Evolution of nutrient structure and phytoplankton composition in the Jiaozhou Bay ecosystem

The inventories of nutrients in the surface water and large phytoplankton(>69 μm) were analyzed from the data set of JERS ecological database about a typical coastal waters, the Jiaozhou Bay, China, from 1960s for N, P and from 1980s for Si. By examining long term changes of nutrient concentration, calculating stoichiometric balance, and comparing diatom composition, Si limitation of diatom production was found to be more possible. The possibility of Si limitation was from 37% in 1980s to 50% in 1990s. Jiaozhou Bay ecosystem is becoming serious eutrophication, with notable increase of NO 2 N, NO 3 N and NH 4 N from 0 1417 μmol/L, 0 5414 μmol/L, 1 7222 μmol/L in 1960s to 0 9551 μmol/L, 3 001 μmol/L, 8 0359 μmol/L in late 1990s respectively and prominent decrease of Si from 4 2614 μmol/L in 1980s to 1 5861 μmol/L in late 1990s; the nutrient structure is controlled by nitrogen; the main limiting nutrient is probably silicon; because of the Si limitation the phytoplankton community structure has changed drastically.

Distribution pattern of marine flagellate and its controlling factors in the central and north part of the Huanghai Sea in early summer

A survey was carried out in the central and north part of the Huanghai Sea (34.5° -37.0°N, 120.5°-124.0°E) during June 12-27, 2000. It was found that the abundance of marine flagellate ranged from 45 to 1 278 cell/ml, 479 cell/ml in average. Flagellate was more abundant in the central part than in the north part of Huanghai Sea, and the abundance decreased with the increasing distance from the coast, showing a similar distribution pattern with isotherm. Vertically, high density of flagellate was always presented in the bottom of thermocline, and formed a dense accumulation in the central area of the Huanghai Sea Cold Water Mass. The effects of physical and biological factors on the distribution of marine flagellate in early summer were discussed. Water temperature (especially the existence of thermocline) rather than salinity showed significant effect on the distribution pattern of marine flagellate in the Huanghai Sea in early summer. When comparing the abundance of marine flagellate with that of other microorganisms, it revealed a comparatively stable relationship among these organ-hisms, with a ratio of heterotrophic bacteria: cyanobacteria: flagellate: dinoflagellate: ciliate being 105 :103:102:101:100.

Measurement of the current and spectral analysis on the continental shelf in the East China Sea

Direct measurements of current velocity and water temperature were undertaken at the mooring Sta. M (125°29.38' N, 31°49.70' E) on the continental shelf area in the East China Sea in June 1999 by R/V Xiangyanghong 14. The relationship between various time series of oceanic fluctuations is calculated by spectral analysis. The major results are as follows: (1) an average (u,v) of (6.9,-3.0 cm/s) at the 30 m depth is obtained during the 9-day observation, and that at the 45 m depth is (3.7,-1.1 cm/s), i. e., the mean flows are southeastward at both the 30 and 45 m depths;the currents become stronger gradually during the observation period; this may be mainly attributed to the transition of the tidal currents from neap to spring; (2)semidiurnal fluctuation is the most dominant in the current fluctuations, and rotates mainly clockwise; in the next place, there is also diurnal fluctuation;the local inertial period is close to the period of diurnal fluctuation, and an inertial motion is clockwise; thus, local inertial motion combines with diurnal fluctuation, and makes the spectral peaks in clockwise components much higher than those in counterclockwise ones; except for the fluctuations of above main periods, there is also the peak at 3 d period for counterclockwise compo-nents in the upper and lower layers; (3) the calculation of cross spectra between two time series of current velocities at the 30 and 45 m depths shows that both the current fluctuations at the 30 and 45 m depths are much alike, i. e., they are synchro; this shows that the flow field here is rather vertically homogeneous; (4)power spectra of tempera-ture time series at both the 30 and 45 m depths show that the semidiurnal peak is the most predominant, and the second highest peak is the diurnal period; besides spectral peaks at above periods, there are also obvious spectral peaks at 6.8 h and 2 d; (5)plots of temperature time series at 16 , 30 , 35 , 45 and 50 m depths show that the temporal variations of temperature at these depths are synchro, which are like those in the velocity field; temperature records also show a gradual rise in temperature, which are also like those in the velocity field.

