6^th International conference on Marine Science, Coastal Dynamics and Management September 21-22, 2018 London ,UK

Seyedabdolhossein (Abdi) Mehvar is from the Netherlands. Abdi graduated with a MSc in ''Coastal Engineering and Port Development'' from IHE Delft in 2014 and now is doing his PhD research with the title of “Quantifying climate change driven environmental losses on coasts’’ in IHE Delft and in the University of Twente in the Netherlands. His research interests include coastal zone management, climate change impacts on coasts, and economic valuation of coastal ecosystems.

Statement of the Problem: The western coast of Bangladesh, and in particular the Sundarbans region, contains one of the largest deltas in the World. The Sundarbans is vulnerable to many natural disasters such as cyclones, storms, and inundation, which will be exacerbated by climate change. This high vulnerability is due to the combination of its geographical location, low-lying nature of the area and high population density. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate the likely changes in the value of coastal ecosystem services of Sundarbans due to the impacts of climate change driven inundation by the year 2100. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: In this study, we use accepted economic valuation techniques combined with a newly developed scenario-based approach to guestimate the changes in ecosystem services value due to the impacts of possible inundation scenarios.

Findings: The results show that the worst case inundation scenario (caused by 1.77m relative sea level rise) results in a considerable loss of food provision service (up to $24/Ha), compared to the changes in other ecosystem service values such as provision of raw materials, recreation and art services with losses of up to $2.7, $0.36 and $0.005 per Hectare of the wetlands ecosystems.

Conclusion & Significance: Climate change driven inundation is likely to have a high impact on the value of food provision service (fish and marine species) of Sundarbans ecosystems highlighting this service as the most vulnerable ecosystem service that requires the attention of coastal and marine policymakers. The impact of inundation on other ecosystem services is markedly lower in the Sundarbans. Findings of this study may contribute to the sustainable management of the coastal zone in Bangladesh by highlighting the relative impact of climate change driven inundation on a range of coastal ecosystem services provided by the Sundarbans ecosystems.

Shahid Amjad Heads the Department of Environment and Energy Management at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) Karachi. Dr Amjad obtained his PhD from the University of Wales (UK) in Ocean Biology. He also studied Benthic Ecosystems from the University of Oslo. Norway. Dr Amjad Served as Director General with the National Institute of Oceanography Pakistan and was an elected member of the UN International Seabed Authority Jamaica for 5 years. He has served as a visiting faculty with the University of Karachi and the NED University. He was a member of the WWF Scientific Committee, and a recipient of the Gold Medal from the Zoological Society of Pakistan. Dr Amjad imparts training programs and lectures extensively on Marine Environmental issues. He has undertaken several EIA on projects being set up coastal and offshore projects. Dr Amjad represented Pakistan in international conferences. He has over 30 research publications to his credit.

Statement of the Problem: Mangroves ecosystems provide benefits and offer products and services. These benefits and services include Products of Direct Economic value and Products of Natural System (intangible) unrecognized services. Mangroves are well known for their high biological productivity and their consequent importance to the nutrient budget of adjacent coastal waters. Degradation of mangrove would destabilize the economic potential and the livelihood of communities’ which include services and benefits offered by the mangrove ecosystem. Loss of Mangroves in the Indus Delta may threaten the survival of the natural resources and thereby the livelihood of a large number of fishermen. A Marine Ecological Assessment and audit was undertaken by IoBM and EMC experts on a jetty development project site at PQA. The objective was to assess and audit the growth of mangroves, epipelagic fauna and benthic marine invertebrates (MBI) at the completed construction site of a recently constructed trestle at Port Qasim (PQA), where civil works were undertaken on 25 hectares.

Findings: The predominant Mangroves Avicenna marina was removed from the site for developmental activities. Approximately 500 mangroves saplings of Avicenna marina and Rhizophora mucronata were replanted at the two locations. The growth of mangroves, Recolonization of epipelagic fauna and benthic marine invertebrates were monitored for 12 months. The results of the study shows the mean growth height of mangroves sapling Avicenna marina was 119.28 cm and Rhizophora mucronata was 88.98 cm. Rhizophora mucronata shows a slower growth compared to Avicenna marina. Statistical T-test performed on the data collected shows that the growth of Avicenna marina and Rhizophora mucronata have a significant difference in growth (p>0.05) level. The abundance of epipelagic community that comprises of crabs, mudskippers, worms, gastropods, and the interstitial fauna do not differ significantly. T-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances shows p<0.05.

