ALBERT

Description: Wind is an important regulator of coastal erosion and accretion processes that have significant ecological and engineering implications. Nevertheless, previous studies have mainly focused on storm−generated changes in the bed level. This paper aims to improve the understanding of wind−induced erosion–accretion cycles on intertidal flats under normal (non−stormy) weather conditions using data that relates to the wave climate, near−bed 3D flow velocity, suspended sediment concentration, and bed−level changes on a mudflat at the Yangtze Delta front. The following parameters were calculated at 10−minute intervals over 10 days: the wind wave orbital velocity (Û δ ), bed shear stress from combined current–wave action, erosion flux, deposition flux, and predicted bed−level change. The time series of measured and predicted bed−level changes both show tidal cycles and a 10−day cycle. We attribute the tidal cycles of bed−level changes to tidal dynamics, but we attribute the 10−day cycle of bed−level changes to the interaction between wind speed/direction and neap−spring cyclicity. We conclude that winds can significantly affect bed−level changes in mudflats even during non−stormy weather and under macro−mesotidal conditions and that the bed−level changes can be predicted well using current–wave–sediment combined models. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Field studies suggested that the biogeochemical settings and community structures are substantial different between the central Northern South China Sea (NSCS) and the upstream Kuroshio Current (KC). In particular, the water column of KC is characterized by substantially lower nutrients and productivity but higher Trichodesmium abundance and nitrogen fixation compared to the NSCS. The mechanism driving the difference of the two marine ecosystems, however, remains inadequately understood. Here, a one-dimensional biogeochemical model was developed to simulate the long-term variability of lower-trophic planktonic ecosystem for two pelagic stations in the NSCS and the KC near the Luzon Strait. The physical model included the vertical mixing driven by air-sea interaction and the Ekman pumping induced by wind stress curl. The biological model was constructed by modifying a nitrogen-based NPZD model with the incorporation of phosphorus cycle and diazotroph nitrogen fixation. After validation by several field datasets, the model was used to study the impact of long-term physical forcing on ecosystem variability in the two distinct stations. Our results suggested that nutrient transport above nitracline during summer was largely controlled by vertical turbulent mixing, while Ekman pumping was important for nutrient transport below the nitracline. Our results also indicated that diazotroph community structure and N 2 fixation in the NSCS and the KC could be strongly influenced by physical processes through the impacts on vertical nutrient fluxes. The disadvantage of diazotroph in the NSCS in compared to the KC during the summer could be attributed to its high nitrate fluxes from subsurface leading to outcompete of diazotrophs by faster growing non-diazotroph phytoplankton. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: [1]  Mackenzie River discharge and bathymetry effects on sea ice in the Beaufort Sea are examined in 2012 when Arctic sea ice extent hit a record low. Satellite-derived sea surface temperature revealed warmer waters closer to river mouths. By 5 July 2012, Mackenzie warm waters occupied most of an open-water area about 316,000 km 2 . Surface temperature in a common open-water area increased by 6.5 °C between 14 June and 5 July 2012, before and after the river waters broke through a recurrent landfast ice barrier formed over the shallow seafloor offshore the Mackenzie Delta. In 2012, melting by warm river waters was especially effective when the strong Beaufort Gyre fragmented sea ice into unconsolidated floes. The Mackenzie and other large rivers can transport an enormous amount of heat across immense continental watersheds into the Arctic Ocean, constituting a stark contrast to the Antarctic that has no such rivers to affect sea ice.

Description: Distribution of Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) in the Pearl River estuary, China, was investigated during two cruises in August 2009 and January 2010. TEPcolor concentrations were 521.5–1727.4 μg Xeq.L−1 (μg Gum Xanthan equivalent liter−1) in August 2009 and 88.7–1586.9 μg Xeq.L−1 in January 2010, respectively. The size of TEP generally increased in the seaward along the longitudinal section with the dominant size of 2–40 μm during the cruises. Experimental work suggested that both concentration and size of TEP increased with Ca2+ concentration (from 0.8 mmol L−1 to 10 mmol L−1). In the field study, Ca2+ concentration had a positive correlation with TEPcolor concentration in the surface layer with salinity

