Notes Marine biofouling in Hong Kong: a review

From 1980 to 1998, biofouling communities in Hong Kong waters, the Zhujiang RiverEstuary and the Mirs Bay were studied and a total of 610 samples. The samples were collected from vessels, buoys, piers and cages. Totally, 340 species (see Appendix I ) have been recorded and identified, six of which are new. At the same time, research on the biology of the cirripede, bryozoan, polychaete and mollusc communities were also conducted. Twenty-three related papers have been published. This review summarizes works in Hong Kong over past twenty years, and some unpublished data are also reported.     

珠江口东南近海海区污损生物研究

为研究珠江口东南近海海区污损生物状况,于1986年5月至1987年6月,在香港东南约114和160km,水深为95和113m处布设了两个生物浮标站,并对距香港约172km,水深为115m处的Marex水文气象浮标上的污损生物群落进行调查.此次调查共采集和鉴定出污损生物78种,其中在浸海只有3个月的试板上,主要有柄蔓足类、水螅和藻类,优势种是细板条茗荷、茗荷和直杯螅.至于浸海时间达6～12个月的浮标(包括沉标)及锚链系统,其上还有相当数量的多种双壳类软体动物、无柄蔓足类和苔藓动物等硬性污损生物附着.在种类垂直分布方面,污损生物群落组成随深度发生明显变化.     

From boat to bowl: Patterns and dynamics of shark fin trade in Hong Kong ― implications for monitoring and management

Shark fin has long been one of the most highly demanded 'luxury seafood' in the Chinese market. From the latest available data (1998–2013), 130 countries/territories around the world were recorded as exporting shark fin to Hong Kong. Spain, Taiwan, Indonesia, UAE, Singapore and Japan made up over 50% of all of Hong Kong's shark fin imports. Comparison of Hong Kong's import data with the exporting countries/territories' FAO declarations indicates that some countries/territories are potentially consistently underreporting shark fin exports. Since 2009 Vietnam had overtaken China as the most important destination of Hong Kong's shark fin re-exports, a change that warrants further investigation. Ocean transportation was also identified as the most important transportation mode for shark fin imports into and re-exports from Hong Kong. Given the importance of Hong Kong and based on findings from this study, suggestions are made for the Hong Kong Government to tighten controls to reduce illegal trades, and eliminate loopholes so that a more comprehensive statistical representation of the shark fin trade may be captured for future analysis.     

Fouling in offshore areas southeast of the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Delta, the northern South China Sea

Abstract-In order to understand the type and extent of marine fouling in offshore areas southeast ofthe Zhujiang (Pearl) River delta, within the period form May 1986 to June 1987, two biologicalbuoys were deployed at water depths of 95 m and 113 m located in 114 km and 160 km off the coast ofHong Kong, respectively. Moreover, the fouling community of a Marex hydrological buoy located in115 m depth water 172 km off Hong Kong was also surveyed. The results show that a total of 78species were collected and identified. The panels exposed for 3 months were mainly dominated bystalked barnacles Conchoderma hunteri and Lepas anatifera and hydroids Orthopyxis sp. As for thebuoys, including the subsurface buoy, and their mooring systems exposed for 6 and 12 months, respec-tively, some hard foulers such as common oysters, pearl oysters, acorn barnacles and bryozoans werealso found. The compositions of fouling communities also varied greatly with depth.     

Empirical studies of the peak surge due to tropical storms at Hong Kong

Correlation studies of the peak surges at a particular location in Hong Kong due to tropical storms with differing storm tracks and landfall positions relative to Hong Kong are presented. Empirical equations relating the peak surge with the central pressure of storm and the local maximum wind speed have been determined and these could be used for the further prediction of storm surges.     

Spatio-temporal variations in the diversity and abundance of commercially important Decapoda and Stomatopoda in subtropical Hong Kong waters

In subtropical Hong Kong, western waters (WW) are strongly influenced by the freshwater input from the Pearl River estuary, especially during summer monsoon, whereas eastern waters (EW) are predominantly influenced by oceanic currents throughout the year. Such hydrographical differences may lead to spatio-temporal differences in biodiversity of benthic communities. This study investigated the diversity and abundance of commercially important decapods and stomatopods in EW (i.e. Tolo Harbour and Channel) and WW (i.e. Tuen Mun and Lantau Island) of Hong Kong using monthly trawl surveys (August 2003–May 2005). In total, 22 decapod and nine stomatopod species were recorded. The penaeid Metapenaeopsis sp. and stomatopod Oratosquillina interrupta were the most abundant and dominant crustaceans in EW and WW, respectively. Both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that WW supported significantly higher abundance, biomass and diversity of crustaceans than EW, although there were significant between-site and within-site variations in community structure. Higher abundance and biomass of crustaceans were recorded in summer than winter. Such spatio-temporal variations could be explained by differences in the hydrography, environmental conditions and anthropogenic impacts between the two areas. Temporal patterns in the abundance–biomass comparison curves and negative W-statistics suggest that the communities have been highly disturbed in both areas, probably due to anthropogenic activities such as bottom trawling and marine pollution.     

