Ventilation, including subduction and obduction, for the global oceans was examined using Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) outputs. The global subduction rate averaged over the period from 1959 to 2006 is estimated at 505.8 Sv (1 Sv [ 10 6 m 3 s 21 ), while the corresponding global obduction rate is estimated at 482.1 Sv. The annual subduction/obduction rates vary greatly on the interannual and decadal time scales. The global subduction rate is estimated to have increased 7.6% over the past 50 years, while the obduction rate is estimated to have increased 9.8%. Such trends may be insignificant because errors associated with the data generated by ocean data assimilation could be as large as 10%. However, a major physical mechanism that induced these trends is primarily linked to changes in the Southern Ocean. While the Southern Ocean plays a key role in global subduction and obduction rates and their variability, both the Southern Ocean and equatorial regions are critically important sites of water mass formation/erosion.

Wind stress energy input to the oceans is the most important source of mechanical energy in maintaining the oceanic general circulation. Previous studies indicate that wind energy input to the Ekman layer and surface waves varied greatly over the past 50 years. In this study wind energy input to surface current and surface geostrophic current was calculated as the scalar product of wind stress and surface current and surface geostrophic current. The surface geostrophic current was calculated in two ways: the surface geostrophic velocity diagnosed from the TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data over period (1993 to 2003) 3

Wind stress and tidal dissipation are the most important sources of mechanical energy for maintaining the oceanic general circulation. The contribution of mechanical energy due to tropical cyclones can be a vitally important factor in regulating the oceanic general circulation and its variability. However, previous estimates of wind stress energy input were based on low-resolution wind stress data in which strong nonlinear events, such as tropical cyclones, were smoothed out.Using a hurricane-ocean coupled model constructed from an axisymmetric hurricane model and a threelayer ocean model, the rate of energy input to the world's oceans induced by tropical cyclones over the period from 1984 to 2003 was estimated. The energy input is estimated as follows: 1.62 TW to the surface waves and 0.10 TW to the surface currents (including 0.03 TW to the near-inertial motions). The rate of gravitational potential energy increase due to tropical cyclones is 0.05 TW. Both the energy input from tropical cyclones and the increase of gravitational potential energy of the ocean show strong interannual and decadal variability with an increasing rate of 16% over the past 20 years. The annual mean diapycnal upwelling induced by tropical cyclones over the past 20 years is estimated as 39 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1). Owing to tropical cyclones, diapycnal mixing in the upper ocean (below the mixed layer) is greatly enhanced. Within the regimes of strong activity of tropical cyclones, the increase of diapycnal diffusivity is on the order of (1 Ϫ 6) ϫ 10 Ϫ4 m 2 s Ϫ1. The tropical cyclone-related energy input and diapycnal mixing may play an important role in climate variability, ecology, fishery, and environments.

The salt gland in Tamarix is a complex of eight cells composed of two inner, vacuolate, collecting cells and six outer, densely cytoplasmic, secretory cells. The secretory cells are completely enclosed by a cuticular layer except along part of the walls between the collecting cells and the inner secretory cell. This non-cuticularized wall region is termed the transfusion are (RUHLAND, 1915) and numerous plasmodesmata connect the inner secretory cells with the collecting cells in this area. Plasmodesmata also connect the collecting cells with the adjacent mesophyll cells.There are numerous mitochondria in the secretory cells and in different glands they show wide variation in form. In some glands wall protuberances extend into the secretory cells forming a labyrinth-like structure; however, in other glands the protuberances are not extensively developed. Numerous small vacuoles are found in some glands and these generally are distributed around the periphery of the secretory cells in association with the wall protuberances. Further, an unusual structure or interfacial apparatus is located along the anticlinal walls of the inner secretory cells. The general structure of the gland including the cuticular encasement, connecting plasmodesmata, interfacial apparatus, and variations in mitochondria, vacuoles, and wall structures are discussed in relation to general glandular function.