Biological and granulometric controls on sedimentary organic matter of an intertidal mudflat

A variety of measures of organic matter concentration and quality were made on samples collected from the top few mm of intertidal mudflat sediment over the course of a year, in order to assess the relative importance of biological and sedimentological influences on sedimentary organic matter. Winter and summer were times of relatively fine-grained sediment accumulation, caused by biological deposition or stabilization processes and resulting in higher organic matter concentrations. Stable carbon isotope and Br:C ratios indicated a planktonic source of bulk organic matter. Ratios of organic carbon to specific surface area of the sediments were consistent with an organic monolayer coverage of sediment grains. Correction for changing grain size during the year showed no change in the organic concentration per unit surface area, in spite of organic matter inputs by in situ primary production, buildup of heterotroph biomass and mucus coatings, and biodeposition of organic-rich seston. There were also no indications of changes in bulk organic quality, measured as hydrolyzable carbohydrates and amino acids, in response to these biological processes. It is concluded that biological processes on a seasonal time scale affect the bulk organic matter of these sediments via a modulation of grain size rather than creation or decay of organic matter.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Westheide, W. & C. O. Hermans (Eds.): The Ultrastructure of Polychaeta. Microfauna Marina, Vol. 4. Ed.: P. Ax, Veröffentl. der Akademie der Wissenschaften u. der Literatur, Mainz. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, New York, 1988. 494 pp., numerous figs. Hard cover; DM 118,—.     

Remote estimation of surficial seafloor properties through the application Angular Range Analysis to multibeam sonar data

The variation of the backscatter strength with the angle of incidence is an intrinsic property of the seafloor, which can be used in methods for acoustic seafloor characterization. Although multibeam sonars acquire backscatter over a wide range of incidence angles, the angular information is normally neglected during standard backscatter processing and mosaicking. An approach called Angular Range Analysis has been developed to preserve the backscatter angular information, and use it for remote estimation of seafloor properties. Angular Range Analysis starts with the beam-by-beam time-series of acoustic backscatter provided by the multibeam sonar and then corrects the backscatter for seafloor slope, beam pattern, time varying and angle varying gains, and area of insonification. Subsequently a series of parameters are calculated from the stacking of consecutive time series over a spatial scale that approximates half of the swath width. Based on these calculated parameters and the inversion of an acoustic backscatter model, we estimate the acoustic impedance and the roughness of the insonified area on the seafloor. In the process of this inversion, the behavior of the model parameters is constrained by established inter-property relationships. The approach has been tested using a 300 kHz Simrad EM3000 multibeam sonar in Little Bay, NH. Impedance estimates are compared to in situ measurements of sound speed. The comparison shows a very good correlation, indicating the potential of this approach for robust seafloor characterization.     

Fast static correction methods for high-frequency multichannel marine seismic reflection data: A high-resolution seismic study of channel-levee systems on the Bengal Fan

Very high-frequency marine multichannel seismic reflection data generated by small-volume air- or waterguns allow detailed, high-resolution studies of sedimentary structures of the order of one to few metres wavelength. The high-frequency content, however, requires (1) a very exact knowledge of the source and receiver positions, and (2) the development of data processing methods which take this exact geometry into account. Static corrections are crucial for the quality of very high-frequency stacked data because static shifts caused by variations of the source and streamer depths are of the order of half to one dominant wavelength, so that they can lead to destructive interference during stacking of CDP sorted traces. As common surface-consistent residual static correction methods developed for land seismic data require fixed shot and receiver locations two simple and fast techniques have been developed for marine seismic data with moving sources and receivers to correct such static shifts. The first method – called CDP static correction method – is based on a simultaneous recording of Parasound sediment echosounder and multichannel seismic reflection data. It compares the depth information derived from the first arrivals of both data sets to calculate static correction time shifts for each seismic channel relative to the Parasound water depths. The second method – called average static correction method – utilises the fact that the streamer depth is mainly controlled by bird units, which keep the streamer in a predefined depth at certain increments but do not prevent the streamer from being slightly buoyant in-between. In case of calm weather conditions these streamer bendings mainly contribute to the overall static time shifts, whereas depth variations of the source are negligible. Hence, mean static correction time shifts are calculated for each channel by averaging the depth values determined at each geophone group position for several subsequent shots. Application of both methods to data of a high-resolution seismic survey of channel-levee systems on the Bengal Fan shows that the quality of the stacked section can be improved significantly compared to stacking results achieved without preceding static corrections. The optimised records show sedimentary features in great detail, that are not visible without static corrections. Limitations only result from the sea floor topography. The CDP static correction method generally provides more coherent reflections than the average static correction method but can only be applied in areas with rather flat sea floor, where no diffraction hyperbolae occur. In contrast, the average static correction method can also be used in regions with rough morphology, but the coherency of reflections is slightly reduced compared to the results of the CDP static correction method.     

