Recent population trends of sooty and light-mantled albatrosses breeding on Marion Island

Sub-Antarctic Marion Island is one of the few islands where both species of Phoebetria albatrosses breed sympatrically. The last published assessment of their population trends, which reported counts up to 2008, concluded that the numbers of breeding pairs of sooty albatross P. fusca (Endangered) were decreasing, whereas numbers of light-mantled albatross P. palpebrata (Near Threatened) were increasing. Extending the counts to 2014 reversed these trends, with numbers of sooty albatrosses increasing from 2006 to 2014, and numbers of light-mantled albatrosses decreasing from 2007 to 2014. Confidence in island-wide counts is low due to the cryptic nature of the albatrosses on their largely inaccessible cliff-side nest sites, as well as counts for sooty albatrosses taking place late in the incubation period when 10?20% of nests have already failed. Given the greater conservation concern for the sooty albatross, we recommend that dedicated annual counts be conducted during the early incubation period, and be repeated shortly after the chicks hatch (late December), mid-way through the nestling period (late February) and prior to fledging (late April), to give a better idea of breeding success. Count zones also should be revised to facilitate more accurate counts, ensuring more reliable estimates of sooty albatross population trends at Marion Island.     

Submarine groundwater discharge: A large, previously unrecognized source of dissolved iron to the South Atlantic Ocean

This paper reports the initial results of a study of groundwater and coastal waters of southern Brazil adjacent to a 240 km barrier spit separating the Patos Lagoon, the largest coastal lagoon in South America, from the South Atlantic Ocean. The objective of this research is to assess the chemical alteration of freshwater and freshwater–seawater mixtures advecting through coastal permeable sands, and the influence of the submarine discharge of these fluids (SGD) on the chemistry of coastal waters. Here we focus on dissolved iron in this system and use radium isotopic tracers to quantify SGD and cross-shelf fluxes. Iron concentrations in groundwaters vary between 0.6 and 180 μM. The influence of the submarine discharge of these fluids into the surf zone produces dissolved Fe concentrations as high as several micromolar in coastal surface waters. The offshore gradient of dissolved Fe, coupled with results for Ra isotopes, is used to quantify the SGD flux of dissolved Fe from this coastline. We estimate the SGD flux to be 2 × 10⁶ mol day^− 1 and the cross-shelf flux to be 3.2 × 10⁵ mol day^− 1. This latter flux is equal to about 10% of the soluble atmospheric Fe flux to the entire South Atlantic Ocean. We speculate on the importance of this previously unrecognized iron input to regional ocean production and on the potential significance of this source to understanding variations in glacial–interglacial ocean production.     

Implications of Arctic industrial growth and strategies to mitigate future vessel and fishing gear impacts on bowhead whales

The objective of this paper was to investigate and illustrate how insights gained from experience managing human activities in order to protect North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) along the heavily industrialized east coast of North America might be applied in the Arctic, where bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) face some of the same risks as right whales. The reduced extent and thickness of sea ice and the resultant longer open-water season have major, complex implications for the Arctic marine ecosystem. Increased maritime ship traffic and commercial fishing in the Arctic are bound to affect bowheads and Native (indigenous) hunting communities who depend on whales for subsistence and cultural identity. Bowheads and right whales were greatly depleted by commercial whaling in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While the Western Arctic bowhead population has been recovering steadily in recent decades, North Atlantic right whales remain highly endangered because of persistent lethal and sublethal vessel strikes and frequent entanglement in commercial fishing gear. Entanglement can be transitory or persistent, with debilitation lasting for months before the animal finally succumbs. Vessel strike and fishing gear trauma has been documented in bowheads, but at a much lower rate than in right whales. Initiatives intended to mitigate the impacts of ship traffic on North Atlantic right whales have included speed limits and routing changes. Those meant to reduce the incidence and severity of entanglements include the modification of gear design and gear deployment practices. Management measures need to be considered in advance in the Arctic in order to minimize the risks to bowhead whales as shipping and industrial fishing expand in the Arctic with ice retreat.     

