Coral Sea flow budgets in winter

1973 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 203 ◽  
Author(s):  
PD Scully-Power
Keyword(s):  
New Caledonia ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Volume Transport ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Equatorial Undercurrent ◽  
North West ◽  
Geostrophic Balance ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Anticyclonic Eddies

Winter cruises in the Coral Sea indicate very little southerly volume transport a across 20�S. Most of the inflow from the east between New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands leaves the area between these islands and New Guinea. This outflow is considered to form a major source water for the lower cell of the Equatorial Undercurrent (Cromwell Current) which is in geostrophic balance. South of 20°S., the East Australian Current is postulated to be a series of southward meandering anticyclonic eddies near the edge of the continental shelf. In the north-west Coral Sea there is high variability of volume transport both in strength and direction, and no regular pattern can be discerned.

The continuity of water masses along the western boundary of the Tasman and Coral Seas

1968 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
DJ Rochford
Keyword(s):  
Water Mass ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Core Layer ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Intermediate Water ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Intermediate Water Mass

Hydrological data of the Umitaka Maru (December 1967) and of H.M.A.S. Gascoyne (November-December 1965) have been used to show continuity of selected water masses from the north-west Coral Sea to the continental margin off New South Wales. The core layer properties of these water masses (salinity, temperature, oxygen) indicate that these water masses of the north-west Coral Sea are formed by the inflow from the east of the South Equatorial water mass (0 m), the upper salinity maximum water mass (150-200 m) of the central South Pacific, and of the Antarctic Intermediate water mass (800-1000 m). The inflow of the first two occurs immediately south of the Solomon Is. whilst that of the third occurs between New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. Continuity of the upper oxygen maximum of the 200-800 m layer was not examined because of doubts as to its existence as a separate water mass.

What was the vegetation in northwest Australia during the Paleogene, 66–23million years ago?

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
pp. 556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Macphail ◽  
Robert S. Hill
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
National Park ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
First Record ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Dry Conditions

Fossil pollen and spores preserved in drillcore from both the upper South Alligator River (SARV) in the Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory and the North-West Shelf, Western Australia provide the first record of plants and plant communities occupying the coast and adjacent hinterland in north-west Australia during the Paleogene 66 to 23million years ago. The palynologically-dominant woody taxon is Casuarinaceae, a family now comprising four genera of evergreen scleromorphic shrubs and trees native to Australia, New Guinea, South-east Asia and Pacific Islands. Rare taxa include genera now mostly restricted to temperate rainforest in New Guinea, New Caledonia, New Zealand, South-East Asia and/or Tasmania, e.g. Dacrydium, Phyllocladus and the Nothofagus subgenera Brassospora and Fuscospora. These appear to have existed in moist gorges on the Arnhem Land Plateau, Kakadu National Park. No evidence for Laurasian rainforest elements was found. The few taxa that have modern tropical affinities occur in Eocene or older sediments in Australia, e.g. Lygodium, Anacolosa, Elaeagnus, Malpighiaceae and Strasburgeriaceae. We conclude the wind-pollinated Oligocene to possibly Early Miocene vegetation in the upper SARV was Casuarinaceae sclerophyll forest or woodland growing under seasonally dry conditions and related to modern Allocasuarina/Casuarina formations. There are, however, strong floristic links to coastal communities growing under warm to hot, and seasonally to uniformly wet climates in north-west Australia during the Paleocene-Eocene.

XVIII.—Recent Oceanographical Investigations in the Faroe-Shetland Channel

1957 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Tait
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Volume Transport ◽  
Oceanic Water ◽  
Arctic Water ◽  
Norwegian Sea ◽  
North West ◽  
The North

SynopsisThe Faroe-Shetland Channel is the threshold from the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean to north-west European seas. Through it passes the main bulk of the oceanic water-mass which is the predominant influx, among several other water-masses, to these seas.The following research into the dynamics and general hydrography of the region is based on numerous observations of temperature and salinity, from surface to bottom, taken mainly on two vertical cross-sections of the Channel between the years 1927 and 1952 inclusive, excepting the war years 1940 to 1945.The research reveals very large scale seasonal and long-term variations in the northeastward volume-transport of oceanic water, suggests the existence on occasions of what appear to be horizontal tortional currents within the oceanic water-mass, and demonstrates (a) the intrusion of Gulf of Gibraltar (extra-Mediterranean) water into this mass over a period of years, (b) the formation of heavy oceanic water and (c) of a sub-oceanic watermass. The last-mentioned may sometimes almost entirely displace the bottom Norwegian Sea water-mass which normally underlies the oceanic mass.One or other, or both, of two types of Arctic water may also sometimes displace bottom Norwegian Sea water as the bottom water-mass of the region, the process, like that of the above-mentioned Gulf of Gibraltar water influx, waxing and waning over a term of years and thus exemplifying the phenomenon of marine climatic change.

