Assessment of spatial variation in carbon utilization by benthic and pelagic invertebrates in a temperate South African estuary using stable isotope signatures

Stable isotope analyses (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) were used to evaluate the spatial variations in carbon flow from primary producers to consumers at two sites in the temperate and permanently open Kariega Estuary on the southeastern coast of South Africa during October 2005 and February 2006. One site was located opposite a salt marsh while the second was upstream of the marsh. Except for significantly enriched δ¹³C values of Zostera capensis and surface sediments near the salt marsh, the δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N signatures of the producers were similar between sites. The invertebrates were clustered into groups roughly corresponding to the predominant feeding modes. The suspension feeders showed δ¹³C values closest to the seston, whereas the deposit feeders, detritivores and scavengers/predators had more enriched δ¹³C values reflecting primary carbon sources that were likely a combination of seston, Spartina maritima and Z. capensis at the upstream site, with an increased influence of benthic algae and Z. capensis at the salt marsh site. The δ¹⁵N signatures of the consumers showed a stepwise continuum rather than distinct levels of fractionation, indicating highly complex trophic linkages and significant dietary overlap among the species. Consumers exhibited significantly enriched δ¹³C values at the salt marsh site, an effect that was attributed to enriched Z. capensis detritus in this region in addition to increased phytoplankton biomass in their diets compared with invertebrates living upstream. The data reinforce the concept that between-site variations in the stable isotope ratios of consumers can result not only from dietary shifts, but also from alterations in the isotope ratios of primary producers.     

Spatio-temporal variability of small copepods (especially Oithona plumifera) in shallow nearshore waters off the south coast of South Africa

Although small copepods are one of the main dietary sources for many commercially important fish, their role in the pelagic trophic dynamics has traditionally been underestimated due to the methodology commonly used in plankton sampling. Temporal variation in abundance of adults and nauplii of small copepods (particularly Oithona plumifera) in nearshore waters on the south coast of South Africa was investigated fortnightly over 14 months at site (km) and location (100 m) scales. Sampling was within <500 m of the shore, where depth was ca. 10 m, using vertical hauls of an 80-μm mesh plankton net from 1 m above the seabed to the surface. Twenty-seven adult copepod taxa were recorded, but Oithona spp. was consistently the most abundant. Taxon richness was 7–19 on each sampling occasion. There was strong temporal variation (Oithona varied between 0 and 2300 m⁻³), but much of this was short-term variability (e.g. between consecutive sampling sessions), with no seasonality or other long-term discernable patterns. There were periods of consistently low numbers, but very high numbers often followed samples with low abundances. Nor was there spatial structure at the location scale, though numbers differed between sites. Despite considerable variability at the location scale within sites, Kenton consistently showed higher densities than High Rocks. Separate analyses, with Bonferroni adjustment, showed that this difference was significant on eight out of 21 occasions for Oithona, six for other pelagic copepods and three for nauplii. This suggests that hydrodynamics favour aggregation of plankton at Kenton. A high degree of short-term variability, with a tendency for aggregation of small zooplankton at certain sites has implications for both pelagic processes and food-web links between the benthic and pelagic environments.     

Inverse reconstructions of ecosystem flows in investigating regime shifts: impact of the choice of objective function

Inverse analysis is increasingly used in ecosystem modelling to objectively reconstruct a large number of unknown flows or interactions from a small number of observations. This type of analysis may be useful in relating observed regime shifts in ecosystem structure to underlying processes. Inversions of ecosystem flow networks currently use a constrained least-squares solution which at the same time minimizes the squared norm (the sum of squares) of the reconstructed flows. This minimum norm (MN) inversion is thought to be a parsimonious solution to the ecosystem flow inverse problem, but it may well not reflect how ecosystems are organised. It has been proposed instead that ecosystems evolve to maximize energy/mass flows or that they maximize the information content of the network weighted by ecosystem flows (ascendancy). We used simulated inverse experiments, where inverse analyses are applied to simulations of flow networks, to explore objective functions different than the MN generally used. We could not compute inverse solutions that maximize ascendancy because the objective function is unbounded. We could calculate inversions that maximize flows; however, these generally overestimated the simulated flows, even though the simulations were designed to maximize flows. It appears that the ecosystem flow inverse problem is too under-determined (too few data relative to the number of unknowns) to allow the use of these maximizing goal functions. We introduce a new minimization that simultaneously minimizes the squared flows and the squared differences between flows. This smoothing minimization makes the inverse flows as even as possible and it helps with some technical issues with MN inversions. The simulated inverse experiments indicated that this smoothed norm (SM) is the most robust in comparative analyses of contrasting ecosystem states, such as those that can be associated with regime shifts. Like the MN inversion, the SM inversion has no ecological basis. However, it is a conservative norm that is less likely to produce false differences between the dynamics of regimes.     

一种面向网络发布的海洋数据库引擎(英文)

To meet the requirements of efficient management and web publishing for marine remote sensing data, a spatial database engine, named MRSSDE, is designed independently. The logical model, physical model, and optimization method of MRSSDE are discussed in detail. Compared to the ArcSDE, which is the leading product of Spatial Database Engine, the MRSSDE proved to be more effective.     

城市空间信息基础设施建设结构模型研究

首先对WebGIS的发展状况进行了分析,然后介绍了Web Services的工作原理,给出了面向Geo-Services的城市空间信息基础设施建设的结构模型,并依据该模型对北京市基础地理信息数据库集成项目进行了典型研究.     

建立医院间PACS系统的技术和实现

介绍了建立医院和医院之间PACS系统的意义；信息传输技术的不断发展，为建立院间PACS系统提供了物质基础，采用固定IP地址的中间存储空间和采用适当无损压缩方法是建立院间PACS系统的关键。     

Web环境下SVG地图浏览器的设计与实现

SVG是近年来发展起来的基于XML的用于描述矢量图形、图像的标准规范，该规范的制定对网上矢量地图数据的共享具有十分重要的意义，基于SVG的矢量地图十分有利于地理空间数据的传播。文中首先分析了目前Web环境下矢量地图发布存在的问题，之后介绍了SVG的有关情况，最后基于Adobe的SVG Vie—wer2．0设计并实现了一个SVG地图浏览器，着重研究了3个问题，即矢量地图数据在SVG文档中的组织与编码，地图浏览器界面的设计以及若干地图操作功能的实现。     

XML Web Service及其在地球数据共享中的应用研究

地球科学研究产生了大量的地球数据，其特点决定了地球数据共享的必要性。分析了网络化过程中地球数据共享存在的若干问题，介绍了XML Web Service及其相关技术．提出了基于XML Web Service的地球数据共享模型。在VS．NET中对XML Web Service在地球数据共享的应用进行了测试．指出XML Web Service是未来实现全球级的地球数据共享应用的理想选择。     

面向数字化测绘生产工作流的Web存储系统

讨论了一个面向工作流的项目管理系统中 ,各类计划、实施、监督管理、汇总报表等结构化文档及非结构化文档的存储访问系统的构造方法 ,并设计与实现了一个数字化测绘生产管理系统实例