Sediment impacts on sponges and a deep-sea coral in New Zealand

<p><b>Increased levels of suspended sediment in the water column are important factors contributing to the degradation of marine ecosystems worldwide. In coastal waters, temporal variation in suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) occurs naturally due to seasonal and oceanographic processes. However, there is evidence that anthropogenic activities are increasing sediment concentrations. The volume of sediment moving from land-based sources into coastal ecosystems and human activities in the ocean disturbing the seafloor, such as dredging and bottom-contact fisheries, have been increasing over the last century. In addition, offshore activities, particularly bottom-contact fishing and potential deep-sea mining, can create sediment plumes in the deep-sea that may extend over long distances. Elevated suspended sediment concentrations have detrimental effects on benthic communities, particularly for suspension feeders like sponges and corals.</b></p> <p>The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of increased SSCs that might arise from heavy anthropogenic disturbance on common shallow water and deep-sea sponges and a deep-sea coral in New Zealand, as these groups contribute to habitat structure in some benthic environments, including the deep sea.</p>

Sediment impacts on sponges and a deep-sea coral in New Zealand

<p><b>Increased levels of suspended sediment in the water column are important factors contributing to the degradation of marine ecosystems worldwide. In coastal waters, temporal variation in suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) occurs naturally due to seasonal and oceanographic processes. However, there is evidence that anthropogenic activities are increasing sediment concentrations. The volume of sediment moving from land-based sources into coastal ecosystems and human activities in the ocean disturbing the seafloor, such as dredging and bottom-contact fisheries, have been increasing over the last century. In addition, offshore activities, particularly bottom-contact fishing and potential deep-sea mining, can create sediment plumes in the deep-sea that may extend over long distances. Elevated suspended sediment concentrations have detrimental effects on benthic communities, particularly for suspension feeders like sponges and corals.</b></p> <p>The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of increased SSCs that might arise from heavy anthropogenic disturbance on common shallow water and deep-sea sponges and a deep-sea coral in New Zealand, as these groups contribute to habitat structure in some benthic environments, including the deep sea.</p>

Taxes and Haven Activities: Evidence from Linguistic Cues

Users of Exhibit 21 cannot tell whether a tax haven subsidiary is actively operating or a dormant shell company. In this paper, we develop a new set of parsimonious measures to highlight the distinct mechanisms and tax effects of offshore sales to, as opposed to purchases from, tax haven countries, offering insights on the effects of certain types of offshoring activities on firms’ tax burdens. Our main measure has about three times the effect of the mere existence of a haven subsidiary in explaining firms’ effective tax rates. We detail the processes to predict the offshore activities in tax haven countries for firms without an Exhibit 21 and firms reporting no subsidiary operations in a tax haven country. Relative to the mere mention of a tax haven subsidiary in Exhibit 21, our new measures provide a richer information set to capture different types of economic activities in tax haven countries.

Status and needs for ice tank testing in a changing climate

150 years ago, the first modern icebreaker in the world was designed by the naval architect Carl Ferdinand Steinhaus and built for purpose of removing ice barriers on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany. No model tests were performed at that time. Later, in the first half of the 20th century, “model tests” for ships were carried out in natural ice on lakes. In the 1950th the first-generation ice model basins were put in operation and ice model testing became a standard method in the icebreaker design process. This paper discusses the influence of the economic and environmental development in arctic regions, driven by shipping and offshore activities in environmental changing Arctic Waters, on the ice model basin design, equipment and testing methods. The developments will be presented with examples from The Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSVA). To complete the overview, an outlook to future trends is attempted.

Legal Issues for Artificial Floating Islands

Developments of multi-use floating islands are accelerated by an increase in offshore activities and pressing needs to create extra space in coastal regions for the surging population. The Horizon 2020 EU funded research project Space@Sea developed a modular floating island concept for offshore multi-use applications and examined current legal issues and barriers concerning its development. In this paper a floating island is defined to be “an artificially created floater, or set of connected floaters, moored to the seabed of which the topside can be used for activities similar to activities on land”. This paper aims to delve into governance issues like the assignment of authority on a multi-use floating island and the shift from regulating offshore living for working purposes to living purposes, as well as maritime law and property law (using the Netherlands as case study). Within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) a coastal state can establish, locate, and govern the floating island. For the high seas the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the most probable organization to initiate a discussion on settlement of floating islands. For each activity on the floating island, limiting criteria regarding motions as well as safety rules and regulations need to be established. Industry and housing will have completely different requirements regarding safety which will not be possible to fit in a one size fits all regulation. This case study shows that current Dutch property law prohibit the division of ownership of buildings built on floating objects. They can only be owned together as one object. For urban expansion, future inhabitants will want to have the possibility to buy property, requiring an amendment of current property law. It is to be expected that other countries will have similar or additional governance challenges. The Space@Sea project has developed a technical solution for floating islands which have identified barriers for multi-use in the rules and regulations described in this paper. The paper urges the responsible institutions and stakeholders to take on their roles in overcoming these barriers.

