Oceanographic influences on seabirds and cetaceans of the eastern tropical Pacific: A review     

Lisa T. Ballance  Robert L. Pitman  Paul C. Fiedler 《Progress in Oceanography》2006,69(2-4):360

This paper is part of a comprehensive review of the oceanography of the eastern tropical Pacific, the oceanic region centered on the eastern Pacific warm pool, but also including the equatorial cold tongue and equatorial current system, and summarizes what is known about oceanographic influences on seabirds and cetaceans there. The eastern tropical Pacific supports on the order of 50 species of seabirds and 30 species of cetaceans as regular residents; these include four endemic species, the world’s largest populations for several others, three endemic sub-species, and a multi-species community that is relatively unique to this ecosystem. Three of the meso-scale physical features of the region are particularly significant to seabirds and cetaceans: the Costa Rica Dome for blue whales and short-beaked common dolphins, the Equatorial Front for planktivorous seabirds, and the countercurrent thermocline ridge for flocking seabirds that associate with mixed-species schools of spotted and spinner dolphins and yellowfin tuna. A few qualitative studies of meso- to macro-scale distribution patterns have indicated that some seabirds and cetaceans have species-specific preferences for surface currents. More common are associations with distinct water masses; these relationships have been quantified for a number of species using several different analytical methods. The mechanisms underlying tropical species–habitat relationships are not well understood, in contrast to a number of higher-latitude systems. This may be due to the fact that physical variables have been used as proxies for prey abundance and distribution in species–habitat research in the eastern tropical Pacific.Though seasonal and interannual patterns tend to be complex, species–habitat relationships appear to remain relatively stable over time, and distribution patterns co-vary with patterns of preferred habitat for a number of species. The interactions between seasonal and interannual variation in oceanographic conditions with seasonal patterns in the biology of seabirds and cetaceans may account for some of the complexity in species–habitat relationship patterns.Little work has been done to investigate effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycles on cetaceans, and results of the few studies focusing on oceanic seabirds are complex and not easy to interpret. Although much has been made of the detrimental effects of El Niño events on apex predators, more research is needed to understand the magnitude, and even direction, of these effects on seabirds and cetaceans in space and time.  相似文献   

Methyl halide production and loss rates in sea water from field incubation experiments     

Robert M. Moore   《Marine Chemistry》2006,101(3-4):213-219

Experiments were conducted in the field to determine the non-chemical loss rate of methyl iodide in seawater and to examine production rates of methyl halides. The loss rate of added C13 labelled methyl iodide, present at concentrations similar to those found in seawater, corrected for chemical loss due to reaction with Cl⁻ varied from < 1 to 18% day^− 1, with a mean value of 7%. This rate of loss is much lower than that which was proposed by Bell et al. [Bell, N., Hsu, L., Jacob, D. J., Schultz, M. G., Blake, D. R., Butler, J. H., King, D. B., Lobert, J. M., Maier-Reimer, E., 2002. Methyl iodide: Atmospheric budget and use as a tracer of marine convection in global models, Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 107(D17), 4340-4351.] to account for the large discrepancies between observed and predicted mid-latitude concentrations of CH₃I based on their global photochemical source model. The suitability of several types of container for seawater incubations was studied and only quartz tubes appeared to be free of experimental artifact. Collapsible polyvinyl fluoride containers showed major production of methyl halides on irradiation with simulated sunlight. Polyethylene containers caused spurious production of methyl iodide at lower rates.  相似文献   

Relationship between Salinity and Nutrients in the Subsurface Layer in the Suruga Bay     

Tatsuya?IwataEmail author  Yoshiko?Shinomura  Yuta?Natori  Yasumasa?Igarashi  Rumi?Sohrin  Yoshimi?Suzuki 《Journal of Oceanography》2005,61(4):721-732

