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2015 Conference - "International Marine Economy: Law And Policy": Program, Center For Oceans Law & Policy

Conference on Oceans Law & Policy

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 to Friday, June 26, 2015 | Shanghai, China

The 39th annual COLP conference was co-organized by the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law, and the Center for Polar and Deep Ocean Development, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

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Sandy Sediment Budget Of The Midcoast Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, Lucas Marchi De Motta, Elírio Ernestino Toldo Jr., Luiz Emílio De Sá Brito De Ameida, José Carlos Nunes

Journal of Marine Research

Calculation of the coastal sediment budget involves estimation of the timing and intensity of processes of erosion, transport, and deposition, as well as an understanding of local and regional sediment dynamics. The modern sedimentary deposits present in the coastal zone constitute the physical basis of coastal ecosystems. Knowledge of the dynamics of these sediments from the source to sink area, through regional sediment management, is critical to understanding the long-term stability of the coastal zone and the fate of these important natural resources. In this article, the littoral cell concept has been applied to the midcoast of Rio Grande do …

Water Masses And Nutrient Sources To The Gulf Of Maine, David W. Townsend, Neal R. Pettigrew, Maura A. Thomas, Mark G. Neary, Dennis J. Mcgillicuddy Jr., James O'Donnell

Journal of Marine Research

The Gulf of Maine, a semienclosed basin on the continental shelf of the northwest Atlantic Ocean, is fed by surface and deep water flows from outside the gulf: Scotian Shelf Water (SSW) from the Nova Scotian shelf that enters the gulf at the surface and slope water that enters at depth and along the bottom through the Northeast Channel. There are two distinct types of slope water, Labrador Slope Water (LSW) and Warm Slope Water (WSW); it is these deep water masses that are the major source of dissolved inorganic nutrients to the gulf. It has been known for some …

Diffuse Reflectance Of Foams, M. A. Devetzoglou, J. R. G. Evans

Journal of Marine Research

There have been few studies of the optical properties of foams but the results of these investigations are of particular relevance to current discussions about climate restoration by means of oceanic foam because they indicate the influence of foam raft number on albedo. The diffuse reflectance of foams prepared from eight surfactants was measured in a 0°/45° geometry with a collimated, solar simulation light source and a photodiode by reference to barium sulphate white standards. Reflectance, or albedo, in the range of 0.5 to 0.59 was recorded for foams prepared with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), methyl cellulose, and TWEEN 20 …

Some Influences Of Remote Topography On Western Boundary Currents, Michael A. Spall

Journal of Marine Research

The influence of topography in a basin interior on the separation and time-dependence of strongly nonlinear western boundary currents is explored using a shallow water numerical model and scaling theory. In the linear limit, the western boundary current follows the western boundary to the latitude of the gap in the interior topography where it then separates from the coast and flows eastward in a narrow jet. As nonlinearity is increased, the flow initially remains steady but develops a series of stationary meanders extending off the western boundary at the separation latitude. For strongly nonlinear flows the solutions become time-dependent. The …

Symmetric Instability Of Cross-Stream Varying Currents, Joseph Pedlosky

Journal of Marine Research

The symmetric instability of a simple shear flow in which the velocity is a linear function of the vertical coordinate but which varies slowly in the cross-stream direction is studied using an asymptotic analytical method. Explicit analytical solutions are found for the evolution of the envelope of the developing linear instability. Although the problem with no lateral variation yields cell-like instabilities growing in place, the lateral variation of the shear produces time dependence and cross-stream propagation of the envelope and accompanying cells. A similar solution is derived for the case of laterally uniform shear in a current whose depth slowly …

Available Energy Of The World Ocean, Peter R. Bannon, Raymond G. Najjar

Journal of Marine Research

The available energy of the ocean is the excess of the sum of the ocean's internal and gravitational energies with respect to its equilibrium state, which is in thermodynamic equilibrium and has the same total entropy as the ocean. The equilibrium state for the world ocean is rigorously determined to be an isothermal ocean with a temperature of 3.66˚C and a horizontally uniform absolute salinity that increases monotonically from 27.30 g kg^–1 at the surface to 47.39 g kg^–1 at a depth of 5.5 km. This salinity profile is consistent with a uniform relative chemical potential of 47.44 …

