Continental shelf nurseries and recruitment variability in American plaice and yellowtail flounder on the Grand Bank: insights into stock resiliency

In 1994, a directed fishing moratorium was declared for Grand Bank American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides) and yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea) stocks because both stocks showed severe declines in abundance from heavy exploitation during the mid 1980s and early 1990s. Four years later, the fishery for yellowtail re-opened while the plaice stock has shown little recovery and the moratorium is still in effect. To assess the possible causes of the differences in recovery between species, we examined the spatial structure and environmental characteristics of the continental shelf nursery habitats of plaice and yellowtail, and their relationship to recruitment variability and overall population size. Depth plays a major influential role determining the spatial pattern and the abundance of juveniles of both species and in the case of plaice the spatial structure of the adult population also determines the amount of nursery area utilised by juveniles. Recruitment variability was higher in plaice than in yellowtail. We found year class synchrony in both species indicating that common environmental conditions and/or biological processes are affecting recruitment in a similar manner. Density-dependent regulation appears to be more severe in yellowtail and this should contribute to a more stable population when compared to plaice. These results are discussed in terms of resiliency of both stocks to over-exploitation.     

Temperature lapse rate and methane in Titan's troposphere

We have reanalyzed the Voyager radio occultation data for Titan, examining two alternative approaches to methane condensation. In one approach, methane condensation is facilitated by the presence of nitrogen because nitrogen lowers the condensation level of a methane/nitrogen mixture. The resulting enhancement in methane condensation lowers the upper limit on surface relative humidity of methane obtained from the Voyager occultation data from 0.7 to 0.6. We conclude that in this case the surface relative humidity of methane lies between 0.08 and 0.6, with values close to 0.6 indicated. In the other approach, methane is allowed to become supersaturated and reaches 1.4 times saturation in the troposphere. In this case, surface humidities up to 100% are allowed by the Voyager occultation data, and thus the upper limit must be set by other considerations. We conclude that if supersaturation is included, then the surface relative humidity of methane can be any value greater than 0.08--unless a deep ocean is present, in which case the surface relative humidity is limited to less than 0.85. Again, values close to 0.6 are indicated. Overall, the tropospheric lapse rate on Titan appears to be determined by radiative equilibrium. The lapse rate is everywhere stable against dry convection, but is unstable to moist convection. This finding is consistent with a supersaturated atmosphere in which condensation-and hence moist convection-is inhibited.     

Rapid changes in the sodium exosphere of Mercury

We imaged Mercury in sodium D₁ and D₂ emission for 6 days during the period 13–20 November 1997 using a 10×10-arc s aperture image slicer coupled to a high-resolution spectrograph. We corrected the sodium images for smearing by the terrestrial atmosphere by computing the actual seeing function from surface reflection images, and used this function to correct the sodium images. During the period of observation, large daily changes took place in both the total amount of sodium and its distribution over the planet. Total sodium increased by a factor of about 3 during this period. The sodium emission was brightest at longitudes near the subsolar longitude in the range 130–150°, with excess sodium at northern latitudes on some days, and excess sodium at southern latitudes on other days. There are no obviously outstanding geologic features at this longitude. The rapid changes observed during this period suggest a connection with solar activity, since the planet itself is apparently geologically inactive. The F10.7 cm solar flux during this period varied only slightly, with an increase of about 15%, probably insufficient to account for the observed changes. However, there were a number of coronal mass ejection (CME) events, some of which were directed towards the general area of Mercury. We suggest that the changes in the visible neutral sodium atmosphere might be a result of the effect of CMEs on Mercury.     

Reflection moveout inversion in azimuthally anisotropic media: accuracy, limitations and acquisition

