Main Jurassic geological events along the eastern Paleo-Asian continental margin

The Jurassic is a period of intensive accretion along the eastern and southeastern margins of the Asian continent. The emphasis of the present study is the review of the Jurassic prism structure of the Russian Far Eastern Pacific Asian margin and comparison with its equivalent in the Japanese archipelago. The Jurassic accretion processes and geodynamic evolution of the Paleo-Asian continent eastern margins are outlined in the paper. During this period, the different ages and different facies fragments of the Paleo-Pacific, such as abyssal plain, intraoceanic volcanic seamountains and oceanic plateaux, were accreted onto the eastern margin of the Paleo-Asian continent as a result of step-wise subduction of oceanic lithosphere. Together with ocean-margin terrigenous deposits (trench-fill turbidites), these paleooceanic fragments formed a thick tectono-sedimentary complex of the Jurassic accretionary prism, causing the size of the continent to be expanded by an increase along its eastern margin.     

Main Jurassic geological events along the eastern Paleo-Asian continental margin

The Jurassic is a period of intensive accretion along the eastern and southeastern margins of the Asian continent. The emphasis of the present study is the review of the Jurassic prism structure of the Russian Far Eastern Pacific Asian margin and comparison with its equivalent in the Japanese archipelago. The Jurassic accretion processes and geodynamic evolution of the Paleo-Asian continent eastern margins are outlined in the paper. During this period, the different ages and different facies fragments of the Paleo-Pacific, such as abyssal plain, intraoceanic volcanic seamountains and oceanic plateaux, were accreted onto the eastern margin of the Paleo-Asian continent as a result of step-wise subduction of oceanic lithosphere. Together with ocean-margin terrigenous deposits (trench-fill turbidites), these paleooceanic fragments formed a thick tectono-sedimentary complex of the Jurassic accretionary prism, causing the size of the continent to be expanded by an increase along its eastern margin.     

澳洲西北及南部被动陆缘油气差异分布

澳洲西北陆架和南部被动陆缘盆地群是澳大利亚主要的油气富集区带,西北陆架与南部陆缘2个地区在构造演化背景、裂谷发育期次、发育时间、油气分布特征等方面存在异同之处.从构造演化对盆地结构的控制、区域构造对烃源岩分布的控制和断裂系统对成藏区带的控制3个方面分析两者的差异.研究结果表明:(1)西北陆架多期裂陷,盆地结构复杂,表现出“上油下气”的垂向分层式结构,各盆地内裂陷期的构造活动强弱与发育期次不同造成了整个西北陆架平面上油气分布的不均匀性,南部被动陆缘构造活动简单,裂陷期发育晚,时间短,均为单一的产油型盆地:(2)区域构造控制生烃中心的分布,西北陆架盆地烃源岩在整个中生代部有发育,南部地区晚白垩世和新生代发育烃源岩:(3)断裂系统的差异导致2个地区圈闭类型的差异,西北陆架早期圈闭受破坏,以断块性圈闭成藏为主,南部多为背斜圈闭和掀斜断块圈闭.澳洲2个地区的被动大陆边缘发育特点与中国南海北部准被动陆缘具有相似性,因此,这2个地区的油气分布特点对南海北部陆架有重要的参考意义.     

Lithospheric thermal-rheological structures of the continental margin in the northern South China Sea

Thermal structures of three deep seismic profiles in the continental margin in the northern South China Sea are calculated, their "thermal" lithospheric thicknesses are evaluated based on the basalt dry solidus, and their rheological structures are evaluated with linear frictional failure criterion and power-law creep equation. "Thermal" lithosphere is about 90 km in thickness in shelf area, and thins toward the slope, lowers to 60-65 km in the lower slope, ocean crust and Xisha Trough. In the mid-west of the studied area, the lithospheric rheological structure in shelf area and Xisha Islands is of four layers: brittle, ductile, brittle and ductile. Because of uprising of heat mantle and thinning of crust and lithosphere in Xisha Trough, the bottom of the upper brittle layer is only buried at 16 km. In the eastern area, the bottom of the upper brittle layer in the north is buried at 20 km or so, while in lower slope and ocean crust, the rheological structure is of two layers of brittle and ductile, and crust and uppermost mantle form one whole brittle layer whose bottom is buried at 30-32 km. Analyses show that the characteristics of rheological structure accord with the seismic result observed. The character of rheological stratification implies that before the extension of the continent margin, there likely was a ductile layer in mid-lower crust. The influence of the existence of ductile layer to the evolution of the continent margin and the different extensions of ductile layer and brittle layer should not be overlooked. Its thickness, depth and extent in influencing continent margin's extension and evolution should be well evaluated in building a dynamic model for the area.     