袭港热带气旋持续时间长期频率分析

香港经常受到西北太平洋热带气旋的影响,对该地区热带气旋持续时间的研究有助于经济社会的稳定发展。按照气象和天文台警告信号,热带气旋分为不同的强度等级。建立热带气旋持续时间的Poisson-Weibull复合分布模型,相应获得持续时间重现值的求解公式,分别用于不同热带气旋分类下持续时间多年一遇重现值的计算中。基于1987-2016年袭港热带气旋数据的分析结果表明,Poisson-Weibull分布适用于不同的持续时间分类样本;强的热带气旋经常会伴随较长的持续时间,这将会对该地区造成更为严重的破坏,这可为防灾减灾提供参考。     

Protecting small cetaceans from coastal development: Impact assessment and mitigation experience in Hong Kong

Since the early 1990s, there has been an active program in Hong Kong to manage and protect local populations of small cetaceans from the effects of massive development in the area. This paper reviews the progress that has been made. Only two species regularly occur there: the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and the finless porpoise. Because most development has occurred in the western waters of Hong Kong, where generally only the humpback dolphin occurs, most of the work has been conducted on that species. Development of large infrastructure projects (such as airports, bridges, expressways, power plants, fuel facilities, and container ports) in Hong Kong often results in land reclamation, dredging and dumping of spoils, pipe and cable laying, percussive and bored piling work, underwater blasting, large increases in vessel traffic, and other impacts. Several mitigation measures have been used with varying levels of success, including bubble curtains/jackets, exclusion zones, ramping up of piling hammers, acoustic decoupling of noisy equipment, vessel speed limits, no-dumping policies, and silt curtains. Baseline, construction-phase, and operational-phase cetacean monitoring is often conducted to evaluate the success of conservation measures put into place. The Environmental Impact Assessment process in Hong Kong has involved cetaceans to a degree perhaps higher than anywhere else in the world, and much can be learned from studying the successes and failures of this situation.     

香港附近海域强冷空气影响下波浪特征及谱拟合

本文以香港附近海域二次冷空气影响下的波浪实测资料为依据,讨论了波浪特征与谱的拟合。这二次实测,一次为波浪成长阶段,而另一次为波浪衰减阶段。而文中的(1),(2)式代表的涌浪谱公式和文献(7)中提出的风浪谱公式不仅适合于香港附近海域强冷空气影响下的海浪谱,而且可以表征南海其它海区不同季节的海浪谱,所以具有很强的适用性。     

Occurrence and distribution of vibrios in fishes and shellfishes in coastal waters of Hong Kong

INTRODUCTIONTheoccurrenceanddistributionofhalophilicvibriosinthecoastalwatersofHongKonghasbeenrePorted(Chanetal.,l986).Theresultsshowedthatvibrioswerepresentduringthesum-mermonthsinHongKongcoastalwatersatconcentrationsof9oto67ooind./cm3,accountingo.4l%~4o%ofthetotalbacterialPOpulationofthe48isolatesexaminedindetail.Theyob-servedV.Paraheamolyticus,V.harvha,V.vulnfficus,V.camPbelliandV.fiuvialis.Becausemanyofthevibri0species,includingsome0ftheisolatesbyChanetal.(1986)fromHongKongwate…     

Microbial diversity in polluted harbor sediments II: Sulfate-reducing bacterial community assessment using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and clone library of dsrAB gene

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are important regulators of a variety of processes in coastal marine sediments regarding organic matter turnover, biodegradation of pollutants, and sulfur and carbon cycles. Yet their community compositions have not been investigated in polluted harbor sediments. This study described the diversity and spatial variation of SRB communities in surface sediments in Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong. The spatial variation of SRB communities was described by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). The results showed that the most diversified terminal restriction fragments were found at polluted sites. In addition, cluster analysis indicated that although the SRB communities were different at the two polluted sites, they were still more similar to each other than to the two more distant reference sites. Based on a dsrAB clone library constructed at a polluted site, diversified SRB were found, represented by 30 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). Upon comparisons among the SRB sequences detected from this study and those in the GenBank, five clades of SRB were found. Three clades belonged to the known families Desulfobacteraceae, Desulfobulbaceae, and Syntrophobacteriaceae. The majority of sequenced clones, which distantly related to sequences in the GenBank, constituted the remaining two unclassified groups, suggesting unique SRB members related to the polluted harbor environment. Statistical analyses indicated that estimated SRB richness correlated with environment factors such as sulfur content, acid volatile sulfate, and redox potential.     

