Impacts of climate change on coastal benthic ecosystems: assessing the current risk of mortality outbreaks associated with thermal stress in NW Mediterranean coastal areas     

Ivane Lilian Pairaud  Nathaniel Bensoussan  Pierre Garreau  Vincent Faure  Joaquim Garrabou 《Ocean Dynamics》2014,64(1):103-115

In the framework of climate change, the increase in ocean heat wave frequency is expected to impact marine life. Large-scale positive temperature anomalies already occurred in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea in 1999, 2003 and 2006. These anomalies were associated with mass mortality events of macrobenthic species in coastal areas (0–40 m in depth). The anomalies were particularly severe in 1999 and 2003 when thousands of kilometres of coasts and about 30 species were affected. The aim of this study was to develop a methodology to assess the current risk of mass mortality associated with temperature increase along NW Mediterranean continental coasts. A 3D regional ocean model was used to obtain the temperature conditions for the period 2001–2010, for which the model outputs were validated by comparing them with in situ observations in affected areas. The model was globally satisfactory, although extremes were underestimated and required correction. Combined with information on the thermo-tolerance of a key species (the red gorgonian P. clavata) as well as its spatial distribution, the modelled temperature conditions were then used to assess the risk of mass mortality associated with thermal stress for the first time. Most of the known areas of observed mass mortality were found using the model, although the degree of risk in certain areas was underestimated. Using climatic IPCC scenarios, the methodology could be applied to explore the impacts of expected climate change in the NW Mediterranean. This is a key issue for the development of sound management and conservation plans to protect Mediterranean marine biodiversity in the face of climate change.  相似文献   

The fate of antimony in a major lowland river system,the Waikato River,New Zealand     

Nathaniel Wilson  Jenny Webster-Brown 《Applied Geochemistry》2009

Antimony is an element that is becoming of increasing concern as an environmental contaminant. Geothermal systems are a source of Sb into some fresh waters of New Zealand’s North Island. The purpose of this research was to determine the factors controlling the behaviour of geothermally-derived Sb in the large lowland Waikato River system. The Waikato River is New Zealand’s longest and most utilised river. Antimony in the system exhibited mainly conservative behaviour, and seasonally variable dilution was found to be the most important control on Sb concentrations. The most significant potential removal process was identified as adsorption of Sb onto suspended particulate material (SPM). The adsorption of Sb onto the SPM is enhanced at low (<5) pH conditions, and in the anoxic base of stratified lakes. There was evidence that the adsorption of Sb is mainly onto Fe oxides in SPM, and changes with changing Fe concentrations. Therefore, Sb adsorption was higher in winter (when Fe concentrations in SPM were higher) than in summer. In Lake Ohakuri, which was stratified during the late summer/early autumn of 2007, there was also potential for removal of Sb as Sb₂S₃ in the presence of sulfide formed in the anoxic layer. The behaviour of Sb was conservative through the estuary at the mouth of the river.  相似文献   

Adoption of the arctic search and rescue agreement: A shift of the arctic regime toward a hard law basis?     

Shih-Ming Kao Nathaniel S. Pearre  Jeremy Firestone 《Marine Policy》2012,36(3):832-838

This paper examines the Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement—the first legally-binding instrument negotiated and adopted under the auspices of the Arctic Council—and analyzes its implications for the current Arctic regime. Led by the Arctic Council, the Arctic regime was established in a soft law format. However, the soft law nature and restricted mandates of the Arctic Council have limited its capacity to respond to new issues emerging from climate change, particularly those related to the exploitation of oil and gas reserves, commercial shipping through the region, effects on wildlife, and impacts on indigenous peoples' homelands and culture. The adoption of the Agreement represents a new approach for the Arctic States to respond to these new challenges. At the same time, it does not imply that a legally-binding instrument is necessarily preferable for every issue, and importantly, the new Arctic Agreement does not establish new institutional relationships, suggesting satisfaction among the Arctic States with the existing arrangements. Thus, although the Arctic regime is undoubtedly changing, this change should not be treated today as a shift from soft to hard law. What is more certain is that the Arctic Council will continue to function as a cooperative forum where the Arctic States can address these challenges, and its importance will only increase in coming years.  相似文献   

Assessment of deforestation,biodiversity loss and the associated factors: case study of Ijesa-Ekiti region of Southwestern Nigeria     

