Aggregate performance in managing marine ecosystems of 53 maritime countries

Fourteen indicators of marine living resource management performance by country, reflecting both their intention to sustainably use the resource within their Exclusive Economic Zones and the effectiveness of their policies, were developed and the performances of 53 maritime countries were assessed. Four rankings of the countries, which jointly account for over 95 percent of the world's marine fisheries landings, are presented here as aggregated scores of the fourteen indicators, using different schemes for weighting the indicators, each reflective of the management preferences identified by the Global Environment Outlook 4 (GEO4) future development scenarios: Market First; Policy First; Security First; and Sustainability First. The resulting rankings differed substantially between the weighting schemes for the top performing countries but less so for the countries performing poorly.     

Placental transfer of arsenic to fetus of Dall's porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli)

Concentrations of total arsenic and individual arsenic compounds were determined in liver, muscle, kidney and blubber of mother and fetus of Dall’s porpoises collected from off Sanriku, Japan, in the year 2000 to characterize the placental transfer of arsenic to fetus in cetaceans. Arsenic was detected in all the tissues of Dall’s porpoises. Total arsenic concentrations in liver, kidney, muscle and blubber were 0.76, 0.69, 0.35 and 0.55 μg/g wet wt, respectively, for mother and 0.28, 0.23, 0.26 and 0.07 μg/g wet wt, respectively, for fetus. In all the tissues, concentrations of total arsenic in mother Dall’s porpoise were higher than in fetus. Arsenic speciation revealed that arsenobetaine was the major arsenic compound in liver, kidney and muscle of both mother and fetus. The percentage of arsenobetaine to total arsenic ranged from 76.0 to 91.0% in the tissues. Dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine, methylarsonic acid and an unidentified arsenic compound were also detected in tissues of both mother and fetus as minor constituents, whereas tetramethylarsonium ion was not detected in tissues of the fetus. These results suggest that arsenobetaine, dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine and methylarsonic acid are transferable from mother to fetus in Dall’s porpoises. To our knowledge, this is the first report on placental transfer of arsenic compounds to fetus in marine mammals.     

Floor-age constraining of a tectonic paroxysm of the Pyrenean orogen. Late Middle Eocene mammal age of a faulted karstic filling of the Quercy phosphorites,south-western France

Abstract

Breaking effects of a Pyrenean compressive tectonic phase are recognised in northern Pyrenean foreland, such as in the Quercy Jurassic limestone platform. The age of this phase still remains poorly constrained. In the so-called Quercy phosphorites area, within the Prajoux—Mémerlin paleokarst system near the city of Cajarc, a clay filling shows a strike slip fault effect, close to N-S direction. According to an analysis of the mammal fauna and inferred chronology of the polyphased paleokarst infilling, the age of the faulted clay is late Middle Eocene, with a mammal age estimate of 41.5 Ma. This provides reliable precise floor-age constraining for the involved sismo-tectonic paroxysm, seemingly related to the Pyrenean tectonic compressive phase. © 2000 Editions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS     

Character, Age and Ecology of the Hezheng Biota from Northwestern China

1 Introduction In recent years, field works in the Hezheng area resulted in an explosive growth of new knowledge of Chinese mammalian faunas of the Late Cenozoic. A continuous sedimentary sequence from the Oligocene to the Pleistocene is developed and exposed in the Linxia Basin, Gansu Province, which contains a large number of mammal fossils. The Hezheng area comprises almost the whole Hezheng County, the western half of Guanghe County, the southern half of Dongxiang County, Linxia C…     

Long Plio-Pleistocene Terrestrial Record of Climate Change and Mammal Turnover in Southern Spain

Cyclostratigraphic analysis of the Pliocene Zújar section (Guadix-Baza Basin, southeastern Spain) has enabled the recognition of a number of climatically forced cycles reflecting alternating dry and wet periods. Peaks of aridity are recorded at ca. 3.95, 3.55, 3.2, 2.8, and 1.8 myr B.P. The first dry period at about 4.0 myr B.P. corresponds to the early Ruscinian Mammal age, while the second arid interval at about 3.6 myr B.P. corresponds to the establishment of the Mediterranean double seasonality. The significant mammal turnover between the late Ruscinian and early Villanyian stages is placed between chron 2An.2n and the very base of chron 2An.1n, coincident with the dry phase recognized at about 3.2 myr B.P. The fourth aridity maximum at 2.8 myr B.P. roughly coincides with the Equus event in western Europe and is probably related to the beginning of the glacial–interglacial dynamics in the Northern Hemisphere. Finally, the last dry peak at about 1.8 myr B.P. is probably related to the set of mammalian events characterizing the transition from the late Pliocene faunas to those of the early Pleistocene.     

