Interactive effects of environmental variability and human impacts on the long-term dynamics of an Amazonian floodplain lake and a South Atlantic coastal lagoon

Human activities are exposing freshwater ecosystems to a wide range of stressors, whose direct and indirect effects can be alleviated or exacerbated through interactive effects with dynamic environmental drivers. This study used long-term data from two Neotropical lacustrine freshwater systems (Batata Lake, an Amazonian floodplain lake and Imboassica lagoon, an Atlantic coastal lagoon) subjected to different kinds of environmental fluctuations (i.e., flood pulse and sandbar opening) and anthropogenic impacts (i.e., siltation and eutrophication). Our objective was to determine whether the effects of human perturbations are contingent on modifications of important biotic and abiotic characteristics through environmental variability. For both ecosystems, environmental variability consistently interacted with anthropogenic perturbations to alter most of the variables analyzed, such as nutrient dynamics, chlorophyll-a concentration, zooplankton and benthic invertebrate species richness, and temporal community stability, which indicates that interactive effects between environmental variability and anthropogenic perturbations may impact a myriad of ecosystem properties. Furthermore, the nature of these interactive effects was highly dependent on the variable considered and on the ecosystem analyzed. For example, at Imboassica lagoon, sandbar openings interacted synergistically with trophic state to increase the phosphorus concentration in the water column. At Batata Lake, flooding generally alleviated the negative effects of siltation on species richness by both diluting inorganic suspended material concentration and by promoting local recruitment from the regional species pool. Such results indicate that our ability to understand and predict the outcome of anthropogenic impacts on inland aquatic systems can be hampered if we consider human stressors as “static” phenomena disconnected from dynamic interactions with major local environmental drivers.     

Comparison of hypoxia among four river-dominated ocean margins: The Changjiang (Yangtze), Mississippi,Pearl, and Rhône rivers

We examined the occurrence of seasonal hypoxia (O₂<2 mg l⁻¹) in the bottom waters of four river-dominated ocean margins (off the Changjiang, Mississippi, Pearl and Rhône Rivers) and compared the processes leading to the depletion of oxygen. Consumption of oxygen in bottom waters is linked to biological oxygen demand fueled by organic matter from primary production in the nutrient-rich river plume and perhaps terrigenous inputs. Hypoxia occurs when this consumption exceeds replenishment by diffusion, turbulent mixing or lateral advection of oxygenated water. The margins off the Mississippi and Changjiang are affected the most by summer hypoxia, while the margins off the Rhône and the Pearl rivers systems are less affected, although nutrient concentrations in the river water are very similar in the four systems. Spring and summer primary production is high overall for the shelves adjacent to the Mississippi, Changjiang and Pearl (1–10 g C m⁻² d⁻¹), and lower off the Rhône River (<1 g C m⁻² d⁻¹), which could be one of the reasons of the absence of hypoxia on the Rhône shelf. The residence time of the bottom water is also related to the occurrence of hypoxia, with the Mississippi margin showing a long residence time and frequent occurrences of hypoxia during summer over very large spatial scales, whereas the East China Sea (ECS)/Changjiang displays hypoxia less regularly due to a shorter residence time of the bottom water. Physical stratification plays an important role with both the Changjiang and Mississippi shelf showing strong thermohaline stratification during summer over extended periods of time, whereas summer stratification is less prominent for the Pearl and Rhône partly due to the wind effect on mixing. The shape of the shelf is the last important factor since hypoxia occurs at intermediate depths (between 5 and 50 m) on broad shelves (Gulf of Mexico and ECS). Shallow estuaries with low residence time such as the Pearl River estuary during the summer wet season when mixing and flushing are dominant features, or deeper shelves, such as the Gulf of Lion off the Rhône show little or no hypoxia.     

