In spite of many proposals, Australia has no national freshwater research centre. Thus the passing in the Senate of Ralph Jacobi's private member's bill for an Institute of Freshwater Studies in 1982 was unusual. His driving force was the need to overcome State boundaries and for research to inform policy and management of water resources. It gained widespread support, and not just from the parliamentary Labor Party, but was strongly opposed by the Fraser government, State and federal water bureaucracies, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The election of 1983 prevented further discussion in parliament, but the proposal was part of the Labor Party platform taken to the election. An Interim Council set up to investigate whether or not such an institute should be established, but with narrow terms of reference very different from those in Jacobi's bill, sided with the large water bureaucracies and CSIRO, in spite of majority support for an institute. An institute was rejected and the government accepted the recommendation. Jacobi's proposal failed primarily because of a fear of independent advice by many in the bureaucracies, a potential loss of power and influence, and inter-governmental rivalries. The status quo remained; the bigger picture is still unseen. 相似文献
Remote sensing based mapping of diverse and heterogeneous freshwater environments requires high-resolution images. Data fusion is a useful technique for producing a high-resolution multispectral image from the merging of a high-resolution panchromatic image with a low-resolution multispectral image. Given the increasing availability of images from different satellite sensors that have different spectral and spatial resolutions, data fusion techniques that combine the strengths of different images will be increasingly important to Geography for land-cover mapping. Different data fusion methods however, add spectral and spatial distortions to the resultant data depending on the geographical context; therefore a careful selection of the fusion method is required. This paper compares a technique called subtractive resolution merge, which has not previously been formally tested, with conventional techniques such as Brovey transformation, principal component substitution, local mean and variance matching, and optimised high pass filter addition. Data fusion techniques are grouped into spectral and spatial centric methods. Subtractive resolution merge belongs to a new class of data fusion techniques that uses a mix of both spatial and spectral centric approaches. The different data fusion techniques were applied to a QuickBird image of a semi-aquatic freshwater environment in New Zealand. The results were compared both qualitatively and quantitatively using spectral and spatial error metrics. This research concludes that subtractive resolution merge performed better than all the other techniques and will be a valuable technique for enhancing images for freshwater land-cover mapping. 相似文献
A multivariate assessment has been adapted to the classification of a large, irregular dataset of approximately 34,000 surface water samples accumulated over more than 30 years. A two-stage K-means clustering method was designed to analyse chemical data in the form of percentages of major ions (Na, Mg, Ca, Cl, HCO3 and SO4); the first stage of clustering produced 347 groups, which were then re-clustered to generate the final nine water types. The analysis enabled the definition of provinces of water composition and highlighted natural processes influencing the surface water chemistry. On a statewide basis, sodium is the dominant cation and around 50% at all stream flows, while proportions of calcium and magnesium are about equal. Chloride and bicarbonate constitute the bulk of anions present, while sulfate occurs occasionally and tends to be localised. On a global basis, Queensland surface waters are relatively high in sodium, chloride and magnesium, and low in calcium and sulfate. It was also found that the geographical location has a greater impact on major ion ratios than does the stage of stream flow.
The regional chemical trends are consistent with geology and climate. Streams in northeast Queensland, with short, steep catchments and high rainfall, yield low salinity, sodium-dominated water; this is also the case for sandy southern coastal catchments. Both also reflect an oceanic influence. The proportions of sodium and chloride decrease westward; streams draining the western side of the Great Dividing Range or flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria have low salinity but relatively hard water. Streams in western Queensland are higher in calcium and bicarbonate. In the large catchments flowing from Queensland into central Australia, the water composition is highly variable, commonly with elevated sulfate. Also in Queensland, there are several other clearly definable water provinces such as the high magnesium waters of basaltic areas.
The findings of this study confirm that the application of such analytical methods can provide a useful assessment of controls over water composition and support management at regional level; the approach used is shown and are applicable to large, disparate datasets. 相似文献
Multiple proxy indicators are regularly used to present robust arguments for paleoenvironmental change. We use fossil pollen and diatoms from a 495-cm core taken from Cootes Paradise, a coastal wetland in the western end of Lake Ontario, to investigate ecological changes in the late Holocene. We use consensus analysis to demonstrate that pollen diagrams are best zoned after the data have been split into source area, in this case upland and wetland taxa, because each group responds differently to environmental change. We also use consensus analysis to demonstrate the sensitivity of clustering to the distance measure used. The record begins at 2400 14C years BP, when the wetland was dominated by shallow water emergents and epiphytic diatoms. At 2100 14C years BP, a decline in the epiphytic diatoms Epithemia spp., a rise in Poaceae (cf. Zizania aquatica) pollen and a coincident increase in pollen concentration suggest a water level rise at this time. At about 800 14C years BP, the diatom record shows a pulse in small benthic Fragilaria species; shortly after, a shift occurs in the upland tree pollen spectra involving an increase in Pinus and a decline in Fagus. This shift in upland forest trees has been associated elsewhere with the Little Ice Age and the diatom data present some evidence for impacts of this climatic event on aquatic systems. The diatom and pollen records both indicate large changes associated with the effects of European settlement, including rises in Ambrosia as well as Typha angustifolia pollen. Planktonic diatoms dominate post-settlement assemblages indicating large-scale hydrological and ecological changes, probably associated with the introduction of carp and alterations to the Iroquois bar which separates the wetland from Lake Ontario. Our work at Cootes Paradise is important for multi-proxy coastal wetland studies in general, in addition to the late Holocene environmental history and prehistory of the Great Lakes region. 相似文献
