Ecological status of seagrass ecosystems: An uncertainty analysis of the meadow classification based on the Posidonia oceanica multivariate index (POMI)

Quantifying the uncertainty associated with monitoring protocols is essential to prevent the misclassification of ecological status and to improve sampling design. We assessed the Posidonia oceanica multivariate index (POMI) bio-monitoring program for its robustness in classifying the ecological status of coastal waters within the Water Framework Directive. We used a 7-year data set covering 30 sites along 500 km of the Catalonian coastline to examine which version of POMI (14 or 9 metrics) maximises precision in classifying the ecological status of meadows. Five factors (zones within a site, sites within a water body, depth, years and surveyors) that potentially generate classification uncertainty were examined in detail. Of these, depth was a major source of uncertainty, while all the remaining spatial and temporal factors displayed low variability. POMI 9 matched POMI 14 in all factors, and could effectively replace it in future monitoring programs.     

Management priorities for seawater desalination plants in a marine protected area: A multi-criteria analysis

The development of seawater desalination plants to increase water reliability in coastal areas poses a threat to the health of near shore marine ecosystems and may affect the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) that have been established to meet international conservation targets. This paper applies a multi-criteria analysis approach to quantify stakeholder groups’ priorities for seawater desalination plants that have been proposed in communities adjacent to a National Marine Sanctuary. All groups placed the highest importance on minimizing environmental impacts on protected areas and endangered species that could be affected by water intake and brine discharge emphasizing the need for integrated land and sea conservation. Minimizing socio-economic impacts on coastal communities was much less important. Stakeholders also weighted reducing pressure on water levels in rivers, streams, and aquifers as more important than increasing water for residential consumption, which may foster coastal growth rather than replacing water taken from other sources. The study further revealed differences in the importance of multiple management objectives among stakeholder groups, which highlights the need to elicit distinct priorities of all groups to understand concerns and potential conflicts of desalination with existing marine users. The analysis of consistency ratios revealed that around half of all surveyed stakeholders had high inconsistencies in their responses, which suggests either a lack of understanding of desalination, or reflects the complexity of establishing desalination plants in coastal areas adjacent to a marine protected area.     

海滨湿地生态系统的热点研究

海滨湿地具有强大的生态服务功能,然而由于人类活动的长期和强烈干扰,导致该系统严重受损和退化。海滨湿地生态系统的严重退化引起国内外学术界的高度关注。有关其退化及生态恢复的研究热点涉及该系统的演化与机制、对外来种入侵的响应与生态控制、退化海滨湿地生态系统的修复、生态系统健康的评估及其保护与利用平衡的研究。本文综述了上述热点研究的进展,有利于把握国际前沿研究动态,借鉴最新研究方法和经验,推动我国在这一领域的研究尽快赶上国际先进水平。     

Influence of Changes in the Prevailing Synoptic Conditions on the Response of Aerosol Characteristics to Land- and Sea-Breeze Circulations at a Coastal Station

The changes in the response of near surfaceaerosol properties to land- and sea-breezecirculations, associated with the changes in the prevailing synoptic meteorological conditions, are examined for a tropical coastal station. Aerosol properties are nearly similar in both the breeze regimes (land and sea) during seasons of marine airmass while they are distinct during seasons of continental airmass. As the prevailing winds shift from continental to marine and the ambient weather changes from winter conditions to the humid monsoon season, the submicron mode, which dominated the aerosol mass-size distribution, is largely suppressed and the dominance of the super micron mode increases. During periods of continental air mass (winter), the aerosol loading is significantly higher in the land-breeze regime, (particularly in the submicron range) but as the winds shift to marine, the loading initially becomes insensitive to the breeze regimes and later becomes higher in the sea-breeze regime, particularly in the super micron range.     

Surfactants in the sea-surface microlayer and their contribution to atmospheric aerosols around coastal areas of the Malaysian peninsula

A study was done to determine the concentrations of surfactants on the sea-surface microlayer and in atmospheric aerosols in several coastal areas around the Malaysian peninsula. The concentrations of surfactants from the sea-surface microlayer (collected using rotation drum) and from aerosols (collected using HVS) were analyzed as methylene blue active substances and disulphine blue active substances through the colorimetric method using a UV-vis spectrophotometer. The results of this study showed that the average concentrations of surfactants in the sea-surface microlayer ranged between undetected and 0.36 ± 0.34 μmol L⁻¹ for MBAS and between 0.11 ± 0.02 and 0.21 ± 0.13 μmol L⁻¹ for DBAS. The contribution of surfactants from the sea-surface microlayer to the composition of surfactants in atmospheric aerosols appears to be very minimal and more dominant in fine mode aerosols.     