Water and nutrient fluxes off Northwest Africa

A historical data set is used to describe the coastal transition zone off Northwest Africa during spring 1973 and fall 1975, from 17° to 26°N, with special emphasis on the interaction between subtropical (North Atlantic Central Waters) and tropical (South Atlantic Central Waters) gyres. The near-surface geostrophic circulation, relative to 300 m, is quite complex. Major features are a large cyclonic pattern north of Cape Blanc (21°N) and offshore flow at the Cape Verde front. The large cyclone occurs in the region of most intense winds, and resembles a large meander of the baroclinic southward upwelling jet. The Cape Verde frontal system displays substantial interleaving that may partly originate as mesoscale features at the coastal upwelling front. Property–property diagrams show that the front is an effective barrier to all properties except temperature. The analysis of the Turner angle suggests that the frontal system is characterized by large heat horizontal diffusion as a result of intense double diffusion, which results in the smoothing of the temperature horizontal gradients. Nine cross-shore sections are used to calculate along-shore geostrophic water-mass and nutrient transports and to infer exchanges between the coastal transition zone and the deep ocean (import: deep ocean to transition zone; export: transition zone to deep ocean). These exchanges compare well with mean wind-induced transports and actual geostrophic cross-shore transport estimates. The region is divided into three areas: southern (18–21°N), central (21–23.5°N), and northern (23.5–26°N). In the northern area geostrophic import is roughly compensated with wind-induced export during both seasons. In the central area geostrophic import is greater than wind-induced export during spring, resulting in net import of both water (0.8 Sv) and nitrate (14 kmol s⁻¹), but during fall both factors again roughly cancel. In the southern area geostrophy and wind join to export water and nutrients during both seasons, they increase from 0.6 Sv and 3 kmol s⁻¹ during fall to 2.9 Sv and 53 kmol s⁻¹ during spring.     

Low-frequency current variability observed at the shelfbreak in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico: November 2004–May 2005

Fourteen acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) were deployed on the shelf and slope for 1 year just west of the DeSoto Canyon in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as part of its Slope to Shelf Energetics and Exchange Dynamics (SEED) project. The winter and spring observations are discussed here in regards to the low-frequency current variability and its relation to wind and eddy forcing. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses showed that two modes described most of the current variability. Wind-forced variability of the along-shelf flow was the main contributor in Mode 1 while eddies contributed much of the variability in Mode 2. Wind-stress controlled currents on the shelf and slope at time scales of about a week. On longer time scales, variations in the currents on both the outer shelf and slope appear to be related to seasonal variations in the time-cumulated wind stress curl. Winds were dominant in driving the along-shelf transports, particularly along the slope. However, the effective wind stress component was found to be aligned with the west Florida shelf direction rather than the local shelf direction. Eddy intrusions, which were more numerous in winter and spring than in summer and fall, and winds were found to contribute significantly to cross-shelf exchange processes.     

Optimizing fixed observational assets in a coastal observatory

Proliferation of coastal observatories necessitates an objective approach to managing of observational assets. In this article, we used our experience in the coastal observatory for the Columbia River estuary and plume to identify and address common problems in managing of fixed observational assets, such as salinity, temperature, and water level sensors attached to pilings and moorings. Specifically, we addressed the following problems: assessing the quality of an existing array, adding stations to an existing array, removing stations from an existing array, validating an array design, and targeting of an array toward data assimilation or monitoring.     

Magma mingling in the Tungho area,Coastal Range of eastern Taiwan

Complex rocks, consisting of different lithologic breccias and sediments in the Tungho area of the southern Coastal Range, eastern Taiwan, were formed by magmas and magma–sediment mingling. Based on field occurrences, petrography, and mineral and rock compositions, three components including mafic magma, felsic magma, and sediments can be identified. The black breccias and white breccias were consolidated from mafic and felsic magma, respectively. Isotopic composition shows these two magmas may be from the same source. Compared to the white breccias, the black breccias show clast-supported structures, higher An values in plagioclase, higher contents of MgO, CaO, and Fe₂O₃ and lower SiO₂, greater enrichment in the light rare earth elements (LREE), and depletion in the heavy rare earth elements (HREE). The white breccias show matrix-supported blocks and mingling with tuffaceous sediments to form peperite. Physical and chemical evidence shows that the characteristics of these two components (mafic and felsic magmas) are still apparent in the mingled zone. According to their petrography, mafic and felsic magmas did not have much time for mingling. White intrusive structures and black flow structures show that mingling occurred before they solidified. Finally, the occurrence of mingling between magmas and sediments suggests that the mingling has taken place at the surface and not in the magma chamber.     

Do river deltas in east India retreat? A case of the Krishna Delta

The construction of multiple dams and barrages in many Indian River basins over the last few decades significantly reduced river flow to the sea and affected the sediment regime. More reservoir construction is planned through the proposed National River Linking Project (NRLP), which will transfer massive amounts of water from the North to the South of India. The impacts of these developments on fertile and ecologically sensitive deltaic environments are poorly understood and quantified at present. In this paper an attempt is made to identify, locate and quantify coastal erosion and deposition processes in one of the major river basins in India—the Krishna—using a time series of Landsat images for 1977, 1990 and 2001 with a spatial resolution ranging from 57.0 m to 28.5 m. The dynamics of these processes are analyzed together with the time series of river flow, sediment discharge and sediment storage in the basin. Comparisons are made with similar processes identified and quantified earlier in the delta of a neighboring similarly large river basin—the Godavari. The results suggest that coastal erosion in the Krishna Delta progressed over the last 25 years at the average rate of 77.6 ha yr^− 1, dominating the entire delta coastline and exceeding the deposition rate threefold. The retreat of the Krishna Delta may be explained primarily by the reduced river inflow to the delta (which is three times less at present than 50 years ago) and the associated reduction of sediment load. Both are invariably related to upstream reservoir storage development.     

