A Review of “Renewable Energy Project Development Under the Clean Development Mechanism: A Guide for Latin America”

Books reviewed in this article:

Kurt E. Engelmann and Vjeran Pavlakovic (eds.), Rural Development in Eurasia and the Middle East: Land Reform, Demographic Change, and Environmental Constraints

Gregory C. Randall, America's Original GI Town: Park Forest, Illinois

John B. Rehder, Delta Sugar: Louisiana's Vanishing Plantation Landscape

Cathy D. Knepper, Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the New Deal

Char Miller (ed.), Fluid Arguments: Five Centuries of Western Water Conflict

Edward F. Bergman, The Spiritual Traveler: New York City: The Guide to Sacred Spaces and Peaceful Places

Rachel Pain, Michael Barke, Duncan Fuller, Jamie Gough, Robert MacFarlane, and Graham Mowl, Introducing Social Geographies

Tor A. Benjaminsen, and Christian Lund, (eds.), Politics, Property, and Production in the West African Sahel: Understanding Natural Resources Management

Al Gedicks, Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations

Maryann P. Feldman and Nadine Massard (eds.), Institutions and Systems in the Geography of Innovation

Richard Foglesong, Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando

Annick Germain, and Damaris Rose, Montréal: The Quest for a Metropolis

George F. Rengert, Mark T. Mattson, and Kristin D. Henderson, Campus Security: Situational Crime Prevention in High–Density Environments

Vaclav Smil, Feeding the World: A Challenge for the Twenty–First Century

Pu Miao (ed.), Public Places in Asia Pacific Cities: Current Issues and Strategies

Lisa M. Benton and John Rennie Short (eds.), Environmental Discourse and Practice: A Reader

Philip Scranton (ed.), The Second Wave: Southern Industrialization from the 1940s to the 1970s

Barry Dalal–Clayton and David Dent, Knowledge of the Land: Land Resources Information and Its Use in Rural Development     

Textured organic surfaces associated with the Ediacara biota in South Australia

The Ediacaran Period takes its name from the fossils of the Ediacara biota, which represent the first appearance of large and diverse assemblages of organisms in the fossil record. Although the global record of these distinctive body fossils is now well known, a previously unrecognized megascopic organic record of textured organic surfaces (TOS) occurs in the Ediacara biota. However, TOS is also a feature over a wider range of paleoenvironmental settings, where body fossils are unknown, in Ediacaran siliciclastic successions that have been studied in Australia, Namibia and western North America.Paleoecological analysis of successive bedding planes of strata from the late Ediacaran Rawnsley Quartzite in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, reveals that TOS represent the most common organic features in bedding-surface assemblages of the Ediacara biota. The TOS consist of preserved, patterned assemblages of textured organic mats, fibers and simple tubular body fossils. Complex Ediacara body fossils while striking for their distinctive body plans, and dominating some of the beds, are relatively minor components of combined overall surface area. Many elements of TOS have previously been miss-diagnosed as trace fossils, which are in practice limited to two or at most three morphotypes that indicate the presence of Bilateria. Although TOS represent a simpler grade of organismic construction than discrete and more complex Ediacara body fossils, they were preserved in a similar manner. Marked variability in all components of the biota between successive surfaces suggests that Ediacara ecologies fluctuated at short intervals despite an apparently consistent sedimentary regime.     

Exploring the impact of diagenesis on (isotope) geochemical and microstructural alteration features in biogenic aragonite

For the Quaternary and Neogene, aragonitic biogenic and abiogenic carbonates are frequently exploited as archives of their environment. Conversely, pre‐Neogene aragonite is often diagenetically altered and calcite archives are studied instead. Nevertheless, the exact sequence of diagenetic processes and products is difficult to disclose from naturally altered material. Here, experiments were performed to understand biogenic aragonite alteration processes and products. Shell subsamples of the bivalve Arctica islandica were exposed to hydrothermal alteration. Thermal boundary conditions were set at 100°C, 175°C and 200°C. These comparably high temperatures were chosen to shorten experimental durations. Subsamples were exposed to different ¹⁸O‐depleted fluids for durations between two and twenty weeks. Alteration was documented using X‐ray diffraction, cathodoluminescence, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy, as well as conventional and clumped isotope analyses. Experiments performed at 100°C show redistribution and darkening of organic matter, but lack evidence for diagenetic alteration, except in Δ₄₇ which show the effects of annealing processes. At 175°C, valves undergo significant aragonite to calcite transformation and neomorphism. The δ¹⁸O signature supports transformation via dissolution and reprecipitation, but isotopic exchange is limited by fluid migration through the subsamples. Individual growth increments in these subsamples exhibit bright orange luminescence. At 200°C, valves are fully transformed to calcite and exhibit purple‐blue luminescence with orange bands. The δ¹⁸O and Δ₄₇ signatures reveal exchange with the aqueous fluid, whereas δ¹³C remains unaltered in all experiments, indicating a carbonate‐buffered system. Clumped isotope temperatures in high‐temperature experiments show compositions in broad agreement with the measured temperature. Experimentally induced alteration patterns are comparable with individual features present in Pleistocene shells. This study represents a significant step towards sequential analysis of diagenetic features in biogenic aragonites and sheds light on reaction times and threshold limits. The limitations of a study restricted to a single test organism are acknowledged and call for refined follow‐up experiments.     

