Towards best environmental practice for cetacean conservation in developing Scotland's marine renewable energy

Marine renewable energy is seen as an important component of the UK's future energy strategy and contribution to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. The UK aims to generate a total of 33 GW (gigawatts) of offshore wind energy. Its implementation strategy includes the development of ten offshore wind farms within Scottish territorial waters. In addition, between 1000 MW (megawatts) and 2600 MW of marine renewable energy generating capacity could be achieved in Scotland using wave and tidal power devices. However, there are negative environmental impacts associated with marine renewable energy. Intense noise is produced during pile driving, drilling and dredging operations with potential consequences for cetaceans. There are also increases in vessel activities during exploration, maintenance and construction with association risks of disturbance and collisions. Some underwater devices will be large and may be positioned in arrays across the habitats that cetaceans frequent. The consequences of encounters between cetaceans and such devices are as yet unknown. It is recommended that the Scottish Government complete full and transparent Marine Spatial Planning, including consideration of cumulative impacts, before moving to license appropriate sites.     

3D modelling of the impacts of in-stream horizontal-axis Tidal Energy Converters (TECs) on offshore sandbank dynamics

The tidal energy sector is a growing industry in the UK and beyond. Energy developers’ interests are progressing towards the deployment of large arrays of tidal energy converters (TECs). Numerous factors will affect decision making related to arrays siting and size. One key factor is the effect that the TEC arrays may have on the natural sediment transport patterns and the sea bottom morphodynamics. The Inner Sound Channel located between the Island of Stroma of Pentland Firth and the Scottish Mainland (UK) has been accredited for a large-scale TEC array installation to be developed in the future. Three morphodynamically active, large sandbanks are located in the Inner Sound channel. This study investigated the impacts of tidal energy extraction from a large array of TECs on the sediment dynamics and morphology of these sandbanks. A large-scale 3D hydrodynamic and morphodynamic Delft3D model was set up to computationally model Pentland Firth, Inner Sound Channel in order to study the impacts of tidal energy extraction from a generic TEC array, on the existing hydrodynamic and morphodynamic regime. A range of hypothetical energy extraction scenarios was modelled. Results reveal that the changes to morphodynamics of these sandbanks as a result of large scale tidal energy extraction far exceeds the morphology change under the natural hydrodynamic regime and that the severity of morphology change depends on the level of energy extraction.     

Seabird conservation and tidal stream and wave power generation: Information needs for predicting and managing potential impacts

Current development plans indicate that during the next decade there will be an increase in tidal stream and wave (TSW) power generation activity in Scottish Waters, together with the designation of additional offshore areas for seabird conservation. This paper summarises how TSW developments could affect seabirds, based on experience from other forms of disturbance, and explores the possible changes in behaviour and habitat that have the potential to increase a seabird's rate of energy acquisition (e.g. through enhancing prey abundance), or energy expenditure (e.g. through causing birds to commute further to find food, if they avoid foraging around developments placed in regular feeding areas). Changes to energy budgets could impact rates of reproduction and survival. Simulation modelling of seabird energetics and behaviour is one possible tool for predicting the direction and magnitude of population impacts caused by alterations to energy budgets, but is dependant on the availability and accuracy of necessary parameters. The later sections of the paper review the information needed for such models and shows that although some data are available regarding rates of energy expenditure during specific activities, more information is needed on seabird foraging rates. The paper also highlights how the susceptibility of a species to be impacted by future TSW development is likely to be related to their method of foraging, flight behaviour and ability to buffer against environmental fluctuations.     

Estimates of the lateral eddy diffusivity in the Indian Ocean as derived from drifter data

The Global Drifter Program data set is applied to develop 2° × 2° bin estimates of the lateral eddy diffusivity K in the Indian Ocean (IO) by means of a modification of the Davis approach. The calculations were performed relative to the seasonal change in the mean currents, which is especially important in the case of monsoon-driven circulation in the IO. Estimates of K were found to be below 1 × 10⁴ m²/s almost every-where in the IO. The spatial variations of K were analyzed in relation to the instabilities of the ocean circulation.     

