Evaluating the effects of catch-and-release angling on Cape stumpnose Rhabdosargus holubi in a South African estuary

Fisheries managers are increasingly promoting catch-and-release (C&R) to manage recreationally angled fish stocks. Despite this, there is a scarcity of information on the effects of C&R on estuarine-dependent species. Cape stumpnose Rhabdosargus holubi dominates the recreational fisheries catch and provides an important source of food for subsistence fishers in some temperate South African estuaries. The health and survival of R. holubi exposed to a C&R event was investigated by examining their physiological stress response (blood glucose and lactate), reflex impairment (reflex action mortality predictors [RAMP]) and short-term (12-hour) survival. Fish were captured and exposed to one of three air-exposure treatments: 0 s, 30 s or 90 s. Stress and health were measured either immediately (immediate) or one hour after (delayed) the C&R event. There was no significant difference in blood glucose between air-exposure treatments, but there was a significant difference between the mean immediate and delayed glucose levels within each treatment (F_(2,143) = 81.8, p < 0.01). In contrast, blood lactate level was significantly higher in the 90-s treatment (p < 0.05). Immediate blood lactate levels were significantly lower than the delayed samples for each treatment (F = 4.29, p = 0.02; n = 169). Although all fish exhibited at least one reflex impairment, the RAMP score was significantly higher in the 90-s air-exposure treatment (H_(2,86) = 9.73, p = 0.007). Also, RAMP scores were significantly lower in the delayed samples (p < 0.01). Although short-term mortality was relatively low (2.3%) for this species, it was highest in the 90-s treatment (7%). These results suggest that physiological stress is higher when R. holubi are exposed to longer periods of air exposure and that the physiological stress of fish subject to a C&R event is best measured after a delay.     

Petrogenesis of the amphibole-rich veins from the Lherz orogenic lherzolite massif (Eastern Pyrenees, France): a case study for the origin of orthopyroxene-bearing amphibole pyroxenites in the lithospheric mantle

The Lherz orogenic lherzolite massif (Eastern French Pyrenees) displays one of the best exposures of subcontinental lithospheric mantle containing veins of amphibole pyroxenites and hornblendites. A reappraisal of the petrogenesis of these rocks has been attempted from a comprehensive study of their mutual structural relationships, their petrography and their mineral compositions. Amphibole pyroxenites comprise clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and spinel as early cumulus phases, with garnet and late-magmatic K₂O-poor pargasite replacing clinopyroxene, and subsolidus exsolution products (olivine, spinel II, garnet II, plagioclase). The original magmatic mineralogy and rock compositions were partly obscured by late-intrusive hornblendites and over a few centimetres by vein–wallrock exchange reactions which continued down to subsolidus temperatures for Mg–Fe. Thermobarometric data and liquidus parageneses indicate that amphibole pyroxenites started to crystallize at P ≥ 13 kbar and recrystallized at P < 12 kbar. The high Al^VI/Al^IV ratio (>1) of clinopyroxenes, the early precipitation of orthopyroxene and the late-magmatic amphibole are arguments for parental melts richer in silica but poorer in water than alkali basalts. Their modelled major element compositions are similar to transitional alkali basalt with about 1–3 wt% H₂O. In contrast to amphibole pyroxenites, hornblendites only show kaersutite as liquidus phase, and phlogopite as intercumulus phase. They are interpreted as crystalline segregates from primary basanitic magmas (mg=0.6; 4–6 wt% H₂O). These latter cannot be related to the parental liquids of amphibole pyroxenites by a fractional crystallization process. Rather, basanitic liquids mostly reused pre-existing pyroxenite vein conduits at a higher structural level (P ≤ 10 kbar). A continuous process of redox melting and/or alkali melt/peridotite interaction in a veined lithospheric mantle is proposed to account for the origin of the Lherz hydrous veins. The transitional basalt composition is interpreted in terms of extensive dissolution of olivine and orthopyroxene from wallrock peridotite by alkaline melts produced at the mechanical boundary layer/thermal boundary layer transition (about 45–50 km deep). Continuous fluid ingress allowed remelting of the deeper veined mantle to produce the basanitic, strongly volatiles enriched, melts that precipitated hornblendites. A similar model could be valid for the few orthopyroxene-rich hydrous pyroxenites described in basalt-hosted mantle xenoliths. Received: 15 September 1999 / Accepted: 31 January 2000     

