南海深海塑料垃圾污染

 渔业捕捞及商业航运活动的塑料排放是南海深海塑料污染的主要来源。南海深海微塑料污染始于20世纪80年代，具有明显陆源输入的特征，陆架近岸区域微塑料污染严重。陆坡深海峡谷是塑料/微塑料向深海盆地输运的主要通道，近底浊流在输运中发挥了重要作用。综述了南海海底塑料垃圾深潜研究的最新进展，首次提出了深海塑料垃圾生态系统的概念。     

深海风暴的原位观测

 深海风暴是高悬浮颗粒浓度水体在深海近海底的快速运动,能够损坏甚至摧毁一切障碍物,改变海底地形,影响深海底栖生态环境,但对其发生过程和沉积记录的认识尚缺乏原位观测研究。选择南海东北部台湾岸外高屏海底峡谷堤岸,通过布放锚系原位观测了2016年9月一次由浊流活动引发深海风暴的沉积物弥散发生过程,发现其表现为近海底悬浮颗粒浓度快速增加,并伴随温度升高和盐度降低。研究认为,深海风暴的沉积物弥散是海底峡谷沉积纹层形成的主要动力过程。     

Efficient export of carbon to the deep ocean through dissolved organic matter

Oceanic dissolved organic carbon (DOC) constitutes one of the largest pools of reduced carbon in the biosphere. Estimated DOC export from the surface ocean represents 20% of total organic carbon flux to the deep ocean, which constitutes a primary control on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. DOC is the carbon component of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and an accurate quantification of DOM pools, fluxes and their controls is therefore critical to understanding oceanic carbon cycling. DOC export is directly coupled with dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphorus export. However, the C:N:P stoichiometry (by atoms) of DOM dynamics is poorly understood. Here we study the stoichiometry of the DOM pool and of DOM decomposition in continental shelf, continental slope and central ocean gyre environments. We find that DOM is remineralized and produced with a C:N:P stoichiometry of 199:20:1 that is substantially lower than for bulk pools (typically >775:54:1), but greater than for particulate organic matter (106:16:1--the Redfield ratio). Thus for a given mass of new N and P introduced into surface water, more DOC can be exported than would occur at the Redfield ratio. This may contribute to the excess respiration estimated to occur in the interior ocean. Our results place an explicit constraint on global carbon export and elemental balance via advective pathways.     

Ploughing the deep sea floor

Bottom trawling is a non-selective commercial fishing technique whereby heavy nets and gear are pulled along the sea floor. The direct impact of this technique on fish populations and benthic communities has received much attention, but trawling can also modify the physical properties of seafloor sediments, water–sediment chemical exchanges and sediment fluxes. Most of the studies addressing the physical disturbances of trawl gear on the seabed have been undertaken in coastal and shelf environments, however, where the capacity of trawling to modify the seafloor morphology coexists with high-energy natural processes driving sediment erosion, transport and deposition. Here we show that on upper continental slopes, the reworking of the deep sea floor by trawling gradually modifies the shape of the submarine landscape over large spatial scales. We found that trawling-induced sediment displacement and removal from fishing grounds causes the morphology of the deep sea floor to become smoother over time, reducing its original complexity as shown by high-resolution seafloor relief maps. Our results suggest that in recent decades, following the industrialization of fishing fleets, bottom trawling has become an important driver of deep seascape evolution. Given the global dimension of this type of fishery, we anticipate that the morphology of the upper continental slope in many parts of the world’s oceans could be altered by intensive bottom trawling, producing comparable effects on the deep sea floor to those generated by agricultural ploughing on land.     

Reversal of the net dinitrogen gas flux in coastal marine sediments

The flux of nitrogen from land and atmosphere to estuaries and the coastal ocean has increased substantially in recent decades. The observed increase in nitrogen loading is caused by population growth, urbanization, expanding water and sewer infrastructure, fossil fuel combustion and synthetic fertilizer consumption. Most of the nitrogen is removed by denitrification in the sediments of estuaries and the continental shelf, leading to a reduction in both cultural eutrophication and nitrogen pollution of the open ocean. Nitrogen fixation, however, is thought to be a negligible process in sub-tidal heterotrophic marine systems. Here we report sediment core data from Narragansett Bay, USA, which demonstrate that heterotrophic marine sediments can switch from being a net sink to being a net source of nitrogen. Mesocosm and core incubation experiments, together with a historic data set of mean annual chlorophyll production, support the idea that a climate-induced decrease in primary production has led to a decrease in organic matter deposition to the benthos and the observed reversal of the net sediment nitrogen flux. Our results suggest that some estuaries may no longer remove nitrogen from the water column. Instead, nitrogen could be exported to the continental shelf and the open ocean and could shift the effect of anthropogenic nitrogen loading beyond the immediate coastal zone.     

