Particularly sensitive sea areas: the need for regional cooperation in the Adriatic Sea

The paper discusses the need for the designation by the International Maritime Organization, of the Adriatic Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA). The rationale for this inheres in the special features of the Adriatic Sea area, while the policy context has been set by the trend of European Union countries to advocate the proclamation of PSSA in marine areas surrounding Europe. Firstly, the PSSA concept is briefly reviewed and the current status of designations assessed. Secondly, the emerging policy of the EU towards PSSA proclamations is focused on and pressing reasons such as tanker accidents are highlighted; some background factors, such as the restructuring of oil transportation flows in Eurasia are commented upon. Thirdly, key features of the Adriatic Sea as corresponding to the criteria for the designation of PSSA are explained, including the basic characteristics of the area, status and trends of international navigation here, and present and potential associated protective measures to address the risks. Also, the Croatian initiative towards regional cooperation on an Adriatic PSSA is briefly presented. And finally, some conclusions on prospects for regional cooperation towards a PSSA in the Adriatic Sea are made, considering contrasts and commonality in that area

The Impacts of Sea Level Rise and the Law of the Sea Convention: Facilitating Legal Certainty and Stability of Maritime Zones and Boundaries

It seems clear that the impacts of sea level rise were not contemplated by the drafters of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention during UNCLOS III. Legal scholars began to identify these issues in the early 1990s but the establishment and work of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on International Law and Sea Level Rise has drawn increased attention to the importance of this issue that is now being considered by a Study Group of the International Law Commission. This article traces the remarkable and swift evolution over the last decade of State practice on the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Convention in relation to the impacts of sea level rise on baselines and limits of maritime zones. This rapid evolution in State practice provides an interesting case study of the ability of the Convention, now at forty, to adapt to new situations and challenges

Legal Certainty and Stability in the Face of Sea Level Rise: Trends in the Development of State Practice and International Law Scholarship on Maritime Limits and Boundaries

This article identifies and documents a trend in State practice over the past decade or so, regarding the impact of sea level rise on the lawfully determined limits of maritime zones and the existing maritime boundaries. It juxtaposes this development with the findings and recommendations of two committees of the International Law Association in 2012 and 2018 – the Committees on Baselines and Sea Level Rise – and examines the role played since 2019 by the International Law Commission. It explores the implications of emerging State practice for the interpretation of the rules and principles of the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention. It documents the complex interactions between the findings of international law scholarship and the evolution of State practice, and concludes that this interaction has played an important role in facilitating legal certainty and stability in the development of a response to this increasingly pressing international law issue.Legal Certainty and Stability in the Face of Sea Level Rise: Trends in the Development of State Practice and International Law Scholarship on Maritime Limits and BoundariespublishedVersio

Vrednovanje profilaktičkog potencijala imunizacije cjepivom neenterotoksigenog soja bakterije Escherichia coli (ne-ETEC) i pogodnosti kompetitivne ekskluzije dodatkom hrani manan-oligosaharida protiv infekcija izazvanih sojevima ETEC u odbijene prasadi