Spinel-olivine geothermometry in peridotites from ultramafic complexes

An empirical calibration of the spinel-olivine geothermometer (Evans and Frost, 1975) is attempted and applied to parageneses of lherzolitic rocks. In ultramafic complexes, most of the derived temperature estimates range between 700 ° and 850 °C, and appear generally lower than those given by other geothermometers, based upon Ca or Al contents of coexisting pyroxenes. A comparison of the different thermometric data in two well studied occurrences, the Ronda ultramafic complex and the San Carlos xenolith field, suggests that differential rates of diffusion and recrystalization may account for the large range of temperatures (between 700 ° and 1200 °C) determined by various mineral geothermometers in peridotites. The equilibrium exchange of Mg and Fe between spinel and olivine would be the fastest one and would continue effectively during the cooling down to relatively low temperatures, while other exchange reactions used as geothermometers in peridotites, like partitioning of Ca and Al in coexisting pyroxenes, are blocked at higher temperatures.     

Cold-seep assemblages on a giant pockmark off West Africa: spatial patterns and environmental control

A giant pockmark colonised by dense cold‐seep assemblages near 3160 m depth along the Congo‐Angola margin has been surveyed by the ROV Victor 6000. The quantitative distribution of chemosynthetic communities was mapped along the dive tracks from a video study using GIS and image mosaicking. Several types of faunal assemblages, either dominated by bivalves of the families Mytilidae (Bathymodiolus sp.) or Vesicomyidae (Calyptogena sp., ‘Vesicomya’ aff. chuni), or by Siboglinidae polychaetes (Escarpia southwardae) were mapped over the 800‐m diameter pockmark area and sampled for fauna, water and sediment. The isotopic analyses (δ¹³C) of tissues from symbiont‐bearing species were within the range typical of nutrition via symbiosis using methane for mussels and sulphide for vesicomyids and siboglinids. The living chemosynthetic communities were distributed on a SW‐NE axis, corresponding to the expression at the sediment surface of a main buried channel providing fluids to the pockmark. The site was characterised by a more active central part in a depression with abundant carbonate concretions where high‐density clusters of siboglinids and mytilids dominate. Large fields of dead and live vesicomyids with a lower mean density were observed in the external areas. The mean coverage of each of the three symbiotic taxa in these two contrasted areas was estimated from mosaic analysis and was up to 30% in the central area dominated by E. southwardae bushes (23%). Symbiont‐bearing species distribution was consistent with methane concentrations in seawater that were generally higher in mytilid beds than in the vicinity of siboglinids and vesicomyids. A Principal Component Analysis performed on environmental factors at the ten sampling sites revealed that 37% of the observed variance in the distribution of symbiont‐bearing species may be explained by variation in both methane and oxygen concentrations, while a Canonical Redundancy Analysis selected methane concentration as the only variable which explains symbiont‐bearing species densities. This spatial distribution of chemosynthetic species at the pockmark scale may reflect temporal patterns of succession of both substrate and fauna, and may be related to different individual pockmarks visible on the microbathymetry mapped using ROV data.     

Possibilities of soil spectroscopy for the classification of contaminated areas in river floodplains

During the past decades, large amounts of diffuse contaminated soil material have been deposited in the floodplains of the river Rhine in the Netherlands. The dynamic character of this river causes a large spatial variability in the contamination level of its floodplain soils. Characterisation of the spatial variability exclusively based on soil sampling and analysis is often insufficient and expensive. Hyperspectral images can provide additional spatial information for a proper characterisation of the contamination situation of river floodplains. This paper describes the possible application of soil spectroscopy to estimate metal concentration levels in river floodplains. Soil reflectance spectra in the visible-near infrared region (VNIR) were measured in the laboratory for soil samples taken from two river floodplains along the river Waal, the main tributary of the river Rhine in the Netherlands. A multivariate calibration procedure using partial least squares (PLS) regression was applied to establish a relationship between reflectance spectra in the visible-near infrared (VNIR) region and spectrally active soil characteristics (organic matter and clay content) that are intercorrelated with concentration levels of Cd and Zn. Results of the analysis of two river floodplains are summarised and the influence of scale-level and sub soil material on the prediction capability is discussed.     

