Next Issue
Volume 5, September
Previous Issue
Volume 5, March
 
 

J. Mar. Sci. Eng., Volume 5, Issue 2 (June 2017) – 10 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): Emerging issues of global warming turn the society to development of CO2-free technologies. While wind and solar energy sources are being intensively explored now, others are still unexplored, particularly, ocean waves, which are attractive due to a high energy density and low CO2 emission. Although development of wave energy converters has a history of more than 100 years, wave power technologies have not proven to be commercially viable. One of the reasons is a rather high operation and maintenance cost. Sharing experience of offshore operations will help to avoid repeating mistakes by different developers and accelerate the technology progress. View the paper here.
  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list.
  • You may sign up for e-mail alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.
Order results
Result details
Section
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
1635 KiB  
Article
Predicting Dynamic Coastal Delta Change in Response to Sea-Level Rise
by Wietse I. Van De Lageweg and Aimée B. A. Slangen
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020024 - 20 Jun 2017
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 7057
Abstract
The world’s largest deltas are densely populated, of significant economic importance and among the most valuable coastal ecosystems. Projected twenty-first century sea-level rise (SLR) poses a threat to these low-lying coastal environments with inhabitants, resources and ecology becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Large [...] Read more.
The world’s largest deltas are densely populated, of significant economic importance and among the most valuable coastal ecosystems. Projected twenty-first century sea-level rise (SLR) poses a threat to these low-lying coastal environments with inhabitants, resources and ecology becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Large spatial differences exist in the parameters shaping the world’s deltas with respect to river discharge, tides and waves, substrate and sediment cohesion, sea-level rise, and human engineering. Here, we use a numerical flow and transport model to: (1) quantify the capability of different types of deltas to dynamically respond to SLR; and (2) evaluate the resultant coastal impact by assessing delta flooding, shoreline recession and coastal habitat changes. We show three different delta forcing experiments representative of many natural deltas: (1) river flow only; (2) river flow and waves; and (3) river flow and tides. We find that delta submergence, shoreline recession and changes in habitat are not dependent on the applied combination of river flow, waves and tides but are rather controlled by SLR. This implies that regional differences in SLR determine delta coastal impacts globally, potentially mitigated by sediment composition and ecosystem buffering. This process-based approach of modelling future deltaic change provides the first set of quantitative predictions of dynamic morphologic change for inclusion in Climate and Earth System Models while also informing local management of deltaic areas across the globe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Sea Levels, Impacts and Adaptation)
Show Figures

Figure 1

143 KiB  
Correction
Correction: Hajieghrary, H.; Mox, D.; Hsieh, M.A. Information Theoretic Source Seeking Strategies for Multiagent Plume Tracking in Turbulent Fields. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2017, 5, 3
by Hadi Hajieghrary, Daniel Mox and M. Ani Hsieh
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020023 - 05 Jun 2017
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2928
Abstract
The authors wish to correct the Acknowledgments section in their paper [1] as follows: [...]
Full article
1086 KiB  
Technical Note
An Alternative Method to Niskin Sampling for Molecular Analysis of the Marine Environment
by Jonathan Teague, Thomas B. Scott, Sanjay Sharma, George Graham and Michael J. Allen
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020022 - 02 Jun 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4202
Abstract
The development of low-cost, open-source Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) systems has provided almost unrestricted access for researchers looking to monitor the marine environment in ever greater resolution. Sampling microbial communities from the marine environment, however, still usually relies on Niskin-bottle sampling (ROV or [...] Read more.
The development of low-cost, open-source Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) systems has provided almost unrestricted access for researchers looking to monitor the marine environment in ever greater resolution. Sampling microbial communities from the marine environment, however, still usually relies on Niskin-bottle sampling (ROV or Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sampler (CTD) based), a method which introduces an inaccuracy and variability that is incompatible with metatranscriptomic analysis, for example. Here, we describe a versatile, easily-replicated platform which achieves in situ mRNA preservation, via the addition of RNAlater to filtered microbial cells, to enhance ROV or CTD functionality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Biomolecular Technologies in Marine Science)
Show Figures

Figure 1

4731 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Uncertainties in Ice Sheet Dynamics on Sea-Level Allowances at Tide Gauge Locations
by Aimée B. A. Slangen, Roderik S. W. Van de Wal, Thomas J. Reerink, Renske C. De Winter, John R. Hunter, Philip L. Woodworth and Tamsin Edwards
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020021 - 23 May 2017
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 8433
Abstract
Sea level is projected to rise in the coming centuries as a result of a changing climate. One of the major uncertainties is the projected contribution of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to sea-level rise (SLR). Here, we study the impact [...] Read more.
Sea level is projected to rise in the coming centuries as a result of a changing climate. One of the major uncertainties is the projected contribution of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to sea-level rise (SLR). Here, we study the impact of different shapes of uncertainty distributions of the ice sheets on so-called sea-level allowances. An allowance indicates the height a coastal structure needs to be elevated to keep the same frequency and likelihood of sea-level extremes under a projected amount of mean SLR. Allowances are always larger than the projected SLR. Their magnitude depends on several factors, such as projection uncertainty and the typical variability of the extreme events at a location. Our results show that allowances increase significantly for ice sheet dynamics’ uncertainty distributions that are more skewed (more than twice, compared to Gaussian uncertainty distributions), due to the increased probability of a much larger ice sheet contribution to SLR. The allowances are largest in regions where a relatively small observed variability in the extremes is paired with relatively large magnitude and/or large uncertainty in the projected SLR, typically around the equator. Under the RCP8.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway) projections of SLR, the likelihood of extremes increases more than a factor 10 4 at more than 50–87% of the tide gauges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Sea Levels, Impacts and Adaptation)
Show Figures

