Sea lice treatments on salmon farms have no adverse effects on zooplankton communities: a case study

The long-term effects of the sea lice treatment products Excis and Slice on zooplankton communities in a Scottish sea loch were investigated at a commercially operating salmon farm over 31 months. Cypermethrin and emamectin benzoate are the active ingredients in Excis and Slice respectively, which are widely used to control ectoparasitic sea lice on farmed salmon. Excis and Slice treatments did not cause basin-wide effects on the zooplankton community. For both formulations, no adverse affects on zooplankton were detected, instead observed changes in zooplankton abundance and community composition displayed natural seasonal cycles of abundance. Water column concentrations of cypermethrin and emamectin benzoate following sea lice treatments at the fish farm were predicted using models. Cypermethrin concentrations of 3000 ng/l were predicted for short periods immediately after each cage treatment assuming no particle adhesion. The 3-h and 24-h Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) were exceeded for 10 h and 32 h respectively on the second day when five cages were treated. However, cypermethrin concentrations higher than 0.5 ng/l (24-h EQS) were predicted to occur over <2% of the total basin area on each treatment day. The 3-h EQS (16 ng/l) was exceeded in <0.3% of the basin on each treatment day. The concentration of soluble emamectin benzoate present in the water column was predicted from modelled deposition footprints and sediment concentrations to be of order 10(-3) ng/l. Predicted concentrations of both chemicals were generally lower than those causing toxicity to copepods in previous laboratory studies and further support the results of this field study that environmental concentrations of Excis and Slice do not adversely impact zooplankton communities.     

Practical considerations in the numerical solution of theN-body problem by Taylor series methods

It is shown that in the numerical integration ofN-body problems, as much importance should be given to considerations of the computer programming language to be used as to questions of the accummulation of round-off and truncation error, the stability of the method chosen and the problem being treated. By careful programming processing time may be cut by a factor of 2 or 3 which is an important consideration in extended numerical investigations. The relative usefulness of differing strategies for determining the step size is discussed and in addition the usefulness is shown of treatingN-body problems by a Taylor series method.     

Studies in the application of recurrence relations to special perturbation methods

Using the rectangular equations of motion for the restricted three-body problem a comparison is made of the integration of these equations by the Encke method and by a set of perturbational equations. Each set of differential equations is integrated using Taylor series expansions where the coefficients of the powers of time are determined by recurrence relations. It is shown that for very small perturbations the use of the perturbational equations is more efficient than the use of the Encke method. A discussion is also given of when Cowell's method is more efficient than either of these techniques.     

Radiocarbon Chronology of Ross Sea Drift, Eastern Taylor Valley, Antarctica: Evidence for a Grounded Ice Sheet in the Ross Sea at the Last Glacial Maximum

More than 250 radiocarbon dates of lacustrine algae and marine shells afford a chronology for Ross Sea drift in eastern Taylor Valley. Dates of algae that lived in ice-dammed Glacial Lake Washburn show that grounded Ross Sea ice blocked the mouth of Taylor Valley between 8340 and 23,800 ¹⁴C yr bp . Ross Sea ice was at its maximum position at the Hjorth Hill moraine between 12,700 and 14,600 ¹⁴C yr bp and was within 500m distance of this position as late as 10,794 ¹⁴C yr bp . The implication is that the flow line of the Ross Sea ice sheet which extended around northern Ross Island and across McMurdo Sound to Taylor Valley must have remained intact, and hence that a grounded ice sheet must have existed east of Ross Island as late as 8340 ¹⁴C yr bp . Evidence from ice-dammed lakes in Taylor Valley and from shells from McMurdo Sound suggests grounding-line retreat from the vicinity of Ross Island between 6500 and 8340 ¹⁴C yr bp . If this is correct, then most recession to the present-day grounding line on the Siple Coast took place subsequently in the absence of significant deglacial sea-level rise. Rising sea level may have triggered internal mechanisms within the ice sheet that led to retreat, but did not in itself drive continued ice-sheet recession. Ice retreat, once set in motion, continued in the absence of sea-level forcing. If correct, this hypothesis implies that the grounding line could continue to recede into the interior reservoir of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.     

Assessing scalar concentration footprint climatology and land surface impacts on tall-tower CO2 concentration measurements in the boreal forest of central Saskatchewan,Canada

Reducing the large uncertainties in current estimates of CO₂ sources and sinks at regional scales (10²–10⁵ km²) is fundamental to improving our understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Continuous high-precision CO₂ concentration measurements on a tower within the planetary boundary layer contain information on regional carbon fluxes; however, its spatial representativeness is generally unknown. In this study, we developed a footprint model (Simple Analytical Footprint model based on Eulerian coordinates for scalar Concentration [SAFE-C]) and applied it to two CO₂ concentration towers in central Canada: the East Trout Lake 106-m-tall tower (54°21′N, 104°59′W) and the Candle Lake 28-m-high tower (53°59′N, 105°07′W). Results show that the ETL tower’s annual concentration footprints were around 10³–10⁵ km². The monthly footprint climatologies in summer were 1.5–2 times larger than in winter. The impacts of land surface carbon flux associated with heterogeneous distribution of vegetation types on the CO₂ concentration measurements were different for the different heights, varied with a range of ±5 % to ±10 % among four heights. This study indicates that concentration footprint climatology analysis is important in interpreting the seasonal, annual and inter-annual variations of tower measured CO₂ concentration data and is essential for comparing and scaling regional carbon flux estimates using top-down or bottom-up approaches.     

The effect of environmental change on human migration

The influence of the environment and environmental change is largely unrepresented in standard theories of migration, whilst recent debates on climate change and migration focus almost entirely on displacement and perceive migration to be a problem. Drawing on an increasing evidence base that has assessed elements of the influence of the environment on migration, this paper presents a new framework for understanding the effect of environmental change on migration. The framework identifies five families of drivers which affect migration decisions: economic, political, social, demographic and environmental drivers. The environment drives migration through mechanisms characterised as the availability and reliability of ecosystem services and exposure to hazard. Individual migration decisions and flows are affected by these drivers operating in combination, and the effect of the environment is therefore highly dependent on economic, political, social and demographic context. Environmental change has the potential to affect directly the hazardousness of place. Environmental change also affects migration indirectly, in particular through economic drivers, by changing livelihoods for example, and political drivers, through affecting conflicts over resources, for example. The proposed framework, applicable to both international and internal migration, emphasises the role of human agency in migration decisions, in particular the linked role of family and household characteristics on the one hand, and barriers and facilitators to movement on the other in translating drivers into actions. The framework can be used to guide new research, assist with the evaluation of policy options, and provide a context for the development of scenarios representing a range of plausible migration futures.     

Application of a water balance model to estimating hay growth in the peace river region

Abstract

A model that uses daily climate data for calculating hay crop growth in the Peace River region of British Columbia was developed and evaluated using data obtained over four growing seasons. The performances of the ratio of growth to transpiration and the ratio of growth to transpiration (J) divided by vapour pressure deficit (VPD) in estimating crop growth were compared. Transpiration was calculated by subtracting evaporation losses from the soil and foliage from the calculated evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration was calculated using solar radiation and air temperature, and a one‐layer root zone water balance model, which accounted for soil water supply limitation. Soil water storage measurements showed that the water balance model worked well. The model provided satisfactory estimates of growing season yield of above‐ground dry matter. The use of the ratio of growth toT/ vpd showed no improvement in growth estimation over the ratio of growth to transpiration.