Comparisons between the influences of habitat, body size and season on the dietary composition of the sparid Acanthopagrus latus in a large marine embayment

Seasonal samples from Shark Bay on the west coast of Australia were used to determine (1) the habitats occupied by the juveniles and adults of Acanthopagrus latus in this large subtropical marine embayment and (2) the extent to which the dietary composition of this sparid is influenced by habitat type, body length and season. Sampling was undertaken in two habitat types in which A. latus was known to be abundant, namely mangrove (Avicennia marina) creeks and nearby rocky areas, the latter comprising sandstone boulders and/or limestone reefs. The mean total length ±95% CLs of A. latus was far lower in mangrove creeks, 126 ± 6.1 mm, than in rocky areas, 313 ± 4.7 mm. As A. latus attains maturity at ca. 245 mm, the juveniles of this species typically occupy mangrove areas and then, with increasing body size, move to nearshore rocky areas, where they become adults. The species composition of the food ingested by juvenile A. latus in mangrove creeks differed markedly from that of large juveniles and adults in rocky areas. Based on analyses of data for both habitat types combined, this difference was far greater than that between size classes and season, which was negligible. There were indications, however, that, overall within each habitat, the dietary composition did change seasonally, although not with body size. Acanthopagrus latus fed predominantly on mangrove material, sesarmid crabs and small gastropods in mangrove habitats, and mainly on Brachidontes ustulatus in rocky areas, where this mytilid bivalve is very abundant. The mangrove material, which contributed nearly 40% of its overall dietary volume in mangrove creeks, consisted mainly of lateral root primordia. This apparently unique food source for a teleost is presumably ingested through subsurface nipping, which would be facilitated by the mouth and dentitional characteristics of sparids. The almost total lack of correspondence in the dietary compositions of fish in the length class that was well represented in both mangrove and rocky areas illustrates the extent to which this sparid is capable of opportunistic feeding behaviour.     

台风作用下的港湾型潮滩沉积过程 以2008年“凤凰”台风对福建省罗源湾的影响为例

通过对"凤凰"台风的现场观测和沉积物样品的分析,结果表明,在台风影响下潮水淹没时间增长,增水达1.1 m;台风期间互花米草盐沼内流速变化较复杂,而且盐沼内部流速大于盐沼边缘的;台风期间盐沼边缘潮周期平均悬沙含量是台风前2 d的7倍;台风期间十分之一波高最大为1.54 m。滩面重复测量结果显示,台风登陆期间整个光滩滩面都发生了侵蚀,盐沼内部有部分地区发生侵蚀,侵蚀深度为4.5~5.5 cm,盐沼边缘的侵蚀深度仅为0.7 cm,侵蚀原因主要是植被在风浪作用下从根部折断,从而带走了滩面的沉积物;随着台风强度的减弱,整个滩面均接受悬沙沉降;台风带来的强降雨是影响滩面沉积物活动的重要因素。     

海南岛海岸环境特征

海南岛虱热带季风岛屿型气候，为南海大陆架岛屿，中央为山地，临海为多种类型海岸，以处于动态平衡的海蚀-海积型海岸为主。海南岛主要是基岩岬湾海岸，潮汐属日潮型，东部与南部为不规则日潮混合潮。海岸构造运动与气候变化的双重影响，更新世初期，海岸属基岩港湾型，晚更新世构造运动频敏，使不少海湾底部抬升为阶地。构造抬升运动持续到全新世，使一些珊瑚抬升为高出海面数米的阶地。海岸类型按其成因与形态可分为两大类：基岩港湾海岸与砂砾质平原海岸。基岩港湾海岸分布于山地与丘陵临海处，砂砾质平原海岸（或为三解洲平原海岸）其表现形式多为沙坝与泻湖海岸，沙坝上叠置发育着海滩、沙堤或沙丘，随着海岸加积展宽或地壳上升，老的沙坝可抬高成为海积阶地。潮流作用对洪湾众多的海南岛的发育演变以及开发利用亦有重要作用。潮汐汊道港湾规模较大，水域面积达数十平方公理。     

香港一富营养河港内的底泥耗氧和营养盐释放

Tolo Harbour has received massive discharges of municipal sewage, agricultural wastes and cottage industrial effluents, via three river systems, in the past two decades before the mid Eighties. The Harbour is almost land locked and poorly flushed. The soft sediment acted as a sink for nutrients and organic pollutants. After a decade of efforts in establishing and enforcing water pollution control legislations and upgrading wastewater treatment facilities, the sediments have turned into sources of nutrients and exert a measurable oxygen demand upon the overlying waters. In vitro measurements showed that the sediments oxygen demand (SOD) was between 17.6 and 54.3 mgo₂ · m^-2 · h^-1. The maximum rates of release of ortho-phosphate phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen were 15.0 and 206.0 mg · m^-2 · h^-1, respectively.     

