Legal and institutional tools to mitigate marine turtle bycatch: Argentina as a case study

This paper explores conservation policy pertinent to three species of marine turtles affected by fisheries, while crossing jurisdictions in their seasonal migrations through the SW Atlantic, particularly the Argentine waters. This case study reviews local legal and institutional frameworks for Argentina and concludes that tools are in place to monitor and mitigate the negative impact of bycatch on the populations. Argentina is signatory of the most relevant international treaties aimed at protecting transboundary species (e.g. Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles, Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals). Legislation also exists at the federal and provincial levels. Yet, accidental captures continue to occur due to weaknesses in enforcement and the low priority that conservation has in fisheries management decisions. Some urgent practical actions supported by policy are suggested: (a) placement of on-board observers in coastal fishing fleets, (b) application of existing mitigation measures to reduce bycatch, (c) design of a national plan of action for marine turtles in Argentina, and (d) development of a regional plan between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Stakeholder involvement, especially the fishing sector but also the civil society, would be important to energize practical and effective conservation decisions. The example of Argentina is typical for the region and may apply to other countries as well. The conservation community requires investing more in the application of policy, concomitant with perfecting legal tools.     

土地变化科学模型方法新进展——简评《土地系统变化动力学与效应模拟》(英文)

Land system change has never been out of human concerns. It is always one of the hottest themes in global environmental change research (Seto et al., 2002; Gutman et al.,     

Hammer Efficiency and Correction Factors for the TxDOT Texas Cone Penetration Test

This study analyzes blowcount data from instrumented Texas Cone Penetration (TCP) tests. TCP hammer efficiency, rod length influence on the hammer efficiency, and overburden pressure correction factors for the TCP blowcounts (N_TCP) are explored. Results are compared to published correction factors for the standard penetration test (SPT). The final dataset analyzed for this study consisted of 293 TCP tests from which 135 tests were instrumented. TCP hammer efficiency values for automatic trip hammers ranged from 74 to 101% with an average of 89%. Analyses showed a statistically-significant relationship between the TCP hammer efficiency and the rod length below ground surface. Statistical models were developed for undifferentiated soils, and corresponding rod length correction factors for the TCP test (C_R-TCP) were obtained ranging from 0.90 to 1.00. In a second analysis, the relationship between the overburden pressure and N_TCP was explored and a mathematical expression for the overburden correction factor for the TCP blowcount value (C_N-TCP) was determined. This work represents the first study where corrections to N_TCP are explored, and the outcome of this research benefits the geotechnical engineering community using the TCP test and its associated foundation design method.     

Multi‐transient electromagnetic repeatability experiment over the North Sea Harding field‡

We present results of synthetic time‐lapse and real repeatability multi‐transient electromagnetic surveys over the North Sea Harding field. Using Archie's law to convert porosity and fluid saturation to resistivity we created 3D isotropic models of the reservoir resistivity at different stages of production from the initial state in 1996 through to complete hydrocarbon production by 2016 and, for each stage, we simulated an east‐west transient electromagnetic survey line across Harding. Unconstrained 1D full‐waveform Occam inversions of these synthetic data show that Harding should be detectable and its lateral extent reasonably well‐defined. Resistivity changes caused by hydrocarbon production from initial pre‐production state to production of the oil rim in 2011 are discernible as are significant changes from 2011–2016 during the modelled gas blowdown phase. The 2D repeatability surveys of 2007 and 2008 tied two wells: one on and the other off the structure. Between the two surveys the segment of the field under investigation produced 3.9 million barrels of oil – not enough to generate an observable time‐lapse electromagnetic anomaly with a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 40 dB. Processing of the 2007 and 2008 data included deconvolution for the measured source current and removal of spatially‐correlated noise, which increased the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the recovered impulse responses by about 20 dB and resulted in a normalized root‐mean‐square difference of 3.9% between the data sets. 1D full‐waveform Occam inversions of the real data showed that Harding was detectable and its lateral extent was also reasonably well‐defined. The results indicate that the multi‐transient electromagnetic method is suitable for exploration, appraisal and monitoring hydrocarbon production.     

Early Benthic Organism Colonization on a Caribbean Coral Reef (Barbados, West Indies): a Plate Experimental Approach

Abstract. Macrofaunal colonization was studied using coral plates fixed at 10 m depth on a fringing reef in Barbados, West Indies. Two sites were compared: Spring Garden, a site that is affected by eutrophication, and Six Men's Bay which is relatively free of this effect. Two sets of plates were immersed in winter and spring 1990 at each site and monitored for 28 and 19 weeks, respectively. Green and brown algae colonized first, followed 2 weeks later by ostracods, cumaceans, amphipods and polychaetes: terebellids, nereidids and syllids. Most colonizers either nestled or encrusted. A total of 11 017 invertebrates belonging to 145 species were collected. Polychaetes were the most abundant and diverse zoological group. Considering polychaetes, crustaceans and molluscs, the study sites shared around 75% of the species. Overall, densities were higher on lower (shaded) surfaces while diversities were higher on upper (illuminated) sides. Similarity coefficients and correspondence analysis showed different macrobenthic assemblages and colonization patterns in light and shaded and in polluted and unpolluted sites. Coral plates were associated according to their 'immersion time' and were closely linked to their stage of development. Spring Garden (polluted) presented a higher number of soft-bottom and deposit-feeder species ( e.g. , Capitella capitata ).     