Nathaniel Olugbade Adeoye  Bola Ayeni 《GeoJournal》2011,76(3):229-243

Deforestation is driven by a variety of factors, and has resulted in land use changes that threaten biodiversity, water and energy resources. However, lack of reliable data and survey information in Nigeria has made the estimation of the effect of deforestation difficult to establish. Consequently, the extent and rate of deforestation are less well known. The study therefore, examined and analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of deforestation over the period of 25 years (1978–2003); measured the rates, trends and explained the factors that determined deforestation in Ijesa-Ekiti region of southwestern Nigeria. The major sources of data for the study were satellites images. These were Landsat MSS 1978, with spatial resolution of 80 m, SPOT XS 1986, SPOT XS 1994, with 20 m spatial resolution and NigeriaSat_1 2003, with 32 m spatial resolution. To make them comparable, they were georeferenced to the same coordinates system, filtered, resampled and enhanced for visualization in a GIS environment. Furthermore, Ilesa, Ijebu-Ijesa, Efon-Alaaye, Iloko-Ijesa, Erin-Oke and Erin-Ijesa were identified and selected for ground truthing to validate the tonal values recorded in the images with the features on the ground. The result of ground truthing was combined with visual image interpretation as training sites for supervised classification. Focus Group Discussions were held with people who had lived in the area for over 20 years as a means of eliciting factors of deforestation and the effects on forest biodiversity. The results indicated forest loss of 53,469.23 ha over the period of 25 years at an annual deforestation rate of 7.21, 2.47, and 5.40% per year for 1978–1986, 1986–1994 and 1994–2003, respectively. FGDs with various categories of people in the bigger towns confirmed deforestation in the area and were due to illegal lumbering, intensive agricultural practices and growth of settlements resulted from increase in human population. FGDs also revealed extinction of many forest species in their communities. In conclusion, the study advanced our understanding on techniques of analyzing deforestation using geo-spatial technology. It also generated a synthesis of information on the rates of deforestation and its driving forces, which are a complex mix of anthropogenic factors, the chief of which has been the conversion of forest resources to agricultural land use.  相似文献   

Drinking water quality in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley: a survey and assessment of selected controlling site characteristics     

Nathaniel R. Warner  Jonathan Levy  Karen Harpp  Frank Farruggia 《Hydrogeology Journal》2008,16(2):321-334

Water was sampled from over 100 sources in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, including municipal taps, dug wells, shallow-aquifer tube wells, deep-aquifer tube wells, and dhunge dharas (or stone spouts, public water sources that capture groundwater or surface water). Information was gathered on user preference and site and well characteristics, and water was examined for indicators of contamination from sewage, agriculture, or industry. Most problematic were total coliform and Escherichia coli bacteria, which were present in 94 and 72% of all the water samples, respectively. Contamination by nitrate, ammonia and heavy metals was more limited; nitrate and ammonia exceeded Nepali guidelines in 11 and 45% of the samples, respectively. Arsenic and mercury exceeded WHO guidelines in 7 and 10% of the samples, respectively, but arsenic never exceeded the less strict Nepali guideline. Significant differences existed in contamination levels between types of sources; dug wells and dhunge dharas, being the shallowest, were the most contaminated by bacteria and nitrate; deep-aquifer tube wells were the most contaminated by arsenic. Whereas E. coli concentrations decreased with depth, iron and ammonia concentrations increased with depth. These relationships account for people choosing to drink water with higher levels of bacterial contamination based on its superior (non-metallic) taste and appearance.  相似文献   

The Effects of Salinity on Nitrogen Losses from an Oligohaline Estuarine Sediment   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Anne E. Giblin  Nathaniel B. Weston  Gary T. Banta  Jane Tucker  Charles S. Hopkinson 《Estuaries and Coasts》2010,33(5):1054-1068

Benthic respiration, sediment–water nutrient fluxes, denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) were measured in the upper section of the Parker River Estuary from 1993 to 2006. This site experiences large changes in salinity over both short and long time scales. Sediment respiration ranged from 6 to 52 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹ and was largely controlled by temperature. Nutrient fluxes were dominated by ammonium fluxes, which ranged from a small uptake of −0.3 to an efflux of over 8.2 mmol N m⁻² day⁻¹. Ammonium fluxes were most highly correlated with salinity and laboratory experiments demonstrated that ammonium fluxes increased when salinity increased. The seasonal pattern of DNRA closely followed salinity. DNRA rates were extremely low in March, less than 0.1 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹, but increased to 2.0 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹ in August. In contrast, denitrification rates were inversely related to salinity, ranging from 1 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹ during the spring and fall to less than 0.2 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹ in late summer. Salinity appears to exert a major control on the nitrogen cycle at this site, and partially decouples sediment ammonium fluxes from organic matter decomposition.  相似文献   

