Fisher's behaviour with individual vessel quotas—Over-capacity and potential rent: Five case studies

Internationally, individual vessel quotas (IVQ) have become an increasingly popular management tool. The main attraction of IVQs is the incentives they create for cost savings, autonomous capacity adjustment and, subsequently, rent generation. In this paper, the extent to which different IVQ systems have facilitated resource rent generation and capacity adjustment in five European countries—Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the UK—is examined. The potential economic rents and the capacity reduction necessary to achieve these rents in each of the fisheries are also estimated. Reasons why IVQs have not achieved their potential economic benefits in these fisheries are also examined.     

Coupling parameters of the MIT OBS at two nearshore sites

A model representing the coupling of an ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) to the seafloor as a mass-spring-dashpot system satisfactorily explains the results of transient tests performed on different instruments during the Lopez Island intercomparison test. In this paper, we compare the results obtained for the MIT OBS at Lopez Island to results from similar tests at a dockside site at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vertical instrument response at the Lopez Island site shows a highly damped resonance at a frequency of 22 Hz, whereas the response at the Woods Hole site shows a marked resonance at 13 Hz. The difference between the responses at the two sites can be qualitatively attributed to the difference between the surficial sediments.     

Physical habitat and social conditions across a coral reef shape spatial patterns of intraspecific behavioral variation in a demersal fish

As coral reef ecosystems decline in health worldwide, reef‐associated fishes are being impacted by changes to their coral reef habitats. While previous studies have shown coral reef structure to affect the demography of reef fishes, changes in reef conditions may also impact the behavior of reef fishes as they cope with altered habitats. In this study, we examined spatial patterns of intraspecific behavioral variation in the bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus) across the fringing reefs of Curaçao (Caribbean Sea), and explored how this behavioral variation associated with physical and social conditions on the reef. Principal components analysis (PCA) condensed physical parameters of the reef into principal component 1 (PC1), comprising depth, coral cover (%), rugosity, and average hole size (cm²), and principal component 2 (PC2), which represented the number of holes. PC1, but not PC2, increased spatially across the reef as the habitat transitioned from coral rubble in the shallows to live coral on the reef slope. This transition in reef structure was paralleled by changes in social conditions including decreases in bicolor damselfish density in habitats with higher PC1 values. The behavior of bicolor damselfish also varied spatially with greater aggression and more frequent shelter use in habitats with lower PC1 values. Path analysis revealed robust associations between this behavioral variation and physical habitat conditions of the reef, indicating that physical – rather than social – habitat variation is the primary determinant of these spatial patterns of intraspecific behavioral variation. Taken as a whole, this coupling between physical reef structure and behavior suggests that reef fish may show altered behaviors on coral reefs degraded by anthropogenic impacts.     

Nucleosynthesis and early chemical evolution in galaxies

Nucleosynthesis and galactic chemical evolution are inter-linked topics that merge various fields in astronomy and physics. Speakers at the RAS discussion meeting of January 2003 combined theory and observation in understanding these fields. Stelios A Tsangarides, Enrico Arnone and Sean G Ryan report.     

Are American Interlocking Directorates Associated with Brain Circulation and do They Translate into Higher Corporate Performance?

This study explores interlocking directorates, with specific focus on those connections when a director sits as an inside director for an American corporation and an outside director for firm located outside of North America. The goal of this study is to explore the spatial relationship between the personal histories of directors and the headquarter's location of the corporate boards on which they sit. First, it was found that a geographical relationship in the interlocking network of American companies exists. Second, it was determined that domestic personal histories played a significant role as 96.5 percent of directors attended a university in the United States and 93.4 percent directors were born there. When North American universities and North American births were deleted from the sample, a geographical pattern also emerges for Asian firms. Finally, the study found that the lone region that consistently displayed greater firm performance where a director's personal history and the interlocked company were the same as Asia.     

