The distribution of spiny lobsters in New Zealand waters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Palinuridae)

Two species of spiny lobsters (marine crayfish) inhabit New Zealand waters: Jasus edwardsii (Hutton, 1875), and J verreauxi (H. Milne Edwards, 1851). J edwardsii, the more common species, is present along most rocky coastlines in New Zealand, but is more abundant in the south‐west of the South Island and at the Chatham Islands. The species apparently reaches its northern limit of distribution at the Three Kings Islands (34°S) and its southern limit at the Auckland Islands (51°S).

J. verreauxi, the less common species, is almost solely restricted in New Zealand waters to the north‐east coast of the North Island. It is uncommon in the west and the south of the North Island, and is rare in the South Island. J. verreauxi apparently reaches its northern limit of distribution at the Kermadec Islands (31°S), and its southern limit near Bluff (47°S) in the South Island.     

Measuring the benefits and costs of community education and outreach in marine protected areas

Conservation organizations often invest considerable resources in education and outreach activities in and around marine protected areas (MPAs). The expectation is that such efforts will change local knowledge, attitudes and ultimately behavior. This is one of the first studies to assess the efficacy of using education and outreach activities to improve community knowledge and attitudes about an MPA. Random sample surveys in 2005 and 2010 (n=1213) before and after education and outreach activities are compared. Program budgets for the same period give the investment levels. With an investment level averaging US$24 per capita/year, the result was an average increase of 33% in “yes” responses across 15 indicators of knowledge and attitudes towards marine conservation. The increase in knowledge and positive attitudes was associated with a large decrease in “not sure” responses, suggesting that community members with fewer initial preconceptions are the most effective target for education and outreach activities. This study demonstrates that investments in MPA education and outreach can generate increases in local knowledge and positive attitudes, and changing knowledge and attitudes is expected to contribute to the long-term compliance with MPA regulations.     

Soil organic carbon enrichment of dust emissions: magnitude,mechanisms and its implications for the carbon cycle

Soil erosion is an important component of the global carbon cycle. However, little attention has been given to the role of aeolian processes in influencing soil organic carbon (SOC) flux and the release of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), to the atmosphere. Understanding the magnitude and mechanisms of SOC enrichment in dust emissions is necessary to evaluate the impact of wind erosion on the carbon cycle. This research examines the SOC content and enrichment of dust emissions measured using Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) wind‐vane samplers across five land types in the rangelands of western Queensland, Australia. Our results show that sandy soils and finer particulate quartz‐rich soils are more efficient at SOC emission and have larger SOC dust enrichment than clay‐rich aggregated soils. The SOC enrichment ratios of dusts originating from sites with sand‐rich soil ranged from 2·1–41·9, while the mean enrichment ratio for dusts originating from the clay soil was 2·1. We hypothesize that stronger inter‐particle bonds and the low grain density of the aggregated clay soil explain its reduced capacity to release SOC during saltation, relative to the particulate sandy soils. We also show that size‐selective sorting of SOC during transport may lead to further enrichment of SOC dust emissions. Two dust samples from regional transport events were found to contain 15–20% SOC. These preliminary results provide impetus for additional research into dust SOC enrichment processes to elucidate the impact of wind erosion on SOC flux and reduce uncertainty about the role of soil erosion in the global carbon cycle. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maximizing Net Extraction Using an Injection‐Extraction Well Pair in a Coastal Aquifer

In this study, we examine the maximum net extraction rate from the novel arrangement of an injection‐extraction well pair in a coastal aquifer, where fresh groundwater is reinjected through the injection well located between the interface toe and extraction well. Complex potential theory is employed to derive a new analytical solution for the maximum net extraction rate and corresponding stagnation‐point locations and recirculation ratio, assuming steady‐state, sharp‐interface conditions. The injection‐extraction well‐pair system outperforms a traditional single extraction well in terms of net extraction rate for a broad range of well placement and pumping rates, which is up to 50% higher for an aquifer with a thickness of 20 m, hydraulic conductivity of 10 m/d, and fresh water influx of 0.24 m²/d. Sensitivity analyses show that for a given fresh water discharge from an inland aquifer, a larger maximum net extraction is expected in cases with a smaller hydraulic conductivity or a smaller aquifer thickness, notwithstanding physical limits to drawdown at the pumping well that are not considered here. For an extraction well with a fixed location, the optimal net extraction rate linearly increases with the distance between the injection well and the sea, and the corresponding injection rate and recirculation ratio also increase. The analytical analysis in this study provides initial guidance for the design of well‐pair systems in coastal aquifers, and is therefore an extension beyond previous applications of analytical solutions of coastal pumping that apply only to extraction or injection wells.     