Recycling lower continental crust in the North China craton

Foundering of mafic lower continental crust into underlying convecting mantle has been proposed as one means to explain the unusually evolved chemical composition of Earth's continental crust, yet direct evidence of this process has been scarce. Here we report that Late Jurassic high-magnesium andesites, dacites and adakites (siliceous lavas with high strontium and low heavy-rare-earth element and yttrium contents) from the North China craton have chemical and petrographic features consistent with their origin as partial melts of eclogite that subsequently interacted with mantle peridotite. Similar features observed in adakites and some Archaean sodium-rich granitoids of the tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite series have been interpreted to result from interaction of slab melts with the mantle wedge. Unlike their arc-related counterparts, however, the Chinese magmas carry inherited Archaean zircons and have neodymium and strontium isotopic compositions overlapping those of eclogite xenoliths derived from the lower crust of the North China craton. Such features cannot be produced by crustal assimilation of slab melts, given the high Mg#, nickel and chromium contents of the lavas. We infer that the Chinese lavas derive from ancient mafic lower crust that foundered into the convecting mantle and subsequently melted and interacted with peridotite. We suggest that lower crustal foundering occurred within the North China craton during the Late Jurassic, and thus provides constraints on the timing of lithosphere removal beneath the North China craton.     

The deep thermal characteristic of continental margin of the northern South China Sea

Heat flow plays an important role in the study of thermal structure and thermal evolution of continental margin of the northern South China Sea. The analysis of heat flow value shows that margin heat flow in the northern South China Sea is relatively high setting, but the percentage of crustal heat flow is lower than 35% in terrestrial heat flow. The terrestrial heat flow exhibited a current of rise from the Northern Continental Margin to the Southern Central Basin. However, the proportion of crustal heat flow in terrestrial heat flow slowly dropped down in the same direction. It is suggested that the main factor causing high heat flow setting is the moving up of hot material from asthenosphere.     

Demography of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Northern right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) were formerly abundant in the northwestern Atlantic, but by 1900 they had been hunted to near extinction. After the end of commercial whaling the population was thought to be recovering slowly; however, evidence indicates that it has been declining since about 1990 (ref. 1). There are now fewer than 300 individuals, and the species may already be functionally extinct owing to demographic stochasticity or the difficulty of females locating mates in the vast Atlantic Ocean (Allee effect). Using a data set containing over 10,000 sightings of photographically identified individuals we estimated trends in right whale demographic parameters since 1980. Here we construct, using these estimates, matrix population models allowing us to analyse the causes of right whale imperilment. Mortality has increased, especially among mother whales, causing declines in population growth rate, life expectancy and the mean lifetime number of reproductive events between the period 1980-1995. Increased mortality of mother whales can explain the declining population size, suggesting that the population is not doomed to extinction as a result of the Allee effect. An analysis of extinction time shows that demographic stochasticity has only a small effect, but preventing the deaths of only two female right whales per year would increase the population growth rate to replacement level.     

