Antarctic tourism and environmental concerns

Increasing numbers of tourists are visiting the Antarctic. Totals from the past three seasons (1989–1990, 1990–1991, 1991–1992) were 2581, 4842, and 6495 respectively (Enzenbacher, 1992). Some environmental issues arising from Antarctic tourist activity include: wildlife tolerance, waste disposal, passenger education, tour operator management practices, personnel experience, frequency of visits and ship design. Current guidelines provide a practical approach to tourism, but do not address all issues arising from tourist activity. Antarctic Treaty Parties agreed to examine the question of a comprehensive regulation of tourist activities in the Antarctic Treaty Area and policies are under review. Some issues may prove difficult to resolve. Compliance with existing guidelines is to be encouraged, at least until more is known about the environmental effects of tourism. A management plan for tourism is needed along with more research on how tourism is conducted and the effects visits have on Antarctica's marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Cooperation between Treaty Parties and tour operators is important for the development of appropriate tourism regulations.     

Environmental management in Antarctica Instruments and institutions

Instruments and institutions for environmental management in Antarctica have evolved from beginnings in the Antarctic Treaty, with subsequent introduction of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and recommendations made at Treaty meetings. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty will improve existing provisions for environmental management in Antarctica. When it enters into force the Protocol will apply to all activities in the Treaty area: it provides rules for environmental impact assessment, conservation of fauna and flora, disposal of wastes, prevention of marine pollution and specially protected and managed areas. The Protocol's Committee for Environmental Protection will facilitate discussion and advice on environmental management. Management of information is a vital part of ensuring measures are effective. The Protocol should be ratified quickly to improve the basis for environmental protection, but the test will be whether and how it is implemented in practice.     

Errors and uncertainty in physically-based rainfall-runoff modelling of catchment change effects

The error in physically-based rainfall-runoff modelling is broken into components, and these components are assigned to three groups: (1) model structure error, associated with the model’s equations; (2) parameter error, associated with the parameter values used in the equations; and (3) run time error, associated with rainfall and other forcing data. The error components all contribute to “integrated” errors, such as the difference between simulated and observed runoff, but their individual contributions cannot usually be isolated because the modelling process is complex and there is a lack of knowledge about the catchment and its hydrological responses. A simple model of the Slapton Wood Catchment is developed within a theoretical framework in which the catchment and its responses are assumed to be known perfectly. This makes it possible to analyse the contributions of the error components when predicting the effects of a physical change in the catchment. The standard approach to predicting change effects involves: (1) running “unchanged” simulations using current parameter sets; (2) making adjustments to the sets to allow for physical change; and (3) running “changed” simulations. Calibration or uncertainty-handling methods such as GLUE are used to obtain the current sets based on forcing and runoff data for a calibration period, by minimising or creating statistical bounds for the “integrated” errors in simulations of runoff. It is shown that current parameter sets derived in this fashion are unreliable for predicting change effects, because of model structure error and its interaction with parameter error, so caution is needed if the standard approach is to be used when making management decisions about change in catchments.     

Visualization of spatial patterns and temporal trends for aerial surveillance of illegal oil discharges in western Canadian marine waters

This paper examines the use of exploratory spatial analysis for identifying hotspots of shipping-based oil pollution in the Pacific Region of Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone. It makes use of data collected from fiscal years 1997/1998 to 2005/2006 by the National Aerial Surveillance Program, the primary tool for monitoring and enforcing the provisions imposed by MARPOL 73/78. First, we present oil spill data as points in a “dot map” relative to coastlines, harbors and the aerial surveillance distribution. Then, we explore the intensity of oil spill events using the Quadrat Count method, and the Kernel Density Estimation methods with both fixed and adaptive bandwidths. We found that oil spill hotspots where more clearly defined using Kernel Density Estimation with an adaptive bandwidth, probably because of the “clustered” distribution of oil spill occurrences. Finally, we discuss the importance of standardizing oil spill data by controlling for surveillance effort to provide a better understanding of the distribution of illegal oil spills, and how these results can ultimately benefit a monitoring program.     

