Mercury budget estimates for the State of New York

The development of two comprehensive modelling systems and a test application to estimate the mercury budget for the State of New York is discussed in the present study. The modelling tools developed are based on two well known meteorological modelling systems namely, RAMS and SKIRON/Eta. Both models have been modified and the developed modules describing the physico-chemical processes of mercury have been incorporated in each modelling system. Model calculations and measurements have been compared during the 14 to 26 August 1997 simulation period. Two different simulations were performed, scenario1 where all available sources of mercury were used and scenario2 where the New York State mercury sources were excluded. An attempt was made to identify and quantify critical gaps in the current understanding of regional scale transport deposition and fate of mercury in New York State, improving modelling capabilities and understanding of mercury as an air pollutant, and provide a tool for policy makers in mitigating the impacts of mercury pollution.     

Studies of primary productivity in coastal waters of southern Long Island,New York

Phytoplankton productivity of the tidal estuaries and coastal waters of southern Nassau Country, Long Island, New York, USA was determined monthly at 28 stations during 1966. Diatoms alternated with dinoflagellates in dominating the standing crop in the coastal area. The estuaries were characterized by sustained blooms of green flagellates and dinoflagellates during the spring/summer period, 1966. Chlorophyll a ranged from 1.0 to 27.6 mg/m³ in the estuarine area, and 1.45 to 10.15 mg/m³ in adjacent coastal waters. Rate of phytosynthesis per unit weight chlorophyll a for surface samples in the region under study a veraged from 3.1 to 3.5 mgC/mg chlorophyll a/h. At light saturation, however, the ratio varied according to water temperature and species' composition. Primary productivity decreased seawards, with mean values for 1966 of 0.35, 0.22, and 0.16 gC/m³/d for the estuarine, nearshore and offshore areas, respectively.This study was carried out at the Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University Palisades; New York, USA.The study was conducted with financial assistance from Nassau County, New York, and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation.     

Artisanal fishing and coastal conservation in West Africa

Artisanal fishing is an activity which has long occupied an important place on the West African coast. In less than 20 years, the increasingly widespread use of motors in fishing boats and cold storage facilities both on board and on land have enabled fishermen to master the constraints of space and time. Furthermore, globalization has created a demand for new products, thus influencing the behaviour of fishermen and consequently the status of some fish, turtle and marine mammal species. Development policies for artisanal fishing do not adequately reflect the importance of these changes. They tend to use inappropriate scales of reference, be it spatially (national borders take precedence over ecosystems) or temporally (the long-term consequences of development plans are seldom considered). Some international conservation organizations are testing promising new approaches to managing resources more sustainably and restoring degraded ecosystems, and their recent experiences can serve as useful examples to others. It is recommended to grant special rights of access to resident fishermen. In defending ‘their’ resources, they will also protect the ecological functions of the area. Close collaboration with administrations and development assistance agencies is needed to assess consequences of political decisions on the use of resources. The important role of marine protected areas as a tool for fishing management should be better documented and strengthened. These areas should not be considered as isolated units but rather as vital parts of a comprehensive system for improved coastal zone management. Consistent with the ecosystem approach, fishermen and their communities, being the main users of coastal resources, should also play a major role in the design and implementation of any fishing management actions.     

Implications of sea level rise for coastal dune habitat conservation in Wales,UK

The potential impact of future sea level rise and climate change on 15 Welsh coastal dune systems has been investigated. Historical Trend Analysis was undertaken using Ordnance Survey maps to quantify past shoreline change and to permit extrapolation of past trends to predict possible future shoreline positions by 2080–2100. Predictions were also made using the Bruun Rule relationship between sea level rise and shoreline response and an integrated method of assessment, Expert Geomorphological Assessment (EGA), which provides a ‘best estimate’ of future coastline change, taking into account such factors as geological constraints, the nature of past, present and future environmental forcing factors, and known coastal process–response relationships. The majority of the 15 systems investigated experienced a net increase in dune area over the last 100–120 years. Only one (Whiteford Burrows) experienced significant net area loss (>5 ha). EGA predictions suggest that several systems are likely to experience significant net loss of dune habitat over the next century, whilst continued net gain is likely to occur for systems where sediment supply rates remain high. Little net change is predicted in some systems. Considering the 15 dune systems together, it is considered unlikely that net dune habitat loss will exceed net gain over the next 100 years provided that there are no major disruptions to sediment supply and natural coastal processes.     

