Reduction of future disaster damages by learning from disaster experiences

This paper examines the effect of a country’s own past disaster experiences and nearby countries’ past experiences on subsequent disaster damage. We use global disaster data from 1990 to 2010, which include disaster-related death tolls for both natural and technological disasters that are further divided into sub-categories. Overall, we find evidence of a reduction effect of past disaster damage on future disaster damage. More detailed analyses show that an adaptation effect seems to be present for certain combinations of disaster types and levels of economic development. The results show that a country’s own experiences reduce future damage for natural disasters but that the marginal effect is larger for lower-income countries. On the other hand, for technological disasters, a robust impact of experiences was found only in higher-income countries. In terms of the disaster experiences of nearby countries, the adaptation effect was found only for natural disasters, and the marginal impact was relatively higher for higher-income countries.     

Acoustic full waveform inversion of synthetic land and marine data in the Laplace domain

Elastic waves, such as Rayleigh and mode‐converted waves, together with amplitude versus offset variations, serve as noise in full waveform inversion using the acoustic approximation. Heavy preprocessing must be applied to remove elastic effects to invert land or marine data using the acoustic inversion method in the time or frequency domains. Full waveform inversion using the elastic wave equation should be one alternative; however, multi‐parameter inversion is expensive and sensitive to the starting velocity model. We implement full acoustic waveform inversion of synthetic land and marine data in the Laplace domain with minimum preprocessing (i.e., muting) to remove elastic effects. The damping in the Laplace transform can be thought of as an automatic time windowing. Numerical examples show that Laplace‐domain acoustic inversion can yield correct smooth velocity models even with the noise originating from elastic waves. This offers the opportunity to develop an accurate smooth starting model for subsequent inversion in the frequency domain.     

Organohalogen compounds in deep-sea fishes from the western North Pacific, off-Tohoku, Japan: Contamination status and bioaccumulation profiles

Twelve species of deep-sea fishes collected in 2005 from the western North Pacific, off-Tohoku, Japan were analyzed for organohalogen compounds. Among the compounds analyzed, concentrations of DDTs and PCBs (up to 23,000 and 12,400 ng/g lipid wt, respectively) were the highest. The present study is the foremost to report the occurrence of brominated flame retardants such as PBDEs and HBCDs in deep-sea organisms from the North Pacific region. Significant positive correlations found between δ¹⁵N (‰) and PCBs, DDTs and PBDEs suggest the high biomagnification potential of these contaminants in food web. The large variation in δ¹³C (‰) values observed between the species indicate multiple sources of carbon in the food web and specific accumulation of hydrophobic organohalogen compounds in benthic dwelling carnivore species like snubnosed eel. The results obtained in this study highlight the usefulness of deep-sea fishes as sentinel species to monitor the deep-sea environment.     

Fatty acid profiles of benthic environment associated with artificial reefs in subtropical Hong Kong

Artificial reefs can enhance habitat heterogeneity, especially in seabed degraded by bottom-dredging and trawling. However, the trophodynamics of such reef systems are not well understood. This study provided baseline data on trophic relationships in the benthic environment associated with artificial reefs in late spring and mid summer of subtropical Hong Kong, using fatty acid profiles as an indicator. Data from sediments collected at the reef base, materials from sediment traps deployed on top and bottom of the reefs, total particulate matter from the water column and oyster tissues from reef surface were subjected to principal component analysis. Results showed variations of fatty acid profiles in the total particulate matter, upper sediment trap and oyster tissue samples collected in the two samplings, indicating seasonal, trophodynamic changes within the reef system. The wastes produced by fish aggregating at the reefs can also contribute a source of biodeposits to the nearby benthic environment.     

Reconstruction of historical nutrient levels in Korean and Japanese coastal areas based on dinoflagellate cyst assemblages

Dinoflagellate cysts acquired from sediment cores were analyzed in order to reconstruct historical nutrient levels in Gamak Bay, Korea and Ariake Bay, Japan. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages in Gamak Bay were characterized by high proportions of heterotrophic cysts such as Brigantedinium spp., Protoperidinium americanum and Polykrikos cysts, which suggested that nutrients levels may have already been high before 1970s, and then increased further to the hypertrophic conditions of the 1990s. In contrast, dinoflagellate cyst assemblages in Ariake Bay were characterized by high relative abundances of Lingulodinium machaerophorum and Spiniferites spp., which suggested that nutrient levels in Ariake Bay had increased gradually since the mid 1960s, and may have been significantly enhanced by the mid 1980s. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages reflecting environmental changes in the two bays are contrasting, perhaps due to different nutrient enrichment mechanisms. This suggests that the indicators of nutrient levels encoded in dinoflagellate cyst assemblages may exhibit site-specific information.     

