantial benefits quickly. This paper also focuses on how different ethnic minority groups are affected by FCAs, and determines how best to communicate risk information and change fishing behavior through outreach programs.     

Long-term bottom water warming in the north Ross Sea

We measured potential temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen profiles from the surface to the bottom at two locations in the north Ross Sea (65.2°S, 174.2°E and 67.2°S, 172.7°W) in December 2004. Comparison of our data with previous results from the same region reveals an increase in potential temperature and decreases in salinity and dissolved oxygen concentration in the bottom layer (deeper than 3000 m) over the past four decades. The changes were significantly different from the analytical precisions. Detailed investigation of the temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and σ ₃ value distributions and the bottom water flow in the north Ross Sea suggests a long-term change in water mass mixing balance. That is to say, it is speculated that the influence of cool, saline, high-oxygen bottom water (high-salinity Ross Sea Bottom Water) formed in the southwestern Ross Sea has possibly been decreased, while the influences of relatively warmer and fresher bottom water (low-salinity Ross Sea Bottom Water) and the Adélie Land Bottom Water coming from the Australia-Antarctic Basin have increased. The possible impact of global warming on ocean circulation needs much more investigation.     

Grey relational analysis on the relation between marine environmental factors and oxidation-reduction potential

The effects of marine environmental factors-temperature(T),dissolved oxygen(DO),salinity(S) and pH-on the oxidation-reduction potential(ORP) of natural seawater were studied in laboratory.The results show an indistinct relationship between these four factors and the ORP,but they did impact the ORP.Common mathematical methods were not applicable for describing the relationship.Therefore,a grey relational analysis(GRA) method was developed.The degrees of correlation were calculated according to GRA and the va...     

A VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION MODEL OF NUTRIENTS AND DISSOLVED OXYGEN IN THE SOUTHERN TAIWAN STRAIT

Sinoe vertical transport of nutrients and dissolved oxygen are quite important in the water col-umn and have drawn serious attention these recent years, a one-dmension numerical model is tried to simulate the vertical distribution of nutrients and dissolved oxygen in June at two research sites in the southemTaiwan Strait. Physical transport parameters are calibrated by temperature simulation, and thenare used to simulate the profiles of NO_3, PO_4 and dissolved oxygen. The simulation was generally success-ful for both stations. The importance of various factors, such as upwelling tidal current andbiogeochemical activities, which influence the vertical distribution of nutrients and dissolved oxygen, is revealed by analysis of the modeling results. Some important rates, fluxes and ratios are also estimated anddiscussed on the basis of simulation.     

Predicting size effect on diffusion-limited current density of oxygen reduction by copper wire

The size effect of copper wire radius (0.04–0.82 mm) on the diffusion-limited current density of an oxygen reduction reaction in stagnant simulated seawater (naturally aerated 0.5 mol/L NaCl) is investigated by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and compared with the results obtained in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4. In the oxygen diffusion-limited range, size effect is found to occur independent of electrolytes, which is attributed to non-linear diffusion. Additionally, to sati...