We investigated the water structure and nutrient distribution in the Suruga Bay from April 2000 to July 2002, especially the Offshore Water, which occupies a large part of the bay. The maximum salinity in the upper 200 m varied between 34.49 and 34.71, indicating a temporal change in the influence of Kuroshio Water on the Offshore Water. Seasonal variation in nutrient concentrations was largest from surface to 50 m. On the other hand, the variance in nutrient concentrations within each season was largest in the subsurface layer of 100–300 m in spring, summer and fall. In the Offshore Water, the change of nutrients was negatively correlated with that of salinity in each season. This suggests that an increasing intrusion of saline water brings about a lower nutrient concentration in the Offshore Water. Likewise, negative correlations were observed between the change of the maximum salinity and chlorophyll a (Δ [chl.a-int])/nutrients integrated in the upper 200 m. Δ[chl.a-int] was significantly correlated with the changes of nitrate and phosphorus, but there were no significant correlations between Δ[chl.a-int] and the change of silicate. These results suggest that the concentrations of chlorophyll a and nutrients in the Offshore Water were decreased due to the increasing intrusion of Kuroshio Water. The Offshore Water is likely to be related to the regulation of primary production by nitrate.  相似文献   

Drag Coefficient,Dynamic Roughness and Reference Wind Speed     

Paul?A.?HwangEmail author 《Journal of Oceanography》2005,61(3):399-413

Surface waves are the roughness element of the ocean surface. The parameterization of the drag coefficient of the ocean surface is simplified by referencing to wind speed at an elevation proportional to the characteristic wavelength. The dynamic roughness is analytically related to the drag coefficient. Under the assumption of fetch limited wave growth condition, various empirical functions of the dynamic roughness can be converted to equivalent expressions for comparison. For datasets covering a wide range of the dimensionless frequency (inverse wave age), it is important to account for the variable rate of wave development at different wave ages. As a result, the dependence of the Charnock parameter on wave age is nonmonotonic. Finally, the analysis presented here suggests that the significant wave steepness is a sensitive property of the ocean surface and a single variable normalization of the dynamic roughness using a wavelength or wave height parameter actually produces more robust functions than bi-variable normalizations using wave height and wave slope.  相似文献   

Seasonal and Spatial Variations of Total Mass Flux around Coral Reefs in the Southern Ryukyus,Japan     

Mohamed?IsmailEmail author  Tadashi?Kimura  Yumiko?Suzuki  Makoto?Tsuchiya 《Journal of Oceanography》2005,61(3):631-644

Total mass flux, size distribution of sediment particles and some chemical components such as total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN) and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) were monitored monthly using a multi-cup sediment traps at seven coral reef sites (6 reef flat and 1 reef slope) of the Marine Protected Areas around Ishigaki, Kohama, Kuroshima and Iriomote Islands in the southern Ryukyus, Japan from September 2000 to September 2001. The size distribution of trapped sediments revealed mostly uni-modal fine sand to mud in the reef flat and gravelly to coarse sand in the reef slope. The total mass flux ranged between 0.54 to 872 gm⁻²d⁻¹, and showed a pronounced seasonality (high in summer-autumn and low in spring) at each site, which was consistent with the rainfall and typhoon regime. Exceptionally high values were observed on the reef slope (Iriomote) in February–March 2001 (1533 gm⁻²d⁻¹) owing to a large amount of bottom sediment re-suspension. On the reef flat (Todoroki South and North; Ishigaki), values obtained in July–August 2001 (872 gm⁻²d⁻¹) and August–September 2001 (800 gm^{− 2}d⁻¹) indicate the high terrestrial discharge from Todoroki River. Trapped sediment particles consist of CaCO₃ (1.2–27.1%) and a non-carbonate fraction (98.8–72.9%), which contains total carbon (4.9–26%), carbonate carbon (CO₂-C) (0.2–3.1%) and non-carbonate carbon (NC-C) (7.9–25.6%). Total nitrogen content was in the range 0.02–0.48%. TN is contained mainly in the carbonate fraction and NC-C may be contained in the non-carbonate fraction. The low TN/OC ratio of the trapped sediments suggests that they were mostly of terrestrial origin and that both fractions migrated. The high total mass flux derived from Todoroki River exceeded the threshold at which a lethal effect on coral community is caused. The results stress the importance of conducting seasonal studies of sedimentation over more than one year and at more than one location in south Japan coral reef ecosystems to gain an understanding of the processes controlling the total mass fluxes and their nutrients content, also to develop an awareness of how to prevent the damage of coral reef ecosystems and, if it does occur, to allow mitigation measures to be undertaken.  相似文献   

