Fine-scale vertical distribution of bacteria in the East Pacific deep-sea sediments determined via 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP and clone library analyses

Although the deep-sea sediments harbor diverse and novel bacteria with important ecological and environmental functions, a comprehensive view of their community characteristics is still lacking, considering the vast area and volume of the deep-sea sedimentary environments. Sediment bacteria vertical distribution and community structure were studied of the E272 site in the East Pacific Ocean with the molecular methods of 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism) and clone library analyses. Layered distribution of the bacterial assemblages was detected by both methods, indicating that the shallow sediments (40 cm in depth) harbored a diverse and distinct bacterial composition with fine-scale spatial heterogeneity. Substantial bacterial diversity was detected and nine major bacterial lineages were obtained, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Nitrospirae, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, and the candidate divisions OP8 and TM6. Three subdivisions of the Proteobacteria presented in our libraries, including the alpha-, gamma- and delta-Proteobacteria. Most of our sequences have low similarity with known bacterial 16S rRNA genes, indicating that these sequences may represent as-yet-uncultivated novel bacteria. Most of our sequences were related to the GenBank nearest neighboring sequences retrieved from marine sediments, especially from deep-sea methane seep, gas hydrate or mud volcano environments. Several sequences were related to the sequences recovered from the deep-sea hydrothermal vent or basalt glasses-bearing sediments, indicating that our deep-sea sampling site might be influenced to certain degree by the nearby hydrothermal field of the East Pacific Rise at 13A degrees N.

Diel vertical migration of zooplankton following optimal food intake under predation

A model is developed to investigate the trade-offs between benefits and costs involved in zooplanktonic diel vertical migration (DVM) strategies. The 'venturous revenue' (VR) is used as the criterion for optimal trade-offs. It is a function of environmental factors and the age of zooplankter. During vertical migration, animals are assumed to check instantaneously the variations of environmental parameters and thereby select the optimal behavioral strategy to maximize the value of VR, i.e. taking up as much food as possible with a certain risk of mortality. The model is run on a diel time scale (24 h) in four possible scenarios during the animal's life history. The results show that zooplankton can perform normal DVM balancing optimal food intake against predation risk, with the profile of DVM largely modified by the age of zooplankter.

Millstone Hill电离层F层等效风场的气候学研究

Neutral winds and electric fields in the ionospheric F layer play important roles in the variations of the ionosphere, and also affect the thermospheric circulation via the close coupling between the ionosphere and the thermosphere. By now, the neutral winds and electric drifts are generally observed with ground-based Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPI) and incoherent scatter radars (ISR), rockets, and satellite-borne instrument. Based on the servo theory, the ionospheric equivalent winds, which include the information of both the neutral winds and electric fields, can be derived from these characteristic parameters observed by ionosondes. This indirect derivation has potential values in climatological researches and space weather forecast. With the data set of the incoherent scatter radar observations at Millstone Hill, USA, from 1976 to 2006, we statistically analyzed the climatological variations of the vertical component of the equivalent winds (VEWs) over Millstone Hill, which are derived from the ionospheric key parameters (the peak electron number density and peak height of the F2 layer, NmF2 and hmF2) on the basis of the servo theory, Liu's method, and measurements from the ion line-of-sight velocity as well. The main results of this analysis are summarized as follows: (1) The values of VEWs over Millstone Hill during nighttime are stronger than in the daytime, and the upward drift dominates most of the day. In 1993, Hagan found that the component of the neutral winds in the magnetic meridion in daytime is weaker than during nighttime under both solar maximum and minimum conditions; he also found that the equatorward winds dominate most of the day. Both results suggest that the thermosphere in Millstone Hill is modulated by the aurorally driven high-latitude circulation cell; that is, during geomagnetic quiet periods, the average auroral activity is strong enough to drive thermospheric circulation equatorward for most of the day at Millstone Hill. Moreover, since ion drag is the strongest during daytime when F region densities are enhanced by photoionization, the wind speeds are smaller during the daytime than in the nighttime. (2) There is equinoctial symmetry in VEWs at Millstone Hill. The amplitudes and phases of VEWs in spring are quite similar to those in autumn. In contrast, the nighttime upward drift in winter is weaker than in summer and the difference becomes more significant with increasing solar activity. This solstice asymmetry indicates that, the aurorally driven circulation in the northern hemisphere at Millstone Hill latitude is weaker in winter due to arctic darkness, because the subsolar point is in the southern hemisphere. (3) The comparison of the VEWs derived from three methods, i.e., the servo theory, Liu's method, and the ISR ion line-of-sight velocity measurements, indicates that the amplitudes and main phase tendencies of these VEWs accord well with each other during nighttime hours. However, the case in the daytime is relatively worse. This daytime discrepancy can be explained in terms of the effects of photochemical processes and the choices of the servo constants. A larger servo constant gives a stronger plasma drift in daytime. Therefore, this study tells how important to choose a suitable constant for deriving VEWs at Millstone Hill.

