Effects of deposit feeder Stichopus japonicus on algal bloom and organic matter contents of bottom sediments of the enclosed sea

Algae growing in an enclosed sea may inhibit eutrophication because they absorb nutrients in the water. However, dead algae often cause anaerobic conditions in the water just above and on sediment after they are deposited on the bottom. We found that Stichopus japonicus inhibited the anaerobic processes coupling water sulfite production in sediment. The present study investigates whether S. japonicus inhibits algal flourish and influences sediment properties such as organic matter contents. Aquarium experiments were carried out at Komatsushima port in Tokushima Prefecture, western Japan. The aquaria used in the experiments were supplied with water directly from the adjacent sea (6 L/min), laid with sand of 10 cm depths, and lighted at 12 h intervals. Six aquaria each containing a sea cucumber from Komatsushima port and six aquaria without any were used in the experiments. Water temperature ranged between 9 and 15 degrees C during December 2000 and April 2001. Salinity ranged between 32 per thousand and 34 per thousand. Algae began to cover the bottom of the aquaria without S. japonicus after 2 weeks, whereas no growth was evident in the aquaria containing sea cucumbers. Chlorophyll a concentration in the surface sediment of the aquaria with S. japonicus (6.1+/-3.6 microg/g, mean S.D.+/-standard deviation) was significantly lower than that without it (60+/-17 microg/g, U-test, p<0.05). Phaeophytin concentration in the surface sediment of the aquaria with S. japonicus (0.9+/-0.09 microg/g) was also significantly lower than that without it (4.5+/-1.0 microg/g, U-test, p<0.05). TOC concentration in the surface sediment of the aquaria with S. japonicus (2.6+/-1.3 microg/g) was slightly lower than that without it (4.0+/-1.2 microg/g). These results showed that algal biomass and organic matter concentration of the bottom were decreased in the presence of S. japonicus. Therefore, S. japonicus inhibits algal bloom and decrease the contents of organic matter deposited on the bottom of enclosed sea areas.     

Criterion for stability of phytoplankton patchiness using a Liapunov method

A criterion for the stability of plankton patchiness is developed using a Liapunov function. Plankton growth, advection and diffusion in a closed area are considered. A critical length scale for the stability does not exist but a more common criterion which contains the growth rateα, diffusion coefficientA _l and arbitrary function of growthf can be introduced in an integral form.     

Ice core record of Be over the past millennium from Dome Fuji, Antarctica: A new proxy record of past solar activity and a powerful tool for stratigraphic dating

The cosmogenic nuclide ¹⁰Be was analyzed by using accelerator mass spectrometry on an ice core drilled at the Dome Fuji station, inland Antarctica, for 700–1900 yr CE. The measured concentration of ¹⁰Be in the Dome Fuji ice core and the derived ¹⁰Be flux show similar fluctuations, with both increasing at known solar-activity minima over the last millennium in agreement with earlier observations of ¹⁰Be and ¹⁴C. Based on the similar nature of the ¹⁰Be flux to the reconstructed ¹⁴C production rate patterns, a ¹⁰Be–¹⁴C correlation age model for the Dome Fuji ice core was successfully constructed. This age model agrees well with the initial version of the tephrochronology of the core. The ¹⁰Be-flux record contains information on variability in the amount of cosmic radiation incident on the atmosphere, which is mainly attributable to high-frequency change in solar activity and low-frequency background intensity adjustment of the geomagnetic field. High-resolution ¹⁰Be analyses of the Dome Fuji ice cores promise to provide potentially important information on the history of cosmic radiation intensity over the past several hundred thousand years.     

Study of the effect of water-soluble fractions of heavy-oil on coastal marine organisms using enclosed ecosystems,mesocosms

