Box model analysis of hydrography and behaviour of nitrogen and phosphorus in a eutrophic estuary

In order to investigate the mechanism of eutrophication in Atsumi Bay which is a shallow and partially mixed estuary, distributions of temperature, salinity and concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in all their chemical forms were observed once a month throughout a year. Supplies of freshwater and nutrients are estimated and balances of salt and nutrients are examined using a modified box model. The deduced estuarine hydrography and calculated values of photosynthesis, decomposition, deposition and sedimentation are compared with those obtained byin situ observations and laboratory experiments. It is found that the factors responsible for the appearance of heavy eutrophication include not only the general increase of nutrient supply from land but also nutrient accumulation in the rainy season just before summer, the N/P ratio of the supply from land being favourable for uptake by phytoplankton, formation of semi-closed circulations of the nutrients associated with stratification and vertical circulation of estuarine water, and possibly the inorganic turnover of phosphorus (PO₄-P) under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The usefulness of the modified box model for obtaining a synoptic understanding of the estuarine system is also demonstrated.     

Ecologic and taxonomic diversification in the Mesozoic brackish-water bivalve faunas in Japan, with emphasis on infaunalization of heterodonts

Mesozoic brackish-water bivalve faunas in Japan diversified in three steps: at the beginning of the Early Jurassic, Early and Late Cretaceous. The Hettangian Niranohama Fauna in northeastern Honshu represents the establishment of a heterodont-dominated brackish-water fauna that persisted until the early Late Cretaceous. No similar composition is known from the Triassic. The infauna consists mostly of non-siphonate and some short-siphonate heterodonts, while the epifauna is represented by diverse pteriomorphian families. In the Early Cretaceous Tetori Group in central Honshu, the long-siphonate heterodonts Tetoria (Corbiculidae) and the semi-infaunal soft-bottom oyster Crassostrea appeared. The evolutionary diversification of the latter, known as the most important element of modern brackish-water faunas, may thus originate at that time. In the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of the Goshoura and Mifune Groups in west Kyushu, several euryhaline deep-burrowing heterodont families, such as Veneridae and Tellinidae, further diversified in the brackish and marine environments. The Late Cretaceous is characterized by massive shell biolithic beds in which large Crassostrea species are common, a feature common for Cenozoic brackish-water faunas. The long-term changes in the composition of the brackish-water faunas in Japan represents thus an evolutionary record, irrespective of the severe physiological and environmental conditions imposed on the highly conservative nature of the fauna.     

Bedrock structure in Adapazari, Turkey—a possible cause of severe damage by the 1999 Kociaeli earthquake

The 1999 Kocaeli earthquake brought serious damage to downtown of Adapazari. To study why strong motions were generated at the town, a bedrock structure was investigated on the basis of Bouguer gravity anomaly, and SPAC and H/V analyses of microseisms. It was revealed that, the basin consists of three narrow depressions of bedrock with very steep edges, extending in E–W or NE–SW directions along the North Anatolia faults, and the depth to bedrock reaches 1000 m or more. Downtown of Adapazari is located 1–2 km apart from the basin-edge. It is considered that, the specific configuration of bedrock amplifies ground motions at the downtown area by focusing of seismic waves and/or interference between incident S-waves and surface-waves secondarily generated at the basin-edge. Studying 3D bedrock structure is an urgent issue for microzoning an urban area in a sedimentary basin.     

Elevated sedimentation in lake records linked to agricultural activities in the Ishikari River floodplain,northern Japan

