A continental-scale tool for acoustic identification of European bats

Summary 1. Acoustic methods are used increasingly to survey and monitor bat populations. However, the use of acoustic methods at continental scales can be hampered by the lack of standardized and objective methods to identify all species recorded. This makes comparable continent-wide monitoring difficult, impeding progress towards developing biodiversity indicators, transboundary conservation programmes and monitoring species distribution changes. 2. Here we developed a continental-scale classifier for acoustic identification of bats, which can be used throughout Europe to ensure objective, consistent and comparable species identifications. We selected 1350 full-spectrum reference calls from a set of 15 858 calls of 34 European species, from EchoBank, a global echolocation call library. We assessed 24 call parameters to evaluate how well they distinguish between species and used the 12 most useful to train a hierarchy of ensembles of artificial neural networks to distinguish the echolocation calls of these bat species. 3. Calls are first classified to one of five call-type groups, with a median accuracy of 97·6%. The median species-level classification accuracy is 83·7%, providing robust classification for most European species, and an estimate of classification error for each species. 4. These classifiers were packaged into an online tool, iBatsID, which is freely available, enabling anyone to classify European calls in an objective and consistent way, allowing standardized acoustic identification across the continent. 5. Synthesis and applications. iBatsID is the first freely available and easily accessible continental- scale bat call classifier, providing the basis for standardized, continental acoustic bat monitoring in Europe. This method can provide key information to managers and conservation planners on distribution changes and changes in bat species activity through time.

Physical, chemical, biological and ecotoxicological properties of wastewater discharged from Davis Station, Antarctica

The properties and toxicity of untreatedwastewater at Davis Station, East Antarctica,were investigated to inform decisions regarding the appropriate level of treatment for local discharge purposes and more generally, to better understand the risk associated with dispersal and impact of wastewaters in Antarctica. Suspended solids, nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus), biological oxygen demand (BOD), metals, organic contaminants, surfactants and microbiological load were measured at various locations throughout the wastewater discharge system. Wastewater quality and properties varied greatly between buildings on station, each ofwhich has separate holding tanks. Nutrients, BOD and settleable solid levelswere higher than standard municipal wastewaters. Microbiological loads were typical of untreated wastewater. Contaminants detected in the wastewater included metals and persistent organic compounds, mainly polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The toxicity of wastewater was also investigated in laboratory bioassays using two local Antarctic marine invertebrates, the amphipod Paramoera walkeri and the microgastropod Skenella paludionoides. Animals were exposed to a range of wastewater concentrations from3% to 68% (test 1) or 63% (test 2) over 21 days with survival monitored daily. Significant mortality occurred in all concentrations of wastewater after 14 to 21 days, and at higher concentrations (50–68% wastewater) mortality occurred after only one day. Results indicate that the local receiving marine environment at Davis Station is at risk from existing wastewater discharges, and that advanced treatment is required both to remove contaminants shown to cause toxicity to biota, as well as to reduce the environmental risks associated with non-native micro-organisms in wastewater.

The origin of cyclical high- and low-Cr basalts with continental crust trace element signatures in the Kalkarindji Large Igneous Province

The 510 million year old Kalkarindji Large Igneous Province correlates in time with the first major extinction event after the Cambrian explosion of life. Large igneous provinces correlate with all major mass extinction events in the last 500 million years. The genetic link between large igneous provinces and mass extinction remains unclear. My work is a contribution towards understanding magmatic processes involved in the generation of Large Igneous Provinces. I concentrate on the origin of variation in Cr in magmas and have developed a model in which high temperature melts intrude into and assimilate large amounts of upper continental crust.

'It's Africa. It's Arizona. It's Antarctica. It's Afghanistan. Actually, it's Alberta' : Marketing locations to film producers

This chapter begins by outlining the dynamics of contemporary international film production and the inherent tension between ‘design interest’ and ‘location interest’. A history of the promotion of particular places as filmmaking locations (including Hollywood) is presented, prior to the establishment of the first film commissions. The creation of international associations and their role in professionalization, norm setting and the standardization of offerings and activities, is then described. The chapter concludes with a discussion of commissions’ work, the emergent discourse of ‘film friendliness,’ and the differences between location marketing and other kinds of destination marketing.

Low delta18O zircon grains in the Neoarchean Rum Jungle Complex, northern Australia: An indicator of emergent continental crust

The timing of widespread continental emergence is generally considered to have had a dramatic effect on the hydrological cycle, atmospheric conditions, and climate. New secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) oxygen and laser-ablation–multicollector–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) Lu-Hf isotopic results from dated zircon grains in the granitic Neoarchean Rum Jungle Complex provide a minimum time constraint on the emergence of continental crust above sea level for the North Australian craton. A 2535 ± 7 Ma monzogranite is characterized by magmatic zircon with slightly elevated δ18O (6.0‰–7.5‰ relative to Vienna standard mean ocean water [VSMOW]), consistent with some contribution to the magma from reworked supracrustal material. A supracrustal contribution to magma genesis is supported by the presence of metasedimentary rock enclaves, a large population of inherited zircon grains, and subchondritic zircon Hf (εHf = −6.6 to −4.1). A separate, distinct crustal source to the same magma is indicated by inherited zircon grains that are dominated by low δ18O values (2.5‰–4.8‰, n = 9 of 15) across a range of ages (3536–2598 Ma; εHf = −18.2 to +0.4). The low δ18O grains may be the product of one of two processes: (1) grain-scale diffusion of oxygen in zircon by exchange with a low δ18O magma or (2) several episodes of magmatic reworking of a Mesoarchean or older low δ18O source. Both scenarios require shallow crustal magmatism in emergent crust, to allow interaction with rocks altered by hydrothermal meteoric water in order to generate the low δ18O zircon. In the first scenario, assimilation of these altered rocks during Neoarchean magmatism generated low δ18O magma with which residual detrital zircons were able to exchange oxygen, while preserving their U-Pb systematics. In the second scenario, wholesale melting of the altered rocks occurred in several distinct events through the Mesoarchean, generating low δ18O magma from which zircon crystallized. Ultimately, in either scenario, the low δ18O zircons were entrained as inherited grains in a Neoarchean granite. The data suggest operation of a modern hydrological cycle by the Neoarchean and add to evidence for the increased emergence of continents by this time

Res Communis? A critical legal geography of outer space, Antarctica, and the deep seabed

This chapter provides a critical legal geography of outer Space, charting the topography of the debates and struggles around its definition, management, and possession. As the emerging field of critical legal geography demonstrates, law is not a neutral organiser of space, but is instead a powerful cultural technology of spatial production. Drawing on legal documents such as the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty, as well as on the analogous and precedent-setting legal geographies of Antarctica and the deep seabed, the chapter addresses key questions about the legal geography of outer Space, questions which are of growing importance as Space’s available satellite spaces in the geostationary orbit diminish, Space weapons and mining become increasingly viable, Space colonisation and tourism emerge, and questions about Space’s legal status grow in intensity. Who owns outer Space? Who, and whose rules, govern what may or may not (literally) take place there? Is the geostationary orbit the sovereign property of the equatorial states it supertends, as these states argued in the 1970s? Or is it a part of the res communis, or common property of humanity, which currently legally characterises outer Space? Does Space belong to no one, or to everyone? As challenges to the existing legal spatiality of outer Space emerge from spacefaring states, companies, and non-spacefaring states, it is particularly critical that the current spatiality of Space is understood and considered.