Developing yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) and hāpuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) for New Zealand aquaculture

Two high value species, yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) and hāpuku (groper, Polyprion oxygeneios), have been identified as suitable new candidates for New Zealand aquaculture. This paper reviews the research by NIWA and collaborators conducted to test the biological, technological and economic feasibility of farming these two species. NIWA now has the capability to produce sufficient kingfish fingerlings per year to meet the needs of the early stages of an industry. Advances in hāpuku aquaculture have also been significant, from spawning in captivity through to the selection of juveniles for improved growth. Recently, the first spawning of captive hāpuku F1 broodstock and production of F2 eggs, larvae and juveniles was achieved. Although hāpuku larval survival remains variable, the ability to close the life cycle, and the availability of domesticated broodstock, provide a significant step forward and increase the chances of this species being commercially farmed.     

西藏羊八井热田地热流体成因及演化的惰性气体制约

地热流体中惰性气体的相对丰度和同位素组成，不仅可以揭露热田的热源性质，而且还能够揭示深，浅层地热流体的内在联系和演化过程等。在西藏羊八井热田的地热气体中，已检测出大量的^4He组分，3He/^4He值是大气的0．087－0．259倍，表明深部地壳物质的局部熔融为热田提供能量，浅层地热流体的3He/4He 值自西北向东南呈降低趋势，与热储温度的变化相一致，反映出侧向运移时补充了更多的壳源氦，热田北区深层地热流体具有稍高的3He/4He值，是浅层地热流体的母源，气体中氪和氙的相对丰度具有大气降水成因的特征，结合现有的实际资料，建立了热田地热流体的概念模型。     

Use of openly available occurrence data to generate biodiversity maps within the South African EEZ

Biodiversity maps are an important component of ecosystem-based management and conservation. In the past, biodiversity maps were largely generated using patchy occurrence data from a range of data sources. Currently, substantial species occurrence data are readily available for large parts of the world and are accessible programmatically. Considering both the observed and expected changes in species distributions, and hence biodiversity, in response to present and future climate change, it is important to utilise readily available species occurrence databases to generate temporal and spatial biodiversity maps. In this study biodiversity maps were generated for three generic functional groups within the exclusive economic zone of South Africa: zooplankton, fishes and benthos. This was achieved by stacking individual species-distribution maps. Freely available occurrence data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) were accessed for this purpose. Ensemble species-distribution modelling, employing five widely used statistical methods, was used to generate species-distribution maps for each functional group. The resulting spatial patterns of biodiversity for the three functional groups were largely in agreement with known patterns. The results of this study highlight the value of open-source occurrence and environmental data to generate biodiversity maps that can potentially be used in future spatial prioritisation or planning for management of marine areas and in environmental-change studies.     

A new radiocarbon chronology of Baumkirchen,stratotype for the onset of the Upper Würmian in the Alps

The start of the Upper Würmian in the Alps was marked by massive fluvioglacial aggradation prior to the arrival of the Central Alpine glaciers. In 1984, the Subcommission on European Quaternary Stratigraphy defined the clay pit of Baumkirchen (in the foreland of the Inn Valley, Austria) as the stratotype for the Middle to Upper Würmian boundary in the Alps. Key for the selection of this site was its radiocarbon chronology, which still ranks among the most important datasets of this time interval in the Alps. In this study we re‐sampled all available original plant specimens and established an accelerator mass spectrometry chronology which supersedes the published 40‐year‐old chronology. The new data show a much smaller scatter and yielded slightly older conventional radiocarbon dates clustering at ca. 31 ¹⁴C ka BP. When calibrated using INTCAL13 the new data suggest that the sampled interval of 653–681 m in the clay pit was deposited 34–36 cal ka BP. Using two new radiocarbon dates of bone fragments found in the fluvioglacial gravel above the banded clays allows us to constrain the timing of the marked change from lacustrine to fluvioglacial sedimentation to ca. 32–33 cal ka BP, which suggests a possible link to the Heinrich 3 event in the North Atlantic. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Polarized microwave forward model simulations for tropical storm <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fanoos</Emphasis>

