Metal concentrations, fluxes, inventories and chronologies in sediments from Sepetiba and Ribeira Bays: A comparative study

Three sediment cores were sampled at Sepetiba Bay and four cores at Ribeira Bay, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Sediment accumulation rates and chronologies were obtained from ²¹⁰Pb activity-depth profiles. Sediment accumulation rates in Ribera Bay ranged from 1.2 mm y⁻¹ in the inner bay to 2.6 mm y⁻¹ close to its entrance. In Sepetiba Bay two sediment accumulation rates were observed: a lower rate of 0.35 cm y⁻¹ before the 1960s and 0.76 cm y⁻¹ since then. The cause of this change is due to the construction of the Santa Cecília impoundment (1955) that brings water from the Paraíba do Sul Basin into the Guandu River, which increased its flow from the original 20 m³ s⁻¹ to 160 m³ s⁻¹. Concentration of 44 elements was obtained by ICP-MS after total dissolution of samples from two selected cores. The relative differences between the concentrations of crustal elements, such as Al, Fe and Ti are only about 20% (p < 0.05). Cd and Zn are 15 and four times larger in Sepetiba Bay than in Ribeira Bay, respectively. Other major and minor elements show lower statistically significant differences. The enrichment factors and metal inventories show that Sepetiba Bay can be considered polluted with Bi, Cd, Cr, Cu, Sb and Zn. Particularly, Cd and Zn present concentrations three and four times higher than the Brazilian existing limits.     

Environmental influences on soil CO2 degassing at Furnas and Fogo volcanoes (São Miguel Island,Azores archipelago)

Since October 2001, four soil CO₂ flux stations were installed in the island of São Miguel (Azores archipelago), at Fogo and Furnas quiescent central volcanoes. These stations perform measurements by the accumulation chamber method and, as the gas flux may be influenced by external variables, the stations are equipped with several meteorological sensors. Multivariate regression analysis applied to the large datasets obtained allowed observing that the meteorological variables may influence the soil CO₂ flux oscillations from 18% to 50.5% at the different monitoring sites. Additionally, it was observed that meteorological variables (mainly soil water content, barometric pressure, wind speed and rainfall) play a different role in the control of the gas flux, depending on the selected monitoring site and may cause significant short-term (spike-like) fluctuations. These divergences may be potentially explained by the porosity and hydraulic conductivity of the soils, topographic effects, drainage area and different exposure of the monitoring sites to the weather conditions. Seasonal effects are responsible for long-term oscillations on the gas flux.     

Scaling Issues in Forest Succession Modelling

This paper reviews scaling issues in forest succession modelling, focusing on forest gap models. Two modes of scaling are distinguished: (1) implicit scaling, i.e. taking scale-dependent features into account while developing model equations, and (2) explicit scaling, i.e. using procedures that typically involve numerical simulation to scale up the response of a local model in space and/or time. Special attention is paid to spatial upscaling methods, and downscaling is covered with respect to deriving scenarios of climatic change to drive gap models in impact assessments. When examining the equations used to represent ecological processes in forest gap models, it becomes evident that implicit scaling is relevant, but has not always been fully taken into consideration. A categorization from the literature is used to distinguish four methods for explicit upscaling of ecological models in space: (1) Lumping, (2) Direct extrapolation, (3) Extrapolation by expected value, and (4) Explicit integration. Examples from gap model studies are used to elaborate the potential and limitations of these methods, showing that upscaling to areas as large as 3000 km² is possible, given that there are no significant disturbances such as fires or insect outbreaks at the landscape scale. Regarding temporal upscaling, we find that it is important to consider migrational lags, i.e. limited availability of propagules, if one wants to assess the transient behaviour of forests in a changing climate, specifically with respect to carbon storage and the associated feedbacks to the atmospheric CO₂ content. Regarding downscaling, the ecological effects of different climate scenarios for the year 2100 were compared at a range of sites in central Europe. The derivation of the scenarios is based on (1) imposing GCM grid-cell average changes of temperature and precipitation on the local weather records; (2) a qualitative downscaling technique applied by the IPCC for central and southern Europe; and (3) statistical downscaling relating large-scale circulation patterns to local weather records. Widely different forest compositions may be obtained depending on the local climate scenario, suggesting that the downscaling issue is quite important for assessments of the ecological impacts of climatic change on forests.     