“Site & region-specific” response spectra: a probabilistic approach

Design seismic forces depend on Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) values and on the shape of Response Spectrum (RS) curves dictated by Building Codes or which need to be evaluated in every particular case. The PGA values and RS curves strictly depend on earthquake magnitude and distance, as well as on the regional and local geological conditions. At present, there is no doubt that it is necessary to construct so-called “Site & Region-specific” Building Code provisions reflecting the influence of different magnitude events at different distances that may occur during the life time of the construction, as well as the variety of local ground conditions. A scheme of Uniform Hazard Response Spectra and PGA estimation considering local site response is described in this paper. The assessments of these design parameters are obtained on the basis of Uniform Hazard Fourier spectra using the conception of “dominant earthquakes”. The effect of local geology is included by means of the soil/reference site spectral ratios.     

Persistent organic pollutants and stable isotopes in biopsy samples (2004/2006) from Southern Resident killer whales

“Southern Resident” killer whales include three “pods” (J, K and L) that reside primarily in Puget Sound/Georgia Basin during the spring, summer and fall. This population was listed as “endangered” in the US and Canada following a 20% decline between 1996 and 2001. The current study, using blubber/epidermis biopsy samples, contributes contemporary information about potential factors (i.e., levels of pollutants or changes in diet) that could adversely affect Southern Residents. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes indicated J- and L-pod consumed prey from similar trophic levels in 2004/2006 and also showed no evidence for a large shift in the trophic level of prey consumed by L-pod between 1996 and 2004/2006. ∑PCBs decreased for Southern Residents biopsied in 2004/2006 compared to 1993–1995. Surprisingly, however, a three-year-old male whale (J39) had the highest concentrations of ∑PBDEs, ∑HCHs and HCB. POP ratio differences between J- and L-pod suggested that they occupy different ranges in winter.     

Determination of hydraulic conductivity from auger holes and pits — An approximation

A steady-state solution is developed which relates saturated hydraulic conductivity to rate of rise in auger holes and pits of arbitrary geometries. The analysis assumes axial symmetric cavities and steady-state conditions and uses the solution for a disc source in infinite space together with the method of images. Numerical results and a table are presented for “arc” and “trapezoidal” shaped pits.     

Geomagnetic field variations between chrons 33r and 19r (83–41 Ma) from sea-surface magnetic anomaly profiles

Sea-surface magnetic profiles exhibit coherent short wavelength “micro-anomalies” (or “tiny wiggles”) superimposed to the main anomalies due to reversals. In this study, we investigate the nature and distribution of these tiny wiggles on oceanic crust formed during the  42 Myr-long period following the Cretaceous Normal Superchron. To this end, we compute stacks of anomaly profiles from different areas in the Indian and the Pacific oceans. Using a simple method based on upward continuation, we demonstrate that, the tiny wiggles are consistent worldwide although their patterns exhibit different resolutions at different spreading rates. They are therefore confidently ascribed to past fluctuations of the geomagnetic dipole moment. A high resolution record of these fluctuations is obtained by selecting and stacking profiles from areas with the highest spreading rates. Modeling the micro-anomalies as short magnetic polarity intervals yields durations for these intervals generally shorter than 10 kyr, likely too short to be indeed “true” subchrons. Moreover, the number of detected tiny wiggles clearly depends on the spreading rate. These results support geomagnetic intensity fluctuations as being the cause of most tiny wiggles, as also suggested by recent magnetostratigraphic data. The tiny wiggles are uniformly distributed within chrons, indicating that paleointensity fluctuations are neither inhibited after, nor enhanced before, a reversal beyond a “blind” zone of about 10 km (corresponding to 80 to 250 kyr depending on the spreading rate) for which the anomalies due to reversals prevent the detection of tiny wiggles. Most tiny wiggles probably represent a filtered record of a uniform secular variation regime, as suggested by their uniform spatial distribution over the whole investigated period.     