Eutrophication of a small, deep lake in southern New Zealand: the effects of twentieth-century forest clearance, changing nutrient influx, light penetration and bird behaviour

This study provides a high resolution multi-proxy record of the response of an aquatic ecosystem (Alexander Lake) to forest clearance in New Zealand in the late twentieth century (ca. 1950–2006 AD). New chironomid-based transfer functions for lake water total nitrogen (TN) concentration were applied to the Alexander Lake chironomid record. A test of the significance of reconstructions based on multiple model types indicates that a model with the highest r² and lowest root mean squared error of prediction may not necessarily perform the best when applied to a particular site. The chironomid-based TN reconstruction and other proxies suggest a complex response by a stained water (dystrophic) lake in a forested catchment to deforestation. Minor perturbations and nutrient influx may favour increased phytoplankton production, but continued light attenuation by dissolved organic carbon and humic compounds prevents proliferation of submerged macrophytes. Complete mechanical forest clearance resulted in a short term pulse of nutrients and eutrophication. The long term effect of deforestation was to increase light penetration and favour the growth of submerged macrophytes. Continued eutrophication of Alexander Lake could be due to a contribution of bird-derived nutrients. Deforestation around Alexander Lake has created a perfect moulting site for Paradise Shelducks (Tadorna variegata Gmelin). The input of total phosphorus from T. variegata could be enough to trigger blooms of Microcystis that currently occur in the lake. Changes in bird behaviour in response to changes in vegetation should therefore be considered a possible result of past (including prehistoric) and future deforestation in New Zealand.     

Community discourse and the emerging amenity landscapes of the rural American West

We explore the construction of community meaning on an emerging amenity landscape in the western United States through in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork with residents of rural Fremont County, Colorado. The meanings ascribed to community center on different interpretations of home, social interaction, and personal identity. Although in some cases these differences correspond to the conventional division between new and long-term residents, the more significant finding was a discourse of “co-opetition” that captures a broader countywide understanding of community as simultaneous cooperation and competition among local stakeholders. Ultimately, this conceptualization of rural community is a way of negotiating the form and function of the amenity landscape. The production of meaningful social interaction points to opportunities for engaging residents in land management as they interact with one another and the landscape.     

Developing coastal adaptation to climate change in the New York City infrastructure-shed: process, approach, tools, and strategies

While current rates of sea level rise and associated coastal flooding in the New York City region appear to be manageable by stakeholders responsible for communications, energy, transportation, and water infrastructure, projections for sea level rise and associated flooding in the future, especially those associated with rapid icemelt of the Greenland and West Antarctic Icesheets, may be outside the range of current capacity because extreme events might cause flooding beyond today??s planning and preparedness regimes. This paper describes the comprehensive process, approach, and tools for adaptation developed by the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) in conjunction with the region??s stakeholders who manage its critical infrastructure, much of which lies near the coast. It presents the adaptation framework and the sea-level rise and storm projections related to coastal risks developed through the stakeholder process. Climate change adaptation planning in New York City is characterized by a multi-jurisdictional stakeholder?Cscientist process, state-of-the-art scientific projections and mapping, and development of adaptation strategies based on a risk-management approach.     

Retraction: Evaluation of Co‐Digestion at a Commercial Dairy Anaerobic Digester

The above article published online on 16 June 2011 in Wiley Online Library ( http://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com ), and in Volume 39, pp. 697‐704, has been retracted by agreement between the Editor‐in‐Chief, Prisca Henheik, and Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KgaA. The retraction has been agreed following an investigation carried out by Washington State University (WSU) which determined that research misconduct had occurred with respect to fabricating experimental data and falsifying data that formed the basis of a section of this article on the part of the corresponding author. Furthermore, WSU determined that the corresponding author did not declare an existing commercial conflict of interest when submitting the paper to the peer‐‐reviewed journal CLEAN ‐ Soil, Air, Water.     

Discontinuous Galerkin methods for modeling Hurricane storm surge

Storm surge due to hurricanes and tropical storms can result in significant loss of life, property damage, and long-term damage to coastal ecosystems and landscapes. Computer modeling of storm surge can be used for two primary purposes: forecasting of surge as storms approach land for emergency planning and evacuation of coastal populations, and hindcasting of storms for determining risk, development of mitigation strategies, coastal restoration and sustainability.Storm surge is modeled using the shallow water equations, coupled with wind forcing and in some events, models of wave energy. In this paper, we will describe a depth-averaged (2D) model of circulation in spherical coordinates. Tides, riverine forcing, atmospheric pressure, bottom friction, the Coriolis effect and wind stress are all important for characterizing the inundation due to surge. The problem is inherently multi-scale, both in space and time. To model these problems accurately requires significant investments in acquiring high-fidelity input (bathymetry, bottom friction characteristics, land cover data, river flow rates, levees, raised roads and railways, etc.), accurate discretization of the computational domain using unstructured finite element meshes, and numerical methods capable of capturing highly advective flows, wetting and drying, and multi-scale features of the solution.The discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method appears to allow for many of the features necessary to accurately capture storm surge physics. The DG method was developed for modeling shocks and advection-dominated flows on unstructured finite element meshes. It easily allows for adaptivity in both mesh (h) and polynomial order (p) for capturing multi-scale spatial events. Mass conservative wetting and drying algorithms can be formulated within the DG method.In this paper, we will describe the application of the DG method to hurricane storm surge. We discuss the general formulation, and new features which have been added to the model to better capture surge in complex coastal environments. These features include modifications to the method to handle spherical coordinates and maintain still flows, improvements in the stability post-processing (i.e. slope-limiting), and the modeling of internal barriers for capturing overtopping of levees and other structures. We will focus on applications of the model to recent events in the Gulf of Mexico, including Hurricane Ike.