Reflection on the first five years of South Africa’s Acoustic Tracking Array Platform (ATAP): status,challenges and opportunities

The Acoustic Tracking Array Platform (ATAP) is a marine science programme that monitors the movements and migrations of inshore marine animals along the South African coastline. Acoustically tagged animals are monitored by an expanded network of approximately 100 automated data-logging acoustic receivers moored at strategic node sites, from Cape Point in the west to the South Africa–Mozambique border in the east. During five years since its inception, in 2011, the ATAP has achieved outstanding progress in terms of the numbers of animals and the variety of species tagged. To date, the ATAP has yielded over 2.6 million detections from more than 700 acoustically tagged animals, representing 27 different species from 20 families, including the African penguin Spheniscus demersus, fishery-at-risk species (e.g. dusky kob Argyrosomus japonicus) and iconic elasmobranchs (e.g. white shark Carcharodon carcharias). Following a period of considerable equipment loss in 2014, refinement of the receiver network was required and the deeper receivers at each site were decommissioned without influencing the integrity of the nationwide array. The platform, managed by the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, ultimately represents a low-cost method of collecting long-term data that currently benefits approximately 25 researchers from 14 organisations. Case studies are presented to expose the opportunities provided by the ATAP, which will undoubtedly yield new discoveries and provide a greater understanding of the movement patterns and migrations of a wide variety of inshore marine and estuary-associated species.     

A Travel Cost Study of Duck Hunting in the Upper South East of South Australia

Wetlands in the Upper South East (USE) of South Australia yield a range of values to their owners and to the wider community. One such value is that generated by duck hunting in the region. Wetland owners receive private benefits from hunting fees, while hunters gain a non-monetary consumers' surplus. These non-monetary benefits received by duck hunters through their enjoyment of hunting in wetlands are the primary focus of this paper. In order to estimate these values, a 'travel cost' survey of duck hunters participating in an organised shoot held by Wetlands and Wildlife in February 2000 was undertaken. The extent of the private recreation benefits so estimated is assessed in terms of their potential to stimulate the provision of wetlands for both private and social benefits.     

Measurements of diffusivity near the sediment-water interface with a fine-scale resistivity probe

Fine scale profiles of the sedimentary formation factor, F, were obtained from measurements of resistivity at millimetre intervals in marine sediments. These profiles demonstrated that rapid decreases in diffusivity occurred in the upper few centimeters of both compact intertidal sands and fine silty muds. In the compact sands, a 70% decrease in the formation factor was observed within 2 cm of the interface. Close correlations were found between the formation factor and sediment porosity for both sediment types. Profiles of $\text{1}\text{F}$ predicted from these correlations and porosity profiles were very similar to those obtained from measurements of resistivity. These correlations also suggested that φ^?3 is a better approximation of the formation factor in fine muds than the Archie relation φ^?2. In both sediments, the interfacial value of the diffusion coefficient was estimated to be between ~74 and ~87% of its value in free solution, a value much higher than is normally assumed.     

Challenges and strategies for better use of scientific information in the management of coastal estuaries

Numerous studies have concluded that better use of scientific information could improve the quality of coastal and estuarine environmental management. Approaches for effecting such a change include ecosystem-based, integrated, and adaptive management, but such basic re-orientation of estuarine and coastal management has proved difficult to achieve. Even environmental indicators, seemingly straightforward ways of injecting scientific information into decision making, have achieved broad on-the-ground use in relatively few instances—principally the largest estuary management programs. A conceptual framework useful for examining environmental management systems affecting the five PNCERS (Pacific Northwest coastal Ecosystems Regional Study) estuaries conceives of environmental managers, researchers, and interested and affected parties in the public as interacting through the multi-layered institutional arrangements that currently promote the utilization, management, or protection of coastal and estuarine resources. Considerable variation exists in the approach and effectiveness of the region's environmental management organizations. Interaction between science and management in the region appears to be limited to an extent by high transaction costs; a cultural divide between environmental scientists and environmental managers is perceived by members of both groups who work with the PNCERS estuaries as inhibiting communications between them. Mechanisms that both groups identify as useful for improving the flow of information between science and management are little used, perhaps as a result. The two groups have very different patterns of information dissemination and acquisition, and though both chose agency archives and databases as their top methods for disseminating information, neither group relies much on these vehicles for information they seek. Both residents' and practitioners' perceptions of threats to the PNCERS estuaries show patterns of estuary-to-estuary variation. One theme that emerges is that problems associated with poor land management in adjacent uplands are common to most of these estuaries, potentially providing a sense of commonality through which a more regional approach to estuary management could emerge. A common set of estuarine environmental indicators implemented for all estuaries could help instigate such a regional approach, but resource constraints, especially at the local level, will have to be overcome for that to occur. There is currently substantial lack of common vision among coastal practitioners as to the purpose and desirability of indicators, and relatively little experience or knowledge of their use, particularly at the local level. Use of estuarine science in the management of these estuaries appears to be greatest during periods in which the largest programmatic shifts in environmental management approaches occur, an observation consistent with other studies that have concluded that the use of environmental science in environmental management tends to be episodic.     

