Presence of high nitrate to phosphate ratio subsurface water in the Tsushima Strait during summer     

Taketoshi Kodama  Akihiko Morimoto  Tetsutaro Takikawa  Masashi Ito  Yosuke Igeta  Shoko Abe  Ken-Ichi Fukudome  Naoto Honda  Osamu Katoh 《Journal of Oceanography》2017,73(6):759-769

To identify water with an excess nitrate concentration to phosphate ratio and its potential source, the nutrient concentrations in the Tsushima Strait (TSS) were investigated over ten cruises in August and September 2007–2014, excluding 2010. On the basis of the Redfield ratio, water with an excess nitrate concentration of >1 μM (positive ExNOx water) was identified below the surface mixed layer during four cruises in 2011–2013. Positive ExNOx water was present mainly in less-saline (<34) waters with a density of 22–25 σ _θ , and 25–75 m depth. However, in August 2012, positive ExNOx was detected in dense (25–25.5 σ _θ ) and deep (50–110 m depth) waters near the salinity maximum, although the salinity during this period was significantly lower than that in other years. The horizontal length of positive ExNOx water was >100 km across the TSS during two cruises in August 2012 and September 2013, respectively. According to multi-regression analysis conducted on the silicate concentration, temperature, and salinity, the silicate concentration was increased in the less-saline subsurface water. The required amount of original freshwater was 10^8–9 m³ day^?1 based on the excess nitrate concentration. This evidence indicates that the positive ExNOx water originated from large river waters such as the Changjiang. Thus, discharged water from the rivers of the East Asia is contributing to the increased N:P ratio in the Tsushima Warm Current, southern Japan Sea.  相似文献   

Evidence for recycled plate material in Pacific upper mantle unrelated to plumes   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Shiki Machida  Naoto Hirano 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2009,73(10):3028-351

We report Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic data of young alkaline basalt lava from a new type of volcano (petit-spot) on the northwestern Pacific Plate. Petit-spot lavas show Dupal, or extremely EM-1-like, Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions. The data cannot be explained by contamination of pelagic sediment, in spite of the prediction on the basis of geological observation. We thus consider that the geochemistry of petit-spot lava indicates the existence of recycled fertile plate materials, not only the Dupal isotopic signature, in the northern hemisphere Pacific upper mantle unrelated to one or more active plumes. In consideration of published experimental results for fertile plate materials, selective melting of recycled material is a process critical in generating petit-spot lava. Moreover, the small volume of the volcano and low degree of melting in the mantle source needed to form strongly alkalic lavas suggest that petit-spot volcanism is originated from small-scale heterogeneities of recycled material. This idea consistently explains the geochemistry and noble gas isotopic composition of petit-spot lava, and also suggests small-scale heterogeneity widespread in the upper mantle of the Pacific Ocean. Together with a revised view of upper mantle heterogeneity, we propose that gross upper mantle composition is controlled by abundances and scales of regions of recycled material that correspond to differences in the relative position to the Pangea supercontinent, suggesting the link to the tectonic origin of the global scale heterogeneity.  相似文献   

Dominant sea-surface temperature anomaly patterns in summer over the North Pacific ocean     

Nanase Motokawa  Noriyuki Matsuo  Naoto Iwasaka 《Journal of Oceanography》2010,66(4):581-590

We investigated the structure and persistency of the dominant sea-surface temperature (SST) anomaly pattern in summer over the North Pacific from 1960 to 2004, which has been attracting less attention than those in winter. The leading empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) for August and September, which can be treated as the summer patterns, rather resemble each other in both spatial structure and time variations but are quite different from those of the other months. A lag correlation analysis indicates that the summer patterns do not show significant persistency in the following winter and the summer of the next year. An inappropriate definition of the summer season might obscure the characteristics of the dominant summer SST anomaly pattern in the North Pacific.  相似文献   

The characteristic displacement in rate and state-dependent friction from a micromechanical point of view     

Naoto Yoshioka  Koji Iwasa 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》1996,147(3):433-453

