Changes to the drivers of fire weather with a warming climate – a case study of southeast Tasmania

Projected changes to the global climate system have great implications for the incidence of large infrequent fires in many regions. Here we examine the synoptic-scale and local-scale influences on the incidence of extreme fire weather days and consider projections of the large-scale mean climate to explore future fire weather projections. We focus on a case study region with periodic extreme fire dangers; southeast Tasmania, Australia. We compare the performance of a dynamically downscaled regional climate model with Global Climate Model outputs as a tool for examining the local-scale influences while accounting for high regional variability. Many of the worst fires in Tasmania and the southeast Australian region are associated with deep cold fronts and strong prefrontal winds. The downscaled simulations reproduce this synoptic type with greater fidelity than a typical global climate model. The incidence of systems in this category is projected to increase through the century under a high emission scenario, driven mainly by an increase in the temperature of air masses, with little change in the strength of the systems. The regional climate model projected increase in frequency is smaller than for the global climate models used as input, with a large model range and natural variability. We also demonstrate how a blocking Foehn effect and topographic channelling contributed to the extreme conditions during an extreme fire weather day in Tasmania in January 2013. Effects such as these are likely to contribute to high fire danger throughout the century. Regional climate models are useful tools that enable various meteorological drivers of fire danger to be considered in projections of future fire danger.     

Knickpoint recession rate and catchment area: the case of uplifted rivers in Eastern Scotland

Knickpoint behaviour is a key to understanding both the landscape responses to a base‐level fall and the corresponding sediment fluxes from rejuvenated catchments, and must be accommodated in numerical models of large‐scale landscape evolution. Knickpoint recession in streams draining to glacio‐isostatically uplifted shorelines in eastern Scotland is used to assess whether knickpoint recession is a function of discharge (here represented by its surrogate, catchment area). Knickpoints are identified using DS plots (log slope versus log downstream distance). A statistically significant power relationship is found between distance of headward recession and catchment area. Such knickpoint recession data may be used to determine the values of m and n in the stream power law, E = KA^mSⁿ. The data have too many uncertainties, however, to judge definitively whether they are consistent with m = n = 1 (bedrock erosion is proportional to stream power and KPs should be maintained and propagate headwards) or m = 0·3, n = 0·7 (bedrock incision is proportional to shear stress and KPs do not propagate but degrade in place by rotation or replacement). Nonetheless, the E Scotland m and n values point to the dominance of catchment area (discharge) in determining knickpoint retreat rates and are therefore more consistent with the stream power law formulation in which bedrock erosion is proportional to stream power. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shark interactions in pelagic longline fisheries

Substantial ecological, economic and social problems result from shark interactions in pelagic longline fisheries. Improved understanding of industry attitudes and practices towards shark interactions assists with managing these problems. Information on fisher knowledge and new strategies for shark avoidance may benefit sharks and fishers. A study of 12 pelagic longline fisheries from eight countries shows that incentives to avoid sharks vary along a continuum, based on whether sharks represent an economic disadvantage or advantage. Shark avoidance practices are limited, including avoiding certain areas, moving when shark interaction rates are high, using fish instead of squid for bait and deeper setting. Some conventionally employed fishing gear and methods used to target non-shark species contribute to shark avoidance. Shark repellents hold promise; more research and development is needed. Development of specifically designed equipment to discard sharks could improve shark post release survival prospects, reduce gear loss and improve crew safety. With expanding exploitation of sharks for fins and meat, improved data collection, monitoring and precautionary shark management measures are needed to ensure that shark fishing mortality levels are sustainable.     

Late Pliocene to late Pleistocene environments preserved at the Palisades Site, central Yukon River, Alaska

The Palisades Site is an extensive silt-loam bluff complex on the central Yukon River preserving a nearly continuous record of the last 2 myr. Volcanic ash deposits present include the Old Crow (OCt; 140,000 yr), Sheep Creek (SCt; 190,000 yr), PA (2.02 myr), EC (ca. 2 myr), and Mining Camp (ca. 2 myr) tephras. Two new tephras, PAL and PAU, are geochemically similar to the PA and EC tephras and appear to be comagmatic. The PA tephra occurs in ice-wedge casts and solifluction deposits, marking the oldest occurrence of permafrost in central Alaska. Three buried forest horizons are present in association with dated tephras. The uppermost forest bed occurs immediately above the OCt; the middle forest horizon occurs below the SCt. The lowest forest bed occurs between the EC and the PA tephras, and correlates with the Dawson Cut Forest Bed. Plant taxa in all three peats are common elements of moist taiga forest found in lowlands of central Alaska today. Large mammal fossils are all from common late Pleistocene taxa. Those recovered in situ came from a single horizon radiocarbon dated to ca. 27,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The incongruous small mammal assemblage in that horizon reflects a diverse landscape with both wet and mesic environments.     

