Fattening of wild short‐finned eels,Anguilla Australis schmidtii Phillipps

Short‐finned wild eels fed an artificial diet containing either a low (5%) or a high (20%) oil content were found to increase their mass by an average of more than 30% after a 34‐day feeding period; the lipid content of the eels’ muscle was also increased from about 10% to around 20%.     

Vertical zonation and aggregated distribution of the Manila clam on subtidal sand flats in a coastal brackish lagoon along the Sea of Japan

The Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, has maintained small‐sized populations in a semi‐enclosed brackish lake along the Sea of Japan, the Honjo area of Lake Nakaumi, although the environment and biota of this area have changed dramatically due to a large‐scale reclamation project. There should be underlying processes that enable the restoration of this species from small‐sized populations, such as the existence of source (i.e. reproductive) populations in other areas and depth zones of the lake. However, there has been no robust, properly designed evaluation of the distribution of the Manila clam in the subtidal sand flats. In order to elucidate the possible mechanisms that allow for the persistence of populations of the Manila clam, we examined the spatiotemporal and vertical variation in distributions of 0‐age clams in the subtidal zone of sand flats. Seasonal effects on population variations showed erratic changes among depth zones without a decreasing trend along the depth gradient. Further, many local populations became extinct even in the shallower zones due to seasonal (summer) hypoxia at deeper zones and hypoxia by the accumulation of key benthic species (Asian mussel and decaying macroalgae) in mats at shallower zones. A few surviving local populations were stable with a spatial‐fragmental (patchy) distribution, associated with fragmented accumulations of Asian mussels and macroalgae. Efforts to maintain stable populations and to restore this species in the subtidal area may depend on these small, restricted, patchy local populations. These findings suggest that high fertility and productivity of the Manila clam as well as patchy distribution of small populations may contribute to the maintenance of the population and the avoidance of extinction (by spatially diffusing the risk of extinction) in harsh environments resulting from the reclamation project.     

Two extraterrestrial dust horizons found in the Dome Fuji ice core,East Antarctica

Two silicate-rich dust layers were found in the Dome Fuji ice core in East Antarctica, at Marine Isotope Stages 12 and 13. Morphologies, textures, and chemical compositions of constituent particles reveal that they are high-temperature melting products and are of extraterrestrial origin. Because similar layers were found ～ 2000 km east of Dome Fuji, at EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica)-Dome C, particles must have rained down over a wide area 434 and 481 ka. The strewn fields occurred over an area of at least 3 × 10⁶ km². Chemical compositions of constituent phases and oxygen isotopic composition of olivines suggest that the upper dust layer was produced by a high-temperature interaction between silicate-rich melt and water vapor due to an impact explosion or an aerial burst of a chondritic meteoroid on the inland East Antarctic ice sheet. An estimated total mass of the impactor, on the basis of particle flux and distribution area, is at least 3 × 10⁹ kg. A possible parent material of the lower dust layer is a fragment of friable primitive asteroid or comet. A hypervelocity impact of asteroidal/cometary material on the upper atmosphere and an explosion might have produced aggregates of sub-μm to μm-sized spherules. Total mass of the parent material of the lower layer must exceed 1 × 10⁹ kg. The two extraterrestrial horizons, each a few millimeters in thickness, represent regional or global meteoritic events not identified previously in the Southern Hemisphere.     

Ground subsidence in Semarang-Indonesia investigated by ALOS–PALSAR satellite SAR interferometry

The focus of this study is investigation of land subsidence in Semarang city Indonesia with the use of Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) of ALOS–PALSAR satellite. We processed 22 ascending SAR images during January 2007 to January 2009 plus two descending SAR images acquired on 6 June 2006 and 17 June 2007. The time series analysis of interferometry was performed by using 12 pairs of interferogram relative to 21 January 2007 and 8 pairs of interferogram relative 24 January 2008. The topographic phase contribution was removed using the 3-arcsec (90 m) Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), Digital Elevation Model (DEM). We performed precision baseline estimation to vanish the fringes from baseline effect between master and slave data. In order to investigate the contribution of horizontal movement in our analysis, we constructed two interferograms of ascending orbit and descending orbit. The time series results exhibited that the area is subsiding continuously without a significant seasonal effect during January 2007 to January 2009. The land subsidence observed from InSAR data is approximately up to 8 cm/year. Three cross sections on image displacement show the extreme land subsidence occurred especially along the coastal area and lowland area where this area is considered as industrial with high-density settlements, consuming a lot of groundwater, and land is changed from agriculture and cultivation purposes to industrial estates and house. Our result also shows a consistency with historical pattern of subsidence measured by leveling data. The results highlight the potential use of InSAR measurements to provide better constraints for land subsidence in Semarang city Indonesia.     