Conclusion & Significance: The Marine Benthic Invertebrates (MBI) are generally sensitive to changes in the mangrove ecosystem. The statistical analysis tool used for abundance evaluation of the disturbed mangrove ecosystem shows a significant difference. The p values calculated were lower than p>0.05. The abundance and biodiversity of MBI’s are good indicators to monitor the health of the coastal mangrove ecosystem.

Darius Ceburnis received PhD degree in Natural Sciences in 1997 from the Institute of Physics, Lithuania and has been working at the National University of Ireland Galway since 2001. Our most significant work on marine aerosols has been recognized by three Nature publications. Another novel idea was developed around carbon isotopes for an unambiguous determination of organic matter origin in atmospheric aerosols which later helped to elucidate organic matter cycling in the marine environment with the recent publication in Nature Scientific Reports. He published around 100 peer-review papers to-date and being among the top 1% of cited authors in the geosciences discipline (Clarivate Analytics) with nearly 2000 total citations in the last decade and have provided critical technical and research support for Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station which has significantly contributed towards the establishing Mace Head infrastructure as the top atmospheric research infrastructure in the world.

The marine aerosol produces haze and cloud layers overlying an immense ocean covering >70% of the Earth’s surface. Small changes even in low-albedo layers superimposing this relatively dark surface can have profound effects on the global radiation budget and climate change. Bursting bubbles at the ocean-surface produce airborne salt-water spray-droplets, in turn, forming climate-cooling marine haze and cloud layers. The reflectance and ultimate cooling effect of these layers can be determined, but the sprays water-uptake properties are modified through entrainment of ocean-surface organic matter into the airborne droplets. Particulate carbonaceous matter (PCM) is a significant contributor to ambient particulate matter originating from intervening sources which contribution is difficult to quantify due to source diversity, chemical complexity of PCM and processes during atmospheric transport. Carbon isotope analysis of stable and radioactive carbon spun out several techniques for identifying the sources and elucidating processes along atmospheric transport due to the unique isotopic signatures. Three principal sources have been quantified in marine North Atlantic air masses using dual carbon isotope analysis. A hypothetical model conceived to describe the sea-to-air transfer of oceanic OM was capable of reproducing stable carbon measurements at Amsterdam Island in the Southern Indian Ocean and subsequently linked ocean biological processes to the primary marine aerosol. The hypothetical model suggested that fresh organic matter readily resulted in organic matter enrichment in sea spray particles and likely contained fresh colloidal and nanogel particulate matter. Our experimental evidence suggested that virus attack on plankton blooms, triggering their demise, releases the organic matter and this organic matter, through aggregation processes, leads to enrichment in sea spray, thus demonstrating an important coupling between virus-driven plankton dynamics, marine productivity and sea spray modification with potentially significant climate impacts.

Hyun-Min Hwang is an expert in sediment and water quality assessment and environmental monitoring for trace metals and organic pollutants such as PAHs, PCBs, pesticides, flame retardants, phthalates, and pharmaceuticals and personal care products. His specialty is integrating chemical, ecological and toxicological data together to better understand environmental impacts of pollutants. He also conducted many studies for atmospheric and aquatic pollutant source apportionment using a chemical mass balance model. His recent studies include stormwater runoff monitoring and application of best management practices to remove pollutants in stormwater runoff. He has more than 20 years of experience in research, teaching, and student training. He has been directing summer undergraduate research program over the last 5 years.

This study evaluated the efficacy of integrating a traditional sediment quality triad approach with selected sublethal chronic indicators measured in resident species in assessing the quality of sediments in four tidal salt marshes. These included the highly contaminated (Stege Marsh) and relatively clean (China Camp) marshes in San Francisco Bay and two reference marshes in Tomales Bay in California, USA. Two components (toxicity potential of sedimentary contaminants and benthic macroinvertebrate survey) of the sediment quality triads showed significant differences between Stege Marsh and reference marshes. Porewater toxicity test was significantly influenced by natural contaminants such as unionized ammonia. Some sublethal chronic toxicity tests such as apoptotic DNA fragmentation in liver cells of longjaw mudsucker (Gillichthys mirabilis) and embryo abnormality inlined shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) also clearly distinguished contaminated and reference

marshes. The present study demonstrates that additional chronic sublethal responses measured in resident species under field exposure conditions can be readily combined with traditional sediment quality triads for expanded multiple lines of evidence approach. This confirmatory step may be warranted in environments like salt marshes in which positive interferences affect the interpretation of toxicity test data. Integration of the portfolio of responses in resident species can support a more comprehensive and informative sediment quality assessment in salt marshes and possibly other habitat types as well.

