Ongoing Erosion Research Articles

Economic Integration and the Evolution of Trade: A Geometric Interpretation of Trade Measures

The increase in global trade and the ongoing erosion of trade barriers makes the analysis of trade patterns one of the key areas in international economics. Much of the post-war expansion of trade took the form of intra-industry trade (IIT). This paper presents a simple geometric tool to analyse trade patterns specifically inter and intra-industry trade and the compatibilit y between levels and measures of IIT. The applicability our methodology is demonstrated using the UKs trade experience during the critical period of EU integration 1988-1997.

Asymmetric outcomes: assessing central aspects of the biological, economic and social sustainability of a mangrove crab fishery, Ucides cordatus (Ocypodidae), in North Brazil

Central aspects of the sustainability of a mangrove crab fishery in the Caeté estuary, Pará, North Brazil, are assessed according to biological, economic and social criteria and based on a 5-year data series. Ucides cordatus is probably a keystone species in this mangrove ecosystem. Over half of rural coastal households depend on the crab for at least part of their income. The fishery shows seasonal and annual differences in terms of labour input, capture volumes and productivity. During the rainy season, more crab collectors work than during the dry season, although labour productivity is generally lower. A reason for this seemingly irrational producer behaviour is the lack of alternative income sources during this time of year. Labour productivity over the monitoring period decreased by 16%. Present crab fishery does not seem to endanger the U. cordatus population as a whole. Mostly mature old crabs, which have reproduced several times already, are captured. Females are not targeted due to lack of market demand. Nonetheless, males are slightly more abundant than females suggesting that the reproductive output of the crab stock is maintained at a sufficient level. Central for the economic and social sustainability of the fishery is crab collectors' purchasing power, which, between 1998 and 2001, fell by 20%. In 2001, the economic sustainability threshold was reached as crab collectors' incomes net of operational and investment costs fell to about the level of the official Brazilian minimum wage. This means that crab collection is now being undertaken at an income level which only just covers the regeneration of crab collectors' labour. At the same time, an ongoing erosion of social sustainability is reflected in territorial conflicts between crab collectors and in the incidence of alcoholism and reliance on child labour in crab collector households. Thus, the current fragility of economic sustainability and the undermining of social sustainability are accompanied by apparently undisturbed biological sustainability conditions. This highly asymmetric outcome is a challenge for transdisciplinary efforts to establish relevant fishery management priorities with the active participation of the centrally affected stakeholders.

Cliff-top megaclast deposits of Ireland, a record of extreme waves in the North Atlantic—storms or tsunamis?

Past occurrences of major tsunami in the global record have often been inferred from the presence of megaclast accumulations at significant heights above sea level, which sometimes exhibit a pronounced seaward-directed imbricate fabric. The Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland, exist in a marine environment which is totally unprotected from the most extreme sea states encountered in the North Atlantic. Spectacular megaclast accumulations are found along the tops of vertical cliffs on these islands. The elevation of these deposits varies from 0 m to 50 m above mean sea level and they include clasts weighing 250 tonnes at sea level, over 117 tonnes at 12 m and 2.9 tonnes at 50 m above sea level. Imbrication measurements on these megaclasts indicate a well defined and consistent mean direction from the southwest for the emplacing waves, one that is consistent with the prevalent storm wind direction for the area. The megaclast accumulations are subject to episodic and on-going erosion by cliff retreat but the existing accumulations are estimated to record events since at least 1839. Recent emplacement and reworking is evidenced by trapped plastic detritus within the deposits and eyewitness accounts of large storms during which clasts have been emplaced. Similar deposits are found on the exposed coasts of the Shetland and Orkney islands off Scotland. There is at present no evidence of any tsunami in recorded history affecting the western Irish and Scottish coasts other than those generated by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, where the wave effects were slight. Thus, the presence of megaclast accumulations at significant heights above sea level, on exposed coasts, and exhibiting imbrication should not be used as a definitive criterion for the past occurrence of tsunami. These deposits attest to extreme wave conditions occasionally encountered in the North Atlantic and act as a record of such events extending back at least 160 years. Such data on extreme wave conditions are essential for the prediction of the effects of deepwater waves on structures such as offshore drilling platforms.