Ökologische Bewertung von Tieflandbächen des Ladberger Mühlenbach-Systems im Norddeutschen Tiefland, basierend auf der Standorttypie der Trichopterenbiozönosen

In the last few years ecological evaluation of lowland freshwaters was controversely discussed. Due to the fact that most basic information of assessment systems derived from upland streams, the results could not be applied to the lowland situations. Additionally, it is not sufficient for an integral freshwater evaluation only to focus on the stream to show degradation in the tight coupling of running waters and their adjacent landscape. In this study we critically tested a new method, the Standorttypie-Index (STI), to assess lowland streams using caddis-fly communities.

During 1994 and 1996 we investigated the caddisfly community at 15 sampling sites of a river system in the “Westfälische Tieflandbucht” (Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany). As a result we found 72 species belonging to 16 families of the order Trichoptera. The calculation of the “Standorttypie-Index” is based on four defined ecological categories. Although the definitions were inaccurate, each species was classified into one category. In view of stream regulation and streamwidth, we calculated for all study sites the STI of the immature stages, the adults and a combined total STI.

Although there is a correlation between the “Standorttypie-Index” and the state of degradation of the study sites, the separate analysis of larval and adult communities showed that the results easily lead to misinterpretation. The STI of adults devalues the combined total STI of regulated as well as natural study sites. As a consequence, until now it is not possible to evaluate the state of degradation in the coupling of the stream and the adjacent landscape using the STI of the caddis-fly community.     

Effects of sampling microhabitats with low coverage within the STAR/AQEM macroinvertebrate sampling protocol on stream assessment

In the STAR/AQEM protocol microhabitats covering less than 5% of the sampling area were neglected. Driven by an ongoing discussion on the importance of these underrepresented microhabitats we tested the influence of sampling them. We investigated 48 streams representing 14 different stream types from all over Germany. Macroinvertebrates of underrepresented microhabitats were sampled in addition to the STAR/AQEM protocol. To ensure the method remains feasible in routine monitoring programmes the total sampling and sorting effort of additional sampling was limited to 20 min. Particularly those taxa were picked, which were not recognised during the routine STAR/AQEM sorting.To identify the effect of additional sampling on stream assessment results, we calculated the stream type-specific Multimetric Index (MMI) with the “main” and the “main+additional” data for each sample. The mean and median difference in MMI values between “main” and “main+additional” samples was 0.02 and 0.01, respectively. In seven of 48 samples (14.6%) a different ecological quality class was calculated with the “main+additional” dataset. Regarding common metrics within the MMI as well as intercalibration metrics differences between “main” and “main+additional” samples were analysed. The values differed most in richness metrics (e.g., number of EPTCBO Taxa, number of Trichoptera Taxa). The results of the present study show that additional sampling of underrepresented microhabitats could alter multimetric assessment results.     

Deccan flood basalts at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary?

Joint consideration of new paleomagnetic, paleontological and geochronological data from the Deccan continental flood basalts in India and critical discussion of earlier results lead us to suggest that volcanic activity may have lasted less than 1 Ma, thus possibly ranking as one of the largest volcanic catastrophes in the last 200 Ma. Available data are best satisfied if volcanism spanned the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, followed shortly afterwards by rifting of the Arabian Sea. These results point out the need for further work which may help in choosing between “external” and “internal” models of the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary events.     

On the interest and the limits of using combined ESR/U-series model in the case of very late uranium uptake

Before ESR/U-series models were applied to ungulate teeth, it is generally assumed that calculated ages are close to the “real” ages when they range between the values obtained with the EU and LU models. When the samples show signs of uranium-leaching, a realistic mathematical modelling of the age is not possible. On the other hand, some samples have undergone a very late U-uptake “affecting” directly the U-series ages and rendering the calculated ages younger.

