Eco-environmental impact assessment of pre-leisure beach nourishment on the benthic invertebrate community at Anping coast

In recent years,owing to global warming and the rising sea levels,beach nourishment and groin building have been increasingly employed to protect coastal land from shoreline erosion.These actions may degrade beach habitats and reduce biomass and invertebrate density at sites where they were employed.We conducted an eco-environmental evaluation at the Anping artificial beach-nourishment project area.At this site,sand piles within a semi-enclosed spur groin have been enforced by use of eco-engineering concepts since 2003.Four sampling sites were monitored during the study period from July 2002 to September 2008.The environmental impact assessment and biological investigations that we conducted are presented here.The results from this study indicate that both biotic(number of species,number of individual organisms,and Shannon-Wiener diversity) and abiotic parameters(suspended solids,biological oxygen demand,chemical oxygen demand,dissolved inorganic nitrogen,dissolved inorganic phosphorus,total phosphorus,total organic carbon,median diameter,and water content) showed significant differences before and after beach engineering construction.Biological conditions became worse in the beginning stages of the engineering but improved after the restoration work completion.This study reveals that the composition of benthic invertebrates changed over the study period,and two groups of organisms,Bivalvia and Gastropoda,seemed to be particularly suitable to this habitat after the semi-enclosed artificial structures completion.     

Prey preferences among the community of deep-diving odontocetes from the Bay of Biscay, Northeast Atlantic

Long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas), Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus), melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), Sowerby's beaked whales (Mesoplodon bidens), northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), dwarf sperm whales (Kogia sima) and pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) make up the large community of deep-diving odontocetes occurring off the Bay of Biscay, northeast Atlantic. The ecology of these toothed cetaceans is poorly documented worldwide. The present study described their prey preferences from stomach content analysis and showed resource partitioning within the assemblage. The majority of the species appeared to be mostly teutophageous. Fish was an important food source only for the Sowerby's beaked whale and, to a lesser extent, for the long-finned pilot whale. In terms of foraging habitats inferred from prey composition, either pelagic oceanic or demersal neritic habitats were exploited by toothed whales in the Bay of Biscay, with only the long-finned pilot whale foraging in the two habitats. Finally, with more than 14,000 identified cephalopods from 39 species, the present study highlighted also the poorly known deep-sea cephalopod community off the Bay of Biscay using top predators as biological samplers.     

海洋功能区划符合性判别方法初探——以港口功能区为例

借鉴国外用海兼容性和土地使用兼容性,分析了海洋功能区划符合性内涵,基奉原则,并以港口功能区为例,分析了港口用海对海洋环境的影响,建立了港口功能特征指标,以及港口功能区与海域使用之 间对照表.通过搭建起海域使用和海洋功能区划之间的桥梁,更好地为海域使用审批管理提供技术支持.     

The human dimensions of marine mammal management in a time of rapid change: comparing policies in Canada,Finland and the United States

Arctic coastal populations share a close relationship with their environment consisting of linkages among communities, landscapes and seascapes, and the social institutions developed to sustain the system. This cultural–biogeophysical dynamic is termed throughout the section as a social–ecological system (SES). Marine mammals constitute a large portion of the subsistence diet for these communities, and as such represent key ecological services provided by the system. At the same time, marine mammals have gained iconic status as symbols for climate change in the North. A tension results between the demands of balancing on one hand good policy optics consistent with national and international norms and, on the other hand, flexible and adaptive institutions able to take on the task of managing resources in a dynamic, changing North. This tension and associated policy solutions such as co-management are explored in a series of papers focusing on marine mammal management dilemmas and policy practices around the circumpolar North. This introduction communicates the problem context and describes the five papers making up this special section. A guiding premise to this work is that new international pressures to implement moratoria on marine mammal hunting in the North ignore critical human dimensions of marine mammal management. Such policy proposals are unlikely to succeed in areas that require collaboration across scales. Simultaneously, new local-scale participation in multi-level management regimes holds promise for creating more resilient marine mammal SESs.     

