Spatial management measures for disease mitigation as practiced in Scottish aquaculture

Aquaculture is an increasingly important economic activity in coastal waters. The fluid environment means spatial management is an important tool for protecting fish health. Scottish aquaculture (largely Atlantic salmon) uses a range of different types of area to group farms for different management or reporting purposes related to fish health. Farm Management Areas are defined by local knowledge and used by industry for co-operation among groups of farms, including in the management of sea lice. Disease Management Areas, defined using a simple but robust model, are used by the Scottish Government for control of notifiable diseases. Particle dispersal models are used to assess areas affected by treatment residue around farms, and to manage maximum allowable area biomass for environmental protection. Sophisticated models of sea lice transport have been developed to help inform management of this key parasite. Large regional areas are used for a variety of purposes, such as a policy presumption against new farms covering the entire east and north coasts of Scotland, and five reporting areas for official production statistics. Scottish aquatic environments are shared by many interest groups and spatial management is proving essential for sustainable development by aquaculture and other users.     

The Late Pleistocene Afton Lodge Clay Formation,Ayrshire, Scotland: evidence for Early to Middle Devensian climatic changes and Late Devensian onshore ice flow and rafting from the Firth of Clyde

An investigation into the late Pleistocene sediments exposed at Afton Lodge has helped to clarify the glacial history of western central Scotland. The sequence includes several allochthonous bodies of ‘shelly clay’ (Afton Lodge Clay Formation) associated with Late Devensian (Weichselian) age diamict. The shelly clay contains abundant marine macro- and microfauna, as well as palynomorphs consistent with its deposition within a shallow marine to estuarine environment. Faunal changes within the main body of marine clay record at least one, millennial-scale cycle of Arctic-Boreal, to Boreal, and back to Arctic-Boreal climatic conditions. A radiocarbon date of over 41 ka ¹⁴C BP obtained from the foraminifera indicates that the marine clays are older than the surrounding till. Afton Lodge is thus one of a suite of ‘high-level’ shelly clay occurrences around the Scottish coasts that are now considered to be glacially transported. Together with closely associated ‘shelly tills’, the rafts were emplaced during an early phase of the last glaciation by ice flowing from the western Grampian Highlands of Scotland through the topographically-confined Firth of Clyde basin. The blocks of marine sediment were detached subglacially, unfrozen, and carried at least 10 km by ice that splayed out onshore against reversed slopes favouring raft emplacement and the creation of closely associated ribbed moraine. Transport of the rafts was facilitated by water-lubricated décollement surfaces and their accretion was accompanied by dewatering. The shelly tills were formed mainly by the attenuation and crushing of rafts of shelly clay during their transport within the subglacial deforming bed.     

Bathymetry Data Correction Using Global Optimization Method

The bathymetry data of marine bodies have been collected over a century, and the collected data have a wide range of resolution and accuracy. Acquisition of bathymetry data is very costly and time-consuming. One can use the old, low-quality bathymetry data to fill the gap in high-quality, recently acquired bathymetry data after correcting the old data to improve its quality so that it is comparable to the high-quality data. The old data correction can be treated as a nonlinear inverse problem. Simulated annealing (SA) global optimization method was used here in solving this problem. The two sets of data that were used are project survey (PS) and Vietnamese Navy Chart (VNC) data. The PS data were collected in 2000 in an offshore survey from the Vietnam coast in the South China Sea (SCS). The VNC data were obtained by digitizing VNC that was published in 1981. Inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation method was used for forward modeling. Weperformed the SA algorithm run starting at a high "temperature," then lowering the "temperature" gradually up to the "critical temperature" and then staying there for the rest of the run. The best model chosen by the algorithm showed an improvement of 63% from the original model. We then constructed a digital bathymetry model (DBM) of the study area with the combined corrected VNC and the PS data.     

