Cutler Bay Township: Sea Level Rise 1990 - 2160 Resulting from Global Climate Change

Draft Document. Presentation of maps produced from digital LIDAR elevation grids and contoured at 1 ft. levels illustration sea level rise for the Cutler Bay Township in Miami-Dade County.

Managing small-scale commercial fisheries for adaptive capacity: Insights from dynamic social-ecological drivers of change in Monterey Bay

Globally, small-scale fisheries (SSFs) are driven by climate, governance, and market factors of social-ecological change, presenting both challenges and opportunities. The ability of small-scale fishermen and buyers to adapt to changing conditions allows participants to survive economic or environmental disturbances and to benefit from optimal conditions. This study presented here identifies key large-scale factors that drive SSFs in California to shift focus among targets and that dictate long-term trends in landings. We use Elinor Ostrom’s Social-Ecological System (SES) framework to apply an interdisciplinary approach when identifying potential factors and when understanding the complex dynamics of these fisheries. We analyzed the interactions among Monterey Bay SSFs over the past four decades since the passage of the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976. In this region, the Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax), northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax), and market squid (Loligo opalescens) fisheries comprise a tightly linked system where shifting focus among fisheries is a key element to adaptive capacity and reduced social and ecological vulnerability. Using a cluster analysis of landings, we identified four modes from 1974 to 2012 that were dominated by squid, sardine, anchovy, or lacked any dominance, enabling us to identify external drivers attributed to a change in fishery dominance during seven distinct transition points. Overall, we show that market and climate factors drive the transitions among dominance modes. Governance phases most dictated long-term trends in landings and are best viewed as a response to changes in perceived biomass and thus a proxy for biomass. Our findings suggest that globally, small-scale fishery managers should consider enabling shifts in effort among fisheries and retaining existing flexibility, as adaptive capacity is a critical determinant for social and ecological resilience.

The influence of interhemispheric connections on ongoing and evoked orientation preference maps and spiking activity in the cat primary visual cortex

In the primary visual cortex, neurons with similar physiological features are clustered together in columns extending through all six cortical layers. These columns form modular orientation preference maps. Long-range lateral fibers are associated to the structure of orientation maps since they do not connect columns randomly; they rather cluster in regular intervals and interconnect predominantly columns of neurons responding to similar stimulus features. Single orientation preference maps – the joint activation of domains preferring the same orientation - were observed to emerge spontaneously and it was speculated whether this structured ongoing activation could be caused by the underlying patchy lateral connectivity. Since long-range lateral connections share many features, i.e. clustering, orientation selectivity, with visual inter-hemispheric connections (VIC) through the corpus callosum we used the latter as a model for long-range lateral connectivity. In order to address the question of how the lateral connectivity contributes to spontaneously generated maps of one hemisphere we investigated how these maps react to the deactivation of VICs originating from the contralateral hemisphere. To this end, we performed experiments in eight adult cats. We recorded voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging and electrophysiological spiking activity in one brain hemisphere while reversible deactivating the other hemisphere with a cooling technique. In order to compare ongoing activity with evoked activity patterns we first presented oriented gratings as visual stimuli. Gratings had 8 different orientations distributed equally between 0º and 180º. VSD imaged frames obtained during ongoing activity conditions were then compared to the averaged evoked single orientation maps in three different states: baseline, cooling and recovery. Kohonen self-organizing maps were also used as a means of analysis without prior assumption (like the averaged single condition maps) on ongoing activity. We also evaluated if cooling had a differential effect on evoked and ongoing spiking activity of single units. We found that deactivating VICs caused no spatial disruption on the structure of either evoked or ongoing activity maps. The frequency with which a cardinally preferring (0º or 90º) map would emerge, however, decreased significantly for ongoing but not for evoked activity. The same result was found by training self-organizing maps with recorded data as input. Spiking activity of cardinally preferring units also decreased significantly for ongoing when compared to evoked activity. Based on our results we came to the following conclusions: 1) VICs are not a determinant factor of ongoing map structure. Maps continued to be spontaneously generated with the same quality, probably by a combination of ongoing activity from local recurrent connections, thalamocortical loop and feedback connections. 2) VICs account for a cardinal bias in the temporal sequence of ongoing activity patterns, i.e. deactivating VIC decreases the probability of cardinal maps to emerge spontaneously. 3) Inter- and intrahemispheric long-range connections might serve as a grid preparing primary visual cortex for likely junctions in a larger visual environment encompassing the two hemifields.