Antitumor and immune regulation activities of the extracts of some Chinese marine invertebrates

Extracts of 21 marine invertebrates belonging to Coelenterata, Mollusca, Annelida, Bryozoa,Echiura, Arthropoda, Echinodermata and Urochordata were screened for the studies on their antitumor and immune regulation activities. Antitumor activity was determined by MTT method and immune regulation activity was studied using T- and B-lymphocytes in mice spleen in vitro. It was found that the n-butanol part of Asterina pectinifera, the acetic ether part of Tubuaria marina, 95% ethanol extract of Acanthochiton rubrolineatus have a high inhibition rate of 96.7%, 63.9% and 50.5% respectively on tumor cell line HL-60 at the concentration of 0.063 mg/ml. The inhibition rate of the acetic ether part of Tubuaria marina on the tumor cell line A-549 is 65,4 % at concentration of 0.063 mg/mL. The 95% ethanol extract of Meretrix meretrix has so outstanding promoting effect on T-lymphocytes that their multiplication increases 25% when the sample concentration is only 1μg/ml. On B-lymphocytes, the 95% extract of Rapana venosa, at concentration of 100μg/ml, has a promotion percentage of 60%. On the other hand, under the condition of no cytotoxic effect, the 95% ethanol extracts of Acanthochiton rubrolineatus and Cellana toreum can reach 92% inhibition rate on T lymphocyte at concentration of 100μg/ml, while the inhibition rate on B lymphocyte of the 95% extract of Acanthochiton rubrolineatus reaches 92% at the same concentration.     

Late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental changes in the coastal zone of northwestern Portugal

This paper examines the Quaternary changes in the coastal zone of northwestern Portugal through the relationship between sediments and landforms. By interpolating the available data from geomorphology, lithostratigraphy, sedimentology and geochronology, it was possible to reconstruct existing palaeoenvironments, the oldest of which date back to the last interglacial. The main landforms are a high and a low platform bounded by scarps. River sands and silty sediments formed in a lacustrine environment (Antas Formation, MIS 5) are associated with the high platform. Two deposits are associated with the low platform: the Cepães Formation (MIS 3) consisting of a lower set of river sand beds and an upper gravel beach bed, and the Aguçadoura Formation (MIS 1) consisting of Holocene lagoonal beds. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A late Quaternary lake record from the Qilian Mountains (NW China): evolution of the primary production and the water depth reconstructed from macrofossil, pollen, biomarker, and isotope data

The history (45–0 ka BP) of the aquatic vegetation composition of the shallow alpine Lake Luanhaizi from the NE Tibetan Plateau is inferred from aquatic plant macrofossil frequencies and aquatic pollen and algae concentrations in the sediments. C/N (range: 0.3–100), δ¹³C (range: −28 to −15‰), and n-alkane measurements yielded further information on the quantitative composition of sedimentary organic matter. The inferred primary production of the former lake ecosystem has been examined in respect of the alternative stable state theory of shallow lakes [Scheffer, M., 1989. Alternative stable states in eutrophic, shallow freshwater systems: a minimal model. Hydrobiological Bulletin 23, 73–83]. Switches between clear and turbid water conditions are explained by a colder climate and forest decline in the catchment area of Lake Luanhaizi. The macrofossil-based reconstruction of past water depth and salinity ranges, as well as other organic matter (OM) proxies allowed climatic inferences of the summer monsoon intensity during the late Quaternary. Around 45 ka BP, conditions similar to or even moister than present-day climate occurred. The Lake Luanhaizi record is further evidence against an extensive glaciation of the Tibetan Plateau and its bordering mountain ranges during the Last Glacial Maximum. Highest lake levels and consequently a strong summer monsoon are recorded for the early Holocene period, while gradually decreasing lake levels are reconstructed for the middle and late Holocene.     

海水网箱养殖鱼类越冬期的死亡原因及对策

在冬春季低水温期,海水网箱养殖的鱼类大批死亡造成了严重的经济损失。本文对死亡的原因进行了初步研究,结果表明:在一定的低水温环境下,这些鱼类虽然因冻伤而造成局部坏死,但维持生命的主要器官的机能仍处于基本正常状态;而患鱼继发感染细菌致病才是其死亡的主要原因。采取适当的越冬防寒措施可提高养殖海鱼在越冬期的成活率。     

再论中国古代南部海洋文化的农业性特征

从经济运作的方式、历代海洋政策的变迁、古代海洋文学三个方面来分析中国古代南部海洋文化的农业性特征,认为这种特征有别于商业文化的表现形态,它受到中国内陆文化的影响,具有传统性、辅助性和保守性。因此,在考察中国古代海洋文化时,应将中国古代海洋文化作为中国古代农业文化的有机组成部分。     

南极长城湾沉积物中稀土元素的初步研究

本文通过对长城湾表层沉积物中稀土元素的地球化学研究,认为其总量丰度、配分模式、特征参数等,均与菲尔德斯半岛的火山岩相似,因而长城湾沉积物的主要来源似为菲尔德斯半岛基岩的风化产物。