STRATIFIED MARINE LAKES OF PALAU (WESTERN CAROLINE ISLANDS)

The physical geography of the limestone islands of Palau permits permanent water-column stratification in 13 tropical sea-level marine lakes, each with unique water-column physics, chemistry, and biology. Embayments and lagoons amid the coral became isolated as marine lakes after Miocene uplifting. Surface mixing of lake water by wind is reduced by jungle-covered karst ridges. Surface tidal exchange through fissures in fenestrated karst is slow while midwater exchange through submarine tunnels is fast, but both produce damped, delayed tides with modest seawater exchange from the barrier-reef lagoon. Topographic protection from wind, heavy regular rain throughout the year, with precipitation exceeding evaporation, and modest tidal exchange produce stratified water columns with brackish waters above permanently anoxic saline hypolimnia. Permanent lake stratification is documented for 18 years; sediment cores (by others) show stratification for >100 years, and recent constant sea level implies ecosystem stability for thousands of years. Therefore, the marine lakes in Palau are small, closed, simple ecosystems that do not change over time–steady-state chemostats permitting replicate field measurements of biological and physical attributes from day to day, month to month, or decade to decade. [Key words: Palau, meromictic, marine lake, karst, lake stratification, tides, model ecosystem.]     

An analysis of intra-event precipitation variability for the United States (1980–2010)

Hourly precipitation data were collected from 143 first-order US weather stations during the period from 1980 to 2009 to assess the internal distribution of precipitation events lasting at least three hours. A total of 46,595 individual precipitation events were identified and evaluated using the mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and the number of peaks occurring within an event. Mean event duration is longest along the West and Northwest coasts, the Mid-South, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Northeast; while shorter-duration events are more frequent in the Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, and the Great Plains. Mean event precipitation and standard deviation are greatest along the Gulf Coast and decrease inland. Precipitation events are positively skewed, indicating that more precipitation tends to occur earlier in the event. The most positively-skewed events are also located in regions flanking the Gulf of Mexico, while less-skewed events are common in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions. Event kurtosis is negative throughout the entire USA, with the highest negative values generally west of the Front Range, where cyclonic development and transition produce more evenly distributed precipitation within storms. Intra-event precipitation maxima were also evaluated, with western Florida and the desert Southwest having the greatest number per event.     

The Military Map of the United Kingdom and its Impact on Mapping in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid in the literature to the changing style of Ordnance Survey mapping in the twentieth century. However, little has been written about the origins of the characteristic appearance of the first multi-colour editions, other that the Ordnance Survey used a military edition that was already in production. The distinctive style grew out of the work of a committee established in 1892 by the War Office to consider future army requirements for a map of the UK. This paper explores the work of the committee and its long-term implications for the look of mapping in the twentieth century.     

More than planning: Diversity and drivers of institutional adaptation under climate change in 96 major cities

A key challenge for effective, ongoing urban climate adaptation is to adapt institutions within urban governance. While an extensive foundation of empirical knowledge on urban climate adaptation has accumulated over the last decade, our image of institutional adaptation continues to be dominated by a focus on planning. Whilst understandable, this can obscure a fuller range of areas in which institutional adaptation to climate change is being pursued. Furthermore, methodological path dependency in large-N analysis via a common focus on analyzing formal planning documents risks a skewed perspective as such documents may only offer a partial view. Building on the rich range of work to date assessing climate adaptation in cities, and notwithstanding continued major gaps such as in small-medium cities, we now need to find ways to examine the diversity of institutional adaptation occurring in practice, and to comparatively draw on the situated interpretive knowledge of case experts within individual cities to do so. With this aim in mind, this paper explores institutional adaptation in a specific domain (urban water) in a sample of 96 major cities across six continents through a survey of 319 case experts, examining the diversity of institutional adaptation across contexts and exploratively probing its drivers. Findings show that multiple forms of institutional adaptation are being jointly pursued in cities across all continents, leaning towards ‘softer’ rather than ‘harder’ forms, but nonetheless revealing a wide range of activity. Patterns in drivers suggest a political explanation for institutional adaptation (e.g. involving change agents and political pressure) rather than a rational one (e.g. involving response to climate-related risks and/or extreme events). Overall, there is a need to combine parsimony with expanded interpretive sensibility in advancing large-N research on institutional adaptation diversity in comparative perspective.     

