The PROWQM physical–biological model with benthic–pelagic coupling applied to the northern North Sea

PROWQM, a 1-D depth resolving model which couples physical and microbiological processes in the water column with sedimentation/resuspension and benthic mineralisation processes, has been used to simulate seasonal changes of chlorophyll, nutrients and oxygen at the PROVESS north site (59°20′N 1°00′E) in the North Sea. PROWQM is derived from the 3-D model COHERENS, and improves COHEREN's benthic and pelagic biology.The physical sub-model of PROWQM implicitly solves turbulence closure equations forced by climatological, or realistic high-frequency, meteorological and tidal data. The pelagic biological sub-model 2MPPD includes a ‘diatomy’ microplankton (mp1) and a ‘flagellatey’ (or microbial loop) microplankton (mp2), the cycling of silicon and nitrogen, slow-sinking detritus, and fast-sinking phytodetritus. Phytodetritus is formed by shear-driven aggregation of particulate material, using a simple algorithm for bulk processes that is derived by considering the interactions of single cells. The microplankton compartments include heterotrophic bacteria and protozoa as well as phytoplankton, and most microplankton rates are specified with the aid of a ‘heterotroph fraction’ parameter, which was 0.125 for mp1 and 0.6 for mp2. The microbiological system is closed by mesozooplankton grazing pressures imposed as time varying series determined from observed zooplankton abundance. The benthic boundary sub-model includes a superficial fluff layer and a nutrient element reservoir in the consolidated sediment. Particulate material in the fluff layer can be resuspended (in response to bed stress by near-bed flows), mineralised or carried by bioturbation into the underlying, consolidated, sediment, where it is mineralised and its nutrients returned to the water-column at rates mainly dependent on (implicit) macrobenthic pumping. Benthic denitrification can occur when mineralisation rates exceed oxygen supply.Verification of the PROWQM numerical implementation used test cases and checks for nutrient element conservation. Simulations with realistic forcing, for a range of parameter values, were compared with historic observations in the NOWESP data set and during FLEX76, and with those made during the PROVESS cruises in autumn 1998. PROWQM provided a good simulation of the seasonal succession from a diatom-dominated spring bloom to summer dominance by small flagellates. The simulations included sedimentation of organic matter from the spring bloom, and qualitatively realistic behaviour of the fluff layer, but decay rates were too slow and there was almost no denitrification. The simulated surface mixed layer was too shallow during the summer. Simulated annual net microplankton primary production was in between 59 and 91 g C m⁻² y⁻¹. A large proportion of mineralisation, 28–47% of nitrogen and 40–67% of silicon mineralisation, took place as a result of the decay of sinking and resuspended detritus whilst in the water column.PROWQM is discussed in relation to other models that have been used to simulate this part of the North Sea, in particular the simpler ECOHAM1 and the more complex ERSEM, and in relation to PROWQM's evolution from COHERENS.     

Marine systems: moving into the genomics era

The study of biological systems has been revolutionized by the use of genomic technologies. Most of the knowledge gathered over the last few years refers to terrestrial models. The study of marine systems using genomic technologies has, apart from a focus on microbial systems, been generally neglected although there are signs that this situation may be changing. This review analyses recent progress made in the field of marine genomics and identifies the broad areas in which this new technology is having the greatest impacts. These studies include comparative, functional and environmental genomics of metazoan animals. In many cases, as well as benefiting marine science, studies on marine taxa are having wide‐ranging impacts on our global understanding of genomes and genomics.     

Oxygen isotopes of phosphatic compounds—Application for marine particulate matter, sediments and soils

