Is marine debris ingestion still a problem for the coastal marine biota of southern Brazil?

The accumulation of synthetic debris in marine and coastal environments is a consequence of the intensive and continuous release of these highly persistent materials. This study investigates the current status of marine debris ingestion by sea turtles and seabirds found along the southern Brazilian coast. All green turtles (n = 34) and 40% of the seabirds (14 of 35) were found to have ingested debris. No correlation was found between the number of ingested items and turtle’s size or weight. Most items were found in the intestine. Plastic was the main ingested material. Twelve Procellariiformes (66%), two Sphenisciformes (22%), but none of the eight Charadriiformes were found to be contaminated. Procellariiformes ingested the majority of items. Plastic was also the main ingested material. The ingestion of debris by turtles is probably an increasing problem on southern Brazilian coast. Seabirds feeding by diverse methods are contaminated, highlighting plastic hazard to these biota.     

Editorial—The peer-review system: prospects and challenges

View article at http://www.cig.ensmp.fr     

Can we predict temperature-dependent chemical toxicity to marine organisms and set appropriate water quality guidelines for protecting marine ecosystems under different thermal scenarios?

Temperature changes due to climate change and seasonal fluctuation can have profound implications on chemical toxicity to marine organisms. Through a comprehensive meta-analysis by comparing median lethal or effect concentration data of six chemicals for various saltwater species obtained at different temperatures, we reveal that the chemical toxicity generally follows two different models: (1) it increases with increasing temperature and (2) it is the lowest at an optimal temperature and increases with increasing or decreasing temperature from the optimal temperature. Such observations are further supported by temperature-dependent hazardous concentration 10% (HC₁₀) values derived from species sensitivity distributions which are constructed using the acute toxicity data generated at different temperatures. Considering these two models and natural variations of seawater temperature, we can scientifically assess whether applying an assessment factor (e.g. 10) to modify water quality guidelines of the chemicals can adequately protect marine ecosystems in tropics, subtropics and temperate regions, respectively.     

Can be the environmental and biotic factors responsible for macroinvertebrate communities’ alterations in Portuguese alpine ponds?

Alpine ponds are shallow waterbodies formed in alpine zones characterized by usual pristine conditions, however subject to harsh conditions that enable the emergence of unique communities with high conservational value. Therefore, it is important to gather information about these ecosystems and understand the changes in the biota. This work aimed to use Portugal’s alpine ponds as a case of study in assessed the macroinvertebrates communities in the Mediterranean ecozone. To fulfill this goal, we aimed to understand the alterations on macroinvertebrates community and how are they modulated by environmental variables. Five alpine ponds in Serra da Estrela (Portugal) were studied for one year. Macroinvertebrate communities and physical and chemical water parameters were determined in June/16, October/16, and April/17. Water chemistry values were similar to other studied lentic waterbodies in alpine zones in Europe, with slightly acidic water and low conductivity. Although accentuated macroinvertebrates differences between ponds, no significant differences in diversity were recorded, indeed the main differences recorded were influenced by ponds habitat types and environmental variables. Canonical Correspondence Analysis showed differences in the communities between ponds, namely the high influence of several physical and chemical parameters (conductivity, phosphate content, and pH) in the macroinvertebrates community composition. Indeed, Spearman’s correlation revealed significant interaction in diversity, abundance and richness of macroinvertebrates and several physical and chemical parameters (pH, dissolved oxygen and nitrates concentration).     

Are marine plastic particles transport vectors for organic pollutants to the Arctic?

Plastic litter accounts for 50-80% of waste items stranded on beaches, floating on the ocean surface and lodged in the seabed. Organic pollutants can be absorbed onto plastic particles from sea water, attached to their surfaces or included in the plastic matrix as additives. Such chemicals may be transported to remote regions by buoyant plastics and ocean currents. We have estimated mass fluxes of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to the Arctic via the main ocean currents and compared them to those in the dissolved state and in air. Substance fluxes with atmospheric or sea water currents account for several tons per year, whereas those mediated by plastics are four to six orders of magnitude smaller. However, the significance of various pollutant transport routes does not depend only on absolute mass fluxes but also on bioaccumulation in marine food chains.     

The three screen doors: can marine "protected" areas be effective?

The great majority of marine protected areas (MPAs) fail to meet their management objectives. So MPAs can be effective conservation tools, we recommend two paradigm shifts, the first related to how they are located and the second related to how they are managed. MPAs are unlikely to be effective if they are located in areas that are subject to numerous, and often uncontrollable, external stressors from atmospheric, terrestrial, and oceanic sources, all of which can degrade the environment and compromise protection. MPA effectiveness is also limited by low institutional and community capacity for management and inappropriate size with respect to ecological needs. In particular, the check list approach to management does not ensure that key threats are dealt with, or that management expenditures provide a quantifiable return. We recommend a business planning approach to MPA management, in which managers focus on the viability of the management system, i.e., the ability of the MPA to provide ecological goods and services to its target users over the long term.     