Description: Potassium-promoted hydrotalcite-like material was prepared with potassium nitrate as the K precursor. The highest ever reported CO 2 adsorption capacity (1.13 mol kg –1 ) was obtained at 656 K with p  = 0.5 bar at humid conditions. A mathematical model was developed and it satisfactorily simulated the adsorption and desorption processes. The stability of the material was tested with repeated adsorption/desorption cycles; the CO 2 adsorption capacity decreased around 7 % after ten cycles. In addition, regeneration was performed with temperature swing operation (from 656 K to 708 K), where a complete regeneration was achieved within 60 min, which reduced to half the time required for regeneration under isothermal conditions. Potassium-promoted hydrotalcite-like material was prepared with potassium nitrate as th K precursor. The stability of the material was tested and regeneration was done with thermal swing operation. The material used was found to have a very good thermal and cyclic stability, which makes it an attractive CO 2 sorbent for sorption-enhanced reaction process.

Description: The M w  7.0 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake occurred on 15 April 2016 at 16:25 UTC. Using ground accelerations recorded by 104 near-field stations, we investigate spatial variability of observed ground motions, apparent period dependence, and azimuthal variation, as well as rupture directivity effects on various intensity measures. We develop a simplified ground-motion model that includes both geometric and anelastic attenuation terms. Comparisons of observed and predicted ground motions suggest that predictions from the Next Generation Attenuation-West2 models provide good fits for the overall observation. Analysis of spatial distribution of the residuals shows that observed peak ground velocity (PGV) and long-period spectral accelerations (SAs) in the 150°–180° azimuth range along the rupture backward direction (southwest of the fault) can be as low as 0.3–0.8 times the average observation of this event. Long-period ground motions on the northeast side of the fault in the forward direction are much higher than average, with PGV and long-period SAs ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 times the average. There is clear period dependence of the strong ground motion variation. The biases due to directivity generally decrease with decreasing period for all azimuth ranges. On the distance dependence of directivity effects, our study shows that directivity effects can be considered practically nonsignificant for stations close to the hypocenter. We also perform a log–linear regression of the residuals, using a new directivity predictor. Our results show that for the 2016 M w  7.0 Kumamoto earthquake, rupture directivity produces significant amplifications in the rupture forward direction, whereas deamplification effects are observed in the rupture backward region. Directivity effects are particularly relevant for PGV and long-period SA (i.e., SA at periods ≥2.0 s). Such effects do not have systematic influence on peak ground acceleration and short-period ground motions (i.e., SA at periods 〈2.0 s). Electronic Supplement: Figures of variation of regression residuals with R rup for observed peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), and spectral accelerations (SAs) and of regression residuals versus V S 30 .

Description: Earthquake ground-motion prediction models usually define site conditions based on the time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the upper 30 m ( V S 30 ). Proxy-based estimations of V S 30 are commonly used, if velocity measurements are not available. We compile a soil-profile database for the Beijing plain area (China), using data from research documents and technical reports. The database contains 479 soil profiles, 463 of which have depths greater than 30 m. We develop regional relationships for the Beijing plain area for extrapolating the time-averaged shear-wave velocity to a given depth less than 30 m to V S 30 , and then compare the performance of available models. We find that the second-order polynomial model ( Boore et al. , 2011 ), based on data from Japan, provides an overprediction, whereas the linear model ( Boore, 2004 ) calibrated on data from California underestimates V S 30 . We develop relationships for estimating V S 30 based on proxies such as ground slope gradients from radar-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) and surface geology at different scales. We find that local V S 30 data in the Beijing plain are generally lower than existing 30 arcsec gradient-based global models. Regression results show a modest correlation between V S 30 and topographic ground slope for several DEM resolutions (3, 15, 30, and 60 arcsec). Geology-based proxies are more effective than ground slope for V S 30 estimation in the analyzed area. We propose a bilinear model based on geologic ages and depositional environments for estimating V S 30 , which shows a statistically significant trend for application in the Beijing plain area. Online Material: Figures showing topographic ground slopes and correlations of V S 30 with topographic slope from digital elevation model (DEM) data and a table summarizing data from the 463 boreholes.