The phosphate oxygen isotopic composition in naturally occurring particulate phosphatic compounds (δ¹⁸O_p) can be used as a tracer for phosphate sources and to evaluate the cycling of phosphorus (P) in the environment. However, phosphatic compounds must be converted to silver phosphate prior to isotopic analysis, a process that involves digestion of particulate matter in acid. This digestion will hydrolyze some of the phosphatic compounds such that oxygen from the acid solution will be incorporated into the sample as these phosphatic compounds are converted to orthophosphate (PO₄³⁻). To determine the extent of incorporation of reagent oxygen into the sample, we digested various phosphatic compounds in both acid amended with H₂¹⁸O (spiked) and unspiked acid and then converted the samples to silver phosphate for δ¹⁸O_p analysis. Our results indicate that there is no isotopic fractionation associated with acid digestion at 50 °C. Furthermore, we found that reagent oxygen incorporation is a function of the oxygen to phosphorus ratio (O:P) of the digested compound whereby the percentage of reagent oxygen incorporated into the sample is the same as that which is required to convert all of the P-compounds into orthophosphate. Based on these results, we developed a correction for reagent oxygen incorporation using simple mass balance, a procedure that allows for the determination of the δ¹⁸O_p of samples containing a mixture of phosphatic compounds. We analyzed a variety of environmental samples for δ¹⁸O_p to demonstrate the utility of this approach for understanding sources and cycling of P.     

Water demand management and the quest for sustainability

This paper problematises positivist framings of water demand management (WDM) that define the average‐water‐user. Through a situated, case‐study account undertaken in suburban Auckland, we highlight variable social and cultural underpinnings of domestic water use. Activities that are commonly the focus of WDM are shown to be embedded elements of life around which relationships, affects and futures are woven. As a consequence, myopically focusing on the technical–managerial mediation of what are socionatural relations reduces prospects to achieve intended policy outcomes. Reframing WDM as a hydrosocial process provides a basis for water providers to develop more culturally appropriate water management.     

Unusual comets (?) as observed from the Hubble Space Telescope

In separate projects, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to assess the nature of 3 unusual objects: Chiron, Pholus and P/Shoemaker-Levy 9. This paper will compare these objects and discuss how the unique capabilities of the HST may be used to address the issue of cometary activity in each. Chiron, which has exhibited obvious cometary characteristics for several years, might have a bound dust coma that is unresolvable from the ground. In an attempt to directly observe this bound coma, we have obtained a series of images of Chiron with the HST Planetary Camera. Inner coma structure out to 0.2 has been detected. From these observations we infer a low bulk nucleus density for Chiron. Both HST and ground-based images of 5145 Pholus have been obtained to search for evidence of activity. The ground-based data give the most sensitive limits; however, it is shown that the WFPC-2 on HST can give limits 2–3 orders of magnitude more sensitive than conventional ground-based limits. Finally, as part of a collaborative effort, we have been obtaining HST observations of SL9 in order to determine the fragment sizes and to assess their nature (i.e., cometary vs. asteroid). Both ground-based observations from the UH 2.2m telescope on Mauna Kea and HST observations show that the near-nucleus dust is redder than the sun. While FOS spectra did not detect OH emission, the WFPC-2 HST data show that the inner coma remained very circular from July 1993 up until 2 weeks prior to impact, implying continued production of dust.     

Understanding Ethnic Residential Cluster Formation: new perspectives from South Australia’s migrant hostels

ABSTRACT

Throughout Australia’s history, successive governments have lamented the clustering of non-English-speaking migrants in ‘ethnic enclaves’ or ‘ghettos’. From the early Chinatowns of the 1800s till today, urban concentrations of ethnic groups have raised concerns and fears in local populations and authorities alike, despite decades of international research which suggests that ethnic residential clusters actually aid long-term assimilation and adjustment. Many of the ethnic residential clusters in contemporary Australia have been claimed to be a direct consequence of the migrant hostels and reception centres which operated between 1948 and the 1990s. This paper traces migrant settlement patterns in South Australia in rich detail, revealing the complexities of lived experiences that shape migrant settlement decisions. Against the background of public and scholarly debates over ‘ethnic enclaves’, and drawing on quantitative and qualitative historical research on the lived experiences of former hostel migrants, it analyses how migrant hostels and reception centres contributed to the settlement experiences of diverse migrants. We conclude that migrant hostels were just one among various factors that led to the growth and maintenance of ethnic residential clusters.     

