115 research outputs found
Course Manual Winter School on Structure and Functions of Marine Ecosystem: Fisheries
Marine ecosystems comprises of diverse organisms
and their ambient abiotic components in varied
relationships leading to an ecosystem functioning.
These relationships provides the services that are
essential for marine organisms to sustain in the nature.
The studies examining the structure and functioning
of these relationships remains unclear and hence
understanding and modelling of the ecological
functioning is imperative in the context of the threats
different ecosystem components are facing. The relationship between marine
population and their environment is complex and is subjected to fluctuations
which affects the bottom level of an ecosystem pyramid to higher trophic
levels. Understanding the energy flow within the marine ecosystems with
the help of primary to secondary producers and secondary consumers are
potentially important when assessing such states and changes in these
environments.
Many of the physiological changes are known to affect the key functional
group, ie. the species or group of organisms, which play an important role
in the health of the ecosystem. In marine environment, phytoplankton are
the main functional forms which serves as the base of marine food web.
Any change in the phytoplankton community structure may lead to alteration
in the composition, size and structure of the entire ecosystem. Hence, it is
critical to understand how these effects may scale up to population,
communities, and entire marine ecosystem. Such changes are difficult to
predict, particularly when more than one trophic level is affected. The
identification and quantification of indicators of changes in ecosystem
functioning and the knowledge base generated will provide a suitable way
of bridging issues related to a specific ecosystem. New and meaningful
indicators, derived from our current understanding of marine ecosystem
functioning, can be used for assessing the impact of these changes and can
be used as an aid in promoting responsible fisheries in marine ecosystems.
Phytoplantkon is an indicator determining the colour of open Ocean. In
recent years, new technologies have emerged which involves multidisciplinary
activities including biogeochemistry and its dynamics affecting
higher trophic levels including fishery. The winter school proposed will
provide the insights into background required for such an approach involving
teaching the theory, practical, analysis and interpretation techniques in
understanding the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems from
ground truth measurements as well as from satellite remote sensing data.
This is organized with the full funding support from Indian council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) New Delhi and the 25 participants who are
attending this programme has been selected after scrutiny of their
applications based on their bio-data. The participants are from different
States across Indian subcontinent covering north, east, west and south.
They are serving as academicians such as Professors/ scientists and in similar
posts. The training will be a feather in their career and will enable them to
do their academic programmes in a better manner. Selected participants
will be scrutinized initially to understand their knowledge level and classes
will be oriented based on this. In addition, all of them will be provided with
an e-manual based on the classes. All selected participants are provided
with their travel and accommodation grants. The faculty include the scientists
who developed this technology, those who are practicing it and few user
groups who do their research in related areas. The programme is coordinated
by the Fishery Resources Assessment Division of CMFRI. This programme
will generate a team of elite academicians who can contribute to sustainable
management of marine ecosystem and they will further contribute to
capacity building in the sector by training many more interested researchers
in the years to come
Remote Sensing of Hydro-Meteorology
Flood/drought, risk management, and policy: decision-making under uncertainty. Hydrometeorological extremes and their impact on human–environment systems. Regional and nonstationary frequency analysis of extreme events. Detection and prediction of hydrometeorological extremes with observational and model-based approaches. Vulnerability and impact assessment for adaptation to climate change
Development of an aquatic toxicity index for macroinvertebrates
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Science.
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, 18 May 2018.Rapid biomonitoring protocols employing riverine macroinvertebrates in South Africa utilise the South African Scoring System version 5 (SASS5). The SASS5 was developed as part of the then River Health Programme (RHP) [now River Eco-status Monitoring Programme (REMP)]. The SASS5 index is a cost-effective procedure (utilising limited sampling equipment) that enables speedy evaluation of a riverine ecosystem’s health using macroinvertebrates as biological indicators of water quality and ecosystem health. As a result, the SASS5 (including earlier versions) has been widely accepted by water quality practitioners and is increasingly incorporated into Ecological Reserve determinations. However, the SASS is widely criticised for being a ‘red flag’ indicator of water quality and ecosystem health because it has the ability to show only whether a river is polluted (including the extent of pollution) or not, but cannot differentiate between pollutant types (whether chemical or physical). To trace the pollutants responsible for changes in water quality, practitioners are therefore required to conduct chemical-based water quality assessments.