Influence of Current Width Variation on the Annual Mean Transport of the East Sakhalin Current: A Simple Model     

Yoichi?ShimadaEmail author  Atsushi?Kubokawa  Kay?I.?Ohshima 《Journal of Oceanography》2005,61(5):913-920

Recent observations suggest that the annual mean southward transport of the East Sakhalin Current (ESC) is significantly larger than the annual mean Sverdrup transport. Motivated by this observational result, transport of a western boundary current has been investigated using a simple numerical model with a western slope. This transport is defined as the instantaneous barotropic transport integrated from the western boundary to the offshore point where the barotropic velocity vanishes. The model, forced by seasonally varying wind stress, exhibits an annual mean of the western boundary current transport that is larger than that of the Sverdrup transport, as observed. The southward transport from October to March in the model nearly equals the instantaneous Sverdrup transport, while the southward transport from April to September decreases slowly. Although the Sverdrup transport in July vanishes, the southward transport in summer nearly maintains the annual mean Sverdrup transport, because the barotropic Rossby wave cannot intrude on the western slope. This summer transport causes the larger annual mean. Although there are some uncertainties in the estimation of the Sverdrup transport in the Sea of Okhotsk, the seasonal variation of the southward transport in the model is qualitatively similar to the observations.  相似文献   

The importance of bioturbation to continental slope sediment structure and benthic processes off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina     

Robert J. Diaz  G. Randy Cutter  Donald C. Rhoads 《Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography》1994,41(4-6)

Even though the continental slope off Cape Hatteras has sediment accumulation rates on the order of 1 cm/year, large areas of soft sediment are intensively reworked by infaunal organisms. Primary sedimentary structures have been completely replaced with biogenic structures. Surface sedimentary structures are dominated by the bioturbational activities of a deep burrowing infauna (to at least 30 cm). The layer actively mixed by the benthos, as evidenced by sediment profile and X-ray images, is estimated to range from 5 to 20 cm, with the residence time for particles within the surface mixed layer ranging from about 4.5 to 18 years. The biological mixing parameter (G) ranges from 0.4 to 5.5, which indicates moderate to strong biological mixing relative to accumulation and strata formation. Bioturbation contributes to the dynamic forces affecting the surface sediments by decreasing compaction of sediment layers and dilating sediment fabrics by sediment mixing, and introducing large water-filled burrows and voids to subsurface sediments. The sediment profile images captured numerous subsurface feeding voids, and worms in the process of making deep burrows, many of which extended below the 5 to 10 cm average depth of the apparent color redoxpotential discontinuity layer. High rates of accumulation of organic-rich sediment lead to high standing stocks of benthos and intensive feeding/burrowing activity that result in organic rich stratagraphic sequences that are thoroughly mixed. Cape Hatteras is a apparent focusing point for the transport of shallow water sediments to the deep sea. Sediments across other areas of the continental slope just 100's of kilometers south of Cape Hatteras are not as thoroughly mixed or biologically active.  相似文献   

A permanent seismic station beneath the Ocean Bottom     

David Harris  Robert K. Cessaro  Fred K. Duennebier  David A. Byrne 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1987,9(1):67-94