Seasonal and interannual variation of the phytoplankton and copepod dynamics in Liverpool Bay

The seasonal and interannual variability in the phytoplankton community in Liverpool Bay between 2003 and 2009 has been examined using results from high frequency, in situ measurements combined with discrete samples collected at one location in the bay. The spring phytoplankton bloom (up to 29.4 mg chlorophyll m⁻³) is an annual feature at the study site and its timing may vary by up to 50 days between years. The variability in the underwater light climate and turbulent mixing are identified as key factors controlling the timing of phytoplankton blooms. Modelled average annual gross and net production are estimated to be 223 and 56 g C m⁻² year⁻¹, respectively. Light microscope counts showed that the phytoplankton community is dominated by diatoms, with dinoflagellates appearing annually for short periods of time between July and October. The zooplankton community at the study site is dominated by copepods and use of a fine mesh (80 μm) resulted in higher abundances of copepods determined (up to 2.5 × 10⁶ ind. m⁻²) than has previously reported for this location. There is a strong seasonal cycle in copepod biomass and copepods greater than 270 μm contribute less than 10% of the total biomass. Seasonal trends in copepod biomass lag those in the phytoplankton community with a delay of 3 to 4 months between the maximum phytoplankton biomass and the maximum copepod biomass. Grazing by copepods exceeds net primary production at the site and indicates that an additional advective supply of carbon is required to support the copepod community.     

Assessing a bioremediation strategy in a shallow coastal system affected by a fish farm culture--application of GIS and shellfish dynamic models in the Rio San Pedro, SW Spain

An integrated multi-trophic aquaculture assessment for Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) aquaculture as a bioremediation strategy in areas impacted by fish farm effluents in Rio San Pedro was assessed by combining geographic information system with carrying capacity models. Sites of 0.44 km(2) were evaluated considering constraints; physical factors, growth and survival factors, environmental quality factors, water and sediment quality criteria, factor suitability ranges, and Multi-Criteria Evaluation. Isleta and Flamenco are promising sites for oyster production, and Dorada is of marginal interest. Carbon and nitrogen removal from the water by algae and through detritus filtration was estimated. The biodeposition of organic material from longline leases was found to have little negative impact on sediment. The eutrophication results indicate that phytoplankton removal had a positive impact on water quality at the Dorada. This case study quantified the direct profitability and bioremediative environmental service advantages that fish-shellfish farms can have relative to fish monocultures.     

Ram-pressure stripping of disc galaxies orbiting in clusters – II. Galactic wakes

We present 3D hydrodynamical simulations of ram-pressure stripping of a disc galaxy orbiting in a galaxy cluster. In this paper, we focus on the properties of the galaxies' tails of stripped gas. The galactic wakes show a flaring width, where the flaring angle depends on the gas disc's cross-section with respect to the galaxy's direction of motion. The velocity in the wakes shows a significant turbulent component of a few     . The stripped gas is deposited in the cluster rather locally, i.e. within     from where it was stripped. We demonstrate that the most important quantity governing the tail density, length and gas mass distribution along the orbit is the galaxy's mass-loss per orbital length. This in turn depends on the ram pressure as well as the galaxy's orbital velocity.
For a sensitivity limit of     in projected gas density, we find typical tail lengths of     . Such long tails are seen even at large distances (0.5 to     ) from the cluster centre. At this sensitivity limit, the tails show little flaring, but a width similar to the gas disc's size.
Morphologically, we find good agreement with the H  i tails observed in the Virgo cluster by Chung et al. 2007 . However, the observed tails show a much smaller velocity width than predicted from the simulation. The few known X-ray and Hα tails are generally much narrower and much straighter than the tails in our simulations. Thus, additional physics like a viscous intracluster medium (ICM), the influence of cooling and tidal effects may be needed to explain the details of the observations.
We discuss the hydrodynamical drag as a heat source for the ICM but conclude that it is not likely to play an important role, especially not in stopping cooling flows.     

Evaluation of analytical methodologies used to derive vulnerability functions

The recognition of fragility and vulnerability functions as a fundamental tool in seismic risk assessment has led to the development of more and more complex and elaborate procedures for their computation. Although these functions have been traditionally produced using observed damage and loss data, more recent studies propose the employment of analytical methodologies as a way to overcome the frequent lack of post‐earthquake data. The variation of the structural modelling approach on the estimation of building capacity has been the target of many studies in the past; however, its influence on the resulting vulnerability model for classes of buildings, the impact in loss estimations or propagation of the uncertainty to the seismic risk calculations has so far been the object of limited scrutiny. In this paper, an extensive study of static and dynamic procedures for estimating the nonlinear response of buildings has been carried out to evaluate the impact of the chosen methodology on the resulting capacity, fragility, vulnerability and risk outputs. Moreover, the computational effort and numerical stability provided by each approach have been evaluated and conclusions drawn regarding the optimal balance between accuracy and complexity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.