Double exposure in Mozambique's Limpopo River Basin

This paper examines how double exposure to economic and environmental stressors – and the interaction between the two – affect smallholder farmers in Mozambique's Limpopo River Basin. Studying two case study villages we find that people, in general, are resilient to environmental stressors. However, most households show less resilience to the socioeconomic stressors and shocks that have been introduced or intensified by economic globalisation. Our findings indicate that economic change brought about by structural adjustment policies pressures rural people to alter their approach to farming, which makes it more difficult for them to respond to environmental change. For example, smallholder farmers find it difficult to make a transition to commercial farming within the Limpopo Basin, in part because farming techniques that are well adapted to managing environmental variability in the region – such as seeding many small plots – are not well suited to the economies of scale needed for profitable commercial agriculture. People use a variety of strategies to cope with interactive environmental and economic stressors and shocks, but many face considerable constraints to profitably exploiting market-based opportunities. We conclude that economic stressors and shocks may now be causing small-scale agriculture to be less well adapted to ecological and climate variability, making smallholders more vulnerable to future climate change. Some local level policy interventions, including those that support and build on local environmental knowledge, could assist rural agricultural societies in adapting to future environmental change in the context of economic globalisation.     

Common-offset common-reflection-surface attributes estimation with differential evolution

Common-reflection surface is a method to describe the shape of seismic events, typically the slopes (dip) and curvature portions (traveltime). The most systematic approach to estimate the common-reflection surface traveltime attributes is to employ a sequence of single-variable search procedures, inheriting the advantage of a low computational cost, but also the disadvantage of a poor estimation quality. A search strategy where the common-reflection surface attributes are globally estimated in a single stage may yield more accurate estimates. In this paper, we propose to use the bio-inspired global optimization algorithm differential evolution to estimate all the two-dimensional common-offset common-reflection surface attributes simultaneously. The differential evolution algorithm can provide accurate estimates for the common-reflection surface traveltime attributes, with the benefit of having a small set of input parameters to be configured. We apply the differential evolution algorithm to estimate the two-dimensional common-reflection surface attributes in the synthetic Marmousi data set, contaminated by noise, and in a land field data with a small fold. By analysing the stacked and coherence sections, we could see that the differential evolution based common-offset common-reflection surface approach presented significant signal-to-noise ratio enhancement.     

New insights from low-temperature thermochronology into the tectonic and geomorphologic evolution of the south-eastern Brazilian highlands and passive margin

The South Atlantic passive margin along the south-eastern Brazilian highlands exhibits a complex landscape,including a northern inselberg area and a southern elevated plateau,separated by the Doce River valley.This landscape is set on the Proterozoic to early Paleozoic rocks of the region that once was the hot core of the Aracuai orogen,in Ediacaran to Ordovician times.Due to the break-up of Gondwana and consequently the opening of the South Atlantic during the Early Cretaceous,those rocks of the Araquai orogen became the basement of a portion of the South Atlantic passive margin and related southeastern Brazilian highlands.Our goal is to provide a new set of constraints on the thermo-tectonic history of this portion of the south-eastern Brazilian margin and related surface processes,and to provide a hypothesis on the geodynamic context since break-up.To this end,we combine the apatite fission track(AFT)and apatite(U-Th)/He(AHe)methods as input for inverse thermal history modelling.All our AFT and AHe central ages are Late Cretaceous to early Paleogene.The AFT ages vary between 62 Ma and90 Ma,with mean track lengths between 12.2μm and 13.6μm.AHe ages are found to be equivalent to AFT ages within uncertainty,albeit with the former exhibiting a lesser degree of confidence.We relate this Late Cretaceous-Paleocene basement cooling to uplift with accelerated denudation at this time.Spatial variation of the denudation time can be linked to differential reactivation of the Precambrian structural network and differential erosion due to a complex interplay with the drainage system.We argue that posterior large-scale sedimentation in the offshore basins may be a result of flexural isostasy combined with an expansion of the drainage network.We put forward the combined compression of the Mid-Atlantic ridge and the Peruvian phase of the Andean orogeny,potentially augmented through the thermal weakening of the lower crust by the Trindade thermal anomaly,as a probable cause for the uplift.     