Onset of submarine debris flow deposition far from original giant landslide

Submarine landslides can generate sediment-laden flows whose scale is impressive. Individual flow deposits have been mapped that extend for 1,500 km offshore from northwest Africa. These are the longest run-out sediment density flow deposits yet documented on Earth. This contribution analyses one of these deposits, which contains ten times the mass of sediment transported annually by all of the world's rivers. Understanding how this type of submarine flow evolves is a significant problem, because they are extremely difficult to monitor directly. Previous work has shown how progressive disintegration of landslide blocks can generate debris flow, the deposit of which extends downslope from the original landslide. We provide evidence that submarine flows can produce giant debris flow deposits that start several hundred kilometres from the original landslide, encased within deposits of a more dilute flow type called turbidity current. Very little sediment was deposited across the intervening large expanse of sea floor, where the flow was locally very erosive. Sediment deposition was finally triggered by a remarkably small but abrupt decrease in sea-floor gradient from 0.05 degrees to 0.01 degrees. This debris flow was probably generated by flow transformation from the decelerating turbidity current. The alternative is that non-channelized debris flow left almost no trace of its passage across one hundred kilometres of flat (0.2 degrees to 0.05 degrees) sea floor. Our work shows that initially well-mixed and highly erosive submarine flows can produce extensive debris flow deposits beyond subtle slope breaks located far out in the deep ocean.     

First insights into the biodiversity and biogeography of the Southern Ocean deep sea

Shallow marine benthic communities around Antarctica show high levels of endemism, gigantism, slow growth, longevity and late maturity, as well as adaptive radiations that have generated considerable biodiversity in some taxa. The deeper parts of the Southern Ocean exhibit some unique environmental features, including a very deep continental shelf and a weakly stratified water column, and are the source for much of the deep water in the world ocean. These features suggest that deep-sea faunas around the Antarctic may be related both to adjacent shelf communities and to those in other oceans. Unlike shallow-water Antarctic benthic communities, however, little is known about life in this vast deep-sea region. Here, we report new data from recent sampling expeditions in the deep Weddell Sea and adjacent areas (748-6,348 m water depth) that reveal high levels of new biodiversity; for example, 674 isopods species, of which 585 were new to science. Bathymetric and biogeographic trends varied between taxa. In groups such as the isopods and polychaetes, slope assemblages included species that have invaded from the shelf. In other taxa, the shelf and slope assemblages were more distinct. Abyssal faunas tended to have stronger links to other oceans, particularly the Atlantic, but mainly in taxa with good dispersal capabilities, such as the Foraminifera. The isopods, ostracods and nematodes, which are poor dispersers, include many species currently known only from the Southern Ocean. Our findings challenge suggestions that deep-sea diversity is depressed in the Southern Ocean and provide a basis for exploring the evolutionary significance of the varied biogeographic patterns observed in this remote environment.     

尼日尔盆地某深水海底扇发育的控制因素

深入分析了深水勘探"金三角"之一的尼日尔盆地某深水海底扇沉积体系的展布特征,提出了限制区—半限制区—非限制区分区控制的深水海底扇相展布模式,认为不同重力流类型对沉积物的搬运能力是不同的,从陆坡顶部向盆地方向,重力流沉积类型存在"蠕动—滑动—滑塌—碎屑流—浊流"的演化过程.对海平面波动和古地貌对深水海底扇发育的控制进行了分析,结果表明:海平面变化控制了深水海底扇发育的规模,古地貌控制了海底扇沉积体系的展布特征.     