Velocity dispersion estimates of APM galaxy clusters

We present 83 new galaxy radial velocities in the field of 18 APM clusters with redshifts between 0.06 and 0.13. The clusters have Abell identifications and the galaxies were selected within 0.75  h ⁻¹ Mpc in projection from their centres. We derive new cluster velocity dispersions for 13 clusters using our data and published radial velocities.
We analyse correlations between cluster velocity dispersions and cluster richness counts as defined in Abell and APM catalogues. The correlations show a statistically significant trend although with a large scatter, suggesting that richness is a poor estimator of cluster mass irrespectively of cluster selection criteria and richness definition. We find systematically lower velocity dispersions in the sample of Abell clusters that do not fulfil APM cluster selection criteria, suggesting artificially higher Abell richness counts owing to contamination by projection effects in this subsample.     

The impact of climatic and non-climatic factors on land surface temperature in southwestern Romania

Land surface temperature is one of the most important parameters related to global warming. It depends mainly on soil type, discontinuous vegetation cover, or lack of precipitation. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between high LST, synoptic conditions and air masses trajectories, vegetation cover, and soil type in one of the driest region in Romania. In order to calculate the land surface temperature and normalized difference vegetation index, five satellite images of LANDSAT missions 5 and 7, covering a period of 26 years (1986–2011), were selected, all of them collected in the month of June. The areas with low vegetation density were derived from normalized difference vegetation index, while soil types have been extracted from Corine Land Cover database. HYSPLIT application was employed to identify the air masses origin based on their backward trajectories for each of the five study cases. Pearson, logarithmic, and quadratic correlations were used to detect the relationships between land surface temperature and observed ground temperatures, as well as between land surface temperature and normalized difference vegetation index. The most important findings are: strong correlation between land surface temperature derived from satellite images and maximum ground temperature recorded in a weather station located in the area, as well as between areas with land surface temperature equal to or higher than 40.0 °C and those with lack of vegetation; the sandy soils are the most prone to high land surface temperature and lack of vegetation, followed by the chernozems and brown soils; extremely severe drought events may occur in the region.     

Microcracking in calcite and dolomite marble: microstructural influences and effects on properties

Microstructure‐based finite-element analysis with a microcracking algorithm was used to simulate an actual degradation phenomenon of marble structures, i.e., microcracking. Both microcrack initiation and crack propagation were characterized, as were their dependence on lattice preferred orientation (LPO), grain shape preferred orientation (SPO), grain size, marble composition (calcite and dolomite) and grain‐boundary fracture toughness. Two LPOs were analyzed: a random orientation distribution function and an orientation distribution function with strong directional crystalline texture generated from a March–Dollase distribution. Three SPOs were considered: equiaxed grains; elongated grains and a mixture of equiaxed and elongated grains. Three different grain sizes were considered: fine grains of order 200 μm (only calcitic marble); medium size grains of order 1 mm (calcitic and dolomitic marbles); and large grains of order 2 mm (only dolomitic marble). The fracture surface energy for the grain boundaries, γ_ig, was chosen to be 20 and 40 % of the fracture surface energy of a grain, γ_xtal, so that both intergranular and transgranular fracture were possible. Studies were performed on these idealized marble microstructures to elucidate the range of microcracking responses. Simulations were performed for both heating and cooling by 50 °C in steps of 1 °C. Microcracking results were correlated with the thermoelastic responses, which are indicators related to degradation. The results indicate that certain combinations of LPO, SPO, grain size, grain‐boundary fracture toughness and marble composition have a significant influence on the thermal-elastic response of marble. Microstructure with the smallest grain size and the highest degree of SPO and LPO had less of a tendency to microcrack. Additionally, with increasing SPO and LPO microcracking becomes more spatially anisotropic. A significant observation for all microstructures was an asymmetry in microcracking upon heating and cooling: more microcracking was observed upon cooling than upon heating. Given an identical microstructure and crystallographic texture, calcite showed larger thermal stresses than dolomite, had an earlier onset of microcracking upon heating and cooling, and a greater microcracked area at a given temperature differential. Thermal expansion coefficients with and without microcracking were also determined.