Declining Arctic Ocean oil and gas developments: Opportunities to improve governance and environmental pollution control

There has been global interest in the exploitation of rich hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic for decades. However, recent low oil prices, a low carbon economy climate agenda, and technical challenges of Arctic oil extraction have curbed interest in these Arctic resources. Despite a recent reluctance to explore and develop an offshore Arctic drilling industry, a resurgence in oil and gas prices could spark renewed interests that could pose unacceptable risks of pollution from oil spills. These risks are further compounded by complex governance and sovereignty issues between circumpolar nations. This paper (i) compares cycles of Arctic hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activity with global energy prices; (ii) outlines current pollution abatement techniques under pan-Arctic national regulations to identify potential gaps; (iii) describes current international frameworks for Arctic governance to highlight how problems could arise if offshore oil drilling returns to the Arctic and associated spills migrate to international waters; and (iv) provides policy recommendations to aid both national and international policy-makers regarding pollution abatement methods for future Arctic drilling.     

An indicator-based adaptive management framework and its development for data-limited fisheries in Belize

Decisions regarding the selection and implementation of management strategies that constrain fishing pressure can be among the most difficult choices that fisheries managers and stakeholders must make. These types of decisions often need to be confronted in a data-limited context, where few if any management measures are currently in place or fisheries are managed independent of adequate scientific advice. This situation can sometimes create a high risk of overfishing and potential loss of economic and social benefits. To address this situation, simple model-free indicator-based frameworks have the potential to be effective decision-making platforms for fisheries where quantitative estimates of biomass and fishing mortality based reference points are lacking. In this paper, a multi-indicator framework is developed that enables decision-makers to proceed with management decisions in data-limited situations. Model-free indicators are calculated using trends in observed data, rather than stock assessment derived estimates of biomass and fishing mortality. The framework developed is adaptive so that adjustments to catch or effort are recursive and can respond to changing environments, socioeconomic conditions, and fishing practices. Using stakeholder-defined objectives as a foundation, indicators and reference points of fishery performance are chosen that can be evaluated easily by undertaking analyses of available data. Indicators from multiple data streams are used so that uncertainty in one indicator can be hedged through careful interpretation and corroboration of information from alternative indicators. During the adaptive management cycle, managers and stakeholders evaluate each indicator against the associated reference points to determine performance measures, interpret the results using scientific and local knowledge, and adjust fishery management tactics accordingly using pre-defined harvest control rules. The framework facilitates the interpretation of situations in which performance measures suggest divergent stock abundance or productivity levels. A case study is presented on this framework's development for conch and lobster fisheries of Belize.     

Mapping the global value and distribution of coral reef tourism

Global coral reef related tourism is one of the most significant examples of nature-based tourism from a single ecosystem. Coral reefs attract foreign and domestic visitors and generate revenues, including foreign exchange earnings, in over 100 countries and territories. Understanding the full value of coral reefs to tourism, and the spatial distribution of these values, provides an important incentive for sustainable reef management. In the current work, global data from multiple sources, including social media and crowd-sourced datasets, were used to estimate and map two distinct components of reef value. The first component is local “reef-adjacent” value, an overarching term used to capture a range of indirect benefits from coral reefs, including provision of sandy beaches, sheltered water, food, and attractive views. The second component is “on-reef” value, directly associated with in-water activities such diving and snorkelling. Tourism values were estimated as a proportion of the total visits and spending by coastal tourists within 30 km of reefs (excluding urban areas). Reef-adjacent values were set as a fixed proportion of 10% of this expenditure. On-reef values were based on the relative abundance of dive-shops and underwater photos in different countries and territories. Maps of value assigned to specific coral reef locations show considerable spatial variability across distances of just a few kilometres. Some 30% of the world's reefs are of value in the tourism sector, with a total value estimated at nearly US$36 billion, or over 9% of all coastal tourism value in the world's coral reef countries.     

基于面板数据的海洋环境污染对海洋经济发展影响的实证研究

文章基于我国沿海11个省(自治区、直辖市)海洋环境和海洋经济的面板数据,将海洋产业结构和海洋产业劳动力要素投入作为控制变量,构建双对数面板数据模型,就海洋环境污染对海洋经济发展的影响进行实证分析。结果表明:海洋环境污染与海洋经济发展存在负相关关系,海洋产业结构与海洋经济发展存在正相关关系,海洋产业劳动力要素投入与海洋经济发展存在负相关关系。基于此,为促进海洋经济的可持续发展,提出加强海洋环境保护和治理、优化升级海洋产业结构以及培养和引进海洋专业人才的建议。     

辽宁海洋生态系统恶化的经济学阐释

文章在辨析和定义海洋生态系统概念的基础上,分析辽宁海洋生态系统的恶化态势,主要体现在过度捕捞导致的海洋生物资源衰退,陆源污染、养殖污染和油类污染导致的海洋水体环境污染以及填海造地和海岸侵蚀等导致的海岸生态系统弱化。进而,从公地悲剧理论、环境库兹涅茨理论、外部性理论和产权理论4个维度做出具体的经济学阐释,阐明海洋生态系统恶化态势与经济开发行为之间的关系。     