Figure 1

6860 KiB  
Article
Improved Methodology of Weather Window Prediction for Offshore Operations Based on Probabilities of Operation Failure
by Tomas Gintautas and John Dalsgaard Sørensen
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020020 - 02 May 2017
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 7904
Abstract
The offshore wind industry is building and planning new wind farms further offshore due to increasing demand on sustainable energy production and already occupied prime resource locations closer to shore. Costs of operation and maintenance, transport and installation of offshore wind turbines already [...] Read more.
The offshore wind industry is building and planning new wind farms further offshore due to increasing demand on sustainable energy production and already occupied prime resource locations closer to shore. Costs of operation and maintenance, transport and installation of offshore wind turbines already contribute significantly to the cost of produced electricity and will continue to increase, due to moving further offshore, if the current techniques of predicting offshore wind farm accessibility are to stay the same. The majority of offshore operations are carried out by specialized ships that must be hired for the duration of the operation. Therefore, offshore wind farm accessibility and costs of offshore activities are primarily driven by the expected number of operational hours offshore and waiting times for weather windows, suitable for offshore operations. Having more reliable weather window estimates would result in better wind farm accessibility predictions and, as a consequence, potentially reduce the cost of offshore wind energy. This paper presents an updated methodology of weather window prediction that uses physical offshore vessel and equipment responses to establish the expected probabilities of operation failure, which, in turn, can be compared to maximum allowable probability of failure to obtain weather windows suitable for operation. Two case studies were performed to evaluate the feasibility of the improved methodology, and the results indicated that it produced consistent and improved results. In fact, the updated methodology predicts 57% and 47% more operational hours during the test period when compared to standard alpha-factor and the original methodologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Offshore Wind Energy)
Show Figures

Figure 1

9451 KiB  
Article
Sediment Transport into the Swinomish Navigation Channel, Puget Sound—Habitat Restoration versus Navigation Maintenance Needs
by Tarang Khangaonkar, Adi Nugraha, Steve Hinton, David Michalsen and Scott Brown
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020019 - 21 Apr 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6372
Abstract
The 11 mile (1.6 km) Swinomish Federal Navigation Channel provides a safe and short passage to fishing and recreational craft in and out of Northern Puget Sound by connecting Skagit and Padilla Bays, US State abbrev., USA. A network of dikes and jetties [...] Read more.
The 11 mile (1.6 km) Swinomish Federal Navigation Channel provides a safe and short passage to fishing and recreational craft in and out of Northern Puget Sound by connecting Skagit and Padilla Bays, US State abbrev., USA. A network of dikes and jetties were constructed through the Swinomish corridor between 1893 and 1936 to improve navigation functionality. Over the years, these river training dikes and jetties designed to minimize sedimentation in the channel have deteriorated, resulting in reduced protection of the channel. The need to repair or modify dikes/jetties for channel maintenance, however, may conflict with salmon habitat restoration goals aimed at improving access, connectivity and brackish water habitat. Several restoration projects have been proposed in the Skagit delta involving breaching, lowering, or removal of dikes. To assess relative merits of the available alternatives, a hydrodynamic model of the Skagit River estuary was developed using the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM). In this paper, we present the refinement and calibration of the model using oceanographic data collected from the years 2006 and 2009 with a focus on the sediment and brackish water transport from the river and Skagit Bay tide flats to the Swinomish Channel. The model was applied to assess the feasibility of achieving the desired dual outcome of (a) reducing sedimentation and shoaling in the Swinomish Channel and (b) providing a direct migration pathway and improved conveyance of freshwater into the Swinomish Channel. The potential reduction in shoaling through site-specific structure repairs is evaluated. Similarly, the potential to significantly improve of brackish water habitat through dike breach restoration actions using the McGlinn Causeway project example, along with its impacts on sediment deposition in the Swinomish Navigation Channel, is examined. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

