Preparing for and adapting to climate change impacts: Next steps for the Washington state department of National Resources Aquatic Resources Program

In response to a growing body of research on projected climate change impacts to Washington State’s coastal areas, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Aquatic Resources Program (the Program) initiated a climate change preparedness effort in 2009 via the development of a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (the Strategy)i. The Strategy answers the question “What are the next steps that the Program can take to begin preparing for and adapting to climate change impacts in Washington’s coastal areas?” by considering how projected climate change impacts may effect: (1) Washington’s state-owned aquatic landsii, (2) the Program’s management activities, and (3) DNR’s statutorily established guidelines for managing Washington’s state-owned aquatic lands for the benefit of the public. The Program manages Washington’s state-owned aquatic lands according to the guidelines set forth in Revised Code of Washington 79-105-030, which stipulates that DNR must manage state-owned aquatic lands in a manner which provides a balance of the following public benefits: (1) Encouraging direct public uses and access; (2) Fostering water-dependent uses; (3) Ensuring environmental protection; (4) Utilizing renewable resources. (RCW 79-105-030) The law also stipulates that generating revenue in a manner consistent with these four benefits is a public benefit (RCW 79-105-030). Many of the next steps identified in the Strategy build off of recommendations provided by earlier climate change preparation and adaptation efforts in Washington State, most notably those provided by the Preparation and Adaptation Working Group, which were convened by Washington State Executive Order 70-02 in 2007, and those made in the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment (Climate Impacts Group, 2009). (PDF contains 4 pages)

New insights into the formation and modification of carbonate-bearing minerals and methane gas in geological systems using multiply substituted isotopologues

This thesis describes the use of multiply-substituted stable isotopologues of carbonate minerals and methane gas to better understand how these environmentally significant minerals and gases form and are modified throughout their geological histories. Stable isotopes have a long tradition in earth science as a tool for providing quantitative constraints on how molecules, in or on the earth, formed in both the present and past. Nearly all studies, until recently, have only measured the bulk concentrations of stable isotopes in a phase or species. However, the abundance of various isotopologues within a phase, for example the concentration of isotopologues with multiple rare isotopes (multiply substituted or 'clumped' isotopologues) also carries potentially useful information. Specifically, the abundances of clumped isotopologues in an equilibrated system are a function of temperature and thus knowledge of their abundances can be used to calculate a sample’s formation temperature. In this thesis, measurements of clumped isotopologues are made on both carbonate-bearing minerals and methane gas in order to better constrain the environmental and geological histories of various samples.

Clumped-isotope-based measurements of ancient carbonate-bearing minerals, including apatites, have opened up paleotemperature reconstructions to a variety of systems and time periods. However, a critical issue when using clumped-isotope based measurements to reconstruct ancient mineral formation temperatures is whether the samples being measured have faithfully recorded their original internal isotopic distributions. These original distributions can be altered, for example, by diffusion of atoms in the mineral lattice or through diagenetic reactions. Understanding these processes quantitatively is critical for the use of clumped isotopes to reconstruct past temperatures, quantify diagenesis, and calculate time-temperature burial histories of carbonate minerals. In order to help orient this part of the thesis, Chapter 2 provides a broad overview and history of clumped-isotope based measurements in carbonate minerals.

In Chapter 3, the effects of elevated temperatures on a sample’s clumped-isotope composition are probed in both natural and experimental apatites (which contain structural carbonate groups) and calcites. A quantitative model is created that is calibrated by the experiments and consistent with the natural samples. The model allows for calculations of the change in a sample’s clumped isotope abundances as a function of any time-temperature history.

In Chapter 4, the effects of diagenesis on the stable isotopic compositions of apatites are explored on samples from a variety of sedimentary phosphorite deposits. Clumped isotope temperatures and bulk isotopic measurements from carbonate and phosphate groups are compared for all samples. These results demonstrate that samples have experienced isotopic exchange of oxygen atoms in both the carbonate and phosphate groups. A kinetic model is developed that allows for the calculation of the amount of diagenesis each sample has experienced and yields insight into the physical and chemical processes of diagenesis.

The thesis then switches gear and turns its attention to clumped isotope measurements of methane. Methane is critical greenhouse gas, energy resource, and microbial metabolic product and substrate. Despite its importance both environmentally and economically, much about methane’s formational mechanisms and the relative sources of methane to various environments remains poorly constrained. In order to add new constraints to our understanding of the formation of methane in nature, I describe the development and application of methane clumped isotope measurements to environmental deposits of methane. To help orient the reader, a brief overview of the formation of methane in both high and low temperature settings is given in Chapter 5.

In Chapter 6, a method for the measurement of methane clumped isotopologues via mass spectrometry is described. This chapter demonstrates that the measurement is precise and accurate. Additionally, the measurement is calibrated experimentally such that measurements of methane clumped isotope abundances can be converted into equivalent formational temperatures. This study represents the first time that methane clumped isotope abundances have been measured at useful precisions.

In Chapter 7, the methane clumped isotope method is applied to natural samples from a variety of settings. These settings include thermogenic gases formed and reservoired in shales, migrated thermogenic gases, biogenic gases, mixed biogenic and thermogenic gas deposits, and experimentally generated gases. In all cases, calculated clumped isotope temperatures make geological sense as formation temperatures or mixtures of high and low temperature gases. Based on these observations, we propose that the clumped isotope temperature of an unmixed gas represents its formation temperature — this was neither an obvious nor expected result and has important implications for how methane forms in nature. Additionally, these results demonstrate that methane-clumped isotope compositions provided valuable additional constraints to studying natural methane deposits.