Extreme Sea Levels Associated With Severe Tropical Cyclones Hitting Orissa Coast of India

Extreme sea levels associated with severe cyclonic storms are common occurrences along the east coast of India. The coastal districts of Orissa have experienced major surges in the past. The recent Paradip super cyclone is one of the most severe cyclones, causing extensive damage to property and loss of lives. Extreme sea levels are major causes for coastal flooding in this region. Damages can be minimized if the extreme sea levels are forecast well in advance. In the present study, we develop a location specific, fine resolution model for the Orissa coast on the lines similar to that of IIT-D storm surge model (Dube et al. 1994). The model runs on a personal computer. The bathymetry for the model is extracted from very fine resolution naval hydrographic charts for the region extending from the south of Orissa to south of West Bengal. A simple drying scheme has also been included in the model in order to avoid the exposure of land near the coast due to strong negative sea surface elevations. An attempt was made in this study to simulate extreme sea levels along the Orissa coast using the data of past severe cyclones. The model results reported in the present study are in good agreement with available observations or estimates.     

Stochastic Modeling of Short Term Variations of Sea Level in Eastern Canada

Hourly sea level records from three stations in eastern Canada (Québec-Lauzon, Harrington-Harbour and Halifax) are analyzed both in frequency domain from 1970 to 1979 and in time domain during 1973. At the three stations, the deterministic model explains 90 to 96% of the total variability of sea level. The semidiurnal and diurnal tides contribute largely to its variations. The residual series, less than 10% of the initial variations of sea level, contain irregular values including extreme values of seiches and storm surges. Such random variations are analyzed and modeled following the method described by Box and Jenkins (1976). The long period variations (2 to 30 days) can be attributed to meteorological forcing (atmospheric pressure and winds). The short period variations (some hours to one day) can be attributed to longitudinal seiches, semidiurnal and diurnal atmospheric tides, and inertial oscillations. The water discharge from the St. Lawrence River contributes 29% of the monthly residual sea level at Qué     

Palaeoproterozoic terrane assembly in the Lewisian Gneiss Complex on the Scottish mainland,south of Gruinard Bay: SHRIMP U–Pb zircon evidence

New SHRIMP U–Pb zircon geochronology and fieldwork integrated with reappraisal of earlier mapping demonstrates that the so-called ‘southern region’ of the mainland Lewisian Gneiss Complex comprises a package of distinct tectono-stratigraphic units. From south to north these are the Rona (3135–2889 Ma), Ialltaig (c. 2000 Ma) and Gairloch (ca. 2200 Ma) terranes. These terranes were metamorphosed and deformed separately until ca. 1670 Ma by which time they had been juxtaposed and were integral with terranes to the north. The northern boundary of the Palaeoproterozoic Gairloch terrane is a shear zone, north of which is the Archaean Gruinard terrane with 2860–2800 Ma protoliths and ca. 2730 Ma granulite facies metamorphism. In contrast, south of the Gairloch terrane, the Archaean gneisses of the Rona terrane have older protolith ages, underwent an anatectic event at ca. 2950 Ma and show no evidence of 2730 Ma granulite facies metamorphism. In current structural interpretations the Gruinard terrane forms a structural klippe over the intervening Gairloch terrane. However, the Rona and Gruinard terranes cannot be equivalent on age grounds, and are interpreted as unrelated different entities. Contained within the southern margin of the Gairloch terrane is the Ialltaig terrane, shown here to comprise an exotic slice of granulite facies Palaeoproterozoic crust, rather than Archaean basement as previously thought. The ca. 1877 Ma granulite facies metamorphism of the Ialltaig terrane is the youngest event that is unique to a single terrane in the mainland Complex, making it an upper estimate for the timing of amalgamation with surrounding tectonic units. U–Pb titanite ages of 1670 ± 12 Ma and ca. 1660 Ma for low-strain zones at Diabaig are interpreted to be cooling through the titanite closure temperature after the amphibolite facies reworking of these southern terranes and the southern margin of the Gruinard Terrane. These new data have implications for the tectonic setting of the mainland in relation to the Outer Hebrides and in the wider evolution of the basement in the North Atlantic.     