Domoic acid excretion in dungeness crabs, razor clams and mussels

Domoic acid (DA) is a neurotoxic amino acid produced by several marine algal species of the Pseudo-nitzschia (PN) genus. We studied the elimination of DA from hemolymph after intravascular (IV) injection in razor clams (Siliqua patula), mussels (Mytilus edulis) and Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister). Crabs were also injected with two other organic acids, dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and kainic acid (KA). For IV dosing, hemolymph was repetitively sampled and DA concentrations measured by HPLC-UV. Toxicokinetic analysis of DA in crabs suggested most of the injected dose remained within hemolymph compartment with little extravascular distribution. This observation is in sharp contrast to results obtained from clams and mussels which exhibited similarly large apparent volumes of distribution despite large differences in overall clearance. These findings suggest fundamentally different storage and elimination processes are occurring for DA between bivalves and crabs.     

Thresholds for post-wildfire debris flows: Insights from the Pinal Fire,Arizona, USA

Wildfire significantly alters the hydrologic properties of a burned area, leading to increases in overland flow, erosion, and the potential for runoff-generated debris flows. The initiation of debris flows in recently burned areas is well characterized by rainfall intensity-duration (ID) thresholds. However, there is currently a paucity of data quantifying the rainfall intensities required to trigger post-wildfire debris flows, which limits our understanding of how and why rainfall ID thresholds vary in different climatic and geologic settings. In this study, we monitored debris-flow activity following the Pinal Fire in central Arizona, which differs from both a climatic and hydrogeomorphic perspective from other regions in the western United States where ID thresholds for post-wildfire debris flows are well established, namely the Transverse Ranges of southern California. Since the peak rainfall intensity within a rainstorm may exceed the rainfall intensity required to trigger a debris flow, the development of robust rainfall ID thresholds requires knowledge of the timing of debris flows within rainstorms. Existing post-wildfire debris-flow studies in Arizona only constrain the peak rainfall intensity within debris-flow-producing storms, which may far exceed the intensity that actually triggered the observed debris flow. In this study, we used pressure transducers within five burned drainage basins to constrain the timing of debris flows within rainstorms. Rainfall ID thresholds derived here from triggering rainfall intensities are, on average, 22 mm h⁻¹ lower than ID thresholds derived under the assumption that the triggering intensity is equal to the maximum rainfall intensity recorded during a rainstorm. We then use a hydrologic model to demonstrate that the magnitude of the 15-min rainfall ID threshold at the Pinal Fire site is associated with the rainfall intensity required to exceed a recently proposed dimensionless discharge threshold for debris-flow initiation. Model results further suggest that previously observed differences in regional ID thresholds between Arizona and the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California may be attributed, in large part, to differences in the hydraulic properties of burned soils. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related fire impacts in rural and urban interior Alaska

This paper explores whether fundamental differences exist between urban and rural vulnerability to climate-induced changes in the fire regime of interior Alaska. We further examine how communities and fire managers have responded to these changes and what additional adaptations could be put in place. We engage a variety of social science methods, including demographic analysis, semi-structured interviews, surveys, workshops and observations of public meetings. This work is part of an interdisciplinary study of feedback and interactions between climate, vegetation, fire and human components of the Boreal forest social–ecological system of interior Alaska. We have learned that although urban and rural communities in interior Alaska face similar increased exposure to wildfire as a result of climate change, important differences exist in their sensitivity to these biophysical, climate-induced changes. In particular, reliance on wild foods, delayed suppression response, financial resources and institutional connections vary between urban and rural communities. These differences depend largely on social, economic and institutional factors, and are not necessarily related to biophysical climate impacts per se. Fire management and suppression action motivated by political, economic or other pressures can serve as unintentional or indirect adaptation to climate change. However, this indirect response alone may not sufficiently reduce vulnerability to a changing fire regime. More deliberate and strategic responses may be required, given the magnitude of the expected climate change and the likelihood of an intensification of the fire regime in interior Alaska.     