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains expressing F4 and F18 fimbriae are the most common causative agents of post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) in pigs. The growing global restriction on the use of antibiotics in food animals has encouraged research into the development of nutritional and feeding strategies as well as vaccination against PWD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a live oral F4ac+ F18ac+ non-ETEC vaccine candidate (VAC) to stimulate gut and systemic cellular immunity in 4-week old pigs over 5 weeks following immunization. The onset and duration of protective immunity against on-farm occurring PWD, growth performance, diarrhoea scoring and mortality, as well as the phenotypic proportions of immune cells, were determined. Faecal and ileal samples were taken for determining the microbial composition or phenotyping of naïve/memory T cells. Also, the effect of prebiotic supplement mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) in the prevention of small intestinal colonization by ETEC, and its potential adjuvanticity in combination with the vaccine (VAC+MOS) were assessed. The pigs supplemented with MOS or that received VAC had significantly higher body weight (BW) (P<0.05) on Day 14, whereas the VAC+MOS treated pigs had significantly lower BW on Day 35. Treatment with VAC+MOS resulted in considerably reduced clinical PWD, in particular the incidence and severity of diarrhoea and mortality. The total bacterial load in the ileum was much lower in the pigs from all 3 principal groups (MOS, VAC, and VAC+MOS) than in the control (CON) group (19 x 107, 17 x 107 and 12 x 107 vs. 23 x 108 CFU/mL, respectively) on Day 35. The pigs from the principal groups had significantly higher proportions of tested immune cells (P<0.05) on Days 28 and 35. The localization and frequency of naive CD45RA+ and memory CD45RC+ T lymphocytes indicated their different distribution patterns within particular tissue structures, such as the villi, crypts, epithelium, lamina propria and areas (interfollicular follicular and Peyer’s patches) of ileal mucosa. This may indicate their different functions in intestinal immune responses to intraluminal microbes and their products, vaccinal immunogens and/or immunomodulators/adjuvants. To conclude, active mucosal immunity is needed to protect pigs against PWD. Hence, oral vaccination of pigs against both F4 and F18 ETEC, in combination with prebiotic supplementation represents a sustainable, practical and effective approach in PWD control.Enterotoksigeni sojevi bakterije Escherichia coli (ETEC), koji proizvode F4 i F18 fimbrije, najuobičajeniji su uzročnici dijareje nakon odbića (DNO) u prasadi. Rastuće globalno ograničavanje uporabe antibiotika u farmskih životinja usmjeruje istraživanja prema razvijanju nutritivnih i prehrambenih strategija, kao i prema cijepljenju protiv DNO-a. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je vrednovanje učinkovitosti živog, oralnog F4ac+ F18ac+ ne-ETEC cjepiva-kandidata (VAK) u poticanju crijevne i sistemske stanične imunosti u prasadi u dobi od 4 tjedna, tijekom 5 tjedana nakon imunizacije. U pokusu su određivani početak i trajanje zaštitne imunosti od pojavnosti farmskog DNO-a, proizvodni rezultati, ocjenjivanje učestalosti i jačine dijareje te mortalitet i fenotipski udjeli imunosnih stanica. Uzimani su uzorci fecesa i ileuma za određivanje sastava mikrobiota ili za fenotipiziranje naivnih/memorijskih T-limfocita. Procijenjena je i učinkovitost prebiotika manan-oligosaharida (MOS), kao dodatka hrani, koji bi mogao uspostaviti kompetitivnu ekskluziju naseljavanja tankog crijeva sojevima ETEC, a mogao bi pokazati i adjuvantnost u testiranoj kombinaciji (VAK + MOS). Prasad hranjena dodatkom MOS-a u hrani, ili koja je primila VAK, imala je znakovito povećanu (P < 0,05) tjelesnu masu 14. dan pokusa, dok je prasad tretirana kombinacijom VAK-a i MOS-a imala znakovito nižu tjelesnu masu 35. dan pokusa. Tretman kombinacijom VAK-a i MOS-a rezultirao je znatno blažom kliničkom slikom DNO-a, napose u odnosu na pojavnost i jačinu dijareje te na mortalitet. Ukupno bakterijsko opterećenje u ileumu bilo je mnogo niže u prasadi iz sve tri pokusne skupine (MOS, VAK i VAK + MOS) od onog u kontrolnoj (KON) skupini (19 x 107, 17 x 107 i 12 x 107 prema 23 x 108 CFU/mL) 35. dan pokusa. Prasad iz pokusnih skupina imala je znakovito veće udjele testiranih imunosnih stanica (P < 0,05) 28. i 35. dan pokusa. Lokalizacija i učestalost naivnih CD45RA+ te memorijskih CD45RC+ T-limfocita pokazuju njihove različite obrasce smještanja u posebne tkivne strukture, kao što su crijevne resice, kripte, epitelij i lamina propria te područja u sluznici ileuma, što može specificirati njihove različite funkcije u crijevnim imunosnim odgovorima na intraluminalne mikrobe i njihove proizvode, vakcinalne imunogene i/ili imunomodulatore/adjuvanse. Zaključujemo da je radi zaštite prasadi od DNO-a nužno uspostaviti aktivnu mukoznu imunost. Stoga je oralno cijepljenje prasadi protiv F4 i F18 ETEC-a održiv, praktičan i učinkovit pristup u pronalaženju odgovarajućega bivalentnog, izrazito imunogenog i sigurnog cjepiva

The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene

Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth. Vigorous debate continues about whether this warrants recognition as a new geologic time unit known as the Anthropocene. We review anthropogenic markers of functional changes in the Earth system through the stratigraphic record. The appearance of manufactured materials in sediments − including aluminum, plastics and concrete − coincides with global spikes in fallout radionuclides and particulates from fossil-fuel combustion. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles have been substantially modified over the last century. Rates of sea-level rise, and the extent of human perturbation of the climate system, exceed Late Holocene changes. Biotic changes include species invasions worldwide and accelerating rates of extinction. These combined signals render the Anthropocene stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene and earlier epochs