Anatomy Of A Langmuir Supercell Event, A. E. Gargett, D. K. Savidge, J. R. Wells

Journal of Marine Research

Langmuir supercells (LS), which are Langmuir circulations (LC) extending over full water column depth during storms and revealed by high water column backscatter from surface-origin microbubbles and bottom-origin sediment, were discovered in 2003 during several months of measurements in 15 m of water near the coast of New Jersey. Both the structures themselves and the specific forcing conditions under which they occur have been documented elsewhere. This paper provides an account of the broader oceanographic setting of supercell events, focusing on conditions at the start and end. The start of events is associated with the presence of surface waves of …

A Comparison Of Transport And Position Between The Gulf Stream East Of Cape Hatteras And The Florida Current, A. Sanchez-Franks, C. N. Flagg, T. Rossby

Journal of Marine Research

The Florida Current (FC) transport and Gulf Stream (GS) transport and position have been measured almost continuously for many decades in the Florida Straits at ∼27° N and for the last 20 years at ∼38° N along the Oleander line, respectively. Variations in both currents have been linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Here we show five different proxies for the position of the GS near the Oleander line and find all five measures internally consistent. Further, using a zonally averaged index, the local measurements prove to be good representatives of overall meridional shifting of the current (between Cape …

Effects Of Injury And Nutrition On Sediment Reworking By Clymenella Torquata (Annelida: Polychaeta), Beth R. Campbell, Sara M. Lindsay

Journal of Marine Research

Marine infaunas influence sediment chemistry, nutrient cycling, and microbial communities as they burrow, feed, defecate, and irrigate their tubes and burrows. Nonlethal tissue loss to predators or other disturbances is frequently observed in macrofaunal communities, and previous research has reported significant effects of onetime injury on animal activity. In this study, we examined the effects of injury and nutrient enrichment on sediment reworking rates of a common deposit-feeding polychaete, Clymenella torquata. Individual worms in cores were monitored in a recirculating seawater system, and their defecation and sediment mixing monitored under several experimental conditions. Worms held in control (unenriched) sediment …

Mixing By Microorganisms In Stratified Fluids, Gregory L. Wagner, William R. Young, Eric Lauga

Journal of Marine Research

We examine the vertical mixing induced by the swimming of microorganisms at low Reynolds and Péclet numbers in a stably stratified ocean, and show that the global contribution of oceanic microswimmers to vertical mixing is negligible. We propose two approaches to estimating the mixing efficiency, η, or the ratio of the rate of potential energy creation to the total rate-of-working on the ocean by microswimmers. The first is based on scaling arguments and estimates η in terms of the ratio between the typical organism size, a, and an intrinsic length scale for the stratified flow, l = (νκ/N …

The Relation Between Unstable Shear Layer Thicknesses And Turbulence Lengthscales, Eric Kunze

Journal of Marine Research

This note explores the connection between the (i) lengthscales of unstable finescale shear layers which are responsible for turbulence production, (ii) turbulence patch thicknesses and (iii) the outer scales of turbulence, that is, the density overturn (Thorpe) and Ozmidov lengthscales, in the stratified ocean interior. Explanations are offered both for why (i) turbulence patches are often observed to be much thicker than outer turbulence scales and (ii) there is a spectral gap between finescale internal waves and the outer scales of turbulence. A finescale parameterization based on unstable shear predicts Ozmidov lengthscales smaller than unstable-shear-layer thicknesses for moderately unstable gradient …

Refraction Of Swell By Surface Currents, Basile Gallet, William R. Young

Journal of Marine Research

Using recordings of swell from pitch-and-roll buoys, we have reproduced the classic observations of long-range surface wave propagation originally made by Munk et al. (1963) using a triangular array of bottom pressure measurements. In the modern data, the direction of the incoming swell fluctuates by about ± 10° on a time scale of one hour. But if the incoming direction is averaged over the duration of an event then, in contrast with the observations by Munk et al. (1963), the sources inferred by great-circle backtracking are most often in good agreement with the location of large storms on weather maps …

Influence Of Mean Circulation On Large-Scale Decadal Basin Modes, Dhouha Ferjani, Thierry Huck, Alain Colin De Verdière

Journal of Marine Research

The effect of large-scale mean circulation on the generic property of intrinsic basin modes of decadal variability is investigated through linear stability analysis of a two-layer shallow water model over a flat- and a variable-bottom topography. The mean circulation is forced through either surface wind stress or vertical velocities at the layers interface representing surface heat flux. Regardless of the type of forcing, the large-scale mean circulation reduces the damping of the decadal basin modes. The wind forcing mostly affects the mode damping, by up to 30% for a climatological amplitude, whereas the heat flux forcing mostly increases the oscillation …

