Coastal and Ocean Economic Summaries of the Coastal States 2014

The following summaries of the ocean and coastal economies were prepared by the National Ocean Economics Program as a companion the State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies 2014. The U.S. report, its appendices, and these state summary reports are available on the NOEP website at www.OceanEconomics.org/download

Pulse-Echo Phased Array Ultrasonic Inspection of Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS)

A PRSEUS test article was subjected to controlled impact on the skin face followed by static and cyclic axial compressions. Phased array ultrasonic inspection was conducted before impact, and after each of the test conditions. A linear phased array probe with a manual X-Y scanner was used for interrogation. Ultrasound showed a delamination between the skin and stringer flange adjacent to the impact. As designed, the stitching in the flange arrested the lateral flaw formation. Subsequent ultrasonic data showed no delamination growth due to continued loading. Keywords: Phased Array, Ultrasonics, Composites, Out-of-Autoclav

Wide-Angle Ultrasonic Backscatter: Concept for Enhanced Array-Based Inspection of Composite Materials

No abstract availabl

Electrophysiological responses to violations of expectation from eye gaze and arrow cues

Isolating processes within the brain that are specific to human behavior is a key goal for social neuroscience. The current research was an attempt to test whether recent findings of enhanced negative ERPs in response to unexpected human gaze are unique to eye gaze stimuli by comparing the effects of gaze cues with the effects of an arrow cue. ERPs were recorded while participants (N=30) observed a virtual actor or an arrow that gazed (or pointed) either toward (object congruent) or away from (object incongruent) a flashing checkerboard. An enhanced negative ERP (N300) in response to object incongruent compared to object congruent trials was recorded for both eye gaze and arrow stimuli. The findings are interpreted as reflecting a domain general mechanism for detecting unexpected events

State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies 2016 Update

Relative to the landmass of coastal regions, America’s coasts and oceans contribute a disproportionately high value to the United States economy. For the past fifteen years, the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) has compiled time-series data that track multiple indicators for economic activities, demographics, natural resource production and values, non-market values, and federal expenditures in the U.S. coastal zone on land and in the water. On our website (www.oceaneconomics.org), government agencies, academia, industry, advocacy groups and the general public representing more than 40 nations— have had interactive access to this information and used it widely for many different purposes. This Update features highlights denoting economic changes that have occurred since our last report was issued in February 2014. We continue to measure two economies: the ocean economy, which includes all ocean-dependent activities in coastal states, and the coastal economy, which includes all economic activity in coastal states, according to geographies such as zip codes, shore adjacent and other coastal zone counties, and watersheds. In addition to updating the measures of economic activity such as employment, wages, and gross domestic product, we have updated our fisheries, offshore oil and gas, and ports and cargo data to indicate changes since our last report. Also, as we have in the past, we show sand nourishment production and price estimates; this time to track continuing changes in price and location in view of climate impacts along our nation’s coasts. We have added a new Arctic Economy page to our site and provide a brief report from it. Finally, we have been compiling federal expenditure data based on OMB annual estimates of all federal agency civilian expenditures for many years. We provide a brief summary of those data as well. The analysis presented here updates ocean economy information to 2013, the most recent available year for these data. Because of the lag in the production of ocean economy data by the federal agencies from which estimates are drawn, this report includes a new data series in the NOEP database: the Ocean Economy Coincident Index. This index utilizes more recent data on employment, establishments, and real wages to provide an indicator of trends between the most recent ocean economy data available (2013 in this report) and the most recent full year for which data are available (2014). A Note on Data Sources: All of the data reported here except for the Arctic data is sourced from public sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations’ Office of Coastal Management, NOAA Fisheries, Department of Interior, States of Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, California and Mississippi and Alabama for oil and gas data, beach nourishment data from West Carolina University (http://beachnourishment. wcu.edu). Thanks to Daniel Pauly and Rashid Sumalia at the University of British Columbia, for allowing us to use their Arctic fisheries data from Sea Around Us. All data is available for viewing and download on the website of the National Ocean Economics Program at www.oceaneconomics. org

State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies 2014

The nation\u27s coasts and oceans contribute much to the United States economy. For the past 14 years, the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP), now a program of the Center for the Blue Economy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, has compiled time-series data that track economic activities, demographics, ports and cargo volume and value, natural resource production and value, non-market values, and federal expenditures in the U.S. coastal zone both on land and in the water. A report on the ocean and coastal economies of the United States was released by NOEP in 2009 covering data through 2005. The present report is an update of that study covering the period 2007-2012. State summaries from this report are available on the NOEP website (www.oceaneconomics.org) under Publications

Contribution of floodplain wetland pools to the ecological functioning of the Fitzroy River Estuary

Coastal wetlands function as links between terrestrial and marine ecosystems throughout the world. They have vibrant and diverse flora and fauna, and are crucial habitats for fish and invertebrates, often providing critical nursery grounds and are major contributors of nutrients to coastal systems. However, our present understanding of tropical and subtropical estuarine floodplain wetlands is limited, particularly in tropical and subtropical areas. This lack of understanding, together with their extensive ecological importance and their value to so many user groups, makes detailed understanding of estuarine floodplain wetlands an important research priority. The delta of the Fitzroy River, in Central Queensland, has extensive wetlands clustered around its large estuary system. Except during flooding, the aquatic environment of the wetlands is restricted to a number of semi-permanent pools of varying types and sizes, which are recognised as important nursery habitats for marine fish, such as barramundi. Unfortunately, the way these habitats provide for juvenile fish, and how juvenile fish interact with other animals and plants associated with the pools (as prey or predators) is unknown. Similarly, there is no knowledge of how aquatic animals are influenced by the type of pool environment (eg. marine or freshwater influenced), or how the compositions and fates of pool inhabitants are influenced by the degree and regularity of connection to other habitats. Thus the current project aims to extend, broaden and refine our understanding by investigating the in luence of connectivity on faunal dynamics and food webs of Fitzroy Estuarine Floodplain Wetland Pools. The current study was conducted during a drought period, with no substantial wet season flows during the project. This has two consequences: (1) the study is limited to wetland pools, with little ability to generalise the results to the whole wetland, and (2) the results of the study are not necessarily representative of the situation during wet years

Vulnerability of coastal and estuarine habitats in the GBR to climate change

Coastal and estuarine habitats occupy a central place in the functioning of tropical marine ecosystems. Their location at the interface between land and sea means they function to modulate the movement of terrestrial materials (eg freshwater, nutrients and pollutants) into the marine environment. Coastal and estuarine habitats also act as a filter, with functional units such as mangrove forests inhibiting trapping and retaining sediments and nutrients. Coastal habitats are also crucial nursery grounds for many species of fish111 and crustaceans, and act as links in the life cycles of species that migrate between marine and freshwater habitats. Beyond this, their close proximity to population and industrial centres makes them the marine habitats most vulnerable to human impacts. The east coast of tropical Queensland comprises a diversity of habitats, ranging from freshwater and littoral marshes, through estuaries, to nearshore open oceans and reefs. These habitats do not function alone but are an interlinked coastal ecosystem mosaic (CEM), connected at a variety of spatial, temporal, functional and conceptual scales. This complex mix of habitats is inhabited by one of the most diverse faunas on earth with organisms covering the full taxonomic spectrum, from viruses and bacteria to cetaceans. Unfortunately, detailed ecological knowledge is limited to a very small subset of the range of these organisms, with many species unknown, unidentified or unquantified. Although it is clear species interact in complex ways, our understanding of this is critically deficient. Moreover, many of the individual components are poorly understood, and details of the links between them largely absent