The physical meaning of the characteristic displacement that has been observed in velocity-stepping friction experiments was investigated based on the micromechanics of asperity contact. It has been empirically found for bare rock surfaces that the magnitude of the characteristic displacement is dependent only on surface roughness and insensitive to both slip velocity and normal stress. Thus the characteristic displacement has been interpreted as the displacement required to change the population of contact points completely. Here arises a question about the physical mechanism by which the contact population changes. Because individual asperity contacts form, grow and are eliminated with displacement, there are at least two possible interpretations for the characteristic displacement: (1) it is the distance over which the contacts existing at the moment of the velocity change all fade away, being replaced by new asperity contacts, or (2) it is the distance required for a complete replacement in the real contact area that existed at the moment of the velocity change. In order to test these possibilities, theoretical models were developed based on the statistics of distributed asperity summits. A computer simulation was also performed to check the validity of the theoretical models using three-dimensional surface topography data with various surface roughnesses. The deformation was assumed to be elastic at each asperity contact. The results of both the simulation and the theoretical models show that the characteristic displacement in (1) is about three times longer than that in (2). Comparison of the results with the experimental observations obtained by others indicates that the possibility (2) is the correct interpretation. This means that the state in the rate and state variable friction law is memorized in a very confined area of real contact. Further, our results explain why the characteristic displacement is insensitive to normal stress: this comes from the fact that the microscopic properties such as the mean contact diameter are insensitive to normal stress. The approach based on the micromechanics of asperity contact is useful to investigate the underlying mechanism of various phenomena in rock friction.  相似文献   

Placental transfer of arsenic to fetus of Dall's porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli)     

Kubota R  Kunito T  Fujihara J  Tanabe S  Yang J  Miyazaki N 《Marine pollution bulletin》2005,51(8-12):845-849

Concentrations of total arsenic and individual arsenic compounds were determined in liver, muscle, kidney and blubber of mother and fetus of Dall’s porpoises collected from off Sanriku, Japan, in the year 2000 to characterize the placental transfer of arsenic to fetus in cetaceans. Arsenic was detected in all the tissues of Dall’s porpoises. Total arsenic concentrations in liver, kidney, muscle and blubber were 0.76, 0.69, 0.35 and 0.55 μg/g wet wt, respectively, for mother and 0.28, 0.23, 0.26 and 0.07 μg/g wet wt, respectively, for fetus. In all the tissues, concentrations of total arsenic in mother Dall’s porpoise were higher than in fetus. Arsenic speciation revealed that arsenobetaine was the major arsenic compound in liver, kidney and muscle of both mother and fetus. The percentage of arsenobetaine to total arsenic ranged from 76.0 to 91.0% in the tissues. Dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine, methylarsonic acid and an unidentified arsenic compound were also detected in tissues of both mother and fetus as minor constituents, whereas tetramethylarsonium ion was not detected in tissues of the fetus. These results suggest that arsenobetaine, dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine and methylarsonic acid are transferable from mother to fetus in Dall’s porpoises. To our knowledge, this is the first report on placental transfer of arsenic compounds to fetus in marine mammals.  相似文献   

Consideration on the topographic control of a baroclinic ocean current     

Masahisa Kubota 《Journal of Oceanography》1978,34(6):307-309

The stability of ocean currents is considered using a two-layer model including the vertical shear in the geostrophic balance and bottom topography. Applying the results, the Kuroshio current along the bottom contour seems to be more stable than any other combination of the current direction and the bottom contour.  相似文献   

Probability Distribution of Surface Wave Slope Derived Using Sun Glitter Images from Geostationary Meteorological Satellite and Surface Vector Winds from Scatterometers     

Naoto Ebuchi  Shoichi Kizu 《Journal of Oceanography》2002,58(3):477-486

The probability distribution of the sea surface slope has been estimated using sun glitter images derived from the visible wavelength radiometer on the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) and surface vector winds observed by spaceborne scatterometers. The brightness of the visible images is converted to the probability of wave surfaces which reflect the sunlight toward GMS in grids of 0.25° × 0.25° (latitude × longitude). The slope and azimuth angle required for the reflection of the sun's rays toward GMS are calculated for each grid from the geometry of GMS observation and location of the sun. The GMS images are then collocated with surface wind data observed by three scatterometers. Using the collocated data set of about 30 million points obtained in a period of 4 years from 1995 to 1999, the probability distribution function of the surface slope is estimated as a function of wind speed and azimuth angle relative to the wind direction. The results are compared with those of Cox and Munk (1954a). The surface slope estimated by the present method shows a narrower distribution and much less directivity relative to the wind direction than that reported by Cox and Munk. It is expected that their data were obtained under conditions of growing wind waves. In general, wind waves are not always developing, and the slope distribution might differ from the results of Cox and Munk. Most of our data are obtained in the subtropical seas under clear-sky conditions. This difference in the conditions may be the reason for the difference of slope distribution. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