The new Permian–Triassic paleomagnetic pole for the East European Platform corrected for inclination shallowing

The results of detailed paleomagnetic studies in seven Upper Permian and Lower Triassic reference sections of East Europe (Middle Volga and Orenburg region) and Central Germany are presented. For each section, the coefficient of inclination shallowing f (King, 1955) is estimated by the Elongation–Inclination (E–I) method (Tauxe and Kent, 2004) and is found to vary from 0.4 to 0.9. The paleomagnetic directions, corrected for the inclination shallowing, are used to calculate the new Late Permian–Early Triassic paleomagnetic pole for the East European Platform (N = 7, PLat = 52.1°, PLong = 155.8°, A95 = 6.6°). Based on this pole, the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis close to the Paleozoic/Mesozoic boundary is tested by the single plate method. The absence of the statistically significant distinction between the obtained pole and the average Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) paleomagnetic pole of the Siberian Platform and the coeval pole of the North American Platform corrected for the opening of the Atlantic (Shatsillo et al., 2006) is interpreted by us as evidence that ~250 Ma the configuration of the magnetic field of the Earth was predominantly dipolar; i.e., the contribution of nondipole components was at most 10% of the main magnetic field. In our opinion, the hypothesis of the nondipolity of the geomagnetic field at the P–Tr boundary, which has been repeatedly discussed in recent decades (Van der Voo and Torsvik, 2001; Bazhenov and Shatsillo, 2010; Veselovskiy and Pavlov, 2006), resulted from disregarding the effect of inclination shallowing in the paleomagnetic determinations from sedimentary rocks of “stable” Europe (the East European platform and West European plate).     

Spectra of a shallow sea—unmixing for class identification and monitoring of coastal waters

Ocean colour-based monitoring of water masses is a promising alternative to monitoring concentrations in heterogeneous coastal seas. Fuzzy methods, such as spectral unmixing, are especially well suited for recognition of water masses from their remote sensing reflectances. However, such models have not yet been applied for water classification and monitoring. In this study, a fully constrained endmember model with simulated endmembers was developed for water class identification in the shallow Wadden Sea and adjacent German Bight. Its performance was examined on in situ measured reflectances and on MERIS satellite data. Water classification by means of unmixing reflectance spectra proved to be successful. When the endmember model was applied to MERIS data, it was able to visualise well-known spatial, tidal, seasonal, and wind-related variations in optical properties in the heterogeneous Wadden Sea. Analyses show that the method is insensitive to small changes in endmembers. Therefore, it can be applied in similar coastal areas. For use in open ocean situations or coastal or inland waters with other specific inherent optical properties, re-simulation of the endmember spectra with local optical properties is required. However, such an adaptation requires only a limited number of local in situ measurements.     

Inorganic and methylmercury: do they transfer along a tropical coastal food web?

Methylmercury (MeHg) and inorganic mercury (Hg_inorg) were evaluated in the water of a Brazilian estuary, with two size classes of plankton and seven fish species of different feeding habits. Water partition coefficients (PCs) in microplankton were fourfold higher for MeHg than for Hg_inorg; and water PCs in mesoplankton were 26 times higher for MeHg than Hg_inorg. Difference between microplankton and mesoplankton MeHg bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was higher (0.60 log units) than Hg_inorg BAF (0.24 log units), indicating that trophic transfer of MeHg between planktonic organisms is more efficient than Hg_inorg transference. MeHg concentrations, proportion of mercury as MeHg and its biotransference factors (BTFs) in the microplankton, mesoplankton and fish increased with increasing trophic level while biotic concentrations of Hg_inorg and proportion of mercury as Hg_inorg decreased thus indicating that MeHg was indeed the biomagnified species of mercury. MeHg reflected the vertical trophic guilds distribution, due to the fact that the top predator fish presented the highest concentration (0.77 μg g⁻¹ d.w.), followed by the less voracious species (0.43 μg g⁻¹ d.w.); while planktivorous fish presented the lowest concentrations (0.044 μg g⁻¹ d.w.). Hg_inorg did not present the same behavior. Results suggest that feeding habits and trophic guild are important parameters, influencing biotransference and biomagnification processes.     

The possibilities of paleomagnetic and geohistorical analyses of “tiny wiggles” short-period marine magnetic anomalies

Marine magnetic anomalies of the tiny wiggles (TW) type can be used to solve geohistorical and paleomagnetic problems. The model fields corresponding to Paleocene–Eocene anomalies in the northwestern Indian Ocean, which were formed during the fast-spreading stage, were studied. For these fields, widely used interpretation methods were compared with a method proposed previously by the authors. The testing was performed with first the classical block model and then more complex models reflecting actual processes of oceanic accretion and magnetic field variations in the past. It was shown that the proposed method has advantages for this problem; it gives an error close to the minimum possible error and can adequately be used in interpretations. Spectral and statistical methods are used to estimate the magnetic anomaly resolving power and to study some factors that can exert a distorting influence. In addition, model examples have been used to indicate how the TW determination accuracy is affected by diurnal variations in the main magnetic field (MMF) and by ancient magnetization vector determination errors.     