The Marine Fishery Resources Development and Management Department of SEAFDEC

The Marine Fishery Resources Development and Management Department of SEAFDEC (Malaysia), its objectives and activities are briefly presented.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 1. Preliminary report: introduction and description of the stations

The Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission of 1970 investigated and made collections from 36 flowing water systems (brooks, torrents, rivers); of these, 34 water systems were in the mountains regions of south-west and south-east of Sri Lanka. In the crystalline mountain region, the water systems are extremely poor in electrolytes, very soft and slightly acid; these torrential streams have strong falls, high flow velocities and boulder bottoms. The water temperatures increase from the sources and brooks at 2,000 m altitude to the mouths from 15°C to 28°C. The density of animal population (macro and meso-fauna) increases from the river bank regions (and pools) towards the sections with strong current and reaches on the rocks in the cascades a density of 500 to appr. 750 individuals/1/16m².

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 2. Hydrochemical studies on mountain rivers in Ceylon

The morphology, climate, geology and geochemistry of Sri Lanka is briefly described. The separation into a wet zone (the south-west and greater part of the central highland) and a dry zone with two very dry parts in the south-east and in the north-west, is obvious and has great influence on the hydrochemistry of the island. Geology is very homogenous (Precambrian crystalline series) and some Jurassic and Miocene limestones (only in the north).

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 3. Uber einige wassermilben aus Ceylon (Hydrachnellae, Acari)

In the study are described five species of watermites, collected by the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 in torrents of the highlands of south-west Sri Lanka. The species are: Torrenticola (Monatractides) pusta Cook, 1967, T.(M.) Oxystoma hamata (Lundbald, 1941), T.(M.) ceylonensis nov. spec., Atractides schwoerbeli Lundbald, 1969 and Arrenurus (Micruracarus) madaraszi Daday, 1898.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 4. List of reptilia and amphibia collected in the mountains of south-west Ceylon, with notes on finding localities

Sri Lanka is a comparatively small island (65.584 km²) within the equatorial belt of calms. There are only slight seasonal variations in temperature, air humidity and day length. A description is given of the amphibian and reptile material brought back from the Austrian Indo-Pacific expedition, 1970-71. Some notes on the habitat of the animals are included.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 5. Decapoda Caridea

The first comprehensive study on the freshwater Caridea of Sri Lanka was by Arudpragrasm and Costa in 1961. Although it was the intention of these authors to continue this study no opportunity was available to them. The present faunal survey however has afforded the present writer to make a detailed study of the distribution of these shrimps especially in the mountain streams of the south-west of Sri Lanka. Two species and two sub-species of Caridina, one species of Atya and four species of Macrobrachium were collected by the hydrobiological mission from the hill streams of Sri Lanka.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 6. A new Drepanosticta from Ceylon (Order: Odonata; insecta)

The author describe a new species of Drepanosticta from Sri Lanka. This new species is named in honour of the collector, Professor Dr. F. Starmühlner.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 7. Dryopidae and Elminthidae of Ceylon

This report comprises a summary of parasitic copepods from fishes in Ceylon, as isolated from the branchial material of fishes belonging to previous collections. Seven copepod species are described in detail, as well as one species of Branchiura and one species of Isopoda. Caution is advocated to avoid further introductions via parasite-infested fishes, since only four of the above species are endemic.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 9. Dytiscidae (Coleoptera)

The intensive collecting of Prof. Dr. F. Starmühlner and Prof. Dr. H. H. Costa in Ceylon in 1970 produced among others some Dysticidae. The material turned out to be especially interesting as it comes all together from running waters, in which otherwise collecting is infrequent. From Sri Lanka quite a lot of species of Dytiscidae are already known.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 10. Freshwater triclads (Turbellaria, Tricladida) from Ceylon

The collection of Triclads from the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission originates from 23 streams in the mountains of the south of Sri Lanka. All collected animals are of the Dugesia gonocephala (Dug.) type. Unfortunately the determinable mature animals were very rare in the samples but it seems certain that all the Triclads, found by the mission, belong to Dugesia nannophallus, described by Ball in 1970 after two individuals from Dunhinda, Badulla (Prov. Uva, Sri Lanka).

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara Campus of the University of Ceylon. Pt. 11. Larvae and pupae of water beetles collected from the islands of Ceylon

Water beetle larvae and pupae were collected from the lotic biotopes in localities of the southern part of Ceylon. The species are described and findings are related to previous investigations. The following families were represented: Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Hydrophilidae, Helodidae, Dascillidae (Eubrianacinae), Dryopidae and Lampyridae.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the University of Ceylon Vidyalankara Campus, Kelaniya. Pt. 12. Contributions to the ecology of the larvae of some Odonata from Ceylon

The Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission studied 38 biotopes; 28 of which contain Odonata. From the Zygoptera the Calopterydoidea seem to be the dominant form (22 habitats), while the Coenagrionoidea are scarcer (11 habitats). The most frequent species was Euphaea splendens (Epallagidae - 16 habitats) followed by Vestolis apicalis nigrescens (Calopterygidae, 8 habitats) and Neurobasis chinensis (Calopterygidae, 6 habitats). From the Anisoptera Zygonyx ceylanica (Libellulidae: Zygonictinae) was the dominant form (8 habitats), but some Libellulinae remain undescribed. The number of species varied greatly between different biotopes. The biotopes containing Odonata are small brooks, in which the pH was mostly on the limit between acid and alkaline reaction. They are fast running waters, situated in most cases on lower or middle elevations, only three species being found in higher elevations (1800-2000 m). Adaptations to fast currents and other factors are described.