How U.S. ocean policy and market power can reform the coral reef wildlife trade

As the world’s largest importer of marine ornamental species for the aquaria, curio, home décor, and jewelry industries, the United States has an opportunity to leverage its considerable market power to promote more sustainable trade and reduce the effects of ornamental trade stress on coral reefs worldwide. Evidence indicates that collection of some coral reef animals for these trades has caused virtual elimination of local populations, major changes in age structure, and promotion of collection practices that destroy reef habitats. Management and enforcement of collection activities in major source countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines remain weak. Strengthening US trade laws and enforcement capabilities combined with increasing consumer and industry demand for responsible conservation can create strong incentives for improving management in source countries. This is particularly important in light of the March 2010 failure of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to take action on key groups of corals.     

Policy and practice in the live reef fish for food trade: A case study from Palawan,Philippines

The live reef fish for food trade is a highly significant fishery that provides income for many coastal communities in the Asia-Pacific region but faces challenges relating to sustainability. This paper draws attention to the large gaps that exist between policy and practice in the live reef fish for food trade in Palawan, Philippines. While many policies have been introduced over many years, effective implementation remains a challenge. We show how the implementation of successive sets of policies has been hindered by three broadly inter-related features of the local social landscape: the capacity of government institutions and legal frameworks to implement regulations, the distinctive culture of fisheries governance in the Philippines, and the perspectives and practices of local fishers themselves. By focusing on the gaps between policy and practice, we highlight the ongoing need to examine more explicitly the ways in which local contexts shape the effectiveness of implementation, enforcement and policy more generally.     

Shock breakout in Type Ibc supernovae and application to GRB 060218/SN 2006aj

Recently, a soft blackbody component was observed in the early X-ray afterglow of GRB 060218, which was interpreted as shock breakout from the thick wind of the progenitor Wolf–Rayet (WR) star of the underlying Type Ic supernova 2006aj. In this paper, we present a simple model for computing the characteristic quantities (including energy, temperature and time duration) for the transient event from the shock breakout in Type Ibc supernovae produced by the core-collapse of WR stars surrounded by dense winds. In contrast to the case of a star without a strong wind, the shock breakout occurs in the wind region rather than inside the star, caused by the large optical depth in the wind. We find that, for the case of a WR star with a dense wind, the total energy of the radiation generated by the supernova shock breakout is larger than that in the case of the same star without a wind by a factor of >10. The temperature can be either hotter or colder, depending on the wind parameters. The time duration is larger caused by the increase in the effective radius of the star due to the presence of a thick wind. Then, we apply the model to GRB 060218/SN 2006aj. We show that, to explain both the temperature and the total energy of the blackbody component observed in GRB 060218 by the shock breakout, the progenitor WR star has to have an unrealistically large core radius (the radius at optical depth of 20), larger than 100 R_⊙. In spite of this disappointing result, our model is expected to have important applications to the observations on Type Ibc supernovae in which the detection of shock breakout will provide important clues to the progenitors of Type Ibc supernovae.     

Constraining the orbital orientation of η Carinae from H Paschen lines

During the past decade, several observational and theoretical works have provided evidence of the binary nature of η Carinae. Nevertheless, there is still no direct determination of the orbital parameters, and the different current models give contradictory results. The orbit is, in general, assumed to coincide with the Homunculus equator although the observations are not conclusive. Among all systems, η Car has the advantage that it is possible to observe both the direct emission of line transitions in the central source and its reflection by the Homunculus, which is dependent on the orbital inclination. In this work, we studied the orbital phase-dependent hydrogen Paschen spectra reflected by the south-east lobe of the Homunculus to constrain the orbital parameters of η Car and determine its inclination with respect to the Homunculus axis. Assuming that the emission excess originates in the wind–wind shock region, we were able to model the latitude dependence of the spectral line profiles. For the first time, we were able to estimate the orbital inclination of η Car with respect to the observer and to the Homunculus axis. The best fit occurs for an orbital inclination to the line of sight of   i ∼ 60°± 10°  , and   i *∼ 35°± 10°  with respect to the Homunculus axis, indicating that the angular momenta of the central object and the orbit are not aligned. We were also able to fix the phase angle of conjunction as  ∼−40°  , showing that periastron passage occurs shortly after conjunction.     

Dynamical Climatology of the Upper Mesosphere, Lower Thermosphere and Ionosphere

The main features of upper atmosphere dynamics as an important part of upper atmosphere climatology are presented. The dynamics of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) are of special interest. The results are based on the long series of investigations in East Siberia and data from a world-wide network of observatories. We present the regional climatic norms for the prevailing wind and semi-diurnal tide and the main features of the quasi-periodic structure of the wind field. The non-zonality of MLT dynamics is demonstrated as well as regional differences in the response of the wind field to stratospheric disturbances, solar activity variations and geomagnetic storms.