German Daniel Rivillas Ospina profile is based on hydraulics and coastal engineering topics. He has ten years of experience on hydraulic and coastal projects with technical and investigation interest, in order to understand the physical problems that affect the ecosystems and to promote restoration solutions. Since 2012 he is doing research in coastal erosion and coastal wetlands restoration, in order to reduce the anthropogenic impacts. Structural solutions are evaluated to implement restoration measures and encourage the growth of the resilience of the coastal zone.

The aim of this research is focused on the application of a methodology to assess erosive processes in Colombian Caribbean coastal wetlands. The analyses of the coastal bar that separate the lagoon from the sea, as well as the diagnostic process that helps to characterize the effect of the coastal infrastructure in coastal zones in a short and medium scale, was done. Geomorphology, wave climate, hydrodynamic and evolution of the coastline topics was taking into account to understand “Mallorquín” coastal wetland equilibrium. The degradation level assessment shows that slightest changes in physics conditions produce adverse effects and system modifications. This work describes a procedure to understand the relationship between alterations of coastal processes and the response of a coastal environment against anthropogenic modifications due to navigation activities that exacerbate the coastal equilibrium losses. The procedure uses numerical and theoretical models to evaluate the behavior of the local hydrodynamic, considering the coastline evolution that has occurred, in order to establish a baseline to predict variations of the coastal bar as consequence of the establishment of Barranquilla port development. The results show that the coastal zone will be affected by the works to be developed for facilitating the navigability conditions of a new port in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia.

André Droxler is a carbonate sedimentologist, marine geologist, paleo-oceanographer and climatologist with interests in reef and carbonate evolution at different time scales, ad in past ocean climate and sea-level changes. He is an expert on reefs and carbonate platforms from the Cambrian to the Holocene. 

This study focuses on the last 1500 yr. precipitation record and tropical storm occurrence, archived in the sediments from the Belize Central Shelf and the Blue Hole of Lighthouse Reef, proximal to the land areas where the Mayan Urban Civilization thrived and then abruptly collapsed. Cores were retrieved in 30 and 19 mbsl (meters below sea level) from Elbow Caye Lagoon and English Caye Channel, respectively, in addition to cores retrieved from the anoxic bottom sediment of the Blue Hole at 120 mbsl. The core timeframe is constrained by AMS radiocarbon dating of benthic foraminifera and organic residues, in addition to varve counts. Element (Ti, Si, K, Fe, Al, Ca, and Sr) counts were quantified via X-Ray Fluorescence. The records of Ti and K counts, and Ti/Al in these two cores have recorded, in the past 1500 years, the variable weathering rates of the adjacent Maya Mountain, defining alternating periods of high precipitation and droughts, linked to large climate fluctuations and extreme events, highly influenced by the ITCZ latitudinal migration. Coarse sediment layers in the upper part of the Blue Hole cores were correlated with historical tropical cyclones. The CE 800-900 century just preceding the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), characterized by unusually low Ti counts and Ti/Al, and tropical cyclone scarcity, is interpreted to represent a time of low precipitation and resulting severe droughts in the Yucatan Peninsula, contemporaneous with the Mayan Terminal Classic Collapse. High Ti counts and Ti/Al, although highly variable, during the MCA (CE 900-1350), are interpreted as an unusually warm period characterized by two 100-to-250 years-long intervals of higher precipitation when the number of tropical cyclones peaked. These intervals of high precipitation are separated by a century (CE 1000 -1100) of severe droughts and rare tropical storm coinciding with the collapse of Chichen Itza (CE 1040-1100).

Maksim Koval graduated from the Far East Technical University of Fishery Industry (Vladivostok, Russia) in 1994 (specialties: hydrobiology and ichthyology). Same year began to work in Kamchatka Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (KamchatNIRO, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky). In 1994-2011 was participant and coordinator of marine research expeditions in offshore and coastal water of the North Pacific and the Far East Seas (including international cruises under North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission programs). In 2007 has defended a PhD with the dissertation “Forage base and feeding particularities of Pacific salmon in the Kamchatkan waters of the Okhotsk and Bering seas and in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean”. Since 2012 main research project: Ecology of Coastal, Estuarine and Freshwater Ecosystem of the Kamchatka. 

