Accumulation of organic and inorganic carbon in Pliocene–Pleistocene sediments along the SW African margin

The Ocean Drilling Program Leg 175 recovered a unique series of stratigraphically continuous sedimentary sections along the SW African margin, an area which is presently affected by active coastal upwelling. The accumulation rates of organic and inorganic carbon are a major component of this record. Four Leg 175 sites (1082, 1084, 1085, 1087) are chosen as part of a latitudinal transect from the present northern to southern boundaries of the Benguela Current upwelling system, to decipher the Pliocene–Pleistocene history of biogenic production and its relationship with global and local changes in oceanic circulation and climate. The pattern of CaCO₃ and C_org mass accumulation rates (MARs) over 0.25-Myr intervals indicates that the evolution of carbon burial is highly variable between the northern and the southern Benguela regions, as well as between sites that have similar hydrological conditions. This, as well as the presence over most locations of high-amplitude, rapid changes of carbon burial, reflect the partitioning of biogenic production and patterns of sedimentation into local compartments over the Benguela margin. The combined mapping of CaCO₃ and C_org MARs at the study locations suggests four distinct evolutionary periods, which are essentially linked with major steps in global climate change: the early Pliocene, the mid-Pliocene warm event, a late Pliocene intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation and the Pleistocene. The early Pliocene spatially heterogeneous patterns of carbon burial are thought to reflect the occurrence of mass-gravitational movements over the Benguela slope which resulted in disruption of the recorded biogenic production. This was followed (3.5–3 Ma) by an episode of peak carbonate accumulation over the whole margin and, subsequently, by the onset of Benguela provincialism into a northern and a southern sedimentary regime near 2 Ma. This mid and late Pliocene evolution is interpreted as a direct response to changes in the ventilation of bottom and intermediate waters, as well as to dynamics of the subtropical gyral circulation and associated wind stress.     

The Formation and Circulation of the Intermediate Water in the Japan Sea

In order to clarify the formation and circulation of the Japan/East Sea Intermediate Water (JESIW) and the Upper portion of the Japan Sea Proper Water (UJSPW), numerical experiments have been carried out using a 3-D ocean circulation model. The UJSPW is formed in the region southeast off Vladivostok between 41°N and 42°N west of 136°E. Taking the coastal orography near Vladivostok into account, the formation of the UJSPW results from the deep water convection in winter which is generated by the orchestration of fresh water supplied from the Amur River and saline water from the Tsushima Warm Current under very cold conditions. The UJSPW formed is advected by the current at depth near the bottom of the convection and penetrates into the layer below the JESIW. The origin of the JESIW is the low salinity coastal water along the Russian coast originated by the fresh water from the Amur River. The coastal low salinity water is advected by the current system in the northwestern Japan Sea and penetrates into the subsurface below the Tsushima Warm Current region forming a subsurface salinity minimum layer. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Coral Recruitment and Regeneration on a Maldivian Reef 21 Months after the Coral Bleaching Event of 1998

Abstract. This paper describes the quantitative inventory of stony corals on a Maldivian reef after the bleaching event of 1998. The detailed data, collected in March 1999 and March 2000, comprise survival, new recruitment and regenerates. They were obtained in 6 transects laid out randomly on the reef flat, on 22 Acropora tables on 6 sites at the reef edge and on 39 Porites lobata blocks and 1 Diploastrea heliopora colony. The present cover of living zooxanthellate corals is reduced to ca. 2 – 5 % of its previous state. Acroporidae and Pocilloporidae were practically wiped out, while Poritidae survived partly and Agariciidae (esp. Pavona) are now the dominant group. New settlements on dead Acropora tables were mainly Agariciidae, followed by Acroporidae and Pocilloporidae. Regenerates on Porites were pronounced and the apparent yearly increase in mass was about threefold that of Diploastrea, which is 3 – 4 mm per year. The influence on reef ecology in terms of coral substrate and species, possible sources of larvae, change of guilds in reef builders, other species and the prospect for further development of the reef, with respect to growth versus erosion, is discussed.     

Calculation of the added mass of circular cylinders in shallow water

The added mass of hull section shapes must be known, in order to carry out any studies of ship motions, which may be associated with either seakeeping or manoeuvring. Determination of the added mass in deep water can involve conformal mapping or surface singularity distributions. However, in shallow water the problem of determining the added mass is made more difficult by the proximity of the seabed. In this paper, three approaches to the problem of finding the added mass of semi-circular sections are explored. Although there is no known exact solution to this problem, the relationships given by the three methods are compared and the approximate nature of the solutions is examined. The first method is a series solution, which is taken here to include more terms than are normally given in the existing literature. The other two solutions are considered to be new, and so are given in some mathematical detail.     