The Hawaii Institute of Geophysics began development of the Ocean Subbottom Seisometer (OSS) system in 1978, and OSS systems were installed in four locations between 1979 and 1982. The OSS system is a permanent, deep ocean borehole seismic recording system composed of a borehole sensor package (tool), an electromechanical cable, recorder package, and recovery system. Installed near the bottom of a borehole (drilled by the D/V Glomar Challenger), the tool contains three orthogonal, 4.5-Hz geophones, two orthogonal tilt meters; and a temperature sensor. Signals from these sensors are multiplexed, digitized (with a floating point technique), and telemetered through approximately 10 km of electromechanical cable to a recorder package located near the ocean bottom. Electrical power for the tool is supplied from the recorder package. The digital seismic signals are demultiplexed, converted back to analog form, processed through an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit, and recorded along with a time code on magnetic tape cassettes in the recorder package. Data may be recorded continuously for up to two months in the self-contained recorder package. Data may also be recorded in real time (digital formal) during the installation and subsequent recorder package servicing. The recorder package is connected to a submerged recovery buoy by a length of bouyant polypropylene rope. The anchor on the recovery buoy is released by activating either of the acoustical command releases. The polypropylene rope may also be seized with a grappling hook to effect recovery. The recorder package may be repeatedly serviced as long as the tool remains functionalA wide range of data has been recovered from the OSS system. Recovered analog records include signals from natural seismic sources such as earthquakes (teleseismic and local), man-made seismic sources such as refraction seismic shooting (explosives and air cannons), and nuclear tests. Lengthy continuous recording has permitted analysis of wideband noise levels, and the slowly varying parameters, temperature and tilt.Hawaii Institute of Geophysics Contribution 1909.  相似文献   

The exclusive economic zone : State claims and the LOS convention     

Robert Nadelson 《Marine Policy》1992,16(6)

The rapid acceptance of the exclusive economic (EEZ) concept belies the broad differences among State claims beyond 12 nautical miles, and the wide gulf between State practice and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention). This paper first examines the areas of contention between State practice and the LOS Convention. These differences are characterized and the author concludes that the EEZ regime within the Convention does not address the specific individual and regional needs of States that have resulted in the wide discrepancy among State claims. The author suggests a global authority under which the jurisdictional line would be redrawn along the practical level of coastal State to vessel, rather than the political plane of coastal State to flag State.  相似文献   

Seismic structure and tectonics of the Shackleton Fracture Zone (Drake Passage,Scotia Sea)     

Riccardo?Geletti  Emanuele?LodoloEmail author  Anatoly?A.?Schreider  Alina?Polonia 《Marine Geophysical Researches》2005,26(1):17-28

The structural framework of the southern part of the Shackleton Fracture Zone has been investigated through the analysis of a 130-km-long multichannel seismic reflection profile acquired orthogonally to the fracture zone near 60° S. The Shackleton Fracture Zone is a 800-km-long, mostly rectilinear and pronounced bathymetric lineation joining the westernmost South Scotia Ridge to southern South America south of Cape Horn, separating the western Scotia Sea plate from the Antarctic plate. Conventional processing applied to the seismic data outlines the main structures of the Shackleton Fracture Zone, but only the use of enhanced techniques, such as accurate velocity analyses and pre-stack depth migration, provides a good definition of the acoustic basement and the architecture of the sedimentary sequences. In particular, a strong and mostly continuous reflector found at about 8.0 s two-way traveltime is very clear across the entire section and is interpreted as the Moho discontinuity. Data show a complex system of troughs developed along the eastern flank of the crustal ridge, containing tilted and rotated blocks, and the presence of a prominent listric normal fault developed within the oceanic crust. Positive flower structures developed within the oceanic basement indicate strike-slip tectonism and partial reactivation of pre-existing faults. Present-day tectonic activity is found mostly in correspondence to the relief, whereas fault-induced deformation is negligible across the entire trough system. This indicates that the E–W-directed stress regime present in the Drake Passage region is mainly dissipated along a narrow zone within the Shackleton Ridge axis. A reappraisal of all available magnetic anomaly identifications in the western Scotia Sea and in the former Phoenix plate, in conjunction with new magnetic profiles acquired to the east of the Shackleton Fracture Zone off the Tierra del Fuego continental margin, has allowed us to propose a simple reconstruction of Shackleton Fracture Zone development in the general context of the Drake Passage opening.  相似文献