Spatial and temporal patterns in the hyperbenthic community structure in a warm temperate southern African permanently open estuary

The spatial and temporal patterns in the hyperbenthic community structure (>500 μm) in the warm temperate, permanently open Kariega Estuary situated along the south-eastern coastline of South Africa was investigated monthly over a period of twelve months. Data were collected using a modified hyperbenthic sledge at six stations along the length of the estuary. Physico-chemical data indicate the presence of a constant reverse salinity gradient, with highest salinities measured in the upper reaches and lowest at the mouth of the estuary. Strong seasonal patterns in temperature, dissolved oxygen and total chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration were evident. Total average hyperbenthic densities ranged between 0.4 and 166 ind.m⁻³ in the lower net and between 0.2 and 225 ind.m⁻³ in the upper net. Hyperbenthic biomass values ranged between 0.02 and 11.9 mg.dry weight.m⁻³ in the lower net and between 0.02 and 17.4 mg.dry weight.m⁻³ in the upper net. Both the lower and upper nets were numerically dominated by decapods (mainly brachyuran crab zoea) with the exception of June and July 2008 when mysids (mainly Mesopodopsis wooldridgei) dominated, comprising up to 72.4 ± 58.14% of the total abundance in the lower net. A redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that 99.2% of the variance in the hyperbenthic community structure could be explained by the first two canonical axes. Axis one, which accounted for 96.8% of the total variation detected in the ordination plot was highly correlated with sedimentary organic content and to a lesser extent the chl-a concentration within the Kariega Estuary. The correlations with the second canonical axis (2.4%) were less obvious, however, salinity and seston concentration were weakly correlated with this axis.     

基于新型高频声学多普勒流速剖面仪的河口近底部边界层观测初探

河口物质输运、能量交换与底边界层内的水动力过程密切相关,底边界层参数(如切应力、拖曳系数)的确定至关重要。挪威Nortek公司生产的新型声学多普勒流速剖面仪AD2CP相比传统ADCP具有高频、低噪的优点,可用于高频(16Hz)流速剖面观测,而被广泛应用于底边界层观测的ADV只能测量单点高频流速。本文采用AD2CP在长江口南槽最大浑浊带区域进行座底式观测,并与同步近底部三脚架上ADV的观测结果进行对比。结果表明,使用AD2CP测得的近底部平均流速与ADV的测量结果吻合良好;使用惯性耗散法计算了底切应力,基于ADV的单点高频流速数据计算结果为2.16×10~(-2)～5.69×10~(-1)N/m~2,基于AD2CP的结果为2.09×10~(-2)～4.26×10~(-1)N/m~2,二者范围大致相当。在此基础上,基于AD2CP数据计算出摩阻流速为4.55×10~(-3)～2.06×10~(-2)m/s、底拖曳系数范围为1.84×10~(-4)～2.49×10~(-3),与ADV的计算结果基本一致。此外,由于AD2CP可以获得高频的流速剖面数据,优于单点ADV,具备观测近底部边界层参数和边界层内湍流剖面的潜力。     

Numerical study of sand scour with a modified Eulerian model based on incipient motion theory

Application of the standard Eulerian model to simulations of sand scour results in unrealistic phenomena. Therefore, the present work develops a modified Eulerian model based on sand incipient motion theory. The modified model is applied for simulating a two-dimensional single vertical jet and a moving planar jet. The simulation results generally demonstrate fairly good agreement with published results of scour profiles and the velocity contours of the water and sand phases. In addition, equations to describe self-similar scour profiles for the moving planar jet cases are given. The results demonstrate that the modified model efficiently and accurately simulates the two-dimensional sand scour produced by jets, particularly for the moving jet cases.     

High parallelization efficiency in barotropic-mode computation of ocean models based on multi-grid boundary ghost area

In general, barotropic-mode computation requires the largest communication time in ocean models because of its iterative nature, when parallel computation is performed based on regional partitioning. In this study, reduction in the overhead time included in the communication in the parallel computation of the barotropic mode is considered to achieve a high parallelization efficiency of ocean models. We verify that the reduction in the communication frequency based on the multi-grid boundary ghost area reduces the total communication time. We find that this is because the sum of several kinds of overhead time for communication occupies a fairly large part of the total communication time. We discuss the trade-off between the decrease in communication time and the increase in computation time due to increased boundary area in such cases, leading to a determination of a suitable width of the multi-grid boundary that minimizes the total required time. We also discuss the efficiencies of the one- and two-dimensional partitioning of the model domain, when a multi-grid boundary is used. In general, two-dimensional partitioning is more efficient than one-dimensional for large partitioning numbers.     