Diatom Control Of The Autotrophic Community And Particle Export In The Eastern Bering Sea During The Recent Cold Years (2008–2010), Matthew S. Baumann, S. Bradley Moran, Michael W. Lomas, Roger P. Kelly, Douglas W. Bell, Jeffrey W. Krause

Journal of Marine Research

The southeastern Bering Sea has exhibited shifts in climate since the start of the 21st century. The regional climate shifts are manifested in the duration and areal extent of seasonal sea-ice coverage. During a recent cold period (2008–2010) with extensive spring sea-ice cover over the southeastern shelf of the Bering Sea, a total of 77 water column and 24 sediment trap profiles were collected over the shelf and shelf break and analyzed for autotrophic pigment concentrations and elemental (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon) concentrations in suspended and exported particulate material. These results are used to establish the seasonal succession of …

The Transport Of Nutrient-Rich Indian Ocean Water Through The Red Sea And Into Coastal Reef Systems, James H. Churchill, Amy S. Bower, Daniel C. Mccorkle, Yasser Abualnaja

Journal of Marine Research

Driven by upwelling-favorable monsoon winds, nutrient-rich Gulf of Aden Intermediate Water (GAIW) enters the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean each summer. Hydrographic and velocity data acquired in autumn 2011 provide the first indication that GAIW is carried rapidly northward along the eastern Red Sea margin in a well-defined subsurface current with speeds >30 cm s^–1. The nutrient-rich (NO₂ + NO₃ concentrations up to 17 μmol l^–1) GAIW overlaps the euphotic zone and appears to fuel enhanced productivity over depths of 35–67 m. GAIW is broadly distributed through the Red Sea, extending northward along …

Group Behavior Among Model Bacteria Influences Particulate Carbon Remineralization Depths, K. A. S. Mislan, Charles A. Stock, John P. Dunne, Jorge L. Sarmiento

Journal of Marine Research

Organic particles sinking from the sunlit surface are oases of food for heterotrophic bacteria living in the deep ocean. Particle-attached bacteria need to solubilize particles, so they produce exoenzymes that cleave bonds to make molecules small enough to be transported through bacterial cell walls. Releasing exoenzymes, which have an energetic cost, to the external environment is risky because there is no guarantee that products of exoenzyme activity, called hydrolysate, will diffuse to the particle-attached bacterium that produced the exoenzymes. Strategies used by particle-attached bacteria to counteract diffusive losses of exoenzymes and hydrolysate are investigated in a water column model. We …

Simple Models For The Heat Flux From The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Cell To The Atmosphere, M. Behl, D. Nof, S. Van Gorder

Journal of Marine Research

It has been suggested that a slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning cell (AMOC) would cause the Northern Hemisphere to cool by a few degrees. We use a sequence of simple analytical models to show that due to the nonlinearity of the system, the simplified heat flux from the modeled AMOC to the atmosphere above is so robust that even changes of as much as 50% in the present AMOC transport are not enough to significantly change the temperature of the outgoing warmed atmosphere (i.e., the fraction of the atmosphere warmed by the AMOC). Our most realistic model (which is …

Thermohaline Staircases In The Western Mediterranean Sea, Harry L. Bryden, Katrin Schroeder, Stefania Sparnocchia, Mireno Borghini, Anna Vetrano

Journal of Marine Research

Thermohaline staircase structures are commonly observed in the western Mediterranean Sea within the halocline-thermocline connecting the Levantine Intermediate Water at about 400 m depth with the western Mediterranean deep waters below 1,500 m. In this halocline-thermocline where warmer, saltier waters overlie colder, fresher deep waters, salt finger mixing processes are thought to be active and produce staircases with layers of order 75 m thickness containing nearly constant properties separated by sharp steps of order 6 m thickness with jumps in properties between the layers. While the layers have nearly constant salinity, potential temperature, and potential density, each property decreases very …

A Constraint On The Thickness-Weighted Average Equation Of Motion Deduced From Energetics, Kunihiro Aoki

