Fish effects on charophyte establishment in a shallow,eutrophic New Zealand lake

Fish exclosures were deployed within shallow, eutrophic Lake Rotoroa, Hamilton, New Zealand to assess the influence of an alien‐dominated fish population on establishment by charophytes. Replicated mesh exclosures were placed at sites differing in wave exposure and received transplanted charophyte oospores and plants, with identical material placed outside. Charophyte establishment from oospores and plant biomass were greater inside exclosures compared with outside. Wave exposure did not depress germling response and the effect of fish exclosures on charophyte establishment was least apparent at the most exposed site. Exclosures did not have a statistically significant influence on the light climate, and epiphytic algal development was similar or higher inside the exclosures. However, sediment mobilisation was lower inside the exclosures. Results suggest that fish were primarily responsible for the poor performance of unprotected charophytes in Lake Rotoroa, with fish effects on plants operating via direct disturbance or grazing.     

Twelve years of tracking 52-Hz whale calls from a unique source in the North Pacific

A unique whale call with 50–52 Hz emphasis from a single source has been tracked over 12 years in the central and eastern North Pacific. These calls, referred to as 52-Hz calls, were monitored and analyzed from acoustic data recorded by hydrophones of the US Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and other arrays. The calls were noticed first in 1989, and have been detected and tracked since 1992. No other calls with similar characteristics have been identified in the acoustic data from any hydrophone system in the North Pacific basin. Only one series of these 52-Hz calls has been recorded at a time, with no call overlap, suggesting that a single whale produced the calls. The calls were recorded from August to February with most in December and January. The species producing these calls is unknown. The tracks of the 52-Hz whale were different each year, and varied in length from 708 to 11,062 km with travel speeds ranging from 0.7 to 3.8 km/h. Tracks included (A) meandering over short ranges, (B) predominantly west-to-east movement, and (C) mostly north-to-south travel. These tracks consistently appeared to be unrelated to the presence or movement of other whale species (blue, fin and humpback) monitored year-round with the same hydrophones.     

Remote sensing and surface POC concentration in the South Atlantic

Several SeaWiFS products have been compared with shipboard data to assess the possibility of using remote sensing to estimate particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration in surface waters. Transmissometer data were collected during six South Atlantic Ventilation Experiment (SAVE) hydrographic expeditions conducted between November 1987 and March 1989 from R/V Knorr, and Melville. A total of 361 beam attenuation profiles were made with a SeaTech transmissometer interfaced with a CTD/rosette. In order to calculate the POC concentration from transmissometer profiles, a regression between beam attenuation and POC for open Atlantic Ocean waters derived from our research in the North Atlantic (North Atlantic Bloom Experiment, NABE) and enhanced by data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Station (BATS) was applied. The profiles were processed and examined as vertical sections of the surface 250 m. The data were collected in two successive years, during the same season, which allowed us to compile a combined data set over the austral summer for examination. Beam attenuation/POC concentrations were integrated down to one attenuation depth with the intent of making comparisons with satellite optical data. No satellite optical data were available for 1987–1989, so the only option was to compare our integrated data with SeaWiFS-derived variables from later years averaged over the same season as SAVE data. Analysis of four SeaWiFS products acquired from 1997 to 2002 demonstrated very low variations from year to year for seasonally averaged data, suggesting that making comparisons of the beam attenuation/POC fields with averaged satellite optical products from later years is a valid (though not optimal) approach for this area. The highest correlation between beam attenuation/POC concentration and remotely derived products was found with normalized water-leaving radiance at 555 nm. Other SeaWiFS-derived variables—chlorophyll concentration, diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm and integral chlorophyll (integrated over one attenuation depth)—were also compared but showed a slightly less satisfactory correlation.     

A review of the ocean science and technology partnership between US and Korea

In 2001, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Integrated Coastal and Ocean Resources Scientific and Technical Arrangement was signed to pursue scientific and technical cooperation in integrated coastal and ocean resources management in the mutual interest of the participants. Over the last 6 years, the cooperation has been very beneficial, particularly for advancing marine science and management programs in Korea, such as Deep Sea Aquaculture, Sea Grant College Program, Marine Protected Areas, and Ocean Observations. The benefits to NOAA from the cooperation include Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoys, ocean and coastal observations, GEOSS program, and Global Program of Action. Also the cooperation has spillover effects on other ocean science and technological arrangement between US and Korea. This article reviews purpose, obstacles, and achievement of the cooperation and suggests recommendations for the future steps.     

