Impacts of trawling on benthic macro-fauna and -flora of the Spencer Gulf prawn fishing grounds

The overall effects of trawling on benthic habitats and their assemblages are dependent on the distribution and intensity of trawl effort. The benthic habitats of the Spencer Gulf prawn trawling grounds are subjected to known variable levels of trawling disturbance recorded from fisher's logbooks. These habitats have not been quantitatively investigated. The aim of the study was firstly to characterise the macro-faunal and -floral assemblages and secondly, to comparatively assess trawl impact by testing the null hypothesis of no differences between five sites exposed to different intensity of trawl effort. The distribution and abundance of benthic macro-fauna and -flora were studied at two sampling resolutions by using beam trawl sampling (10,000 m²) and underwater stereophotography (4.5 m²) at five sites with different levels of trawl disturbance (effort). The results showed that the Spencer Gulf prawn trawling grounds are characterised by sandy sediments with a low content of silt and clay, with the exception of one site with very fine gravel. Biomass, abundance and cover of macro-fauna and -flora were generally low throughout, but with large differences among sites. Biomass, abundance and cover were found to be negatively correlated to both trawl hours from 1994–1998 and during the period of study. ANOSIM and SIMPER analyses using biomass, abundance and percentage cover as variables showed significant differences between sites with eight species or taxonomic groups contributing more than 10% to the observed similarity within sites. The two northern sites were dominated by sponges and the bearded mussel, Trichomya hirsutus, and the southern hammer oyster, Malleus meridianus. Other species that contributed to the similarity within sites were the ascidian, Polycarpa viridis, mobile epifauna (the blue swimmer crab, Portunus pelagicus, and the western king prawn, Penaeus (Melicertus) latisulcatus) and demersal fish species (Degens leatherjacket, Thamnaconus degeni, and the Melbourne silver belly, Parequula melbournensis). Simpson's Index of Diversity (1 − λ) and species richness in the beam trawl samples were fairly even across all sites, but a significant effect of site was found in the stereophotographic transect samples. It was concluded that prawn trawling has a strong influence on the structure of the benthic habitats of the Spencer Gulf prawn fishing grounds highlighted by the magnitude of change and the strength of the gradient of effects. Confounding factors linked to the biophysical attributes of the sites are believed to be minor.     

Fuzzy MCDM-based GIS model for subsea oil pipeline route optimization: An integrated approach

Proper pipeline route selection is an integral component of a typical oil exploration and transportation project. Improperly selected routes could have severe consequences including pipe failures, oil spillage, and environmental disasters. Consequently, technologies like geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly being used to facilitate the oil pipeline route selection procedure—especially for onshore routing projects. Surprisingly, not much has been documented on the application of GIS to offshore pipeline routing. With recent discoveries on the merits of offshore oil exploration, it is necessary to extend the analytical capabilities of GIS to the unique offshore domain. However, concerns have been raised regarding the limitations of GIS in accurately prioritizing diverse selection criteria in typical multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems like route selection. Consequently, this paper addresses the offshore/subsea pipeline routing constraint using a hybrid decision support system (DSS), which integrates a GIS and fuzzy logic-based approximate reasoning (AR) models for optimal performance. The resultant spatial decision support system (SDSS) was successfully applied to a case study in Malaysia. The AR algorithm calculated the significance level of the multiple criteria using various fuzzy linguistic variables and membership functions. The aggregated priority ranking from different pipeline routing experts showed that the overall influence of the environmental criteria (61.4%) significantly exceeded that of other equally important criteria in the study area. These rankings were inputted into the SDSS to simulate various probable routes. Final results accurately highlighted an optimal route, which places a premium on the protection of environmental features in the subsea study area—in alignment with the preferences of majority of the experts.     

近海多功能混凝土平台选型与优化

提出了一种适合近海边际油田开发的多功能混凝土平台型式,并对其进行了优化设计.分析了各约束对平台造价的影响,确定了平台的应用范围.优化分析中采用了约束单调性分析、初始点自动给定等方法,加快了优化的迭代收敛速度,并对初稳性高度GM值采用了模糊优化方法,考虑了影响GM值的主观因素.     

