Land tenure type as an underrated legal constraint on the conservation management of coastal dunes: examples from Ireland

Legal factors play an underrated but significant role as constraints on conservation management. In this paper, based on observations in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, mode of land tenure is assessed to determine its influence on the conservation management of coastal dunes. The tenure types considered are: private ownership, corporate private ownership, tenancy, secured tenancy, leasing, common (joint) ownership, uncertain ownership, public ownership and its subset military ownership. It is suggested that multiple private ownership is least likely to favour effective conservation management. Public ownership by a statutory conservation authority and corporate private ownership by a conservation-orientated NGO are regarded as the optimum tenure types for conservation management of coastal dunes.     

A modified linear analysis of a wave-energy conversion buoy

The analysis of a pneumatic-type wave-energy conversion buoy is developed assuming independence of the buoy heaving motion and the motion of the water column within the center pipe. Results of the analysis are then compared with experimental data in a study of the relative air velocity within the turbine passage. The results compare very well. The effect of the variation of the center pipe length is found to be significant for periods about the surge chamber resonance but is negligible in the neighborhood of the heaving resonance period. Further, the theory is applied to a prototype buoy study of the U.S. Coast Guard, and a dimensionless design curve is developed from the results of the prototype analysis.     

Reconstructing historic Glacial Lake Outburst Floods through numerical modelling and geomorphological assessment: Extreme events in the Himalaya

Recession of high‐mountain glaciers in response to climatic change frequently results in the development of moraine‐dammed glacial lakes. Moraine dam failure is often accompanied by the release of large volumes of water and sediment, termed a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). Chukhung Glacier is a small (~3 km²) receding valley glacier in Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha) National Park, Nepal. Unlike many Himalayan glaciers, which possess a thick mantle of supraglacial debris, its surface is relatively clean. The glacier terminus has receded 1.3 km from its maximum Holocene position, and in doing so provided the space for an ice‐contact moraine‐dammed lake to develop. The lake had a maximum volume of 5.5 × 10⁵ m³ and drained as a result of breaching of the terminal moraine. An estimated 1.3 × 10⁵ m³ of material was removed from the terminal moraine during breach development. Numerical dam‐breach modelling, implemented within a Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) framework, was used to investigate a range of moraine‐dam failure scenarios. Reconstructed outflow peak discharges, including failure via overtopping and piping mechanisms, are in the range 146–2200 m³ s^‐1. Results from two‐dimensional hydrodynamic GLOF modelling indicate that maximum local flow depths may have exceeded 9 m, with maximum flow velocities exceeding 20 m s^‐1 within 700 m of the breach. The floodwaters mobilised a significant amount of material, sourced mostly from the expanding breach, forming a 300 m long and 100 m wide debris fan originating at the breach exit. moraine‐dam. These results also suggest that inundation of the entire floodplain may have been achieved within ten minutes of initial breach development, suggesting that debris fan development was rapid. We discuss the key glaciological and geomorphological factors that have determined the evolution of a hazardous moraine‐dammed lake complex and the subsequent generation of a GLOF and its geomorphological impact. © 2014 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Spatial and temporal variability in the lower food web of the tidal freshwater Hudson River

The mid Hudson River is a heterotrophic system where allochthonous inputs apparently fuel the largest proportion of secondary production and ecosystem metabolism. We have analyzed a 6-yr dataset collected quarterly at six stations spanning a 150-km reach to assess variability at inter- and intra-annual time scales and regional spatial scales. The major components of the lower food web: bacterial biomass, detrital particulate organic carbon (POC), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), show surprisingly discordant patterns in temporal and spatial variability. Bacterial abundance shows significant variability at all three scales, but the interannual variability is by far the greatest. DOC concentrations showed greatest variability among years, with intra-annual and spatial variability roughly equal. Freshwater flow is commonly considered a major driving force in river-estuarine variability but simple discharge was not a strong predictor of any component of suspended matter or DOC. For organisms in the Hudson River food web, these multiple scales of variability indicate highly unpredictable food resources in time and space, and these fluctuations may contribute to the variability in higher trophic levels.     