Trans-boundary and in-country transport of air pollutants observed in Kobe,Japan by high frequent filter pack sampling method

The seasonal intensive sampling of gases and particulate matter in ambient air was conducted at the site established in urban area of Japan to study the seasonal difference of the temporal variation of gases and particulate matter concentrations in urban atmosphere as well as to illustrate the different transport regimes that impacts air pollutants. The sample was collected by the four-stage filter-pack method with 6-h interval for one week in four seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter). The trans-boundary transport of air pollutants with high concentration was characteristically observed in the spring sampling. On the other hand, we could successfully detect the in-country transports of air pollutants in the summer sampling. Four-season’s intensive survey considered, we could show the characteristic transport of air pollutants to provide the episodic high concentration for ambient air in the urban area of Japan, and successfully illustrate the seasonal-dependent transport regimes to impact on air pollutants.     

An Ecosystem Model Including Nitrogen Isotopes: Perspectives on a Study of the Marine Nitrogen Cycle

We have developed an ecosystem model including two nitrogen isotopes (¹⁴N and ¹⁵N), and validated this model using an actual data set. A study of nitrogen isotopic ratios (δ¹⁵N) using a marine ecosystem model is thought to be most helpful in quantitatively understanding the marine nitrogen cycle. Moreover, the model study may indicate a new potential of δ¹⁵N as a tracer. This model has six compartments: phytoplankton, zooplankton, particulate organic nitrogen, dissolved organic nitrogen, nitrate and ammonium in a two-box model, and has biological processes with/without isotopic fractionation. We have applied this model to the Sea of Okhotsk and successfully reproduced the δ¹⁵N of nitrate measured in seawater and the seasonal variations in δ¹⁵N of sinking particles obtained from sediment trap experiments. Simulated δ¹⁵N of phytoplankton are determined by δ ¹⁵N of nitrate and ammonium, and the nitrogen f-ratio, defined as the ratio of nitrate assimilation by phytoplankton to total nitrogenous nutrient assimilation. Detailed considerations of biological processes in the spring and autumn blooms have demonstrated that there is a significant difference between simulated δ¹⁵N values of phytoplankton, which assimilates only nitrate, and only ammonium, respectively. We suggest that observations of δ ¹⁵N values of phytoplankton, nitrate and ammonium in the spring and autumn blooms may indicate the ratios of nutrient selectivity by phytoplankton. In winter, most of the simulated biogeochemical fluxes decrease rapidly, but nitrification flux decreases much more slowly than the other biogeochemical fluxes. Therefore, simulated δ¹⁵N values and concentrations of ammonium reflect almost only nitrification. We suggest that the nitrification rate can be parameterized with observations of δ¹⁵N of ammonium in winter and a sensitive study varying the parameter of nitrification rate.     

Occurrence of juvenile Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus in brackish estuaries

Juvenile Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus usually inhabit high salinity inshore sandy areas. In June–August 1997, 25 individuals of juvenile Japanese flounder (33–75 mm total length) were collected in the Natori and Nanakita River estuaries in Sendai Bay, Japan. This is the first record of this species being collected in brackish estuaries in which salinities fluctuate from 0 to 30 over a spring tidal cycle. Factors of rainfall, river flow, or year class strength of Japanese flounder were unable to explain the unusual occurrence of this species in the estuaries. The collected juvenile Japanese flounder were considered to have migrated into the estuaries around the time of the passage of an unusually early typhoon that affected this area, indicating the possibility that this species utilizes estuaries for refuge from strong disturbance in its usual habitats. The juveniles fed mainly upon mysids both in the estuaries and the sandy beach area, indicating that estuaries can be a substitute nursery habitat for this species.     

Experimental study on the impact fragmentation of core-mantle bodies: Implications for collisional disruption of rocky planetesimals with sintered core covered with porous mantle

Impact experiments of inhomogeneous targets such as layered bodies consisting of a dense core and porous mantle were conducted to clarify the effect of the layered structure on impact strength. The layered structure of small bodies could be the result of the thermal evolution of planetesimals in the solar nebula. So, the impact disruption of thermally evolved bodies with core-mantle structure is important for the origin of small bodies such as asteroids. We investigated the impact strength of rocky-layered bodies with porous mantle-sintered cores, which could be formed at an initial stage of thermal evolution. Spherical targets composed of soda-lime glass or quartz core and porous gypsum mantle were prepared as an analog of small bodies with a core-mantle structure, and the internal structure was changed. A nylon projectile was impacted at the impact velocity from 1 to 5 km/s. The impact strength of the core-mantle targets decreases with the increase of the core/target mass ratio (RCM) in the specific energy range from 1×¹⁰³ to 4×¹⁰⁴ J/kg. We observed two distinct destruction modes characterized by the damage to the core: one shows a damaged core and fractured mantle, and the other shows an intact core and broken mantle. The former mode was usually observed with increasing RCM, and the boundary condition of the core destruction () was experimentally found to be , where is the specific energy required to disrupt a glass core. From this empirical equation, it might be possible to discuss the destruction conditions of a thermally evolved body with a porous mantle-sintered core structure. We speculate that the impact strength of the body could be significantly reduced with the progress of internal evolution at the initial stage of thermal evolution.