Anthropogenic threat assessment of marine-associated fauna in Spencer Gulf,South Australia

Assessing the vulnerability of species to [anthropogenic threats is an essential step when developing management strategies for wild populations. With industrial development forecasted to increase in Spencer Gulf, South Australia, it is crucial to assess the ongoing effects of anthropogenic threats to resident and migratory species. Expert elicitation was used to assess 27 threats against 38 threatened, protected, and iconic marine-associated species. Species and threat interactions were assessed individually, and as taxonomic or functional groups. Climate change had the greatest overall exposure (c.f. risk) across species, followed by disturbance, pollution, disease/invasive species, and fishing/aquaculture threats. The largest overall sensitivities (c.f. consequences) were pollution and disease/invasive species, followed by climate change, disturbance and fishing/aquaculture threats. Vulnerability scores (exposure x sensitivity) showed the climate change group posing the greatest overall threat in Spencer Gulf, with individual climatic threats ranking as three of the top four biggest threats to most animal groups. Noise, shipping, and net fishing were considered the greatest region-specific individual threats to marine mammals; as were trawl fishing, line fishing, and coastal activities to fish/cuttlefish; trawl fishing, line fishing, and net fishing to elasmobranchs; and oil spill, disease, and coastal activities to sea/shorebirds. Eighteen of the 20 highest vulnerability scores involved the short-beaked common dolphin, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, and Australian sea lion, highlighting the particular susceptibility of these species to specific threats. These findings provide a synthesis of key threats and vulnerable species, and give management a basis to direct future monitoring and threat mitigation efforts in the region.     

Business case for mussel aquaculture in offshore wind farms in the North Sea

The European Blue Growth strategy aims to expand the new maritime sectors of aquaculture, energy, biotechnology, coastal tourism and mineral mining. Growth of these sectors will increases pressure on the seas, particularly on those areas that are densely used by traditional sectors such as fisheries and transport. This has triggered interest in developing multiuse of space and multiuse platforms at sea. This paper assesses the feasibility of offshore mussel production project in wind farms by design and ex-ante evaluation of a mussel aquaculture system in the North Sea. A system for mussel cultivation in the Dutch Borssele offshore wind farm was designed, producing both mussel seed and consumption-sized mussels with semi-submerged longlines. Based on the economic model and the risk assessment, this paper concludes that mussel aquaculture is an appealing commercial model for increased returns in offshore wind farms. The economic models shows that the internal rate of return and net present value are positive and based on the sensitivity analysis, it can be concluded that these results are robust.     

海洋功能区开发潜力评价方法

借鉴海洋资源开发潜力、旅游开发潜力、土地开发潜力、主体功能区开发潜力、可持续发展能力和多指标综合评价等方面的研究方法和指标体系,首次提出了海洋功能区开发潜力的概念、构成和指标,并分析了层次分析法在海洋功能区开发潜力评价中的适用性,总结了海洋功能区开发潜力评价的方法、步骤和存在的问题。     

Non-Darcian groundwater flow in leaky aquifers

Abstract

A simplified method has been developed for solving leaky aquifer non-Darcian flow hydraulics. The principle of volumetric approach is combined with the confined-aquifer, time-dependent drawdown equation in an observation well. The groundwater flow in the leaky aquifer is assumed to obey a non-Darcian flow law of exponential type. The results are obtained in the form of type-curve expressions from which the necessary bundles of curves are drawn for a set of selective non-Darcian flow aquifer parameters. Although application of the methodology appears as rather limited but it provides a scientific contribution and extension of leaky aquifer theory towards nonlinear flow conditions. The methodology developed herein is applied to some actual field data from the eastern sedimentary basin in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.     

开滦苯加氢精制工程环境风险评价

以某苯加氢精制工程为例,探讨了焦化行业环境风险评价方法;利用该项目所在地近3 a地面常规气象观测资料,分析了当地的污染气象特征;采用风险识别、源项分析、后果计算、风险评价等环境风险评价技术方法,筛选出主要风险因子并进行风险预测,采用多烟团模式并考虑气象因素进行风险计算。结果表明：污染事故发生后,苯类物质的地面浓度最大值为3 214 mg/m^3,位于距离事故发生源WNW方向约50 m处超标1 339倍,由此可知近距离污染严重;高浓度污染物主要集中在污染源附近,随着距离的延长,污染物浓度不断向下风向扩散,超标范围在6 km内。利用简化分析法,定量给出此项工程的最大可信事故风险值为7.6×10^-6/a,小于化工行业风险值8.33×10^-5/a,此工程风险值水平与同行业比较在可接受的范围内。     

辽河坳陷兴隆台油田成藏特征与成藏模式

利用地球化学、地质资料对辽河坳陷兴隆台地区的成藏特征进行了系统研究,认为研究区具有多油源供烃、多类型输导、多期次充注的特点。油源对比研究表明,油气主要来源于清水洼陷,其次为陈家洼陷,其中清水洼陷沙三段为主要烃源岩。含氮化合物指示油气沿着断层、砂体、不整合面等多种输导体,从生烃洼陷向构造高部位进行运移。流体包裹体与烃源岩生烃史显示研究区发生了多期成藏,主要成藏期为东营末期。综上,建立了以下3种成藏模式:潜山油气藏的"单源供烃、断层-不整合输导、早期成藏模式",沙三段油气藏的"自生自储、断层-浊积砂输导、早期成藏模式"和浅层沙二段、沙一段、东营组油气藏的"多源供烃、断层-砂体输导、晚期成藏模式"。