We present results obtained on two open-air sites, which show the limits of such combined models in the case of late uranium incorporation. For the Middle Pleistocene site of Isernia la Pineta (Italy), the ESR dates are expected to fall within the limits imposed by the Ar–Ar results. The other site, the Lower Palaeolithic deposits of Ambrona (Spain), yielded two sets of samples: some at the top of the sequence with uranium uptake ranging between EU and LU limits and thus giving a good idea of the “real” age of the site; others at the base displaying a very late U-uptake, which render an age determination difficult.     

“Andesitic water”: a phantom of the isotopic evolution of water-silicate systems. Comment on “Isotopic shifts in waters from geothermal and volcanic systems along convergent plate boundaries and their origin” by W.F. Giggenbach

On account of the low porosity of the lithosphere, intracrustal fluids behave very differently from surface fluids, in that they are changing their geochemical and isotopic labels according to the geological environment. Given a heat source, meteoric waters can be supplied plentifully and their rates of throughput in geothermal systems are sufficiently high to exhaust the compositional signals of a given rock buffer. In contrast, fluids exsolved from magma, and subducted fluids, would be supplied at less than about one tenth of the meteoric rate over the life time of a system. Based on up-to-date flow models, the isotopic evolution of meteoric water interacting with crustal rock follows a curved to L-shaped track in the δD versus δ¹⁸O plot. Instantaneous (present-day) tie-lines between recharge and discharge are secants of such tracks and can have a range of slopes. At the start of an interaction, waters have δD and δ¹⁸O values approaching equilibrium with the original rock composition (water “W1”). Using known hydrogen isotope fractionation factors, W1 values generally plot in the region of “andesite” or “andesitic” waters of various authors. Since the W1 waters have δD values that are on average more positive, and also less variable than those of the meteoric recharges, most tracks and tie-lines have positive slopes, and the plotting of a large number of tie-lines will produce a focus on the field of W1 waters, regardless of the original water source.     

Mid-latitude Southern Indian Ocean response to Northern Hemisphere Heinrich events

The lack of temporal resolution and accurate chronology of Southern Ocean marine cores has hampered comparison of glacial millennial-scale oscillations between the Southern Ocean, Antarctic ice and other records from both hemispheres. In this study, glacial climate variability is investigated over the last 50 ka using a multi-proxy approach. A precise chrono-stratigraphy was developed on the high-sedimentation rate core MD94-103 (Indian Southern Ocean, 45°35′S 86°31′E, 3560 m water depth) by geomagnetic synchronization between the later core and NAPIS75, and ¹⁴C dates. High-resolution time-series of δ¹⁸O in planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma, and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) estimated from the alkenone U^K′₃₇ index and foraminifera assemblages have been generated. Temporal evolution of the two temperature proxy records is notably different during the last glacial period. While foraminifera data indicate a consistent cooling towards the last glacial maximum, anomalous warm glacial alkenone temperatures suggest a strong advection of warm “detrital” alkenones by surface waters of the Agulhas current. Superimposed to this general trend, during Heinrich events, foraminiferal SSTs point to warmer surface waters, while concurrent alkenone SSTs exhibit apparent coolings probably caused by enhanced local alkenone production. By analogy to modern observations, possible influence of ENSO-like conditions on the subantarctic Southern Ocean SSTs is discussed.     

Biomonitoring the Health of Coastal Marine Ecosystems – The Roles and Challenges of Microscale Toxicity Tests

Coastal marine ecosystems in many parts of the world are under unrelenting stress caused by urban development, hazardous or toxic substances, overfishing, habitat destruction, the introduction of exotic species and natural toxins. Biomonitoring plays a vital role in governmental and industrial strategies to identify, assess, control and reduce these problems. Sensitive and practical techniques in biomonitoring are needed in all of the strategic approaches – from toxic chemical rating and classification, to pollution source control, status and trends monitoring, and assessments of “marine ecosystem health”. Due to the shear magnitude and scope of the challenge, biomonitoring coastal ecosystems demands new and innovative approaches that are relatively easy and cheap to deploy and that provide timely and accessible information to environmental managers and policy makers.