Journal of Marine Research

This study reviews the system governed by the thickness-weighted average (TWA) equation of motion, considering energetics. It is known that the TWA equation of motion based on the primitive equation describes the fluid motion with the residual mean velocity defined as the TWA velocity and is written in the same form as the nondissipative primitive equation, except that the eddy momentum fluxes (the interfacial form stress and Reynolds flux associated with eddy motion) are embedded in this equation. Also, incompressibility and density (buoyancy) conservation in the adiabatic condition hold in this system. In this study, considering that the TWA system …

On The Structure And Distribution Of Thin Anticyclonic Lenses In The Southeast Pacific Ocean, T. Rossby

Journal of Marine Research

The velocity structure of an anticyclonic lens in the southeast Pacific centered at 300–400 m depth was scanned in detail with a 75 kHz acoustic Doppler current profiler on the RV Atlantis during a February 2010 transit along 20° S. Embedded in the main thermocline with a vertical span of ∼500 m, the lens had an overall diameter of ∼150 km with a peak speed of 0.33 m s^–1 at ∼35 km radius. Knowledge of the velocity field permitted determination of energetics and vorticity properties in detail. The ratio of potential to kinetic energy was ∼14, and the relative …

Semantics In Support Of Biodiversity Knowledge Discovery: An Introduction To The Biological Collections Ontology And Related Ontologies, Ramona L. Walls, John Deck, Robert Guralnick, Steve Baskauf, Reed Beaman, Stanley Blum, Shaun Bowers

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

The study of biodiversity spans many disciplines and includes data pertaining to species distributions and abundances, genetic sequences, trait measurements, and ecological niches, complemented by information on collection and measurement protocols. A review of the current landscape of metadata standards and ontologies in biodiversity science suggests that existing standards such as the Darwin Core terminology are inadequate for describing biodiversity data in a semantically meaningful and computationally useful way. Existing ontologies, such as the Gene Ontology and others in the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry library, provide a semantic structure but lack many of the necessary terms to …

Recovery Planning For Pacific Marine Species At Risk In The Wake Of Climate Change And Ocean Acidification: Canadian Practice, Future Courses, Wesley Hartmann, David Vanderzwaag, Katja Fennel

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article evaluates how Canadian recovery planning for Pacific marine species at risk incorporates two pressing 21st century concerns: global climate change and ocean acidification (OA). While many recovery strategies for Pacific species at risk show some understanding of climate change or OA, they generally fail to incorporate key climate and OA information or to consider how these two issues will actually affect the species in question. Two strategies for progress are suggested. First is an administrative strategy that includes the development of a national climate change adaptation strategy, which clarifies how projected climate and ocean acidification impacts should be …

Does Presence Of A Mid-Ocean Ridge Enhance Biomass And Biodiversity?, Imants G. Priede, Odd Aksel Bergstad, Peter I. Miller, M. Vecchione, Andrey Gebruk, Tone Falkenhaug, David S. M. Billett, Jessica Craig, Andrew C. Dale, Mark A. Shields, Gavin H. Tilstone, Tracey Sutton, Andrew J. Gooday, Mark E. Inall, Daniel O. B. Jones, Victor Martinez-Vicente, Gui Menezes, Tomasz Niedzielski, Thorsteinn Sigurdsson, Nina Rothe, Antonina Rogacheva, Claudia H. S. Alt, Timothy Brand, Richard Abell, Andrew S. Brierley, Nicola J. Cousins, Deborah Crockard, A. Rus Hoelzel, Age Hoines, Tom B. Letessier, Jane F. Read, Tracy Shimmield, Martin J. Cox, John K. Galbraith, John D. M. Gordon, Tammy Horton, Francis Neat, Pascal Lorance

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

In contrast to generally sparse biological communities in open-ocean settings, seamounts and ridges are perceived as areas of elevated productivity and biodiversity capable of supporting commercial fisheries. We investigated the origin of this apparent biological enhancement over a segment of the North Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) using sonar, corers, trawls, traps, and a remotely operated vehicle to survey habitat, biomass, and biodiversity. Satellite remote sensing provided information on flow patterns, thermal fronts, and primary production, while sediment traps measured export flux during 2007–2010. The MAR, 3,704,404 km² in area, accounts for 44.7% lower bathyal habitat (800–3500 m depth) in the …