The purpose of this study was to examine the historical change in sedimentation rates in lakes that have been impacted by river regulation and agricultural activities in the Ishikari River floodplain. We dated sediment cores using caesium‐137 (¹³⁷Cs) dating and tephrochronology, and we estimated sediment sources from ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in the topsoil of representative land covers. We found that, between 1739 and 1963, the distance between the lake and the main river channel and whether or not the lake was connected to the river affected the sedimentation rates. After 1963, agricultural drainage systems were established in the Ishikari River floodplain. The average sedimentation rate before and after the construction of drainage ditches varied between 1–66 and 87–301 mg cm^–2 a^–1, respectively. The increase in the sedimentation rate after 1963 was caused by the construction of a number of drainage networks, as well as extensive cultivation activity and/or fragmentation of the swamp buffers surrounding the lakes. The ¹³⁷Cs activities at the surfaces of the lake as well as the catchment‐derived ¹³⁷Cs contributions and ¹³⁷Cs inventory in the lake profiles were used to examine the sediment influx from the various drainage areas after the establishment of the drainage system. Our results indicate that the majority of the lake sediments were derived from cultivated areas, and therefore the catchment‐derived ¹³⁷Cs contribution in the lakes was strongly correlated with the sedimentation rate. The ¹³⁷Cs inventory across all of the lake profiles was also significantly greater than the atmospheric fallout. We identified a negative correlation between the ¹³⁷Cs lake profile inventory and the sedimentation rate. This is because the sediment originating from the drainage areas contained low ¹³⁷Cs concentrations, which diluted the overall concentration of ¹³⁷Cs in the lake sediment. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Empirical green's function corrected for source effect

One of the severe problems in the semi-empirical method for the prediction of strong ground motions is that there is no objective criterion for choosing empirical Green's functions. It is undesirable that synthesized strong ground motions are affected by the source process of an earthquake whose record is adopted as an empirical Green's function. Through the analysis of strong motion accelerograms of two aftershocks of the 1983 Japan Sea earthquakes, it is found that characteristics of the accelerograms are dependent on the moment rate function derived from teleseismic observations. A procedure is presented for removing the effect of the source process from observed strong motion accelerograms. The thus obtained empirical Green's function expresses approximately the impulse response of the medium between the earthquake source and the observation site.     

Determination of Ge, As, Se and Te in Silicate Samples Using Isotope Dilution-Internal Standardisation Octopole Reaction Cell ICP-QMS by Normal Sample Nebulisation

A method for the determination of Ge, As, Se and Te in silicate samples using isotope dilution-internal standardisation (ID-IS) octopole reaction cell (ORC) ICP-QMS by normal sample nebulisation was developed. The method does not involve either hydride generation or ion exchange. Germanium, Se and Te were determined by isotope dilution (ID), and As was determined by ID-IS. A silicate sample with an added Ge-Se-Te spike was digested with an HF-HNO₃-HBr mixture, dried, re-dissolved with HF and the supernatant liquid was directly aspirated into an ORC-ICP-QMS instrument with He or H₂ gas. No matrix effects were observed down to a dilution factor (DF) of ∼ 70 for Ge, Se and Te and DF of ∼ 1000 for As, which resulted in 3s detection limits in silicates of 2, 1, 0.1 and 4 ng g⁻¹, respectively. Advantages of the method are the simple sample introduction as well as a capability of determining S, Ti, Zr, Nb, Mo, Sn, Sb, Hf and Ta by ID-IS-ICP-QMS/SFMS from the same solution. Furthermore, the total sample solution consumption was only 0.253 ml with DF = 2000. Therefore, only a 0.13 mg test portion was required. To demonstrate the applicability of this technique, Ge, As, Se and Te in eight silicate reference materials were determined, as well as S, Ti, Zr, Nb, Mo, Sn, Sb, Hf and Ta in four carbonaceous chondrites.     

Hydrothermal activity on the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Tectonically- and volcanically-controlled venting at 4–5°S