Distribution and transport pathways of Panulirus ornatus (Fabricius, 1776) and Panulirus spp. larvae in the Coral Sea, Australia

2001 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren M. Dennis ◽  
C. Roland Pitcher ◽  
Timothy D. Skewes
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Currents ◽  
Boundary Current ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Equatorial Current ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Phyllosoma Larvae

Distribution of phyllosoma larvae and pueruli of the rock lobster Panulirus ornatus and other Panulirus species was surveyed in the north-west Coral Sea in May 1997 and compared to ocean currents. Distribution of P. ornatus larvae revealed the sources of recruits to the Torres Strait lobster fishery. Phyllosomas and pueruli of P. ornatus dominated the Panulirus spp. plankton-trawl catch. Surviving pueruli were transferred to an aquarium to await confirmation of their identity. Pregilled P. ornatus phyllosomas were most abundant approximately 300 km east of the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and near the confluence of the South Equatorial Current and Coral Sea Gyre. Gilled phyllosomas were also common there but most numerous adjacent to the GBR. Pueruli were most abundant adjacent to the GBR well south of Torres Strait. The distribution of P. ornatus phyllosomas and pueruli in relation to the ocean currents supported the hypothesis that phyllosomas are transported from the Gulf of Papua breeding grounds by the Hiri boundary current into the Coral Sea Gyre and then by surface onshore currents onto the Queensland coast and into Torres Strait. Distributions of larvae of other Panulirus species and the synaxid Palinurellus wieneckii differed from those of P. ornatus.

Some hydrological features of the eastern Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria in August 1964

1966 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
DJ Rochford
Keyword(s):  
Organic Phosphorus ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Biological Action ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Arafura Sea ◽  
Phosphate Nitrate

Charts of the distribution of salinity, temperature, inorganic phosphate, nitrate nitrogen, oxygen, and particulate organic phosphorus, for the eastern Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in August 1964 are presented. Interrelationships of these properties show that at least three water masses were identifiable in this month. Two were very low in nutrients (phosphate less than 0.20, nitrate less than 1.0 �g-atom/l) but differed in salinity (less than 33.00‰ and greater than 35.50‰). The third was high in nutrients (phosphate greater than 1.40, nitrate greater than 17 �g-atom/l) and had salinities between 33.80 and 34.70‰. The high nutrient water mass was derived from Banda Sea slope water at around 100-150 m, wlth its nutrients increased subsequently by biological action. The other two water masses were formed in the coastal region of West Irian and the Coral Sea. High surface oxygen saturation (139%) and accumulation of organic phosphorus in near-bottom waters of the eastern Arafura Sea were the result of an uplift of Banda slope waters, much earlier in the year than August. In the Gulf of Carpentaria, the August salinity temperature characteristics were formed by the southward drift along the eastern margin of Coral Sea waters, which increased in salinity and decreased in temperature by evaporation. Low salinity water of the previous summer occurred in August, only in the north-west of the gulf.

Long-term persistence and vicariance within the Australian Monsoonal Tropics: the case of the giant cave and tree geckos (Pseudothecadactylus)

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Oliver ◽  
Rebecca J. Laver ◽  
Katie L. Smith ◽  
Aaron M. Bauer
Keyword(s):  
New Caledonia ◽  
Morphological Diversity ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Arid Conditions ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cape York ◽  
Rag 1

The Australian Monsoonal Tropics (AMT) are one of the largest unbroken areas of savannah woodland in the world. The history of the biota of this region is poorly understood; however, data from fossil deposits indicate that the climate was more mesic in the past, and that biodiversity has been shaped by attenuation and turnover as arid conditions expanded and intensified through the Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene. The giant cave and tree geckos (Pseudothecadactylus) are distributed across three disjunct regions of relatively high rainfall in the AMT (the north-west Kimberley, the ‘Top End’, and Cape York). We present an analysis of the diversity and biogeography of this genus based on mitochondrial (ND2) and nuclear (RAG-1) loci. These data indicate that the three widely allopatric lineages of Pseudothecadactylus diverged around the mid-Miocene, a novel pattern of relatively long-term persistence that has not previously been documented within the AMT. Two Pseudothecadactylus species endemic to sandstone scarps in the west Kimberley Region and ‘Top End’ also include divergent mitochondrial lineages, indicative of deep intraspecific coalescence times within these regions. Pseudothecadactylus is a highly relictual lineage with an extant distribution that has been shaped by a history of attenuation, isolation and persistence in the face of increasingly arid conditions. The low ecological and morphological diversity of Pseudothecadactylus also contrasts with its diverse sister lineage of geckos in New Caledonia, further underlining the relictual nature of standing diversity in the former.