Normal modes of synchronous rotation

The dynamics of synchronous rotation and physical librations are revisited in order to establish a conceptually simple and general theoretical framework applicable to a variety of problems. Our motivation comes from disagreements between the results of numerical simulations and those of previous theoretical studies, and also because different theoretical studies disagree on basic features of the dynamics. We approach the problem by decomposing the orientation matrix of the body into perfectly synchronous rotation and deviation from the equilibrium state. The normal modes of the linearized equations are computed in the case of a circular satellite orbit, yielding both the periods and the eigenspaces of three librations. Libration in longitude decouples from the other two, vertical modes. There is a fast vertical mode with a period very close to the average rotational period. It corresponds to tilting the body around a horizontal axis while retaining nearly principal-axis rotation. In the inertial frame, this mode appears as nutation and free precession. The other vertical mode, a slow one, is the free wobble. The effects of the nodal precession of the orbit are investigated from the point of view of Cassini states. We test our theory using numerical simulations of the full equations of the dynamics and discuss the disagreements among our study and previous ones. The numerical simulations also reveal that in the case of eccentric orbits large departures from principal-axis rotation are possible due to a resonance between free precession and wobble. We also revisit the history of the Moon's rotational state and show that it switched from one Cassini state to another when it was at 46.2 Earth radii. This number disagrees with the value 34.2 derived in a previous study.     

Marble-hosted sulfide ores in the Angouran Zn-(Pb–Ag) deposit, NW Iran: interaction of sedimentary brines with a metamorphic core complex

The Angouran Zn-(Pb–Ag) deposit, Zanjan Province, NW Iran, is located within the central Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone of the Zagros orogenic belt. The deposit has proven and estimated resources of 4.7 Mt of sulfide ore at 27.7% Zn, 2.4% Pb, and 110 g/t Ag, and 14.6 Mt of oxidized carbonate ores at 22% Zn and 4.6% Pb. It is hosted by a metamorphic core complex that is unconformably overlain by a Neogene volcanic and evaporite-bearing marine to continental sedimentary sequence. The sulfide orebody, precursor to the significant nonsulfide ores, is located at the crest of an open anticline at the contact between Neoproterozoic to Cambrian footwall micaschists and hanging wall marbles. ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar data on muscovite from mineralized and unaltered footwall micaschists suggest a rapid Mid-Miocene exhumation of the metamorphic basement (∼20 Ma) and yield an upper age constraint for mineralization. The fine-grained sulfide ore is massive, replacive, often brecciated, clearly postmetamorphic and dominated by Fe-poor sphalerite, with minor galena, pyrite, anhydrite, quartz, muscovite, dolomite, and rare calcite. Sphalerite contains Na–Ca–Cl brine inclusions (23–25 mass% total dissolved solids) with homogenization temperatures of 180–70°C. Fluid inclusion chemistry (Na–K–Li–Ca–Mg–Cl–Br), ore geochemistry, S, and Pb isotope data suggest that the Angouran sulfide ore formed by the interaction of modified, strongly evaporated Miocene seawater and the lithotypes of an exhumed metamorphic core complex. Minor contributions of metals from Miocene igneous rocks cannot be excluded. Mineralization occurred in a collisional intra-arc setting with high heat flow, probably during the transition from an extensional to a compressional regime. The Angouran deposit may represent a new type of low-temperature carbonate-hosted Zn–Pb ore that is distinct from Mississippi Valley type and sedimentary-exhalative deposits.Editorial handling: B. Lehmann     

Diel Variation in the Pelagic Fish Assemblage in a Temperate Estuary

The pelagic fish assemblage within a temperate estuary was examined to determine if there were diel differences in species richness, total abundance, biomass, and species composition. These comparisons were made over both seasonal (January–December 1996) and annual (August–November 1995; August–December 1996) scales with pop net collections in a shallow (<2 m MLW) embayment within Great Bay in southern New Jersey, USA. In the complete year of sampling in 1996, more than 335,000 pelagic fish, representing 13 families (23 species), were collected during diel sampling with 12 species constituting over 99.9% of the total catch including Clupea harengus (84%), Menidia menidia (10%), and Anchoa mitchilli (4%). A detailed examination determined that nighttime species richness, total abundance and biomass may have been enhanced during some seasons by using artificial light. Diel variation in species composition was similar regardless of the use of the artificial light in all seasons but fall. Annual comparisons between 1995 and 1996 during late summer and fall found these results to be consistent. In general, these findings point out the importance of sampling during both day and night to understand the movement and abundance patterns of estuarine pelagic fishes and their ecological significance in temperate estuaries.     