胶州湾海水微表层粘度及其在海-气通量计算中的作用

物质海 -气通量计算新建议中将物质海 -气通量计算公式 F=K(CL- b Cg)中的 CL 用CL ( SML ) 代替。本文着重于对公式中质量迁移系数 K的讨论。在测定了海水微表层、次表层水粘度并同时测定了其它一些化学参量基础上 ,得出如下结论 :海水粘度与盐度、碱度有一定相关性 ;微表层与次表层海水的粘度变化小于 3%。因此 ,海水微表层效应影响 K值 ,与海水微表层效应影响物质浓度相比 ,可以不考虑。     

计算域的选取对风暴潮数值模拟的影响

作者以 72 0 3号台风过程中引起的黄海沿岸水文测站的风暴潮过程为例 ,选取不同计算域 ,模拟计算的同一测站的风暴潮增水值有很大差异。只有选取整个黄渤海海域 ,才能得到较精确的风暴潮增水结果。从而揭示在封闭或半封闭海域中由风暴过程激发的区域自由振荡 ,是风暴潮增水中不容忽视的量。说明该海域中的风暴潮过程是海域整体效应的响应 ,因此认为数值模拟中计算域应选取整个封闭或半封闭海域     

Optimal Design of TMD Under Long-Term Nonstationary Wave Loading

—Traditionally,the use of a tuned mass damper(TMD)is to improve the surviability of the pri-mary structure under extraordinary loading environment while the design loading condition is describedby either a harmonic function or a stationary random process that can be fully characterized by a powerspectral density(PSD)function.Aiming at prolonging the fatigue life of an offshore platform,this studyconsiders an optimal design of TMD for the platform under long-term nonstationary loading due tolong-term random sea waves characterized by a probabilistic power spectral density(PPSD)function.Inprinciple,a PPSD could be derived based on numerous ordinary PSD functions;and each of them is treat-ed as realization of the corresponding PPSD.This study provides a theoretical development for theoptimal TMD design by minimizing the cost function to be the mean square value of the expectedlong-term response.A numerical example is presented to illustrate the developed design procedure.     

Stratified convection with multiple states

A simplified box model of the cooling of a salt-stratified ocean is analyzed analytically and numerically. A large isothermal basin of salt water has a layer of fresh water at the surface. Beside this is a small basin, cooled from above and connected to the large basin by horizontal tubes at the top, middle and bottom. For small cooling rate, fresh water enters the small basin, is cooled and leaves through the middle tube. For greater cooling rate, the fresh water leaves the small basin through the middle and bottom tube. If the top tube is smaller than the deeper tubes and the fresh water layer is sufficiently shallow, flow in the middle tube reverses at a critical cooling rate. In this case, a mixture of salt and fresh water is cooled and leaves the bottom tube. Increased cooling produces much greater flow rate; consequentially temperature increases rather than decreases in the small basin. A relaxation heat flow condition results in multiple equilibria. One of the stable modes has fresh surface water descending in the small basin and flowing out through the middle and bottom tube. The other has a greater rate of flow of both fresh and salty water (through the middle tube) into the basin with the flow of mixed salty water out of the bottom tube. Implications for deep convection in the ocean are discussed.     

An alternative approach to the structural motion analysis of wedge-beam offshore structures supporting a load

For convenience of dynamic analysis, some offshore structures such as fixed-type platforms are often modeled as the wedge beams supporting tip lumped masses. It is well-known that, due to the effect of the surrounding water, the natural frequencies of a beam in air (or dry beam) are different from those of the same beam immersed in water (or wet beam). However, if the natural frequencies and the associated mode shapes of a dry beam are calculated by taking account of the “added mass” for the immersed beam, then the last natural frequencies and mode shapes will be equal to the corresponding ones of the wet beam. Based on the last concept, the closed form solutions for natural frequencies and the associated mode shapes of the dry beam were determined first, then the partial differential equation of motion for the wet beam was transformed into a matrix equation by using the expansion theorem and the foregoing closed form solutions of free vibration responses for the dry beam. Solving the last matrix equation will give the required natural frequencies and the associated mode shapes of the wet beam. The formulation of this paper is available for the fully or partially immersed double tapered beams with either circular, square or rectangular cross-sections. The taper ratio for width and that for depth may be equal or unequal. The numerical results of this paper were compared with the existing results or the finite-element-method results and good agreement was achieved.     

Dynamics and control of a towed underwater vehicle system, part I: model development

Autonomous vehicles are being developed to replace the conventional, manned surface vehicles that tow mine hunting towed platforms. While a wide body of work exists that describes numerical models of towed systems, they usually include relatively simple models of the towed bodies and neglect the dynamics of the towing vehicle. For systems in which the mass of the towing vehicle is comparable to that of the towed vehicle, it becomes important to consider the dynamics of both vehicles. In this work, we describe the development of a numerical model that accurately captures the dynamics of these new mine hunting systems. We use a lumped mass approximation for the towcable and couple this model to non-linear numerical models of an autonomous surface vehicle and an actively controlled towfish. Within the dynamics models of the two vehicles, we include non-linear controllers to allow accurate maneuvering of the towed system.