Does use of tropical beaches by tourists and island residents result in damage to fringing coral reefs? A case study in Moorea French Polynesia

Although coral reefs worldwide are subject to increasing global threats, humans also impact coral reefs directly through localized activities such as snorkeling, kayaking and fishing. We investigated five sites on the northern shore of Moorea, French Polynesia, and quantified the number of visitors on the beach and in shallow water. In field surveys, we measured total coral cover and colony sizes of two common genera, Porites and Acropora, a massive and branching morphology, respectively. One site, which hosted over an order of magnitude more people than the other four, had significantly less total coral cover and supported very little branching Acropora. In addition, size frequency distributions of both the branching and massive genera were skewed toward smaller colony sizes at the high use site. Our results demonstrated that the use of tropical beaches may result in less coral cover, with branching colonies rare and small.     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

Human activities have altered the distribution and quality of terrestrial ecosystems. Future demands for goods and services from terrestrial ecosystems will occur in a world experiencing human-induced climate change. In this study, we characterize the range in response of unmanaged ecosystems in the conterminous U.S. to 12 climate change scenarios. We obtained this response by simulating the climatically induced shifts in net primary productivity and geographical distribution of major biomes in the conterminous U.S. with the BIOME 3 model. BIOME 3 captured well the potential distribution of major biomes across the U.S. under baseline (current) climate. BIOME 3 also reproduced the general trends of observed net primary production (NPP) acceptably. The NPP projections were reasonable for forests, but not for grasslands where the simulated values were always greater than those observed. Changes in NPP would be most severe under the BMRC climate change scenario in which severe changes in regional temperatures are projected. Under the UIUC and UIUC + Sulfate scenarios, NPP generally increases, especially in the West where increases in precipitation are projected to be greatest. A CO₂-fertilization effect either amplified increases or alleviated losses in modeled NPP. Changes in NPP were also associated with changes in the geographic distribution of major biomes. Temperate/boreal mixed forests would cover less land in the U.S. under most of the climate change scenarios examined. Conversely, the temperate conifer and temperate deciduous forests would increase in areal extent under the UIUC and UIUC + Sulfate scenarios. The Arid Shrubland/Steppe would spread significantly across the southwest U.S. under the BMRC scenario. A map overlay of the simulated regions that would lose or gain capacity to produce corn and wheat on top of the projected distribution of natural ecosystems under the BMRC and UIUC scenarios (Global mean temperature increase of +2.5 °C, no CO₂ effect) helped identify areas where natural and managed ecosystems could contract or expand. The methods and models employed here are useful in identifying; (a) the range in response of unmanaged ecosystem in the U.S. to climate change and (b) the areas of the country where, for a particular scenario of climate change, land cover changes would be most likely.     

Input of Nutritionally Rich Organic Matter from the Mississippi River to the Louisiana Coastal Zone

Isotopes have often been used to discern riverine subsidies to coastal food chains, but there are few direct measurements of nutritional quality of riverine particulates. We tested for nutritionally enriched organic matter in the Mississippi River suspended sediment and evidence for its delivery to Louisiana coastal sediments by measuring enzymatically hydrolysable amino acids (EHAA). Riverine suspended sediments contained EHAA concentrations of up to 5 mg g^?1, higher than reported in any coastal sediment. Pigment concentrations indicated that EHAA in some river samples were dominated by phytoplankton, but many samples contained significant non-algal EHAA. Coastal sediments showed EHAA concentrations lower than riverine sediments but still higher than most reported shelf values. Incubation of riverine sediment showed losses of 28–34% of their EHAA over 6 days, similar to differences found between riverine and coastal sediments. EHAA concentrations decreased more rapidly than total nitrogen, indicating the relative lability of this pool of material in the studied region. These EHAA-enriched materials provide fuel for various coastal biota whose composition likely depends on factors such as disturbance regimes.     

The environmental tritium concentration of underground water and its hydrological interpretation

Two models which attempt to correlate the tritium concentration of water taken from aquifers to aquifer parameters are discussed. The first takes into account flow along individual streamlines and relates aquifer parameters to the observed tritium concentration at outflow. For the Gambier Plain unconfined aquifer in southern Australia, the calculated tritium concentration at outflow derived from known aquifer parameters and an environmental tritium input function for the area, is 0.7 T.U. The mean tritium concentration of several springs at outflow is also 0.7 T.U.Using the complete mixing model and the approximation that samples withdrawn from an aquifer on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, are fully mixed, mean annual recharge for the area is estimated at 3 cm/year.     