Organic geochemical studies of sinking particulate material in China sea area II

Conclusions We have for the first time studied the compositions of ketone, aldehyde and alcohol lipid compounds in sinking particulate materials from Yongshu Reef lagoon and the continental shelf of the East China Sea collected by sediment trap sampling apparatus. The results indicate that sinking particulate materials contain abundant isoprenoid ketone, aldehyde and alcohol lipid compounds which take part in marine chemical cycling. The compositional features of these compounds show that sinking particulate organic matter mainly comes from autochthonous marine organisms and Yongshu Reef lagoon has more submerged macrophytes-derived component, while the continental shelf of the East China Sea contains more dinoflagellate-derived constituent. The contribution of higher land plant to sinking particulate organic matter may be very small. In contrast, it is greater in Yongshu Reef lagoon than that in the continental shelf of the East China Sea. Sinking particulate organic matter in the two regions undergoes strong biochemical transformation processes before reaching the depth of 5 m to the sea floor, and its intensity is greater in Yongshu Reef lagoon than in the continental shelf of the East China Sea. These results have certain reference value to the researches of marine chemistry, marine biology and marine sedimentology in China, and reveal the importance of organic geochemistry to the study of oceanology.     

珠江口盆地13.8Ma陆架边缘三角洲与陆坡深水扇的“源-汇”关系

揭示南海北部被动大陆边缘盆地浅海陆架与深水陆坡之间的沉积响应关系,在等时地层格架内对陆架三角洲、上陆坡复合水道和陆坡重力流沉积进行综合分析.研究结果表明:相对海平面变化、陆架多级坡折演化、陆源碎屑供给强度以及陆架海洋水动力作用等四大因素控制着陆架-陆坡体系的发育;珠江口盆地中新统韩江组13.8 Ma形成的界面为三级层序界面,该时期低位域晚期发育陆架边缘三角洲,三角洲前缘带主体分布在白云凹陷北坡的陆架坡折处,随着物源供给,前缘带不断进积,陆架向陆坡方向生长,在多级坡折、坡度变化以及沉积物自身重力影响下,前缘带沉积物由牵引流搬运向重力流搬运转化,在陆坡复合水道搬运通道的作用下向白云凹陷深水区内再沉积,形成低位域晚期多坡度控制的滑塌体、碎屑流-浊流深水扇沉积,构成南海北部珠江口盆地特殊的陆架-陆坡“源-汇”响应系统;该沉积响应具有短暂性、突发性和连续性等特点.     

Orbital forcing of Cretaceous river discharge in tropical Africa and ocean response

The tropics have been suggested as the drivers of global ocean and atmosphere circulation and biogeochemical cycling during the extreme warmth of the Cretaceous period; but the links between orbital forcing, freshwater runoff and the biogeochemistry of continental margins in extreme greenhouse conditions are not fully understood. Here we present Cretaceous records of geochemical tracers for freshwater runoff obtained from a sediment core off the Ivory Coast that indicate that alternating periods of arid and humid African climate were driven by orbital precession. Our simulations of the precession-driven patterns of river discharge with a global climate model suggest that ocean anoxia and black shale sedimentation were directly caused by high river discharge, and occurred specifically when the northern equinox coincided with perihelion (the minimum distance between the Sun and the Earth). We conclude that, in a warm climate, the oceans off tropical continental margins respond rapidly and sensitively to even modest changes in river discharge.     

Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basal melting of ice shelves

Accurate prediction of global sea-level rise requires that we understand the cause of recent, widespread and intensifying glacier acceleration along Antarctic ice-sheet coastal margins. Atmospheric and oceanic forcing have the potential to reduce the thickness and extent of floating ice shelves, potentially limiting their ability to buttress the flow of grounded tributary glaciers. Indeed, recent ice-shelf collapse led to retreat and acceleration of several glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula. But the extent and magnitude of ice-shelf thickness change, the underlying causes of such change, and its link to glacier flow rate are so poorly understood that its future impact on the ice sheets cannot yet be predicted. Here we use satellite laser altimetry and modelling of the surface firn layer to reveal the circum-Antarctic pattern of ice-shelf thinning through increased basal melt. We deduce that this increased melt is the primary control of Antarctic ice-sheet loss, through a reduction in buttressing of the adjacent ice sheet leading to accelerated glacier flow. The highest thinning rates occur where warm water at depth can access thick ice shelves via submarine troughs crossing the continental shelf. Wind forcing could explain the dominant patterns of both basal melting and the surface melting and collapse of Antarctic ice shelves, through ocean upwelling in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas, and atmospheric warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. This implies that climate forcing through changing winds influences Antarctic ice-sheet mass balance, and hence global sea level, on annual to decadal timescales.     