Fluid inclusions in apatite from Jacupiranga calcite carbonatites: Evidence for a fluid-stratified carbonatite magma chamber

Carbonatites of the Jacupiranga alkaline–carbonatite complex in São Paulo State, Brazil, were used to investigate mineral–fluid interaction in a carbonatite magma chamber because apatite showed a marked discontinuity between primary fluid inclusion-rich cores and fluid inclusion-poor rims. Sylvite and burbankite, apatite, pyrite, chalcopyrite and ilmenite are the common phases occurring as trapped solids within primary fluid inclusions and reflect the general assemblage of the carbonatite. The apatite cores had higher Sr and REE concentrations than apatite rims, due to the presence of fluid inclusions into which these elements partitioned. A positive cerium anomaly was observed in both the core and rim of apatite crystals because oxidised Ce⁴⁺ partitioned into the magma. The combined evidence from apatite chemistry, fluid inclusion distribution and fluid composition was used to test the hypotheses that the limit of fluid inclusion occurrence within apatite crystals arises from: (1) generation of a separate fluid phase; (2) utilization of all available fluid during the first stage of crystallization; (3) removal of crystals from fluid-rich magma to fluid-poor magma; (4) an increase in the growth rate of apatite; or (5) escape of the fluids from the rim of the apatite after crystallization. The findings are consistent with fractionation and crystal settling of a carbonatite assemblage in a fluid-stratified magma chamber. Secondary fluid inclusions were trapped during a hydrothermal event that precipitated an assemblage of anhedral crystals: strontianite, carbocernaite, barytocalcite, barite and norsethite, pyrophanite, magnesian siderite and baddeleyite, ancylite-(Ce), monazite-(Ce) and allanite. The Sr- and REE-rich nature of the secondary assemblage, and lack of a positive cerium anomaly indicate that hydrothermal fluids have a similar source to the primary magma and are related to a later carbonatite intrusion.     

East Asia plate tectonics since 15 Ma: constraints from the Taiwan region

15 Ma ago, a major plate reorganization occurred in East Asia. Seafloor spreading ceased in the South China Sea, Japan Sea, Taiwan Sea, Sulu Sea, and Shikoku and Parece Vela basins. Simultaneously, shear motions also ceased along the Taiwan–Sinzi zone, the Gagua ridge and the Luzon–Ryukyu transform plate boundary. The complex system of thirteen plates suddenly evolved in a simple three-plate system (EU, PH and PA). Beneath the Manila accretionary prism and in the Huatung basin, we have determined magnetic lineation patterns as well as spreading rates deduced from the identification of magnetic lineations. These two patterns are rotated by 15°. They were formed by seafloor spreading before 15 Ma and belonged to the same ocean named the Taiwan Sea. Half-spreading rate in the Taiwan Sea was 2 cm/year from chron 23 to 20 (51 to 43 Ma) and 1 cm/year from chron 20 (43 Ma) to 5b (15 Ma). Five-plate kinematic reconstructions spanning from 15 Ma to Present show implications concerning the geodynamic evolution of East Asia. Amongst them, the 1000-km-long linear Gagua ridge was a major plate boundary which accommodated the northwestward shear motion of the PH Sea plate; the formation of Taiwan was driven by two simple lithospheric motions: (i) the subduction of the PH Sea plate beneath Eurasia with a relative westward motion of the western end (A) of the Ryukyu subduction zone; (ii) the subduction of Eurasia beneath the Philippine Sea plate with a relative southwestward motion of the northern end (B) of the Manila subduction zone. The Luzon arc only formed south of B. The collision of the Luzon arc with Eurasia occurred between A and B. East of A, the Luzon arc probably accreted against the Ryukyu forearc.     

Passive oil collection device

A novel, efficient, economical oil collection device, which recovers oils from surface waters using physical principles has been demonstrated. This method has never been used in oil skimmers. The device contains a water-filled vessel open at one end that is positioned above the spilled oil so that the oil entrance opening is leveled with the oil layer on the water surface. The oil moves upward into the vessel displacing the water due to the lower density of the oil. The device has no moving parts. Torricelli’s discovery and Pascal’s law govern containment of the liquid in the vessel above the water level, while Archimedes’ buoyancy force moves oil in the vessel. A collection of thick and thin oil layers on calm water has been shown. This device is very durable, environmentally friendly, recovers pure oil, emits no noise, no pollution, and capable of producing a broad economic impact in the oil clean-up industry by protecting health, life, and the environment.