The influence of interhemispheric connections on ongoing and evoked orientation preference maps and spiking activity in the cat primary visual cortex

In the primary visual cortex, neurons with similar physiological features are clustered together in columns extending through all six cortical layers. These columns form modular orientation preference maps. Long-range lateral fibers are associated to the structure of orientation maps since they do not connect columns randomly; they rather cluster in regular intervals and interconnect predominantly columns of neurons responding to similar stimulus features. Single orientation preference maps – the joint activation of domains preferring the same orientation - were observed to emerge spontaneously and it was speculated whether this structured ongoing activation could be caused by the underlying patchy lateral connectivity. Since long-range lateral connections share many features, i.e. clustering, orientation selectivity, with visual inter-hemispheric connections (VIC) through the corpus callosum we used the latter as a model for long-range lateral connectivity. In order to address the question of how the lateral connectivity contributes to spontaneously generated maps of one hemisphere we investigated how these maps react to the deactivation of VICs originating from the contralateral hemisphere. To this end, we performed experiments in eight adult cats. We recorded voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging and electrophysiological spiking activity in one brain hemisphere while reversible deactivating the other hemisphere with a cooling technique. In order to compare ongoing activity with evoked activity patterns we first presented oriented gratings as visual stimuli. Gratings had 8 different orientations distributed equally between 0º and 180º. VSD imaged frames obtained during ongoing activity conditions were then compared to the averaged evoked single orientation maps in three different states: baseline, cooling and recovery. Kohonen self-organizing maps were also used as a means of analysis without prior assumption (like the averaged single condition maps) on ongoing activity. We also evaluated if cooling had a differential effect on evoked and ongoing spiking activity of single units. We found that deactivating VICs caused no spatial disruption on the structure of either evoked or ongoing activity maps. The frequency with which a cardinally preferring (0º or 90º) map would emerge, however, decreased significantly for ongoing but not for evoked activity. The same result was found by training self-organizing maps with recorded data as input. Spiking activity of cardinally preferring units also decreased significantly for ongoing when compared to evoked activity. Based on our results we came to the following conclusions: 1) VICs are not a determinant factor of ongoing map structure. Maps continued to be spontaneously generated with the same quality, probably by a combination of ongoing activity from local recurrent connections, thalamocortical loop and feedback connections. 2) VICs account for a cardinal bias in the temporal sequence of ongoing activity patterns, i.e. deactivating VIC decreases the probability of cardinal maps to emerge spontaneously. 3) Inter- and intrahemispheric long-range connections might serve as a grid preparing primary visual cortex for likely junctions in a larger visual environment encompassing the two hemifields.

Inventory of thermo-erosional valleys and streams in three ice-rich permafrost lowlands adjacent to the Laptev Sea, with links to maps in ArcGIS format

