Ecosystem-based management institutional design: Balance between federal,state, and local governments within the Gulf of Mexico Alliance

We present a case study of the organizational framework of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA), which was implemented to promote the use of ecosystem-based management (EBM) at a regional level. GOMA is a state-led initiative formed to protect and restore coastal and marine resources of the Gulf of Mexico. Representatives of the US Gulf States, together with their federal partners, clearly defined ecological, social, and economic short- and long-term objectives to be reached through regional collaborations. The aim of this paper is to show how GOMA, and particularly the Ecosystem Integration and Assessment Priority Issue Team, in its attempt to apply ecosystem approaches to manage marine resources, modified the common organizational scheme by implementing partnerships at various governmental (federal, state, local) and nongovernmental levels. We address the following major points considered to be of importance for EBM implementation: (1) multilevel cooperation, (2) stakeholders’ involvement, (3) sharing of information, (4) bridging science and policy, and (5) consensus-based decision making.     

广东流沙湾4个测站2个周日潮流观测的准调和分析

采用短期资料的潮流准调和分析方法,对水深为4.4～17.0 m的流沙湾4个测站2个周日潮流观测获得的表、中、底层的潮流资料进行了分析,分别计算了4个测站O1、K1、M2、S2、M4、MS4共6个主要分潮的潮流调和常数,并给出了各观测站位在各层的潮流椭圆要素.计算结果表明：流沙湾主要为日潮流海区,其中湾外为规则日潮流,湾内为不规则日潮流;湾外主要分潮流的北分量一般大于东分量,而湾内主要分潮流的北分量一般小于东分量.观测期间余流的流向主要呈西北向,最大余流流速出现在湾内地形突然收窄处,且在湾内中层余流流速要大于表、底层余流流速.整个海区潮流的可能最大流速表层在57～107 cm/s之间,中层在53～106 cm/s之间,底层在34～98 cm/s之间.流沙湾湾外潮流主要为顺时针的旋转流运动,湾内为带有旋转流的往复流运动.     

墨西哥湾南部晚侏罗纪主力烃源岩的形成条件

通过对墨西哥湾不同时代可采储量的分布特征和油源对比资料的分析认为,晚侏罗纪烃源岩是墨西哥湾南部最主要的烃源岩。资料显示,晚侏罗纪优质烃源岩形成的主控因素是稳定的构造和沉积条件以及超咸的还原环境,其中,"世界顶级"的晚侏罗纪提塘阶烃源岩主要形成于超咸的碳酸盐岩和/或蒸发岩沉积环境,属半深海还原环境,有机质以藻类为主,推测烃源岩中的有机质可能与极端干旱气候条件下的藻类勃发有关。     

Late Quaternary stratigraphy and sedimentology of the inner part of southwest Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large embayment on the northwestern continental margin of Australia. It is approximately 300 km east‐west and 120 km north‐south with a broad continental shelf to seaward. Maximum width from the southernmost shore of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf to the edge of the continental shelf is 560 km. Several large rivers enter the gulf along its shores. The climate is monsoonal, sub‐humid, and cyclone‐prone during the December‐March wet season. A bedrock high (Sahul Rise) rims the shelf margin. The sediments within the gulf are carbonates to seaward, grading into clastics inshore. A seaward‐thinning wedge of highstand muds dominates the sediments of the inner shelf of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Mud banks up to 15m thick have developed inshore. Coarse‐grained sand ridges up to 15 m high are found off the mouth of the Ord River. These overlie an Upper Pleistocene transgressive lag of mixed carbonate and gravelly siliciclastic sand. Four drowned strandlines are present on the inner shelf at depths of 20, 25, 28 and 30 m below datum. These are interpreted as having formed during stillstands in the Late Pleistocene transgression. Older strandlines at great depths are inferred as having formed during the fall in sea‐level following the last highstand. For the most part the Upper Pleistocene‐Holocene marine sediments overlie an erosion surface cut into older Pleistocene sediments. Incised valleys cut into this erosion surface are up to 5 km wide and have a relief of at least 20 m. The largest valley is that cut by the Ord River. Upper Pleistocene sediments deposited in the incised valleys include interpreted lowstand fluvial gravels, early transgressive channel sands and floodplain silts, and late transgressive estuarine sands and gravels. Older Pleistocene sediments are inferred to have been deposited before and during the 120 ka highstand (isotope stage 5). They consist of sandy calcarenites deposited in high‐energy tide‐dominated shelf environments. Still older shelf and valley‐fill sediments underlie these. The contrast between the Holocene muddy clastic sediments and the sandy carbonates deposited by the 120 ka highstand suggests that either the climate was more arid in the past, with less fluvial transport, or that mud was more effectively trapped in estuaries, allowing development of carbonate depositional environments inshore.     

Dedolomitization of dolocrete deposits in Kuwait,Arabian Gulf

Dedolomitization of a dolocrete profile hosted in Mio-Pleistocene siliciclastic deposits in the area of Kuwait City, Arabian Gulf was investigated. Dolocrete dolomite crystals vary considerably in size, shape and internal structure; however, they are mostly zoned. Zonation is usually due to the alteration of cloudy and clear zones. The cloudy zones, which are mostly formed of disordered metastable dolomite, are more susceptible to dedolomitization than the stable, well ordered clear zones. Two modes of dedolomitization were recognized; the first involves complete dissolution of the metastable dolomite followed by precipitation of intracrystalline cavity-filling calcite. The second is a pseudomorphic replacement of dolomite by calcite. This replacement takes place by the simultaneous dissolution of dolomite and precipitation of calcite in such a manner that the original dolomite fabrics are inherited in the dedolomite. Exposed and near-surface dolocrete profile (less than 5 m deep) are almost completely dedolomitized and altered to secondary calcrete whereas subsurface profiles are slightly dedolomitized. Dedolomitization of the sub surface dolocrete profiles may indicate the effect of flushing by fresh groundwater; which flows from west to east, whereas the alteration of the exposed dolocrete profile could be attributed to be an effect of meteoric water. A new mode of calcrete genesis by dedolomitization and/or complete calcitization of precursor dolocrete is suggested.     

