Water and fine sediment dynamics in transient river plumes in a small, reef-fringed bay, Guam

Fouha Bay is a 400-m-long funnel-shaped, 10-m-deep, coral-fringed embayment on the southwest coast of Guam. It drains a small catchment area (5 km²) of steeply sloping, highly erodible lateritic soils. River floods are short-lived and the sediment load is very large, with suspended sediment concentration (SSC) exceeding 1000 mg l⁻¹. The resulting river plume is about 1 m thick and is pulsing in a series of 1–2 h-long events, with outflow velocity peaking at 0.05 m s⁻¹. Turbulent entrainment results in an oceanic inflow at depth into the bay. As soon as river flow stops, the plume floats passively and takes 5 days to be flushed out of Fouha Bay. The suspended fine sediment flocculates in 5 min and aggregates on ambient transparent exopolymer particles to form muddy marine snow flocs. In calm weather, about 75% of the riverine mud settles out of the river plume into the underlying oceanic water where it forms a transient nepheloid layer. This mud ultimately settles and is trapped in Fouha Bay. Under typhoon-driven, swell waves, the surface plume is at least 7 m thick and bottom entrainment of mud results in SSC exceeding 1000 mg l⁻¹ for several days. It is suggested that successful management of fringing coral reefs adjacent to volcanic islands may not be possible without proper land use management in the surrounding catchment.     

Sedimentation in mangroves and coral reefs in a wet tropical island, Pohnpei, Micronesia

A six-month-long study was conducted of the fate of turbid river plumes from the Enipein watershed in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Pohnpei is one of the wettest places on earth, with a mean annual rainfall exceeding 4 m in the lowlands and 8 m in the highlands. The river waters were clear of sediment except after major storms with rainfall exceeding 5 cm day⁻¹. Following a storm, the river plume spread in the mangrove fringed estuary and in the coral reef lagoon. The waters were highly stratified in temperature, salinity, and suspended sediment concentration. The brackish water was flushed out in four days, while the suspended sediment all settled out in the estuary, in the mangroves, and in the lagoon including on the coral reefs, in less than one day. The mean rate of sedimentation exceeded 35 mg cm⁻² d⁻¹ both over the mangroves and on the adjacent coral reefs. While this leads to no detrimental effects on the mangroves, sediment smothers corals and leads to substantial coral mortality in the lagoon. The mud is not flushed out from the lagoon because there are no strong currents from waves or tides. This high sedimentation rate is attributable to poor farming and land-use practices on the upland areas.     

Possible modes of coral-reef development at Molokai, Hawaii, inferred from seismic-reflection profiling

High-resolution, seismic-reflection data elucidate the late Quaternary development of the largest coral-reef complex in the main Hawaiian Islands. Six acoustic facies were identified from reflection characteristics and lithosome geometry. An extensive, buried platform with uniformly low relief was traced beneath fore-reef and marginal shelf environments. This highly reflective surface dips gently seaward to ~130 m depth and locally crops out on the seafloor. It probably represents a wave-cut platform or ancient reef flat. We propose alternative evolutionary models, in which sea-level changes have modulated the development of reef systems, to explain the observed stratigraphic relationships. The primary difference between the models is the origin of the underlying antecedent surface, which arguably could have formed during either regression/lowstand or subsequent transgression.     

Applying Four Different Risk Models in Local Ore Selection

Given the uncertainty in grade at a mine location, a financially risk-averse decision-maker may prefer to incorporate this uncertainty into the ore selection process. A FORTRAN program risksel is presented to calculate local risk-adjusted optimal ore selections using a negative exponential utility function and three dominance models: mean-variance, mean-downside risk, and stochastic dominance. All four methods are demonstrated in a grade control environment. In the case study, optimal selections range with the magnitude of financial risk that a decision-maker is prepared to accept. Except for the stochastic dominance method, the risk models reassign material from higher cost to lower cost processing options as the aversion to financial risk increases. The stochastic dominance model usually was unable to determine the optimal local selection.     

Modelling the effects of changes in the Earth's magnetic field from 1957 to 1997 on the ionospheric hmF2 and foF2 parameters

We have modelled the effects of changes in the Earth's magnetic field on the ionosphere as have occurred from 1957 to 1997 using the NCAR Thermosphere–Ionosphere–Electrodynamics General Circulation Model. Previous studies that attempted to quantify these effects used a constant wind field, so that any electro-dynamical coupling processes could not be accounted for. Using TIE-GCM we can account for these processes. We find substantial changes in the F2 layer peak height hmF2 (up to ±20 km) and critical frequency foF2 (up to ±0.5 MHz) over the Atlantic Ocean and South America, purely due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field (i.e. unrelated to greenhouse gas cooling effects, which are often held responsible for long-term trends in hmf2 and fof2). These would make up a significant contribution to observed long-term trends in these areas and therefore must be taken into account in their interpretation. Modelled trends of hmF2 and foF2 exhibit a strong seasonal and diurnal variation, highlighting the importance of separating data with respect to season and local time. Most of the modelled changes in hmF2 and foF2 can be related to changes in plasma transport up or down magnetic field lines driven by neutral winds, changes, which are mostly caused by changes in the inclination of the field, though changes in declination and neutral wind also play a role. Changes in the vertical component of the E×B drift seem to have little effect on hmF2 and foF2.     