2D Laplace-Domain Waveform Inversion of Field Data Using a Power Objective Function

The wavefield in the Laplace domain has a very small amplitude except only near the source point. In order to deal with this characteristic, the logarithmic objective function has been used in many Laplace domain inversion studies. The Laplace-domain waveform inversion using the logarithmic objective function has fewer local minima than the time- or frequency domain inversion. Recently, the power objective function was suggested as an alternative to the logarithmic objective function in the Laplace domain. Since amplitudes of wavefields are very small generally, a power <1 amplifies the wavefields especially at large offset. Therefore, the power objective function can enhance the Laplace-domain inversion results. In previous studies about synthetic datasets, it is confirmed that the inversion using a power objective function shows a similar result when compared with the inversion using a logarithmic objective function. In this paper, we apply an inversion algorithm using a power objective function to field datasets. We perform the waveform inversion using the power objective function and compare the result obtained by the logarithmic objective function. The Gulf of Mexico dataset is used for the comparison. When we use a power objective function in the inversion algorithm, it is important to choose the appropriate exponent. By testing the various exponents, we can select the range of the exponent from 5 × 10^?3 to 5 × 10^?8 in the Gulf of Mexico dataset. The results obtained from the power objective function with appropriate exponent are very similar to the results of the logarithmic objective function. Even though we do not get better results than the conventional method, we can confirm the possibility of applying the power objective function for field data. In addition, the power objective function shows good results in spite of little difference in the amplitude of the wavefield. Based on these results, we can expect that the power objective function will produce good results from the data with a small amplitude difference. Also, it can partially be utilized at the sections where the amplitude difference is very small.     

A linear projection for the timing of unprecedented climate in Korea

Recently we have had abnormal weather events worldwide that are attributed by climate scientists to the global warming induced by human activities. If the global warming continues in the future and such events occur more frequently and someday become normal, we will have an unprecedented climate. This study intends to answer when we will have an unprecedented warm climate, focusing more on the regional characteristics of the timing of unprecedented climate. Using an in-situ observational data from weather stations of annual-mean surface air temperature in Korea from 1973 to 2015, we estimate a timing of unprecedented climate with a linear regression method. Based on the in-situ data with statistically significant warming trends at 95% confidence level, an unprecedented climate in Korea is projected to occur first in Cheongju by 2043 and last in Haenam by 2168. This 125-year gap in the timing indicates that a regional difference in timing of unprecedented climate is considerably large in Korea. Despite the high sensitivity of linear estimation to the data period and resolution, our findings on the large regional difference in timing of unprecedented climate can give an insight into making policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, not only for the central government but for provincial governments.     

Levels and distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and organochlorine compounds in sea turtles from Japan

Three species of sea turtles (green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles) stranded along the coasts or caught (by-catch) around Ishigaki Island and Kochi, Japan were collected between 1998 and 2006 and analyzed for six organohalogen compounds viz., PBDEs, PCBs, DDTs, CHLs, HCHs and HCB. The present study is the first and foremost to report the occurrence of organohalogen compounds in the sea turtles from Japan. Among the compounds analyzed, concentrations of PCBs, DDTs and CHLs were the highest in all the turtle samples. PBDEs were ubiquitously present in all the turtle species. Comparing with the other two species, concentrations of organohalogens in green turtle were relatively low and decreasing trend in the concentrations were noted with increasing carapace length. Concentrations of OCs in sea turtles from the coasts of Ishigaki Island and Kochi were relatively low as compared to those from other locations in the world.     

Marine meiobenthic and nematode community structure in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong upon recovery from sewage pollution

Sediment quality, meiofaunal and nematode communities were monitored across six time points at two inside-harbour and three outside-harbour sites over a three-year period in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, after the implementation of a sewage treatment project. Twenty-one meiofaunal groups comprising mainly free-living nematodes and harpacticoid copepods and 188 species of free-living nematodes were identified. The outside-harbour area had a more diverse and significantly different nematode community structure as compared to that in the inside-harbour area. Such spatial difference was highly correlated with the total Kjeldahl nitrogen content of the sediments. Over the study period, there was no significant improvement in sediment quality within the harbour. However, in the last sampling time, an increase in meiofaunal abundance and a closer similarity in nematode composition between one of the inside- and outside-harbour sites suggested signs of recovery of the meiofauna as a response to abatement of sewage pollution.