No abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the size structure of phytoplankton under varying coastal upwelling intensities and to determine the resulting primary productivity in the southwestern East Sea. Samples of phytoplankton assemblages were collected on five occasions from the Hupo Bank, off the east coast of Korea, during 2012–2013. Because two major surface currents have a large effect on water mass transport in this region, we first performed a Backward Particle Tracking Experiment (BPTE) to determine the coastal sea from which the collected samples originated according to advection time of BPTE particles, following which we used upwelling age (UA) to determine the intensity of coastal upwelling in the region of origin for each sample. Only samples that were affected by coastal upwelling in the region of origin were included in subsequent analyses. We found that as UA increased, there was a decreasing trend in the concentration of picophytoplankton, and increasing trends in the concentration of nanophytoplankton and microphytoplankton. We also examined the relationship between the size structure of phytoplankton and primary productivity in the Ulleung Basin (UB), which has experienced significant variation over the past decade. We found that primary productivity in UB was closely related to the strength of the southerly wind, which is the most important mechanism for coastal upwelling in the southwestern East Sea. Thus, the size structure of phytoplankton is determined by the intensity of coastal upwelling, which is regulated by the southerly wind, and makes an important contribution to primary productivity.

No abstract

No abstract

This paper describes an effective method for forming silicon oxide on silica‐on‐silicon platforms, which results in excellent characteristics for hybrid integration. Among the many processes involved in fabricating silica‐on‐silicon platforms with planar lightwave circuits (PLCs), the process for forming silicon oxide on an etched silicon substrate is very important for obtaining transparent silica film because it determines the compatibility at the interface between the silicon and the silica film. To investigate the effects of the formation process of the silicon oxide on the characteristics of the silica PLC platform, we compared two silicon oxide formation processes: thermal oxidation and plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Thermal oxidation in fabricating silica platforms generates defects and a cristobalite crystal phase, which results in deterioration of the optical waveguide characteristics. On the other hand, a silica platform with the silicon oxide layer deposited by PECVD has a transparent planar optical waveguide because the crystal growth of the silica has been suppressed. We confirm that the PECVD method is an effective process for silicon oxide formation for a silica platform with excellent characteristics.