Sensitivity to climate change of land use and management patterns optimized for efficient mitigation of nutrient pollution

Beginning in the mid-1990s, re-eutrophication has reemerged as severe problems in Lake Erie. Controlling non-point source (NPS) nutrient pollution from cropland, especially dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP), is the key to restore water quality in Lake Erie. To address NPS pollution, previous studies have analyzed the effectiveness of alternative spatially optimal land use and management strategies (represented as agricultural conservation practices (CPs)). However, few studies considered both strategies and have analyzed and compared their sensitivity to expected changes in temperature and precipitation due to climate change and increased greenhouse gas concentrations. In this study, we evaluated impacts of climatic change on the economic efficiency of these strategies for DRP abatement, using an integrated modeling approach that includes a watershed model, an economic valuation component, and a spatial optimization model. A series of climate projections representing relatively high greenhouse gas emission scenarios was developed for the western Lake Erie basin to drive the watershed model. We found that performance of solutions optimized for current climate was degraded significantly under projected future climate conditions. In terms of robustness of individual strategies, CPs alone were more robust to climate change than land use change alone or together with CPs, but relying on CPs alone fails to achieve a high (>?71%) DRP reduction target. A combination of CPs and land use changes was required to achieve policy goals for DRP reductions (targeted at ~?78%). Our results point to the need for future spatial optimization studies and planning to consider adaptive capacity of conservation actions under a changing climate.     

Evaluation of a Movie Theater Advertisement Campaign to Promote Behaviors that Prevent Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species

One of the primary causes of the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) is boaters and anglers who move between bodies of water. Engaging with recreational boaters and anglers to encourage preventative behaviors is crucial for managing the spread of AIS. The use of cinema advertising for disseminating pro-environmental messages is a relatively novel and understudied outreach strategy. To explore this approach, an AIS-related public service announcement was placed in the preshow advertising at a movie theater in north central Wisconsin. Movie patrons were surveyed as they left the theater to determine demographic, AIS awareness, advertising exposure, and recall information. The results of this study suggest movie theater advertising is a potentially efficacious medium for pro-environmental outreach efforts.     

Decentralized and coordinate-free computation of critical points and surface networks in a discretized scalar field

This article provides a decentralized and coordinate-free algorithm, called decentralized gradient field (DGraF), to identify critical points (peaks, pits, and passes) and the topological structure of the surface network connecting those critical points. Algorithms that can operate in the network without centralized control and without coordinates are important in emerging resource-constrained spatial computing environments, in particular geosensor networks. Our approach accounts for the discrepancies between finite granularity sensor data and the underlying continuous field, ignored by previous work. Empirical evaluation shows that our DGraF algorithm can improve the accuracy of critical points identification when compared with the current state-of-the-art decentralized algorithm and matches the accuracy of a centralized algorithm for peaks and pits. The DGraF algorithm is efficient, requiring O(n) overall communication complexity, where n is the number of nodes in the geosensor network. Further, empirical investigations of our algorithm across a range of simulations demonstrate improved load balance of DGraF when compared with an existing decentralized algorithm. Our investigation highlights a number of important issues for future research on the detection of holes and the monitoring of dynamic events in a field.     

Spatio-temporal Variability in Larval-Stage Feeding and Nutritional Sources as Factors Influencing Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) Recruitment Success

Prey availability and feeding success affect survival of larval striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in Chesapeake Bay and contribute to the >30-fold interannual recruitment variability. Gut contents and stable isotope analyses (δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C) were conducted on striped bass larvae to evaluate sources of nutrition in 2007 and 2008, years of high and poor recruitment, respectively. Ichthyoplankton and zooplankton were surveyed in the upper Chesapeake Bay, in proximity to the estuarine turbidity maximum and associated salt front. Feeding incidence and numbers of prey per gut were similar in both years and varied in relation to the salt front. The primary prey in each year was the estuarine copepod Eurytemora affinis. Substantial consumption of the freshwater cladoceran Bosmina spp. also occurred, especially up-estuary of the salt front in 2007, demonstrating that secondary prey are important to larval diets in some years. Stable isotope analysis of yolk sac and feeding-stage larvae of striped bass revealed an ontogenetic shift from maternal stable isotope signatures to those indicative of prey source. Feeding-stage larvae from up-estuary locations had the most negative δ¹³C values, indicating a relatively high terrestrial carbon source in prey. Spatio-temporal variability in δ¹⁵N signatures of larvae followed similar trends of δ¹⁵N variability in zooplankton prey with the highest δ¹⁵N values up-estuary of the salt front and estuarine turbidity maximum. A stable isotope analysis on archived striped bass larvae collected in 1998 and 2003, years of moderate and high recruitment, respectively, expanded the documented range of isotope signatures but did not clearly distinguish effects of nutritional sources on recruitment.