This dataset provides an inventory of thermo-erosional landforms and streams in three lowland areas underlain by ice-rich permafrost of the Yedoma-type Ice Complex at the Siberian Laptev Sea coast. It consists of two shapefiles per study region: one shapefile for the digitized thermo-erosional landforms and streams, one for the study area extent. Thermo-erosional landforms were manually digitized from topographic maps and satellite data as line features and subsequently analyzed in a Geographic Information System (GIS) using ArcGIS 10.0. The mapping included in particular thermo-erosional gullies and valleys as well as streams and rivers, since development of all of these features potentially involved thermo-erosional processes. For the Cape Mamontov Klyk site, data from Grosse et al. [2006], which had been digitized from 1:100000 topographic map sheets, were clipped to the Ice Complex extent of Cape Mamontov Klyk, which excludes the hill range in the southwest with outcropping bedrock and rocky slope debris, coastal barrens, and a large sandy floodplain area in the southeast. The mapped features (streams, intermittent streams) were then visually compared with panchromatic Landsat-7 ETM+ satellite data (4 August 2000, 15 m spatial resolution) and panchromatic Hexagon data (14 July 1975, 10 m spatial resolution). Smaller valleys and gullies not captured in the maps were subsequently digitized from the satellite data. The criterion for the mapping of linear features as thermo-erosional valleys and gullies was their clear incision into the surface with visible slopes. Thermo-erosional features of the Lena Delta site were mapped on the basis of a Landsat-7 ETM+ image mosaic (2000 and 2001, 30 m ground resolution) [Schneider et al., 2009] and a Hexagon satellite image mosaic (1975, 10 m ground resolution) [G. Grosse, unpublished data] of the Lena River Delta within the extent of the Lena Delta Ice Complex [Morgenstern et al., 2011]. For the Buor Khaya Peninsula, data from Arcos [2012], which had been digitized based on RapidEye satellite data (8 August 2010, 6.5 m ground resolution), were completed for smaller thermo-erosional features using the same RapidEye scene as a mapping basis. The spatial resolution, acquisition date, time of the day, and viewing geometry of the satellite data used may have influenced the identification of thermo-erosional landforms in the images. For Cape Mamontov Klyk and the Lena Delta, thermo-erosional features were digitized using both Hexagon and Landsat data; Hexagon provided higher resolution and Landsat provided the modern extent of features. Allowance of up to decameters was made for the lateral expansion of features between Hexagon and Landsat acquisitions (between 1975 and 2000).

Lithofacies distribution in the western Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Sediment dynamics on a storm-dominated shelf (western Bay of Plenty, New Zealand) were mapped and analyzed using the newly developed multi-sensor benthic profiler MARUM NERIDIS III. An area of 60 km × 7 km between 2 and 35 m water depth was surveyed with this bottom-towed sled equipped with a high-resolution camera for continuous close-up seafloor photography and a CTD with connected turbidity sensor. Here we introduce our approach of using this multi-parameter dataset combined with sidescan sonography and sedimentological analyses to create detailed lithofacies and bedform distribution maps and to derive regional sediment transport patterns. For the assessment of sediment distribution, photographs were classified and their spatial distribution mapped out according to associated acoustic backscatter from a sidescan sonar. This provisional map was used to choose target locations for surficial sediment sampling and subsequent laboratory analysis of grain size distribution and mineralogical composition. Finally, photographic, granulometric and mineralogical facies were combined into a unified lithofacies map and corresponding stratigraphic model. Eight distinct types of lithofacies with seawards increasing grain size were discriminated and interpreted as reworked relict deposits overlain by post-transgressional fluvial sediments. The dominant transport processes in different water depths were identified based on type and orientation of bedforms, as well as bottom water turbidity and lithofacies distribution. Observed bedforms include subaquatic dunes, coarse sand ribbons and sorted bedforms of varying dimensions, which were interpreted as being initially formed by erosion. Under fair weather conditions, sediment is transported from the northwest towards the southeast by littoral drift. During storm events, a current from the southeast to the northweast is induced which is transporting sediment along the shore in up to 35 m water depth. Shorewards oriented cross-shore transport is taking place in up to 60 m water depth and is likewise initiated by storm events. Our study demonstrates how benthic photographic profiling delivers comprehensive compositional, structural and environmental information, which compares well with results obtained by traditional probing methods, but offers much higher spatial resolution while covering larger areas. Multi-sensor benthic profiling enhances the interpretability of acoustic seafloor mapping techniques and is a rapid and economic approach to seabed and habitat mapping especially in muddy to sandy facies.

