MINOE: A Software Tool to Analyze Ocean Management Efforts in the Context of Ecosystems

Transitioning ocean governance into an integrated ecosystem-based approach requires improved knowledge of existing governance arrangements. This article presents a software tool, MINOE, to assist policymakers, scientists, and others involved in ecosystem-based management initiatives to navigate through management documents as they relate to a user-defined ecosystem. The tool uses a conceptually modeled ecosystem, defined by the user, and text analysis of a set of management-related documents to determine which ecosystem linkages are potentially acknowledged in the documents. For illustration, the set of documents included with MINOE currently (and used to demonstrate the software in this article) are laws and regulations from four geopolitical jurisdictions for the year 2006; however, users may also import other documents for a more tailored application. Features include an interactive matrix containing results about the set of management documents within the user's scope and scale of interest. In addition, MINOE includes metrics and visualization tools to synthesize information derived from the documents. The article presents the software tool, describes potential uses for the tool, and ends with a discussion of future work to expand the program.     

Comparing Fisher Interviews,Logbooks, and Catch Landings Estimates of Extraction Rates in a Small-Scale Fishery

Researchers are turning to alternative data sources (e.g., resource user knowledge) to provide information required for wildlife management. Little is known about the reliability of data elicited from resource users relative to data obtained from user-independent approaches (e.g., observations of fish catches). We test for consensus among three methods that quantify past (1996 to 2007) seahorse catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) for a small-scale, data-poor fishery in the Philippines: interviews with fishers about good, bad, and typical catch; fisher logbooks; and observations of catch landings. Interviews and logbooks indicated no trends in CPUE through time, consistent with results from the fisher-independent metric, catch landings. Although interview estimates of “typical” CPUE greatly exceeded “typical” observed catches and logbook estimates, interview estimates of “bad” CPUE were comparable. Catch landings estimates for a fisher in a particular year were uncorrelated to what he reported during retrospective interviews. Interviews should be used cautiously to inform specific catch targets (e.g., total allowable catches), although including interview questions about a range of catch experiences (e.g., good, bad and typical), may improve interview-derived data. Logbooks are particularly useful for capturing information about fishing expeditions that produce no fish, which are largely missed by other methods.     

FLUXMANCHE radiotracers measurements: A contribution to the dynamics of the English Channel and North Sea

From 1986 to 1992, ¹²⁵Sb released by the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague has been used to study the transfer of waters from mid-Channel areas towards the Straits of Dover. Since 1940, these investigations have formed part of the MAST 53 FLUXMANCHE programme and have involved repeated measurements on a Straits of Dover transect. A discussion of the results is presented here which takes into account new information provided by a hydrodynamic model developed in the framework of FLUXMANCHE; it combines knowledge of the monthly fluxes of water trough the Straits of Dover and week-by-week simulation of the ¹²⁵Sb activities of waters flowing in this aera. It is proposed that soluble radionuclides introduced into the central Channel are transferred towards the Straits of Dover over a time which varies from four to seven months depending on the route taken.     

Constructal design of tree-shaped microchannel disc heat sink with wavy walls北大核心CSCD

［Objective］To meet the efficient thermal management needs of electronic devices such as ships and underwater vehicles, this study focuses on the constructal design of a tree-shaped microchannel disc heat sink with wavy walls. ［Method］A design prototype of the heat sink with wavy walls is first proposed. Based on constructal theory, the amplitude and wavelength of the wavy walls are designed under the constraints of fixed heat sink volume and fixed microchannel volume by maximizing the comprehensive performance evaluation criteria (PEC) while considering both heat transfer and flow pressure drop. ［Results］The results show that the wavy walls increase the heat transfer surface areas and generate vortices in their cavities, effectively reducing the maximum temperature. When the inlet Reynolds number is fixed at 700, 900 or 1100 respectively, the maximum temperature is reduced by 13.5 K by increasing the amplitude of the wavy walls, while the pressure drop increases significantly; and the maximum temperature is reduced by 4.7 K by reducing the wavelength of the wavy walls, while the pressure drop increases slightly. There are optimal amplitudes that raise the comprehensive performance evaluation criteria to extreme values for given larger wavelengths, while the comprehensive performance evaluation criteria increase monotonously as the amplitude increases for given smaller wavelengths. ［Conclusion］Wavy walls can significantly improve the thermal performance of tree-shaped microchannel disc heat sinks, and the use of constructal design can realize optimal geometric constructs with optimal comprehensive performance evaluation criteria. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.     

