Institutional ambiguity in implementing the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive

This article addresses the institutional ambiguity that exists between the European, Regional and Member State levels in the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The two main reasons for the emergence of institutional ambiguity are (1) the MSFD being a framework directive and (2) Member States are required to coordinate the implementation of the MFSD through the Regional Sea Conventions. Institutional ambiguity refers to the interference zone between different institutional settings that come together in new policy practices. New rules of the game are needed to bring these institutional settings together and the room to manoeuvre for the actors who negotiate these rules is a defining feature of institutional ambiguity. This article analyses the institutional ambiguity associated with MSFD implementation on the European and regional level for four European Seas: the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The results indicate different levels of institutional ambiguity in each of the four regions, with the lowest level of ambiguity in the Baltic Sea and the highest in the Mediterranean Sea. Institutional ambiguity also exists on the European level, as coordination efforts have not resulted in clear directions for the implementation of the MSFD as yet. The level of institutional ambiguity is influenced by the relative number of EU member states bordering the particular sea and whether they consider implementation of the MFSD to be urgent. Member States bordering the Mediterranean and the Black Seas lack the support of Regional Sea Conventions in addition to receiving limited direction from the European level.     

Pleistocene Ross seal (ommatophoca Rossi) from New Zealand (note)

A fossil seal jaw from the Early Pleistocene (Wanganui Series; Hautawan Stage) of Napier, New Zealand, is identified as that of an Ommatophoca rossi juvenile of less than 1.8 m body length.     

Why Web GIS May Not Be Enough: A Case Study with the Virtual Research Vessel

During several decades of investigation, the East Pacific Rise seafloor-spreading center at 9°-10°N has been explored by marine geologists, geophysicists, chemists, and biologists, and has emerged as one of the best studied sections of the global midocean ridge. It is an example of a region for which there is now a great wealth of observational data, results, and data-driven theoretical studies. However, these have yet to be fully utilized, either by research scientists or educators. While the situation is improving, a large amount of data, results, and related theoretical models still exist either in an inert, noninteractive form (e.g., journal publications) or as unlinked and currently incompatible computer data or algorithms. Presented here is the prototype of a computational environment and toolset, called the Virtual Research Vessel, to improve the situation by providing marine scientists and educators with simultaneous access to data, maps, and numerical models. While infrastructure is desired and needed for ready access to data and the resulting maps via web GIS in order to link disparate data sets (data to data), it is argued that data must also be linked to models for better exploration of new relations between observables, refinement of numerical simulations, and the quantitative evaluation of scientific hypotheses. For widespread data access, web GIS is therefore only a preliminary step rather than a final solution, and the ongoing implementation of the Virtual Research Vessel (scheduled for final completion in 2004-2005) is a case study for the midocean ridge community to test the effectiveness of moving beyond the data-to-data mode towards data-to-models and data-to-interpretation.     

Imaging Pathways in Fractured Rock Using Three‐Dimensional Electrical Resistivity Tomography

Major challenges exist in delineating bedrock fracture zones because these cause abrupt changes in geological and hydrogeological properties over small distances. Borehole observations cannot sufficiently capture heterogeneity in these systems. Geophysical techniques offer the potential to image properties and processes in between boreholes. We used three‐dimensional cross borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in a 9 m (diameter) × 15 m well field to capture high‐resolution flow and transport processes in a fractured mudstone contaminated by chlorinated solvents, primarily trichloroethylene. Conductive (sodium bromide) and resistive (deionized water) injections were monitored in seven boreholes. Electrode arrays with isolation packers and fluid sampling ports were designed to enable acquisition of ERT measurements during pulsed tracer injections. Fracture zone locations and hydraulic pathways inferred from hydraulic head drawdown data were compared with electrical conductivity distributions from ERT measurements. Static ERT imaging has limited resolution to decipher individual fractures; however, these images showed alternating conductive and resistive zones, consistent with alternating laminated and massive mudstone units at the site. Tracer evolution and migration was clearly revealed in time‐lapse ERT images and supported by in situ borehole vertical apparent conductivity profiles collected during the pulsed tracer test. While water samples provided important local information at the extraction borehole, ERT delineated tracer migration over spatial scales capturing the primary hydrogeological heterogeneity controlling flow and transport. The fate of these tracer injections at this scale could not have been quantified using borehole logging and/or borehole sampling methods alone.     

Enigmatic clastic pipe swarms and implications for fluidization dynamics in aeolian deposits

Soft‐sediment deformation of contorted and massive sandstone is common throughout much of the siliciclastic record, but clastic pipes represent a distinctive class of pressurized synsedimentary features. Remarkable centimetre to metre‐scale clastic pipe exposures in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of Utah (USA) establish a range of pipe sizes, expressions and relationships to the host rock in an erg margin setting, traditionally thought to be just a dry desert system. In particular, the field and laboratory characterizations of cylindrical pipes show internal concentric, annular rings that imply water fluidization, with alignment of long grain axes due to shear flow along pipe margins. Central interior parts of decimetre‐scale pipes appear massive in plan view, but display weakly developed pseudobedding from post‐pressure release, gravitational settling in the cross‐sectional view. Deformation features of conjugate fractures, ring faults, hypotrochoid patterns (geometric arcs and circles) and breccia in the host material reflect both brittle and ductile behaviour in response to the fluidization and injection of the clastic pipes. The stratigraphic context of individual pipes and the stratabound intervals of pipe features imply dynamic deformation nearly coincident with deposition in this Early Jurassic aeolian system related to multiple factors of groundwater expulsion, timing and local host sediment properties that influenced pipe development. Although the pipe features might be easily overlooked as a smaller scale feature of soft‐sediment deformation in dune deposits, these are valuable environmental indications of disrupted fluid pathways within porous, reservoir quality sands, associated with possible combinations of periodic springs, high water‐table conditions and strong ground‐motion events. These pipe examples may be important analogues where exposures are not so clear, with applications to diverse modern and ancient clastic settings internationally on Earth as well as in planetary explorations such as on Mars.     