Methane exchange between coal-bearing basins and the atmosphere: the Ruhr Basin and the Lower Rhine Embayment, Germany

A precise knowledge of methane exchange processes is required to fully understand the recent rise of atmospheric methane concentration. Three of these processes take place at the lithosphere/atmosphere boundary: bacterial consumption of methane and emission of bacterial or thermogenic methane. This study was initiated to quantify these processes on a regional scale in the Ruhr Basin and the Lower Rhine Embayment. Since these areas are subject to bituminous coal and lignite mining, natural and anthropogenically-induced methane exchange processes could be studied. The methane emission and consumption rates and their carbon isotope signal were measured at the lithosphere/atmosphere boundary using flux chambers. On most of the soils studied, methane consumption by bacteria was identified. Thermogenic methane was released only at some of the natural faults examined. In active and abandoned bituminous coal mining areas methane emissions were restricted to small areas, where high emission rates were measured. The carbon isotope composition of methane at natural faults and in mining subsidence troughs was typical of thermogenic methane (−45 to −32 ‰ δ¹³C). Methane exchange balancing revealed that natural methane emissions from these two basins represent no source of atmospheric importance. However, methane release by upcast mining shafts dominates the methane exchange processes and is by about two orders of magnitude greater than methane consumption by bacterial oxidation in the soils.     

不同形态海湾的水底平衡剖面研究

研究海湾平衡剖面对理解海湾地貌演变具有重要意义。本文给出了收缩型、扩张型和矩形3种典型海湾平面形态对平衡剖面的影响。建立了海湾长度远小于潮汐波长的短尺度海湾的平衡剖面和对应的时均悬沙浓度的解析解。采用水深平均的水动力方程、泥沙输移方程和地形演变方程的耦合模型对以上3种类型海湾的平衡剖面进行了数值模拟,得到了这3种类型海湾的水面、流速、时均悬沙浓度和平衡剖面的计算结果,并利用水面数值结果确定了海湾水面解析解所含的一个待定常数。研究结果给出了3种不同海湾平面形态所对应的平衡剖面形态:矩形海湾对应斜坡型;收缩型海湾对应下凹型;扩张型海湾对应上凸型。所得海湾平衡剖面和时均悬沙浓度的解析解与数值解一致。     

Embayment characteristic time and biology via tidal prism model

Transport time scales are often offered by scientists, and accepted by ecologists, as qualitative indicators of the susceptibility of ecological components within an embayment. However, rigorous quantitative methods were never presented to confirm this intuition. Transport time scales in water bodies are classically based on their physical and chemical aspects rather than their ecological and biological character. The direct connection between a physical time scale and an ecological effect has to be investigated in order to quantitatively relate a transport time scale to ecology. This concept is presented here with some general guidelines and clarifying examples. To be able to relate physical time scales to biological processes, a simple tidal prism model is developed that calculates temporal changes in concentration and the related exposure. This approach provides a quick method to calculate the characteristic time for transport in a large number of embayments, which can also help in classification endeavors.     

A Spatial–Temporal Analysis of the Development of a Log-spiral Shaped Embayment

With the use of semi-annual data collected from May 1985 to May 1995, this study assesses the evolution of a log-spiral shaped embayment at the Northeast Beach, located at Canada's southernmost promontory. The emplacement of stone breakwaters initiated scour of the shoreline, and the embayment which developed thereafter adjusted to reflect changes in lake levels, and naturally occurring variance in wave and sediment dynamics. Each of the 21 recorded measurements of the embayment configuration is assessed for characteristics of log-spiral morphology. The results demonstrate that logarithmic-spiral curves fit the 21 recorded embayment configurations very closely. The significant parameters and statistics associated with each log-spiral curve show that no heteroschedacity of variance is present among the residuals and only one significant autocorrelation is observed. The appropriateness of the log-spiral fits is verified by the coefficients of determination which, with the exception of the November 1988 dataset, are all over the required value of 0·98. Both the spiral angle and the radius show decreasing trends through time, and the graphical plots illustrate only minor fluctuations after May 1991. These results suggest that the embayment may have shifted from some form of quasi-equilibrium condition to approach a state of dynamic equilibrium. The persistence of the logarithmic-spiral configuration through time supports the findings of other investigators who claim that the log-spiral planform represents the equilibrium embayment shape that might be expected on the flank of a breakwater system. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multi‐century record of linked nearshore and coastal change