Parameter estimation from the elliptical variations in the normal-moveout (NMO) velocity in azimuthally anisotropic media is sensitive to the angular separation between the survey lines in 2D, or equivalently, the source-to-receiver azimuth in 3D, and to the set of azimuths used in the inversion procedure. The accuracy in estimating the orientation of an NMO ellipse, in particular the parameter α, is also sensitive to the magnitude of anisotropy. On the other hand, the accuracy in estimating the semi-axes of the NMO-velocity ellipse is about the same for any magnitude of anisotropy.   To invert for the NMO ellipse parameters at least three NMO-velocity measurements along distinct azimuth directions are needed. In order to maximize the accuracy and stability in parameter estimation, it is best to have the azimuths for the three source-to-receiver directions 60° apart. Having more than three distinct source-to-receiver azimuths (e.g. full azimuthal coverage) provides a useful data redundancy that enhances the quality of the estimates.   In order to maximize quality in the inversion process, it is recommended to design the seismic data acquisition such that it contains small sectors (≤10°) with adequate fold and offset distribution.   Using three NMO-velocity measurements, 60° apart, an azimuthally anisotropic layer overlain by an azimuthally isotropic overburden (as might occur for fractured reservoirs) should have a relative thickness (in time) with respect to the total thickness at least equal to the ratio of the error in the NMO (stacking) velocity to the interval anisotropy of the fractured layer. Coverage along more than three azimuths, however, improves this limitation, which is imposed by Dix differentiation, by at most 50%, depending on the number of observations (NMO velocities) that enter the inversion procedure.     

Modeling spatio-temporal relationships: retrospect and prospect

Interest in space–time modeling is experiencing a resurgence, in part because more and more sizeable space–time datasets are becoming readily available. Currently techniques to describe these data, many of which have existed for years, are being utilized and improved. This paper surveys general categories of these techniques (i.e., autoregressive-integrated-moving-average models, space–time autoregressive models, three-dimensional geostatistical models, and panel data models), in retrospect, demonstrates a future prospect (i.e., spatial filtering models), and suggests important topics for incorporation into a research agenda, including ones pertaining to non-normal random variables, panel data models, space–time heterogeneity, missing data, and distributional properties of space–time filters.     

Coming to the table: Early stakeholder engagement in marine spatial planning

From 2009 to 2011, marine spatial planning (MSP) rapidly gained visibility in the United States as a promising ocean management tool. A few small-scale planning efforts were completed in state waters, and the Obama Administration proposed a framework for large-scale regional MSP throughout the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. During that same time period, the authors engaged a variety of U.S ocean stakeholders in a series of dialogs with several goals: to share information about what MSP is or could be, to hear stakeholder views and concerns about MSP, and to foster better understanding between those who depend on ocean resources for their livelihood and ocean conservation advocates. The stakeholder meetings were supplemented with several rounds of in-depth interviews and a survey. Despite some predictable areas of conflict, project participants agreed on a number of issues related to stakeholder engagement in MSP: all felt strongly that government planners need to engage outsiders earlier, more often, more meaningfully, and through an open and transparent process. Equally important, the project affirmed the value of bringing unlike parties together at the earliest opportunity to learn, talk, and listen to others with whom they rarely engage.     

Development of a hybrid simulation controller for full‐scale experimental investigation of seismic retrofits for soft‐story woodframe buildings

Hybrid simulations of a full‐scale soft‐story woodframe building specimen with various retrofits were carried out as part of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Research project – NEES‐Soft: seismic risk reduction for soft‐story woodframe buildings. The test structure in the hybrid simulation was a three‐story woodframe building that was divided into a numerical substructure of the first story with various retrofits and a full‐scale physical substructure of the upper two stories. Four long‐stroke actuators, two at the second floor and two at the roof diaphragm, were attached to the physical substructure to impose the simulated seismic responses including both translation and in‐plane rotation. Challenges associated with this first implementation of a full‐scale hybrid simulation on a woodframe building were identified. This paper presents the development and validation of a scalable and robust hybrid simulation controller for efficient test site deployment. The development consisted of three incremental validation phases ranging from small‐scale, mid‐scale, to full‐scale tests conducted at three laboratories. Experimental setup, procedure, and results of each phase of the controller development are discussed, demonstrating the effectiveness and efficiency of the incremental controller development approach for large‐scale hybrid simulation programs with complex test setup. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advanced spatial statistics for analysing and visualizing geo-referenced data

Abstract

Spatial statistics supplies advanced methods for analysing environmental data, and copes with observational interdependencies similar to the way principal components analysis treats multicollinearity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) utilizes kriging from geostatistics for mapping and visualizing environmental data. A conceptual framework is articulated between the interpolation problem in kriging and the missing data problem in spatial statistics, with special reference to relations between the exponential semi-variogram and the conditional autoregressive models. Supercomputing experiments are summarized that simplify numerically the probability density function normalizing factor, which is of particular relevance to estimation tasks for the EMAP project.