5251 KiB  
Article
Coastal Ecosystem Effects of Increased Summer Temperature and Contamination by the Flame Retardant HBCDD
by Clare Bradshaw, Anna-Lea Golz and Kerstin Gustafsson
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020018 - 19 Apr 2017
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4633
Abstract
The combined effects of ocean warming and contaminants on marine ecosystems are poorly understood. In this study, we exposed model ecosystems comprising typical shallow coastal Baltic Sea communities to elevated temperature (+5 °C) and the flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), both singly and in [...] Read more.
The combined effects of ocean warming and contaminants on marine ecosystems are poorly understood. In this study, we exposed model ecosystems comprising typical shallow coastal Baltic Sea communities to elevated temperature (+5 °C) and the flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), both singly and in combination, for 13 days. Higher temperatures caused the release of PO4 from the sediment, which in turn stimulated the growth of the cyanobacteria Dolichospermum sp. This in turn led to an increase in the copepod Acartia bifilosa and other indirect effects in the plankton, interpreted as being caused by changes in predation, grazing, and competition. Elevated temperatures also stimulated benthic primary production and increased production of benthic mollusk larvae. Although increased temperature was the dominant driver of effects in these systems, HBCDD also appeared to have some effects, mainly in the zooplankton (both direct and indirect effects) and benthic meiofauna (an interactive effect with temperature). Although the study used model ecosystems, which are an approximation of field conditions, it highlights that interactive ecosystem effects between two stressors are possible and demonstrates the ecological and temporal complexity of such responses. Such unpredictable responses to warming and contaminants are a major challenge for ecosystem management to deal with multistressor situations in the Baltic Sea. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on a Marginal Ecosystems—the Baltic Sea)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

518 KiB  
Erratum
Erratum: Garzon, J.L.; Ferreira, C.M. Storm Surge Modeling in Large Estuaries: Sensitivity Analyses to Parameters and Physical Processes in the Chesapeake Bay. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2016, 4, 45
by Juan L. Garzon and Celso M. Ferreira
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020017 - 10 Apr 2017
Viewed by 3062 Show Figures

Figure 6

1558 KiB  
Brief Report
Short-Term Nitrogen and Phosphorus Release during the Disturbance of Surface Sediments: A Case Study in an Urbanised Estuarine System (Gold Coast Broadwater, Australia)
by Ryan J.K. Dunn, Nathan J. Waltham, Peter R. Teasdale, David Robertson and David T. Welsh
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020016 - 07 Apr 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4026
Abstract
Understanding the effects of sediment disturbances on nutrient loadings is important for the management of estuarine settings. This study investigated the initial influence of sediment disturbance on water column nutrient concentrations in a shallow estuarine setting within the Gold Coast Broadwater, using a [...] Read more.
Understanding the effects of sediment disturbances on nutrient loadings is important for the management of estuarine settings. This study investigated the initial influence of sediment disturbance on water column nutrient concentrations in a shallow estuarine setting within the Gold Coast Broadwater, using a laboratory-based approach. Undisturbed sediment cores (200 mm Ø × 330 mm length, plexiglass) were incubated before and after being subjected to a disturbance event, to investigate the effect on the immediate and subsequent short-term water column nutrient concentrations. Sediment NH4+bio and PO43−bio concentrations ranged from 150 to 478 and 1.50 to 8.56 nmol g−1 dry wt, respectively. Water column NH4+ concentrations underwent the greatest increase (>1000% or approx. 14 times greater) immediately following disturbance, with mean effluxes increasing by >300%. Thereafter, water column NH4+ concentrations and efflux rates declined to near initial pre-disturbance concentrations. Water column NH4+ concentrations accounted for 0.58%–5.50% of the depth-integrated sediment NH4+bio concentration, indicating mobilization of the sediment bound exchangeable NH4+. The observed changes in PO43− concentrations and fluxes were much lower in comparison to those observed for N-species. Following disturbance, increases in the water column PO43− concentration accounted for 7.16%–8.22% depth-integrated sediment bioavailable PO43− at +1 and +2 hours, and 5.65% at +7 hours, respectively. These results provide important insight into the potential implications of disturbance events, such as vessel activities and dredging operations, within the case study region, providing information for potential management options and relevant water quality concerns. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

6297 KiB  
Article
Offshore Deployments of Wave Energy Converters by Seabased Industry AB
by Maria Angeliki Chatzigiannakou, Irina Dolguntseva and Mats Leijon
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(2), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5020015 - 25 Mar 2017
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 9038
Abstract
Since 2008, Seabased Industry AB (SIAB) has manufactured and deployed several units of wave energy converters (WECs) of different design. The WECs are linear generators with point absorber buoy systems that are placed on the seabed, mounted on a gravitation concrete foundation. These [...] Read more.
Since 2008, Seabased Industry AB (SIAB) has manufactured and deployed several units of wave energy converters (WECs) of different design. The WECs are linear generators with point absorber buoy systems that are placed on the seabed, mounted on a gravitation concrete foundation. These deployments have taken place in different areas, using different deployment vessels. Offshore deployments of WECs and underwater substations have so far been complicated procedures, that were both expensive and time-consuming. The focus of this paper is to discuss these deployments in terms of economy and time efficiency, as well as safety. Because seven vessels have been used to facilitate the deployments, an evaluation on the above basis is carried out for them. The main conclusions and certain solutions are presented for the various problems encountered during these deployments and the vessel choice is discussed. It is found that the offshore deployment process can be optimized in terms of cost, time efficiency and safety with a careful vessel choice, use of the latest available technologies and detailed planning and organizing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Ocean Engineering)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Previous Issue
Next Issue
Back to TopTop