In the present study, forward radiative transfer simulations are carried out for the tropical cyclone Fanoos that hit the coast off south India in December 2005. The in-house radiative transfer package used for this study employs the doubling and adding method to calculate radiances leaving the top of the one dimensional precipitating atmosphere. The particle drop size distribution is assumed to follow a modified gamma distribution in respect of the cloud liquid water and cloud ice water content. For precipitation, the Marshall-Palmer particle size distribution is used. All the hydrometeor particles are assumed to be spherical and Lorentz Mie theory is used to evaluate the interaction parameters like absorption, scattering coefficients and polarized scattering matrix. In order to validate the drop size distributions and interaction parameter calculations, the simulated brightness temperatures are compared with the TMI measured brightness temperatures for all the channels. For carrying out this exercise, vertical hydrometeors retrieved by TMI are used as input. The differences between simulated and measured brightness temperatures are found to be within ±10%. The maximum difference in the brightness temperatures between the present work and the Eddington model which the TRMM algorithm employs is about 4.5K. This may become significant when retrieval of precipitation is attempted by combining the forward model with a suitable retrieval strategy, under tropical conditions.     

A polarized microwave radiative transfer model for passive remote sensing

The objective of the present work is to develop a general purpose, polarized, microwave radiative transfer forward model, including calculation of interaction parameters for fast, simultaneous and accurate generation of radiances, for use in a wide variety of atmospheric retrieval applications. This complete polarized model includes the generation of atmospheric profiles, calculation of the interaction parameters and the solution of the vector radiative transfer equations. In the present work, the doubling and adding method is used to calculate radiances. Mie theory is used for spherical particles to evaluate the polarized scattering matrix. Two types of sea surface models applicable for specular and diffuse surfaces respectively are implemented. The model has been validated against standard benchmark cases and experimental data available in literature. While the model is itself generic, parametric studies are performed to study the influence of the vertical structure of the atmosphere, for two polarizations and a set of frequencies to be used on the microwave imager aboard the proposed Indo-French climate research satellite MEGHA-TROPIQUES.     

Spatial characterisation of the Benguela ecosystem for ecosystem-based management

The three countries of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME), namely Angola, Namibia and South Africa, have committed to implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) including an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) in the region, to put in practice the principles of sustainable development in ocean-related matters. There is also recognition of the need for marine spatial planning (MSP) as a process for informing EBM with regard to the allocation and siting of ocean uses so that ecosystem health is ensured and trade-offs between ecosystem services are appropriately dealt with. Marine spatial planning is both an integrated and an area-based process, and this paper produces a spatial characterisation of the BCLME for achieving a common basis for MSP in the region, focusing on the oceanography, biology and fisheries. Recognising spatial variation in physical driving forces, primary and secondary production, trophic structures and species richness, four different subsystems are characterised: (1) north of the Angola–Benguela Front, (2) from the Angola–Benguela Front to Lüderitz, (3) from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas, and (4) from Cape Agulhas to Port Alfred on the south-east coast of South Africa. Research and monitoring requirements of relevance for MSP and EBM in the region are identified, focusing on understanding variability and change, including with regard to the boundary areas identified for the system. To this end, 14 cross-shelf monitoring transects are proposed (including seven that are already being monitored) to estimate fluxes of biota, energy and materials within and between the subsystems. The usefulness of models for understanding ecosystem variability and changes is recognised and the need for fine-scale resolution of both sampling and modelling for adequate MSP as input to EBM for the often-conflicting interests of conserving biodiversity, and managing fisheries, recreation, offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation, offshore mining and shipping routes, is emphasised.     

