A geospatial study of the drought impact on surface water reservoirs: study cases from Texas,USA

Satellite images have been used historically to measure and monitor fluctuations in the surface water reservoirs. This study integrates remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies to investigate the impact of drought on 10 selected surface water reservoirs in San Angelo and Dallas, Texas. Oscillations in summer and winter months throughout the 2005–2016 period were assessed using multispectral images from Landsat-5, ?7, and ?8, and changes in the reservoirs were characterized and correlated against local climate data of each reservoir. For quantitative comparisons of the time-series measurements, a robust density slicing approach was employed to classify the range of values of the raster cells in the near-infrared band of Landsat images for each lake into three desired classes (deep water, shallow water, and dry area) based on the natural breaks inherent in the dataset. Statistical analysis shows that the overall accuracy of the classification is about 94%, which demonstrates the efficiency of the density slicer to accurately estimate surface water area changes from an individual Landsat band. Shrinkage in the surface water area over the study period reveals the concrete impact that the drought along with other factors have on the 10 selected lakes. The San Angelo lakes located in west central Texas experienced a nearly consistent pattern of change during most of the study period; whereas the Dallas lakes in northeast Texas followed the oscillating pattern of drought and correlated closely to the local conditions. Shockingly, the extreme drought caused complete vanishing of several lakes, and consequently Texas had to remove them from its recreational plans. Our new findings can certainly help with the water resource management in Texas and our study approach can be adapted for monitoring lake oscillations in other areas across the world. This geospatial study demonstrates the societal benefits from incorporating remote sensing and GIS in investigating geo-environmental problems associated with severe climate changes.     

南海区重点岸段海岸侵蚀现状成因分析与防治对策

在2003年与2006年对南海区琼州海峡两岸重点岸段(雷州市徐闻县龙塘镇赤坎村岸段、海南省海口市镇海村岸段和新海村岸段)的海岸侵蚀进行了现场监测,测量了侵蚀的长度、宽度和面积。对两年现场测量结果进行比较分析,结果表明:海岸侵蚀长度的平均速度为200m/a,宽度的平均速度为20m/a,面积的平均速度为4000m2/a。应用了地质分析、水动力分析、极端海洋气候影响分析等新的理论和方法重点分析了海岸侵蚀的成因,并提出了一些对策,供相关部门参考。     

台风作用下淤泥质海岸动力地貌响应

基于200509号麦莎台风(近似百年一遇)作用前后杭州湾北岸龙泉-南竹港实测的海岸地形和水文资料,利用分形技术、冲刷深度和闭合水深等相关概念分析淤泥质海岸的剖面变化、岸线进退以及地形冲淤,进而探讨海岸响应台风作用的动力地貌行为.结果表明:1)台风作用前后的海岸动力地貌过程表现为水下类似沙坝的堆积体削平、凹处填洼,水下平台发育锯齿或较小的坝--槽,海岸剖面的分维数降低,剖面坡度处于平缓;2)麦莎台风对海床的整体冲淤幅度不大,这可能是由于研究区大潮讯的增水致使波浪对海床的塑造能力减弱以及码头的遮蔽作用造成;3)台风作用对海岸的冲刷深度约为0.8 m,闭合水深为9.5 m,近岸-1 m邻近区成为海岸响应台风作用最敏感的地带;泥沙主要在0 m到闭合水深区间的海床发生纵、横向运移.     

Equilibrium erosion of soft rock shores with a shallow or absent beach under increased sea level rise

A process-based numerical model was used to explore the response of soft rock shores with low volume beaches to variable rates of sea level rise. Equilibrium recession rates were simulated for ranges of wave height and period, tidal amplitude, rock strength, beach volume and rate of sea level rise. Equilibrium shore profiles were found to be steeper with higher rates of sea level rise. Beaches were represented as protective surfaces yet were found to cause no significant reduction in equilibrium recession rate when their volumes were below a critical threshold. Reduced equilibrium recession rates were found with beaches that extended sufficiently far below low tide level. The model results imply that, given several constraints, a very simple relationship exists between increased rates of sea level rise and the response of eroding composite soft rock/low volume beach shores.     

地理信息系统在海岸海洋地貌研究中的应用

随着现代海洋观测技术的发展,通过海岸海洋地貌调查获得的数据急剧增长。运用地理信息系统(GIS)将不同学科、不同来源、不同格式的数据进行集成管理、分析和表达已成为当前海岸海洋地貌研究的重点。系统介绍了GIS技术在海岸海洋地貌研究中新的方法体系,包括数据获取、数据处理、数据分析和数据表达四个部分,重点研究了GIS空间技术、海底地形建模和用三维可视化技术解译海洋地学,探索陆海交互作用中隐含信息的方法,并将其应用到沿海城市规划、海港选址、大陆架岛礁地貌环境研究的具体实例中,研究范围从陆到海涵盖整个海陆交互作用带,为海岸海洋社会发展、经济建设及外交权益提供科学基础和决策支持。通过上述方法体系与应用研究说明,以GIS为核心建立的多源地理空间信息平台使传统海岸海洋地貌研究的范围、内容及方法都发生了重大变化,但多源数据信息的精确解译和成功应用必须同时具有空间信息学和地貌学专家知识。     

Isotopic,trace element and nutrient characterization of coastal waters from Ubatuba inner shelf area,south-eastern Brazil