25 years of salt marsh erosion in Essex: Implications for coastal defence and nature conservation

This paper presents the results from a study which was undertaken to monitor, map and quantify salt marsh change along 440 km of shoreline within the county of Essex, south-east England, between 1973 and 1998. Results indicate that during this 25-yr period, 1000 ha of salt marsh has been lost in Essex, primarily due to coastal erosion. This figure represents ca. 25% of the total salt-marsh area originally present in Essex in 1973. The salt marshes of Essex are important nature conservation areas, with many sites designated as Special Protection Areas under the EC Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) and as Special Areas of Conservation under the EC Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). Salt marshes are also natural features which significantly dissipate wave and tidal energy, thereby playing an important role in contributing to effective coastal defence. The large-scale loss of salt marsh in Essex has, therefore, implications for both nature conservation and flood defence. Potential hypotheses for, and implications of such losses are discussed in this paper, together with the identification of potential management approaches to alleviate the losses.     

Inventory and conservation assessment for the management of coastal dunes,Veneto coasts,Italy

Management of coastal dunes on developed coasts could effectively take advantage of comprehensive and multitemporal georeferenced data collection, which offers the possibility to relate dune data with the natural and cultural characteristics of the beach and hinterland. The recent implementation of a coastal management geodatabase for the Veneto region provides the opportunity for improving knowledge on coastal dunes on developed littoral as well as a basis for appropriate future coastal planning in the study area. The geodatabase gathers data concerning different physical, evolutionary and human aspects of the coastal zone, with a special focus on coastal dunes. Established foredunes, human-altered dunes and relict dunes are irregularly distributed along 59 km, 38% of the entire coastal length. Their distribution and characteristics are the result of favourable natural conditions as well as long-lasting tourism exploitation (evaluated through an index of Land Use Pressure) and fragmentary and diversified uses of beaches (evaluated through an index of Tourism Pressure on the beach). At the same time, beach/dune nourishment intervention allowed the presence of artificial or sand fenced dunes along 17 km of coast. High dune elevation up to 8–10 m is promoted by the onshore exposition of the beach to dominant wind (from ENE), by stable-to-slowly negative sedimentary budget or by the re-activation of high relict foredunes in the case of shoreline retreat associated with strong negative budget. Present sedimentary budget (evaluated through the code ASPE – Accretion, Stable, Precarious, Erosive) is the tool used for dividing coasts in sedimentary compartments or cells. Past and present sedimentary budget and different human responses to erosive cases (hard and soft interventions) give the foredunes different means to form, grow, survive and evolve over time. The assessment of Human Impact and Active Management Practices on the dunes allows a first evaluation of the Management Effectiveness, which shows strong shortcomings for 81% of the dunes. The great variability of beach usage, human impact and management practises on the different dune stretches highlight the lack of effective and systematic management actions being correctly scheduled and performed.     

Using deep-belief networks to understand propensity for livelihood change in a rural coastal community to further conservation

Overharvesting of terrestrial and marine resources may be alleviated by encouraging an alternative configuration of livelihoods, particularly in rural communities in developing countries. Typical occupations in such areas include fishing and farming, and rural households often switch livelihood activities to suit climate and economic conditions. We used a machine-learning tool, deep-belief networks (DBN), and data from surveys of a rural Philippine coastal community to examine household desire to change livelihood. This desire is affected by a variety of factors, such as income, family needs, and feelings of work satisfaction, that are interrelated in complex ways. In farming households, livelihood changes often occur to diversify resources, increase income, and lessen economic risk. The DBN, given its multilayer perceptron structure, has a capacity to model nonlinear relationships among factors while providing an acceptable degree of accuracy. Relative to a set of 34 features (e.g., education, boat ownership, and work satisfaction), we examined the binary response variables desire to change work or not to change work. The best network had a test set accuracy of 97.5%. Among the features, 7 significantly affected desire to shift work: ethnicity, work satisfaction, number of persons in a household in ill health, number of fighting cocks owned, fishing engagement, buy-and-sell revenue, and educational level. A cross-correlation matrix of these 7 features indicated households less inclined to change work were those engaged in fishing and retail buying and selling. For fishing, provision of economic and other incentives should be considered to encourage changing from this occupation to allow recovery of fishery resources.     

A comparative review of coastal conservation policies in France, and England and Wales

In Europe, Britain was relatively early in being aware of the necessity of conserving natural coastal sites, though not as early as The Netherlands. In the 1960s and 1970s, increasing economic and tourist pressures in Europe prompted measures geared to the protection of other coasts in Europe. The promptness of the British reaction was a result of a sensitive public opinion and of powerful private trusts (National Trust with Enterprise Neptune) rather than of a commitment by the Government. In France a specific organization, in part inspired by the British principle, was set up. However, the French system is based much more on a public authority, theConservatoire de l’Espace Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres and on legislation (Coastal Law of 1986). Although very different in the beginning, French and British conservation politics today show many similarities, along with the similarities in the concerns of both countries.     

