Cost/benefit analysis of a benthic monitoring programme of organic benthic enrichment using different sampling and analysis methods

To investigate the combined effects of decreasing taxonomic resolution (i.e. species, family, phylum), the use of different mesh-size (1.0 mm and 0.5 mm) and the type of samplers used (van Veen vs. corers taken by divers) on the quality of data obtained, a comparative study was undertaken with the overall aim of identifying cost efficient methods for routinely monitoring the ecological change caused by Mediterranean fish farming. The results clearly showed that information loss was relatively low as data were aggregated at higher taxonomic levels, particularly up to the level of family or even order. It was also found that the extra information gained by sieving samples through a 0.5 mm sieve did not improve the ability to distinguish the potentially impacted sites from the control stations. Finally, it was found that a relatively large proportion of the available information concerning the community structure such as abundance, biomass or diversity is lost when sampling is carried out with corers. A cost/benefit ratio analysis for the two sampling and the two sieving methods showed minimal values for the van Veen samples (for both sieve fractions) at the family level, indicating that analysis at this level gives the best balance between precision of the results and decrease in taxonomic effort. However, if the time needed to sort the samples is included in the analysis, then samples taken with corers using a 0.5 mm sieve and identified to families seems like a good compromise between precision and cost.     

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.     

中分辨率遥感图像土地利用与覆被分类的方法及精度评价

利用TM、SPOT及CBERS-1等中分辨率卫星图像,对土地覆被的专家系统分类方法、居民地的决策树提取方法以及水体的迭代混合提取方法进行了试验,其总体精度达到87.89%,与常用的监督分类方法相比精度可提高7.86%.专家系统分类的结果叠合居民地、水体等易于混分专题信息,可以形成精度较高的土地利用与覆被分类结果。     

基于傅立叶相位分析的卫星云图导风技术

导出云迹风(Cloud Motion Wind)的传统方法．是用最大相关系数法在间隔30min的卫星云图序列上计算示踪云的位移．以获得有关高度上风的估计值。但在用这种方法处理1min间隔云图时产生“亚像素尺度位移”问题。过去对傅立叶分析法的初步研究表明．对示踪云进行频域波谱分析,由谐波的相位变化计算波速。能够避免“亚像素尺度位移”问题。本文在此基础上,给出详细的理论推导和个例验证。     

用计算机模拟人类制图员解决地图缩编中的图形冲突

针对地图综合中因道路符号的夸大表示而引起的道路与建筑物的图形冲突,提出了让计算机模拟人类制图员具备视觉及分析功能的具体方法,设计了一种新颖的栅格-矢量混合数据结构,以便通过将移位区内的所有建筑物分类,进行制图移位和受控变形等解决图形冲突。     

Conflict at sea

Naval conflict has been less important in the second half of the twentieth century than in the first. Navies have operated in support of armies or as instruments of coercive diplomacy. There has been only one true naval war. Conflict in the Falklands was typical because it was local, limited and unexpected. These are likely features in future, for total war at sea seems so pointless that it could only arise by accident, a risk increased by some naval activities in peace. But the motives and the capacities for local and limited conflict at sea are proliferating.     

More about taxonomic sufficiency: a case study using polychaete communities in a subtropical bay moderately affected by urban sewage

The taxonomic sufficiency approach has been proposed as a surrogate for the typical analysis of speciesabundance data, especially in conditions involving prominent pollution gradients. Here, we evaluate the use of taxonomic sufficiency with infralittoral macrobenthic data derived from samples taken in a moderate polluted subtropical environment in southeastern Brazil, analysing five taxonomic levels and including two functional levels throughout polychaete feeding guilds and trophic groups. The data were collected seasonally at nine stations and studied for two abundance data series (0.5 and 1.0 mm sieve mesh-size). The results showed a similar ordination pattern between the two sieve mesh-size, but with the 0.5 mm sieve data a different pattern was observed during austral summer. A slight loss of information was detected using genus, family, polychaete species and their feeding guilds as taxonomic/ functional units. These results together with those of the cost/ benefit ratio, suggested that the family level seemed to be sufficient to detect the impact caused by moderate pollution in this shallow-water, subtropical environment. In additional, through the use of feeding guilds, similar patterns are obtained. Correlation analysis showed that chlorophyll a, total organic matter, zinc, and chromium sediment content were the variables that best explained the biological pattern observed and not always the best correlation coefficient occurring at the species level. The feeding guild approach seems to be useful and generates interpretable results similar to those obtained with the species level of the whole macroinfauna. The results showed an important cost reduction in the sample processing, suggesting that it is possible to adopt a coarser taxonomic level monitoring program even in species-rich communities.     

VHR Marine 3D Seismics for Shallow Water Investigations: Some Practical Guidelines

The design of very high resolution (VHR) 3D marine surveys not only depends on the theoretical considerations of seismic imaging, but is also dictated by the field conditions and the available budget. The main geophysical controlling factors include the depth and dip of the target, and horizontal and vertical resolution. Working in shallow water environments and at high frequencies will imply constraints on sampling, array directivity and positioning accuracy. In this paper we describe the main requirements and constraints involved in VHR 3D acquisition. The second part of the paper focuses on the flexible acquisition system “Opus3D” recently developed for shallow water investigations. The system provides improvements in imaging resolution in a relatively simple and cost-effective way. Acquisition and positioning constraints limit the system to nearshore studies. The experience gained from various surveys with this new acquisition system allow us to formulate a number of practical specifications and guidelines for 3D survey design in shallow water.     

基于LAMBDA和DC算法的GPS单历元整周模糊度的快速确定

仅利用LAMBDA方法求解GPS单历元整周模糊度成功率不高,并且当接收卫星数较多时搜索空间较大。为此,采用TIKHONOV正则化方法削弱单历元模型法方程的病态性,并且基于协方差矩阵选择部分宽巷模糊度,先采用LAMBDA方法进行搜索,再利用高解算效率的DC算法解算剩余宽巷模糊度,最后通过两组不同线性组合的逆变换直接求取原始观测值L1和L2的整周模糊度。实验和计算表明,方法显著提高整周模糊度的搜索效率,并且提高模糊度搜索成功率。