Stable isotopes, tritium, radium isotopes, radon, trace elements and nutrients data were collected during two sampling campaigns in the Ubatuba coastal area (south-eastern Brazil) with the aim of investigating submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) in the region. The isotopic composition (δD, δ¹⁸O, ³H) of submarine waters was characterised by significant variability and heavy isotope enrichment. The stable isotopes and tritium data showed good separation of groundwater and seawater groups. The contribution of groundwater in submarine waters varied from a few % to 17%. Spatial distribution of ²²²Rn activity concentration in surface seawater revealed changes between 50 and 200 Bq m⁻³ which were in opposite relationship with observed salinities. Time series measurements of ²²²Rn activity concentration in Flamengo Bay (from 1 to 5 kBq m⁻³), obtained by in situ underwater gamma-spectrometry showed a negative correlation between the ²²²Rn activity concentration and tide/salinity. This may be caused by sea level changes as tide effects induce variations of hydraulic gradients, which increase ²²²Rn concentration during lower sea level, and opposite, during high tides where the ²²²Rn activity concentration is smaller. The estimated SGD fluxes varied during 22–26 November between 8 and 40 cm d⁻¹, with an average value of 21 cm d⁻¹ (the unit is cm³/cm² per day). The radium isotopes and nutrient data showed scattered distributions with offshore distance and salinity, which implies that in a complex coast with many small bays and islands, the area has been influenced by local currents and groundwater–seawater mixing. SGD in the Ubatuba area is fed by coastal contaminated groundwater and re-circulated seawater (with small admixtures of groundwater), which claims for potential environmental concern with implications on the management of freshwater resources in the region.     

Detecting environmental change in estuaries: Nutrient and heavy metal distributions in sediment cores in estuaries from the Gulf of Finland,Baltic Sea

Historical sediment nutrient concentrations and heavy metal distributions were studied in four estuaries in the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea to examine the response of these estuaries to temporal changes in human activities. Cores were collected using a 1-m Mackereth corer and dated using ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs. The cores were analyzed for total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), organic phosphorus (OP), inorganic phosphorus (IP), biogenic silica (BSi), loss-on-ignition (LOI), Cu, Zn, Al, Fe, Mn, K, Ca, Mg and Na. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to summarize the trends in the chemical variables and to compare the trends at the different sites. Applying the 1986 ¹³⁷Cs date as a reference point, ²¹⁰Pb chronologies were constructed for the sites using either the CRS model or a composite model (using both CIC and CRS). Significant increases were observed in sedimentation rates, TP and TN concentrations in all of the cores. Copper showed clear increases from 1850 towards present at all sites. Furthermore, redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to correlate environmental variables (catchment land use, catchment size, estuary surface area, depth and lake percentage) to sediment geochemistry. Based on redundancy analysis (RDA), the percentage of agriculture in the catchment was the most important factor affecting the sediment accumulation rate. Urban land-use types and industry correlate well with sediment Cu and Ca concentrations. Forest areas were related to high sediment BSi concentrations. Catchment land use was the most significant factor affecting sediment geochemical composition and sediment accumulation rates in these coastal embayments. Our results demonstrate that the coastal estuaries of the Gulf of Finland respond to the increased nutrient loading with the increased sedimentation and nutrient accumulation rates.     

Floating and fixed artificial habitats: Spatial and temporal patterns of benthic communities in a coral reef environment

While natural marine habitats with motion capabilities, e.g., kelps and seaweeds, have been studied alongside their associated fouling communities, little is known of the effect of motion on the communities of floating artificial habitats such as buoys, rafts, and pontoons, particularly in tropical systems. Hydrodynamic features greatly differ between floating and fixed artificial substrata, which in turn affect the structure of their associated communities. This study tested the hypothesis that floating and fixed artificial installations in a tropical reef system (Eilat, Red Sea) would support different benthic communities throughout space and time. Specifically, we examined differences in communities recruited onto settlement plates between floating and fixed installations deployed at three different sites, along a two-year monitoring period. The three sites exhibited distinct differences in species assemblages between the monitoring dates (6, 12, 18 and 24 months post deployment), mainly between the first and the last two dates. The average level of dissimilarity between floating and fixed installations increased over time at all sites. Over 50% of the dissimilarity between the floating and fixed installations resulted from five taxonomic groups i.e., bryozoans, bivalves, barnacles, sponges, including the amount of bare space on the settlement plates. The contribution of these groups to the dissimilarity changed both temporally within each site, and spatially among sites. The observed differences were related to the hydrodynamic characteristics of floating and fixed habitats, interacting with biotic features such as predation, successional processes and seasonality; and abiotic features including small-scale spatial changes, light, and position in the water column.     

Testing taxonomic resolution,data transformation and selection of species for monitoring macroalgae communities

The Water Framework and Habitats Directives require the evaluation of both the conservation and ecological status of macroalgae communities at water body or habitat level. However, assessments of macroalgal communities are highly time-consuming, both in terms of sampling effort and laboratory processing. These constraints have brought about their oversight in many marine monitoring programs, especially in subtidal environments. By using data from intertidal and subtidal macroalgae assemblages of Mouro Island (North coast of Spain) we wanted to identify possible cost-effective methods for monitoring this biological indicator, based on both high taxa levels and use of representative taxa. Multivariate analyses were applied using different data transformations. The results show that macroalgal communities are robust to aggregation to genus or even family level. Moreover, the outcomes show that transformation types introduce higher variation in the multivariate pattern of samples than the taxonomic level to which organisms are identified. Also, the study supports the use of representative taxa as a surrogate to overall community structure. Therefore, we conclude that a rapid-assessment by means of field evaluations, based on coverage of representative taxa, is a reliable alternative for the assessment of macroalgae status. In addition this procedure allows evaluation at a broader spatial scale (water body or habitat level) than traditional quantitative sampling procedure does.     

Light regime and components of turbidity in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon

The underwater light regime of a Mediterranean coastal lagoon (Albufera des Grau, Balearic Islands) was studied during four years in order to characterise the spatial and temporal variations in the light attenuation coefficient (K) and to assess the relative contribution of the different water components to total light attenuation.