The effects of beach nourishment on the sandy-beach amphipod Exoediceros fossor: impact and recovery in Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Beach nourishment is increasingly being implemented to address problems of erosion. However, the ecological consequences of nourishment are poorly understood, especially in Australia. In Botany Bay, sand was piped from an intertidal borrow area at Elephant's Trunk to nourish the nearby eroding beach at Towra Point. The effects on an intertidal exoedicerotid amphipod, Exoediceros fossor (Stimpson, 1856), were examined using a beyond-BACI (Before–After, Control–Impact) sampling design. Sampling was conducted before and after engineering operations at sites within the borrow and nourishment locations and multiple control locations. Hypotheses concerning impact and recovery were tested using asymmetrical ANOVAs and two-tailed F-tests. These examined the effects on abundance and spatial variability, respectively. The impact of the engineering operations on abundance was very large at both borrow and nourishment locations. However, recovery started within several weeks and, using space × time interactions as a criterion, appeared to be complete within a year. This conclusion is made cautiously because of low statistical power and because other criteria for recovery suggest that it was not complete at some sites. As beach erosion is likely to increase in severity with rising sea levels and greater storm surges associated with climate change, management authorities will need a better understanding of the ecological effects of beach nourishment.     

The effect of human use of sandy beaches on developmental stability of Talitrus saltator (Montagu, 1808) (Crustacea, Amphipoda). A study on fluctuating asymmetry

In recent years, there has been an increasing intensity of human use of coastal areas in Galicia (NW Spain). Actually, there is great concern about rapid and unplanned urban and industrial development on certain locations, as this can generate adverse impacts on those areas. In this study, we selected three sandy beaches along the Galician coast (Chanteiro, Insuela and Valieros) facing different levels of anthropic pressure, and we analysed Talitrus saltator individuals with the aim of elucidating whether anthropogenic pressures on beaches such as tourism or pollution have an influence on the incidence of morphological developmental alterations in sandhoppers in the field. Specifically, levels of fluctuating asymmetry were selected as indicators of environmental stress. Results of two sampling dates (May and September) show that individuals collected at the most touristy and polluted beach were those showing the highest asymmetry values, although results were only statistically significant for samples collected during spring. Results are in accordance with the hypothesis that beach management and pollution reduce symmetry in sandhoppers living in altered beaches.     

Measuring species richness on sandy beach transects: extrapolative estimators and their implications for sampling effort

Species richness is a measure that is fundamental to many studies in ecology, and it is particularly important on sandy beaches, where it underlies patterns described by the broadly accepted swash exclusion hypothesis. However, its estimation in practice is problematic. This has led ecologists in other fields to adopt extrapolative estimators of species richness, which project the total number of species present in a habitat by adjusting upward the number of species observed by an amount related to the number of rare species encountered in the samples. In so doing, the species richness can be estimated, with confidence intervals, at any level of sampling effort. Despite the availability and advantages of these methods, beach ecologists have continued to use the observed species richness as a point estimate of biodiversity for beaches. Here, we employ a Monte Carlo resampling approach over a range of routine transect designs used to sample sandy beaches, and evaluate the performance of seven non-parametric extrapolative estimators for species richness relative to that of the more conventionally used observed species richness. We find that the first-order Jackknife estimator (Jack 1) is the least biased, most accurate and most consistent across sites. Employing this estimator would allow accurate estimation of species richness on short (tens of metres) stretches of beach without exceeding the acceptable levels of sampling effort (4–5 m²). Spreading this effort evenly over three across-shore transects, each with a minimum of 13 equally spaced levels seems appropriately efficient. Although a greater number of research studies is required to ascertain the generality of these results beyond the beaches we sampled, we tentatively recommend the application of our results in biodiversity surveys on sandy beaches.     