山东昌邑国家级海洋生态特别保护区生态环境现状及管护对策研究

山东昌邑国家级海洋生态特别保护区是目前国内唯一以柽柳林生态系统为主要管理和保护对象的国家级海洋保护区。为系统、全面地了解保护区内生态环境和保护物种的变化趋势,文章对山东昌邑国家级海洋生态特别保护区生态环境现状进行了监测与评价,并根据评价结果,分析了保护区保护与管理中存在的问题。研究表明,该保护区生态环境一直处于亚健康状态,为促进保护及管护,提出了加强保护区生态建设,改变保护区开发利用模式;加强能力建设,实现保护区动态监控;协调发展与保护的关系,实现资源可持续利用;大力开展柽柳生态修复,恢复柽柳的资源状况的对策建议。     

Magma mingling in the Tungho area,Coastal Range of eastern Taiwan

Complex rocks, consisting of different lithologic breccias and sediments in the Tungho area of the southern Coastal Range, eastern Taiwan, were formed by magmas and magma–sediment mingling. Based on field occurrences, petrography, and mineral and rock compositions, three components including mafic magma, felsic magma, and sediments can be identified. The black breccias and white breccias were consolidated from mafic and felsic magma, respectively. Isotopic composition shows these two magmas may be from the same source. Compared to the white breccias, the black breccias show clast-supported structures, higher An values in plagioclase, higher contents of MgO, CaO, and Fe₂O₃ and lower SiO₂, greater enrichment in the light rare earth elements (LREE), and depletion in the heavy rare earth elements (HREE). The white breccias show matrix-supported blocks and mingling with tuffaceous sediments to form peperite. Physical and chemical evidence shows that the characteristics of these two components (mafic and felsic magmas) are still apparent in the mingled zone. According to their petrography, mafic and felsic magmas did not have much time for mingling. White intrusive structures and black flow structures show that mingling occurred before they solidified. Finally, the occurrence of mingling between magmas and sediments suggests that the mingling has taken place at the surface and not in the magma chamber.     

Heterogeneous Gravity Data Fusion and Gravimetric Quasigeoid Computation in the Coastal Area of China

ABSTRACT

Different types of gravity observations are available over coastal areas. The main challenge for coastal geoid determination is the proper fusion of heterogeneous gravity data including land, shipborne, airborne, and altimetry-derived gravity data. This paper describes the gravity data fusion and the computation of the gravimetric quasigeoid in the coastal area of mainland China. An iterative procedure of the weighted least-squares prediction based on rectangular harmonic functions is used for merging the land, altimetric, shipborne, and airborne gravity data. Applying the analytical continuation method in Molodensky's theoretic frame, the merged gravity data are then used to determine the gravimetric quasigeoid model by using the generalized Stokes' integral in a remove-compute-restore fashion. The gravimetric quasigeoid model is compared with the height anomalies determined at 662 GPS leveling points over the coastal region of mainland China, where both the geodetic height and the normal height are known. The standard deviations of the differences in the coastal provinces range from 1.8 to 4.4 cm. For the entire computation area, the mean and standard deviation of the differences are 27.9 and 3.9 cm, respectively.     

海潮负荷对沿海地区宽幅InSAR形变监测的影响

海岸带地区是全球自然生态环境最为复杂和脆弱的地域之一,合成孔径雷达干涉测量（InSAR）技术可以为全球人类活动、气候变暖和俯冲带剧烈构造运动等背景下的大范围海岸带地理环境变化研究提供重要观测资料.海洋潮汐导致固体地球长周期形变,波长尺度为10²~10³ km的海潮负荷引入mm级至cm级的形变梯度,此类非构造信号对海岸带InSAR精密形变分析（如：大范围、微小、缓慢且非稳态构造过程等）造成显著影响.本文以宽幅模式SAR数据为例,基于多种海潮模型研究了全球典型海岸带地区（福建、智利和阿拉斯加湾）海潮负荷效应对宽幅InSAR形变监测的影响,给出了宽幅InSAR海潮负荷三维分量估计与差分相位提取方法,并进一步讨论了基于不同海潮模型估计海潮负荷位移的差异.海潮负荷影响不仅与研究范围大小有关,其形变梯度变化与研究区域地形特征存在强相关,对于长波长形变分析而言,传统平面或者曲面拟合方法难以有效分离海潮负荷位移.

     

Wind wave-forced fine sediment erosion during the slack water periods in Hangzhou Bay,China

The shallow water wave simulation model-SWAN incorporated with a simple fine sediment erosion model is applied to Hangzhou Bay, China, to model the horizontal distribution of the maximum bottom orbital velocity and corresponding fine sediment erosion rates induced by: (1) southeasterly steady winds (5, 20 and 30 m/s), (2) southwesterly steady winds (5 and 20 m/s); (3) northwesterly steady winds (5 and 20 m/s); (4) east-southeasterly steady winds (5 and 20 m/s); (5) easterly steady winds (5 and 20 m/s) under closed and unclosed boundaries; and (6) unsteady winds during the slack water periods. Results suggest: (1) the steady wind wave-induced maximum bottom orbital velocities and corresponding fine sediment erosion rates generally increased with the increasing steady winds; (2) closed and unclosed boundary conditions had more significant influences on modeled fine sediment erosion rates under 5 m/s easterly steady winds than 20 m/s; and (3) steady and unsteady wind wave-induced maximum bottom currents could be significant in eroding fine sediment bed in Hangzhou Bay. The results show implications for geomorphology, sedimentology, coastal erosion, and environmental pollution mitigation in Hangzhou Bay.