Multi-regional economic impacts of recreational fisheries: Analysis of Small Sea Ranch in Gyeong-Nam Province,Korea

The economic impacts of recreational fishing in Small Sea Ranch in Gyeong-Nam (GN) province, Korea, are calculated using a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model to overcome the weakness of a single-region IO model that ignores the spread effects in other provinces. First, multiplier decomposition analysis is conducted to substantiate the existence of strong economic linkages between GN and other provinces by calculating intra-regional effects, net closed-loop effects, net open-loop effects and spillover coefficients. Subsequently, the economic impacts from spending by anglers’ visits to Small Sea Ranch are computed using a 161-sector MRIO model for each of the sixteen provinces in Korea. The results show that there exist strong relationships between the economy of GN and those of the other provinces, and that only around 68% of the economic impacts of anglers’ spending on the total output in Korea accrues in GN, with the remaining impacts (32%) being accounted for in non-GN provinces. This indicates the importance of using a multi-regional framework to estimate the economic impacts of recreational fisheries for a region whose economy relies heavily on the economies of other regions.     

A Coastal and Marine National Park for Scotland in partnership with Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Potential benefits and constraints of a Coastal and Marine National Park (CMNP) for the entire Scottish coastline have yet to be fully debated. This paper recommends using Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) as a process to develop a CMNP. Converting the principles of ICZM into practice could be strengthened using the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. This Act provides the Scottish Executive with an existing legal mechanism to set up the UK's first CMNP.Issues highlighted that would benefit from further investigation include ways to effectively harness expertise, funding considerations, practical implementation and stakeholder participation. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis demonstrates a ‘quick and dirty’ method to help assess whether CMNPs are a viable option for managing Scotland's coastal areas. Strengthening the existing local coastal fora network in partnership with universities that have ‘in-house’ multi-disciplinary expertise is put forward as one way to implement a CMNP.Stakeholder engagement at the start and throughout the debate on CMNPs warrants a high priority for action. Incentives that help to counter against survey fatigue and actively sustain involvement of civil society and key sectors should be sought from local knowledge. This approach could also address the fundamental gap in translating stakeholder derived information into practical policy recommendations that are more widely supported. Finally, local knowledge can aid resource management plans on a local, national and international scale and be applied to testing management scenarios.     

印度洋海表温度的变化及其对印度夏季季风降水影响的诊断研究

对印度洋海表温度(SST)的主要特征及变化趋势进行分析,并研究了其与印度夏季季风降水(ISMR)和季风环流的关系,揭示出:从北印度洋到南半球中高纬度印度洋,SST最显著的变化模态是全海盆一致的变化,近50 a来总体趋势是上升的,在1976,1986年以及1996年间分别有一次跳跃性增温,与太平洋SST变化趋势基本一致.除了长期变化趋势外,南印度洋中高纬度比热带地区有更显著的模态分布.在印度洋SST升温的背景下,ISMR具有逐渐减少的趋势,但两者相关较弱.印度洋SST发生跳跃后的不同阶段,许多海区SST与ISMR相关均发生变化,但在春季,热带外南印度洋具有一对相对稳定区,其分布与EOF分析的第2模态相似.根据它们的分布,文中定义了春季南半球偶极子(SIOD),在正SIOD(PSIOD)情况下印度降水偏多,而负SIOD(NSIOD)则反之.环流分析表明,PSIOD(NSIOD)通过与大气的相互作用,对夏季马斯克林高压具有增强(减弱)作用,进而使得索马里越赤道气流增强(减弱),在印度地区低空产生异常的辐合(辐散),高层辐散(辐合),从而影响印度季风环流,使得印度季风降水偏多(少).     

