A GIS-Based Tool for Representing Larval Dispersal for Marine Reserve Selection

Increasing efforts to implement marine protected areas (MPAs) as a means of managing marine ecosystems have created a need for evaluating potential spatial management plans. Almost all marine populations are metapopulations, connected reproductively by the dispersal of pelagic larvae. Models of marine population dynamics must account for larval connectivity, but despite recent advances connectivity patterns are still poorly understood. To allow more informed decision making when complete information on dispersal is lacking, we have developed a method based on geographic information systems (GIS) for representing larval dispersal distributions based on bathymetry and typical flows in the coastal ocean. These distributions reflect (1) generally greater flow in directions along, rather than across, lines of constant bathymetry and (2) lesser flow in shallow near-shore waters. We demonstrate how to parameterize this two-dimensional method for depicting larval dispersal based on comparisons to local oceanographic data. We then compare the predictions of the two-dimensional method to those of a simpler one-dimensional alternative in a population model used to evaluate proposed MPAs along the coast of central California. The method produces reasonable larval dispersal patterns and appears to include the effects of bathymetry on population dynamics better than commonly used one-dimensional methods and without requiring the significantly greater investment of developing particle-tracking circulation models. An important advantage of a two-dimensional approach is more realistic portrayal of the dependence of population persistence on the cross-shelf dimension of available habitat.     

DDT,PCB and benzo(a)pyrene levels in white croaker (Genyonemus lineatus) from southern California

In 1978 the California Department of Fish and Game carried out a major, independent sportfishing survey in southern California. The results of that survey indicated that approximately one million angler-trip hours per year were spent fishing and that one in three fish caught was a white croaker (Genyonemus lineatus). There was no attempt by the Department of Fish and Game to determine the disposition of caught fish. We conducted a subsequent survey in 1980 which included 12 popular sportfishing sites in the Los Angeles area. Our results also indicated that one in three fish caught was a white croaker. In addition our survey showed that 82% of the sportfishermen ate the white croaker they caught and the median consumption was 14.8 g day^?1 person^?1. White croaker were then sampled by hook-and-line from 11 of the 12 survey sites plus two control sites and analysed for PCB, DDT and BaP. Median PCB levels ranged from 0.014 to 0.41 mg wet kg^?1; median DDT from 0.059 to 7.5 mg wet kg^?1 and BaP was below detectable limits of 1 ng for all sites.     

地学研究对海岸带综合治理的部分贡献

地学是地质学、地球物理学和自然地理学的专称。运用地学手段对海岸带进行综合治理（ICZM）是当前海岸带持续开发战略面临的一项重要任务。“可持续”发展意思就是在保护环境的前提下对海岸地区及其资源进行管理,并要把它当成一个长期的具体任务来完成。要想进行ICZM必须要有广博的知识,需要了解海洋和海岸岩石的成因和特征、沉积物和地形的特征,还要了解天气和气候、海洋水体以及海洋中包含的生物等。海岸体系这些组成部分的基本地学知识是ICZM得以实施的基础,因为地学可以帮助明确再生和非再生资源以及它们对经济发展的潜在作用,从人类健康、安全和生物环境保护这两个方面弄清和确定经济发展已经和将要对环境产生的影响,特别从人类健康和工程风险这些方面弄清和确定发展过程中会有哪些限制因素和灾害;通过环境基本条件和监控变化来区分自然环境变化和人类活动导致的变化等。     

Mechanisms of shrubland expansion: land use,climate or CO2?

Encroachment of trees and shrubs into grasslands and the thicketization of savannas has occurred worldwide over the past century. These changes in vegetation structure are potentially relevant to climatic change as they may be indicative of historical shifts in climate and as they may influence biophysical aspects of land surface-atmosphere interactions and alter carbon and nitrogen cycles. Traditional explanations offered to account for the historic displacement of grasses by woody plants in many arid and semi-arid ecosystems have centered around changes in climatic, livestock grazing and fire regimes. More recently, it has been suggested that the increase in atmospheric CO₂ since the industrial revolution has been the driving force. In this paper we evaluate the CO₂ enrichment hypotheses and argue that historic, positive correlations between woody plant expansion and atmospheric CO₂ are not cause and effect.Please direct all correspondence to the senior author.     