Ilmenite, Magnetite and Chromite Beach Placers from South Maharashtra, Central West Coast of India

The heavy mineral placer deposits of the coastal sediments in south Maharashtra stretch for 12.5 km from Pirwadi in the north to Talashil in the south. The area is a sand bar represented by a narrow submergent coastal plain lying between the Achara and Gad Rivers. The sediments in the area are mainly sands which are moderately well sorted to well sorted. The heavy mineral concentration in the surficial sediments ranges between 0.69 and 98.32 wt % (28.73 wt % in average). The heavy mineral concentration shows an increasing trend from north to south. The heavy mineral suite consists predominantly of opaque minerals (ilmenite, magnetite and chromite), garnet, pyroxene, amphibole, zircon, tourmaline, rutile, staurolite, etc. Ilmenite grains are fresh whereas magnetite grains show the effect of weathering and alteration. The chromite grains are rounded to sub-rounded with alteration at the margin of the grains. The surficial textures of the opaque minerals show mechanical breaking that indicates limited distance of transportation. Ilmenite has TiO₂ in the range between 40.04 and 46.6 wt %. Based on ore microscopy studies, the magnetite grains appear to be of two types: pure magnetite and titano-magnetite. Compositionally, the total magnetite fractions have Fe₂O₃ between 32 and 46 wt %, FeO between 19.0 and 25 wt % and TiO₂ between 14.3 and 23.9 wt %. The chromite grains are an admixture of two varieties, ferro-chromite and magnesio-chromite. The chromite grains have 32.06–47.5 wt % of Cr₂O₃ with total iron between 23.86 wt % (4.73% Fe₂O₃ and 19.13% FeO) and 27.89 wt % (4.36% Fe₂O₃ and 23.53% FeO) and MgO between 12 and 40 wt %. The observed variations in the distribution of heavy minerals in the area are due to differences in the sediment supply, their specific gravity and oceanographic processes all of which result in a selective sorting of the sediments. The observed mineral assemblages of transparent heavy minerals (pyroxene, amphibole, tourmaline, kyanite, garnet, zircon and olivine) are suggestive of their derivation from a heterogeneous provenance comprising of igneous rocks, high grade metamorphic rocks and reworked Kaladgi sediments. The chromite grains appear to have been derived from ultrabasic rocks present in the upper reaches of the Gad River. The inferred reserves of ilmenite, magnetite and chromite are 0.175, 0.395 and 0.032 million tons, respectively.     

中国沿岸海平面上升及影响研究的现状与问题

对近年来中国沿岸相对海平面上升趋势及其影响研究的现状进行了总结，着重就目前研究中有关我国沿岸潮滩湿地与其他低地淹没以及加剧的海岸灾害估算等方面存在的难点和问题进行了分析与讨论。并在此基础上提出今后应加强相关基础资料积累、重视海平面上升与其他协同作用因素对研究对象的综合影响、海平面上升引起的海洋水文与海岸环境要素演变以及我国沿岸海岸信息系统研究等方面的建议。     

完全预报（PP）方法在广东冬半年海面强风业务预报中的应用

在进行大量普查分析和统计的基础上, 将最近10年历史天气图的地面气压和有关海面强风代表站的风场资料在日本数值预报模式输出报文的1.25°×1.25°格点分布上进行客观分析, 对比传统的以关键区域划分冷空气入侵路径与广东海面强风的关系, 提出了一套与广东冬季海面强风关系更密切、作用更直接的地面关键区气压场分布特征进行客观定量的分型;根据梯度风原理, 用经验加统计的因子挑选方法, 形成了一套应用日本数值预报模式输出、适用于广东海面强风预报的完全预报(PP)方法。检验和业务试用结果均表明:该方法对广东的海面强风具有较强的预报能力;用完全预报方法做沿海海面强风预报是可行的。