Biodiversity offsets for offshore wind farm projects: The current situation in Europe

The European Union׳s energy policy aims to increase the proportion of energy derived from renewable sources in Europe. Marine renewable energy, offshore wind energy especially, contributes to the renewable energy mix. Offshore wind farms appear to be clean, and are supported by governments and NGOs as a way to reduce the use of conventional energy resources and thus decrease greenhouse gas emissions. However, developing infrastructure in marine areas can impact marine ecosystems. European directives ask offshore wind farm developers to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) including a mitigation hierarchy, i.e. envisaging measures that would avoid, reduce, and if possible offset significant adverse effects on ecosystems and human activities. This paper reviews EIA reports from seven European countries and is focused on impacts on the open water marine environment. According to the reports, measures have been taken for avoiding and reducing impacts, so there should be no significant negative residual impacts and hence no need of offsets. But the mitigation hierarchy for ecological impacts seems to have been incompletely implemented, because it is unlikely that there are no significant residual impacts. The paper proposes some technical and ecological explanations, followed by some governance and social explanations, for the absence of biodiversity offsets.     

Joint analysis of the wind and wave-field variability in the Indian Ocean area for 1998–2009

In this paper, a detailed statistical analysis of the wind and wave fields in the Indian Ocean (IO) for the period of 1998-2009 was performed based on using the wind fields taken from the site of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NCEP/NOAA) [1] and on the numerical wind-wave model WAM [2] modified with the source function proposed in [3]. The primary analysis of the fields includes mapping the wind and wave fields, as well as their energy fields, calculated with different scales of space-time averaging; the subsequent zoning of the IO area; and assessing the seasonal interannual variability of all the fields and their 12-years trends. Further analysis is carried out taking into account the zoning. This analysis includes a construction of the time series obtained with different scales of space-time averaging for all the fields, a spectral analysis of these series, finding and analyzing the spatial and temporal distribution of extrema of the wind and wave fields (accounting for the their sharing in the zones), and making histograms of the wind and wave fields and calculating their first four statistical moments (in the zones and in the ocean as a whole). The results allow us to evaluate a large set of statistical characteristics of the wind and wave fields in the IO area, scales of their variability, their long-term trends, and the features of distribution for these statistical characteristics in the ocean area as well.     

Attitudes of Scottish fishers towards marine renewable energy

Development of the offshore renewable energy sector will have implications for the fishing industry by limiting access and navigation, and potential impacts (both positive and negative) upon commercially fished species. Fishers' attitudes and behaviour have been found to influence the success of fishery management measures, compliance with regulations, and Marine Protected Areas; suggesting they may also affect offshore renewable energy developments. A postal survey was conducted to investigate fishers’ attitudes towards offshore energy extraction and any influential factors in terms of fishing experience and practice, association membership, location, and knowledge of offshore renewable energy installations. The most important factor influencing fishers’ opinions was whether they knew of a nearby offshore development, followed by location (whether they operate from the mainland or the islands); and despite concerns regarding the perceived impacts and mitigation the majority of fishers held either neutral or positive attitudes towards offshore renewable energy extraction.     

Breaking wave loads at vertical seawalls and breakwaters

This paper presents recent advances in knowledge on wave loads, based on experimental work carried out in the CIEM/LIM large flume at Barcelona within the framework of the VOWS (Violent Overtopping by Waves at Seawalls) project. Both quasi-static and impact wave forces from the new data set have been compared with predictions by empirical and analytical methods. The scatter in impact forces has been found to be large over the whole range of measurements, with no existing method giving especially good predictions. Based on general considerations, a simple and intuitive set of prediction formulae has been introduced for quasi-static and impact forces, and overturning moments, giving good agreement with the new measurements. New prediction formulae have been compared with previous measurements from physical model tests at small and large scale, giving satisfactory results over a relatively wide range of test conditions. The time variation of wave impacts is discussed, together with pressure distribution up the wall, which shows that within experimental limitations the measured pressures are within existing limits of previous study.     