A New Octahedrite from South Africa

Abstract Examination of an iron meteorite found in South Africa discloses it to be a coarse octahedrite containing 6.90 weight-percent nickel. The meteorite body contains several inclusions of troilite, or troilite plus graphite, and at least one of pure graphite veined with kamacite. Kamacite, cohenite, and phosphides are the other major constituents of the structure.     

中国西部铂矿床类型与找矿方向探讨

中国铂矿资源严重不足,主要分布在中国西部,根据原生矿床特征可划分为4类：①硫化物型;②铬铁矿型;③辉石岩型;④层控型。寻找铂矿新类型和富铂(岩石)资源,应成为解决中国铂矿资源紧缺的重要任务。铂矿找矿方向：地台与地槽接合部位,特别是围绕着基性、超基性岩内外接触带,铂的预富集岩带与层控型铂矿带,另外还有砂铂型铂矿发育区有望扩大找铂前景。     

Evolution cristallochimique des amphiboles dans la série granitique de Fort-Trinquet (Mauritanie)

The precambrian postorogenic pluton of the Fort-Trinquet area (Northern Mauretania) is composed by a series of granitic rocks in which amphiboles are the characteristic mafic minerals. Twenty six amphiboles have been separated and chemically analysed; the optical properties and the unit-cell data are also given.The crystallographic and chemical differences between these minerals reflect the variations in bulk composition of the host-rocks. In the plutonic suite, two igneous trends have been recognized: 1) a granitic trend (quartz monzonite-adamellite-granite) and 2) a syenitic trend (syenite-quartz bearing syenite-alkali granite). The amphiboles of the first trend belong to the tremolite-hastingsite series; they become richer in hastingsite mole with increasing proportion of quartz and decreasing Mg/(Mg+Fe) ratio in the rocks. The granitoids of the second trend are characterized by the occurrence of two amphiboles: a primary prismatic green-coloured actinolitic hornblende generally surrounded by a dark blue rim of riebeckite composition; the riebeckite may also form some acicular crystals associated to needles of stilpnomelane. These coexisting amphiboles would result from autometasomatic reactions which affected the rocks of the syenitic trend and which gave rise to the late alkali pegmatites where the constituent is a low arfvedsonitic riebeckite. The major substitutions involved in that amphibole transformation are Na^x R³⁺Ca^x R²⁺ and Na^xSiCa^xAl^IV.Comparison with experimental data allows to estimate the physical conditions during the emplacement and the tardimagmatic evolution of this granitoid series.     

An Improved Experimental Calibration of the Olivine-Spinel Geothermometer

The calibration of the olivine-spinel geothermometer by Fabries(1979) is commonly adopted by a number of petrologists.But the temperatures calculated in this way for ultramafic focks are significantly lower than those obtained by the pyroxene geothermometers.These O1-Sp temperatures are also lower than those measured experi-mentally in the natural system (four-phase lherzolite).Different rates of cation diffusion cannot fully account for these differences.The temperature deviation is actually related to the inconsistencies between natural and experimental data which support the calibration .A re-evaluation of the calibration is proposed on the basis of a set of new experimental data.     

Coastal dune conservation on an Irish commonage: community-based management or tragedy of the commons?

In Ireland 'commonage' refers to lands jointly owned by several individuals who have grazing rights. Commonage can provide the low-intensity grazing regime regarded as optimal for habitat conservation, and it is also unlikely to suffer the negative impacts of building development or coastal engineering. Today, however, the traditional control systems of coastal commonage are generally moribund, leading to habitat degradation. The only viable future management model is likely to be one based on local community control. Community management would have the legitimacy to counter the negative perceptions of external authority that generate environmental degradation.