Contemporary Refugee‐Border Dynamics and the Legacies of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

While the geopolitical legacies of the World War I peace negotiations are widely recognized, this article examines the often overlooked connection between the WWI Paris Peace Conference's spatial and geopolitical logics and contemporary refugee‐border dynamics. We argue that the spatial and geopolitical logics that framed the WWI Paris Peace Conference—the creation of new states, the propagation of the Western ideal of bounded sovereign states, the nationalist goals of self‐determination and homogeneous ethnic nations, and the establishment of a system of international governance—continue to impact refugee‐border dynamics and “crises” today. The categories, ideals, and practices of the international refugee regime that emerged over the last one‐hundred years stem in great part from these logics. In this paper, we urge critical contemplation about how these foundations—including the establishment of the post of High Commissioner for Refugees in 1921, the resultant Nansen Passports, the post‐WWI minority treaties, and lastly the 1933 Convention Relating to the International Status of Refugees—connect to contemporary human (im)mobility and border violence. We also introduce the articles in this special issue and highlight key themes and future directions for research in critical migration studies.     

Eddies and Tropical Instability Waves in the eastern tropical Pacific: A review

Mesoscale eddies and tropical instability waves in the eastern tropical Pacific, first revealed by satellite infrared imagery, play an important role in the dynamics and biology of the region, and in the transfer of mass, energy, heat, and biological constituents from the shelf to the deep ocean and across the equatorial currents.From boreal late autumn to early spring, four to 18 cyclonic or anticyclonic eddies are formed off the coastal region between southern Mexico and Panama. The anticyclonic gyres, which tend to be larger and last longer than the cyclonic ones, are the best studied: they typically are 180–500 km in diameter, depress the pycnocline from 60 to 145 m at the eddy center, have swirl speeds in excess of 1 m s⁻¹, migrate west at velocities ranging from 11 to 19 cm s⁻¹ (with a slight southward component), and maintain a height signature of up to 30 cm. The primary generating agents for these eddies are the strong, intermittent wind jets that blow across the isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico, the lake district in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and the Panama canal. Other proposed eddy-generating mechanisms are the conservation of vorticity as the North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC) turns north on reaching America, and the instability of coastally trapped waves/currents.Tropical Instability Waves (TIWs) are perturbations in the SST fronts on either side of the equatorial cold tongue. They produce SST variations on the order of 1–2 °C, have periods of 20–40 days, wavelengths of 1000–2000 km, phase speeds of around 0.5 m s⁻¹ and propagate westward both north and south of the Equator. The Tropical Instability Vortices (TIVs) are a train of westward-propagating anticyclonic eddies associated with the TIWs. They exhibit eddy currents exceeding 1.3 m s⁻¹, a westward phase propagation speed between 30 and 40 km d⁻¹, a signature above the pycnocline, and eastward energy propagation. Like the TIWs, they result from the latitudinal barotropically unstable shear between the South Equatorial Current (SEC) and the NECC with a potential secondary source of energy from baroclinic instability of the vertical shear with the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC).This review of mesoscale processes is part of a comprehensive review of the oceanography of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.     

Investigations of subsurface flow constructed wetlands and associated geomaterial resources in the Akumal and Reforma regions,Quintana Roo,Mexico

Subsurface flow constructed wetlands in the village of Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico were surveyed to determine the general status of the wetland systems and provide baseline information for long term monitoring and further study. Twenty subsurface flow wetlands were surveyed and common problems observed in the systems were overloading, poor plant cover, odor, and no secondary containment. Bulk mineral composition of aggregate from two subsurface flow constructed wetlands was determined to consist solely of calcite using bulk powder X-ray diffraction. Some soil structure is developed in the aggregate and aggregate levels in wetlands drop at an estimated rate between 3 and 10 cm/year for overloaded wetlands owing to dissolution. Mineral composition from fresh aggregate samples commonly is a mixture of calcite and aragonite. Trace amounts of Pb, Zn, Co, and Cr were observed in fresh aggregate. Coefficients of permeability (k) varied from 0.006 to 0.027 cm/s with an average values being 0.016 cm/s. Grain size analysis of fresh aggregate samples indicates there are unimodal and multimodal size distributions in the samples with modes in the coarse and fine sand being common. Investigations of other geologic media from the Reforma region indicate that a dolomite with minor amounts of Fe-oxide and palygorskite is abundant and may be a better aggregate source that the current materials used. A Ca-montmorillonite bed was identified in the Reforma region as well and this unit is suitable to serve as a clay liner to prevent leaks for new and existing wetland systems. These newly discovered geologic resources should aid in the improvement of subsurface flow constructed wetlands in the region. Although problems do exist in these wetlands with respect to design, these systems represent a successful implementation of constructed wetlands at a community level in developing regions.     