Advancing decadal-scale climate prediction in the North Atlantic sector

The climate of the North Atlantic region exhibits fluctuations on decadal timescales that have large societal consequences. Prominent examples include hurricane activity in the Atlantic, and surface-temperature and rainfall variations over North America, Europe and northern Africa. Although these multidecadal variations are potentially predictable if the current state of the ocean is known, the lack of subsurface ocean observations that constrain this state has been a limiting factor for realizing the full skill potential of such predictions. Here we apply a simple approach-that uses only sea surface temperature (SST) observations-to partly overcome this difficulty and perform retrospective decadal predictions with a climate model. Skill is improved significantly relative to predictions made with incomplete knowledge of the ocean state, particularly in the North Atlantic and tropical Pacific oceans. Thus these results point towards the possibility of routine decadal climate predictions. Using this method, and by considering both internal natural climate variations and projected future anthropogenic forcing, we make the following forecast: over the next decade, the current Atlantic meridional overturning circulation will weaken to its long-term mean; moreover, North Atlantic SST and European and North American surface temperatures will cool slightly, whereas tropical Pacific SST will remain almost unchanged. Our results suggest that global surface temperature may not increase over the next decade, as natural climate variations in the North Atlantic and tropical Pacific temporarily offset the projected anthropogenic warming.     

Arctic sea ice bordering on the North Atlantic and interannual climate variations

Variations of winter Arctic sea ice bordering on the North Atlantic are closely related to climate variations in the same region. When winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index is positive (negative) anomaly phase, Icelandic Low is obviously deepened and shifts northwards (southwards). Simultaneously, the Subtropical High over the North Atlantic is also intensified, and moves northwards (southwards). Those anomalies strengthen (weaken) westerly between Icelandic Low and the Subtropical High, and further result in positive (negative) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the mid-latitude of the North Atlantic, and increase (decrease) the warm water transportation from the mid-latitude to the Barents Sea, which causes positive (negative) mixed-layer water temperature anomalies in the south part of the Barents Sea. Moreover, the distribution of anomaly air temperature clearly demonstrates warming (cooling) in northern Europe and the subarctic regions (including the Barents Sea) and cooling (warming) in Baffin Bay/Davis Strait. Both of distributions of SST and air temperature anomalies directly result in sea ice decrease (increase) in the Barents/Kara Seas, and sea ice increase (decrease) in Baffin Bay/Davis Strait. :     

Directly measured mid-depth circulation in the northeastern North Atlantic Ocean

The circulation of water masses in the northeastern North Atlantic Ocean has a strong influence on global climate owing to the northward transport of warm subtropical water to high latitudes. But the ocean circulation at depths below the reach of satellite observations is difficult to measure, and only recently have comprehensive, direct observations of whole ocean basins been possible. Here we present quantitative maps of the absolute velocities at two levels in the northeastern North Atlantic as obtained from acoustically tracked floats. We find that most of the mean flow transported northward by the Gulf Stream system at the thermocline level (about 600 m depth) remains within the subpolar region, and only relatively little enters the Rockall trough or the Nordic seas. Contrary to previous work, our data indicate that warm, saline water from the Mediterranean Sea reaches the high latitudes through a combination of narrow slope currents and mixing processes. At both depths under investigation, currents cross the Mid-Atlantic Ridge preferentially over deep gaps in the ridge, demonstrating that sea-floor topography can constrain even upper-ocean circulation patterns.     

Macroecological patterns of phytoplankton in the northwestern North Atlantic Ocean

Many issues in biological oceanography are regional or global in scope; however, there are not many data sets of extensive areal coverage for marine plankton. In microbial ecology, a fruitful approach to large-scale questions is comparative analysis wherein statistical data patterns are sought from different ecosystems, frequently assembled from unrelated studies. A more recent approach termed macroecology characterizes phenomena emerging from large numbers of biological units by emphasizing the shapes and boundaries of statistical distributions, because these reflect the constraints on variation. Here, I use a set of flow cytometric measurements to provide macroecological perspectives on North Atlantic phytoplankton communities. Distinct trends of abundance in picophytoplankton and both small and large nanophytoplankton underlaid two patterns. First, total abundance of the three groups was related to assemblage mean-cell size according to the 3/4 power law of allometric scaling in biology. Second, cytometric diversity (an ataxonomic measure of assemblage entropy) was maximal at intermediate levels of water column stratification. Here, intermediate disturbance shapes diversity through an equitable distribution of cells in size classes, from which arises a high overall biomass. By subsuming local fluctuations, macroecology reveals meaningful patterns of phytoplankton at large scales.     