The chattelization of northern whites: An evolving abolitionist warning

A recurring abolitionist theme was that the failure to destroy southern black slavery would eventuate in the enslavement of northern white laborers. During the 1830s this theme was the particular province of a few evangelical, markedly antimaterialist 'left' abolitionists like William Goodell. More inclined than their cohorts to regard the northern social order as oppressive for increasing numbers of workers, these abolitionists were also more likely to accuse capitalist 'aristocrats' of aspiring to go further and chattelize their workers in emulation of their southern slavocrat allies. Such white-chattelization warnings, which assigned a virtually coequal role in the slave power to malevolent employers and other northern 'aristocrats,' were supplanted in the late antebellum period by ones that instead targeted slavery's mulattoization and the southern slavocracy's proclivity for exploiting this ongoing erosion in racial boundaries. These white-chattelization warnings, which Goodell also notably promoted, acquired greater antislavery support than had the earlier anticapitalist ones. The late-antebellum warnings substantially reflected the ascendance of northern nationalism and the additional legitimacy that it conferred on capital-labor arrangements in the free states.

Globalization and the Crisis of Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and Democracy

The late-twentieth-century phenomenon often referred to as globalization involved a drastic reshaping of the overall structure of world politics-a shift from rigid bipolarity to diffuse unipolarism. The East-West divide was replaced by a hub-and-spokes configuration whose center was the United States and the other Group of 7 nations and whose periphery was a heterogeneous conglomerate of underdeveloped Third World and former Second World nations. The conventional view of three worlds of development, with an East-West and a North-South axis, had been replaced by a single but highly stratified structure. This neoimperial system, which President George Bush Senior christened the New World Order, meant a fundamental rearrangement of international regimes. It increased the ongoing erosion of national sovereignty, reducing the scope of the UN system and multilaterality in general, and enhanced the hegemonic role of the global financial institutions that make the rules of world politics, economics, and culture in terms of Western interests.

Rebuilding the North Carolina Coast after Hurricane Fran: Did Public Regulations Matter?

The 320-mile oceanfront shoreline of North Carolina, one of the nation's premier vacation destinations, is frequently struck by landfalling hurricanes and extratropical winter storms. In 1996, Hurricane Fran, two months after Hurricane Bertha, inflicted an estimated $7 billion in public and private damage, including 40,000 homes destroyed, 115,000 buildings damaged, and 25 lives lost. Post-storm rebuilding of the North Carolina coastal zone is governed by a complex array of federal, state, and local laws, of which the keystone is the state Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA). This act, as augmented by the National Flood Insurance Program and the federal Coastal Barrier Resources Act, seeks to reduce vulnerability to future coastal hazards through postdisaster adjustments in the horizontal and vertical placement of structures, among other measures. This article reviews experience in rebuilding the North Carolina oceanfront after the 1996 hurricanes to discern the influence, if any, of these laws. The research is based on review of postdisaster assessments, interviews with key personnel, news media reports, and direct observation. We found widespread compliance with vertical elevation and building codes but rather uneven application of minimum setbacks under CAMA, especially where vegetation was removed. Oceanfront structures are being built more strongly to resist wave and wind forces but are vulnerable to ongoing erosion, resulting in beach and dune scour, and possible stranding of structures below the mean high water line. Experience with temporary replacement of dunes and the shore road at North Topsail Beach indicates that political pressure may overwhelm the intent of Congress to limit repetitive loss costs for infrastructure, especially in areas designated under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act.