Tidal exposure or microhabitats: what determines sandy‐beach nematode zonation? a case study of a macrotidal ridge‐and‐runnel sandy beach in Belgium

Lately, across‐shore zonation has been found to be more important in structuring the nematode community of a tropical macrotidal sandy beach than microhabitat heterogeneity. To evaluate whether this zonation pattern applies to a temperate beach, a macrotidal ridge‐and‐runnels sandy beach in the North Sea was studied. We investigated whether a similar zonation occurs in sandbar and runnel microhabitats, and whether the runnels harbour a different community from the subtidal. Our results indicate that nematode communities from runnel and sandbar habitats are significantly different. In addition, horizontal zonation patterns for nematode communities differ between both habitats. Nematode assemblages from sandbars are divided to lower, middle and upper beach while upper and middle runnels cluster together. The subtidal and upper runnels showed dissimilar nematode assemblages, although runnels showed the same dominant species (Daptonema normandicum), which increases its abundance towards the upper runnels. This study illustrates the importance of microhabitat heterogeneity, which resulted in different zonation patterns across the sandy beach examined. The divergent zonation between sandbars and runnels in the macrotidal temperate sandy beach, compared with the pattern observed for a subtropical sandy beach with similar morphodynamics, indicates that generalizations about nematode distribution patterns should be made with caution.     

Characterization and cycling of atmospheric mercury along the central US Gulf Coast

Concentrations of atmospheric Hg species, elemental Hg (Hg^°), reactive gaseous Hg (RGM), and fine particulate Hg (Hg-PM_2.5) were measured at a coastal site near Weeks Bay, Alabama from April to August, 2005 and January to May, 2006. Mean concentrations of the species were 1.6 ± 0.3 ng m⁻³, 4.0 ± 7.5 pg m⁻³ and 2.7 ± 3.4 pg m⁻³, respectively. A strong diel pattern was observed for RGM (midday maximum concentrations were up to 92.7 pg m⁻³), but not for Hg^° or Hg-PM_2.5. Elevated RGM concentrations (>25 pg m⁻³) in April and May of 2005 correlated with elevated average daytime O₃ concentrations (>55 ppbv) and high light intensity (>500 W m⁻²). These conditions generally corresponded with mixed continental-Gulf and exclusively continental air mass trajectories. Generally lower, but still elevated, RGM peaks observed in August, 2005 and January–March, 2006 correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with peaks in SO₂ concentration and corresponded to periods of high light intensity and lower average daytime O₃ concentrations. During these times air masses were dominated by trajectories that originated over the continent. Elevated RGM concentrations likely resulted from photochemical oxidation of Hg^° by atmospheric oxidants. This process may have been enhanced in and by the near-shore environment relative to inland sites. The marine boundary layer itself was not found to be a significant source of RGM.     

Non-Energy Resources,Connecticut Coastal Waters,Year 9 and 10 Activities

The Connecticut effort in year 9 of the Continental Margins Program concentrated on a 13.6-mi2 area south of the Housatonic River. This area was chosen for a side-scan sonar survey because it lies on and adjacent to the bathymetric expressions of two fairly large, subcropping, potential sources of coarse material. Previous seismic work in the area indicated that outcrops or subcrops of these potential source deposits could be delineated using their bathymetric expression. Owing to the limited resolution of the seismic data, a correlation between bottom type and underlying source deposits could not be made with the seismics alone. Results from the November 1993 side-scan survey show that although the source deposits have discernible bathymetric expressions, they are not cropping out as much as expected. As a result, bottom type is not necessarily determined by subcropping deposits in this particular area. Year 10 work was concentrated in Fishers Island Sound, where three areas of potential interest for near-shore gravel resources had previously been identified. These areas were surveyed, during the spring of 1996, using the RoxAnn Seabed Classification System. A small video camera and a Van Veen grab sampler were used to calibrate and verify the RoxAnn data. Although previous sampling had indicated the presence of gravel or gravelly sediment in all of the survey areas, the RoxAnn results showed less gravel than anticipated. Vibrant eelgrass beds and other habitat indicators were detected in all of the survey areas. Given the variable sediment results, and the high habitat potential of the areas surveyed, the likelihood of developing a sand and gravel supply from the near shore of Fishers Island Sound appears quite low.     

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.