Late quaternary sea bottom conditions in the southern Panama basin,Eastern Equatorial Pacific

A paleoceanographic reconstruction of the southern Panama Basin for the last 23.000 years, based on the benthic foraminiferal analysis from the deep sea core ME0005A-24JC (0.01°N, 86.28°W, water depth 2941) is presented. Cluster and SHEBI (SHE Analysis for Biozone Identification) analyses performed on the benthic foraminiferal assemblages, evidence a faunal turnover in the early Holocene at 14 ky BP. Between 23 and 14 ky BP, Fursenkoina rotundata, Hoeglundina elegans, Globobulimina affinis, Globobulimina pacifica, Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi and Uvigerina hispidocostata were common. Conversely, from 14 ky to the present, the assemblage is represented by Chilostomella oolina, Laticarinina pauperata, and Uvigerina proboscidea. This faunal turnover suggests significant fluctuations in oxygen content at the sea floor and the organic matter (OM) influx, which could reflect: (1) fluctuations in the surface productivity related to the equatorial divergence and, (2) OM advection caused by the dynamic of the deep sea currents.Paleoproductivity estimates and benthic foraminiferal rates depict a general trend towards lower values since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) with a conspicuous change at 14 ky BP. Therefore, the paleoceanographic reconstructions of the ME0005A-24JC core suggest a transition from La Niña-like conditions during the LGM to El Niño-like conditions in the recent, as previously proposed for the Eastern Equatorial Pacific. Estimates of the paleo-intensity of deep sea currents based on the relative percentage abundance of the epifaunal foraminifera Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi suggest stronger deep sea currents on the Carnegie Ridge before 14 ky BP.     

Organic carbon export in the form of wood during an extreme tropical storm,Upper Rio Chagres,Panama

Widespread, intense rainfall over the Upper Rio Chagres watershed (414 km²) in central Panama during December 2010 triggered numerous landslides that introduced large numbers of trees to the river network. We flew by helicopter along the mainstem Upper Chagres and the adjacent margins of Lake Alhajuela, into which the Upper Chagres flows, in February and June 2011. We used low‐elevation video photography from these flights to tally the number of wood pieces stored along the lake margin and within the channel, and the number of landslides reaching the mainstem. We used these tallies with ground‐verified estimates of average wood piece size and landslide surface area, and assumptions about wood density, carbon content, and aboveground biomass, to develop a first‐order estimate of carbon export in the form of wood from the Upper Chagres following the 2010 storms. Based on the wood tally, we estimate 9 · 6 to 16 Mg C/km² export, and from the landslide tally we estimate 24 Mg C/km². We believe the landslide tally provides a more accurate minimum estimate of carbon export from the Upper Chagres during the December 2010 storms. These values are an order of magnitude higher than limited data for average or background rates of wood‐based carbon export from other catchments, but two orders of magnitude lower than wood‐based carbon export during extreme storms in Taiwan. The findings suggest that duration of flood flow above a threshold for mobilizing wood within the channel network exerts a more important control on wood export from the Upper Chagres than magnitude of flood peak. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Episodic wood loading in a mountainous neotropical watershed

The Upper Rio Chagres drains 414 km² of steep, mountainous terrain in central Panama. A tropical air mass thunderstorm on 10 July 2007 produced a flood across the basin that peaked at 720 m³ s^− 1 at a headwaters gage draining 17.5 km² and 1710 m³ s^− 1 at a downstream gage draining 414 km². The storm also triggered numerous landslides in the upper basin, which facilitated the formation of large logjams along portions of the channel where transport capacity of wood was reduced by a change in channel geometry such as a bend or channel expansion. During field work in February 2008, we characterized three jams with surface areas of 400–2450 m²; two of these jams resulted in storage of substantial (1100–8200 m³) sediment wedges upstream. We returned to these sites in March 2009 to document changes in the logjams and sediment storage. Drawing on observations made in the basin since 2002, and site visits during 2008 and 2009, we suggest that jams such as these last two years or less. We propose that wood dynamics in the Upper Chagres alternate between brief periods of moderate wood load in the form of large logjams and much longer periods of essentially no wood load, a situation that contrasts with the more consistent wood loads in catchments of similar size in temperate environments and with limited studies of more consistent wood load in tropical catchments with no landslides.     

Mapping benthic faunal communities in the shallow and deep sediments of Las Perlas Archipelago, Pacific Panama

Las Perlas Archipelago (LPA) is located off the Pacific Coast of Panama and was designated as a marine protected area (MPA) in 2007. This baseline study of the shallow and deeper sedimentary habitats of the islands partly informed the MPA designation. Ninety-two grab stations and twenty trawl stations were sampled. Sediment grab sample results were interpolated to produce a map that showed the area to be dominated by mud (1246 km², 40%) and sand/shell sediments (780 km², 25%). A total of 201 taxa were recorded and over 5800 individual specimens were processed, revealing that the sediments hold varying community compositions, with annelids being the dominant group (73%) followed by crustaceans (14%). Relationships were evident between community, feeding guilds, and sediment types, which give an indication of communities that can be expected in similar sediments in other areas of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. A study of this scale and level of detail is rare for this biogeographic region and provides a valuable, comprehensive appreciation of the LPA’s benthos.     

