Entanglement of Australian sea lions and New Zealand fur seals in lost fishing gear and other marine debris before and after Government and industry attempts to reduce the problem

In recent years, Australian governments and fishing industry associations have developed guiding principles aimed at reducing the impact of fishing on non-target species and the benthos and increasing community awareness of their efforts. To determine whether they reduced seal entanglement in lost fishing gear and other marine debris, we analysed Australian sea lion and New Zealand fur seal entanglement data collected from Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Contrary to our expectations, we found that entanglement rates did not decrease in recent years. The Australian sea lion entanglement rate (1.3% in 2002) and the New Zealand fur seal entanglement rate (0.9% in 2002) are the third and fourth highest reported for any seal species. Australian sea lions were most frequently entangled in monofilament gillnet that most likely originated from the shark fishery, which operates in the region where sea lions forage--south and east of Kangaroo Island. In contrast, New Zealand fur seals were most commonly entangled in loops of packing tape and trawl net fragments suspected to be from regional rock lobster and trawl fisheries. Based on recent entanglement studies, we estimate that 1478 seals die from entanglement each year in Australia. We discuss remedies such as education programs and government incentives that may reduce entanglements.     

Early Mesoproterozoic evolution of midcontinental Laurentia: Defining the geon 14 Baraboo orogeny

New geochronologic data from midcontinental Laurentia demonstrate that emplacement of the 1476-1470 Ma Wolf River granitic batholith was not an isolated igneous event,but was accompanied by regional metamorphism,deformation,and sedimentation.Evidence for such metamorphism and deformation is best seen in siliciclastic sedimentary rocks of the Baraboo Interval,which were deposited closely following the1.65-1.63 Ga Mazatzal orogeny.In Baraboo Interval strata,muscovite parallel to slatey cleavage,in hydrothermal veins,in quartzite breccia,and in metamorphosed paleosol yielded ~(40)Ar/~(39)Ar plateau age s of 1493-1465 Ma.In addition,U-Th-total Pb dating of neoblastic overgrowths on detrital monazite gave an age of 1488±20 Ma,and recrystallized hematite in folded metapelite gave a mean U/Th-He age of 1411± 39 Ma.Post-Baraboo,arkosic polymictic conglomerate,which contains detrital zircon with a minimum peak age of 1493 Ma,was intruded by a 1470 Ma granite porphyry at the northeastern margin of the Wolf River batholith.This episode of magmatism,regional deformation and metamorphism,and sedimentation,which is designated herein as the Baraboo orogeny,provides a midcontinental link between the Picuris orogeny to the southwe st and the Pinware orogeny to the northeast,completing the extent of early Mesoproterozoic(Calymmian) orogenesis for 5000 km along the southern margin of Laurentia.This transcontinental orogen is unique among Precambrian orogenies for its great width(～1600 km),the predominance of ferroan granites derived from partial melting of lower continental crust,and the prevalence of re gional high T-P metamorphism related to advective heating by granitic magmas emplaced in the middle to upper crust.     

The complexity of sediment recycling as revealed by common Pb isotopes in K-feldspar

Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology has become the gold standard in evaluating source to sink relationships in sedimentary basins. However, the physical and chemical robustness of zircon, which make it such a useful mineral for provenance studies, is also a hindrance as zircon can be recycled through numerous sedimentary basins, thus obscuring the first cycle source to sink relationship. An elegant approach to addressing this potential issue is to compare the Pb isotope composition of detrital K-feldspar, a mineral which is unlikely to survive more than one erosion-transport-deposition cycle, with that of magmatic K-feldspar from potential basement source terranes. Here we present new in situ Pb isotope data on detrital K-feldspar from two Proterozoic arkosic sandstones from Western Australia, and magmatic K-feldspar grains from potential igneous source rocks, as inferred by the age and Hf isotope composition of detrital zircon grains. The data indicate that the detrital zircon and K-feldspar grains could not have been liberated from the same source rocks, and that the zircon has most likely been recycled through older sedimentary basins. These results provide a more complete understanding of apparently simple source to sink relationships in this part of Proterozoic Western Australia.     

Effect of rapidly changing river stage on uranium flux through the hyporheic zone

Measurement of ground water/surface water interaction within the hyporheic zone is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of subsurface contaminant fate and transport. Understanding the interaction between ground water and surface water is critical in developing a complete conceptual model of contaminant transport through the hyporheic zone. At the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington, ground water contaminated with uranium discharges to the Columbia River through the hyporheic zone. Ground water flux varies according to changes in hydraulic gradient caused by fluctuating river stage, which changes in response to operation of dams on the Columbia River. Piezometers and continuous water quality monitoring probes were installed in the hyporheic zone to provide long-term, high-frequency measurement of hydraulic gradient and estimated uranium concentrations. Subsequently, the flux of water and uranium was calculated for each half-hour time period over a 15-month study period. In addition, measurement of water levels in the near-shore unconfined aquifer enhanced the understanding of the relationship between river stage, aquifer elevation, and uranium flux. Changing river stage resulted in fluctuating hydraulic gradient within the hyporheic zone. Further, influx of river water caused lower uranium concentrations as a result of dilution. The methods employed in this study provide a better understanding of the interaction between surface and ground water in a situation with a dynamically varying vertical hydraulic gradient and illustrate how the combination of relatively standard methods can be used to derive an accurate estimation of water and contaminant flux through the hyporheic zone.