The changing economic impacts of the port of New York

This paper investigates the economic effects of maritime trade through the Port of New York on the New York metropolitan region. It decomposes the impacts associated with the trans-shipment of waterborne exports and imports in 1977 and 1987 into those arising from the changing tonnage of trade and those attributable to the changing commodity mix. Input-output analysis is used to calculate the numbers of jobs, personal and business incomes, and output which arise from each effect. Finally, it examines the impacts on specfic industries and occupations in the region.     

Chemical and mineralogical composition of marine sediments, and relation to their source and transport, Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Australia

The Gulf of Carpentaria is an epicontinental sea, deeply indented in the north of the Australian continent. A selection of 100 samples of the surficial marine sediments collected on a regional grid were analysed for major chemical elements and mineral phases using wet chemistry, X-ray diffraction, optical and electronic microscopy.The surficial sediments of the Gulf are highly heterogenous and consist of both young and relict mineral and carbonate components. The terrigenous fraction is fluvial in origin and consists mainly of quartz (16–68%), minor feldspars (0–9%) and traces of siderite. The clay species determined include kaolinite, mixed layers of smectite–illite and illite; clays range up to 15% and do not present a clear pattern of distribution. Biologically productive areas of the Gulf, mainly in shallower parts, supply the carbonate component of the sediment. The carbonate material is comprised of aragonite (7–30%), low-Mg (5–30%) and high-Mg calcite (7–28%), and has variable degrees of alteration caused by sediment transport and/or diagenesis. Such processes are partly reflected in the regional distribution of mineral and chemical components throughout the Gulf. The interpretation of the data set was further refined by cluster analysis (Ward's method), which separated eight clusters (provinces) of sedimentary material. The eastern side appears to be the main source of both terrigenous and carbonate sediment, which is inferred to be transported clockwise. During this dispersion, physicochemical and mineralogical changes take place; the sediments become finer grained and characterised by more stable species of carbonates. As a consequence, the center and the northwest sections are clay-rich and contain dominantly low-Mg calcite.Ooids are relict components that have been identified in areas in which they were not mentioned by previous studies, notably in the southeast. These carbonate particles consist of concentric layers of aragonite deposited around a nucleus of angular quartz, most likely of fluvial origin.This study indicates a complex history over a short time frame with sediment supply, biological production and current patterns being the main factors that control the sediment character and its regional distribution within the Gulf.     

Applying Public Participation Geographic Information Systems for Coastal Wading Bird Conservation

Coastal estuaries in the northern Gulf of Mexico are important habitat for wading birds, but are threatened by land use and ecological changes. Conservation has been demonstrated to be more effective when stakeholders are included in the decision-making process. Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) facilitates the inclusion of stakeholder preferences in the planning process by allowing a direct spatial comparison with other ecological data. In this study, we used a PPGIS survey of residents of two counties on Alabama’s Gulf Coast to identify wading bird conservation hotspots as identified by local residents. Additionally, we assessed the ability of general public respondents to accurately identify wading bird habitat, determined whether participants associated wading bird habitat with particular land cover types, and examined whether respondents identified areas with high wading bird species richness. We found that respondents could accurately identify suitable wading bird habitat on a map of the study area, but underrepresented riparian forest, which is an important habitat for many wading bird species. Additionally, participants tended to prioritize areas that support higher wading bird species richness. Thus, this study demonstrated how PPGIS can function as an important tool for incorporating both stakeholder management preferences and identifying knowledge gaps.     

The US—Canadian free trade agreement and North American maritime trade

The free trade agreement (FTA) implemented in 1988 by the United States and Canada will complete the integration of the economics of the world's two largest trading partners. While the vast bulk of US-Canadian trade is transported overland, the FTA will also affect the volume, commodity composition, and spatial distribution of maritime trade. The spatial structure of US-Canadian water-borne trade is examined followed by an investigation of the short-run (non-investment related) impacts of the FTA on the US port system. Commodity-specific analyses of tariffs and non-tariff barriers and elasticities of demand are employed to estimate the sectoral and spatial changes in water-borne trade volumes since 1988 that are attributable to the FTA.