New data on the abiotic conditions; species composition; abundance, distribution, and migrations of fauna; and feeding interactions in an estuary ecosystem were obtained during expeditions in the mouths of Penzhina and Talovka rivers (Northwest Kamchatka), June-September 2014-2015. It is revealed that in the ice-free season, the hydrological regime of the estuary is determined by seasonal fluctuations of river runoff, as well as fortnightly and daily variation of tides. The estuary is characterized by hypertidal fluctuations (up to 10–12 m); strong reverse flows (up to 1.0–1.5 m/s), considerable tidal variations in salinity (from 0 to 6–9‰ at the river boundary and from 6–8 to 14–16‰ at the offshore boundary), and high water turbidity (up to 1 000 NTU or more). Based on the spatial structure of the community, three ecological zones with mobile boundaries are distinguished: freshwater (salinity 0–0.1‰), estuarine (0–12.3‰), and neritic (11.2–18.9‰). High turbidity prevents the development of phytoplankton in the estuarine zone (EZ), and the local benthic community is significantly depleted due to the desalination and widespread of aleuritic silts. Neritic copepods and nektobenthic brackish-water crustaceans generate the maximum abundance and biomass here. The species that have adapted to the local extreme hydrologic conditions dominate and form the basis of the estuarine food chain. Dominant among the EZ vertebrates are such groups as anadromous fishes (smelts, pacific salmons, charrs, and sticklebacks); waterfowl (terns, kittiwakes, cormorants, fulmars, puffins, guillemots, auklets, and wadepipers); and predatory marine mammals (larga, ringed seal, bearded seal, and white whale). The total abundance and biomass of these animals are much higher in the pelagic EZ in comparison to neighboring zones. The scheme of the food web of the Penzhina and Talovka hypertidal estuary was constructed.

Andrew Ziegwied is the Scientific Sales Manager for Autonomous Surface Vehicles LLC (ASV Global), a small US business headquartered in Broussard, Louisiana. ASV Global is the leading designer, manufacturer and operator of high-performance, rugged, force multiplying Autonomous Surface Vehicle systems delivering multi-domain capable unmanned and autonomous systems for research, survey, surveillance, and defense applications. Andrew is a University of Washington School of Oceanography graduate with extensive government and commercial consulting experience providing integrated instrumentation solutions with the international MacArtney Underwater Technology Group. His background also includes field work and project management with Evans-Hamilton, Inc. (Now RPS) and application engineering with instrument manufacturer Sea-Bird Electronics, Inc. (Now Sea-Bird Scientific).

Statement of the Problem: A number of measurement systems are commonly employed to autonomously monitor the ocean conditions in the outer continental shelf to support energy development, military activities, shipping and other key Blue Economy industries. These methods are frequently limited by satellite orbits, sensor resolution, and atmospheric conditions. This problem becomes acute for obtaining reliable data on smaller meoscale features such as the frontal eddies (LCFE) along current systems. Satellite-tracked Lagrangian drifters are often combined with remote sensing data to track and measure currents. The limited drifter residency within features of interest creates gaps in coverage and necessitates regular drifter replacement. Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) have been deployed into the GOM on many deepwater moorings, offshore platforms, and mobile drilling units (MODU), but these systems remain sparsely distributed and operate intermittently. There are a growing number of high frequency radar systems in use for observing coastal circulation, but their horizontal range and up-time are limited to shelf waters. And evolving industries, such as offshore wind, are just beginning to explore opportunities for collecting ocean data. The recent advances in autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) design, propulsion, software, and sensors have resulted in a proliferation of vehicles, including optionally manned conversions, for a multitude of missions. These technologies have created new opportunities to develop heterogeneous and collaborative unmanned systems based around smaller, lower-cost, unmanned surface, underwater and aerial vessels. We propose that diesel-electric powered ASVs with modular architectures can incorporate numerous interchangeable sensor payloads and allows one ASV unit to function as a multi-instrument platform to support other offshore operations. With over 30 days at 7 knots endurance capability and over the horizon communications, this technology represents a step change in offshore operations is a cost effective surrogate to the use of Regional Class Research/Survey vessels to deliver the equivalent capability.