Downstream migration of juvenile European sturgeonAcipenser sturio L. in the Gironde estuary

The European sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) is an endangered diadromous fish species that spawns in the rivers in late spring and early summer. The juveniles spend their first years in the brackish waters (5‰ to 25‰) of the estuary zone before moving out to sea. This study describes the downstream migration pattern of juvenile sturgeon, belonging to the 1994 cohort, the only one born naturally in the Gironde basin, France since the end of the 1980s. During October 1994 to December 1996 the inland section of the Gironde estuary was sampled monthly by trawl (n=818 tows) and all European sturgeon caught (n=381) were marked and released. The first sturgeon of the 1994 cohort (TL=27 cm) were caught in early March 1995 in the zones furthest upstream. During their second fall of life, juveniles gradually acclimatized, and spread over a wide range of salinity conditions. A first incursion into marine water was also observed (at least for a few fish) by the end of the second winter. During this second period, sturgeon showed preference for two particular zones situated at 18 and 38 km, respectively, from the mouth of the estuary. These zones, belonging to two different salinity sectors of the estuary, did not appear to be any different to their neighbors with regards to depth and type of substrate. There were no significant size differences among estuarine zones. Seasonal movements of sturgeon seem to be motivated by a search for warmer temperatures. After a period of early acclimatization of 15 months, juvenile European sturgeon appear to be highly tolerant of salinity variations.     

Effect of restored freshwater inflow on macrofauna and meiofauna in upper Rincon Bayou, Texas, USA

Construction of two dams in 1958 and 1982 reduced freshwater inflow events to Rincon Bayou, part of the Nueces Delta near Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Inflow reduction led to a reverse estuary, where low-salinity water flooded the delta on incoming tides and higher salinities were found near the Nueces River. Hypersaline conditions caused by high evaporation rates and low water levels were common during summer in the upper reaches. In October 1995, an overflow diversion channel was created by lowering the bank of the Nueces River to restore inflow events into Rincon Bayou, which is the main stem creek that runs through the center of the Delta. Hypersaline conditions occurred four times from mid-1994 to mid-1997 and only once after mid-1997. Lower, rather than higher, salinity conditions were found after August 1997 in the upper reaches. Benthic faunal recovery was monitored by changes in macrofauna and meiofauna communities. Macrofauna responded to inflow events with increased abundances, biomass, and diversity but decreased during hypersaline conditions. Meiofauna abundance also increased with increasing inflow. Benthic characteristics were different in Rincon Bayou than in a reference site, upstream from introduced inflow. As inflow events have increased due to the diversion, the opportunities for positive responses to increased flow have increased. Although the oveflow channel was filled in at the end of the demonstration project in fall 2000, the City of Corpus Christi reopened the channel in fall 2001 because the ecological benefits were credited toward the state-mandated minimum flow requirement for the Nueces Estuary.     

Silicate determination in sea water: Toward a reagentless electrochemical method

Silicate has been determined in sea water by four different electrochemical methods based on the detection of the silicomolybdic complex formed in acidic media by the reaction between silicate and molybdenum salts. The first two methods are based on the addition of molybdate and protons in a seawater sample in an electrochemical cell. Cyclic voltammetry presents two reduction and two oxidation peaks giving four values of the concentration and therefore increasing the precision. Then chronoamperometry is performed on an electrode held at a constant potential. A semi-autonomous method has been developed based on the electrochemical anodic oxidation of molybdenum, the complexation of the oxidation product with silicate and the detection of the complex by cyclic voltammetry. This method is tested and compared with the classical colorimetric one during ANT XXIII/3 cruise across Drake Passage (January–February 2006). The detection limit is 1 μM and the deviation between both methods is less than 3% for concentrations higher than 10 μM. Finally a complete reagentless method with a precision of 2.6% is described based on the simultaneous formation of the molybdenum salt and protons in a divided electrochemical cell. This latter method should be very useful for developing a reagentless sensor suitable for long term in situ deployments on oceanic biogeochemical observatories.     

Laxmi Ridge – A continental sliver in the Arabian Sea

Identification by Bhattacharya et al. (1994) of seafloor spreading type magnetic anomalies in the basin lying between Laxmi Ridge in the Arabian Sea and the Indian continent necessitates a change in plate tectonic reconstruction. Naini and Talwani (1982) named this basin the Eastern Basin and we will continue to use this term in this paper. Others, in the literature, have called this the Laxmi Basin. Previous reconstructions had assumed that the Eastern Basin is underlain by continental crust. The new reconstruction moves Seychelles' original location closer to India and ameliorates a space problem in the Mascarene Basin. A new rotation pole between anomaly 28 and 34 times avoids skipping of fracture zones resulting from rotation poles described earlier. The negative gravity anomaly over the Eastern Basin is a necessary consequence of a continental sliver lying between oceanic crust on either side. Seismic velocities that are slightly greater than 7 km s^–1 under the Eastern need not be necessarily interpreted as material that underplates continental crust.     

Analysis of central western Europe deformation using GPS and seismic data

The kinematic field of central western Europe is characterized by relatively small movements (around 1–2 mm/year) and diffuse seismicity with earthquakes occurring mostly in the shallow crust (within 15 km), prevalently concentrated along the Alps and the European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS). In order to study and constrain the current crustal kinematic field we reconstructed the velocity and the strain field using permanent GPS stations, belonging to different networks (AGNES, EUREF, REGAL, RGP). The 2D strain rate tensor has been calculated using the method of least-squares collocation. Our results show that the area of maximum compression is located along the Alpine chain, where maximum values of 7 ± 2 nstrain/year are found, while maximum extension is measured between the Armorican Massif and the Massif Central, where values of 4 ± 2 nstrain/year are reached.The earthquakes with M > 3.0, have been used to estimate the seismic strain rates, while the style of the seismic deformation was reconstructed from the fault plane solutions (FPS) available from the literature. Relatively high values of seismic strain rates (around 10 nstrain/year) are measured along the Alpine Chain and the ECRIS. Results obtained by geodetic and seismic data are quite in agreement and reflect the different tectonic evolution of the geological features characterizing the area of study. The orientation of the compressional geodetic and seismic strain axes are NW-SE in most of the area of study, on account of the action of plate boundary forces. A rotation of the same axes to N-S direction along the eastern Alps, possibly related to the Adria convergence, is found.