Neural network modelling of planform geometry of headland-bay beaches

The shoreline of beaches in the lee of coastal salients or man-made structures, usually known as headland-bay beaches, has a distinctive curvature; wave fronts curve as a result of wave diffraction at the headland and in turn cause the shoreline to bend. The ensuing curved planform is of great interest both as a peculiar landform and in the context of engineering projects in which it is necessary to predict how a coastal structure will affect the sandy shoreline in its lee. A number of empirical models have been put forward, each based on a specific equation. A novel approach, based on the application of artificial neural networks, is presented in this work. Unlike the conventional method, no particular equation of the planform is embedded in the model. Instead, it is the model itself that learns about the problem from a series of examples of headland-bay beaches (the training set) and thereafter applies this self-acquired knowledge to other cases (the test set) for validation. Twenty-three headland-bay beaches from around the world were selected, of which sixteen and seven make up the training and test sets, respectively. As there is no well-developed theory for deciding upon the most convenient neural network architecture to deal with a particular data set, an experimental study was conducted in which ten different architectures with one and two hidden neuron layers and five training algorithms – 50 different options combining network architecture and training algorithm – were compared. Each of these options was implemented, trained and tested in order to find the best-performing approach for modelling the planform of headland-bay beaches. Finally, the selected neural network model was compared with a state-of-the-art planform model and was shown to outperform it.     

Rare earth elements in sediments of the Vigo Ria,NW Iberian Peninsula

The abundance and distribution of rare earth elements (REE) and their signatures in the Vigo Ria were studied from 50 samples of surface sediments and related to the geological formation in its watershed. The total amount of REE in the Ria is heterogeneous. It ranges from 220 mg kg⁻¹ in the southern middle Ria margin in the vicinity of the Galiñeiro geological shore complex, which contains REE-enriched minerals, to 2 mg kg⁻¹ near the Ria mouth due to dilution with high levels of carbonated biogenic particles (31% of Ca). Rare earth elements of the Ria sediments are considerably enriched in light-REE relative to heavy-REE (a LREE/HREE ratio of 9.7±1.6) and also show a slightly negative Eu-anomaly. Low European shale normalised REE patterns were distinguished in the innermost sediments of Vigo Ria, but were not correlated with Al. This suggests a minor contribution of REE from upstream freshwater inputs to the sediments in the middle Vigo Ria zone. Normalised REE ratios in the middle Ria imply that fine particles enriched in REE may be exported from the Ria to shelf mud patches and REE can be useful as sediment tracers of Ria input on the shelf.     

Interaction of a river plume with coastal upwelling in the northeastern South China Sea

Observational and modeling studies were conducted to investigate the Pearl River plume and its interaction with the southwesterly driven upwelling circulation in the northern South China Sea during the summer. After exiting the Pearl River Estuary, the discharged freshwater generates a nearly stationary bulge of freshwater near the entrance of the estuary. Forced by the wind-driven coastal upwelling current, the freshwater in the outer part of the bulge flows downstream at the speed of the current and forms a widening and deepening buoyant plume over the shelf. The plume axis gradually shifts offshore of the current maximum as a result of currents induced by the contrasting density at the nose of plume and by the intensified Ekman drift in the plume. In this plume–current system, the fraction of the discharged freshwater volume accumulated in the bulge reaches a steady state and the volume of newly discharged freshwater is transported downstream by the upwelling current. Enhancement of stratification by the plume thins the surface frictional layer and enhances the cross-shelf circulation in the upper water column such that the surface Ekman current and compensating flow beneath the plume are amplified while the shoaling of the deeper dense water in the upwelling region changes minimally. The pressure gradient generated between the buoyant plume and ambient seawater accelerates the wind-driven current along the inshore edge of the plume but retards it along the offshore edge. Along the plume, downward momentum advection is strong near the highly nonlinear source region and a weaker upward momentum advection occurs in the far field over the shelf. Typically, the plume is shaped by the current over the shelf while the current itself is adjusting to a new dynamic balance invoked by the plume-induced changes of vertical viscosity and the horizontal pressure gradient. The spatial variation of this new balance leads to a coherent change in the cross-isobath transport in the upper water column during upwelling.