Stable and clumped isotopes in desert carbonate spring and lake deposits reveal palaeohydrology: A case study of the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone,south‐western USA

Carbon, oxygen and clumped isotope (Δ₄₇) values were measured from lacustrine and tufa (spring)‐mound carbonate deposits in the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of southern Utah and northern Arizona in order to understand the palaeohydrology. These carbonate deposits are enriched in both ¹⁸O and ¹³C across the basin from east to west; neither isotope is strongly sensitive to the carbonate facies. However, ¹⁸O is enriched in lake carbonate deposits compared to the associated spring mounds. This is consistent with evaporation of the spring waters as they exited the mounds and were retained in interdune lakes. Clumped isotopes (Δ₄₇) exhibit minor systematic differences between lake and tufa‐mound temperatures, suggesting that the rate of carbonate formation under ambient conditions was moderate. These clumped isotope values imply palaeotemperature elevated beyond reasonable surface temperatures (54 to 86°C), which indicates limited bond reordering at estimated burial depths of ca 4 to 5 km, consistent with independent estimates of sediment thickness and burial depth gradients across the basin. Although clumped isotopes do not provide surface temperature information in this case, they still provide useful burial information and support interpretations of the evolution of groundwater locally. The findings of this study significantly extend the utility of combining stable isotope and clumped isotope methods into aeolian environments.     

Selecting parameters for the environmental interpretation of peat molecular chemistry – A pyrolysis-GC/MS study

A number of samples from a deep peat bog in Tierra del Fuego were analyzed using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) in order to extract parameters that might be used to interpret the peat chemistry in terms of vegetation change, anaerobic and aerobic decomposition, and fire incidence. The choice of parameters was based on factor analysis of 177 pyrolysis products, quantified for 13 samples, separated into extract and residue, as well as the total samples. Factor analysis of extracts, residues and total samples yielded similar classifications in terms of vegetation and decomposition. Pyrolysis products and ratios that most clearly differentiated samples were used to interpret the depth profile. Although interpretation was not always straightforward, indications of parameters to describe vegetation shifts, aerobic and anaerobic decomposition, and fire largely coincided. These parameters will be used in a forthcoming study for a more complete interpretation of the peat profile.     

Localized ductile thrusting north of the Variscan Front,Ross Island,southwest Ireland

Two thrusts occur on Ross Island: the Head of Ross Thrust and the more southerly Ross Island Thrust. These lie to the north of the Killarney–Mallow Fault (KMF), the boundary frequently interpreted as the Variscan Front. The Ross Island Thrust, exposed in outcrop and in seven borehole cores, has emplaced dark blue–grey limestones of the Courceyan Ballysteen Formation over pale grey–brown Rockfield Limestone Formation of Chadian–Holkerian age. These lithologies at Ross Island exhibit a continuum of deformation at both the micro‐ and macro‐scale, beginning with the generation of a spaced cleavage, formed during layer parallel shortening, that was subsequently rotated into parallelism with fold axial planes. Extensional microstructures are predominant in thin section and are associated with attenuation of the fold limb. Calcite veins are also attenuated and lie parallel to a mylonitic fabric close to the thrust plane. Lithological boundaries, the prominent pressure solution cleavage and the southerly dipping limb of an asymmetrical antiform are all parallel and form a composite planar anisotropy. This has controlled the location of the ductile Ross Island Thrust, which formed during the attenuation and shearing of a common fold limb. Ductile thrusts within the limestones at Ross Island contrast with the reactivation of basin‐margin extensional faults further to the south along the major KMF. The Ross Island Thrust is considered to result from deformation ahead of the major northerly propagating Variscan décollement thrust and does not necessitate a continuous décollement structure north of the KMF. Mineralization at Ross Island exhibits remobilization associated with the formation of a pressure‐solution cleavage and probably pre‐dates thrusting. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The nature of publishing and assessment in Geography and Environmental Studies: evidence from the Research Assessment Exercise 2008

We present a summary of the kinds of outputs submitted to the Geography and Environmental Studies sub-panel (H-32) for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and examine the relationships between the peer assessment of research quality that the RAE process has typified, and alternative modes of assessment based on bibliometrics. This comparison is effected using (in aggregate form) some of the results from the RAE, together with citation data gathered after completion of the RAE assessment, specifically for the purpose of this paper. We conclude that, if it continues to be necessary and desirable to assess, in some measure and however imprecisely, research quality, then peer assessment cannot be replaced by bibliometrics. Bibliometrics permit measurement of something that may be linked to quality but is essentially a different phenomenon – a measure of 'impact', for example.