Chemical analyses can provide accurate measures of the magnitudes of chemical substances present in the river water but they do not readily translate into threshold limits supportive or protective of ecosystems. In South Africa the water quality threshold limits for aquatic ecosystems are provided by the South African water quality guidelines for aquatic ecosystems (volume 7). These guidelines provide threshold limits for the protection of the entire aquatic ecosystem constituting of fish, macroinvertebrates, microinvertebrates, algae and plants. These guidelines are therefore too broad for defining protection thresholds supportive of specific subcomponents (i.e. macroinvertebrates) of aquatic ecosystems.
The Aquatic Toxicity Index (ATI) for macroinvertebrates was therefore developed for providing threshold limits for physical and chemical stressors protective of freshwater macroinvertebrates. The ATI is expected to aid water quality practitioners working in the Olifants River and catchments with similar land-uses in at least three ways. Firstly, in interpreting the magnitudes of physico-chemical water quality stressors by providing
varying levels of protection (threshold limits) (i.e.PC99, PC95, PC90 and PC80) specific to freshwater macroinvertebrates. Secondly, the ATI is expected to aid in the compression of large volumes of water quality data into manageable quantities (descriptor words and grading symbols). Lastly, conventional water quality reports are replete with technical terminology and symbols emanating from water chemistry and ecotoxicology. While reporting of this kind is accessible to water resource specialists, it may constitute an obstacle for non-technical stakeholders (with no training or experience in water chemistry) like policy makers, political decision makers and the public. These groups generally have neither the time nor the training to study and understand a traditional, technical review of water quality data. Water quality indices are capable of eliminating technical language incurred in water quality reports; hence, they are viewed as necessary tools in reaching multiple audiences by bridging the gaps between the extremes of water quality monitoring and reporting. The ATI is expected to enhance not only accessibility and comprehensibility in all these instances, but utility in general too. Differently expressed, the ATI is expected to aid as a water quality-reporting tool that will help water quality practitioners and managers in communicating technical water quality data to multiple stakeholders even those without training and experience in water chemistry and ecotoxicology.
The development of the ATI for macroinvertebrates was conducted in two phases. First, the derivation of Protection Concentrations (PCs). The PCs were obtained by fitting Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) curves on short-term (24-96 hours) median lethal (LC50) data for freshwater macroinvertebrates collected from databases and scholarly publications. Before the estimation of the PCs, the toxicity data had to undergo a preparatory process. This involved the conversion of metal stressors from total metal concentrations to dissolved fractions. Additionally, metal stressors whose toxicity is known to be dependent on water hardness (cadmium, chromium (III), copper, lead, nickel and zinc) were adjusted to reflect their toxicity at six different levels of water hardness using USEPA conversions algorithms. In addition, all ammonia data were converted to reflect the toxicity of ammonia as TAN at pH = 8 and temperature = 25°C.
The second phase of the index development involved the allocation of index categories. This was to enable the discrimination of stressors’ magnitudes into classes. The final product is a five-point scale classification system (A to E) based on four PC levels (PC99, PC95, PC90 and PC80) for freshwater macroinvertebrates obtained by fitting Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) functions on the toxicity data. On development, the index was validated using water quality data, riverine macroinvertebrates survey data and flow data collected from the Olifants River catchment between 2015 and 2016. Eight study sites were covered, located in the upper and the lower Olifants system. Four of these were located in the Olifants River main stem and four from four tributaries (Klein Olifants, Blyde, Ga-Selati and Letaba rivers).
The evaluation of the Olifants system based on the assessment of variable-by-variable indicated that Site S5 and S2 (lower Ga-Selati and Klein Olifants) were the most degraded sites in the study, respectively. In addition, the study indicated gross elevation of sulfate, nitrates, pH and copper. The evaluation of the Olifants system using the composite ATI for macroinvertebrates indicated that the system was generally in good condition. However, the identification of the lowest rating score indicated that temperature difference from reference conditions, sulfate, nitrate, zinc and lead were the main variables limiting the water quality of the Olifants system. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of the index conducted as part of the validation process of the index, indicated that temperature difference from reference conditions, sulfate and nitrate were the most important variables in the computation of the index.
Investigations of the relationships between the ATI for macroinvertebrates, SASS5 metrics, MIRAI and measures of flow variability revealed negligible and statistically insignificant associations. These could mainly be attributed to three reasons. Firstly, sampling difficulty, this resulted from high density of filamentous algae and floating aquatic vegetation (posing physical obstructions to sampling) in the river. Such extraneous factors rendered the SASS5 sampling protocol (benthic/kick method), ineffective because of clogging of sampling net and loss of specimens in the sifting of aquatic plants for macroinvertebrates. Secondly, the filamentous algae interfered with the availability and suitability of habitat for aquatic invertebrates. For instance it covered
stones biotopes (stones in current) forming a thick layer of algae on the stones thereby exhibiting the characteristics of vegetation biotopes for most sampling sites, a major impediment for the SASS5, a method that is largely dependent biotope availability. Thirdly, the SASS was developed for organic pollutants while the ATI for macroinvertebrates is largely driven by metal stressors.
