Evaluating vegetative transplant success in Posidonia australis: a field trial with habitat enhancement

Seagrasses in Western Australia grow on open coastlines that are wave and surge exposed, which are known to reduce transplant success. This study investigated the use of habitat enhancement procedures to improve the survival and expansion of Posidonia australis transplants. Limited success transplanting P. australis vegetative propagules (plugs) was achieved after habitat enhancement was implemented, using artificial seagrass (ASG) mats to emulate a "surrogate" seagrass meadow. The ASG mats enhanced one aspect of the habitat (stabilised sediment grain size) but did not suitably stabilise erosion and accretion. Transplant survival was significantly increased (up to 50% survival) in 60% of the sites where ASG mats were present. However, only 8% of the total transplant population exhibited rhizome extension (3.2+/-0.11 mmd(-1)).     

Productivity,carbon assimilation and intra-annual change in tropical reef platform seagrass communities of the Torres Strait,north-eastern Australia

Detailed data on seagrass distribution, abundance, growth rates and community structure information were collected at Orman Reefs in March 2004 to estimate the above-ground productivity and carbon assimilated by seagrass meadows. Seagrass meadows were re-examined in November 2004 for comparison at the seasonal extremes of seagrass abundance. Ten seagrass species were identified in the meadows on Orman Reefs. Extensive seagrass coverage was found in March (18,700 ha) and November (21,600 ha), with seagrass covering the majority of the intertidal reef-top areas and a large proportion of the subtidal areas examined. There were marked differences in seagrass above-ground biomass, distribution and species composition between the two surveys. Major changes between March and November included a substantial decline in biomass for intertidal meadows and an expansion in area of subtidal meadows. Changes were most likely a result of greater tidal exposure of intertidal meadows prior to November leading to desiccation and temperature-related stress.     

Marine cements in mid-Tertiary cool-water shelf limestones of New Zealand and southern Australia

Large areas of southern Australia and New Zealand are covered by mid‐Tertiary limestones formed in cool‐water, shelf environments. The generally destructive character of sea‐floor diagenesis in such settings precludes ubiquitous inorganic precipitation of carbonates, yet these limestones include occasional units with marine cements: (1) within rare in situ biomounds; (2) within some stacked, cross‐bedded sand bodies; (3) at the top of metre‐scale, subtidal, carbonate cycles; and (4) most commonly, associated with certain unconformities. The marine cements are dominated by isopachous rinds of fibrous to bladed spar, interstitial homogeneous micrite and interstitial micropeloidal micrite, often precipitated sequentially in that order. Internal sedimentation of microbioclastic micrite may occur at any stage. The paradox of marine‐cemented limestone units in an overall destructive cool‐water diagenetic regime may be explained by the precipitation of cement as intermediate Mg‐calcite from marine waters undersaturated with respect to aragonite. In some of the marine‐cemented limestones, aragonite biomoulds may include marine cement/sediment internally, suggesting that dissolution of aragonite can at times be wholly marine and not always involve meteoric influences. We suggest that marine cementation occurred preferentially, but not exclusively, during periods of relatively lowered sea level, probably glacio‐eustatically driven in the mid‐Tertiary. At times of reduced sea level, there was a relative increase in both the temperature and the carbonate saturation state of the shelf waters, and the locus of carbonate sedimentation shifted towards formerly deeper shelf sites, which now experienced increased swell wave and/or tidal energy levels, fostering sediment abrasion and reworking, reduced sedimentation rates and freer exchange of sediment pore‐waters. Energy levels were probably also enhanced by increased upwelling of cold, deep waters onto the Southern Ocean margins of the Australasian carbonate platforms, where water‐mass mixing, warming and loss of CO₂ locally maintained critical levels of carbonate saturation for sea‐floor cement precipitation and promoted the phosphate‐glauconite mineralization associated with some of the marine‐cemented limestone units.     

A first estimate of organic carbon storage in Holocene lake sediments in Alberta, Canada

This paper reports a first estimate of the Holocene lake sediment carbon pool in Alberta, Canada. The organic matter content of lake sediment does not appear to depend strongly on lake size or other limnological parameters, allowing a simple first estimate in which we assume all Alberta lake sediment to have the same organic matter content. Alberta lake sediments sequester about 15 g C m^-2 yr^-1, for a provincial total of 0.23 Tg C yr^-1, or 2.3 Pg C over the Holocene. Alberta lakes may represent as much as 1/1700 of total global, annual permanent carbon sequestration.     

Brokering Trust in Citizen Science

Citizen science (CS) information requires systematic review that incorporates a range of interests and concerns. Yet, there has been little research on what might constitute reviewing best practice to ensure CS is trusted by contributors and users of the data. Insights from a survey of all 1134 reviewers who curate the global eBird Project highlight the knowledge-brokering work involved to ensure CS data are trusted by both citizens and science. Drawing on scholarship focused on key drivers of useable knowledge for natural resource decision-making, we consider CS reviewing best practice to ensure CS can be useful to the producers and users of this knowledge. We find that CS reviewers need to be motivated to provide appropriate feedback to improve CS data, commit to reviewing practice that is respected by citizens, and ensure the information published is credible and be reviewed by a supportive and accountable network of fellow reviewers.     

Satellite monitoring of sea surface temperatures off China

Satellite measurements of global sea surface temperatures (SST) have been made since 1982 using the multi-channel radiometers (AVHRR) on NOAA polar orbiting satellites. A four year data set was accumulated at daily intervals and a spatial resolution of about 100 kilometers on an interactive computer system. The time lapse evaluation of the data revealed variations of the SST which were related to coastal and equatorial upwelling events as well as to the pronounced equatorial warming associated with the 1982–1983 El Niño. In the present study, satellite time series are used to describe the annual variability of the SST at selected locations along the coast of China, the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan and the Equatorial Indian and Pacific Oceans. Further study of the SST off China using higher resolution satellite data are also described.