Integrating knowledge to assess coastal vulnerability to sea-level rise: The development of the DIVA tool

This paper describes the development of the DIVA tool, a user-friendly tool for assessing coastal vulnerability from subnational to global levels. The development involved the two major challenges of integrating knowledge in the form of data, scenarios and models from various natural, social and engineering science disciplines and making this integrated knowledge accessible to a broad community of end-users. These challenges were addressed by (i) creating and applying the DIVA method, an iterative, modular method for developing integrating models amongst distributed partners and (ii) making the data, scenarios and integrated model, equipped with a powerful graphical user interface, directly and freely available to end-users.     

Assessing 4D-VAR for dynamical mapping of coastal high-frequency radar in San Diego

The problem of dynamically mapping high-frequency (HF) radar radial velocity observations is investigated using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the San Diego coastal region and an adjoint-based assimilation method. The HF radar provides near-real-time radial velocities from three sites covering the region offshore of San Diego Bay. The hydrodynamical model is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) with 1 km horizontal resolution and 40 vertical layers. The domain is centered on Point Loma, extending 117 km offshore and 120 km alongshore. The reference run (before adjustment) is initialized from a single profile of T and S and is forced with wind data from a single shore station and with zero heat and fresh water fluxes. The adjoint of the model is used to adjust initial temperature, salinity, and velocity, hourly temperature, salinity and horizontal velocities at the open boundaries, and hourly surface fluxes of momentum, heat and freshwater so that the model reproduces hourly HF radar radial velocity observations. Results from a small number of experiments suggest that the adjoint method can be successfully used over 10-day windows at coastal model resolution. It produces a dynamically consistent model run that fits HF radar data with errors near the specified uncertainties. In a test of the forecasting capability of the San Diego model after adjustment, the forecast skill was shown to exceed persistence for up to 20 h.     

Ostracods as tsunami tracers in Holocene sequences

This review analyses the ostracod record in Holocene tsunami deposits, using an overview of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami impact on its recent populations and the associated tsunamigenic deposits, together with results from numerous investigations of other Holocene sequences. Different features such as the variability of the local assemblages, population density, species diversity, age population structure (e.g., percentages of adults and juvenile stages) or taphonomical signatures suggest that these microorganisms may be included amongst the most promising tracers of these high-energy events in marshes, lakes, lagoons or shallow marine areas.     

广东省沿海风随高度变化研究

根据实测资料对我省沿海地区的风随高度变化规律进行了探讨，分析了沿海地区风向、风速变化特点，风速廓线指数律适合于我省沿海地区，根据指数律拟合的我省沿海地区风随高度变化系数小于目前各类规范所规定的系数。     

中国东部沿海地带及邻区的环境工程地质与可持续发展研究

沿海地带是海陆交接的边缘地带, 是-个多功能的自然综合体, 蕴藏着丰富的自然资源, 开发潜力很大。但沿海地带自然环境复杂多变, 生态环境极为脆弱, 而沿海地带的开发利用又涉及许多部门和学科, 在开发过程中已引起若干环境工程地质问题, 因此, 加强沿海地带资源开发的环境工程地质研究有极为重要的意义。本文分析了我国沿海地带资源开发过程中引起的主要环境工程地质问题, 采用BP神经网络模型对沿海地带及其邻区的工程地质环境质量进行了评价与区划。在此基础上, 对中国沿海地带可持续发展方略进行了探讨。     

ROBUST: The ROle of BUffering capacities in STabilising coastal lagoon ecosystems

“Buffer capacities” has been defined in ecology as a holistic concept (e.g., Integration of Ecosystem Theories: A Pattern, second ed. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1997, 388pp), but we show that it can also be worked out in mechanistic studies. Our mechanistic approach highlights that “buffering capacities” can be depleted progressively, and, therefore, we make a distinction between current and potential “buffering capacities”. We have applied this concept to understand the limited “local stability” in seagrass ecosystems and their vulnerability towards structural changes into macro-algal dominated communities. We explored the following processes and studied how they confer buffering capacities to the seagrass ecosystem: (i) net autotrophy is persistent in Zostera noltii meadows where plant assimilation acts as a sink for nutrients, this contrasted with the Ulva system that shifted back and forth between net autotrophy and net heterotrophy; (ii) the Z. noltii ecosystem possesses a certain albeit rather limited capacity to modify the balance between nitrogen fixation and denitrification, i.e., it was found that in situ nitrogen fixation always exceeded denitrification; (iii) the nitrogen demand of organoheterotrophic bacteria in the sediment results in nitrogen retention of N in the sediment and hence a buffer against release of nitrogen compounds from sediments, (iv) habitat diversification in seagrass meadows provides shelter for meiofauna and hence buffering against adverse conditions, (v) sedimentary iron provides a buffer against noxious sulfide (note: bacterial sulfide production is enhanced in anoxic sediment niches by increased organic matter loading). On the other hand, in the coastal system we studied, sedimentary iron appears less important as a redox-coupled buffer system against phosphate loading. This is because most inorganic phosphate is bound to calcium rather than to iron. In addition, our studies have highlighted the importance of plant–microbe interactions in the seagrass meadows.     

加强横向联系,推进防震减灾

加强横向联系，是推动防震减灾事业的战略措施，是“综合防御”的必然趋势，应深刻领会“综合防御”的战略意义，进一步拓宽横向联系的工作领域，彻底转变封闭式工作方式，更好地用地震科学为国民经济建设和社会进步服务。各级政府要对横向联系进一步加强领导，要从理论和实践的结合上对横向联系问题进行深入探讨。     

浙江省海岸带自然环境基本特征及综合分区

浙江省海岸线长１８４０ｋｍ，海岸带面积３．９７×１０４ｋｍ２，自然环境优越，为沿海经济发展提供有利条件。根据环境因素组合特点可以将浙江省海岸带划分为三个自然区及若干类型岸段。     

A statistical study of the cliff top slumps in part of the christchurch bay coastal cliffs

A distinction is made between slumping and spalling. Slumping involves a compound slide with rotation and translation: the latter along one of the bedding plane shear surfaces in the Barton Beds. Spalling is an isolated failure of the exposed cliff face due to weathering. Where slumping is the dominant mode of cliff top recession, the latter is an incremental process with the increments being equal to the breadth of the slumps. A statistical study has been made of the breadth, length and plan area of 42 slumps observed over a 2 km stretch of the Christchurch Bay coastal cliffs and significant trends deduced.     

Cavernous weathering in the Capitol Reef Desert,Utah

Tafoni and honeycomb weathering are abundant in sandstones at Capitol Reef National Park. Cavities are particularly common in talus blocks resting on alkali-rich soil, in vertical walls of desert washes, and in sandstones containing calcareous cement. Chemical analyses, X-ray diffraction data, and field observations suggest that salt weathering is the most important cause of disintegration, but dissolution of calcite cement also occurs in calcareous sandstones. Cavernous weathering at Capitol Reef produces cavities similar in appearance to features found in arkose outcrops along the coast of northwest Washington, even though the environmental conditions at these two locations are very different.