Demographic Stability Metrics for Conservation Prioritization of Isolated Populations

Abstract:  Systems of geographically isolated habitat patches house species that occur naturally as small, disjunct populations. Many of these species are of conservation concern, particularly under the interacting influences of isolation and rapid global change. One potential conservation strategy is to prioritize the populations most likely to persist through change and act as sources for future recolonization of less stable localities. We propose an approach to classify long-term population stability (and, presumably, future persistence potential) with composite demographic metrics derived from standard population-genetic data. Stability metrics can be related to simple habitat measures for a straightforward method of classifying localities to inform conservation management. We tested these ideas in a system of isolated desert headwater streams with mitochondrial sequence data from 16 populations of a flightless aquatic insect. Populations exhibited a wide range of stability scores, which were significantly predicted by dry-season aquatic habitat size. This preliminary test suggests strong potential for our proposed method of classifying isolated populations according to persistence potential. The approach is complementary to existing methods for prioritizing local habitats according to diversity patterns and should be tested further in other systems and with additional loci to inform composite demographic stability scores.     

Key issues in the conservation of the Australian coastal archaeological record: natural and human impacts

Australia has an extensive coastline extending over 60,000 km through diverse tropical and temperate environments. Indigenous archaeological sites are found along this coastline from the time of earliest settlement at least 50,000 years ago. However, Pleistocene sites are rare owing largely to the destructive impacts of sea-level change associated with the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago. After this sites are more numerous but there is variability around the coastline due to the impact of a range of both natural and human factors. Here we focus on six key issues impacting on the development and conservation of coastal archaeological deposits: sea-levels, climate change, cyclones, storms, tsunamis and contemporary human impacts. A number of examples of these impacts are discussed from across Australia. Managing and monitoring of sites has been limited in Australia and geoindicators are discussed as a means of developing a long-term measurement of continuing impacts.     

Prospective spatial prediction of infectious disease: experience of New York State (USA) with West Nile Virus and proposed directions for improved surveillance

Infectious disease surveillance has become an international top priority due to the perceived risk of bioterrorism. This is driving the improvement of real-time geo-spatial surveillance systems for monitoring disease indicators, which is expected to have many benefits beyond detecting a bioterror event. West Nile Virus surveillance in New York State (USA) is highlighted as a working system that uses dead American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) to prospectively indicate viral activity prior to human onset. A cross-disciplinary review is then presented to argue that this system, and infectious disease surveillance in general, can be improved by complementing spatial cluster detection of an outcome variable with predictive “risk mapping” that incorporates spatiotemporal data on the environment, climate and human population through the flexible class of generalized linear mixed models.

Using earth observation data from multiple sources to map rare habitats in a coastal conservation area

Kenfig NNR (National Nature Reserve) is a coastal sand dune system in south Wales, UK. The site is an important location for the conservation of the fen orchidLiparis loeselii, a significant proportion of the UK population is found solely on the site. Approaches to the mapping and monitoring of the habitats at Kenfig NNR using EO (Earth Observation) methods are investigated. Typical airborne EO missions over such sites produce more than a single source of EO data; these may include various optical imaging sensors with different spectral ranges, film cameras and ranging devices to measure topography. Conservation managers are thus presented with the problem of which sources of data to use when producing a land cover map of the site of interest. Using a data set gathered over the Kenfig NNR site, we investigate land cover mapping methods for conservation. The land cover types of interest typically cover small areas within a much larger site so they present a hard problem for the EO data and associated classification methods to solve. Land cover classifications produced from the data sets provide a set of competing hypotheses of land cover type for the site. Methods we use to resolve this competition between the data sets include voting methods, data fusion methods and a method utilising fuzzy logic to aggregate information. This paper is intended to act as an introduction to some of the issues involved in using EO data for habitat mapping in highly heterogeneous coastal dune environments and to present some preliminary results of the performance of each method.     

Fishery resource management in Chilika lagoon: a study on coastal conservation in the Eastern Coast of India

A significant proportion of the fishing population comprises small-scale fishermen and many studies illustrate that these people are exploited by middlemen in the process of fish marketing combined with money lending. The negative dependency gives rise to poverty and triggers indiscriminate fish catch that threatens fishery resources depletion. This article explores the root causes of failures in resource-led development from the viewpoint of coastal resource conservation. The study presents a case study of Chilika lagoon, India and focuses on the interaction between small-scale fishermen and middlemen. The findings reveal that most of the small-scale fishermen have been exploited by specific middlemen and the underlying causes of the present fish marketing structure stem from (i) indebtedness and (ii) the unstable situation because of perpetual conflicts over fishery resources among the fishers across Chilika lagoon. Based on these observations, this article presents some recommendations on fishery resource conservation from the perspective of a fish marketing structure.