Integrated environmental assessment of fisheries management: Swedish Nephrops trawl fisheries evaluated using a life cycle approach

Fisheries management needs to broaden its perspective to achieve sustainable resource use. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an ISO standardized method to evaluate the environmental impacts of products using a broad and systematic approach. In this study, the outcome of a management regime promoting species-selective trawling in Swedish Nephrops trawl fisheries was studied using LCA methodology by quantifying the impacts per kilogram of landing using two different fishing methods. Demersal trawling has previously been found to be both energy intensive and destructive in terms of seafloor impact and discards. It is demonstrated that species-selective trawling fulfils management objectives, although with tradeoffs in terms of fuel consumption and associated GHG emissions. To prioritize between impacts, one must be aware of and quantify these potential tradeoffs. LCA could be an important tool for defining sustainable seafood production as it can visualize a broad range of impacts and facilitate integrated, transparent decision making in the seafood industry. It is also concluded that, with current LCA methodology, use of total discarded mass could increasingly be distinguished from potential impact by applying two new concepts: primary production requirements and threatened species affected.     

Modeling the water circulation in the North Atlantic in the scope of the CORE-II experiment

A numerical experiment on the reproduction of the variability in the state of North Atlantic water in 1948–2007 with a spatial resolution of 0.25° has been performed using the global ocean model developed at Institute of Numerical Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences (INM RAS), and the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO RAS) (the INM–IO model). The data on the state of the atmosphere, radiation fluxes, and bulk formulas of the CORE-II protocol are used as boundary conditions. Five successive 60-year calculation cycles have been performed in order to obtain the quasi-equilibrium state of a model ocean. For the last 20 years, the main elements of large-scale ocean circulation have been analyzed and compared with the WOA09 atlas data and the results of other models.     

黄土地层中奇异微颗粒的发现与初步研究

通过蓝田段家坡黄土和红粘土剖面与第四纪3次巨大撞击事件年代相应的地层内奇异微颗粒的研究,将其划分为5种不同的形态类型,并主要据化学成分,将5类奇异微颗粒归纳为撞击、火山和生物等3种成因类型。文中还提出综合成因模式来解释不同奇异微颗粒赋存于同一撞击事件时段的地层及它们所显示的因果联系。     

季风转换期印度洋经向热输运的年际变异及其机理

本文采用SODA3.4.2再分析数据和POP2海洋模式研究了季风转换期间（春季和秋季）热带印度洋经向热输运异常（Meridional Heat Transport Anomaly, MHTA）的年际变异特征。春季MHTA存在两个主要模态,即一致模态和辐合辐散模态:一致模态表现为热带印度洋上层一致的向北输运,受热带印度洋海温一致模相关的赤道反对称风场（赤道以北/南为东北风/西北风异常）调控;辐合辐散模态则呈现关于赤道对称的表层辐散次表层辐合特征,受控于赤道以南的热带西南印度洋和副热带东南印度洋海温偶极子。然而,秋季MHTA仅表现为辐合辐散模态,受到印度洋偶极子期间赤道东风和赤道外反气旋式风应力异常影响。此外,POP2敏感性试验也验证了印度洋海温模态影响下异常风场对MHTA的调控作用,即反对称的风引起一致向北的MHTA,赤道东风异常引起MHTA表层辐散、次表层辐合现象。因此,热带印度洋海气耦合模态年际变化对印度洋上层热量再分配有着重要的意义。     

Comparisons of surface Chl a and primary productivity along three transects of the southern South China Sea,northern Java Sea and eastern Indian Ocean in April 2011

Results are presented about the changes in chlorophyll a density, carbon fixation and nutrient levels in the surface waters of three transects of the southern South China Sea (SCS), northern Java Sea (...     