Warming at 18,000 yr B.P. in the Tropical Andes     

Karin F. Helmens  Peter Kuhry  Nathaniel W. Rutter  Klaas Van Der Borg  Arie F. M. De Jong 《Quaternary Research》1996,45(3):289-299

Palynological, paleopedological, and glacial geomorphological evidence from the area of the high plain of Bogotá in the Colombian Eastern Cordillera indicates a significant climatic warming around 18,000¹⁴C yr B.P. Comparison of dated vegetation changes, pedogenic episodes, and glacier fluctuations provides the basis for defining the so-called “La Laguna Interstadial” that lasted from 19,500 to 17,000 yr B.P. During this interstadial period, mean annual temperatures in the tropical Andes were up to 4°C higher than during the preceding and following stadial periods, when full-glacial conditions prevailed and temperatures were up to 8°C colder than at present.  相似文献   

A major project in the age of the environment: Out of controversy,complexity, and challenge     

Nathaniel D. McClure IV 《Environmental Geology》1985,7(1-2):15-24

The recently completed Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom) survived many challenges from all three branches of the federal government A brief overview of these challenges over the past 40 years is presented Central among the challenges was the litigation involving allegations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) The response of the U S Army Corps of Engineers to NEPA and its influence on the Tenn-Tom are presented A summarization of the principal environmental issues related to the Tenn-Tom is provided to describe the wide spectrum of concerns and controversies associated with the development of this major waterway The Tenn-Tom met the test in all forums The measures taken to respond in a meaningful way to NEPA and other environmental statutes are a model that could well be followed in the development of other major projects  相似文献   

Importance du choix des échelles de temps pertinentes pour l'étude du fonctionnement d'écosystèmes marins littoraux     

Nathaniel Bensoussan  Jean-Claude Romano  Bouazza El-Haikali  Michel-Guy Lafont 《Comptes Rendus Geoscience》2004,336(10):909-918

Semi-continuous (1/30 min) records of physicochemical parameters (T,S, DO and pH) have been measured at 1.50 m in Mediterranean coastal waters (Marseilles) from 1998 to 2000, together with meteorological parameters. Physicochemical data were studied in order to synthesise the information at different time scales (inter-annual, season, day, hour), particularly the semi-conservative DO and pH response to hydroclimatic variables. At a daily time scale, important circadian dynamic has been measured under all circumstances with a strong reactivity to irradiance change under the influence of biological activity. This work may contribute to the definition of new tools for coastal waters observation. To cite this article: N. Bensoussan et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).  相似文献   

Correlation and interpretation of paleosols and loess across European Russia and Asia over the last interglacial-glacial cycle     

Nathaniel W Rutter  Dean RokoshMichael E Evans  Edward C LittleJiri Chlachula  Andrei Velichko 《Quaternary Research》2003,60(1):101-109

Loess-paleosol sequences of the last interglacial-glacial cycle are correlated from European Russia to central Siberia and the Chinese Loess Plateau. During cold periods represented by marine oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 2 and 4, loess deposition dominated in the Russian Plain and the Loess Plateau. In central Siberia, loess deposition took place also, but five to seven thin, weakly developed paleosols are identified in both stages. OIS 3, in the Chinese Loess Plateau near Yangchang, consists of a loess bed that is flanked by two weakly developed paleosols. At Kurtak, Siberia, OIS 3 is represented by two distinct, stacked paleosols with no loess bed separating the paleosols. In the Russian Plain, OIS 3 consists of a single, possibly welded paleosol, representing upper and lower stage-3 climates. Brunisols and Chernozems dominate the profiles in China and Siberia, whereas Regosols, Luvisols, and Chernozems are evident in the northern and southern Russian Plain, respectively. OIS 5 is represented in China and the Russian Plain by pedo complexes in a series of welded soils, whereas in contrast, the Kurtak site consists of six paleosols with interbedded loess. The paleosols consist largely of Brunisols and Chernozems. Although the three areas examined have different climates, geographical settings, and loess source areas, they all had similar climate changes during the last interglacial-glacial cycle.  相似文献