Utilization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Spartina</Emphasis>- and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phragmites</Emphasis>-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter by Bacteria and Ribbed Mussels (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Geukensia demissa</Emphasis>) from Delaware Bay Salt Marshes

Phragmites australis has been invading Spartina-alterniflora-dominated salt marshes throughout the mid-Atlantic. Although, Phragmites has high rates of primary production, it is not known whether this species supports lower trophic levels of a marsh food web in the same manner as Spartina. Using several related photochemical and biological assays, we compared patterns of organic matter flow of plant primary production through a key salt marsh metazoan, the ribbed mussel (Geukensia demissa), using a bacterial intermediate. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) was derived from plants collected from a Delaware Bay salt marsh and grown in the laboratory with ¹⁴C-CO₂. Bacterial utilization of plant-derived DOM measured as carbon mineralization revealed that both species provided bioavailable DOM to native salt marsh bacteria. Total carbon mineralization after 19 days was higher for Spartina treatments (36% ¹⁴CO₂ ± 3 SE) compared with Phragmites treatments (29% ±2 SE; Wilcoxon–Kruskal–Wallis rank sums test, P < 0.01). Pre-exposing DOM to natural sunlight only enhanced or decreased bioavailability of the DOM to the bacterioplankton during initial measurements (e.g., 7 days or less) but these differences were not significant over the course of the incubations. Mixtures of ¹⁴C-labeled bacterioplankton (and possibly organic flocs) from ¹⁴C-DOM treatments were cleared by G. demissa at similar rates between Spartina and Phragmites treatments. Moreover, ¹⁴C assimilation efficiencies for material ingested by mussels were high for both plant sources ranging from 74% to 90% and not significantly different between plant sources. Sunlight exposure did not affect the nutritional value of the bacterioplankton DOM assemblage for mussels. There are many possible trophic and habitat differences between Spartina- and Phragmites-dominated marshes that could affect G. demissa but the fate of vascular plant dissolved organic carbon in the DOM to bacterioplankton to mussel trophic pathway appears comparable between these marsh types.     

A statistical analysis of climate variability and ecosystem response in the German Bight

We compiled homogeneous long-term time series comprising 39 variables representing the German Bight and for the period 1975–2004. A diverse set of variables was selected to cover multiple trophic levels and different environmental forcing thus to examine long-term changes in this coastal region. Previous studies have hypothesised the presence of regime shifts in observations extending over the entire North Sea. Focusing on a smaller spatial scale, and closer to the coast, we investigated the major modes of variability in the compiled time series using principal component analysis. The results obtained confirm a previously identified regime shift in the North Sea in 1987/1988 and suggest that the German Bight is dominantly characterised by long-term modes of variability. In the German Bight, the shift of 1987/1988 is driven primarily by temperature, Gulf Stream index, frost days and Secchi depth. Changes in some of the ecosystem variables (plankton and fish) appear to be related to changes in these driving variables. In particular, we documented strong positive correlations between the long-term trend showed by the first principal component and herring, Noctiluca scintillans, and, to a lesser extent, Pleurobrachia pileus. Two gadoids, namely cod and saithe, showed negative correlations with the observed long-term mode of variability. Changes in the sum of five small calanoid copepods were, however, less marked. Phosphate and ammonium exhibited a decreasing trend over the last 30 years. Diatoms and Calanus helgolandicus did not show evidence of changes in concert to this trend. Specific analyses of the data divided into three different subsets (biological, climatic and chemical) characterise the climate of the German Bight as highly dynamic also on short timescales (a few years) as compared to much smoother biological and chemical components. The dynamic regime of the German Bight taken together with a low correlation between the major mode of variability and phytoplankton and zooplankton data suggests that the lower trophic levels of this ecosystem are remarkably resilient.     

Scenarios of carbon dioxide emissions from aviation

We use a model of international and domestic tourist numbers and flows to project tourist numbers and emissions from international tourism out to 2100. We find that between 2005 and 2100 international tourism grows substantially. Not only do people take more trips but these also increase in length. We find that the growth in tourism is mainly fuelled by an increase in trips from Asian countries. Emissions follow this growth pattern until the middle of the century when emissions start to fall due to improvements in fuel efficiency. Projected emissions are also presented for the four SRES scenarios and maintain the same growth pattern but the levels of emissions differ substantially. We find that the projections are sensitive to the period to which the model is calibrated, the assumed rate of improvement in fuel efficiency and the imposed climate policy scenario.