用宽频带远震体波波形研究中国及邻近地区地壳构造及地质意义初探

The theory and approach of the broadband teleseismic body waveform inversion are expatiated in this paper, and the defining the crust structure's methods are developed. Based on the teleseismic P-wave data, the theoretic image of the P-wave radical component is calculated via the convolution of the teleseismic P-wave vertical component and the transform function, and thereby a P-wavefrom inversion method is built. The applied results show the approach effective, stable and its resolution high. The exact and reliable teleseismic P waveforms recorded by CDSN and IRIS and its geodynamics are utilized to obtain China and its vicinage lithospheric transfer functions, this region ithospheric structure is inverted through the inversion of reliable transfer functions, the new knowledge about the deep structure of China and its vicinage is obtained, and the reliable seismological evidence is provided to reveal the geodynamic evolution processes and set up the continental collisional theory. The major studies are as follows: Two important methods to study crustal and upper mantle structure -- body wave travel-time inversion and waveform modeling are reviewed systematically. Based on ray theory, travel-time inversion is characterized by simplicity, crustal and upper mantle velocity model can be obtained by using 1-D travel-time inversion preliminary, which introduces the reference model for studying focal location, focal mechanism, and fine structure of crustal and upper mantle. The large-scale lateral inhomogeneity of crustal and upper mantle can be obtained by three-dimensional t ravel-time seismic tomography. Based on elastic dynamics, through the fitting between theoretical seismogram and observed seismogram, waveform modeling can interpret the detail waveform and further uncover one-dimensional fine structure and lateral variation of crustal and upper mantle, especially the media characteristics of singular zones of ray. Whatever travel-time inversion and waveform modeling is supposed under certain approximate conditions, with respective advantages and disadvantages, and provide convincing structure information for elucidating physical and chemical features and geodynamic processes of crustal and upper mantle. Because the direct wave, surface wave, and refraction wave have lower resolution in investigating seismic velocity transitional zone, which is inadequate to study seismic discontinuities. On the contrary, both the converse and reflected wave, which sample the discontinuities directly, must be carefully picked up from seismogram to constrain the velocity transitional zones. Not only can the converse wave and reflected wave study the crustal structure, but also investigate the upper mantle discontinuities. There are a number of global and regional seismic discontinuities in the crustal and upper mantle, which plays a significant role in understanding physical and chemical properties and geodynamic processes of crustal and upper mantle. The broadband teleseismic P waveform inversion is studied particularly. The teleseismic P waveforms contain a lot of information related to source time function, near-source structure, propagation effect through the mantle, receiver structure, and instrument response, receiver function is isolated form teleseismic P waveform through the vector rotation of horizontal components into ray direction and the deconvolution of vertical component from the radial and tangential components of ground motion, the resulting time series is dominated by local receiver structure effect, and is hardly irrelevant to source and deep mantle effects. Receiver function is horizontal response, which eliminate multiple P wave reflection and retain direct wave and P-S converted waves, and is sensitive to the vertical variation of S wave velocity. Velocity structure beneath a seismic station has different response to radial and vertical component of an accident teleseismic P wave. To avoid the limits caused by a simplified assumption on the vertical response, the receiver function method is mended. In the frequency domain, the transfer function is showed by the ratio of radical response and vertical response of the media to P wave. In the time domain, the radial synthetic waveform can be obtained by the convolution of the transfer function with the vertical wave. In order to overcome the numerical instability, generalized reflection and transmission coefficient matrix method is applied to calculate the synthetic waveform so that all multi-reflection and phase conversion response can be included. A new inversion method, VFSA-LM method, is used in this study, which successfully combines very fast simulated annealing method (VFSA) with damped least square inversion method (LM). Synthetic waveform inversion test confirms its effectiveness and efficiency. Broadband teleseismic P waveform inversion is applied in lithospheric velocity study of China and its vicinage. According to the data of high quality CDSN and IRIS, we obtained an outline map showing the distribution of Asian continental crustal thickness. Based on these results gained, the features of distribution of the crustal thickness and outline of crustal structure under the Asian continent have been analyzed and studied. Finally, this paper advances the principal characteristics of the Asian continental crust. There exist four vast areas of relatively minor variations in the crustal thickness, namely, northern, eastern southern and central areas of Asian crust. As a byproduct, the earthquake location is discussed, Which is a basic issue in seismology. Because of the strong trade-off between the assumed initial time and focal depth and the nonlinear of the inversion problems, this issue is not settled at all. Aimed at the problem, a new earthquake location method named SAMS method is presented, In which, the objective function is the absolute value of the remnants of travel times together with the arrival times and use the Fast Simulated Annealing method is used to inverse. Applied in the Chi-Chi event relocation of Taiwan occurred on Sep 21, 2000, the results show that the SAMS method not only can reduce the effects of the trade-off between the initial time and focal depth, but can get better stability and resolving power. At the end of the paper, the inverse Q filtering method for compensating attenuation and frequency dispersion used in the seismic section of depth domain is discussed. According to the forward and inverse results of synthesized seismic records, our Q filtrating operator of the depth domain is consistent with the seismic laws in the absorbing media, which not only considers the effect of the media absorbing of the waves, but also fits the deformation laws, namely the frequency dispersion of the body wave. Two post stacked profiles about 60KM, a neritic area of China processed, the result shows that after the forward Q filtering of the depth domain, the wide of the wavelet of the middle and deep layers is compressed, the resolution and signal noise ratio are enhanced, and the primary sharp and energy distribution of the profile are retained.