Morphometrics of seagrasses at species level, Moreton Bay, Australia determined from core samples collected in 2012-2013

Seagrass meadows are important marine carbon sinks, yet they are threatened and declining worldwide. Seagrass management and conservation requires adequate understanding of the physical and biological factors determining carbon content in seagrass sediments. Here, we identified key factors that influence carbon content in seagrass meadows across several environmental gradients in Moreton Bay, SE Queensland. Sampling was conducted in two regions: (1) Canopy Complexity, 98 sites on the Eastern Banks, where seagrass canopy structure and species composition varied while turbidity was consistently low; and (2) Turbidity Gradient, 11 locations across the entire bay, where turbidity varied among sampling locations. Sediment organic carbon content and seagrass structural complexity (shoot density, leaf area, and species specific characteristics) were measured from shallow sediment and seagrass biomass cores at each location, respectively. Environmental data were obtained from empirical measurements (water quality) and models (wave height). The key factors influencing carbon content in seagrass sediments were seagrass structural complexity, turbidity, water depth, and wave height. In the Canopy Complexity region, carbon content was higher for shallower sites and those with higher seagrass structural complexity. When turbidity varied along the Turbidity Gradient, carbon content was higher at sites with high turbidity. In both regions carbon content was consistently higher in sheltered areas with lower wave height. Seagrass canopy structure, water depth, turbidity, and hydrodynamic setting of seagrass meadows should therefore be considered in conservation and management strategies that aim to maximize sediment carbon content.

Results of wave modelling for Moreton Bay, Southeast Queensland, and a reef lagoon off Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The distribution, abundance, behaviour, and morphology of marine species is affected by spatial variability in the wave environment. Maps of wave metrics (e.g. significant wave height Hs, peak energy wave period Tp, and benthic wave orbital velocity URMS) are therefore useful for predictive ecological models of marine species and ecosystems. A number of techniques are available to generate maps of wave metrics, with varying levels of complexity in terms of input data requirements, operator knowledge, and computation time. Relatively simple "fetch-based" models are generated using geographic information system (GIS) layers of bathymetry and dominant wind speed and direction. More complex, but computationally expensive, "process-based" models are generated using numerical models such as the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model. We generated maps of wave metrics based on both fetch-based and process-based models and asked whether predictive performance in models of benthic marine habitats differed. Predictive models of seagrass distribution for Moreton Bay, Southeast Queensland, and Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, were generated using maps based on each type of wave model. For Lizard Island, performance of the process-based wave maps was significantly better for describing the presence of seagrass, based on Hs, Tp, and URMS. Conversely, for the predictive model of seagrass in Moreton Bay, based on benthic light availability and Hs, there was no difference in performance using the maps of the different wave metrics. For predictive models where wave metrics are the dominant factor determining ecological processes it is recommended that process-based models be used. Our results suggest that for models where wave metrics provide secondarily useful information, either fetch- or process-based models may be equally useful.

Contents of hydrocarbons in waters and bottom sediments of the southwestern Amur Bay (Sea of Japan) in April 2005

Abundances and compositions of aliphatic hydrocarbons (AHC) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were investigated in water and bottom sediments of the southwestern Amur Bay, Sea of Japan. Water contained 0-129 ?g/l AHC (average 42.2 ?g/l) and 5-85 ng/l PAH (average 18 ng/l). Bottom sediments contained 168-2098 ?g/g AHC and 7.2-1100 ng/g dry mass PAH. It was shown that input of anthropogenic hydrocarbons is better recorded by molecular markers than by distribution of AHC and PAH concentrations. Discovery of elevated hydrocarbon concentrations in the bottom water layer suggests that bottom sediments induced secondary contamination of the water body.