Colonization of the Americas, 'Little Ice Age' climate, and bomb-produced carbon: their role in defining the Anthropocene

A recently published analysis by Lewis and Maslin (Lewis SL and Maslin MA (2015) Defining the Anthropocene. Nature 519: 171–180) has identified two new potential horizons for the Holocene−Anthropocene boundary: 1610 (associated with European colonization of the Americas), or 1964 (the peak of the excess radiocarbon signal arising from atom bomb tests). We discuss both of these novel suggestions, and consider that there is insufficient stratigraphic basis for the former, whereas placing the latter at the peak of the signal rather than at its inception does not follow normal stratigraphical practice. Wherever the boundary is eventually placed, it should be optimized to reflect stratigraphical evidence with the least possible ambiguity

Is the Anthropocene distinct from the Holocene? [abstract only]

The inaugural meeting of the Anthropocene Working Group of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy in Berlin (Oct. 2014) produced a consensus statement that “humans have altered geologic processes across the Earth system sufficiently to cause a planetary transition to a new interval of geological time”, with the timing of the onset the focus of continued debate, but with a majority in favour of a mid-20th century beginning. The name has driven the assumption that the Anthropocene should be an epoch, but are its signatures truly driven out of the range evident for most of the Holocene, or are changes comparable or subsidiary to Holocene stages? The evidence rests upon a broad range of signatures reflecting humanity’s significant and increasing modification of Earth systems. These are visible in anthropogenic deposits in the form of the greatest expansion of novel minerals in the last 2.4 billion years and development of ubiquitous materials, such as plastics, present in the environment only in the last 60 years. Globally distributed spherical carbonaceous particles of fly ash represent another near-synchronous and permanent proxy. The artefacts we produce, the technofossils of the future, provide a decadal to annual stratigraphical resolution. These materials and deposits have in recent decades extended into the oceans and increasingly into the subsurface both onshore and offshore. These anthropogenic deposits are transported at rates exceeding those of the sediment carried by rivers by an order of magnitude, fluvial systems themselves showing widespread sediment retention in response to dam construction across most major river systems. The Anthropocene is evident in sediment and glacial ice strata as chemical markers. CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by ~45 percent above pre-Industrial Revolution levels, mainly through combustion of hydrocarbons over a few decades. Although average global temperature increases and resultant sea-level rises are still comparatively small, the shift to more negative δ13C values in tree-rings, limestones, speleothems, calcareous fossils and δ13CO2 in ice forms a permanent record. Nitrogen and phosphorus contents in surface soils has approximately doubled through increased use of fertilizers to increase agricultural yields as the human population has also doubled in the last 50 years. Industrial metals such as Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn and persistent organic compounds have been widely and rapidly dispersed. A clear novel signature is radioactive fallout from atomic weapons testing, initiated in 1945 but becoming global in 1952 and in the case of Pu239 representing a long-lasting marker event. The Earth still has most of its complement of biological species, though many now as small populations: current trends of habitat loss and predation, if maintained, will push the Earth into the sixth mass extinction event in the next few centuries. Dramatic elapsed changes include trans-global species invasions and population modification through agricultural development on land and contamination of coastal zones. Although these changes are not synchronous, within near coastal environments microfauna/flora commonly show pronounced assemblage changes in the mid-20th century. Considering the entire range of environmental changes reflected in stratigraphic signatures, the global, large and rapid scale of change related to the mid-20th century is clearly distinct from previous Holocene signatures, consistent with interpretation of the Anthropocene as a potential epoch

Scale and diversity of the physical technosphere: a geological perspective

We assess the scale and extent of the physical technosphere, defined here as the summed material output of the contemporary human enterprise. It includes active urban, agricultural and marine components, used to sustain energy and material flow for current human life, and a growing residue layer, currently only in small part recycled back into the active component. Preliminary estimates suggest a technosphere mass of approximately 30 trillion tonnes (Tt), which helps support a human biomass that, despite recent growth, is ~5 orders of magnitude smaller. The physical technosphere includes a large, rapidly growing diversity of complex objects that are potential trace fossils or ‘technofossils’. If assessed on palaeontological criteria, technofossil diversity already exceeds known estimates of biological diversity as measured by richness, far exceeds recognized fossil diversity, and may exceed total biological diversity through Earth’s history. The rapid transformation of much of Earth’s surface mass into the technosphere and its myriad components underscores the novelty of the current planetary transformation

Sea-level rise and international law: At the convergence of two epochs

publishedVersio