马尼拉海湾和莱城港湾的辐射状况

本文利用在马尼拉海湾和莱城港湾考察所获得的少量辐射资料,分析了该两地区辐射各量值的日变化特征和地区差异。揭示了海(港)湾水面及其紧邻海岛陆面的辐射特征差异。这些信息很可能有助于上述地区海洋大气间热量交换的分析计算。     

Mercury in the Tinto-Odiel Estuarine System (Gulf of Cádiz, Spain): Sources and Dispersion

The Tinto and Odiel are small rivers draining one of the largest sulphide deposits in the world. As a result of these deposits and a large industrial complex, the adjacent marine area receives a high amount of metal input. Mercury distribution in the Tinto-Odiel estuary, the Huelva Ría and the Gulf of Cádiz was assessed in water and suspended particulatematter (SPM) and sediments. In the rivers and estuaries, dissolved (HgD)and particulate (HgP) mercury showed wide variations (13 to 200 pM and0.3 to 330 nmol g^-1 respectively) depending on the presence or notof sulphidic waters, phosphogypsum deposits, detrital pyrite and oxyhydroxides.In the Ría, concentrations were lower than 10 pM and 4.5 nmol g^-1 for HgD and HgP respectively. In surface waters of the Gulf of Cádiz, the average HgD concentration (pm standard deviation) was 2.9 pm 0.9 pM, which is similar to that of North Atlantic Central Waters. The surface sediments collected in the rivers, the Ría and the Gulf showed systematically enriched mercury compared to pre-industrial levels. Vertical mercury profiles in dated sediment cores were typical of anthropogenically influenced environments starting in the early Roman age. These distribution features suggest that most of the Hg discharged by the Huelva Ría is trapped in the sediments of the Gulf of Cádiz.     

Pelagic production and respiration in the Gulf of Papua during May 2004

The metabolic balance between production and respiration in plankton communities of the Gulf of Papua was investigated in May 2004. Water samples taken at 19 stations were allocated to groups on the basis of physico-chemical characteristics. Oxygen consumption and production in flasks incubated in the dark and in the light was determined by micro-Winkler titration. Dark bottle respiration in samples influenced by the estuarine plume averaged 3.09±1.92 (SD) mmol O₂ m⁻³ d⁻¹ and production within surface light bottles averaged 7.63±3.36 (SD)  mmol O₂ m⁻³ d⁻¹. Corresponding values in stations more typical of the central Gulf of Papua were 1.68±1.30 (SD) mmol O₂ m⁻³ d⁻¹ and 1.08±2.25 (SD) mmol O₂ m⁻³ d⁻¹. Despite a shallow (<10 m) euphotic zone within the plume stations, phytoplankton production in the surface layers was sufficiently high to subsidise total water column respiration. Integrating production and respiration over the water column resulted in a calculation of net community production (NCP) of 626±504 (SD) mg C m⁻² d⁻¹, and community respiration (CR) of 712±492 mg C m⁻² d⁻¹ at the plume stations, with an average P:R ratio of 1.97. In the offshore group NCP was 157±450 (SD) mg C m⁻² d⁻¹ and CR was 1620±1576 mg C m⁻² d⁻¹. The average P:R ratio was 1.27. Three of the 7 stations allocated to the offshore group were net heterotrophic. In contrast to earlier studies in the area indicating that the Gulf of Papua waters is heterotrophic [Robertson, A.I., Dixon, P., Alongi, D.M., 1998. The influence of fluvial discharge on pelagic production in the Gulf of Papua, Northern Coral Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 46, 319–331], our data indicate that in May 2004 the Gulf was in positive metabolic balance, but by only ∼120 mg C m⁻² d⁻¹. We conclude that waters of the Gulf of Papua under riverine influence are net autotrophic, but that within the central Gulf there is a fine metabolic balance alternating between autotrophy and heterotrophy.     

Fault propagation and climatic control of sedimentation on the Ghoubbet Rift Floor: insights from the Tadjouraden cruise in the western Gulf of Aden

A detailed geophysical survey of the Ghoubbet Al Kharab (Djibouti) clarifies the small-scale morphology of the last submerged rift segment of the propagating Aden ridge before it enters the Afar depression. The bathymetry reveals a system of antithetic normal faults striking N130°E, roughly aligned with those active along the Asal rift. The 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profiler shows how the faults cut distinct layers within the recent, up to 60 m thick, sediment cover on the floor of the basin. A large volcanic structure, in the centre of the basin, the 'Ghoubbet' volcano, separates two sedimentary flats. The organization of volcanism and the planform of faulting, with en echelon subrifts along the entire Asal–Ghoubbet rift, appear to confirm the westward propagation of this segment of the plate boundary. Faults throughout the rift have been active continuously for the last 8400 yr, but certain sediment layers show different offsets. The varying offsets of these layers, dated from cores previously retrieved in the southern basin, imply Holocene vertical slip rates of 0.3–1.4 mm yr⁻¹ and indicate a major decrease in sedimentation rate after about 6000 yr BP, and a redistribution of sediments in the deepest troughs during the period that preceded that change.