Space use by Rhabdosargus holubi in a southern African estuary,with emphasis on fish movements and ecosystem connectivity

Twenty-one juvenile Cape stumpnose Rhabdosargus holubi (140–190 mm fork length) were tagged with internal acoustic transmitters in the lower, middle and upper reaches of the Kowie Estuary, South Africa. The movements of each fish were continually monitored from October 2014 to February 2015 using 22 stationary data-logging acoustic receivers situated at approximately equidistant intervals along the length of the estuary (21 km). Juvenile R. holubi spent the greatest proportion of time within the estuarine environment (83%), with the sea (16%) and riverine (1%) environments used to a much lesser extent. Within the estuarine environment, tagged individuals showed high levels of residency and fidelity to their capture and release sites; however, the degree of residency was dependent on the position of the release site, with batches in the upper and lower reaches exhibiting different space-use patterns. When larger juvenile R. holubi migrated back to the sea for the next phase of their life cycle, they generally did not return to the estuarine environment, thus indicating a permanent ontogenetic shift in habitat use with the onset of sexual maturity. This contribution to our understanding of the ecology of a ubiquitous estuarine fish further highlights the importance of estuarine habitats as nursery areas that require effective management.     

Conservation status of New Zealand marine mammals (suborders Cetacea and Pinnipedia), 2009

The conservation status of New Zealand (NZ) marine mammals (suborders Cetacea and Pinnipedia) is reappraised using the 2008 version of the NZ Threat Classification System. The list comprises 56 taxa (named species or subspecies, and as yet unnamed forms or types) in the following categories: Threatened—eight taxa (five Nationally Critical and three Nationally Endangered); Vagrant—six taxa; Migrant—20 taxa; and Data Deficient—13 taxa. A further nine taxa are listed as Not Threatened. Relative to the previous listing, the threat status of two species worsened: the NZ sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri) was uplisted to Nationally Critical and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) was uplisted to Nationally Endangered. No species was considered to have an improved status. With the uplisting of the NZ sea lion and the continued listing of the Hector's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori hectori) as Endangered and Maui's dolphin (C. hectori maui) as Nationally Critical, all three endemic NZ marine mammals are now considered threatened with extinction. We considered future research or management actions that would allow the downlisting of the eight taxa currently listed as Threatened.     

Quantifying the largest aggregation of giant trevally Caranx ignobilis (Carangidae) on record: implications for management

The giant trevally Caranx ignobilis (Forsskål) is an important apex predatory fish typically associated with coral reef communities. It is prized in recreational and commercial fisheries, yet little is known about its aggregation dynamics and susceptibility to fishing pressure. This study reports on a previously undocumented aggregation of mature giant trevally observed over a period of eight years (2010–2017) at Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve in southern Mozambique. The aggregation is one of the few recorded for this carangid in the western Indian Ocean and represents the first subtropical aggregation of giant trevally. The aggregation is also the largest recorded for this species, with up to 2 413 individuals representing an estimated biomass of approximately 30 tonnes. The size and predictability of this annual aggregation make it vulnerable to overexploitation and point towards the need for an appropriate conservation management strategy.     

Latitudinal gradients and poleward expansion of mangrove ecosystems in South Africa: 50 years after Macnae’s first assessment

Mangroves occur in South African estuaries at their poleward distribution limits, extending into temperate habitats. In 1963, William Macnae published the first comprehensive assessment of mangrove swamps in South Africa and made firsthand observations of these mangrove ecosystems. This article reassesses South African mangrove habitats, highlighting changes since Macnae’s assessment, through a literature review of research done in the past 50 years and using the results of a dedicated mangrove survey spanning 2012–2017. Until now, changes have been recorded mostly for mangrove vegetation, including a change in mangrove cover and a poleward shift of mangrove species. While some mangrove-associated fauna have disappeared from most sites (e.g. the gastropod Terebralia palustris), others, such as fiddler crabs, have spread farther south. The effects of decreasing diversity with an increase in latitude were not observed along the South African coast. Instead, habitat quality and estuarine mouth state seem to exert greater influence on species diversity in the mangroves, and a poleward shift in species distribution is now evident not just for the mangrove flora but for the fauna as well. South African mangrove research needs to include a continuous monitoring plan, especially if we are to contribute to global knowledge on blue carbon, the effects of sea-level rise, and the resilience of the mangrove ecosystem.