Causes and Consequences of Changes in Nutrient Structure in the Jiaozhou Bay

Concentrations and ratios of nutrients in Jiaozhou Bay, China, have changed much in the past decades, with trends indicating an increase in nitrogen and a decrease in silicate. Statistical analysis has shown that the long-term variations of nutrients are associated with agricultural activities, precipitation, and anthropogenic factors. Stoichiometric calculations indicate that the nutrient structure has become more and more unbalanced. There has been almost no possibility for nitrogen limitation since the 1980s, the probability of P limitation has increased, and the probability of Si limitation has also increased markedly from the 1980s to the 1990s. As a consequence of changes in nutrient structure, a decrease in the abundance of net phytoplankton was evident, whereas total chlorophyll a, levels have remained roughly unchanged at around 3.55 g/L. Thus, it is likely that smaller species have taken the niche vacated by the larger species. Changes in phytoplankton size and species composition may ultimately lead to various functional and structural changes at the system level.

Gas seepage on the sea floor of Okinawa Trough Miyako Section

A marine geophysical survey was carried out, on the R/V Science 1 of the Institute of Oceanography, Chi-nese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), in 2000, at the Miyako Section of Okinawa Trough. Here we present seismic and acoustic evidence of a gas seep on the sea floor on the western part of the Okinawa Trough, near the lower slope of the East China Sea Slope and discuss the possibility of related forma-tion of gas hydrate. A gas column reflection was observed in echo-sounder data above a section where the sea floor reflec-tor was missing, on both the echo-sounder and the seismic data for line H14. The seismic data also show an acoustic curtain reflection and a turbidity reflection at this section. These anomalies are the evidence of the existence of a gas seep, which occupies an area 2.2 km in diameter. Based on the acoustic curtain on line H14, we believe that the amount of gas contained in the sediments below the gas seep is larger than 1% by volume of sediment. Tectonically, the gas seep developed in a small basin controlled by basement uplift in the north, south and east. The thickness of the sediment layer can be greater than 3.5 km. A mud diapir structure was found in layer D beneath the gas seep. Over-pressure may occur due to the large sediment thickness and also the tec-tonic basement uplift in the north, south, and east. The mud diapir could be the preferential pathway for methane-rich fluids. The acoustic curtain may indicate that free gas related to the gas seep can be formed on the sea floor. We also note that the layer above the acoustic curtain on profile H14 may contain gas hydrate.

Mineralogy of smectites in the surface sediments from the East Pacific and its significance

XRD, TEM, SEM and EDS are employed to analyze smectites in the clay fraction of the surface sediments from the East Pacific. It is shown from the XRD results that the clay fraction consists of about 20% smectites.Three types of smectites are identified, Fe-rich (Type Ⅰ), Fe,Mg-rich (Type Ⅱ) and Na,Ca smectite (Type Ⅲ), and most of them are not well-crystallized. Type Ⅰ is widely distributed in sediments, showing honeycomblike in the SEM, and aggregated or dispersive hairlike, or cloudy assemblage with a bit curl near its edge in the TEM. This type is considered to be typomorphic type of authigenic smectite in the East Pacific. Type Ⅱ is similar to Type Ⅰ in micromorphology in the TEM, showing a transition micronite, while Type Ⅲ is tabletlike in the TEM with an unclear edge. Type Ⅰ may be altered from voleanics and some of them even precipitated from the low subthermal water. Type Ⅱ could also be formed in the ocean floor, while Type Ⅲ comes from dry and distant continental area. This study suggests that the characteristic of chemical composition and morphology of smectite may give a clue to understand sediment source, origin of minerals and sedimentation in the deep sea.

UNIFICATION AND APPLICATIONS OF MODERN OCEANIC/ATMOSPHERIC DATA ASSIMILATION ALGORITHMS

The key mathematics and applications of various modern atmospheric/oceanicdata assimilation methods including Optimal Interpolation (OI), 4-dimensional variational approach(4D-Var) and filters were systematically reviewed and classified. Based on the data assimilationphilosophy, i. e. , using model dynamics to extract the observational information, the commoncharacter of the problem, such as the probabilistic nature of the evolution of theatmospheric/oceanic system, noisy and irregularly spaced observations, and the advantages anddisadvantages of these data assimilation algorithms, were discussed. In the filtering framework, allmodern data assimilation algorithms were unified: OI/3D-Var is a stationary filter, 4D-Var is alinear (Kalman) filter and an ensemble of Kalman filters is able to construct a nonlinear filter.The nonlinear filter such as the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EN-KF), Ensemble Adjustment Kalman Filter(EAKF) and Ensemble Transformation Kalman Filter (ETKF) can, to some extent, account for thenon-Gaussian information of the prior distribution from the model. The flow-dependent covarianceestimated by an ensemble filter may be introduced to OI and 4D-Var to improve these traditionalalgorithms. In practice, the performance of algorithms may depend on the specific numerical modeland the choice of algorithm may depend on the specific problem. However, the unification ofalgorithms allows us to establish a unified test system to evaluate these algorithms, which providesmore insights into data assimilation philosophies and helps improve data assimilation techniques.