Ensuring long-term stability of process and film parameters during target lifetime in reactive magnetron sputtering

Reactive magnetron sputtering of a metallic target in a mixture of inert and reactive gas is now widely applied for compound deposition at high rates. It has been shown that problems due to arcing and the hysteresis of the process can be overcome by pulse sputtering and appropriate process control. Another important aspect is the shift of deposition parameters and reactive working point due to target erosion. For industrial applications, compensation of the shift is desired to achieve constant deposition conditions and homogeneous film properties during the target life. For this, different possibilities exist. In this paper, reactive sputtering of alumina films using stationary sputtering with the Double-Ring Magnetron (DRM) is reported. Ongoing target erosion is compensated using the movable magnet systems of the DRM to keep magnetic field strength at the target constant during target erosion. This technique has the advantage of constant electric discharge parameters during target life, and therefore ensures constant energetic substrate bombardment. Results with respect to constancy of deposition rate, film thickness distribution and film properties are discussed. Furthermore, the process stability and efficacy of the hidden anode are evaluated throughout target life.

Late Holocene landscape evolution in the Dazzler Range: new evidence

Radiocarbon dating of a wood sample from the upper part of a sequence of coarse fluvial gravels at Branchs Creek has confirmed that accumulation of coarse fluvial gravels continued into the late Mid Holocene, prior to an influx of up to 3 m of sand during the last two millenia. Ongoing erosion at Branchs Creek has revealed that clay previously interpreted as a separate unit beneath the gravels is merely a clay lens and that the gravel/clay sequence is over 3.5 m thick. Investigation ofa site at Saxons Creek, at the southern end of the Dazzler Range, has revealed a similar stratigraphy and confirms widespread catchment instability during the Mid to Late Holocene. The upper gravels are again rich in logs and smaller wood fragments, and two samples have returned radiocarbon ages of -4.1 and 2.2 ka BP. At least 3 m of sand has accumulated since deposition of the gravels ceased, with at least 1 m of sand deposited over the last several centuries. As at Branchs Creek and elsewhere in the Dazzler Range, pronounced incision into alluvial sediments has been triggered by artificial straightening of the Saxons Creek channel.

Eocene and Oligocene volcanism at Mount Petras, Marie Byrd Land: implications for middle Cenozoic ice sheet reconstructions in West Antarctica

Evidence for one late Eocene and four middle Oligocene eruptions of Mount Petras, Marie Byrd Land provides new insights into reconstructions of middle Tertiary ice sheet configurations, surface topography, and volcanism in West Antarctica. The interpretation presented here of the volcanic record at Mount Petras, based on detailed analyses of lithofacies, petrography, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, and geochemistry, is significantly different from previous interpretations based on reconnaissance studies. A massive, 25 m thick, mugearite lava near the summit of Mount Petras is 40Ar/39Ar dated to 36.11 ± 0.22 Ma (2 σ uncertainty), indicating an onset of Cenozoic alkaline volcanism in the Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province in latest Eocene time. Middle Oligocene (29-27 Ma) hawaiite volcaniclastic lithofacies at Mount Petras are interpreted as products of mixed magmatic (Strombolian style) and phreatomagmatic (Surtseyan style) subaerial eruptions. The four hawaiite outcrop areas exhibit characteristics of near-vent tuff cone environments. The near-vent deposits are located at different elevations and positions on Mount Petras and suggest four separate eruptive centres, with eruptions dated to between 28.59 ± 0.22 Ma and 27.18 ± 0.23 Ma. The mixed Surtseyan and Strombolian eruptions imply local or intermittent contact with external water, which we infer was derived from melting of a thin, local ice cap or ice and snow on slopes. The 29-27 Ma volcanic deposits at Mount Petras provide the oldest terrestrial evidence for glacial ice in Marie Byrd Land. The 29-27 Ma tuff cone deposits overlie an erosional unconformity, with > 400 m of topographic relief. The relatively high relief pre-volcanic environment is suggestive of ongoing erosion and is inconsistent with previous interpretations of a regional, low relief, early Cenozoic West Antarctic Erosion Surface.