Description: [1]  Distribution of Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) in the Pearl River estuary, China, was investigated during two cruises in August 2009 and January 2010. TEP color concentrations were 521.5–1727.4 μg Xeq.L −1 ( μ g Gum Xanthan equivalent liter −1 ) in August 2009 and 88.7–1586.9 μg Xeq.L −1 in January 2010, respectively. The size of TEP generally increased in the seaward along the longitudinal section with the dominant size of 2–40 μ m during the cruises. Experimental work suggested that both concentration and size of TEP increased with Ca 2+ concentration (from 0.8 mmol L −1 to 10 mmol L −1 ). In the field study, Ca 2+ concentration had a positive correlation with TEP color concentration in the surface layer with salinity 〈16. Decrease of TEP concentration seaward from intermediary salinity was partly due to dilution of seawater as well as enhanced aggregation and sedimentation of TEP via increasing divalent cation concentration. TEP concentration and turbidity maximum coexisted at the tip of salt wedge in the bottom layer during the wet season, and positive correlation between TEP and turbidity was observed in the winter. Relationships between TEP and turbidity suggested the important contribution of TEP aggregation to flocculation and sedimentation of particles in estuaries. Different pattern of TEP during two cruises can be attributed to physical process (i.e., mixing type) in estuaries. These findings indicated that formation and distribution of TEP were largely influenced by interaction between physical and biogeochemical processes in the Pearl River estuary. A conceptual model for TEP formation and distribution in the Pearl River estuary was developed.

Description: Biological rate measurements provide critical information for understanding key processes and modeling future states of marine ecosystems. Experimentally derived rates can be challenging to interpret when methodological assumptions are untested or potentially violated under variable natural conditions, such as the assumed linear grazing response of the dilution technique for estimating rates of phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing impact. Here, we show that grazing nonlinearity can be related to the ratio of initial phytoplankton biomass to the half-saturation parameter in the Holling II model, while not being affected by varying grazer biomass during dilution experiments. From this, we present theory to recover growth and grazing rates from multi-treatment dilution experiments with nonlinear grazing results. We test our analyses with data collected during the California Current Ecosystem-Long-Term Ecological Research (CCE-LTER) program. We show that using a linear regression in 2-treatment dilution experiments may lead to underestimates of microzooplankton grazing rates, particularly in high-phytoplankton-biomass coastal regions where grazing can be saturated. Using the Holling II grazing model and a correction factor, growth and grazing rates from 2-treatment experiments can also be estimated, as illustrated by application to Lagrangian water-tracking studies of growth and grazing dynamics in the CCE.

Description: Recent composite based researches reveal that anticyclonic eddies facilitate the growth of phytoplankton in the subtropical gyres. Two dynamical mechanisms, eddy-Ekman pumping and winter mixing, have been examined individually, but their relative and combined effects remain unclear. Using satellite observations and model simulations, this study investigated the process of a distinct phytoplankton bloom generated in an anticyclonic eddy in the nutrient-depleted southeastern Indian Ocean. The bloom propagated westward along with the eddy for more than 600 km from late April to August in 2010. The peak of surface chlorophyll concentration in the eddy is 2.2 times larger than the mean value of the ambient. The development of the bloom is dominated by the winter deepening of mixed layer, whose velocity in vertical nutrient flux is on average 3 times larger than that of eddy-Ekman pumping. The results of a 1-D physical-biogeochemical model demonstrate that the role of eddy-Ekman pumping is also indispensable, because it not only transports extra nutrients into the mixed layer, but also results in significant chlorophyll enrichment in subsurface water. The superposition of eddy-Ekman pumping on winter mixing triples the chlorophyll enrichment both at the surface and in the upper layer, and the entrainment of subsurface phytoplankton into the mixed layer contributes significantly to the surface bloom, especially in its initial stage. Both of the satellite observations and model simulation show that eddy-Ekman pumping can lead to an early occurrence of the bloom for more than two weeks.