Guiding ecological principles for marine spatial planning

The declining health of marine ecosystems around the world is evidence that current piecemeal governance is inadequate to successfully support healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems and sustain human uses of the ocean. One proposed solution to this problem is ecosystem-based marine spatial planning (MSP), which is a process that informs the spatial distribution of activities in the ocean so that existing and emerging uses can be maintained, use conflicts reduced, and ecosystem health and services protected and sustained for future generations. Because a key goal of ecosystem-based MSP is to maintain the delivery of ecosystem services that humans want and need, it must be based on ecological principles that articulate the scientifically recognized attributes of healthy, functioning ecosystems. These principles should be incorporated into a decision-making framework with clearly defined targets for these ecological attributes. This paper identifies ecological principles for MSP based on a synthesis of previously suggested and/or operationalized principles, along with recommendations generated by a group of twenty ecologists and marine scientists with diverse backgrounds and perspectives on MSP. The proposed four main ecological principles to guide MSP—maintaining or restoring: native species diversity, habitat diversity and heterogeneity, key species, and connectivity—and two additional guidelines, the need to account for context and uncertainty, must be explicitly taken into account in the planning process. When applied in concert with social, economic, and governance principles, these ecological principles can inform the designation and siting of ocean uses and the management of activities in the ocean to maintain or restore healthy ecosystems, allow delivery of marine ecosystem services, and ensure sustainable economic and social benefits.     

The potential of wetlands in reducing storm surge

A critical component of flood protection in some coastal areas is expected to be the potential contribution of wetlands to the lowering of surges as they propagate inland from the coast. Consequently, an accurate method to quantify the effect of wetlands on coastal surge levels is required. The degree to which wetlands attenuate surge is the subject of debate and difficult to assess. The potential of wetlands to reduce storm surge has typically been expressed as a constant attenuation rate, but the relationship is much more complex. A numerical storm surge model was applied to assess the sensitivity of surge response to specified wetland loss. Results suggest that wetlands do have the potential to reduce surges but the magnitude of attenuation is dependent on the surrounding coastal landscape and the strength and duration of the storm forcing. Numerical models that simulate the relevant physical processes can provide valuable information on how to best integrate wetlands into coastal protection plans. However, while the model applied for this study has displayed skill in estimating surges over wetlands, the formulations are missing key processes and model advancements are necessary.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>W</Subscript>9 Tohoku earthquake in 2011 in Japan: precursors uncovered by natural time analysis

This paper reviews the precursory phenomena of the 2011 M _W9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan that emerge solely when we analyze the seismicity data in a new time domain termed natural time. If we do not consider this analysis, important precursory changes cannot be identified and hence are missed. Natural time analysis has the privilege that enables the introduction of an order parameter of seismicity. In this frame, we find that the fluctuations of this parameter exhibit an unprecedented characteristic change, i.e., an evident minimum, approximately two months before Tohoku earthquake, which strikingly is almost simultaneous with unique anomalous geomagnetic field variations recorded mainly on the z component. This is consistent with our finding that such a characteristic change in seismicity appears when a seismic electric signal (SES) activity of the VAN method (from the initials of Varotsos, Alexopoulos, Nomicos) initiates, and provides a direct confirmation of the physical interconnection between SES and seismicity.     

Microbiological and chitinoclastic activities associated withPenaeus setiferus

Analysis of microbiological and chitinase activities relative to the white shrimpPenaeus setiferus, and its chitinoclastic endosymbionts, have demonstrated the relevance of total chitinolytic processes in penaeid biology. Microorganisms may serve as a direct source of nutrients for the animal as well as in the elaboration of extracellularin situ chitinase enzymes. The enzyme produced by the predominant gut bacteria,Beneckea neptuna, is a moderately actively inducible chitinase while the shrimp has an indigenous constitutive chitinase and chitobiase system. Factors of temperature, pH, ion inhibition and reducing sugar ratios have been compared for the bacterial and animal enzymes. This dual enzyme system suggests that metabolic chitin transformation may play a vital role in crustacean metabolism.     

Mineralogical approaches to sourcing pipes and figurines from the eastern woodlands,U.S.A.

Provenance studies of stone artifacts often rely heavily upon chemical techniques such as neutron activation analysis. However, stone specimens with very similar chemical composition can have different mineralogies (distinctive crystalline structures as well as variations within the same mineral) that are not revealed by multielemental techniques. Because mineralogical techniques are often cheap and usually nondestructive, beginning with mineralogy allows the researcher to gain valuable information and then to be selective about how many samples are submitted for expensive and somewhat destructive chemical analysis, thus conserving both valuable samples and funds. Our University of Illinois team of archaeologists and geologists employs Portable Infrared Mineral Analyzer (PIMA) spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and Sequential acid dissolution/XRD/Inductively coupled plasma (SAD‐XRD‐ICP) analyses. Two case studies of Hopewellian pipes and Mississippian figurines illustrate this mineralogical approach. The results for both studies identify sources relatively close to the sites where the artifacts were recovered: Sterling, Illinois (rather than Ohio) for the (Hopewell) pipes and Missouri (rather than Arkansas or Oklahoma) for the Cahokia figurines. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.