Why International Catch Shares Won't Save Ocean Biodiversity, Holly Doremus

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Skepticism about the efficacy and efficiency of regulatory approaches has produced a wave of enthusiasm for market-based strategies for dealing with environmental conflicts. In the fisheries context, the most prominent of these strategies is the use of “catch shares,” which assign specific proportions of the total allowable catch to individuals who are then free to trade them with others. Catch shares are now in wide use domestically within many nations, and there are increasing calls for implementation of internationally tradable catch shares. Based on a review of theory, empirical evidence, and two contexts in which catch shares have been proposed, …

The Quantifying, Predicting, And Exploiting Uncertainty Program: Exploring Oceanographic Processes In A Complex Bathymetric Shelf/Slope Environment Affected By The Kuroshio, Glen Gawarkiewicz, Sen Jan

Journal of Marine Research

We will describe the multi-disciplinary international program, Quantifying, Predicting and Exploiting Uncertainty, which consisted of observations, modeling and remote sensing studies focused on a region northeast of Taiwan in the East China Sea. We focus on results on the physical oceanographic and biogeochemical processes. Concurrent observations of acoustic propagation also occurred during the intensive observation period. This program was a joint Taiwan-U.S. effort involving four different ships sampling the continental shelf and slope during August-September, 2009. Primary goals of the program included 1) studying the structure and variability of the Cold Dome, a cool cyclonic feature frequently present in summer …

Phytoplankton Abundance And Size-Fractionated Structure In Three Contrasting Periods In The Pear River Estuary, Xia Zhang, Zhen Shi, Xiaoping Huang, Feng Ye, Qingxia Liu

Journal of Marine Research

Phytoplankton abundance, composition and size-fractionated chlorophyll a (micro-, nano- and pico-chl. a) in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE), South China were assessed in three surveys (Aug. 2010, Jan. 2011 and Aug. 2011) to identify key environmental indicators that shape their distribution patterns. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) showed that the PRE formed three regional clusters that were characterized by a transition from dominant freshwater species to estuarine diatoms in normal summer flow conditions (Aug. 2010). With a reduced river flow in winter (Jan. 2011), the inner estuary was categorized as one group marked by the predominance of the nanoflagellate, Plagioselmis …

Observations Of A Freshwater Pulse Induced By Typhoon Morakot Off The Northern Coast Of Taiwan In August 2009, Sen Jan, Joe Wang, Yiing Jiang Yang, Chin-Chang Hung, Ching-Sheng Chern, Glen Gawarkiewicz, Ren-Chieh Lien, Luca Centurioni, Jia-Yu Kuo, Bee Wang

Journal of Marine Research

In this paper we describe large-scale impacts from a typhoon on the circulation over the continental shelf and slope north of Taiwan. Typhoon Morakot was a category 2 tropical storm that landed in central Taiwan, but caused destruction primarily in southern Taiwan from Aug. 8–10, 2009. The typhoon brought record-breaking rainfall; approximately 3 m accumulated over four days in southern Taiwan. River discharge on the west coast of Taiwan increased rapidly from Aug. 6–7 and peaked on Aug. 8, yielding a total volume 27.2 km³ of freshwater discharged off the west coast of Taiwan over five days (Aug. 6–10). …

Linear Dynamics Of A Stably-Neutrally Stratified Ocean, Gregory M. Reznik

Journal of Marine Research

Linear dynamics of stably-neutrally stratified fluid consisting of the stably stratified upper layer and the homogeneous lower layer is studied with and without rotation. The density and other fields are continuous at the interface between the layers. A special feature of this configuration is existence of the wave mode related to the homogeneous layer. In non-rotating fluid this is the homogeneous layer vortex mode characterized by a stationary three-dimensional velocity field confined to the lower layer. In the presence of rotation, the mode turns into the gyroscopic waves. Besides the mode, the wave spectrum contains internal waves and the zero …

Internal Tides On The East China Sea Continental Slope, Ren-Chieh Lien, Thomas B. Sanford, Sen Jan, Ming-Huei Chang, Barry B. Ma

Journal of Marine Research

Strong semidiurnal internal tides are observed on the continental slope of the East China Sea (ECS) using an array of subsurface moorings and EM-APEX floats. A Princeton Ocean Model (POM) is used to simulate the effects of stratification profiles on the generation and propagation of M₂ internal tides; model simulations are compared with observations. On the ECS continental slope northeast of Taiwan, the semidiurnal barotropic tidal current flows nearly perpendicular to the shelf break and continental slope, favoring the generation of internal tides. Both the critical slope analysis and numerical model results suggest multiple generation sites on the continental …