MTD distribution on a ‘passive’ continental margin: The Espírito Santo Basin (SE Brazil) during the Palaeogene

Mass-wasting on the Brazilian margin during the Mid-Eocene/Oligocene resulted in the accumulation of recurrent Mass Transport Deposits (MTDs) offshore Espírito Santo, SE Brazil. In this paper, we use three-dimensional seismic data to characterize a succession with stacked MTDs (Abrolhos Formation), and to assess the distribution of undeformed stratigraphic packages (i.e. turbidites) with reservoir potential separating the interpreted MTDs. High-amplitude strata in less deformed areas of MTDs reflect their internal heterogeneity, as well as possible regions with a higher sand content. Separating MTDs, turbiditic intervals reach 100 ms Two-Way Travel Time (TWTT), with thicker areas coincident with the flanks of growing diapirs and areas of the basin where mass-wasting is less apparent. Turbiditic strata laterally grade into, or are eroded by MTDs, with transitional strata between MTDs and turbidites being also influenced by the presence of diapirs. MTDs show average thickness values ranging from 58 to 82 ms TWTT and constitute over 50% of Eocene-Oligocene strata along the basin slope. Low average accumulations of 58 ms TWTT in areas of high confinement imposed by diapirs suggest sediment accumulation upslope, and/or bypass into downslope areas. This character was induced by the high sediment input into the basin associated with coastal erosion and growth of the Abrolhos volcanic plateau. Our results suggest that significant amounts of sediment derive from the northwest, and were accumulated in the middle-slope region. Interpretations of (palaeo)-slope profiles led to the establishment of a model of margin progradation by deposition of MTDs, contrasting with the retrogressive erosional margins commonly associated with these settings.     

Building adaptive capacity to climate variability: The case of artisanal fisheries in the estuary of the Patos Lagoon,Brazil

The vulnerabilities of fishing communities to climate and environmental change represent major issues for the governance of fisheries resources which have a direct effect on human security, livelihoods and rights. This paper explores the dynamics of social-ecological systems in the estuary of the Patos Lagoon in southern Brazil. The paper identifies key factors that increase and/or minimize the vulnerabilities of the fishing communities in this lagoon with the objective of understanding: (a) the degree to which fishing communities are able to build adaptive and learning capacities to minimize/reduce vulnerabilities and maintain their livelihoods; and (b) how and under what circumstances external and internal factors may influence and disrupt the social-ecological resilience in this lagoon system. Results show that fishing communities with a higher degree of self-organization are able to create ways to minimize their vulnerability to adverse climatic conditions. However, only a few communities have developed adaptive mechanisms to cope with the influence of climate on resource abundance and availability. Little external institutional support for small-scale fishing communities, erosion of their traditional resource use systems and decreasing fish stocks in recent decades have all led to a gradual increase in the vulnerability of fishing livelihoods in this lagoon. The uncertainties associated with climate are related to increasing vulnerability and influence the degree of resource conservation and exploitation. The lack of public policies to deal with the impact of climate variability on the livelihoods of fishing communities and the presence of weak institutions in resource governance represent major threats to the social security of fishers in this region.     

Analytical approximate wave form for asymmetric waves

A simple analytical formulation that reproduces a skewed, nonlinear near-bed wave orbital velocity is presented. It contains four free parameters, where two are solely related to the velocity and acceleration skewnesses. The equation is compared with other models and is validated against field and laboratory experiments. The results reveal that it can simulate a wide range of nonlinear wave shapes, reproducing satisfactorily the measured nonlinear wave particle velocity. Also, the new expression overcomes some limitations of the other models. The new formulation is therefore capable of being used in many engineering applications that require the use of representative wave forms.     

Vertical deformation partitioning across a collapsing large and hot orogen

Featuring 3 000-km-long large and hot orogen, the Mantiqueira Province provides a rare opportunity to study the process of gravitational collapse at mid to deep crustal levels. Distinct but contemporary (~500 Ma) post-collisional intrusions show structures and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) fabrics related to their emplacements, recording different flow patterns. In southern deep-seated intrusions, ellipsoidal-shaped roots with gabbroic-to-hybrid cores surrounded by granitic rocks show concentric patterns of AMS fabrics that cut across the NE-trending regional foliation. In contrast, northern intrusions, exposed as the upper sections of batholith-size bodies of coarse-grained granite emplaced at the shallow to mid-crust, show general NS-trending magnetic fabrics roughly parallel to strike of the orogen and the regional foliation of host rocks. These contrasting magnetic patterns from shallow to deeper crust suggest vertical magma migration from the overthickened orogenic core to be emplaced across its thinner stretched flanks during the gravitational collapse of the orogenic edifice.