Experimental study of igneous and sedimentary apatite dissolution: Control of pH, distance from equilibrium, and temperature on dissolution rates

Apatite dissolution experiments were conducted using both a fluidized bed and stirred tank reactor over a range of pH, temperature, solution saturation state, and on non-carbonated and carbonated apatite compositions: igneous fluorapatite (FAP) and sedimentary carbonate fluorapatite (CFA), respectively. From 2 <pH <6, the rate of release from dissolution of all apatite components [calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), and fluoride (F)] increased with decreasing pH for FAP. From 6 < pH < 8.5, the FAP dissolution rate is pH independent. Measuring apatite dissolution rates at pH > 8.5 were not possible due to detection limits of the analytical techniques used in this study and the high insolubility of FAP. For the CFA compositions studied, the dissolution rate decreased with increasing pH from 4 < pH < 7. During early stages of the dissolution reaction for both FAP and CFA, mineral components were released in non-stoichiometric ratios with reacted solution ratios of dissolved Ca:P and Ca:F being greater than mineral stoichiometric ratios, suggesting that Ca was preferentially released compared to P and F from the mineral structure during the early stages of dissolution. An increase in reacted solution pH accompanies this early elevated release of Ca. As the dissolution reaction proceeded to steady state, dissolution became congruent. When normalized to BET measured surface area, FAP dissolved faster from 4 < pH < 7 compared to CFA. The apparent Arrhenius activation energy (E_a) of FAP dissolution over the temperature range of 25-55°C at pH = 3.0, I = 0.1, and pCO₂ = 0 is 8.3 ± 0.2 kcal mol⁻¹. Both the apparent exchange of solution H⁺ for solid-bound Ca at low pH in the early stage of dissolution and the E_a of dissolution suggest a surface and not a diffusion controlled dissolution reaction for FAP and CFA. The degree of undersaturation of the solution, ΔG_R, with respect to FAP was important in determining the dissolution rate. At pH = 3.0, I = 0.1, and pCO₂ = 0, the dissolution rate of FAP was ∼ 5× greater in the far-from-equilibrium region compared to the near-equilibrium slope region.A simple apatite weathering model incorporating the experimental results from this study was constructed, and numerical calculations suggest that during the Phanerozoic both the surface area of igneous rock available for weathering and the average global temperature were important factors in determining the P weathering flux from apatite dissolution. It is possible that elevated global temperatures coupled with relatively high surface area of igneous rock during the early- to mid-Paleozoic resulted in elevated P weathering fluxes, which along with climatic evolutionary pressures of the Neoproterozoic, facilitated the radiation of multicellular organisms, large-scale phosphorite deposition, and abundance of calcium phosphate shelled organisms during the early Cambrian.     

Nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition of bone collagen from marine and terrestrial animals

The stable nitrogen and carbon isotope ratios of bone collagen prepared from more than 100 animals representing 66 species of birds, fish, and mammals are presented. The δ¹⁵N values of bone collagen from animals that fed exclusively in the marine environment are, on average, 9%. more positive than those from animals that fed exclusively in the terrestrial environment; ranges for the two groups overlap by less than 1%. Bone collagen δ¹⁵N values also serve to separate marine fish from the small number of freshwater fish we analyzed. The bone collagen δ¹⁵N values of birds and fish that spent part of their life cycles feeding in the marine environment and part in the freshwater environment are intermediate between those of animals that fed exclusively in one or the other system. Further, animals that fed at successive trophic levels in the marine and terrestrial environment are separated, on average, by a 3%. difference in the δ¹⁵N values of their bone collagen. Specifically, carnivorous and herbivorous terrestrial animals have mean δ¹⁵N values for bone collagen of + 8.0 and + 5.3%., respectively. Among marine animals, those that fed on fish have a mean δ¹⁵N value for bone collagen of + 16.5%., whereas those that fed on invertebrates have a mean δ¹⁵N value of + 13.3%. These results support previous suggestions of a 3%. enrichment in δ¹⁵N values at each successively higher trophic level. In contrast to the results for δ¹⁵N values, the ranges of bone collagen δ¹³C values from marine and terrestrial feeders overlap to a great extent. Additionally, bone collagen δ¹³C values do not reflect the trophic levels at which the animals fed. These results indicate that bone collagen δ¹⁵N values will be useful in determining relative dependence on marine and terrestrial food sources and in investigating trophic level relationships among different animal species within an ecosystem. This approach should be applicable to animals represented by prehistoric or fossilized bone in which collagen is preserved.     

Composition-Induced Variations in SIMS Instrumental Mass Fractionation during Boron Isotope Ratio Measurements of Silicate Glasses

An analytical artefact is reported here related to differences in instrumental mass fractionation between NIST SRM glasses and natural geological glasses during SIMS boron isotope determinations. The data presented demonstrated an average 3.4‰ difference between the NIST glasses and natural basaltic to rhyolitic glasses mainly in terms of their sputtering-induced fractionation of boron isotopes. As no matrix effect was found among basaltic to rhyolitic glasses, instrumental mass fractionation of most natural glass samples can be corrected by using appropriate glass reference materials. In order to confirm the existence of the compositionally induced variations in boron SIMS instrumental mass bias, the observed offset in SIMS instrumental mass bias has been independently reproduced in two laboratories and the phenomenon has been found to be stable over a period of more than one year. This study highlights the need for a close match between the chemical composition of the reference material and the samples being investigated.