Low-frequency sea level variationswith periods longer than interannual time scales have been receivingmuch attention recently, with the aim of distinguishing the anthropogenic regional sea level change signal from the natural fluctuations. Based on the available sea level products, this study finds that the dominant low-frequency sea level mode in the Pacific basin has both quasi-decadal variat...

A new genus of paralcyoniid soft corals (Octocorallia: Paralcyoniidae) from the Indo-West Pacific is described and named Ceeceenus. The new genus is compared with the related genera Paralcyonium Milne Edwards, 1850 and Studeriotes Thomson & Simpson, 1909. Four new species are described and included in the new genus. They were found in Thailand, Japan, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

[1] The role of low-level transpacific paths in bringing east Asian air to the North American west coast surface is determined using conditional transit-time distributions. These distributions are computed with the MATCH transport model driven by NCEP reanalysis data. Transpacific paths that lie entirely below 2.2 km contribute negligibly to the west coast column burden of east Asian air. Howev...

Pyrgomatid barnacles are a family of balanomorphs uniquely adapted to symbiosis on corals. The evolution of the coral-dwelling barnacles is explored using a multi-gene phylogeny (COI, 16S, 12S, 18S, and H3) and phenotypic trait-mapping. We found that the hydrocoral associate Wanella should be excluded, while some archaeobalanids in the genus Armatobalanus should be included in the Pyrgomatidae....

Where in the U.S.A. did you mainly live prior to entering college? New England = ME VT NH MA CT RI | Middle Atlantic = NY NJ PA | East North Central = WI IL IN MI OH | West North Central = MN IA MO ND SD NE KS | South Atlantic = DE MD WV VA NC SC GA FL DC | East South Central = KY TN AL MS | West South Central = AR OK LA TX | Mountain = MT ID WY NV UT CO AZ NM | Pacific = WA OR CA AK HI | Not i...

Exosphaeromaamplicauda (Stimpson, 1857) from the west coast of North America is reviewed and redescribed and revealed to be a group of closely related species. A neotype is designated and the species redescribed based on the neotype and topotypic specimens. Exosphaeromaamplicauda is known only from the coast of California, at Marin, Sonoma and San Mateo Counties. Exosphaeromaaphrodita (Boone, 1...

A nonlinear forecast system for the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the whole tropical Pacific has been developed using a multi-layer perceptron neural network approach, where sea level pressure and SST anomalies were used as predictors to predict the five leading SST principal components at lead times from 3 to 15 months. Relative to the linear regression (LR) models, the nonlinea...

Diagnosing a coupled system with linear inverse modelling (LIM) can provide insight into the nature and strength of the coupling. This technique is applied to the cold season output of the GFDL GCM, forced by observed tropical Pacific SSTs and including a slab mixed layer ocean model elsewhere. It is found that extratropical SST anomalies act to enhance atmospheric thermal variability and dimin...

[1] Using a 15-year record of O3 from Lassen Volcanic National Park, a rural elevated site in northernCalifornia, data from two aircraft campaigns conducted in 1984 and 2002 over the eastern North Pacific, and observations spanning 18 years from five U.S. west coast, marine boundary layer sites, we show that O3 in air arriving from the Eastern Pacific in spring has increased by approximately 10...

The exotic Indo-West-Pacific species, Ficopomatus uschakovi (Polychaeta, Serpulidae) is recorded for the first time in the Tropical Eastern Pacific from two sites in La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas, a coastal lagoon in the Pacific south of Mexico. The means of dispersal of this serpulid species still remains unclear, as the nearest port (Puerto Chiapas) is 70 km to the south, and ther...