CENOZOIC SEDIMENTARY SEQUENCE IN THE KUMUKULI BASIN, XINJIANG AND NEW EVIDENCE ON LATE QUATERNARY UPLIFT OF THE QINGHAI—TIBETAN PLATEAU

CENOZOIC SEDIMENTARY SEQUENCE IN THE KUMUKULI BASIN, XINJIANG AND NEW EVIDENCE ON LATE QUATERNARY UPLIFT OF THE QINGHAI—TIBETAN PLATEAU     

A critical examination of worldwide guidelines for minimising the disturbance to marine mammals during seismic surveys

Marine seismic exploration has potentially detrimental effects upon marine life and marine mammals in particular. Potential effects range from disturbance that may lead to displacement from feeding or breeding areas, to auditory damage and potential mortality. Nations including the USA, Canada and Brazil have followed the example set by the United Kingdom by introducing guidelines to minimise acoustic disturbance to marine mammals. This paper describes the mitigation measures central to the guidelines currently in place, and identifies the similarities, differences and deficiencies within them. A need for further review by some nations is identified, with a recommendation that an international standard should be produced, benefiting both the geophysical exploration industry and the conservation community.     

中国陆相上新统麻则沟阶

年代地层单位麻则沟阶是中国上新统的两个阶之一,代表陆相上上新统,1999年由第二届全国地层委员会正式命名,对应于麻则沟期。"麻则沟"一名源自同名岩石地层单位麻则沟组,典型剖面位于山西省榆社县云簇镇赵庄—大马岚。麻则沟阶对应于"国际地层表"中的皮亚琴察阶,其共同的底界定义为古地磁Chron C2An.3n的底,即高斯正极性带的底,绝对年龄为3.6 Ma,这条界线在榆社赵庄剖面位于第6层麻则沟组下部的紫红色黏土层的中部,以张洼沟姬鼠(Apodemus zhangwagouensis)的首现为标志。麻则沟期与欧洲陆生哺乳动物分期的Villa-nyian早期或Villafranchian早期相当,包含1个哺乳动物群单位,即NMU13,可与欧洲的MN16对比。在榆社盆地发现的麻则沟动物群就相当于NMU13。在中国的上新世哺乳动物群中,甘肃灵台的任家沟动物群和雷家河V带动物群、河北阳原泥河湾的稻地动物群、陕西渭南的游河动物群、山西静乐的贺丰动物群、四川德格的汪布顶动物群也相当于NMU13。河北泥河湾的花豹沟剖面是麻则沟阶的辅助层型剖面。     

Magnetochronology of Late Miocene Mammal Fauna in Xining Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau, China

The Xining basin is located in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is a rift basin formed in Mesozoic and Cenozoic and structurally belongs to the intersection of Kunlun and Qilian Mountains. Cenozoic fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary strata are continuous in the Xining basin, with a thickness of more than 800 m, completely recording the deformation uplifting, weathering and denudation history and climate change process of the northeastern plateau. Currently, early Miocene Xijia fauna, early Middle Miocene Danshuilu fauna and late Middle Miocene Diaogou fauna are discovered in the Xining basin, which provide an important basis for the stratigraphic correlation of the Cenozoic strata in the Xining basin. However, in the next few decades, there are no reports about the large mammal fossils in the Xining basin, especially about late Miocene fauna. The author discovered a large amount of mammal fossils in the Neogene sedimentary strata in Huzhu area, Xining basin. According to the identification results of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, these fossils mainly included Hipparion dongxiangense, Chilotherium sp., Parelasmotherium sp., Stephanocemas sp. and Kubanochoerus sp. and their age was early Late Miocene. Since the discovery of this set of fossils directly filled the blank that there were no large mammal fossils in the Xining basin in Late Miocene, it was very important for studying the magnetic stratigraphic chronology of fossil-forming strata and establishing the paleomagnetic chronology scale plate of mammal fossils. In this paper, the paleomagnetic data of the fossil-forming stratigraphic profile, Banyan profile, were measured and the paleomagnetic records were collected through high density sampling, and finally the paleomagnetic polarity column of the profile was established. The results showed that five positive and five negative polarity segments were recorded in Banyan profile, which corresponded well to the polarity between C3Br.1n-C4n.2n in the standard polarity column. The age of profile top was about 7.25 Ma and profile bottom was about 8.4 Ma, with an age range of 1.15 Ma. The mammal fossils discovered this time were exposed between positive and negative polarities N5 and R5 at the bottom of the profile, corresponding to C4r.1r at negative polarity and C4n.2n at positive polarity in the standard polarity column. The age of mammal fossils was about 8.3 Ma. The paleomagnetic chronology of the strata and paleontological fossils determined the absolute age of late Miocene mammal fossils and expanded the upper age of late Miocene Xianshuihe Formation (N1xn) in the Xining basin, which had provided new basic data for further studying the stratigraphic deposition and correlation of late Cenozoic strata and regional environmental evolution.