Mesocosm facilities composed of 4 experimental and 2 reservoir tanks (1.5 m in diameter, 3.0 m in depth and 5 tons in capacity) made of FRP plastics, were constructed in the concrete fish rearing pond in the Fisheries Laboratory, The University of Tokyo. The water-soluble fraction of Rank A heavy residual oil was formed by mixing 500 g of the oil with 10 l of seawater, which was introduced to the 5000 l-capacity tanks. Experimental Run 4 was conducted from May 31 to June 7, 2000. Oil concentrations in the tanks were 4.5 microg/l called LOW, and 13.5 microg/l, called HIGH tank. Bacterial growth rates very quickly accelerated in the HIGH tank just after the loading of oil which corresponded with a high increase of bacterial cells in the same tank after 2 days. Later, bacterial numbers in HIGH tank rapidly decreased, corresponding with the rapid increase of heterotrophic nano-flagellates and virus numbers on the same day. Sediment traps were deployed at the bottom of the experimental tanks, and were periodically retrieved. These samples were observed both under light microscope and epi-fluorescent microscope with UV-excitation. It was observed that the main components of the vertical flux were amorphous suspended matter, mostly originating from dead phytoplankton and living diatoms. It was further observed from the pictures that vertical transport of oil emulsions were probably conducted after adsorption to amorphous suspended matter and living diatoms, and were settling in the sediment traps at the bottom of the tanks. This means that the main force which drives the soluble fraction of oil into bottom sediment would be vertical flux of such amorphous suspended particles and phytoplankton. Further incubation of the samples revealed that the oil emulsions were degraded by the activity of autochtonous bacteria in the sediment in aerobic condition.     

Time variations of hard X-rays from Sco X-1

Simultaneous hard X-ray and optical observations of Sco X-1 were carried out on 1971 May 1 at Hyderabad, India, when Sco X-1 was optically bright. The X-ray intensity observed by balloon-borne counter telescopes increased in coincidence with optical enhancements, while the plasma temperature derived by fitting the X-ray spectrum in the energy range 20–40 keV to the thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum did not appreciably change over the whole period of observation.     

Mechanical and transport constitutive models for fractures subject to dissolution and precipitation

Transient changes in the permeability of fractures in systems driven far‐from‐equilibrium are described in terms of proxy roles of stress, temperature and chemistry. The combined effects of stress and temperature are accommodated in the response of asperity bridges where mineral mass is mobilized from the bridge to the surrounding fluid. Mass balance within the fluid accommodates mineral mass either removed from the flow system by precipitation or advection, or augmented by either dissolution or advection. Where the system is hydraulically closed and initially at equilibrium, reduction in aperture driven by the effects of applied stresses and temperatures will be augmented by precipitation on the fracture walls. Where the system is open, the initial drop in aperture may continue, and accelerate, where the influent fluid is oversaturated with respect to the equilibrium mineral concentration within the fluid, or may reverse, if undersaturated. This simple zero‐dimensional model is capable of representing the intricate behavior observed in experiments where the feasibility of fracture sealing concurrent with net dissolution is observed. This zero‐order model is developed as a constitutive model capable of representing key aspects of changes in the transport parameters of the continuum response of fractured media to changes in stress, temperature and chemistry. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A numerical model simulating reactive transport and evolution of fracture permeability

A numerical model is presented to describe the evolution of fracture aperture (and related permeability) mediated by the competing chemical processes of pressure solution and free‐face dissolution/precipitation; pressure (dis)solution and precipitation effect net‐reduction in aperture and free‐face dissolution effects net‐increase. These processes are incorporated to examine coupled thermo‐hydro‐mechano‐chemo responses during a flow‐through experiment, and applied to reckon the effect of forced fluid injection within rock fractures at geothermal and petroleum sites. The model accommodates advection‐dominant transport systems by employing the Lagrangian–Eulerian method. This enables changes in aperture and solute concentration within a fracture to be followed with time for arbitrary driving effective stresses, fluid and rock temperatures, and fluid flow rates. This allows a systematic evaluation of evolving linked mechanical and chemical processes. Changes in fracture aperture and solute concentration tracked within a well‐constrained flow‐through test completed on a natural fracture in novaculite (Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2006, in press) are compared with the distributed parameter model. These results show relatively good agreement, excepting an enigmatic abrupt reduction in fracture aperture in the early experimental period, suggesting that other mechanisms such as mechanical creep and clogging induced by unanticipated local precipitation need to be quantified and incorporated. The model is applied to examine the evolution in fracture permeability for different inlet conditions, including localized (rather than distributed) injection. Predictions show the evolution of preferential flow paths driven by dissolution, and also define the sense of permeability evolution at field scale. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Bathymetric Grid-Cell Sizes on Habitat Suitability Analysis of Cold-water Gorgonian Corals on Seamounts

We investigated the effects of the spatial resolution of bathymetry data on the predicted local distribution of large gorgonian corals on the southern Emperor Seamounts in the high seas of North Pacific. Terrain attributes were calculated from bathymetric survey data at six different grid-cell sizes (25–800 m) to investigate how the values of bottom terrain attributes and the prediction of MaxEnt habitat suitability models would vary with grid-cell size. The values of each terrain attribute showed different patterns among different grid-cell sizes, and MaxEnt demonstrated better performance at grid-cell size of 100 m or less than at larger sizes.