Seasonal Changes in Gonad Index,Biochemical Composition and Heavy Metal Determination of Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus Gonads from the South Coast of Morocco

Ocean Science Journal - Seasonal variations of the gonad index (GI), the biochemical composition, and the concentration of heavy metals in the gonads of the sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus...     

Agrobiodiversity of Muda Rice Agroecosystem:A case Study in Largest Granary Area of Malaysia

A survey was carried out at the largest rice cultivation area in Peninsular Malaysia,the Muda rice agroecosystem.The main objective of this study was to document the overall biodiversity associated with this unique agroecosystem by using a combination of sampling techniques in order to record different groups of fauna and flora.The total number of biota recorded and identified from the rice field ecosystem during the study period consisted of 46 species of zooplankton,81 species of aquatic insects,5 species of rodents,7 species of bats,87 species of birds,11 species of fishes and 58 species of weeds.A long-term study should be carried out as more species are expected to be recorded when more of the Muda rice agroecosystem area has been sampled to obtain sufficient information on the Muda rice agrobiodiversity.     

Mineralogy and physico-chemical properties of Wadi Badaa clays (Cairo-Suez district,Egypt): a prospective resource for the ceramics industry

The Wadi Badaa (WB) Upper Miocene clays, Cairo-Suez district, Egypt, represent materials for the ceramic production. The clay raw materials are composed mainly of smectite and kaolinite with minor quartz, calcite, and rare feldspar. The plasticity indices vary between 24 and 30%, suggesting that these clays are plastic raw materials. IR bands of the investigated clays were observed at 3695, 3619, 1032, 916, 794, 690, 534, 466, and 423 cm^?1 for kaolinite; at 3436, 1635, 916, and 466 cm^?1 for smectite; and at 1179, 1104, 794, 690, and 466 cm^?1 for quartz. The <2 μm particle sizes of samples are relatively abundant in clays (～33%), which is adequate for uses of the ceramic products because of containing fine particle sizes. The studied WB clays contain 7.95 and 12.35% moisture water and interlayer water, respectively, with a maximum drying shrinkage of 7.87% at room temperature; therefore, the WB clays could be used in the ceramic manufacture.     

Complex impact assessment of coastal development in the United Arab Emirates using GIS: a case study of Wurayah Biosphere Reserve

Wadi Wurayah area is one of the major wadis originating and running on the Oman Mountains and drains into the Oman Gulf. These wadis in general and Wadi Wurayah in particular are characterized with a rich diversity of rare and mountainous and freshwater habitats and species. These wadis contain unequal, representative, and sensitive areas of the dry lands ecosystem with natural, outstanding landscapes and cultural heritage, while the socioeconomic situation indicates that it has enough socioeconomic infrastructures to develop new alternatives ecologically and economically sustainable. As most of the United Arab Emirates and the region, the study area is undergoing dramatic changes linked to economic diversification and promotion of tourism. Established under the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program, Wurayah Biosphere Reserve represents protected areas intended to demonstrate well-balanced relationship between conservation of biodiversity and an appropriate local development. The main objectives of this study are to develop an environmental information system to understand the dynamics of human activities associated to land use in the study area, highlight the threats to the environment, educate people about the basic environmental issues and positive traditional practices, and promote tourism. Based on the gained results, the concept of biosphere reserve as a model is to implement ideas of sustainable land use in practice.     

Integration of multiple soft data sets in MPS thru multinomial logistic regression: a case study of gas hydrates

A new approach is described to allow conditioning to both hard data (HD) and soft data for a patch- and distance-based multiple-point geostatistical simulation. The multinomial logistic regression is used to quantify the link between HD and soft data. The soft data is converted by the logistic regression classifier into as many probability fields as there are categories. The local category proportions are used and compared to the average category probabilities within the patch. The conditioning to HD is obtained using alternative training images and by imposing large relative weights to HD. The conditioning to soft data is obtained by measuring the probability–proportion patch distance. Both 2D and 3D cases are considered. Synthetic cases show that a stationary TI can generate non-stationary realizations reproducing the HD, keeping the texture indicated by the TI and following the trends identified in probability maps obtained from soft data. A real case study, the Mallik methane-hydrate field, shows perfect reproduction of HD while keeping a good reproduction of the TI texture and probability trends.     

Multi-factor impact analysis of agricultural production in Bangladesh with climate change