Comparison and fusion of co‐occurrence,Gabor and MRF texture features for classification of SAR sea‐ice imagery

Abstract

Image texture interpretation is an important aspect of the computer‐assisted discrimination of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sea‐ice imagery. Co‐occurrence probabilities are the most common approach used to solve this problem. However, other texture feature extraction methods exist that have not been fully studied for their ability to interpret SAR sea‐ice imagery. Gabor filters and Markov random fields (MRF) are two such methods considered here. Classification and significance level testing shows that co‐occurrence probabilities classify the data with the highest accuracy, with Gaborfilters a close second. MRF results significantly lag Gabor and co‐occurrence results. However, the MRF features are uncorrelated with respect to co‐occurrence and Gabor features. The fused co‐occurrence/MRF feature set achieves higher performance. In addition, it is demonstrated that uniform quantization is a preferred quantization method compared to histogram equalization.     

Sequence stratigraphy of the Dakota Formation (Cenomanian), southern Utah: interplay of eustasy and tectonics in a foreland basin

The Dakota Formation in southern Utah (Kaiparowits Plateau region) is a succession of fluvial through shallow-marine facies formed during the initial phase of filling of the Cretaceous foreland basin of the Sevier orogen. It records a number of relative sea-level fluctuations of different frequency and magnitude, controlled by both tectonic and eustatic processes during the Early to Late Cenomanian. The Dakota Formation is divided into eight units separated by regionally correlatable surfaces that formed in response to relative sea-level fluctuations. Units 1–6B represent, from bottom to top, valley-filling deposits of braided streams (unit 1), alluvial plain with anastomosed to meandering streams (2), tide-influenced fluvial and tide-dominated estuarine systems (3A and 3B), offshore to wave-dominated shoreface (4, 5 and 6A) and an estuarine incised valley fill (6A and 6B). The onset of flexural subsidence and deposition in the foredeep was preceded by eastward tilting of the basement strata, probably caused by forebulge migration during the Early Cretaceous, which resulted in the incision of a westward-deepening predepositional relief. The basal fluvial deposits of the Dakota Formation, filling the relief, reflect the onset of flexural subsidence and, possibly, a eustatic sea-level rise. Throughout the deposition of the Dakota Formation, flexure controlled the long-term, regional subsidence rate. Locally, reactivation of basement faults caused additional subsidence or minor uplift. Owing to a generally low subsidence rate, differential compaction locally influenced the degree of preservation of the Dakota units. Eustasy is believed to have been the main control on the high-frequency relative sea-level changes recorded in the Dakota. All surfaces that separate individual Dakota units are flooding surfaces, most of which are superimposed on sequence boundaries. Therefore, with the exception of unit 6B and, possibly, 3B, most of the Dakota units are interpreted as depositional sequences. Fluvial strata of units 1 and 2 are interpreted as low-frequency sequences; the coal zones at the base and within unit 2 may represent a response to higher frequency flooding events. Units 3A to 6B are interpreted as having formed in response to high-frequency relative sea-level fluctuations. Shallow-marine units 4, 5 and 6A, interpreted as parasequences by earlier authors, can be divided into facies-based systems tracts and show signs of subaerial exposure at their boundaries, which allows interpretation as high-frequency sequences. In general, the Dakota units are good examples of high-frequency sequences that can be misinterpreted as parasequences, especially in distal facies or in places where signs of subaerial erosion are missing or have been removed by subsequent transgressive erosion. Both low- and high-frequency sequences represented by the Dakota units are stacked in an overall retrogradational pattern, which reflects a long-term relative sea-level rise, punctuated by brief periods of relative sea-level fall. There is a relatively major fall near the end of the M. mosbyense Zone, whereas the base of the Tropic shale is characterized by a major flooding event at the base of the S. gracile Zone. A similar record of Cenomanian relative sea-level change in other regions, e.g. Europe or northern Africa, suggests that both high- and low-frequency relative sea-level changes were governed by eustasy. The high-frequency relative sea-level fluctuations of ≈100 kyr periodicity and ≈10–20 m magnitude, similar to those recorded in other Cenomanian successions in North America and Central Europe, were probably related to Milankovitch-band, climate-driven eustasy. Either minor glacioeustatic fluctuations, superimposed on the overall greenhouse climate of the mid-Cretaceous, or mechanisms, such as the fluctuations in groundwater volume on continents or thermal expansion and contraction of sea water, could have controlled the high-frequency eustatic fluctuations.     