Because of toxicity data shortages for regional freshwater macroinvertebrates, a compromise between data availability and quality was considered. For example, toxicity data drawn from global sources were used as the base for the PCs and the index. Despite these limitations, the protection concentrations (numerical sensitivity values) that form the base of the index were comparable with published water quality benchmarks from literature and water quality jurisdictions. In addition, the index has the ability to summarise and discriminate (stressors in terms of concentrations and magnitudes) large quantities of water quality data to facilitate interpretation of the quality of a water’s ability to support freshwater macroinvertebrates.
Keywords: Aquatic Toxicity Index, freshwater macroinvertebrates, water quality criteria, species sensitivity distribution, Olifants RiverLG201
ANNTAX - an artificial intelligence based decision support system
EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Efficient Decision Support Systems
This series is directed to diverse managerial professionals who are leading the transformation of individual domains by using expert information and domain knowledge to drive decision support systems (DSSs). The series offers a broad range of subjects addressed in specific areas such as health care, business management, banking, agriculture, environmental improvement, natural resource and spatial management, aviation administration, and hybrid applications of information technology aimed to interdisciplinary issues. This book series is composed of three volumes: Volume 1 consists of general concepts and methodology of DSSs; Volume 2 consists of applications of DSSs in the biomedical domain; Volume 3 consists of hybrid applications of DSSs in multidisciplinary domains. The book is shaped upon decision support strategies in the new infrastructure that assists the readers in full use of the creative technology to manipulate input data and to transform information into useful decisions for decision makers
OIL SPILL ALONG THE TURKISH STRAITS SEA AREA; ACCIDENTS, ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS AND PROTECTION
The Turkish Straits Sea Area (TSSA) is a long water passage that is consisted of the Sea of Marmara, an inland sea within Turkey's borders, and two narrow straits connected to neighboring seas. With a strategic location between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and dominated by the continental climate, the region hosted many civilizations throughout the centuries. This makes the region among the busiest routes in the world, with sea traffic three times higher than that in the Suez Canal. The
straits are the most difficult waterways to navigate and witnessed many hazardous and
important collisions and accidents throughout history. In addition, this area has vital roles as a biological corridor and barrier among three distinctive marine realms. Therefore, the region is rather sensitive to damages of national and international maritime activities, which may cause severe environmental problems.
This book addresses several key questions on a chapter basis, including historical accidents, background information on main dynamic restrictions, oil pollution, oil spill detection, and clean-up recoveries, its impacts on biological communities, socioeconomic aspects, and subjects with international agreements. This book will help readers, public, local and governmental authorities gain a deeper understanding of the status of the oil spill, mostly due to shipping accidents, and their related impacts along the TSSA, which needs precautionary measures to be protected.CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I - HISTORY OF ACCIDENTS AND REGULATIONS
Remarkable Accidents at the Istanbul Strait
Hasan Bora USLUER and Saim OĞUZÜLGEN …………………………………...... 3
History of Regulations before Republican Era along the Turkish Straits Sea Area
Ali Umut ÜNAL …………………………………………………………………….. 16
Transition Regime in the Turkish Straits during the Republican Era
Osman ARSLAN ……….……………………………………………………….……26
26
The Montreux Convention and Effects at Turkish Straits
Oktay ÇETİN ………………………………………………………………….…….. 33
Evaluation of the Montreux Convention in the Light of Recent Problems
Ayşenur TÜTÜNCÜ ………………………………………………………………… 44
A Historical View on Technical Developments on Ships and Effects
of Turkish Straits
Murat YAPICI ………………………………………………………………………. 55
CHAPTER II - GEOGRAPHY, BATHYMETRY AND
HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS
Geographic and Bathymetric Restrictions along the Turkish Straits Sea Area
Bedri ALPAR, Hasan Bora USLUER and Şenol AYDIN ……………………..…… 61
Hydrodynamics and Modeling of Turkish Straits
Serdar BEJİ and Tarkan ERDİK ………………………………………………….… 79