Spatial heterogeneity of epibenthos on artificial reefs: fouling communities in the early stages of colonization on an East Australian shipwreck

Artificial reefs are spatially complex habitats and serve as good model systems to study patterns of community succession and the response of epibiota to environmental clines over small spatial scales. Here, we quantified spatial heterogeneity in community composition and diversity of fouling communities across a number of environmental gradients that included water depth, surface orientation of habitats, exposure to currents, and shelter. Assemblage structure was quantified by spatially replicated photo transects on a recently scuttled large navy ship off the East Australian coast, lying in 27 m of water. A rich assemblage of epifauna had colonized the wreck within a year, dominated by barnacles, sponges and bryozoans. Community structure varied significantly over small spatial scales of meters to tens of meters. Depth, surface orientation and exposure were the major environmental drivers. Assemblages were substantially less diverse and abundant on the deepest (23 m near the seafloor) part of the hull with residual antifouling paint, on sheltered surfaces inside the wreck, and on the sediment‐laden horizontal surfaces. Overall, the wrecks’ habitat complexity corresponds with small‐scale heterogeneity in the fouling communities. This study supports the notion that wrecks enhance local diversity and biomass within the habitat mosaic of their location, and habitat complexity may be an important mechanism for this, as demonstrated by the large spatial variability in the assemblages documented here.     

Current trends in Great Lakes shipping

Shipping on the Great Lakes has changed rapidly in recent years. Internal Great Lakes traffic consists almost entirely of bulk movements, primarily of iron ore, coal, limestone, and grain. Ore shipments are mainly of taconite concentrate. Low-sulfur coal from the western areas of the United States is now moving downbound through the lakes, a movement in the opposite direction from the predominantly upbound movement of Appalachian coal. Opening of a larger lock in 1970 between lakes Superior and Huron has initiated a new generation of lake vessels, which are three times the size of the previous lake ships, and are too large to transit the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway; for the first time since 1959 the largest “lakers” are land-locked. General cargo traffic between the Great Lakes and overseas has been declining rapidly since 1970, largely as the result of the rapid development of container ships, and the Interstate highway system, which increases the competitive advantages of salt-water ports.     

Revising macroseismic data in Switzerland: The December 20, 1720 earthquake in the region of Lake Constance

Upgrading the Earthquake Catalog of Switzerland (ECOS) included revising the earthquake of 1720. This change has major importance for history and seismology.Although that quake has been the subject of several publications, none was based on critical methods. This re-evaluation of the event is built upon a new and more reliable database established after investigating archives and libraries. Using data from such historical sources, we assigned new site intensities, adopting the criteria established by the European macroseismic scale EMS 98 (Grünthal, 1998).We discovered that the event had been assigned an overestimated intensity, due to interpretation errors in former earthquake catalogs and compilations. We recommend reducing the intensity from I₀= VIII to I₀= VI (EMS 98). The moment magnitude is given as M_W= 4.6. Since the event had been considered the largest for its respective area, downgrading it now will influence the seismic hazard assessment for this region.