Evaluation of Composts from Agricultural Wastes with Fish Pond Sediment as Bulking Agent to Improve Compost Quality

Composts with five different ratios of agricultural wastes, viz. rice straw (RS), wheat straw (WS), potato plant (PP), and mustard stover (MS) were prepared with or without fish pond bottom sediment to investigate the compost maturity and their suitability for field application. The composting process was monitored through the changes in physico‐chemical parameters and germination index (GI) at every 7 days interval of the composting process. All the composts were dark brown and smelled like forest soil within 56 days of composting, which reflected its matured status. On the basis of the physico‐chemical parameters (bulk density: 0.84 g/cm³; pH 7.05; electrical conductivity: 3.52 mS/cm; cation exchange capacity:82.4 cmol/kg; total carbon:321.4 g/kg; total nitrogen: 16.9 g/kg; As: 6.8 mg/kg; Cd: 2.96 mg/kg; Cr: 29.6 mg/kg, Cu: 243.6 mg/kg; Hg: 0.019 mg/kg; Ni: 24.3 mg/kg; Pb: 62.1 mg/kg and Zn: 812 mg/kg) and GI (89–96%), it could be concluded that RS/WS/PP/MS, 1:1:2:1 v/v/v/v with fish pond sediment produced better compost in accordance with the Indian compost standard. Application of a combined randomized block design analysis revealed that there is a significant difference in the responses of the five composts, in relation to the time of composting. Hierarchical clustering algorithm was applied with a view to form homogeneous groups of five different composts on the basis of different physico‐chemical parameters. Therefore, the ratio of waste incorporation is an important decision for composting and addition of pond sediment can improve the quality of compost.     

A new hypothesis for the origin of the supposed giant snail Dinocochlea from the Wealden of Sussex, England

When first described in 1922, Dinocochlea ingens, an Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) fossil from the Wadhurst Clay Formation (Wealden) of Hastings in Sussex, England, was regarded as the steinkern of a huge gastropod over 2 m in length and claimed to be the largest gastropod ever to have lived. Most subsequent researchers have doubted the identity of D. ingens as a gastropod, usually believing it to be a pseudofossil, but no convincing explanation has been proposed for its origin. Restudy of the type material leads to the new hypothesis that Dinocochlea originated as a horizontal, corkscrew-shaped burrow resembling Helicodromites that acted as a nucleus for concretion growth. Sectioned specimens of Dinocochlea are filled with concentrically banded sediment interpreted to be growth rings of a concretion. Modification of a computer simulation designed to illustrate gastropod shell growth shows how the development of a concretion around a corkscrew-shaped burrow could lead to the morphology seen in Dinocochlea. The most likely tracemaker for Dinocochlea was a capitellid polychaete (‘threadworm’) with a body just a few mm in diameter.     

Évolution géodynamique messino-pliocène en Languedoc central : le paléo-réseau hydrographique de l’Orb et de l’Hérault (Sud de la France)

Résumé

En Languedoc central, la cartographie des sédiments formés lors de la crise messinienne et de ceux de la séquence pliocène, ainsi que les données patées paléontologiques nouvelles (Aigues-Vives et Servian) permettent de proposer une reconstitution du tracé messimeli des rivières actuelles (Orb et Hérault) transformées en rias à la suite du relèvement eustatique pliocène. L’Hérault messinien se singularise par une incision beaucoup plus faible que celle des autres rivères. En effet, la nature karstique de l’arinère-pays immédiat permet un enfouissement des eaux météoriques au profit d’aquifères profonds sous-jacents au drainage aérien du réseau hydrographique messinien. Le Languedoc central illustre, entre Roussillon et Rhône, le modèle géodynamique messino-pliocène de Clauzon. © Elsevier, Paris     

Fatty acid profiles of benthic environment associated with artificial reefs in subtropical Hong Kong

Artificial reefs can enhance habitat heterogeneity, especially in seabed degraded by bottom-dredging and trawling. However, the trophodynamics of such reef systems are not well understood. This study provided baseline data on trophic relationships in the benthic environment associated with artificial reefs in late spring and mid summer of subtropical Hong Kong, using fatty acid profiles as an indicator. Data from sediments collected at the reef base, materials from sediment traps deployed on top and bottom of the reefs, total particulate matter from the water column and oyster tissues from reef surface were subjected to principal component analysis. Results showed variations of fatty acid profiles in the total particulate matter, upper sediment trap and oyster tissue samples collected in the two samplings, indicating seasonal, trophodynamic changes within the reef system. The wastes produced by fish aggregating at the reefs can also contribute a source of biodeposits to the nearby benthic environment.     

Effect of surface wave propagation in a four-layered oceanic crust model

Dispersion of Rayleigh type surface wave propagation has been discussed in four-layered oceanic crust. It includes a sandy layer over a crystalline elastic half-space and over it there are two more layers—on the top inhomogeneous liquid layer and under it a liquid-saturated porous layer. Frequency equation is obtained in the form of determinant. The effects of the width of different layers as well as the inhomogeneity of liquid layer, sandiness of sandy layer on surface waves are depicted and shown graphically by considering all possible case of the particular model. Some special cases have been deduced, few special cases give the dispersion equation of Scholte wave and Stoneley wave, some of which have already been discussed elsewhere.