Wave Climate in the Turkish Sea of Marmara
Tarkan ERDİK and Serdar BEJİ …………………………………………………..… 91
CHAPTER III - OIL POLLUTION, DETECTION AND RECOVERY
Oil Pollution at Sea and Coast Following Major Accidents
Selma ÜNLÜ ……………………………………………………………………….101
Forensic Fingerprinting in Oil-spill Source Identification at the Turkish Straits
Sea Area
Özlem ATEŞ DURU ……………………………………………………………… 121
xi
Oil Spill Detection Using Remote Sensing Technologies-Synthetic
Aperture Radar (SAR)
İbrahim PAPİLA, Elif SERTEL, Şinasi KAYA and Cem GAZİOĞLU ……..……. 140
The Role of SAR Remote Sensing to Detect Oil Pollution and Emergency Intervention
Saygın ABDIKAN, Çağlar BAYIK and Füsun BALIK ŞANLI ……….….……….. 157
Oil Spill Recovery and Clean-Up Techniques
Emra KIZILAY, Mehtap AKBAŞ and Tahir Yavuz GEZBELİ …………………… 176
Turkish Strait Sea Area, Contingency Planning, Regulations and Case Studies
Emra KIZILAY, Mehtap AKBAŞ and Tahir Yavuz GEZBELİ …………………... 188
Dispersant Response Method to Incidental Oil Pollution
Dilek EDİGER, Leyla TOLUN and Fatma TELLİ KARAKOÇ ………………….... 205
CHAPTER IV - THE EFFECTS / IMPACTS OF OIL SPILL ON
BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES – INCLUDING SAMPLING
AND MONITORING
Marine Microorganisms and Oil Spill
Sibel ZEKİ and Pelin S. ÇİFTÇİ TÜRETKEN …………...………………………… 219
Estimated Effects of Oil Spill on the Phytoplankton Following “Volgoneft-248”
Accident (Sea of Marmara)
Seyfettin TAŞ ………………………………..…………………………………….... 229
Interactions between Zooplankton and Oil Spills: Lessons Learned from Global
Accidents and a Proposal for Zooplankton Monitoring
İ. Noyan YILMAZ and Melek İŞİNİBİLİR ……………………………………..….. 238
The Effects of Oil Spill on the Macrophytobenthic Communities
Ergün TAŞKIN and Barış AKÇALI …………………………….…………….……. 244
Potential Impacts of Oil Spills on Macrozoobenthos in the Turkish
Straits System
Güley KURT-ŞAHİN …………………………………………………………….… 253
The Anticipated Effects of Oil Spill on Fish Populations in Case of an Accident
along the Turkish Straits System – A review of Studies after Several Incidents
from the World
M. İdil ÖZ and Nazlı DEMİREL …………………………………………………….261
Estimated Impacts of an Oil Spill on Bird Populations along the Turkish
Straits System
Itri Levent ERKOL …………………………………………………………….…… 272
The Effect of Oil Spills on Cetaceans in the Turkish Straits System (TSS)
Ayaka Amaha ÖZTÜRK ………………………………………………………….. 277
Changes in the Ichthyoplankton and Benthos Assemblages following
Volgoneft-248 Oil Spill: Case Study
Ahsen YÜKSEK and Yaprak GÜRKAN …………………………………….……. 280
Assessing the Initial and Temporal Effects of a Heavy Fuel Oil Spill
on Benthic Fauna
Yaprak GÜRKAN, Ahsen YÜKSEK ………………………………………..…….. 287
CHAPTER V - SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS
Socio-economic Aspects of Oil Spill
Özlem ATEŞ DURU and Serap İNCAZ ……………………………………….…… 301
Effects of Oil Spill on Human Health
Türkan YURDUN ………………………………………………………………..…. 313
Crisis Management of Oil Spill, A Case Study: BP Gulf Mexico Oil Disaster
Serap İNCAZ and Özlem ATEŞ DURU …………………………….………….……324
CHAPTER VI - CONVENTIONS RELATING TO PREVENTION
OF OIL SPILL
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil
(OILPOL), 1954 and its Situation Related with Turkey
Emre AKYÜZ, Metin ÇELİK and Ömer SÖNER …………………………...……... 334
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as
Modified by the Protocol of 1978 Relating Thereto and by the Protocol of 1997
(MARPOL)
Özcan ARSLAN, Esma UFLAZ and Serap İNCAZ ………………………….……. 342
Applications of MARPOL Related with Oil Spill in Turkey
Emre AKYÜZ, Özcan ASLAN and Serap İNCAZ ………………………………… 356
Ship Born Oil Pollution at the Turkish Straits Sea Area and MARPOL 73/78
Duygu ÜLKER and Sencer BALTAOĞLU………………………….…………….. 363
International Convention Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases
of Oil Pollution Casualties (INTERVENTION 1969) and its Applications
Related with Oil Spill in Turkey
Şebnem ERKEBAY ……………………………….……………………………….. 371
International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and
Co-operation (OPRC) 1990 and its Applications Related with Oil Spill in Turkey
Kadir ÇİÇEK ………………………………………………………………………. 381
Protocol on Preparedness, Response and Co-operation to Pollution
Incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substances, 2000 (OPRC-HNS Protocol)
and its Effects in Turkey
Aydın ŞIHMANTEPE and Cihat AŞAN ……………….…………………………. 392
The International Convention on Salvage (SALVAGE) 1989 Related with
Oil Spill in Turkey
İrşad BAYIRHAN ……………………………………….………………..……….. 408
CHAPTER VII - CONVENTIONS COVERING LIABILITY AND
COMPENSATION RELATED WITH OIL SPILL
International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage
(CLC), 1969 and its Applications
Serap İNCAZ and Pınar ÖZDEMİR ……………………………………..………… 416