广西近岸海域水下平原表层沉积物中有机质分布及其积累

【目的】研究广西近岸水下平原表层沉积物有机质的分布和积累,了解有机质的扩散和现状。【方法】以钦州湾口水下斜坡为界,东至铁山港口外古滨海平原的20m以浅的广西近岸水下平原为研究区,依据2007~2010年广西近岸海洋环境地质调查资料,分析该区海底表层沉积物和钻孔有机质的分布、关系和积累特征。【结果】表层沉积物有机质含量频率f分布不均;研究区可划分出3大类沉积环境和5种亚环境,在其间的有机质分布含量差异较大,对沉积环境的选择性较强;有机质分布与沉积物粒度参数也有较大关系,随着粒径(φ)和分选系数增大而升高,沉积物粒度正偏有利于有机质积聚;有机质随沉积动力减弱而聚集,以平均粒径衡量的话,呈现指数增长规律;在不同的沉积环境有机质序列有指数、线性、对数递增关系,表明不同的积累阶段;随着沉积物粒级变细,在3~6φ粒级段出现有机质吸附积累拐点,而且有机质与粘土有共聚性;在研究区西北部监测站位的有机质具有明显的年际变化,观测期间总体增幅0。【结论】虽然根据沉积物质量评价标准表层有机质尚未超标,但结合本底值计算得出的积累系数显示水下平原西北部、西南部、南部位置均出现富集,对应着不同的来源和影响程度,是陆源输入在水动力分配下聚集的结果。     

南海浊流地貌

 南海深海底部浊流地貌十分发育。陆坡区有大量的海底峡谷，部分峡谷的谷底、越岸区或出口部位分布有超临界流成因的大型沉积物波和周期阶坎底形。多数峡谷在陆坡脚的出口处并未形成像样的海底扇，而深海平原中却保有高丰度的浊流沉积。这可能暗示，南海峡谷浊流的能量较高，即使在经历陆坡脚的减速之后仍有足够的能量维持其沿平缓的深海平原作较长距离的搬运。浊流地貌的出现大多始于晚中新世，其成因与南海及周缘强烈的构造活动有关。     

Sea-level fluctuations during the last glacial cycle

The last glacial cycle was characterized by substantial millennial-scale climate fluctuations, but the extent of any associated changes in global sea level (or, equivalently, ice volume) remains elusive. Highstands of sea level can be reconstructed from dated fossil coral reef terraces, and these data are complemented by a compilation of global sea-level estimates based on deep-sea oxygen isotope ratios at millennial-scale resolution or higher. Records based on oxygen isotopes, however, contain uncertainties in the range of +/-30 m, or +/-1 degrees C in deep sea temperature. Here we analyse oxygen isotope records from Red Sea sediment cores to reconstruct the history of water residence times in the Red Sea. We then use a hydraulic model of the water exchange between the Red Sea and the world ocean to derive the sill depth-and hence global sea level-over the past 470,000 years (470 kyr). Our reconstruction is accurate to within +/-12 m, and gives a centennial-scale resolution from 70 to 25 kyr before present. We find that sea-level changes of up to 35 m, at rates of up to 2 cm yr(-1), occurred, coincident with abrupt changes in climate.     

Depositional architecture and developing settings of large-scale incised valley and submarine gravity flow systems in the Yinggehai and Qiongdongnan basins, South China Sea

In the Ying-Qiong basins in the South China Sea developed a set of giant inner shelf slope and submarine gravity flow deposits in the Ying-Huang formations since the Late Miocene. These deposits can be classified into 9 sequences in which slope slump-debris flow, slope fan and particularly, the large-scale axial basin-floor incised valley fills have been recognized. They were distributed in a distinctive pattern attributed to tectonic control. The development of shelf slopes and abyssal plains in the basins was related to the last episode of rapid subsidence and a large amount of sediment inputs. Large-scale basin-floor incised valleys, formed during the late Miocene and Pliocene, indicate several major sea level falls that occurred in the South China Sea.     