Near real time surface ocean velocity in the Bay of Biscay - Basque Country from Mai to September 2016

The data set consists of maps of total velocity of the surface current in the Southeastern Bay of Biscay averaged over a time interval of 1 hour around the cardinal hour. Surface ocean velocities estimated by this HF Radar(4.65 MHz) are representative of the upper 2-3 meters of the ocean. The main objective of near real time processing is to produce the best product from available data at the time of processing. Total velocities are derived using least square fit that maps radial velocities measured from individual sites onto a cartesian grid. The final product is a map of the horizontal components of the ocean currents on a regular grid in the area of overlap of two or more radar stations.

R-ArcticNet, A Regional Hydrographic Data Network for the Pan-Arctic Region (ISO-image of CD-ROM)

We describe the contemporary hydrography of the pan-Arctic land area draining into the Arctic Ocean, northern Bering Sea, and Hudson Bay on the basis of observational records of river discharge and computed runoff. The Regional Arctic Hydrographic Network data set, R-ArcticNET, is presented, which is based on 3754 recording stations drawn from Russian, Canadian, European, and U.S. archives. R-ArcticNET represents the single largest data compendium of observed discharge in the Arctic. Approximately 73% of the nonglaciated area of the pan-Arctic is monitored by at least one river discharge gage giving a mean gage density of 168 gages per 106 km2. Average annual runoff is 212 mm yr?1 with approximately 60% of the river discharge occurring from April to July. Gridded runoff surfaces are generated for the gaged portion of the pan-Arctic region to investigate global change signals. Siberia and Alaska showed increases in winter runoff during the 1980s relative to the 1960s and 1970s during annual and seasonal periods. These changes are consistent with observations of change in the climatology of the region. Western Canada experienced decreased spring and summer runoff.

Bulk and amino acid parameters of core SO188-342KL from the Northern Bay of Bengal for the last 18 ka

The Northern Bay of Bengal (NBoB) is a globally important region for deep-sea organic matter (OM) deposition due to massive fluvial discharge from the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (G-B-M) rivers and moderate to high surface productivity. Previous studies have focused on carbon burial in turbiditic sediments of the Bengal Fan. However, little is known about the storage of carbon in pelagic and hemipelagic sediments of the Bay of Bengal over millennial time scales. This study presents a comprehensive history of OM origin and fate as well as a quantification of carbon sediment storage in the Eastern Bengal Slope (EBS) during the last 18 ka. Bulk organic proxies (TOC, TIC, TN, d13CTOC, d15NTN) and content and composition of total hydrolysable amino acids (THAA) in a sediment core (SO188-342KL) from the EBS were analyzed. Three periods of high OM accumulation were identified: the Late Glacial (LG), the Bölling/Alleröd (B/A), and the Early Holocene Climatic Optimum (EHCO). Lower eustatic sea level before 15 ka BP allowed a closer connection between the EBS and the fluvial debouch, favoring high terrestrial OM input to the core site. This connection was progressively lost between 15 and 7 ka BP as sea level rose to its present height and terrestrial OM input decreased considerably. Export and preservation of marine OM was stimulated during periods of summer monsoon intensification (B/A and EHCO) as a consequence of higher surface productivity enhanced by cyclonic-eddy nutrient pumping and fluvial nutrient delivery into the photic zone. Changes in the THAA composition indicate that the marine plankton community structure shifted from calcareous-dominated before 13 ka BP to siliceous-dominated afterwards. They also indicate that the relative proportion of marine versus terrestrial OM deposited at site 342KL was primarily driven by relative sea level and enlarged during the Holocene. The ballasting effect of lithogenic particles during periods of high coastal proximity and/or enhanced fluvial discharge promoted the export and preservation of OM. The high organic carbon accumulation rates in the EBS during the LG (18-17 ka BP) were 5-fold higher than at present and comparable to those of glacial upwelling areas. Despite the differences in sediment and OM transport and storage among the Western and Eastern sectors of the NBoB, this region remains important for global carbon sequestration during sea level low-stands. In addition, the summer monsoon was a key promotor of terrestrial and marine OM export to the deep-ocean, highlighting its relevance as regulator of the global carbon budget.