南海冬季之西边界流：1998年2月的水文结构与体积输运

The unique survey in December 1998 mapped the entire western boundary area of the South China Sea(SCS),which reveals the three-dimensional structure and huge volume transport of the swift and narrow winter western boundary current of the SCS(SCSwwbc) in full scale. The current is found to flow all the way from the shelf edge off Hong Kong to the Sunda Shelf with a width around 100 km and a vertical scale of about 400 m. It appears to be the strongest off the Indo-China Peninsula, where its volume transport reached over 20×10~6 m~3/s. The current is weaker upstream in the northern SCS to the west of Hong Kong. A Kuroshio loop or detached eddy intruded through the Luzon Strait is observed farther east where the SCSwwbc no more exists. The results suggest that during the survey the SCSwwbc was fed primarily by the interior recirculation of the SCS rather than by the"branching" of the Kuroshio from the Luzon Strait as indicated by surface drifters, which is likely a near-surface phenomenon and only contributes a minor part to the total transport of the SCSwwbc. Several topics related to the SCSwwbc are also discussed.     

Floc size variability under strong turbulence: Observations and artificial neural network modeling

The flocculation of cohesive sediment in the presence of waves is investigated using high-resolution field observations and a newly-developed flocculation model based on artificial neural networks. Vertical profiles of suspended sediment concentration and turbulent intensity are estimated using measurements of current profile and acoustic backscatter. The vertical distribution of floc size is estimated using an artificial neural network (ANN) that is trained and validated using floc size measurements at one vertical level. Data analysis suggests a linear correlation between suspended sediment concentration and turbulence intensity. Observations and numerical simulations show that floc size is inversely related to sediment concentration, turbulence intensity and water temperature. The numerical results indicate that floc growth is supported by low concentration and low turbulence. In the vertical direction, mean size of flocs decreases toward the bottom, suggesting floc breakage due to increasing turbulence intensity toward the bed. A significant decrease in turbulent shear could occur within the bottom few-cm, related to increased damping of turbulence by sediment induced density stratification. The results of the numerical simulations presented here are consistent with the concept of a cohesive sediment particle undergoing aggregation-fragmentation processes, and suggest that the ANN can be a precise tool to study flocculation processes.     

Characteristics of the boundary layer at the bottom of a solitary wave

The results of direct numerical simulations of the boundary layer generated at the bottom of a solitary wave are described. The numerical results, which agree with the laboratory measurements of Sumer et al. (2010) show that the flow regime in the boundary layer can be laminar, laminar with coherent vortices and turbulent. The average velocity and bottom shear stress are computed and the results obtained show that the logarithmic law can approximate the velocity profile only in a restricted range of the parameters and at particular phases of the wave cycle. Moreover, the maximum value of the bottom shear stress is found to depend on the dimensionless wave height only, while the minimum (negative) value depends also on the dimensionless boundary layer thickness. Diagrams and simple formulae are proposed to evaluate the minimum and maximum bottom shear stresses and their phase shift with respect to the wave crest.     

Field Study on the Behavior of Destructive and Non-Destructive Piles Under Compression

This paper presents a series of full-scale load tests on long bored piles instrumented with strain gauges along the shafts, including eight field tests of piles loaded to failure and one non-destructive pile load test. The load-displacement response, skin friction, end resistance, and the threshold of the pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin resistance were discussed. A simple softening model was proposed to describe the degradation behavior of the skin friction along the pile-soil interface and the load-displacement relationship developed at the pile base. It is found that the shaft resistance degradation investigated in the non-destructive load test only occurs at a shallow depth, and the skin friction of deeper soil is not fully developed. However, unlike the results of the non-destructive load tests, the softening is accompanied by a reduction in skin friction and observed to be along the whole pile depth. The thresholds of pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin resistances in different soils have been found to be in the range 0.6% to 2.4% of the pile diameter. Moreover, in practical applications, a bilinear model is assumed to be feasible in analyzing the load-settlement relationship developed at the end of non-destructive pile, whereas the load transmission curve of the soils below the pile base corresponds to a softening model in the field tests of piles loaded to failure.     

塔里木盆地塔北露头区的古岩溶发育模式

目前塔里木盆地海相碳酸盐岩的油气勘探已进入高峰期,为弥补钻井岩心资料不足,进一步认识井下岩溶发育规律及发育模式特征,开展塔北露头区奥陶系风化壳古岩溶缝洞系统发育特征及发育模式研究。研究表明,岩溶发育主要受控于岩性因素和不整合面,主要发育层位为一间房组地层;主要岩溶作用期为吐木休克组/一间房组沉积间断岩溶期。为井下岩溶缝洞系统的认识及岩溶地质模型的建立提供了重要理论依据。