This paper explores recent developments in microscale toxicity testing – a branch of aquatic toxicology involving the discovery and application of small-scale, innovative, sensitive, practical, inexpensive and frequently automated biological techniques. Highlights of a recent unique synthesis ([Reference to Wells et al., 1998]) are given, describing microscale tests at various biological and phylogenetic levels. Many of these tests are marine and focus on gametes, embryos and other young life stages. They can be utilized in the field (in vivo), with field collected samples, and in the laboratory. Their low cost, sensitivity, practicality and speed are their strengths, and commercial test kits have been developed as a result. But being largely “single-species” and sub-individual-level biomonitors, do such microscale tests provide information directly useful to protecting vital ecosystem processes? Indeed, how can this question be addressed? The needs and challenges of matching the most promising of the microscale tests with higher level (population, community, ecosystem) measurements to protect habitats and biodiversity are discussed. Improving marine biomonitoring and protecting coastal ecosystem health demands such new techniques within the context of new paradigms and rigorous approaches for their application.     

The role of collisional tectonics in the metallogeny of the Central Andean tin belt

The Inner Arc of the Central Andes, broadly corresponding to the Eastern Cordillera, is the location of a rich Tertiary and Triassic Sn–W–(Ag-base metal) metallogenic province, commonly referred to as the Bolivian tin belt. We propose that the Tertiary metallogeny, which generated most of the tin ores, was a direct consequence of discrete “collisions” between the South American plate and the Nazca slab and sub-slab mantle, during the ongoing Andean orogeny. Evidence supporting this proposal include: (1) the coincidence of the tin province and the Inner Arc in a marked “hump” in the Andean orogen, which may represent tectonic indentation; (2) the symmetry of the tin province with respect to the Bolivian orocline, the axis of which corresponds to the direction of highest compression; (3) the relative symmetry of the magmatism and tin mineralization with respect to this axis; (4) the concurrent timing of mineralization and compressional pulses; (5) the similar host rock geochemistry and ore lead isotope data, testifying to a common crustal reservoir; and (6) the striking similarity of the igneous suites, associated with the ore deposits to those from “typical” collisional orogens. A number of studies have called upon a persistent tin anomaly to explain the metallogeny of the region. We propose, instead, that the latter is better explained by periodic compressional interaction between the Farallon/Nazca oceanic plate and the South American continent. This led to the generation of peraluminous magmas, which during fractional crystallization exsolved the fluids responsible for the voluminous Sn–W mineralization.     

Establishing a chronology for lacustrine sediments using a multiple dating approach—A case study from the Frickenhauser See, central Germany

In order to establish a reliable chronology for lacustrine sediments of the Frickenhauser See (central Germany) different dating methods have been applied. A total of 17 AMS ¹⁴C dates, all within the last 2000 years, were supplemented with ¹³⁷Cs/²¹⁰Pb dating and varve counting of the uppermost sediments (131 years). The age–depth model for the Frickenhauser See has to cope with highly variable sedimentation rates and overlapping probability distributions of calibrated ¹⁴C dates. The uncertainty of calibrated ¹⁴C dates could be considerably reduced by including the stratigraphic relationship of the dated samples, the age information derived from short-lived isotopes and varve counting as well as an upper and lower limit of realistic sedimentation rates as ‘a priori’ information in the calibration procedure. Sets of possible age combinations obtained by repeated sampling from the modified probability distributions were used to calculate continuous age–depth relationships based on monotonic smoothing splines. The obtained age–depth model for the sediment record of the Frickenhauser See represents the average of over 16,000 such model runs and suggests a drastic increase in sedimentation rates from around 1–2 mm a⁻¹ (200–1000 AD) to over 25 mm a⁻¹ for the period between 1100 and 1300 AD. From then on, sedimentation rates exhibit relatively stable values around 3–9 mm a⁻¹. ‘Conventional’ age–depth models such as general polynomial regression or cubic splines either do not include the obtained age-information in a satisfying manner (the model being too “stiff”) or exhibit “swings” causing age-reversals in the model. Although the age–depth relationships obtained for monotonic smoothing splines and mixed-effect regression are generally very similar, they differ in their respective sedimentation rates as well as in their uncertainties. Mixed-effect regression resulted in much higher sedimentation rates of more than 37 mm a⁻¹. These results suggest that monotonic smoothing splines give better control of the age–depth model characteristics and are well suited in situations, where the integrity of ¹⁴C dates is high, i.e. the dated material represents the age of the respective layer.     