Evaluation of relative performance of QuikSCAT and NCEP re-analysis winds through simulations by an OGCM

The response of an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to two different wind products, viz., NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and QuikSCAT scatterometer, was examined. OGCM-simulated thermodynamic variables from the two simulations, hereafter referred to as NCEP-R (NCEP/NCAR wind forced) and QS-R (QuikSCAT wind forced) were intercompared and also were compared against observations for a period of 3 years (2000–2002). In the tropical Indian Ocean (IO), the sea-level anomaly (SLA) simulated by QS-R has less root mean square error (RMSE) and higher correlation with respect to TOPEX/Poseidon SLA observations than SLA simulated by NCEP-R. Intraseasonal variability of currents observed by TRITON buoy in the IO was closely captured by QS-R, although the magnitudes are somewhat underestimated. Surface currents simulated by QS-R have less RMSE than those simulated by NCEP-R in the Pacific. However, the sub-surface currents are much weaker in magnitude in both the solutions, possibly because of deficiencies in the diffusion and viscosity parameterization. Sea-surface temperature (SST) simulated by QS-R has a cooler bias. The RMSE of SST simulated by NCEP-R is less than the RMSE of SST simulated by QS-R, with the latter capturing the variabilities more realistically. The large differences between SST simulated by QS-R and observations could be partly due to physical inconsistency between the momentum and heat fluxes. Scatterometer-forced model simulations of 20^oC thermocline depths (D20) are in better agreement with in situ-derived D20 than the D20 simulated by NCEP-R. Variations in the mixed layer depth at the TRITON buoy are better captured by QS-R than by NCEP-R. Speed of Kelvin and Rossby waves and the strength of upwelling/downwelling features in the IO are closer to observations in QS-R than in NCEP-R simulations.     

The role of the marine sector in the Irish national economy: An input–output analysis

Recent research in Ireland has estimated both the national and regional economic value of the marine sector. However, economic activity does not exist in a vacuum. Activities in the marine sector not only directly affect the industries in the sector but also influence other sectors through inter-sectoral linkages. This paper uses an input–output (IO) methodology to examine the linkages and production effects of the Irish marine sector on the national economy. Disaggregating the Irish IO table for 2007 to include 10 additional marine sectors, this paper represents the first effort to quantify the inter-industry linkage effects, production-inducing effects and employment multipliers in the marine sector. This analysis found that a number of marine sectors, notably the maritime transportation sector, have an important economic role within the wider Irish economy.     

Some consequences of a flood tide front in Loch Creran

Loch Creran is a small Scottish sea loch with two basins which are connected by a shallow narrows. A sharp front that forms just inside the narrows during flood tides producing a simple mechanism for flushing the top brackish layer of the inner basin. The mechanism is shown to be consistent with temperature and velocity data. Conservation equations are used with salinity data to estimate mixing and entrainment rates and thus the energy used. A bottom drag coefficient for the narrows is estimated from the tidal signals of velocity and pressure gradient, and the turbulent kinetic energy entering the inner loch from the narrows is calculated, so that finally a value for the flux Richardson number (the fraction of available energy used by mixing and entrainment) can be given.     

Numerical modelling of spatio-temporal variability of growth of Mytilus edulis (L.) and influence of its cultivation on ecosystem functioning

One of the key needs of the aquaculture industry is the implementation of effective management methods to ensure the sustainability, economic viability and minimization of negative impacts on both human and ecosystem well-being. The authors developed a Fortran 90 implementation of the dynamic energy budget (DEB) model for Mytilus edulis. The model has been further developed to include physiological interactions with the ecosystem and coupled to a biogeochemical nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton–detritus (NPZD) model. Phytoplankton and detritus uptakes, oxygen utilisation, CO₂ production, NH₄ excretion, egestion of faeces, and assimilation of food are modelled. A novel approach was derived that accounts for the allocation of C and N in mussel flesh and shell organic fraction. The DEB–NPZD model has been subsequently coupled to a high resolution three dimensional numerical coastal ocean model of the south–west coast of Ireland, where approximately 80% of national rope mussel is produced annually. Simulations have been carried out for the time period July 2010–June 2011, for which the field data on mussel biometrics and ambient seawater properties were collated. The model accurately reproduced the spatio-temporal variability in blue mussel growth. It is also shown that the ecosystem dynamics is affected by the presence of aquaculture farms. The modelling system presented allows for the assessment of the impacts of aquaculture activities on water quality, quantification of the production and ecological carrying capacities and improvement of our understanding of the ecosystem functioning with particular emphasis on interactions between various trophic levels.