印尼古邦岛(KUPANG)卡菲默纳努(KEFAMENANU)千岛矿区 锰矿地质特征及成因探讨

印尼千岛锰矿贮存于白垩系上统砂岩、泥岩中,呈层状、似层状产出,具有层控特征,局部遭受断裂构造破坏。通过对矿区成矿地质条件分析,初步认为矿床属于海相碎屑沉积类型锰矿床,具有较好的找矿远景。     

山东省临沭县常林钻石省级地质公园地质遗迹资源类型与评价

临沭县常林钻石省级地质公园,面积约85.85km2,属中型省级地质公园,地质遗迹类型丰富,保存完好。园区内既有代表性的地质构造剖面,又有丹霞地貌、恐龙遗迹化石,同时还是常林钻石的发现地。其中沂沭断裂带、岌山恐龙足迹和金刚石砂矿产地具有全国乃至国际性对比意义,是国内较为罕见的地质遗迹,在地学方面具有较高的科研价值。     

东天山卡瓦布拉克地区片麻状花岗岩形成时代及地质意义

东天山卡瓦布拉克地区发育大量片麻状花岗岩,据野外特征分为含斑片麻状花岗岩和不含斑片麻状花岗岩,片麻理属后期韧性剪切叠加改造结果.本文获得含斑片麻状花岗岩LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb年龄为(942.1±7.2)Ma和(941.9±4.9)Ma;不含斑晶的片麻状花岗岩年龄为(424.2±3.4)Ma,这些年龄数据表明片麻状花岗岩分别形成于新元古代和中志留世.野外调查表明,片麻状花岗岩侵入于长城系星星峡群和卡瓦布拉克群中,被块状石炭纪花岗岩侵入.研究区西侧上覆泥盆纪地层未发生明显韧性变形.据此限定区内韧性剪切变形发生于晚志留世(约424 Ma)之后至泥盆纪之前.     

年度土地变更调查新机制之探索

介绍了武汉市土地变更调查的历史沿革情况,通过对新旧机制的对比以及分析新机制存在的问题,从而对变更调查新机制进行了探索研究。     

The pitfalls and potential of debt-for-nature swaps: A US-Indonesian case study

The vital role of forests in limiting the likelihood of dangerous climate change has precipitated renewed interest in debt-for-nature swaps. This article uses evidence on past debt-for-nature deals and similar debt mechanisms to assess a recent second wave of such swaps. It outlines five typical shortcomings of this form of financial transaction: that they often fail to deliver additional resources to the debtor country and/or debtor government budget; often fail to deliver more resources for conservation/climate purposes; often have a negligible effect on overall debt burdens (and, as such, do not generate more ‘indirect’ benefits); and are often in conflict with principles of alignment with government policy and alignment with government systems (these two last shortcomings being important elements within the new aid delivery paradigm). Our analysis is applied to a recent debt-for-nature swap between the United States and Indonesia. We show that this case, which we consider a litmus test for current swap practice, performs unevenly across the five shortcomings. First, although the US-Indonesian swap does increase available resources to Indonesia at the country level, it does not generate extra budgetary room for the Indonesian government. Second, the extent to which the resources provided by the swap are additional to other donor support and reserved domestic budget lines for conservation goals is unclear. Third, the swap is too insignificant to create indirect (positive) economic effects. Regarding alignment issues, fourth, the swap is very much in line with current national policy, but, fifth, appears at odds with the new aid delivery paradigm's insistence on system alignment. We argue that if a second generation of debt-for-nature swaps is to be pursued then they need to avoid the common pitfalls associated with this form of finance. Moreover, there is a need to debate broader ways of linking debt service repayments to climate mitigation and adaptation.