The importance of bioturbation to continental slope sediment structure and benthic processes off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

Even though the continental slope off Cape Hatteras has sediment accumulation rates on the order of 1 cm/year, large areas of soft sediment are intensively reworked by infaunal organisms. Primary sedimentary structures have been completely replaced with biogenic structures. Surface sedimentary structures are dominated by the bioturbational activities of a deep burrowing infauna (to at least 30 cm). The layer actively mixed by the benthos, as evidenced by sediment profile and X-ray images, is estimated to range from 5 to 20 cm, with the residence time for particles within the surface mixed layer ranging from about 4.5 to 18 years. The biological mixing parameter (G) ranges from 0.4 to 5.5, which indicates moderate to strong biological mixing relative to accumulation and strata formation. Bioturbation contributes to the dynamic forces affecting the surface sediments by decreasing compaction of sediment layers and dilating sediment fabrics by sediment mixing, and introducing large water-filled burrows and voids to subsurface sediments. The sediment profile images captured numerous subsurface feeding voids, and worms in the process of making deep burrows, many of which extended below the 5 to 10 cm average depth of the apparent color redoxpotential discontinuity layer. High rates of accumulation of organic-rich sediment lead to high standing stocks of benthos and intensive feeding/burrowing activity that result in organic rich stratagraphic sequences that are thoroughly mixed. Cape Hatteras is a apparent focusing point for the transport of shallow water sediments to the deep sea. Sediments across other areas of the continental slope just 100's of kilometers south of Cape Hatteras are not as thoroughly mixed or biologically active.     

JGOFS studies in the equatorial Pacific

This special issue is the third and final volume containing results from the JGOFS Process Study in the equatorial Pacific. Most of the Study in the equational Pacific. Most of the contributions evolved either from the US JGOFS workshop in 1994 on the equatorial Pacific in Scottsdale, AZ or from the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the Carbon Cycle of the Equatorial Pacific in 1995 in Noumea, New Caledonia.     

Hydrodynamic Performance of A Porous-Type Land-Fixed Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter

A hybrid, porous breakwater-Oscillating Water Column(OWC) Wave Energy Converter(WEC) system is put forward and its hydrodynamic performance is investigated using the fully nonlinear, open-source computational fluid dynamics(CFD) model, OpenFOAM. The permeable structure is positioned at the weather side of the OWC device and adjoined to its front wall. A numerical modelling approach is employed in which the interstices within the porous structure are explicitly defined. This permits the flow fiel...     

Evaluation of policy options for the live reef food fish trade in the province of Palawan,Western Philippines

The live reef food fish (LRFF) trade has an estimated annual retail value of US$1 billion in the Asia-Pacific region and at least US$30 million in the Philippines. Palawan Province is the trade's center accounting for as much as 55% of the commodity's total export. Concern about the LRFF trade has caused the Palawan Provincial government to take action to regulate the trade. Four key policy options to address the short-term policy objective of developing a sustainable LRFF industry through the reduction of threats associated with destructive fishing and overfishing were proposed. These four policy options and associated analyses were presented to stakeholders at three separate policy consultations. The stakeholders reached a consensus that a regulated LRFF trade was the most sensible option. As a result, the Provincial Government of Palawan took action to enact “The Palawan Live Reef Fish Ordinance of 2006”, which provides for the sustainable and integrated regulation of the LRFF industry. This provincial ordinance will assist in crafting a national policy for the LRFF trade and may also be useful in revising the 1998 Philippine Fisheries Code. The key challenge is how to translate the ordinance provisions into effective on-the-ground actions.     

Photochemical production of molecular hydrogen in lake water and coastal seawater

Samples of lake water and coastal seawater from Nova Scotia, Canada, were irradiated with natural or artificial sunlight to investigate the potential for photochemical hydrogen production. Hydrogen photo-production was observed in all natural water samples. Rates of hydrogen formation were highest in coloured lake water (range: 98–163 pmol L^− 1h^− 1) and lower in seawater (range: 19–45 pmol L^− 1 h ^− 1). Dilutions of the most highly coloured lake sample (Kejimkujik Lake) showed a positive linear relationship between H₂ production rates and CDOM concentration. Photo-production rates normalised to UV absorption coefficients at 350 nm indicated that the photochemical efficiency of hydrogen formation varied between samples, perhaps due to differences in the CDOM composition. Photochemical hydrogen formation was also seen in solutions of syringic acid and acetaldehyde: two low-molecular-weight carbonyl compounds found in natural waters. Photochemistry may therefore offer least a partial explanation for the persistently high levels of hydrogen observed in the low-latitude surface ocean.     

Tectonic evolution of the Cape and Karoo basins of South Africa

The Cape and Karoo basins formed within the continental interior of Gondwana. Subsidence resulted from the vertical motion of rigid basement blocks and intervening crustal faults. Each basin episode records a three-stage evolution consisting of crustal uplift, fault-controlled subsidence, and long periods of regional subsidence largely unaccompanied by faulting or erosional truncation. The large-scale episodes of subsidence were probably the result of lithospheric deflection due to subduction-driven mantle flow. The early Paleozoic Cape basin records the combined effects of a north-dipping intra-crustal décollement (a late Neoproterozoic suture) and a right-stepping offset between thick Rio de la Plata craton and Namaqua basement. Following the Saldanian orogeny, a suite of small rift basins and their post-rift drape formed at this releasing stepover. Great thicknesses of quartz sandstone (Ordovician–Silurian) and mudstone (Devonian) accumulation are attributed to subsidence by rheological weakening and mantle flow. In contrast, the Karoo basin is a cratonic cover that mimics the underlying basement blocks. The Permian Ecca and lower Beaufort groups were deposited in a southward-deepening ramp syncline by extensional decoupling on the intra-crustal décollement. Reflection seismic and deep-burial diagenetic studies indicate that the Cape orogeny started in the Early Triassic. Deformation was partitioned into basement-involved strike-slip faults and thin-skinned thrusting. Uplift of the Namaqua basement resulted in erosion of the Beaufort cover. East of the Cape fold belt, contemporaneous subsidence and tilting of the Natal basement created a late Karoo transtensional foreland basin, the Stormberg depocentre. Early Jurassic tectonic resetting and continental flood basalts terminated the Karoo basin.     

Co-management of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) fisheries

The countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have a relatively poor record of fisheries management and the need to reform fisheries governance is urgent. There is now increasing interest in getting fishers and other stakeholders more involved in management through co-management and community-based management approaches. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potentials of co-management as an alternative fisheries management strategy for the countries in the CARICOM region. Co-management is found to have potential but there will need to be capacity-building and institutional strengthening of fisheries departments, fishers and NGOs to participate in co-management. Pilot projects should be initiated to gain practical experience in co-management.