Simulating the value of El Niño forecasts for the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal relies on rain-fed streamflow into Gatun Lake, the canal’s primary storage facility, for operations—principally ship passage and hydropower generation. Precipitation in much of Panama has a strong negative relationship with eastern tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) and this relationship is reflected in Gatun Lake inflows. For example, the correlation coefficient between wet season (July–December) inflow and NINO3 SST is −0.53 over the period 1914–1997. Operational capabilities to predict tropical Pacific SSTs have been demonstrated by several forecast systems during the past decade, and (as we show) such SST forecasts can be used to reduce the uncertainty of estimates of future inflows (compared with climatological expectations). Because substantial reductions in lake inflow negatively impact canal operations, we wondered whether these forecasts of future inflows, coupled with a method for translating that information into effective operational policy, might result in more efficient canal management. A combined simulation/optimization/assessment “virtual” canal system was implemented and exercised using operational El Niño forecasts over the period 1981–1998. The results show the following main points:

(i)

At current demand levels, the canal system is relatively robust (insensitive to flow forecasts) unless flows are substantially reduced (i.e., during El Niño episodes) or forecasts are extremely accurate.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Geography and the Third World. International Seminar, 14–18 May 1980, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia . Ishmail Ahmad and Jamaluddin Md Jahi, eds. The Growth Dilemma: Residents' Views and Local Population Change in the United States . Mark Baldassare. Sport and Place: A Geography of Sport in England, Scotland & Wales . John Bale. The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry . Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison. Selected Essays 1963–1975: Carl O. Sauer . Bob Callahen, ed. Housing and Planning in the Countryside . G. Clark. Conflict, Politics and the Urban Scene . Kevin R. Cox and R. J. Johnston, eds. Thematic Maps: Their Design and Production . David J. Cuff and Mark T. Mattson. Wine: A Geographic Appreciation . Harm Jan de Blij. USSR in Maps . J. C. Dewdney. Political Geography: A Contemporary Perspective . Ramesh D. Dikshit. Rethinking Human Adaptation . Rada Dyson-Hudson and Michael A. Little, eds. Sacred Sands: The Struggle for Community in the indiana Dunes . J. Ronald Engel. Geography of the Biosphere . A. Furley and Walter W. Newey. Disaster and Reconstruction . Robert Geipel. Glasgow: The Making of a City . Andrew Gibb. Design for Arid Regions . Giden S. Golany, ed. Urbanization and Cancer Mortality: The United States Experience, 1950–1975 . Michael R. Greenberg. Geology in the Nineteenth Century: Changing Views of a Changing World . Mott T. Greene. Colonización y Destrucción de Bosques en Panamá . Stanley Heckadon Moreno and Alberto McKay, eds. Urban Geography: A First Approach . David T. Herbert and Colin J. Thomas. The Visual and Spatial Structure of Landscapes . Tadahiko Higuchi. Climate from Tree Rings . M. K. Hughes, P. M. Kelly, J. R. Pilcher, and V. C. LaMarche, Jr., eds. The structure of Nineteenth Century Cities . James H. Johnson and Colin G. Pooley, eds. The American Planner: Biographies and Recollections . Donald A. Krueckeberg, ed. Urban Land Policy For the 1980s, the Message for State and Local Government . George Lefcoe, ed. Regional Planning: Evolution, Crisis and Prospects . Gill C. Lim, ed. Relevance and Ethics In Geography . Bruce Mitchell and Dianne Draper. China: The Geography of Development and Modernization . Clifton W. Pannell and Laurence J. C. MA. The Urban Retailing System . Robert B. Potter. Hants. Nonconventional Energy Resources . Philip R. Pryde. Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis . Bonham C. Richardson. Population and Resources . Harry Robinson. East Los Angeles: History of A Barrio . Ricardo Romo. Integrated Impact Assessment . Frederick A. Rossini and Alan L. Porter, eds. Environmental Aesthetics: Essays in Interpretation . Barry Sadler and Allen Carlson, eds. Earthwatch . Charles Sheffield. Field Techniques and Research Methods in Geography . Robert H. Stoddard. Haiti: Land of Poverty . Robert J. Tata. Weathering and Erosion: Sources and Methods in Geography . Stephen T. Trudgill. Once Beneath the Forest. Prehistoric Terracing in the Río Bec Region of the Maya Lowlands . B. L. Turner, II. The Historical Geography of Scotland since 1707 . David Turnock.     

Amphibolites from Panama: anticlockwise P-T paths from a Pre-upper Cretaceous metamorphic basement in Isthmian Central America

Rocks from the metamorphic basement of the Azuero and Sona peninsulas, Panama, consist of schistose amphibolites and minor amounts of metasediment. In the Sona peninsula, strongly zoned amphiboles indicate that the amphibolites followed a progressive anticlockwsie P-T path prograde from low T /low P to medium T /high P , and are retrograded into the greenschist facies. In contrast, the amphibolites of the Azuero peninsula are affected by a low to medium T /low P metamorphism.
The metamorphic events of the Sona amphibolites occurred prior to the intra-Senonian tectonic phase which affects the Mesozoic formations along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama. The regional significance of such a basement in Isthmian Central America is discussed.     

A new Late Miocene chondrichthyan assemblage from the Chagres Formation,Panama

The lLate Miocene Chagres Formation from northern Panama contains the youngest outcrops of the Panama Canal Basin. Here we report two chondrichthyan assemblages that include 30 taxa from both the Rio Indio and Chagres Sandstone Members of the Chagres Formation. We report 18 new fossil records for Panama and four for tropical America, constituting the most diverse chondrichthyan association for the Cenozoic of Panama. We performed a paleobathymetry analysis based on the modern water depth preference of extant chondrichthyan taxa. The assemblage from the Rio Indio Member is characterized by taxa with neritic affinities, suggesting depths <100 m, whereas the assemblage from the Chagres Sandstone Member is dominated by taxa with oceanic affinities, suggesting 200–300 m water depths. The Chagres Sandstone Member could have accumulated at the edge of a platform–upper slope, bordered by a deep oceanic margin.