Far-Field Effects of Impulsive Noise on Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins

Increasing levels of anthropogenic underwater noise have caused concern over their potential impacts on marine life. Offshore renewable energy developments and seismic exploration can produce impulsive noise which is especially hazardous for marine mammals because it can induce auditory damage at shorter distances and behavioral disturbance at longer distances. However, far-field effects of impulsive noise remain poorly understood, causing a high level of uncertainty when predicting the impacts of offshore energy developments on marine mammal populations. Here we used a 10-year dataset on the occurrence of coastal bottlenose dolphins over the period 2009–2019 to investigate far-field effects of impulsive noise from offshore activities undertaken in three different years. Activities included a 2D seismic survey and the pile installation at two offshore wind farms, 20–75 km from coastal waters known to be frequented by dolphins. We collected passive acoustic data in key coastal areas and used a Before-After Control-Impact design to investigate variation in dolphin detections in areas exposed to different levels of impulsive noise from these offshore activities. We compared dolphin detections at two temporal scales, comparing years and days with and without impulsive noise. Passive acoustic data confirmed that dolphins continued to use the impact area throughout each offshore activity period, but also provided evidence of short-term behavioral responses in this area. Unexpectedly, and only at the smallest temporal scale, a consistent increase in dolphin detections was observed at the impact sites during activities generating impulsive noise. We suggest that this increase in dolphin detections could be explained by changes in vocalization behavior. Marine mammal protection policies focus on the near-field effects of impulsive noise; however, our results emphasize the importance of investigating the far-field effects of anthropogenic disturbances to better understand the impacts of human activities on marine mammal populations.

Assessment of Fishers' Knowledge and Willingness to Adopt Seaweed Cultivation in Ghana in Relation to Gender, Age, Education, and Distance

The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and willingness of fishers in four selected fishing communities (Ayitepa/Kponor, Ngyiresia, Adjoa, and Miemia) in Ghana for seaweed cultivation in terms of gender, age, education, and distance. The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect data and household spatial position recorded by the global positioning system (GPS). The findings show that an average of 95.8% of fishers knew seaweed and 86.5% were willing cultivate it. A chi-square test shows no significant association between gender, age, education, distance, and the willingness of fishers to participate in the seaweed cultivation. In a regression model, only age group between the ages of 18 and 64 have a strong effect on the willingness of fishers to grow seaweed (P&lt;0.05). However, focus group interviews with fishers indicate that women are not allowed to engage in any offshore activities at Ayitepa/Kponor, Ngyiresia, and Adjoa. This study shows that gender and age are main factors in deciding human capital for the cultivation of seaweed in Ghana.

Iceberg modelling with NEMO

&lt;p&gt;Icebergs represent around half of the yearly mass discharge from the Greenland Ice Sheet. They are not only important freshwater sources, but also pose a threat to navigation and other offshore activities. Since monitoring individual icebergs in large numbers is unfeasible, numerical models are great tools to evaluate their role in freshwater distribution and their general trajectory patterns. While large-scale iceberg modelling is in its infancy, we show recent model improvements done in the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) iceberg module. Among those, we highlight a newly implemented iceberg-sea ice dynamic, where icebergs are locked in concentrated and strong sea ice packs, so they will move with sea ice instead of across it. Additionally, recent code modifications allow the user to choose if the iceberg melt plume is inserted in the ocean&amp;#8217;s first model layer or distributed along the iceberg draft. Results will show if these code upgrades change the way freshwater is distributed in the ocean and if they better represent iceberg trajectories and their surge seasonality off the Labrador shelf.&lt;/p&gt;

Features of Global Information Leaks from Tax Havens

The existence of tax havens is an integral phenomenon of the modern stage of the world economy development. They compete with each other on the basis of tax rates, privacy level, quality and speed of the service offered. Determining the impact of tax havens is now a rather pressing issue, deepening which has largely contributed to leakages of information, particularly the Panama Papers. However, the leaks of information from tax havens are not sufficiently covered in the research of both domestic and foreign scholars. The article is aimed at examining the impact of tax havens and the Panama Papers information leak on the world economy. The definition of tax havens and their scale in modern conditions of globalization economy is considered. In the systematization of scientific works the relatively different leaks of information from tax havens were compared and the largest of them was identified. The essence of the activities of Mossack Fonseca, the company that was the victim of the data leak, is disclosed. The dynamics of registered offshore companies within the framework of the Panama Papers leak are substantiated. With the help of a mathematical model, the authors computed a trend vector of movement of the number of companies, which are using the services of offshore zones. As a result of regression trend analysis, it was defined that the number of companies registered by Mossack Fonseca tends to grow (an average of 292 units annually). This indicates that, despite the publication of classified information, the popularity of tax havens continues to increase. The main intermediary countries, which are most popular in tax speculation, are provided. It is determined that the simplicity of formalization and registration of companies, the lack of control over subsidiaries of multinational business groups are key attributes of the activities of tax havens that contribute to their use to avoid paying income taxes and money laundering. The consequences caused by the activities of tax havens and information leaks from them have been formulated. The most important among them are: sanctions provisions and monitoring of offshore activities.