Deposition Rates of Terrestrial and Marine Organic Carbon in the Osaka Bay, Seto Inland Sea, Japan, Determined Using Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Ratios in the Sediment

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (¹³C and ¹⁵N) of surface sediments were measured within Osaka Bay, in the Seto Inland Sea in Japan, in order to better understand the sedimentation processes operating on both terrestrial and marine organic matter in the Bay. The ¹³C and ¹⁵N of surface sediments in the estuary of the Yodo River were less than –23 and 5 respectively, but increased in the area up to about 10 km from the river mouth. At greater distances they became constant (giving ¹³C of about –20 and ¹⁵N about 6). It can be concluded that large amounts of terrestrial organic matter exist near the mouth of the Yodo River. Stable isotope ratios in the estuary of the Yodo River within 10 km of the river mouth were useful indicators allowing study of the movement of terrestrial organic matter. Deposition rates for total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) over the whole of the Bay were estimated to be 63,100 ton C/year and 7,590 ton N/year, respectively. The deposition rate of terrestrial organic carbon was estimated to be 13,200 (range 2,000–21,500) ton C/year for the whole of Osaka Bay, and terrestrial organic carbon was estimated to be about 21% (range 3–34) of the TOC deposition rate. The ratio of the deposition rate of terrestrial organic carbon to the rate inflow of riverine TOC and particulate organic carbon (POC) were estimated to be 19% (range 3–31) and 76% (range 12–100), respectively.     

Shallow Water Bathymetry Derived from Green Wavelength Terrestrial Laser Scanner

Abstract

Shallow water bathymetry has proved to be a challenging task for remote sensing applications. In this work, Green-Wavelength Terrestrial Laser Scanning (GWTLS) is employed to survey nearshore bathymetry under clear atmospheric and water conditions. First, the obtained seabed points were corrected for refraction and then geo-registration, and filtering processes were exerted to obtain an accurate bathymetric surface. Terrain analysis was performed with respect to a reference surface derived from classical surveying techniques. The overall analysis has shown that the best results stem from 35° to 50° incident angles, whereas for angles higher than 65° measurements are not acceptable, although for the same angle in front and close to the instrument accuracy is considered acceptable due to the high laser power. Also, high resolution micro-topography, shallower than 1?m water depth, was managed to be captured. Systematic experimental approaches are expected to improve the GWTLS technique to detect bathymetry, which is anticipated to assist in mapping very shallow foreshore, tidal, and deltaic environments, to contribute conceptual into developing hybrid observation systems for coastal monitoring, and also to be applied in various maritime applications.     

A Classification of Hypersaline Waters, Based on Trophic Criteria

Abstract. A classification of hypersaline waters is proposed on the basis of the food chain structure of their biota. Four steps of increasing salinity and respective shortening of the food-chains are recognized, respectively named: alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-hypersaline waters.
Some general aspects, dealing with cosmopolitism of the biota, production, competition and benthic ecology in hypersaline waters are discussed.
The relevance of ecological studies in hypersaline waters to theoretical ecology and to the new technological uses of saline waters is briefly mentioned.     

A Preliminary Study of Shear Wave in Seafloor Surface Sediments

This article preliminarily reports and analyses the transmission characteristics and behaviors of shear wave in the offshore seafloor surface sediments in China, discusses the relationships between the physical and mechanical features of the shear wave and the compression wave, and compares the testing results with that of Hamilton and Chen et al. The result shows that the shear wave can be tested if the seafloor surface sediment has tangent modulus. The shear wave velocity ranges from 50-600 m/s and the measuring frequency from 50-200 kHz. The sound velocity rate of shear wave and compression wave can be used to appraise the stress-strain feature of seafloor surface sediments. This study provides a basis for further describing and appraising the seafloor sedimentary acoustic-mechanical feature and building a geological-acoustic model on China's offshore sea area.     

Origin of short period comets

Reasons for interest in the origin of short-period comets and the difficulties of computing their long-term dynamcal evolution are reviewed. The relative advantages of a source region in an extended inner core of the Oort cloud or a compact comet belt just beyond the planetary system are finely balanced, and it is premature to consider the problem solved. A complication is that some comets belonging to the Jupiter family may be part of a time-dependent system, possibly the remains of a giant comet such as Chiron which could have been part of the system 104 yr ago. The origin of short-period comets plays a pivotal role in many areas of solar system science: planet formation, the source of water (possibly life) on the terrestrial planets, the cratering record on the terrestrial planets and satellites of the outer planets, and the environmental impact posed by massive bodies and their decay products in the Earth's near-space environment.     

关于地球和月球首子午线的研究

首先对地球首子午线在不同时期的定义进行了分析和总结,进一步明确了当前对地球首子午线的严格定义,澄清了地球首子午线即过格林尼治天文台的子午线这一模糊认识。同时,结合我国月球探测工程的需要,分析了目前IAU推荐的月球首子午线定义和Bryce Walden等人提出的月球首子午线定义的优缺点。最后,对我国月球探测工程中坐标系的选择提出了建设性的意见。     

Fluctuation in the zooplankton community in two solar salt ponds,Aveiro, Portugal

The zooplankton of two salt ponds at Aveiro was studied to evaluate its density and diversity. Samples were collected biweekly from the salt ponds Esmolas and Tanoeiras. Samples were first separated into Holoplankton (Copepoda, nauplii,Acartia, Ostracoda and Anostraca) and Meroplankton (Mollusca, Insecta, annelidan larvae and Ichthyoplankton). The Holoplankton was mainly composed of:Acartia tonsa, Acartia sp.,Eurytemora velox, Artemia sp., and harpacticoids and calanoids. In both salt ponds, species diversity was identical, but total zooplankton density was higher in the Tanoeiras salt pond, probably because its physical and chemical characteristics allowed the development of stable communities.     

Spectral Filtering and Classification of Terrestrial Laser Scanner Point Clouds

A method is presented for filtering and classification of terrestrial laser scanner point clouds. The algorithm exploits the four-channel (blue, green, red and near infrared) multispectral imaging capability of some terrestrial scanners using supervised, parametric classification to assign thematic class labels to all scan cloud points. Its principal advantage is that it is a completely data-driven algorithm and is independent of spatial sampling resolution since the processing is performed in four-dimensional spectral feature space. Its application to two data-sets of different spatial extent and spatial and spectral complexity is reported, for which respective overall classification accuracies of 87·0% and 82·0% were achieved. Analysis of the input data with emphasis on the characteristics pertinent to the anticipated outcomes precedes detailed analysis of the classification results and error sources and their causes. Erroneously classified points are attributed to radiometric errors stemming from both detector hardware and physical effects.