福建岬湾岸型沙质海滩对台风的响应特征

对福建沿岸岬湾岸型沙质海滩的蚀淤变化分析,结果表明:在0418号台风"艾利"袭击下,台风移动路径左侧的两个海滩表现为侵蚀,滩肩蚀低,滨线向陆移动,其中岩下村海滩比卒子村海滩的侵蚀严重,岩下村海滩侵蚀集中在后滨和高潮带,卒子村海滩侵蚀集中在中、低潮带;台风移动路径右侧的衙口村海滩相对比较稳定,仅中潮带出现弱淤积,后滨向陆侧人工堆积沙丘遭受侵蚀.     

广西合浦海草床生态系统服务功能价值评估

海草床生态系统是生物多样性丰富和生产力高的近岸海洋生态系统,本文以广西合浦海草床为例,结合实地调查、已有的研究成果和当地统计资料,综合运用生态经济学、资源经济学等基本理论和方法,对该地区海草生态系统的服务功能进行了价值评估。结果表明2005年该地区海草生态系统的服务功能价值为6．29×105元／a·ha,其中间接利用价值最大,为4．47×105元／a·ha,占总经济价值的70．97％;其次为非利用价值,为1．54x105元／a·ha,占总经济价值的24．52％;最少的是直接利用价值为2．84×104元／a·ha,仅占总经济价值的4．51％。     

浅层物探技术在近海灾害地质与工程地质调查中的应用

随着海洋资源的开发与滨岸工程的建设,越来越多地遇到海洋地质灾害的影响与危害。为了避免并降低海洋地质灾害的影响程度,应开展海洋灾害地质与工程地质调查。二十多年来的实践经验表明,若采用以高分辨率地震为主,配合浅地层剖面、旁侧声纳、测深及磁力测量等综合浅层物探技术,对于了解海洋地质灾害因素与海底浅部工程地质特性等方面都能取得良好的效果,这是一种既经济又较快速地提供成果资料的好方法。     

钱塘江强潮河段江道缩窄治理研究

对钱塘江强潮河段江道缩窄治理进行研究。首先,回顾治理方案的比选,江道全线缩窄时河轴线线路和河道宽度的确定原则,以及不同河段的指数放宽率。然后,介绍了在涌潮汹涌、滩涂淤坍变化剧烈的强潮河段,实施筑堤所采取的工程措施的步序与要点。最后,分析论证了大规模江道缩窄治理后河床、潮汐、洪水位及涌潮高度等特征值的变化。可供进一步深入理论研究和工程施工参考运用。     

沙质海岸强浪作用下沿岸输沙问题研究

在沙质海岸上修建导流堤、丁坝等会引起局部海域水沙动力条件的改变和海床冲淤调整,因此准确预测沿岸输沙率是海岸工程建设前进行优化设计的基础条件之一.首先构建了刻画高强度推移质输沙过程中固-液混合体运动的理论模型,通过寻求模型的特解并推导成1D沿岸输沙率公式.该公式适宜计算强浪作用下的推移质输沙率,已得到了大型波浪水槽、往复流水道和海滩现场实测输沙率资料的良好验证.通过与物理模型试验实测输沙量结果的比较,进一步表明该公式能够较好地预测沙质海岸在寒潮大风浪(或台风浪)作用下的高强度输沙量(骤淤量).     

东海陆架两期沙脊的时空对比东海陆架两期沙脊的时空对比

基于高分辨率的单道地震和多波束测深数据,识别并对比了东海陆架中部同一海区相距20余万年的层U14和层U2两期沙脊群,其中层U14期沙脊属于埋藏沙脊,位于东海海底以下90 m深处,推测属于距今320~200 ka的海侵体系域(TST),沙脊顶界面是该期海侵的最大洪泛面(MFS);层U2期沙脊位于东海陆架,属于衰退沙脊,系末次盛冰期(LGM)以来的TST,顶界面是LGM以来的MFS。尽管两期沙脊形成年代相距20余万年,地层层位相距近90 m,但是沙脊群总体走向一致,表明距今2×105 a以来东海陆架潮波基本格局稳定。从层U2期可识别出4个亚期沙脊,通过多波束海底地形图可识别出4组走向的沙脊,多亚期、多走向沙脊是LGM以来海平面阶梯状波动在海底地形演变过程中的响应证据。