Long marine shafting alignment and optimization considering propeller hydrodynamic force in wake field北大核心CSCD

[目的]针对计入螺旋桨水动力的舰船轴系校中计算,传统方法通常容易忽略船体伴流场的影响,使得螺旋桨水动力计算的结果与真实值之间存在较大偏差,从而导致轴系校中精度下降。[方法]以某舰船长轴系为对象,建立桨-轴-船一体化有限元模型及其伴流场流域模型,利用CFD数值仿真的叠模方法计算螺旋桨水动力;采用流固耦合法将流体计算结果作用于螺旋桨表面,进行轴系校中计算,并得到螺旋桨水动力对轴系整体挠曲线及各轴承状态参数的影响规律。在此基础上,引入多目标优化算法开展轴系多目标优化校中,来解决轴系末端四套轴承间载荷差值过大的问题。[结果]考虑螺旋桨水动力后,轴系尾部挠度变化减小,越靠近螺旋桨处的轴承其载荷所受影响越大,载荷值随进速系数的增大而减小;对比多目标优化前后的轴系校中状态,轴系各轴承之间的载荷差值明显减小,轴系运行状态得到改善。[结论]所提方法提高了计入螺旋桨水动力的轴系校中计算精度,可为轴系校中质量的提升提供参考。     

Improvement of Propeller Hydrodynamic Drag and Efficiency on USCG Cutters Operating in Trailshaft Mode

Large US Coast Guard cutters spend much of their underway time with only one of two propellers operating. The offline propeller is "trailed," often creating a significant amount of hydrodynamic drag. Operators from the fleet do not appear to have any specific guidance on how best to reduce this drag. Using the propeller analysis tools PSF-3 and PSF-10, propeller thrust coefficient values versus advance coefficient values were created for the propellers of the USCG 270' cutters. These values—and the associated drag—vary significantly in magnitude based on the trailed propeller pitch. Based upon sea trial measurements, expected magnitudes of this drag versus pitch setting were predicted. Minimum drag pitch settings were identified for an operational 270' cutter at 8 knots. RPM and pitch settings for maximum hydrodynamic efficiency for the online shaft are sometimes developed during ship acquisition. In the current work, a methodology for conducting such a study is discussed to demonstrate to ship operators the relative ease with which they could perform this analysis on board, if effective power and propeller thrust coefficient values are available. Consideration of prime mover specific fuel consumption rates together with propeller hydrodynamic efficiencies is discussed.     

Application of a validated primary production model (BLOOM) as a screening tool for marine, coastal and transitional waters

In order to manage aquatic systems, it is necessary to apply methods relating the environmental variables and system-state parameters with external factors that affect the system. External factors can be natural (i.e. the movement of water) or partly-anthropogenic (i.e. nutrient loads). In addition to the national authorities, who have been implementing environmental policies for several decades, the EU is presently implementing the Water Framework Directive (WFD) aimed at establishing a new set of standards for the ecological and water quality of water systems. Among these are the phytoplankton biomass and composition. Phytoplankton affects turbidity, oxygen depletion, total productivity of the system and the occurrence of (harmful) algal blooms. A range of methods is available to relate phytoplankton to the controlling environmental conditions. Among these are statistical relations for instance of the Vollenweider type as well as deterministic simulation models. At the end of the 1970s, a generic deterministic phytoplankton module called BLOOM was developed, which has since been applied to a wide range of fresh water and marine systems. Here we test the applicability of this model as a screening tool for coastal waters. We conclude that the model is able to reproduce observed chlorophyll levels adequately under a wide range of conditions. Subsequently the model is applied to demonstrate the potential impacts of reductions in nitrogen, phosphorus or both nutrients simultaneously. Depending on which factors are initially controlling, the impacts of these reductions vary considerably both between locations and during the season. While this type of application lacks explicit relations between nutrient concentrations and external loadings, it does consider a number of relevant conditions in a consistent way and requires remarkably little data and effort. It is therefore a valuable screening tool.     

Variation of whitecap coverage with wave-field conditions

Field observations were carried out at a sea observation tower to investigate how whitecap coverage on the ocean surface responds to wave-field conditions. Images of whitecaps were taken for every 4 h or 7 h in the daytime using a 3CCD digital video camera fixed at 14 m elevation, and they were stored automatically in a hard disk video recorder at a time interval of 1 s. The determination of whitecap coverage was made by means of a digital image processing. The 1/3 power of whitecap coverage increases linearly with increasing the 10-m neutral wind speed. On the basis of the deflection angle between the propagating directions of wind waves and swell, wave-field conditions are classified into four cases. The present results show that whitecaps are produced most actively under the condition of the pure windsea and they tend to be suppressed by the presence of swell. It is difficult to find a certain relation between the deflection angle and whitecap coverage. Whitecap coverage also increases with the wave age in the same wind-speed conditions.     

Assimilation of sea surface temperature in the POL Coastal Ocean Modelling System

A one-dimensional scheme is used to assimilate satellite Sea Surface Temperature data into the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modelling System, set up in the Irish Sea with a fine resolution ( 1.8 km). The capabilities of the assimilation scheme are investigated using two different sets of satellite data, of lower and similar resolution to that of the model respectively. Comparison of results with independent data show that assimilation improves the modelled Sea Surface Temperature, but does not address model representation of the temperature vertical structure. It is concluded that for the Irish Sea and at the scales resolved by the model, the assimilation problem cannot be approached in a one-dimensional framework. It is also pointed out that forecast error needs to account explicitly for errors in the representation of the vertical structure of the thermal field.Three-dimensional methods that are suited for coastal systems are then suggested.