Denitrification pathways and rates in the sandy sediments of the Georgia continental shelf,USA

Denitrification in continental shelf sediments has been estimated to be a significant sink of oceanic fixed nitrogen (N). The significance and mechanisms of denitrification in organic-poor sands, which comprise 70% of continental shelf sediments, are not well known. Core incubations and isotope tracer techniques were employed to determine processes and rates of denitrification in the coarse-grained, sandy sediments of the Georgia continental shelf. In these sediments, heterotrophic denitrification was the dominant process for fixed N removal. Processes such as coupled nitrification-denitrification, anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation), and oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification-denitrification were not evident over the 24 and 48 h time scale of the incubation experiments. Heterotrophic denitrification processes produce 22.8–34.1 μmole N m^-2 d^-1 of N₂ in these coarse-grained sediments. These denitrification rates are approximately two orders of magnitude lower than rates determined in fine-grained shelf sediments. These lower rates may help reconcile unbalanced marine N budgets which calculate global N losses exceeding N inputs.     

Nitrogen, phosphorus, silica, and carbon in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia: Differential limitation of phytoplankton biomass and production

Subtropical estuaries have received comparatively little attention in the study of nutrient loading and subsequent nutrient processing relative to temperate estuaries. Australian estuaries are particularly susceptible to increased nutrient loading and eutrophication, as 75% of the population resides within 200 km of the coastline. We assessed the factors potentially limiting both biomass and production in one Australian estuary, Moreton Bay, through stoichiometric comparisons of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), silicon (Si), and carbon (C) concentrations, particulate compositions, and rates of uptake. Samples were collected over 3 seasons in 1997–1998 at stations located throughout the bay system, including one riverine endmember site. Concentrations of all dissolved nutrients, as well as particulate nutrients and chlorophyll, declined 10-fold to 100-fold from the impacted western embayments to the eastern, more oceanic-influenced regions of the bay during all seasons. For all seasons and all regions, both the dissolved nutrients and particulate biomass yielded N:P ratios <6 and N:Si ratios <1. Both relationships suggest strong limitation of biomass by N throughout the bay. Limitation of rates of nutrient uptake and productivity were more complex. Low C:N and C:P uptake ratios at the riverine site suggested light limitation at all seasons, low N:P ratios suggested some degree of N limitation and high N:Si uptake ratios in austral winter suggested Si limitation of uptake during that season only. No evidence of P limitation of biomass or productivity was evident.     

Spectroscopy and orbital periods of the old novae V533 Herculis, V446 Herculis and X Serpentis

We report spectroscopic orbital periods of 0.147 d (=3.53 h) for V533 Her, 0.207 d (=4.97 h) for V446 Her and 1.478 d for X Ser. V533 Her (Nova Herculis 1963) shows absorption features in its He  i and Balmer lines which appear only in a limited range of orbital phase, suggesting that it is a low-inclination SW Sextantis star. V446 Her is unusual in that it has started normal dwarf nova eruptions after a nova outburst, but we find nothing else unusual about it – in particular, a distance estimate based on its dwarf nova outbursts agrees nicely with another based on the rate of decline of its nova eruption, both giving d ∼1 kpc. In X Ser, unlike in other old novae with long periods, no spectral features of the secondary star are visible. This and its outburst magnitude both suggest that it is quite distant and luminous, and at least 1 kpc from the Galactic plane.