We report results from an investigation of the geologic processes controlling hydrothermal activity along the previously-unstudied southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (3–7°S). Our study employed the NOC (UK) deep-tow sidescan sonar instrument, TOBI, in concert with the WHOI (USA) autonomous underwater vehicle, ABE, to collect information concerning hydrothermal plume distributions in the water column co-registered with geologic investigations of the underlying seafloor. Two areas of high-temperature hydrothermal venting were identified. The first was situated in a non-transform discontinuity (NTD) between two adjacent second-order ridge-segments near 4°02′S, distant from any neovolcanic activity. This geologic setting is very similar to that of the ultramafic-hosted and tectonically-controlled Rainbow vent-site on the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The second site was located at 4°48′S at the axial-summit centre of a second-order ridge-segment. There, high-temperature venting is hosted in an  18 km² area of young lava flows which in some cases are observed to have flowed over and engulfed pre-existing chemosynthetic vent-fauna. In both appearance and extent, these lava flows are directly reminiscent of those emplaced in Winter 2005−06 at the East Pacific Rise, 9°50′N and reference to global seismic catalogues reveals that a swarm of large (M 4.6−5.6) seismic events was centred on the 5°S segment over a  24 h period in late June 2002, perhaps indicating the precise timing of this volcanic eruptive episode. Temperature measurements at one of the vents found directly adjacent to the fresh lava flows at 5°S MAR (Turtle Pits) have subsequently revealed vent-fluids that are actively phase separating under conditions very close to the Critical Point for seawater, at  3000 m depth and 407 °C: the hottest vent-fluids yet reported from anywhere along the global ridge crest.     

新疆阿尔泰山南部富蕴右旋走滑断裂带晚第四纪错断水系的遥感分析研究

富蕴断裂带位于阿尔泰山南侧,横切阿尔泰山褶皱带南缘及额尔齐斯深断裂,是一条呈北北西向展布的右旋走滑断裂带。沿断裂带发育一系列错断水系、错断冲积扇、挤压脊、走滑拉分盆地等反映右旋走滑活动的典型构造地貌标志。本研究在高分辨率遥感图像和数字高程模型分析的基础上,结合野外实地构造地貌测量,对沿富蕴断裂带发育的系统错断水系特征进行了详细分析研究。研究结果表明,沿富蕴断裂带发育不同级别的错断水系,大致可划分为6级:1931年地震形成的冲沟;90m左右断距的错断水系;150m左右断距的错断水系;500m左右断距的错断水系;1500m左右断距的错断水系;2000m以上断距的错断水系。同时,结合研究区及邻区的第四纪冰川资料讨论了不同级别水系可能形成时间:恰尔沟三级支流可能形成时间为末次冰期Ⅲ阶段末期,约20ka;恰尔沟二级支流可能形成时间为末次冰期Ⅰ阶段末期,约120ka;恰尔沟一级支流可能形成于该地区冰川广泛消融的倒数第2次冰期的Ⅱ阶段末期,约为250ka;恰尔沟、水磨沟、白杨沟、乌铁布拉克河、卡布尔特河等可能形成于倒数第3次冰期Ⅱ阶段末期,约为360ka。最后,我们估算出富蕴断裂带晚第四纪以来的平均右旋走滑速率为1.46～4.99mm/a。     

Ammonium uptake kinetics and interactions between nitrate and ammonium uptake inChattonella antiqua

Ammonium uptake kinetics and interactions between nitrate and ammonium uptake were examined inChattonella antiqua. After the addition of ammonium to the culture ofC. antiqua, the ammonium concentration decreased linearly with time. The ammonium uptake rate as a function of ammonium concentration followed the Michaelis-Menten equation; the maximal uptake rate was 2.0 pmol cell^–1hr^–1 and the half saturation constant, 2.2M. Although the ammonium uptake was not affected by nitrate, uptake of nitrate was rapidly (15min) suppressed by ammonium and a 50% reduction in nitrate uptake was observed at an ammonium concentration ofca. 2M.     

Real-time difference imaging analysis of MOA Galactic bulge observations during 2000

We describe observations carried out by the MOA group of the Galactic bulge during 2000 that were designed to detect efficiently gravitational microlensing of faint stars in which the magnification is high and/or of short duration. These events are particularly useful for studies of extrasolar planets and faint stars. Approximately 17 deg² were monitored at a sampling rate of up to six times per night. The images were analysed in real time using a difference imaging technique. 20 microlensing candidates were detected, of which eight were alerted to the microlensing community whilst in progress. Approximately half of the candidates had high magnifications (≳10), at least one had very high magnification (≳50), and one exhibited a clear parallax effect. The details of these events are reported here, together with details of the on-line difference imaging technique. Some nova-like events were also observed and these are described, together with one asteroid.