Artificial Modifications of the Coast In Response to the \u3ci\u3eDeepwater Horizon\u3c/i\u3e Oil Spill: Quick Solutions or Long-Term Liabilities?

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill threatened many coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico during the spring and summer of 2010. Mitigation strategies included the construction of barrier sand berms, the restriction or blocking of inlets, and the diversion of freshwater from rivers to the coastal marshes and into the ocean, in order to flush away the oil, on the premise that these measures could reduce the quantity of oil reaching sensitive coastal environments such as wetlands or estuaries. These projects result in changes to the ecosystems that they were intended to protect. Long-term effects include alterations of the hydrological and ecological characteristics of estuaries, changes in sediment transport along the coastal barrier islands, the loss of sand resources, and adverse impacts to benthic and pelagic organisms. Although there are no easy solutions for minimizing the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on coastal ecosystems, we recommend that federal, state, and local agencies return to the strategic use of long-term restoration plans for this region

The Influence of Enhanced Post-Glacial Coastal Margin Productivity on the Emergence of Complex Societies

Abstract We analyze the dynamics of post-glacial coastal margin (CM) productivity and explore how it affected the emergence of six complex CM societies. Following deglaciation, global relative sea level stabilized after ~7000 BP and CM productivity significantly increased in many areas. Primary and secondary productivity (fish) likely increased by an order of magnitude or more. Aquatic animals were readily available in the CM providing sources of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, high quality protein, and nutrients, especially essential to human nutrition. In all six case studies, mature CMs appear to have been occupied by Neolithic agricultural and fishing villages within ~500 years of sea-level stabilization. Within a few hundred years population densities increased and roughly a millennium later social ranking and monumental architecture appeared. Sea-level stabilization and increased CM productivity in conjunction with agricultural intensification in lower alluvial floodplains were major contributors to the origins of many complex CM societies. Keyword

Divulgação do risco de crédito antes e após a crise financeira de 2008: o caso das empresas do setor bancário do PSI-20

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Contabilidade e FinançasA crise financeira de 2008 evidenciou a necessidade da qualidade da informação divulgada sobre os riscos, assim como a falta de transparência nos relatórios das empresas. Para colmatar este deficit de transparência, as empresas do setor bancário estão sujeitas ao cumprimento das normas emitidas pela Comissão de Mercado e Valores Mobiliários (CMVM), pelo International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), bem como da legislação que resulta dos Acordos de Basileia. O presente estudo procura analisar as práticas de divulgação de informação sobre o risco de crédito antes e “após” a mais recente crise financeira em quatro empresas do setor bancário português cotadas na Euronext Lisboa e incluídas no Portuguese Stock Index (PSI) 20. Para o efeito foi utilizado o método qualitativo e o método da análise de conteúdo. Os dados foram extraídos dos relatórios e contas de 2006 e 2012 das empresas da amostra. Verifica-se que, em geral, as empresas cumpriam os requisitos previstos no normativo contabilístico, regras, regulamentos e outra legislação aplicável.); e que a informação mais divulgada referia-se aos objetivos e políticas de gestão do risco de crédito. Verifica-se, ainda, que a informação divulgada em 2012 melhorou significativamente face a 2006; e houve um grande envolvimento por parte dos órgãos reguladores na adequação das normas e legislações às novas realidades proporcionadas pelo sistema financeiro.Abstract:The financial crisis of 2008 has highlighted the need for the quality of information disclosed about the risks, as well as the lack of transparency in corporate reporting. To overcome this deficit of transparency, companies in the banking sector are subject to compliance with the rules issued by the Comissão de Mercado e Valores Mobiliários (CMVM), by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), as well as by the legislation that has derived from the Basel Accords. The present study seeks to analyse the information disclosure practices on credit risk before and "after" the latest financial crisis in four Portuguese banking companies listed on Euronext Lisbon and included in the Portuguese Stock Index (PSI) 20. For this purpose we used the qualitative method and the method of content analysis. The data were extracted from the 2006 and 2012 Annual Accounts of the companies included in the sample. It turns out that, in general, the companies met the requirements set out in accounting standards, rules, regulations, and other applicable law.); and that the information disclosed was referring to the goals and policies of credit risk management. It, also, turns out that the information disclosed in 2012 has significantly improved compared to 2006; and there was a great involvement on the part of regulators on the appropriateness of standards and legislation to the new realities offered by the financial system

Can Continental Shelf River Plumes in the Northern and Southern Gulf of Mexico Promote Ecological Resilience in a Time of Climate Change?