Using geographic information system (GIS) and field measurements the nearshore morphological variability of a headland bay beach at Tenby, West Wales (51·66 N; –4·71 W) was assessed over historical timeframes (1748–2007). Three areas chosen for detailed analysis were the area between mean low water (MLW) and lowest astronomical tide (LAT) contours; LAT and one fathom contours; and one and two fathom contours. Estuary closure c. 1855 has been suggested as the genesis for long‐term beach evolution and did have an initial effect, with northward dune migration and reduced flushing effects. However, this research suggests nearshore bank migration and retrogradation associated with spit collapse took place prior to closure and continued throughout the assessed timeframe. Historical data revealed patterns of shoreward migration demonstrated by changes in orientation, Giltar headland acting as a pivot. Variations in sandbank position correlated with areal reduction of both Giltar spit and White Bank. Temporal offshore areal loss was contrasted against variable gains inshore as offshore banks welded to the beachface. Annual volumetric change analyses represented by profiles that extend 1 km offshore, confirmed Giltar spit and White Bank erosion rates of 91 m³ yr^–1 and 458 m³ yr^–1 respectively, and 220 m³ yr^–1 beachface accretion. Diminution of sediment supply observed over historical timescales was supported by decadal evidence. Here, profile analysis revealed a trend of decreasing volumes both updrift and within the study area, and increasing downdrift volumes. This explained why proximal detachment and sediment redistribution had occurred. Distinct reversal's in shoreline trend (rotation) corresponded to nearshore change; therefore, variations in seabed configuration triggered shoreface dynamic change over century timescales. Five‐year cumulative average changes in North Atlantic Oscillation were further correlated to this reversal. As comparable scenarios are likely to exist at other worldwide coastal locations, similar analyses should be incorporated into shoreline monitoring programmes. Consequently, these assessments would inform shoreline trends and support coastal management decisions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Syn‐rift sequence development in a fault‐controlled embayment (Early Permian Irwin River Coal Measures,Northern Perth Basin,Western Australia)

Stratigraphic patterns and sequence development in tectonically active extensional basins remain poorly documented in comparison with passive‐margin settings. Rift basin fills are generally characterized by coarsening‐upward trends in response to the rapid creation of accommodation by extensional faulting, and the progressive filling of graben during more quiescent periods. The Early Permian Irwin River Coal Measures in the Northern Perth Basin (Western Australia) record a complex stratigraphic arrangement of conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone and coal, and have been attributed to delta plain depositional environments that developed in a cool–temperate climatic setting during syn‐rift activity. Sedimentary analysis of outcrop and core data from the fault‐bounded Irwin Terrace is used to distinguish nine facies associations reflecting deposition in braided rivers, fixed‐anastomosed channel belts, tide‐influenced coastal environments and storm‐affected distal bays. The broader depositional system is interpreted as a morphologically asymmetrical tide‐dominated embayment with a fluvial and wave influence. The stratigraphic architecture of the Irwin River Coal Measures was strongly influenced by the evolving rift basin margin. Fault reactivation of the major basin‐bounding Darling Fault in the early syn‐rift phase caused footwall uplift and the inception of transverse palaeo‐valleys occupied by braided fluvial systems. Fault block subsidence during the subsequent balanced, backstepping and drowning phases resulted in a dominantly retrogradational stacking pattern indicating progressive flooding of marginal‐marine areas and culminating in deposition of distal marine elements. In the active rift basin, it is proposed that preservation of a shallow‐marine syn‐rift sequence was promoted by the geomorphological confinement of the embayed system increasing tidal current acceleration and hampering transgressive ravinement. The proposed sequence model demonstrates that transgressive successions can develop in the early syn‐rift phase in response to footwall uplift and tectonic subsidence. The syn‐rift sequence recording the filling of an embayment on a rift basin margin may be applied in similar tectonic and/or depositional contexts worldwide.