Interannual variation of rare earth element abundances in corals from northern coast of the South China Sea and its relation with sea-level change and human activities

Here we present interannual rare earth element (REE) records spanning the last two decades of the 20th century in two living Porites corals, collected from Longwan Bay, close to the estuarine zones off Wanquan River of Hainan Island and Hong Kong off the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province in the northern South China Sea. The results show that both coral REE contents (0.5-40 ng g?1 in Longwan Bay and 2-250 ng g?1 in Hong Kong for La-Lu) are characterized with a declining trend, which are significantly negative correlated with regional sea-level rise (9.4 mm a?1) from 1981 to 1996 in Longwan Bay, 13.7 mm a?1 from 1991 to 2001 in Hong Kong). The REE features are proposed to be resulted from seawater intrusion into the estuaries in response to contemporary sea-level rise. However, the tendency for the coral Er/Nd time series at Hong Kong site is absent and there is no significant relation between Er/Nd and total REEs as found for the coral at Longwan Bay site. The observations are likely attributed to changes of the water discharge and sediment load of Pearl River, which have been significantly affected by intense human activities, such as the construction of dams/reservoirs and riverbed sediment mining, in past decades. The riverine sediment load/discharge ratio of the Pearl River decreased sharply with a rate of 0.02 kg m?3 a?1, which could make significant contribution to the declining trend of coral REE. We propose that coastal corals in Longwan Bay and similar unexplored sites with little influences of river discharge and anthropogenic disruption are ideal candidates to investigate the influence of sea-level change on seawater/coral REE.     

大生活用海水技术

概述了大生活用海水的研究主研究现状,介绍了香港地区利用海水冲厕的情况。     

南海海洋生物学新进展

南海位于太平洋西端，介于中南半岛、加里曼丹岛、菲律宾群岛与中国大陆之间，在这～海域有广阔的大陆架和大陆坡，栖息着以亚热带种和热带种为主的暖水性生物，多样性很高，有些类群的丰度也甚大，成为印度一西太平洋暖水区系的重要组成部分，为此，生物与渔业资源的开发潜力很大。南海是调查研究较少的海域。进入SO年代，围绕对南海海洋资源的了解与开发，海洋学研究有较快进展，其中海洋生物学进展尤为迅速。如年代以来，南海海洋生物学成果累累，为认识、开发和保护南海海洋生物和海洋渔业资源奠定了基础。为促进南海海洋生物学研究成…     

香港巨牡蛎抗副溶血弧菌感染相关microRNA的筛选

香港巨牡蛎(Magallana hongkongensis,旧称Crassostrea hongkongensis)是我国华南沿海重要的经济贝类,但频发的养殖病害严重制约了香港巨牡蛎养殖业的可持续发展。作为一类重要的调控因子,microRNA(miRNA)能够对其靶基因进行转录后调控从而参与海洋动物各类生命活动过程。本研究利用高通量测序技术建立了副溶血弧菌不同诱导时间下的香港巨牡蛎鳃组织miRNA文库,并通过生物信息学分析方法挖掘与免疫调控有关的miRNA,共获得了453个已知miRNA和222个新miRNA,通过进一步筛选空白对照组/12 h病原注射组、空白对照组/24 h病原注射组、12 h病原注射组/24 h病原注射组特有的miRNA,发现多个在不同比较组间差异表达的或具有高表达水平的miRNA。其中miR-10、miR-23、miR-92、miR-100、miR-125、miR-144、miR-145、miR-146、miR-335、miR-750等已被证实参与了多种海洋动物的免疫调控过程。对差异表达miRNA靶基因的KEGG富集分析结果显示miR-411-5p、miR-445...     

Impact Analysis of Coastal Engineering Projects on Mangrove Wetland Area Change with Remote Sensing

In the past decades, two large scale coastal engineering projects have been carried out in the Deep Bay surrounded by Shenzhen City and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. One project is Shenzhen River channel regulation and the other is the sea reclamation along the seashore on the Shenzhen side. The two projects are very close to the two national nature reserves, specifically Futian in Shenzhen and Mai Po in Hong Kong, which are important wetland ecosystems worldwide. This paper aims to identify and monitor the mangrove wetland changes with time series of Landsat Thematic Mapper images pre and post to the two engineering projects being launched. Coupled analysis of the image interpretation results and tidal data acquired at the same time in the context of the two works reveals that the mangrove wetland area has increased from year 1989 to 1994, and has changed little from year 1994 to 2002. Binary coding is applied to reveal the distribution image of mangrove at each phase, and the coding image shows that the construction of the two coastal engineering projects has caused frequent changes in mangrove spatial distribution. The study also shows that the change is not significant regarding to the precision of the method and the natural evolution of mangrove wetland, and the projects do not cause apparently influences upon the two national mangrove conservation zones at least for the research time period.     