Deltas and estuaries built by the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River (MAR) in the United States and the Usumacinta/Grijalva River (UGR) in Mexico account for 80 percent of all Gulf of Mexico (GoM) coastal wetlands outside of Cuba. They rank first and second in freshwater discharge to the GoM and owe their natural resilience to a modular geomorphology that spreads risk across the coast-scape while providing ecosystem connectivity through shelf plumes that connect estuaries. Both river systems generate large plumes that strongly influence fisheries production over large areas of the northern and southern GoM continental shelves. Recent watershed process simulations (DLEM, MAPSS) driven by CMIP3 General Circulation Model (GCM) output indicate that the two systems face diverging futures, with the mean annual discharge of the MAR predicted to increase 11 to 63 percent, and that of the UGR to decline as much as 80 percent in the 21st century. MAR delta subsidence rates are the highest in North America, making it particularly susceptible to channel training interventions that have curtailed a natural propensity to shift course and deliver sediment to new areas, or to refurbish zones of high wetland loss. Undoing these restrictions in a controlled way has become the focus of a multi-billion-dollar effort to restore the MAR delta internally, while releasing fine-grained sediments trapped behind dams in the Great Plains has become an external goal. The UGR is, from an internal vulnerability standpoint, most threatened by land use changes that interfere with a deltaic architecture that is naturally resilient to sea level rise. This recognition has led to successful efforts in Mexico to protect still intact coastal systems against further anthropogenic impacts, as evidenced by establishment of the Centla Wetland Biosphere Preserve and the Terminos Lagoon Protected Area. The greatest threat to the UGR system, however, is an external one that will be imposed by the severe drying predicted for the entire Mesoamerican “climate change hot-spot”, a change that will necessitate much greater international involvement to protect threatened communities and lifeways as well as rare habitats and species

Manglares: ecosistema centinela frente al cambio climático, Golfo de México

Considering the challenge that the economic, social and ecological systems face -in order to know and mitigate the global climate change-, evidences of the functional structure of mangroves ecological system are presented revisiting the hypothesis presented by Yáñez-Arancibia et al. (1998), and revised latter by Yáñez-Arancibia et al. (2010): "the mangroves as a critical forest habitat of the coastal zone present accommodation responses to the environmental variability that induces global change playing an structural and functional role in the stability of the coastline, the persistence of habitats and biodiversity, the metabolism of the ecosystem, reducing risks and uncertainty for the sustainable development of the use of its resources". Recent evidences indicates that mangroves in the Gulf of Mexico follows this hypothesis and -as answer to climate change and its effects in the coastal zone- shows a consistent pattern of geographical distribution colonizing all over the northern coast of the Gulf, including the Atlantic coast of Florida Peninsula because of the opportunity of "global tropicalization of the Gulf of Mexico". Moreover, at present the four mangrove species in the Gulf of México are distributed in the Texas state U.S. We conclude that mangrove ecosystem is a "sentinel-ecosystem" in front of climate change impact in the Gulf of Mexico.Frente al desafío que enfrentan los sistemas económicos, sociales y ecológicos de la zona costera, se presentan evidencias de estructura funcional del sistema ecológico de manglar, revisitando la hipótesis planteada por Yáñez-Arancibia et al. (1998) y revisada más adelante por Yáñez-Arancibia et al. (2010): "los manglares como hábitat forestado crítico de la zona costera presentan respuestas de acomodación frente a la variabilidad ambiental que induce el cambio global, desarrollando un papel estructural y funcional clave en la estabilidad de la línea de costa, la persistencia de hábitats y biodiversidad, el metabolismo del ecosistema, reduciendo riesgos e incertidumbre para el desarrollo sustentable del uso de sus recursos". Evidencias recientes indican que los manglares en el Golfo de México responden a esta hipótesis y -como respuesta al cambio climático y sus efectos en la zona costera- muestran un patrón ampliado y consistente de distribución, colonizando todo el Golfo hacia el norte, incluyendo la costa Atlántica de la Península de Florida, ante la oportunidad de la "tropicalización global del Golfo de México". Más aún, actualmente las cuatro especies de manglar del Golfo de México ya se encuentran distribuidas en el Estado de Texas. Concluimos que el ecosistema de manglar es un "ecosistema-centinela" frente al impacto del cambio climático en el Golfo de México

The influence of enhanced post-glacial coastal margin productivity on the emergence of complex societies

We analyze the dynamics of post-glacial coastal margin (CM) productivity and explore how it affected the emergence of six complex CM societies. Following deglaciation, global relative sea level stabilized after ~7000 BP and CM productivity significantly increased in many areas. Primary and secondary productivity (fish) likely increased by an order of magnitude or more. Aquatic animals were readily available in the CM providing sources of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, high-quality protein, and nutrients, especially essential to human nutrition. In all six case studies, mature CMs appear to have been occupied by Neolithic agricultural and fishing villages within ~500 years of sea-level stabilization. Within a few hundred years population densities increased and roughly a millennium later social ranking and monumental architecture appeared. Sea-level stabilization and increased CM productivity in conjunction with agricultural intensification in lower alluvial floodplains were major contributors to the origins of many complex CM societies

Produktionsintegrierter Umweltschutz am Beispiel der Kunstharzimpraegnierung unter Einsatz einer recycelbaren Impraegnierfluessigkeit Abschlussbericht

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F02B885 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDeutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, Osnabrueck (Germany)DEGerman

Artificial modifications of the coast in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Quick solutions or long-term liabilities?

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill threatened many coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico during the spring and summer of 2010. Mitigation strategies included the construction of barrier sand berms, the restriction or blocking of inlets, and the diversio