Abyssal peridotites >3,800 Ma from southern West Greenland: field relationships, petrography, geochronology, whole-rock and mineral chemistry of dunite and harzburgite inclusions in the Itsaq Gneiss Complex

Within the northern part of the early Archaean Itsaq Gneiss Complex (southern West Greenland) on the southern side of the Isua supracrustal belt, enclaves up to ~500 m long of variably altered ultramafic rocks contain some relics of unaltered dunite-harzburgite. These are associated with mafic supracrustal and plutonic rocks and siliceous metasediments. SHRIMP U/Pb zircon geochronology on non-igneous zircons in altered ultramafic rocks and on igneous zircons from components of the surrounding orthogneisses intruding them, indicate an absolute minimum age for the ultramafic rocks of ca. 3,650 Ma, but with an age of ca. 3,800 Ma most likely. The diverse ultramafic and mafic rocks with rarer metasediment were all first tectonically intercalated and then became enclosed in much more voluminous tonalitic rocks dated at ca. 3,800 Ma. This is interpreted to have occurred during the development of a 3,810-3,790-Ma composite magmatic arc early in the evolution of the Itsaq Gneiss Complex. This northern part of the Itsaq Gneiss Complex is the most favourable for the geochemical study of early Archaean protoliths because it experienced peak metamorphism only within the amphibolite facies with little or no in-situ melt segregation, and contains some areas that have undergone little deformation since ca. 3,800 Ma. Most of the ultramafic enclaves are thoroughly altered, and largely comprise secondary, hydrous phases. However, the centres of some enclaves have escaped alteration and comprise dunite and harzburgite with >95% olivine (Fo_89-91) + orthopyroxene (En₈₉) + Al-spinel (Cr_8-20) assemblages. The dunites and harzburgites are massive or irregularly layered and are olivine-veined on 5-10-m to 10-cm scales. Their whole rock major and rare earth element, and olivine and spinel compositions differ significantly from xenoliths representing the Archaean cratonic lithospheric mantle, but are typical of some modern abyssal peridotites. The harzburgites and dunites show both LREE depleted and enriched patterns; however, none show the massive REE depletion associated with the modelled removal of a komatiite. They are interpreted as being the products of small degrees of melt extraction, with some showing evidence of refertilisation. These Greenland dunites and harzburgites described here are currently the best characterised 'sample' of the early Archaean upper mantle.     

Postglacial formation and dynamics of North Patagonian Rainforest in the Chonos Archipelago, Southern Chile

Pollen analysis of continuous sediment cores from two lakes in the northern Chonos Archipelago (44°S) in southern Chile shows a complete postglacial record of vegetation change. The fossil records indicate that deglaciation was complete in the northern Chonos by at least 13,600 ¹⁴C yr BP. Ericaceous heath and grassland persisted for more than 600 years after deglaciation under the influence of dry/cold climates and frequent burning. Nothofagus-Pilgerodendron-Podocarpus forest, with modern analogues in the southern Chonos Archipelago, was established across the northern islands by 12,400 ¹⁴C yr BP under increasingly warm and wet climates. There is no evidence for a return to cooler climates during the Younger Dryas chronozone. The rise of Tepualia stipularis and Weinmannia trichosperma as important forest components between 10,600 and 6000 ¹⁴C yr BP may be associated with climates that were warmer than present. The collapse of Pilgerodendron communities during this time may have been triggered by a combination of factors related to disturbance frequency including tephra deposition events, fire and climate change. After 6000 ¹⁴C yr BP Pilgerodendron recovers and Nothofagus-Pilgerodendron-Tepualia forest persists until the present. European logging and burning activity may have increased the susceptibility of North Patagonian Rainforest to invasion by introduced species and to future collapse of the long-lived Pilgerodendron communities.     

Biotechnology and the future of rice production

Rice breeders are looking to basic bioscience and biotechnology for help in the solution of important problems that conventional breeding methods have not satisfactorily solved. Among these problems are durable resistance to recalcitrant pests and diseases such as yellow stem borer, gall midge, sheath blight, bacterial leaf blight, blast and tungro virus, and tolerance of abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and submergence. Nutrient use efficiency, yield potential and efficient hybrid rice production are additional problems for which biotechnology solutions are envisioned. IRRI's biotechnology program emphasizes techniques such as molecular markers, anther culture and DNA fingerprinting that accelerate conventional breeding, and also techniques such as wide hybridization and genetic engineering that broaden the gene pool that breeders can exploit. IRRI's experience in adopting and adapting biotechnology for use in its own breeding program is shared with the national agricultural research systems of Asia through the Asian Rice Biotechnology Network.