Evolution of desert colluvial boulder slopes

We employed rhyolite domes formed during the past million years in eastern California to study the evolution of boulder-dominated slopes. The slopes studied are steep (from ∼25° to ∼35°) and are made of coarse, boulder-sized blocks. These slopes include well-varnished vertically-oriented colluvial deposits that appear similar to relict periglacial stone stripes. In this case, they are the result of ongoing desert slope processes. Such deposits are common throughout the arid southwestern US, but their morphometric character, fabric and rates of formation have not been assessed systematically. Basic field and isotopic dating methods are combined with two relatively new surface dating techniques, cosmogenic chlorine-36 and rock varnish microlaminae, to produce a detailed million-year-long slope development history with broad implications for geomorphic theory. Grain size, grain shape, grain angularity, and slope deposit area do not change significantly from genesis to ∼0.5 Ma; trends in the data change markedly after that time. A geomorphic threshold occurs between ∼0.5 and ∼1 Ma. as indicated by significant changes in all parameters but grain orientation data. On-going erosion over the million-year continuum is evidenced by active debris flow features, by terminal Pleistocene ages of microlaminae on all deposits, and by 36Cl ages that are progressively younger than potassium–argon ages for slope genesis.

An exercise in tracking the role of some of the major players in the book-world in the on-going erosion of the western cultural heritage

L'auteur, s'appuyant sur la pensee de Karl Popper, dresse le tableau du declin actuel de notre heritage culturel et intellectuel. Declin lie aux courants de pensee et aux nouvelles attitudes funestes apparus dans le monde du savoir, en meme temps que se developpent les notions de cyber-espace et de mondialisation de l'information. A l'information, comprise comme une simple collection de donnees, il oppose le savoir ou la connaissance. Dans cette optique, il insiste sur les responsabilites des acteurs du monde de la connaissance et du livre : ecrivains, editeurs, enseignants, bibliothecaires, ...tous ceux qui ont un role a jouer dans le maintien et l'accroissement de notre patrimoine culturel.

Sand-spit erosion following interruption of longshore sediment transport: Shamrock Island, Texas

Shamrock Island, located in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, is a former sand spit that was detached from Mustang Island by navigation channels constructed in the early 1950s. The navigation channels effectively eliminated longshore sediment transport to the island, resulting in severe and ongoing erosion of the island's north shore. This study documents long-term shoreline change, based on analysis of aerial photographs from 1938, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1967, 1975, 1979, 1985, 1990, and 1995. Shamrock Island grew steadily to the south prior to 1956, while the north shore of the island was relatively stable. After 1956, the north shore eroded rapidly, while the south shore continued to grow, probably because sand eroded from the north was redistributed to the south. By 1995, up to 156 m of retreat had occurred on the north shore. The island was recently acquired by the Nature Conservancy of Texas for use as a nature preserve. Erosion now threatens to breach the island, which may result in degradation of an interior lagoon and loss of valuable wildlife habitats. Therefore, in addition to documenting long-term erosion following interruption of longshore sediment transport, this study also illustrates how human modification of the coastal zone can have important and unforseen ramifications affecting future shoreline uses for many decades.

Rill Erodibility Parameters Influenced by Long-term Management Practices

A field study was conducted to estimate rill erodibility parameters on two paired north central Illinois soils with differing long-term management practices (conventional and no-till) in an effort to support on-going erosion and sediment transport modeling. Simulated rainfall and a sequence of inflows were applied to six treatments: aged tilled conventional, fresh tilled conventional, aged tilled no-till, fresh tilled no-till, undisturbed no-till with residue removed, and undisturbed no-till. Two models (shear stress and stream power) were used to analyze rill detachment rates. Baseline rill erodibilities for fresh tilled conventional (0.00879 g s1 N1) and fresh tilled no-till (0.00541 g s1 N1) were significantly different using the shear stress model. Consolidation also produced significant differences in erodibilities for the conventional tilled site (0.0122 g s1 N1 and 0.00879 g s1 N1 for aged and fresh tilled treatments, respectively). When stream power was used to model the response of rill detachment, no significant differences were detected in erodibility and critical stream power for baseline conditions. However, the stream power model accounted for most of the variability in detachment rates within each treatment. Long-term no-till significantly reduced sediment concentrations in the runoff from all other treatments (0.0045 g/g and 0.0067 g/g for undisturbed and undisturbed residue removed, respectively). Sediment concentration was a function of residue and consolidation.