性畸变在三丁基锡污染的生物监测中的应用

该文概述三丁基锡在海洋防附着涂料中的应用及其环境效应，综述因TBT污染而导致某些螺类雌性个体中发育出雄性性征的性畸变现象发生情况，探讨性畸变在TBT污染生物监测中的应用。并以香港地区性畸变的发生为例，论证性畸变在生物监测中的应用，同时比较香港及世界其他地区性畸变的程度。     

Oil-Spill Monitoring in the Coastal Waters of Hong Kong and Vicinity

In this study, we applied the edge-detection method of oil-spill monitoring to extract oil-spill features observed by the ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images over the coastal waters of Hong Kong and vicinity in northern South China Sea. Two examples in 2007 and 2008 over the coastal waters of the study area show that oil spills can be successfully detected by ASAR images at wind speeds around 4～ 6 m/s independent of wind direction. The study also shows that it could be helpful for evaluating the potential impacts of oil spills on the coastal environment in Hong Kong and vicinity.     

A model study of influence of circulation on the pollutant transport in the Zhujiang River Estuary and adjacent coastal waters

A tracer model with random diffusion coupled to the hydrodynamic model for the Zhujiang River Estuary (Pearl River Estuary, PRE) is to examine the effect of circulations on the transport of completely conservative pollutants. It is focused on answering the following questions: (1) What role does the estuarine plume front in the winter play in affecting the pollutants transport and its distribution in the PRE ? (2) What effect do the coastal currents driven by the monsoon have on the pollutants transport? The tracer experiment results show that: (1) the pollutant transport paths strongly depend on the circulation structures and plume frontal dynamics of the PRE and coastal waters; (2) during the summer when a southwesterly monsoon prevails, the pollutants from the four easterly river inlets and those from the bottom layer of offshore stations will greatly influence the water quality in Hong Kong waters, however, the pollutants released from the four westerly river-inlets will seldom affect the water quality of Hong Kong waters due to their transport away from Hong Kong; (3) during the winter when a northeasterly monsoon prevails, all pollutants released from the eight river gates will be laterally transported seaward inside the estuary and transport westward in the coastal waters along the river plume frontal zone. However, pollutants released from the surface layer of offshore stations near or east of the Dangan Channel will be carried into the coastal waters of Hong Kong by the landward component of the westward coastal current driven by the winter northeasterly monsoon. But the pollutants from the bottom layer of the offshore stations will be carried away from the offshore by the bottom flow driven by the northeasterly monsoon. This implies that only surface-released matter from offshore stations will affect the water quality of the coastal waters around Hong Kong during the winter when a northeasterly monsoon prevails.     

A model study of influence of circulation on the pollutant transport in the Zhujiang River Estuary and adjacent coastal waters

A tracer model with random diffusion coupled to the hydrodynamic model for the Zhujiang River Estuary (Pearl River Estuary, PRE) is to examine the effect of circulations on the transport of completely conservative pollutants. It is focused on answering the following questions: (1) What role does the estuarine plume front in the winter play in affecting the pollutants transport and its distribution in the PRE? (2) What effect do the coastal currents driven by the monsoon have on the pollutants transport? The tracer experiment results show that: (1) the pollutant transport paths strongly depend on the circulation structures and plume frontal dynamics of the PRE and coastal waters; (2) during the summer when a southwesterly monsoon prevails, the pollutants from the four easterly river inlets and those from the bottom layer of offshore stations will greatly influence the water quality in Hong Kong waters, however, the pollutants released from the four westerly river-inlets will seldom affect the water quality of Hong Kong waters due to their transport away from Hong Kong; (3) during the winter when a northeasterly monsoon prevails, all pollutants released from the eight river gates will be laterally transported seaward inside the estuary and transport westward in the coastal waters along the river plume frontal zone. However, pollutants released from the surface layer of offshore stations near or east of the Dangan Channel will be carried into the coastal waters of Hong Kong by the landward component of the westward coastal current driven by the winter northeasterly monsoon. But the pollutants from the bottom layer of the offshore stations will be carried away from the offshore by the bottom flow driven by the northeasterly monsoon. This implies that only surface-released matter from offshore stations will affect the water quality of the coastal waters around Hong Kong during the winter when a northeasterly monsoon prevails.