1992 Protocol to the International Convention on the Establishment of
an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage
(FUND 1992) and its Applications Related with Oil Spill in Turkey
Ali Umut ÜNAL and Hasan Bora USLUER …………………………….………… 424
International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage
in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances
by Sea (HNS), 1996 (and its 2010 Protocol) and its Applications Related
with Oil Spill in Turkey
Bilun ELMACIOĞLU ……………………………………………………………… 437
Bunkering Incidents and Safety Practices in Turkey
Fırat BOLAT, Pelin BOLAT and Serap İNCAZ …………………………………... 447
"Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks 2007" and
its Effects on Turkey
Şafak Ümit DENİZ and Serap İNCAZ ……………………….……………………. 457
Risk-based framework for ballast water safety management
Ballast water has been identified as a major vector for the translocation of Non- Indigenous Invasive Species (NIS) and pathogens across zoogeographical regions and subsequent discharged into recipient port states/regions. This is bound to increase given factors like the globalization of trade and the economy of scale of the ship size. Established NIS has posed significant threat to the human health, economy, finances and marine bio-diversity of recipient regions and port states. The risks associated with the discharged NIS are uncertain and difficult to assess due to the stochastic nature of species assemblages and dispersal mechanism. The safest control measure advocated by the IMO is the conduct of ballast water exchange at sea while appropriate and effective proto-type treatment technologies are being developed and approved for future application. This study has been conducted while recognizing the inability of probabilistic approaches applied in ballast water risk management to addressing uncertainty and inadequacy of data. A qualitative approach using powerful multi-criteria decision making techniques and the safety principles of the Formal Safety Assessment framework have been utilized in this research to develop three generic models for ballast water hazard estimation, risk evaluation and decision-making analysis respectively. The models are capable of being modified and utilized in the industry to address the problems of uncertainty and inadequacy of data in ballast water management. This is particularly useful as an interim measure for port states in developing economies (with insufficient data and technology) to developed robust ballast water management plans. While recognising the huge impact of ballast water pollution in recipient regions this study recommends that ballast water management programmes be given due recognition as an important element of sustainable development programmes at national and international levels. The non-availability of a benchmark based on previous research on which to fully validate the research outcome was identified as a major limitation of this research study. The models developed will therefore be subject to modifications as new data become available
Remote Sensing of the Aquatic Environments
The book highlights recent research efforts in the monitoring of aquatic districts with remote sensing observations and proximal sensing technology integrated with laboratory measurements. Optical satellite imagery gathered at spatial resolutions down to few meters has been used for quantitative estimations of harmful algal bloom extent and Chl-a mapping, as well as winds and currents from SAR acquisitions. The knowledge and understanding gained from this book can be used for the sustainable management of bodies of water across our planet
Goods and Services of Marine Bivalves
The aim of this book is to review and analyse the goods and services of bivalve shellfish. How they are defined, what determines the ecological functions that are the basis for the goods and services, what controversies in the use of goods and services exist, and what is needed for sustainable exploitation of bivalves from the perspective of the various stakeholders. The book is focused on the goods and services, and not on impacts of shellfish aquaculture on the benthic environment, or on threats like biotoxins; neither is it a shellfish culture handbook although it can be used in evaluating shellfish culture. The reviews and analysis are based on case studies that exemplify the concept, and show the strengths and weaknesses of the current applications. The multi-authored reviews cover ecological, economic and social aspects of bivalve goods and services. The book provides new insights for scientists, students, shellfish producers, policy advisors, nature conservationists and decision makers. This book is open access under the CC BY license.publishedVersio
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