In the present study, a mixed-flow steady-state bio-reactor was designed to biomineralize CO2 as a consequence of photosynthesis from active Synechococcus sp. Dissolved CO2, generated by constant air bubbling of inorganic and cyanobacteria stock solutions, was the only source of inorganic carbon. The release of hydroxide ion by cyanobacteria from photosynthesis maintained highly alkaline pH conditions. In the presence of Ca2+ and carbonate species, this led to calcite supersaturation under steady state conditions. Ca2+ remained constant throughout the experiments showing the presence of steady state conditions. Similarly, the Synechococcus sp. biomass concentration remained stable within uncertainty. A gradual pH decrease was observed for the highest Ca2+ condition coinciding with the formation of CaCO3. The high degree of supersaturation, under steady-state conditions, contributed to the stabilization of calcite and maintained a constant driving force for the mineral nucleation and growth. For the highest Ca2+ condition a fast crystal growth rate was consistent with rapid calcite precipitation as suggested further by affinity calculations. Although saturation state based kinetic precipitation models cannot accurately reflect the controls on crystal growth kinetics or reliably predict growth mechanisms, the relatively reaction orders obtained from modeling of calcite precipitation rates as function of decreasing carbonate concentration suggest that the precipitation occurred via surface-controlled rate determining reactions. These high reaction orders support in addition the hypothesis that crystal growth proceeded through complex surface controlled mechanisms. In conclusion, the steady state supersaturated conditions generated by a constant cyanobacteria biomass and metabolic activity strongly suggest that these microorganisms could be used for the development of efficient CO2 sequestration methods in a controlled large-scale environment. 相似文献
Eutrophication and toxic loading of freshwater occurred even in early geological epochs as a result of natural factors (e.g., large animals, volcanism), and nutrients and xenobiotics are more quickly integrated in material cycling in aquatic than in terrestrial systems. Therefore, aquatic ecosystems show many defensive mechanisms against organic and toxic loading. Many other defensive reactions can be described in addition to the well-known example of microbial self-purification.Freshwater ecosystems possess compartments which cooperate towards the function and protection of the whole system but, in opposition to these “euoecisms”, there are also “dysoecisms”. The defensive reactions of an ecosystem are founded largely on species-egoistic adaptations that have an (accidental) system-altruistic effect. The whole ecosystem reacts only seldom, and it is not clear whether there are selection processes which favour water bodies with a slow eutrophication and therefore slow silting-up, because the freshwaters are important for the global water balance.It is possible to compare organismic with ecosystemic defensive reactions but the origin of both reactions is very different. 相似文献
Microplastic pollution has become an environmental issue of great concern owing to the persistence of microplastics and their potential adverse effects on biota.The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and the third-longest river in the world,and the microplastics in this river will affect the health of a large population living along with it.To ensure the survival safety of people,it is essential to plan ahead and investigate in advance in order to understand the microplastic pollution in the river and work out countermeasures.This paper reviews the literature concerning the microplastic pollution in the Yangtze River basin and analyzes the abundance,shapes,colors,and composition of microplastics in the water bodies and sediments in the trunk stream and main lakes of the Yangtze River.The results are as follows.Compared to other river basins in China and abroad,the microplastics in the Yangtze River basin have a moderate abundance and high spatial heterogeneity.Owing to the barrier effect of the Three Gorges Dam on microplastics,the abundance of microplastics in the Three Gorges Reservoir is generally an order of magnitude higher than that in other sections of the river.Most microplastics in the water bodies and sediments are less than 1 mm in size and are transparent and colorful.In terms of shapes,they are dominated by fibers,followed by fragments and films.In terms of composition,the microplastics in the source region of the Yangtze River are mainly composed of nylon and polyethylene,while the microplastics in the surface water from the lower reaches of the Jinsha River to the Yangtze River estuary are dominated by polypropylene and polyethylene.The microplastics are primarily derived from the secondary microplastics in the environment,and relatively intensive human activities increase the abundance of microplastics.These results serve as bases for understanding and preventing microplastic pollution in the Yangtze River. 相似文献
The Southern Brazilian Shelf (SBS) is a freshwater-influenced region, but studies on the dynamics of coastal plumes are sparse and lack in space-time resolution. Studies on the dynamics of the Patos Lagoon plume are even more limited. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the principal physical forcing for the formation and behavior of the Patos Lagoon coastal plume. The study is carried out through 3D numerical modeling experiments and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. Results showed that the amount of freshwater is the principal physical forcing controlling the plume formation. The Coriolis effect enhances the northward transport over the shelf, while the tidal effects contribute to intensify horizontal and vertical mixing, which are responsible for spreading the freshwater over the shelf. The wind effect, on the other hand, is the main mechanism controlling the behavior of the Patos Lagoon coastal plume over the inner SBS in synoptic time scales. Southeasterly and southwesterly winds contribute to the northeastward displacement of the plume, breaking the vertical stratification of the inner continental shelf. Northeasterly and northwesterly winds favor ebb conditions in the Patos Lagoon, contributing to the southwestward displacement of the plume enhancing the vertical stratification along and across-shore. The EOF analysis reveals two modes controlling the variability of the plume on the surface. The first mode (explaining 70% of the variability) is associated to the southwestward transportation of the plume due to the dominance of north quadrant winds, while the second mode (explaining 19% of the variability) is associated to the intermittent migration of the plume northeastward due to the passage of frontal systems over the area. Large scale plumes can be expected during winter and spring months, and are enhanced during El Niño events. 相似文献