scholarly journals ENSO and Short-Term Variability of the South Equatorial Current Entering the Coral Sea

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 956-969 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Kessler ◽  
Sophie Cravatte
Keyword(s):  
New Caledonia ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Wave Model ◽  
Current Transport ◽  
Short Term ◽  
South Equatorial Current ◽  
Section Data ◽  
Simple Index ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Equatorial Current

Abstract Historical section data extending to 1985 are used to estimate the interannual variability of transport entering the Coral Sea between New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands. Typical magnitudes of this variability are ±5–8 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) in the 0–400-m layer relative to 400 m, and ±8–12 Sv in the 0–2000-m layer relative to 2000 m, on a mean of close to −30 Sv (relative to 2000 m). Transport increases a few months after an El Niño event and decreases following a La Niña. Interannual transport variability is well simulated by a reduced-gravity long Rossby wave model. Vigorous westward-propagating mesoscale eddies can yield substantial aliasing on individual ship or glider surveys. Since transport variability is surface intensified and well correlated with satellite-derived surface geostrophic currents, a simple index of South Equatorial Current transport based on satellite altimetry is developed.

On the Age of the Upper and Middle Deinosaur-Deposits at Tendaguru, Tanganyika Territory

1929 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 193-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. L. Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Widespread Occurrence ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
European Area ◽  
Eastern Hemisphere ◽  
General Community

In a paper dealing principally with the question of the age and relationships of some Lower Cretaceous bivalve-shells found at Malone, in Texas, I discussed briefly the distribution of those sublittoral Neocomian deposits that are well characterized by the presence of certain Trigoniae of southern facies. It was shown that traces of this Neocomian fauna, revealing a general community chiefly by the widespread occurrence of these peculiar groups of Trigonia, unknown in the European area, had been found in different latitudes, both in the eastern and western hemispheres, indicating that there had been northward dispersal along the area of the present American continent from Patagonia to Texas, and in the eastern hemisphere from South Africa to the north-west Himalayan border. Some evidence of the same faunal facies had also been found in New Caledonia. I pointed out that the faunas of these southern Lower Cretaceous Trigonia beds of different regions had been misinterpreted again and again, and that their representatives found in Texas, in South Africa, and in Cutch had been thought by some investigators to be of Jurassic age.

A review of the western Pacific species of the crangonid genus Metacrangon Zarenkov, 1965 (Decapoda: Caridea), with descriptions of seven new species

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3468 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMOYUKI KOMAI
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Far East ◽  
Kuril Islands ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
The Sea Of Japan ◽  
The North ◽  
The Western Pacific ◽  
Pacific Species

A review of species of the crangonid genus Metacrangon Zarenkov, 1965 (Decapoda: Caridea) from the Northwest andtropical Southwest Pacific Ocean is presented. Twenty-one species, including seven new to science, are recognized: M.asiaticus (Kobjakova, 1955) from the Kuril Islands and Komandor Islands; M. bythos n. sp. from Japan; M. clevai n. sp.from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu; M. cornuta Komai & Komatsu, 2009 from Japan; M. holthuisi Komai, 2010 fromJapan; M. karubar n. sp. from Indonesia to Solomon Islands; M. laevis (Yokoya, 1933) from northern Japan and the Rus-sian Far East; M. longirostris (Yokoya, 1933) from Japan; M. miyakei Kim, 2005 from Japan; M. monodon (Birshtein &Vinogradov, 1951) from the North Kuril Islands; M. nipponensis (Yokoya, 1933) from Japan; M. obliqua n. sp. from Ja-pan; M. ochotensis (Kobjakova, 1955) from the South Kuril Islands; M. proxima Kim, 2005 from Japan; M. punctata n.sp. from Indonesia, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia; M. robusta (Kobjakova, 1935) from the Sea of Japan and theSea of Okhotsk; M. similis Komai, 1997 from Japan; M. sinensis Fujino & Miyake, 1970 from the northern part of the EastChina Sea; M. trigonorostris (Yokoya, 1933) from Japan; M. tropis n. sp. from Japan; and M. tsugaruensis n. sp. fromJapan. These species are classified into two informal species groups. The new species are fully described and illustrated.Some previously known species, for which detailed descriptions along modern standards are deemed necessary, are rede-scribed. Metacrangon asiaticus is elevated from a subspecies of M. variabilis to full species status. A key to aid in theidentification of the western Pacific species is provided. Bathymetrical and geographical distributions of the treated spe-cies are summarized. It is strongly suggested that each species is highly localized. The species richness is highest in waters around the Japanese Archipelago (17 of the 41 known species occur in the areas).

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