Diverse vulnerabilities of Bangladesh's agricultural sector in 16 sub-regions are assessed using experiments designed to investigate climate impact factors in isolation and in combination. Climate information from a suite of global climate models (GCMs) is used to drive models assessing the agricultural impact of changes in temperature, precipitation, carbon dioxide concentrations, river floods, and sea level rise for the 2040–2069 period in comparison to a historical baseline. Using the multi-factor impacts analysis framework developed in Yu et al. (2010), this study provides new sub-regional vulnerability analyses and quantifies key uncertainties in climate and production. Rice (aman, boro, and aus seasons) and wheat production are simulated in each sub-region using the biophysical Crop Environment REsource Synthesis (CERES) models. These simulations are then combined with the MIKE BASIN hydrologic model for river floods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Basins, and the MIKE21 Two-Dimensional Estuary Model to determine coastal inundation under conditions of higher mean sea level. The impacts of each factor depend on GCM configurations, emissions pathways, sub-regions, and particular seasons and crops. Temperature increases generally reduce production across all scenarios. Precipitation changes can have either a positive or a negative impact, with a high degree of uncertainty across GCMs. Carbon dioxide impacts on crop production are positive and depend on the emissions pathway. Increasing river flood areas reduce production in affected sub-regions. Precipitation uncertainties from different GCMs and emissions scenarios are reduced when integrated across the large GBM Basins’ hydrology. Agriculture in Southern Bangladesh is severely affected by sea level rise even when cyclonic surges are not fully considered, with impacts increasing under the higher emissions scenario.     

Land desertification and restoration in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is characterized by high population growth, degraded and fragile nat-ural ecosystems, and a limited amount of arable lands. It is one of the most water-sc...     

Structure sismique du socle paléozoı̈que du bassin des Doukkala,Môle côtier,Maroc occidental. Indication en faveur de l'existence d'une phase éo-varisqueSeismic structure of the Doukkala basin,Palaeozoic basement,western Morocco: a hint for an Eovariscan fold-and-thrust belt

Seismic profiles and well data from the Doukkala basin unravel the structure of the Palaeozoic basement and suggest that this coastal zone of western Morocco was affected by a compressive phase during the Frasnian. This resulted in the formation of upright, plurikilometric folds associated with reverse faults (North Doukkala), and of asymmetrical folds associated with mostly west verging ramps (South Doukkala). Folding involved all pre-Upper Frasnian formations and caused partial or total hiatus of Upper Frasnian–Strunian strata. This event can be correlated with the orogenic phase reported from more internal domains of the Morocco Hercynian belt, where it is referred to as the ‘Bretonne’ or ‘Eovariscan’ phase. To cite this article: H. Echarfaoui et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 13–20     

Extensional tectonic origin of gneissosity and related structures of the Feiran–Solaf metamorphic belt, Sinai, Egypt

The Feiran–Solaf metamorphic belt consists of low-P high-T amphibolite facies, partly migmatized gneisses, schists, amphibolites and minor calc-silicate rocks of metasedimentary origin. There are also thick concordant synkinematic sheets of diorite, tonalite and granodiorite orthogneiss and foliated granite and pegmatite dykelets. The gneissosity (or schistosity) is referred to as S₁, and is almost everywhere parallel to lithological layering, S₀. This parallelism is not due to transposition. The gneissosity formed during an extensional tectonic event (termed D1), before folding of S₀. S₁ formed by coaxial pure shear flattening strain (Z normal to S₀, i.e. vertical; with X and Y both extensional and lying in S₁). This strain also produced chocolate tablet boudinage of some layers and S₁-concordant sills and veins. S₁ has a strong stretching lineation L₁ with rodding characteristics. Within-plane plastic anisotropy (lower ductility along Y compared to along X) resulted in L₁-parallel extensional ductile shears and melt filled cracks. Continued shortening of these veins, and back-rotation of foliations on the shears produced intrafolial F₁ folds with hinges parallel to the stretching lineation. F₁ fold asymmetry variations do not support previous models involving macroscopic F₁ folds or syn-gneissosity compressional tectonics. The sedimentary protoliths of the Feiran–Solaf gneisses were probably deposited in a pre-800 Ma actively extending intracratonic rift characterizing an early stage of the break-up of Rodinia.     

SWAT‐simulated hydrological impact of land‐use change in the Zanjanrood basin,Northwest Iran

Understanding the impacts of land‐use changes on hydrology at the watershed scale can facilitate development of sustainable water resource strategies. This paper investigates the hydrological effects of land‐use change in Zanjanrood basin, Iran. The water balance was simulated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (AVSWAT2000). Model calibration and uncertainty analysis were performed with sequential uncertainty fitting (SUFI‐2). Simulation results from January 1998 to December 2002 were used for parameter calibration, and then the model was validated for the period of January 2003 to December 2004. The predicted monthly streamflow matched the observed values: during calibration the correlation coefficient was 0·86 and the Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient 0·79, compared with 0·80 and 0·79, respectively, during validation. The model was used to simulate the main components of the hydrological cycle, in order to study the effects of land‐use changes in 1967, 1994 and 2007. The study reveals that during 1967 a 34·5% decrease of grassland with concurrent increases of shrubland (13·9%), rain‐fed agriculture (12·1%), bare ground (5·5%) irrigated agriculture (2·2%), and urban area (0·7%) led to a 33% increase in the amount of surface runoff and a 22% decrease in the groundwater recharge. Furthermore, the area of sub‐basins that was influenced by high runoff (14–28 mm) increased. The results indicate that the hydrological response to overgrazing and the replacing of rangelands (grassland and shrubland) with rain‐fed agriculture and bare ground (badlands) is nonlinear and exhibits a threshold effect. The runoff rises dramatically when more than 60% of the rangeland is removed. For groundwater this threshold lies at an 80% decrease in rangeland. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.