Seismic response of multistoried buildings including the effects of soil-structure interaction

A simplified response spectrum superposition method has been generalized for the dynamic analysis of the multistoried building-soil response to earthquake ground motions via Fourier-transformed frequency domain. It involves the “scaling” of the Fourier amplitudes of the freefield translational and rocking motions to account for the soil-structure interaction effects, and then analyzing the building as fixed at the base. Envelopes of peak displacements, shear forces and overturning moments in the building are illustrated in terms of the order statistics of the response peaks.     

On the validation of a coupled water and energy balance model at small catchment scales

Catchment runoff is the most widely used catchment scale measurement in modelling studies, and we have a reasonable degree of confidence in its accuracy. The advent of satellites gives access to a new suite of measurements taken over a defined spatial range. These measurements, principally reflected or emitted radiation, provide hydrologists with new possibilities for quantifying the state of a catchment. Surface temperatures can be readily measured by a satellite on a scale comparable to the size of a small catchment.

In this paper we show that satellite sensed temperatures can provide an important measure of catchment status, which can complement runoff measurements in water balance studies. A one-dimensional model, which couples the land surface energy balance with the soil and surface water balance is tested by comparison with runoff and with remotely sensed surface temperature measurements. Simulations have been run over four years for two small catchments which have a fairly homogeneous vegetation, one being forest and its neighbour pasture. Satellite “surface” temperatures have been interpreted in terms of the energy balance, and used as a test of modelling accuracy. An “effective” surface temperature is calculated as a weighted mean of temperatures of the separate soil and leaf surfaces. This modelled “effective” temperature correlates well with Landsat TM surface temperatures.

When pasture replaces forest, the model predicts a reduction in evapotranspiration of around 30%, a three-fold increase in runoff, and an increase in mean soil moisture status. The change to pasture also results in a rise in mean effective surface temperature of about 4°C, and an increase in summer diurnal temperature range from 10 to 22°C. The winter diurnal temperature range is similar for both vegetation systems.

Inclusion of soil moisture variability in thermal properties results in an increase in mean daily maximum temperature of about 2°C in summer and winter, without much change in daily minima. The daily mean temperature is not significantly affected.     

Earthquakes in continental Antarctica

No earthquake had been definitely located in the interior of the Antarctic continent before that in Dronning Maud Land, which occurred on 1982 November 4, and was found by the “search” procedure of the International Seismological Centre. A further earthquake of similar magnitude (Mb 4.4) has now been located about 200 km inland from the coast of Wilkes Land, near 69°S, 123°E. The second event occurred on 1983 September 20, and was also found by the ISC search procedure, from readings at four Antarctic seismograph stations, and six farther afield. Reflected phases suggest that the focus of this earthquake is in the upper few kilometres of rock beneath the ice cap. Two later earthquakes occurred on 1984 May 19 about 400 km west of the event of 1983 September 20. They had magnitudes (Mb) of 5.0 and 4.6, and were large enough to be located by the US National Earthquake Information Service.