Methane in the western North Pacific   总被引：7，自引：0，他引：7  

Shuich Watanabe  Naoto Higashitani  Nobuo Tsurushima  Shizuo Tsunogai 《Journal of Oceanography》1995,51(1):39-60

The concentration of methane in about 400 seawater samples collected in the western North Pacific, mostly from 40°N to 5°S along 165°E was determined. While the concentration of methane in the surface water was slightly greater in the high-latitudes, it did not widely vary with a standard deviation of 0.29 n mol/l for a mean value of 2.49 n mol/l. The 90% confidence limit of the mean was 0.08 n mol/l. The degree of oversaturation in 1991 (31±4%) was not different from that in circa 1970. If we assume that this degree of oversaturation occurs in the entire oceans, the annual flux of methane becomes 6×10¹²g CH₄. Both the concentrations of methane and chlorophylla were higher in the surface 100 m layer. However, the correlation between them was not well in the entire surface waters. This may indicate that the production of methane is not directly related to the photosynthetic process. The concentration of methane decreased gradually with increasing depth down to 1000 m. Its horizontally and vertically uniform concentration in the abyssal water suggests that the turnover time of methane in the oxic pelagic water is in the range between a few years and a few hundred years.  相似文献   

Downstream transition of the Tsushima Current west of Kyushu in summer   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Osamu Katoh  Kazuyuki Teshima  Katsuhiko Kubota  Kazuo Tsukiyama 《Journal of Oceanography》1996,52(1):93-108

In order to clarify detailed current structures west of Kyushu, ADCP measurements were carried out in July and September 1990 by the quadrireciprocal method (Katoh, 1988) for removing diurnal and semidiurnal tidal flows from observed flows. On the basis of these results, together with data of routine oceanographic observations, we study the downstream transition of the Tsushima Current west of Kyushu in summer. In the southwest of the Goto Islands, a northward current identified as the Tsushima Current was clearly found. In the south of Cheju, a westward current bifurcated from the Tsushima Current. In the northwest of the Goto Islands, the Tsushima Current narrowed and its velocity became strengthened. Salinity of the Tsushima Current water was much diluted by a current from the Cheju Strait. Near the west coast of the Goto Islands, a countercurrent bifurcating from the Tsushima Current often occurred. The volume transport of the Tsushima Current was 2.3 Sv (1 Sv=10⁶ m³s^–1) on the northern side of latitude 31°N. The substantial bifurcation of the Tsushima Current toward the Eastern and Western Channels of the Tsushima Strait occurred in the vicinity of Tsushima. The volume transport through the Western Channel was two to three times larger than that through the Eastern Channel. The baroclinic component in volume transport of the Tsushima Current west of Kyushu was much smaller than that in the Japan Sea.  相似文献   

Pre-Japan-ARGO: Experimental Observation of Upper and Middle Layers South of the Kuroshio Extension Region Using Profiling Floats     

Naoto Iwasaka  Toshio Suga  Kensuke Takeuchi  Keisuke Mizuno  Yasushi Takatsuki  Kentaro Ando  Taiyo Kobayashi  Eitarou Oka  Yasuko Ichikawa  Motoki Miyazaki  Hiroshi Matsuura  Kenji Izawa  Chan-Su Yang  Nobuyuki Shikama  Momoko Aoshima 《Journal of Oceanography》2003,59(1):119-127

We deployed two profiling floats in the region south of the Kuroshio Extension in March 2000. Temperature and salinity profiles from a depth of 1500 × 10⁴ Pa to the surface are reported every two and four weeks, respectively. The floats performed very well for first four months after deployment. Later they failed in surfacing for a few months when the sea surface temperature in the region was high. The salinity sensors seemed to suffer from some damage during their failure-in-surfacing period. Despite this trouble, the results clearly demonstrate that the profiling float is a very useful and cost-effective tool for physical oceanographic observation in the open sea. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献