Dynamic model of nutrification in Huntington Bay,New York

A dynamic simulation model of nutrification with respect to phytoplankton and zooplankton levels in Huntington Bay is developed. The validity of relationships used by previous researchers in freshwater environments is tested under marine conditions.Nutrients are modelled, and it is shown that nitrogen is the limiting nutrient in the bay. Phosphorus is not found to be limiting.     

Prioritization of applicable drivers for green supply chain management implementation toward sustainability in Thailand

ABSTRACT

It is essential that the green supply chain management (GSCM) implementation is effectively supported by several strategic drivers for successful implementation and sustainability, especially for the ‘green’ start-ups with a sustainability-driven organizational strategy. This study aims to determine and prioritize the applicable drivers for GSCM implementation of sustainable development strategies in the electronics industry in Thailand. The applicable drivers and their priorities are obtained by applying the fuzzy group decision-making approaches including fuzzy Delphi and fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, based on Thai experts’ perspectives. In this study, three prominent organizational theories, resource-based view, relational view, and institutional theory, are needed to explain the drivers of sustainability and to develop a hierarchical model for prioritization of the drivers. Finally, based on the findings of this study, several recommendations are made that may help to improve the sustainable development in Thailand through more effective implementation of GSCM.     

The impact of coastal flooding on conservation areas: A study of the Clyde Estuary, Scotland

This study examines the impact of flooding on land of high conservation value located along part of the southern shoreline of the River Clyde Estuary in western Scotland. This paper hypothesizes that, over the next 50 years, the frequency and extent of coastal flooding will increase due to the gradual effect of global warming and the consequent rise in sea-level and increase in storminess. It is argued that because of the great cost of constructing new flood defence systems it will not be possible to protect all land areas to an equal extent from flooding. A means of ranking different land use will be necessary so that society can make a rational judgement concerning which sections of coastline will be worth protecting. This study provides a methodology that combines an objective ranking of conservation areas using non-economic indicators with a GIS model of flood potential, and permits accurate forecasts of flood losses to conservation areas of different ecological value. The conservation case study used in this paper proposes the use of an ecological weighting value based on five ecological variables each of 10 categories. Tables and maps identify the sites that have been highlighted as consisting of the most ‘valuable’ conservation sites. The methodology makes extensive use of geographical information systems (GIS) to model the predicted areas of flooding and to calculate conservation weighting values of the land areas.     

The impact of coastal flooding on conservation areas: A study of the Clyde Estuary, Scotland

This study examines the impact of flooding on land of high conservation value located along part of the southern shoreline of the River Clyde Estuary in western Scotland. This paper hypothesizes that, over the next 50 years, the frequency and extent of coastal flooding will increase due to the gradual effect of global warming and the consequent rise in sea-level and increase in storminess. It is argued that because of the great cost of constructing new flood defence systems it will not be possible to protect all land areas to an equal extent from flooding. A means of ranking different land use will be necessary so that society can make a rational judgement concerning which sections of coastline will be worth protecting. This study provides a methodology that combines an objective ranking of conservation areas using non-economic indicators with a GIS model of flood potential, and permits accurate forecasts of flood losses to conservation areas of different ecological value. The conservation case study used in this paper proposes the use of an ecological weighting value based on five ecological variables each of 10 categories. Tables and maps identify the sites that have been highlighted as consisting of the most ‘valuable’ conservation sites. The methodology makes extensive use of geographical information systems (GIS) to model the predicted areas of flooding and to calculate conservation weighting values of the land areas.     

Photosynthate partitioning by phytoplankton in a New Zealand coastal upwelling system

A stimulation model of copepod population dynamics (development rate, fecundity, and mortality) was used to compute the predatory consumption necessary to control population growth in three dominant copepod species (Pseudocalanus sp., Paracalanus parvus, and Calanus finmarchicus) on Georges Bank, given observed seasonal cycles of copepod and predator populations. The model also calculated secondary production of each species. Copepod development rate and fecundity were functions of temperature while mortality was a function of predator abundance and consumption rate. Daily inputs of temperature and predator abundance (chaetognaths, ctenophores, and Centropages spp.) were derived from equations fit to field data. Model runs were made with various consumption rates until the model output matched observed copepod seasonal cycles. Computed consumption rates were low compared with published values from field and laboratory studies indicating that, even at conservative estimates of consumption, predators are able to control these copepod populations. Combined annual secondary production by the small copepod species, Pseudocalanus sp. and P. parvus, was nearly twice that of the larger C. finmarchicus with P. parvus having the highest total annual production.