The effect of advection on the nutrient reservoir in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre

Though critically important in sustaining the ocean's biological pump, the cycling of nutrients in the subtropical gyres is poorly understood. The supply of nutrients to the sunlit surface layer of the ocean has traditionally been attributed solely to vertical processes. However, horizontal advection may also be important in establishing the availability of nutrients. Here we show that the production and advection of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water introduces spatial and temporal variability in the subsurface nutrient reservoir beneath the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. As the mode water is formed, its nutrients are depleted by biological utilization. When the depleted water mass is exported to the gyre, it injects a wedge of low-nutrient water into the upper layers of the ocean. Contrary to intuition, cold winters that promote deep convective mixing and vigorous mode water formation may diminish downstream primary productivity by altering the subsurface delivery of nutrients.     

High bacterivory by the smallest phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean

Planktonic algae <5 m in size are major fixers of inorganic carbon in the ocean. They dominate phytoplankton biomass in post-bloom, stratified oceanic temperate waters. Traditionally, large and small algae are viewed as having a critical growth dependence on inorganic nutrients, which the latter can better acquire at lower ambient concentrations owing to their higher surface area to volume ratios. Nonetheless, recent phosphate tracer experiments in the oligotrophic ocean have suggested that small algae obtain inorganic phosphate indirectly, possibly through feeding on bacterioplankton. There have been numerous microscopy-based studies of algae feeding mixotrophically in the laboratory and field as well as mathematical modelling of the ecological importance of mixotrophy. However, because of methodological limitations there has not been a direct comparison of obligate heterotrophic and mixotrophic bacterivory. Here we present direct evidence that small algae carry out 40-95% of the bacterivory in the euphotic layer of the temperate North Atlantic Ocean in summer. A similar range of 37-70% was determined in the surface waters of the tropical North-East Atlantic Ocean, suggesting the global significance of mixotrophy. This finding reveals that even the smallest algae have less dependence on dissolved inorganic nutrients than previously thought, obtaining a quarter of their biomass from bacterivory. This has important implications for how we perceive nutrient acquisition and limitation of carbon-fixing protists as well as control of bacterioplankton in the ocean.     

Intraseasonal interaction between the Madden-Julian Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation

Bridging the traditional gap between the spatio-temporal scales of weather and climate is a significant challenge facing the atmospheric community. In particular, progress in both medium-range and seasonal-to-interannual climate prediction relies on our understanding of recurrent weather patterns and the identification of specific causes responsible for their favoured occurrence, persistence or transition. Within this framework, I here present evidence that the main climate intra-seasonal oscillation in the tropics-the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO)-controls part of the distribution and sequences of the four daily weather regimes defined over the North Atlantic-European region in winter. North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) regimes are the most affected, allowing for medium-range predictability of their phase far exceeding the limit of around one week that is usually quoted. The tropical-extratropical lagged relationship is asymmetrical. Positive NAO events mostly respond to a mid-latitude low-frequency wave train initiated by the MJO in the western-central tropical Pacific and propagating eastwards. Precursors for negative NAO events are found in the eastern tropical Pacific-western Atlantic, leading to changes along the North Atlantic storm track. Wave-breaking diagnostics tend to support the MJO preconditioning and the role of transient eddies in setting the phase of the NAO. I present a simple statistical model to quantitatively assess the potential predictability of the daily NAO index or the sign of the NAO regimes when they occur. Forecasts are successful in approximately 70 per cent of the cases based on the knowledge of the previous approximately 12-day MJO phase used as a predictor. This promising skill could be of importance considering the tight link between weather regimes and both mean conditions and the chances of extreme events occurring over Europe. These findings are useful for further stressing the need to better simulate and forecast the tropical coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics, which is a source of medium-to-long range predictability and is the Achilles' heel of the current seamless prediction suites.