(Table 1) Sample locations and clay mineral data of sediment surface samples from the Barents Sea region

A new surface sediment sample set gained in the western Barents Sea by the MAREANO program has been analysed for basic clay mineral assemblages. Distribution maps including additional samples from earlier German research cruises to and off Svalbard are compiled. Some trends in the clay mineral assemblages are related to the sub-Barents Sea geology because the Quaternary sediment cover is rather thin. Additionally, land masses like Svalbard and northern Scandinavia dominate the clay mineral signal with their erosional products. Dense bottom water, very often of brine origin, that flows within deep troughs, such as the Storfjorden or Bear Island Trough, transport the clay mineral signal from their origin to the Norwegian-Greenland Sea.

Clay-mineral composition and biogenic opal content of Late Neogene to Quaternary sediments of the Antarctic Peninsula region

Clay-mineral composition and biogenic opal content in upper Miocene to Quaternary drift sediments recovered at two Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sites from the continental rise in the Bellingshausen Sea had been analyzed in order to reconstruct the climatic and glacial history of the Antarctic Peninsula. The clay mineral composition at both sites is dominated by smectite, illite, and chlorite, and alternates between a smectite-enriched and a chlorite-enriched assemblage throughout the last 9.3 my. The spatial distribution of clay minerals in Holocene sediments west of the Antarctic Peninsula facilitates the identification of particular source areas, and thus the reconstruction of transport pathways. The similarity to clay mineral variations reported from upper Quaternary sequences suggests that the short-term clay-mineralogical fluctuations in the ODP cores reflect glacial-interglacial cyclicity. Thus, repeated ice advances and retreats in response to a varying size of the Antarctic Peninsula ice cap are likely to have occurred throughout the late Neogene and Quaternary. The clay minerals in the drift sediments exhibit only slight long-term variations, which are caused by local changes in glacial erosion and in supply of source rocks, rather than by major climatic changes. The opal records at the ODP sites are dominated by long-term variations since the late Miocene. We infer that the opal content in the drift sediments, although it is influenced by dissolution in the water column and the sediment column and by the burial with lithogenic detritus, provides a signal of paleoproductivity. Because the annual sea-ice coverage is regarded as the main factor controlling biological productivity, the opal signal helps to reconstruct paleoceanographic changes in the Bellingshausen Sea. Slightly enhanced opal deposition during the late Miocene indicates slightly warmer climatic conditions in the Antarctic Peninsula area than at present. During the early Pliocene, enhanced opal deposition in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean and coinciding high opal concentrations in sedimentary sequences from the Atlantic and Indian sectors document a strong reduction of sea-ice cover and relatively warm climatic conditions. Thereby, the early onset of the Pliocene warmth in the Bellingshausen Sea points to a positive feedback of regional Antarctic climate on the global thermohaline circulation. A decrease of opal deposition between 3.1 and 2.6 Ma likely reflects sea-ice expansion in response to reduced supply of northern-sourced deep-waters to the Southern Ocean, caused by the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Throughout the Quaternary, a relatively constant level of opal deposition on the Antarctic continental margin indicates relatively stable climatic conditions.

An appraisal of adaptive management planning and implementation in ecological restoration: case studies from the San Francisco Bay Delta, USA

Adaptive management has been defined and redefined in the context of natural resource management, yet there are few examples of its successful application in ecological restoration. Although the 2009 Delta Reform Act now legally requires adaptive management for all restoration efforts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, in California, USA, projects in this region still encounter problems with implementation. We used a comparative case study analysis to examine adaptive management planning and implementation both in and around the Delta, assessing not only why adaptive management is not yet well implemented, but also what changes can be made to facilitate the adaptive management approach without sacrificing scientific rigor. Adaptive management seems to be directly and indirectly affected by a variety of challenges and convoluted by ambiguity in both planning documents and practitioner’s interpretations of the concept. Addressing these challenges and ambiguities at the project level may facilitate the adaptive management process and help make it more accessible to practitioners.