A moving group of young stars in Carina–Vela

Accurate two-colour photometry and proper motions of 7096 young X-ray stars in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Star Catalogue, version 1RXS, are extracted from the Tycho-2 Catalogue. The sample is dominated by red main-sequence and possibly pre-main-sequence stars. On a global proper motion convergence map, two features are very prominent: the nearby section of the Gould Belt and the Hyades convergent point. The appearance of the Gould Belt feature with its peak at ( l =2443, b =−126) is quite similar to that of Hipparcos OB stars. When only stars with proper motions drawing close to that point are selected, strong concentrations of stars in the direction of the Sco–Cen complex are found. Another concentration, not corresponding to any known OB association, is detected between the position of the Lower Centaurus Crux and Vela OB2 associations. It is a new young moving group located in Carina and Vela, and a near extension of the Sco–Cen complex. Contrary to the classical Gould Belt OB associations, the Carina–Vela moving group has a considerable geometric depth, the closest members being as near as 30 pc from the Sun. IC 2391, one of the youngest and closest open clusters on the sky, is a part of the Carina–Vela moving group. The Carina–Vela moving group does not link the Sco–Cen complex with the Vela OB associations, because the latter is much more distant than the outer limit of the sample. It is more likely that the young late-type population of the Scorpio–Centaurus–Carina moving group stretches towards the Sun and possibly beyond it.     

Increasing Use of Human-Dominated Habitats as CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Emissions Warm and Acidify Oceans

Urban and artificial structures are increasingly added to the world’s coasts during a time in which changing climate is forecast to drive shifts in naturally occurring habitats. We ask whether the role of artificial structures as marine habitats will increase in importance relative to their natural counterparts, particularly as natural habitats are negatively affected by ocean warming and acidification. To evaluate this model, we contrasted use of natural (kelp forest and turfing algae) and artificial habitat (plastic pier-piling) by a nest-building amphipod (Cymadusa pemptos) under current and future climate conditions of CO₂ and temperature. Under future conditions, amphipod populations in mesocosms increased, but this did not lead to greater proportional colonization of kelp and turf. Instead, colonization doubled in artificial habitats, and there was increasing production and occupation of nests on artificial habitats relative to natural habitats. In an age when human modification of natural substrata is increasingly cited as an agent of wildlife decline, understanding the future role of artificial habitats as replacement dwellings for natural habitats is critical. We pioneer an understanding of the future role of natural and artificial habitats, identifying the possibility that the role of urban structures as marine habitats may only increase.     

Chert provenance analysis at the Mack Canyon Site,Sherman County,Oregon: An evaluative study

Chert is the most frequent lithic raw material in the Columbia Plateau, but archaeologists have made few attempts to link chert artifacts to their quarries in this area. The Mack Canyon Site in north-central Oregon is near a chert source, providing an opportunity to compare provenance analysis techniques. Macroscopic and microscopic visual attributes and element concentrations were determined for 26 samples from six sources in the Columbia Plateau. Additional concentration data from two other sources were included for comparison. Four artifacts were selected from the Mack Canyon Site for comparison to the nearby outcrop. Although all of the artifacts were macroscopically indistinguishable from the local material, microscopic attributes and element concentrations indicate that only one of the artifacts came from the outcrop. Linking chert artifacts and quarries through statistical analysis of element concentrations holds promise for the Columbia Plateau. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Hunter‐gatherer response to late Holocene climatic variability in northern and central Australia

Sum probability analysis of 1275 radiometric ages from 608 archaeological sites across northern and central Australia demonstrates a changing archaeological signature that can be closely correlated with climate variability over the last 2 ka. Results reveal a marked increase in archaeological records across northern and central Australia over the last 2 ka, with notable declines in western and northern Australia between ca. AD 700 and 1000 and post‐AD 1500 – two periods broadly coeval with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and the Little Ice Age as they have been documented in the Asia–Pacific region. Latitudinal and longitudinal analysis of the dataset suggests the increase in archaeological footprint was continent wide, while the declines were greatest from 9 to 20° S, 110 to 135° E and 143 to 150° E. The change in the archaeological data suggests that, combined with an increase in population over the late Holocene, a disruption or reorganisation of pre‐European resource systems occurred across Australia between ca. AD 700 and 1000 and post‐AD 1500. These archaeological responses can be broadly correlated with transitions of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) mean state on a multi‐decadal to centennial timescale. The latter involve a shift towards the La Niña‐like mean state with wetter conditions in the Australian region between AD 700 and 1150. A transition period in ENSO mean state occurred across Australia during AD 1150–1300, with persistent El Niño‐like and drier conditions to ca. AD 1500, and increasing ENSO variability post‐AD 1500 to the present. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.