Lithology and stratigraphy of some Rhine glacier drumlins (South German Alpine Foreland)

Various exposures and core drillings in drumlins of the southwestern part of the Bodanrück drumlin field were examined. Sequences start with fine-grained till and lake deposits, followed by marginal gravels and end upwards with an upper till which is often deformed and sheared. The whole sequence is of Würm age, gravels and upper till are deposits of the last major re-advance of the piedmont glacier (Innere Jungendmoräne, IJE), which is also the time of drumlin formation. Clastic dykes within the gravels also date from this time. They are younger than gravels but older than the upper till. Thickness of permafrost during dyke intrusion is estimated to be 50 m. Drumlins consisting of gravel and till are described. An early erosional phase of drumlin formation is contemporaneous to the erosion of the Mindelsee glacial basin. Also upper parts of one of the clastic dykes were deformed, indicating that the permafrost surface may have started to sink down during deformation. Facies transitions of till drumlins may reflect ongoing erosion of the Mindelsee basin or local paleotopography of the gravel surface.

Malpractice in Nineteenth-Century America: Origins and Legacy

"Dramatic advances in several areas of medicine" that have created unrealistically high expectations among patients and blurry standards of care, and an "ongoing erosion of traditional community customs" that has encouraged patients to challenge their physicians in court, are fundamental explanations for the wave of litigation that has "disrupted professional relations, injured individual reputations, and burdened physicians with legal fees and damage awards." So what else is new? Well, these observations certainly are not-they are used by the author, Kenneth A. De Ville, PhD, to describe the socioeconomic and political milieu in the United States in the 1830s and 1840s that led to an epidemic increase in medical malpractice cases 150 years ago! As Dr De Ville succinctly states, "The notion of medical malpractice suits as an essentially twentieth-century phenomenon is false." This is a fascinating and unique book that sheds much light and provides valuable insight for physicians today

Medical Practice in Organized Settings

Physicians are perplexed by the ongoing erosion of their individual professional autonomy. While the economic forces underlying such change have received much attention, the evolution of new organizational forms that modify and often diminish medical autonomy is less well understood. The practice of medicine is becoming more organized and more hierarchical. We emphasize the importance of organized medical groups, including the medical staff organization, as structures for appropriate peer monitoring, and for counterbalancing the burgeoning influence of governance and administrative constraints on practice. There is an ongoing tension within organizations between management, governance, and physicians. Over time one or another of these groups achieves some measure of dominance, but good management requires a balance of power. The role of the medical staff, which is poorly represented in some health care institutions and under threat in others, is considered. In general, we find that medical work is becoming more hierarchical, and that physician "leaders" do not substitute for collegial processes.

The Threat of Soil Erosion to Long-Term Crop Production

National increases in row crops at the expense of hay and pasture crops, particularly on steeper slopes, have made the control of erosion a difficult prospect. Management practices that fit the various field conditions are needed to accomplish effective erosion control. These measures should be selected on the basis of soil characteristics, landscape type, and the amount of ongoing erosion. The maintenance of a cropland base adequate to our needs must be a primary national goal.

Transnational Relations as a Threat to the Democratic Process

Transnational relations and other multional process seriously threaten democratic control of foreign policy, particularly in advanced industrial societies. The intermeshing of decisionmaking across national frontiers and the growing multinationalization of formerly domestic issues are inherently incompatible with the traditional framework of democratic control. The threat is all the more serious because it is sustained not by enemies of democracy but unknowingly by people who consider themselves to be acting within Western democratic traditions and because it results in part from the very forces of internationalism, interdependence, and economic advancement that have come to be regarded as indispensable. The consequences of these developments and the ongoing erosion of control over military and foreign policy, dramatically demonstrated by the debate on the Vietnam War, amount to a fundamental challenge to the democratic structure of Western societies. This essay analyzes the threat of transnational relations by reexamining the arguments for limited democratic control of foreign policy in light of recent structural changes in world politics and the consequences of transnational relations for the democratic process and its institutions. It concludes by indicating some approaches that could strengthen the democratic dimension which is being eroded.