Assessing the potential impact of climate change on the UK’s electricity network

We investigate how weather affects the UK’s electricity network, by examining past data of weather-related faults on the transmission and distribution networks. By formalising the current relationship between weather-related faults and weather, we use climate projections from a regional climate model (RCM) to quantitatively assess how the frequency of these faults may change in the future. This study found that the incidences of both lightning and solar heat faults are projected to increase in the future. There is evidence that the conditions that cause flooding faults may increase in the future, but a reduction cannot be ruled out. Due to the uncertainty associated with future wind projections, there is no clear signal associated with the future frequency of wind and gale faults, however snow, sleet and blizzard faults are projected to decrease due to a reduction in the number of snow days.     

Autochthonous inheritance of zircon through Cretaceous partial melting of Carboniferous plutons: the Arthur River Complex,Fiordland, New Zealand

TIMS and SHRIMP U–Pb analyses of zircons from Milford Orthogneiss metadiorite (P = 1–1.4 GPa; T ≥ 750°C) of the Arthur River Complex of northern Fiordland reveal a bimodal age pattern. Zircons are predominantly either Paleozoic (357.0 ± 4.2 Ma) and prismatic with oscillatory zoning, or Cretaceous (133.9 ± 1.8 Ma) and ovoid with sector or patchy zoning. The younger age component is not observed overgrowing older grains. Most grains of both ages are overgrown by younger Cretaceous (~120 Ma) metamorphic zircon with very low U and Th/U (0.01). We interpret the bimodal ages as indicating initial igneous emplacement and crystallisation of a dioritic protolith pluton at ~357 Ma, followed by Early Cretaceous granulite-facies metamorphism at ~134 Ma, during which a significant fraction (~60%) of the zircon grains dissolved, and subsequently reprecipitated, effectively in situ, in partial melt pockets. The remaining ~40% of original Paleozoic grains were apparently not in contact with the partial melt, remained intact, and show only slight degrees of Pb loss. Sector zoning of the Cretaceous grains discounts their origin by solid state recrystallisation of Paleozoic grains. The alternative explanation—that the Paleozoic component represents a 40% inherited component in an Early Cretaceous transgressive dioritic magma—is considered less likely given the relatively high solubility of zircon in magma of this composition, the absence of 134 Ma overgrowths, the single discrete age of the older component, equivalent time-integrated ¹⁷⁷Hf/¹⁷⁶Hf compositions of both age groups, and the absence of the Cambrian-Proterozoic detrital zircon that dominates regional Cambro-Ordovician metasedimentary populations. Similar bimodal Carboniferous-Early Cretaceous age distributions are characteristic of the wider Arthur River Complex; 8 of 12 previously dated dioritic samples have a Paleozoic component averaging 51%. Furthermore, the age and chemical suite affinity of these and several more felsic rocks can be matched with those of the relatively unmetamorphosed Carboniferous plutonic terrane along the strike of the Mesozoic margin in southern Fiordland, also supporting the in situ derivation of the Carboniferous “inherited” component.