西秦岭峡城—晒经滩地区中三叠世碳酸盐台地古斜坡的识别及其古地理意义

 碳酸盐台地斜坡为位于碳酸盐台地和深海盆地之间一个坡折地带,这一环境中,重力作用控制了沉积物的沉积和变形,其研究具有重要的古地理和经济意义。峡城地区中三叠统发现大量碳酸盐碎屑流沉积及同沉积断层和削切构造,而晒经滩中三叠统古浪堤组复理石中同样有大量碳酸盐碎屑流沉积出现。为探索该区中三叠世的古地理环境特征,结合室内碳酸盐岩微相分析,从露头角度对它们进行了识别。对这些沉积物和沉积构造的分析研究表明,沿西秦岭峡城、晒经滩一线存在一个近SEE—NWW向展布的大陆斜坡,该斜坡在峡城地区主要以深水碳酸盐沉积为主,向NWW方向逐渐过渡为以陆源碎屑沉积为主,该斜坡向NNE为碳酸盐台地沉积,向SW方向则过渡为深海沉积。     

Prokaryotic cells of the deep sub-seafloor biosphere identified as living bacteria

Chemical analyses of the pore waters from hundreds of deep ocean sediment cores have over decades provided evidence for ongoing processes that require biological catalysis by prokaryotes. This sub-seafloor activity of microorganisms may influence the surface Earth by changing the chemistry of the ocean and by triggering the emission of methane, with consequences for the marine carbon cycle and even the global climate. Despite the fact that only about 1% of the total marine primary production of organic carbon is available for deep-sea microorganisms, sub-seafloor sediments harbour over half of all prokaryotic cells on Earth. This estimation has been calculated from numerous microscopic cell counts in sediment cores of the Ocean Drilling Program. Because these counts cannot differentiate between dead and alive cells, the population size of living microorganisms is unknown. Here, using ribosomal RNA as a target for the technique known as catalysed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH), we provide direct quantification of live cells as defined by the presence of ribosomes. We show that a large fraction of the sub-seafloor prokaryotes is alive, even in very old (16 million yr) and deep (> 400 m) sediments. All detectable living cells belong to the Bacteria and have turnover times of 0.25-22 yr, comparable to surface sediments.     

Twenty-first-century warming of a large Antarctic ice-shelf cavity by a redirected coastal current

The Antarctic ice sheet loses mass at its fringes bordering the Southern Ocean. At this boundary, warm circumpolar water can override the continental slope front, reaching the grounding line through submarine glacial troughs and causing high rates of melting at the deep ice-shelf bases. The interplay between ocean currents and continental bathymetry is therefore likely to influence future rates of ice-mass loss. Here we show that a redirection of the coastal current into the Filchner Trough and underneath the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf during the second half of the twenty-first century would lead to increased movement of warm waters into the deep southern ice-shelf cavity. Water temperatures in the cavity would increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius and boost average basal melting from 0.2 metres, or 82 billion tonnes, per year to almost 4 metres, or 1,600 billion tonnes, per year. Our results, which are based on the output of a coupled ice-ocean model forced by a range of atmospheric outputs from the HadCM3 climate model, suggest that the changes would be caused primarily by an increase in ocean surface stress in the southeastern Weddell Sea due to thinning of the formerly consolidated sea-ice cover. The projected ice loss at the base of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf represents 80 per cent of the present Antarctic surface mass balance. Thus, the quantification of basal mass loss under changing climate conditions is important for projections regarding the dynamics of Antarctic ice streams and ice shelves, and global sea level rise.     

带斜顶建筑物的城市街道峡谷内部气流场数值研究

基于S.R afa ilid is和M.Schatzm ann在风洞中所采用的城市街道峡谷物理模型,数值模拟了6种带有斜顶建筑物的城市街道峡谷内部气流场。模拟结果表明:①建筑物斜顶显著影响峡谷内部的气流场,由于气流绕过斜顶时产生剧烈分离,使得处于背风面的斜顶与处于迎风面的斜顶相比,前者对峡谷内部的气流漩涡结构影响更大;②斜顶建筑物高度与峡谷宽度的比是决定峡谷内部漩涡结构的重要因素,其比值愈大愈易于在峡谷内部生成两个旋转方向相反的漩涡(其中峡谷上部为顺时针漩涡,而下部为逆时针漩涡)。