Effects of MV Rena heavy fuel oil and dispersed oil on yellowtail kingfish early life stages

ABSTRACT

The grounding of the MV Rena has highlighted the lack of information concerning the effects of oil-related compounds on New Zealand marine life. Yellowtail kingfish (YTK), Seriola lalandi, embryos were exposed in static incubations to the water-accommodated fraction (WAF) of Rena heavy fuel oil as well as a similar preparation treated with the commercial dispersant Corexit 9500. Mortality in WAF treatments generally increased in association with total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (tPAH) concentration over a 24-h period. Physical abnormalities were observed in some of the larvae exposed to WAF for 48 h. There was no survival in dispersed oil treatments after 24 h of exposure. These treatments had greater tPAH concentrations (2–53?µgL^?1) than equivalent WAF dilutions (0.2–1.5?µgL^?1?tPAH). Indications are that significant morbidity is induced in YTK at ecologically relevant tPAH concentrations. This highlights the need for further research into oil and dispersant toxicity in New Zealand marine species.     

Retrieval of hydrometeors from microwave radiances with a polarized radiative transfer model

This paper reports the results of a Bayesian-based algorithm for the retrieval of hydrometeors from microwave satellite radiances. The retrieval technique proposed makes use of an indigenously developed polarized radiative transfer (RT) model that drives a data driven optimization engine (Bayesian) to perform retrievals of rain and other hydrometeors in a multi-layer, plane parallel raining atmosphere. For the sake of completeness and for the purposes of comparison, retrievals with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have also been done. Retrievals have been done first with a simplified two-layer atmosphere, where assumed values of hydrometeors are given to the forward model and these are taken as ‘measured radiances’. The efficacy of the two retrieval strategies is then tested for this case in order to establish accuracy and speed. The highlight of the work is however, the case study wherein a tropical storm in the Bay of Bengal is taken up, to critically examine the performance of the retrieval algorithm for an extreme event wherein a 14-layer realistic, raining atmosphere has been considered and retrievals are done against Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) measured radiances. The key novelties of the work are:

Dolomite characteristics and diagenetic model of the Calcari Grigi Group (Asiago Plateau,Southern Alps – Italy): an example of multiphase dolomitization

A multidisciplinary study, conducted over the carbonate platform deposits of the Liassic Calcari Grigi Group (Southern Alps), highlighted how the use of outcrop analogues can contribute to better define the distribution of dolomitic bodies related to fault networks, to characterize the petrophysical properties of the dolomitic sequence and unravel a complex diagenetic history. This study was carried out in the Asiago Plateau (southernmost part of the eastern Southern Alps, northern Italy) which provides excellent outcrops of the Jurassic Calcari Grigi Group. The dolomitization of the Jurassic sequence is variable in terms of stratigraphic extension and geographic distribution. In the studied localities the dolomitization is generally limited to the Mount Zugna Formation and is characterized by an undulatory front, with ‘sub‐vertical dolomitic chimneys’ along the major faults. Within this unit, and often associated with faults, stacked high‐porosity and permeability bed‐parallel dolomitic bodies are developed that show excellent petrophysical properties. The dolomitic intervals are characterized by pervasive unimodal and patchy polymodal dolomite crystals. Thin section, cathodoluminescence, isotopic and fluid inclusion analyses were used to constrain the paragenetic evolution of the sequence which is similar in all the studied localities. The first dolomitization stage is marked by zoned dolomite crystals with a dull luminescent core. The porosity is thought to have increased after this stage, with dark blue luminescent dolomite accompanied by the corrosion of older crystals. The appearance of saddle dolomite marks the onset of the porosity reduction stage, ending with the infilling of vugs and the remaining open pores with calcite cement. The diagenetic evolution locally stopped at the saddle dolomite stage with the complete occlusion of the remaining pores. Paragenetic and fluid‐inclusion data suggest an evolutionary trend of increasing temperatures and decreasing salinity toward brackish fluids responsible for dolomite and calcite precipitation. The integration of the available data seem to indicate that the diagenetic evolution of the study area is related to: (i) the interplay between evolving fluids (from marine to brackish); (ii) the burial of the sequence (increasing temperature); and (iii) the evolution of the hydrogeological system (fault and fracture network, fluid mixing). This complex paragenetic evolution is strongly linked to the evolution of the porosity framework that evolved from a good, widespread network in the early stages of the burial history to a confined system in the later stages due to reduction of porosity by the deposition of late calcite and dolomite cements.