The use of bioestimation—a new method for the control of water self-purification

Examples are given of the application of bioestimation??a conceptually new hydrobiological method used to control the process of water quality formation. This paper is the continuation of the paper ??Bioestimation: A New Method for the Control of Water Self-Purification Process and Its Comparison with Bioindication??. The experience in the use of bioestimation in water bodies with different use type, size, salinity, flowage, and geographic position confirmed its universal character, information value, promptness, and the possibility to limit the volume of sample to be sent to 10?C20 cm³, thus simplifying the field works. Each significant factor, which affects the self-purification process, is identified independently, since the bioestimators reflecting it are biotically independent; their number varies depending only on changes in the environmental factors that are external with respect to the community of environmental factors. Bioestimation shows prognostic properties, since it makes it possible to prevent water quality deterioration and to restore the normal course of water self-purification at the stage of its quality formation. The use of bioestimation will extend the positive anthropogenic impact on water bodies.     

The α-Effect and Current Helicity for Fast Sheared Rotators

We explore the f -effect and the small-scale current helicity, , for the case of weakly compressible magnetically driven turbulence that is subjected to the differential rotation. No restriction is applied to the amplitude of angular velocity, i.e., the derivations presented are valid for an arbitrary Coriolis number, z * = 2 z cor , though the differential rotation itself is assumed to be weak. The expressions obtained are used to explore the possible distributions of f -effect and h c in convection zones (CZ) of the solar-type stars. Generally, our theory gives f { { > 0 in the northern hemisphere of the Sun and the opposite case in the southern hemisphere. In most cases the h c has the opposite sign to f { { . However, we show that in the depth of CZ where the influence of rotation upon turbulence (associated with z *) and the radial shear of angular velocity are strong, the distribution of f { { might be drastically different from a classical cos è -dependence, where è is colatitude. It is shown that f { { has a negative sign at the bottom and below of CZ at mid latitudes. There, the distribution of h c is also different from cos è , but it does not change its sign with the depth. Further, we briefly consider these quantities in the disk geometry. The application of the developed theory to dynamos in the accretion disk is more restrictive because they usually have a strong differential rotation, | ‘ log z / ‘ log r | > 1.     

A new method for testing pile by sin- gle-impact energy and P-S curve

Introduction Through many year's practices by vast numbers of scientific and technological workers andefforts from all aspects, the dynamic testing method of high-low strain has formally entered intothe technical code of foundation pile test of construction at last (The Industry Standards of thePeople's Republic of China, 2003). The striking mode of the dynamic testing method of high strainis stipulated as hammer in the code, the striking of rocket can also be used. The latter is widely…     

The study and analysis of floating datum selection for rugged terrain

We analyze the characteristics of different floating datums for static corrections and discuss the methods for determining them. The effect of different floating datum corrections was studied using theoretical model experiments, resulting in the conclusion that the velocity obtained after the floating datum correction with the minimum static correction errors depends on the velocity of the layer below the low velocity layer （LVL） lower boundary and is not related to topographic relief and LVL structure. For the real data processing case, wave equation numerical model experiments were conducted which resulted in a new method for calculating objective functions based on the waveform and modifications to the calculation equation for minimum static correction errors to make the method suitable for real data static correction processing using inhomogeneous velocity models with lower velocity boundary relief. Real data processing results demonstrate the method＇s superiority.     

Does grazing change algal communities from grassland and pine afforested streams?: A laboratory approach

Drastic changes in the composition and physiognomy of riparian vegetation, such as the conversion of grassland to forest, are expected to alter interactions among light availability, primary producers and herbivores. Our aim was to examine in laboratory the influence of a ubiquitous grazer on periphyton grown in a grassland unshaded stream (reference) vs. periphyton from a nearby pine afforested stream. Besides, we evaluated how the community responds to the removal of grazing. Given that grassland streams are exposed to higher light intensity and grazers are more abundant compared to afforested streams, we proposed that if biofilm grown in the afforested stream are dominated by grazing-vulnerable algal species, grazing pressure by Helicopsyche sp. should be stronger. In addition, if biofilm from the afforested stream has low quality or is less abundant as food for consumers, the effects of Helicopsyche sp. may be stronger or weaker depending on their feeding decisions. Helicopsyche sp. caused a decrease in richness and diversity in periphyton grown in the grassland stream and its net grazing effect on chlorophyll a (Chl a) was higher. Algal community composition from grassland stream was strongly changed after grazing, with a decrease in the proportion of overstory algae. In contrast, algal community structure of periphyton from the afforested stream was neither affected by grazing nor by grazing exclusion. Helicopsyche sp. produced significant changes in a short time in structural attributes of algal communities, mainly in periphyton from the grassland stream suggesting that herbivory, as a functional factor, is diminished following afforestation.