海洋油气开发工程环境影响评价特点浅析

相比陆上油气开发工程和其他海洋工程而言,海洋油气开发工程有其自身的特点,海洋油气开发工程环境影响评价应关注的内容与其他工程有所不同。文章通过分析海洋油气开发工程的特点以及对环境影响的特点,提出海洋油气开发工程环境影响评价要点,即包括施工期悬浮泥沙及钻井液钻屑排放对海洋生态环境的影响、运营期含油生产水排放对海洋生态环境的影响、工程建设对海洋环境敏感目标的影响、溢油事故环境风险分析、污染防治及生态保护措施,并针对目前海洋油气开发工程环境影响评价存在的问题提出改进建议。     

海洋氢能开发法律规制研究

海洋氢能作为一种清洁、低碳、高效且可再生的能源,逐渐成为目前我国实现“双碳”目标的重要能源载体,其开发对我国具有重大战略意义。但由于海洋氢能起步晚,目前存在技术成熟度不高、政策支撑较少、法律配套不完善等诸多困难。同时存在海域管辖权竞合、海洋环境污染、海洋生物多样性破坏以及国际合作开发难等问题。关于海洋氢能开发法律规制问题,在国际法层面,以《联合国宪章》《联合国海洋法公约》等基本法构建海洋氢能国际合作开发以及海洋环境保护的基本法律框架,以《生物多样性公约》和《BBNJ协定》为基础进一步对海洋环境污染和保护海洋生物多样性提出法律规范;在国内法层面,通过现有能源领域法律法规可知,《可再生能源法》填补海洋氢能开发法律空白;在海洋环境领域,我国法律法规对海洋氢能开发提出了环境影响评价的要求,以保障海洋生态环境不受侵害。综上所述,海洋氢能开发利用应当完善国内相关立法,制定有针对性的海洋氢能领域环境影响评价制度,以促成国际开发与合作。这些完善建议旨在为海洋氢能开发提供清晰的法律指导,促进其可持续发展和利用,同时保护海洋环境和社会稳定。     

环境规制对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的影响

文章基于2006—2018年中国11个沿海省(自治区、直辖市)的数据,综合政府主导与市场激励型环境规制,利用熵权法得到海洋环境规制强度;结合SBM模型和Malmquist-Luenberger指数,测度了沿海省(自治区、直辖市)海洋经济绿色全要素生产率;在此基础上实证分析环境规制对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的影响,并对技术创新的中介效应进行检验。结果表明：环境规制能够促进海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的增长,但在长江流域以南、长江流域以北沿海地区之间存在异质性;环境规制通过影响海洋科技创新投入和产出,可以影响海洋经济绿色全要素生产率。并从深化环境规制改革和强化技术创新两方面提出促进海洋经济绿色发展的政策建议。     

低磷胁迫下翅碱蓬生长特性及脂肪酸含量的变化机制

为了研究低磷条件对盘锦滨海湿地优势物种翅碱蓬的影响,本文探究了不同无机磷酸盐浓度处理下翅碱蓬生理指标、光合色素、丙二醛(MDA)及不同组织脂肪酸含量的变化。结果表明,翅碱蓬株高、茎长、茎粗、叶片数量、株重均与施磷浓度呈显著正相关,MDA含量与施磷浓度呈显著负相关(P<0.05)。叶绿素a、叶绿素b及总叶绿素含量先降低后升高。低磷条件会影响翅碱蓬根部脂肪酸C18:2n6与C16:0的相互转化;叶片中多不饱和脂肪酸相对含量降低,中长链脂肪酸相对含量升高,茎中脂肪酸则无明显变化。本文分析翅碱蓬植被退化与磷含量的关系为盘锦辽河口湿地修复治理及翅碱蓬保护提供依据。     

A new global alignment approach for underwater optical mapping

Lately, underwater vehicles have become important tools for exploration, monitoring and creation of maps of the seabed. Within mapping applications, the maps obtained from optical data are becoming essential in different study areas such as biological, geological and archaeological surveys, or in detection of benthic temporal changes. However, the underwater medium is very challenging for optical sensors and does not allow the area of interest to be imaged in a single image. Therefore, image mosaicing methods are necessary. Although recent advances in detection of correspondences between images have resulted in highly effective image registration methods, global alignment methods are still needed to obtain a globally coherent mosaic. In this paper, we propose a new global alignment method which works on the mosaic frame and does not require non-linear optimisation. Additionally, a simple image rectifying method is presented to reduce the down-scaling effect which might occur when minimising errors defined in the mosaic frame. Moreover, this rectifying method can also be seen as an alternative and straightforward way of incorporating different sensor information if available. The proposed framework has been tested with underwater image sequences. The resulting method is faster than its counterparts while providing the same level of registration quality.