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On the Nature of Continental Shelves discusses continental margins using techniques of systems analysis applied on minicomputers. The book describes insights and theories of mechanisms of enhanced primary production at the continental shelves, emphasizing these as the source energy, food, and recreation, and a possible means to detect global change while in its early phases. The text explains circulation, equations of motion, Ekman dynamics, and baroclinic effects of vertical changes in water density. Production in the seas involves the process of photosynthesis by organisms in which instruments on aircraft platforms can measure salinity and chlorophyll fluorescence. During photosynthesis, some of the light energy absorbed by phytoplankton pigments is emitted as fluorescence, at longer wavelengths, which can then detected. Adult fish and crustaceans are mobile and add a biological vector to the physical movement of organisms on the continental shelves. The book examines food limitation and the conditions of the Bering Sea, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. The text also investigates sinking losses, present depocenters, atmospheric forcing, eutrophication, overfishing, and the effects of climate on primary production at the continental shelves. The book can be beneficial for students of meteorology, oceanography as well as to marine ecologists, biologists, and environmentalists.
This university-level reference work covers a range of remote sensing techniques that are useful for mapping and visualizing benthic environments on continental shelves. Chapters focus on overviews of the history and future of seafloor mapping techniques, cartographical visualisation and communication of seafloor mapping, and practical applications of new technologies. Seabed mapping is referenced by high-resolution seismic methods, sidescan sonar, multibeam bathymetry, satellite imagery, LiDAR, acoustic backscatter techniques, and soundscape ecology monitoring, use of autonomous underwater vehicles, among other methods. The wide breadth of subjects in this volume provides diversified coverage of seafloor imaging. This collection of modern seafloor mapping techniques summarizes the state of the art methods for mapping continental shelves.
Under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention, States have sovereign rights over the resources of their continental shelf out to 200 nautical miles from the coast. Where the physical shelf extends beyond 200 nautical miles, States may exercise rights over those resources to the outer limits of the continental shelf. More than 80 States may be entitled to claim sovereign rights over their continental shelf where it extends beyond 200 nautical miles from their coast, and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is currently examining many of these claims. This book examines the nature of the rights and obligations of coastal States in this area, with a particular focus on the options for regulating activities on the extended continental shelf. Because the extended continental shelf lies below the high seas, the area poses unique legal challenges for coastal States that are different from those faced in respect of the shelf within 200 nautical miles. In addition, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea imposes some specific obligations that coastal States must comply with in respect of the extended continental shelf. The book discusses the development of the concept of the extended continental shelf. It explores a range of issues facing the coastal State in regulating matters such as environmental protection, fishing, bioprospecting, exploitation of non-living resources and marine scientific research on the extended continental shelf. The book proposes a framework for navigating the intersection between the high seas and the extended continental shelf and minimising the potential for conflict between flag and coastal States.
A. The Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (herein- ter the “Convention”) marks the beginning of a new era in the law of 1 the sea. The negotiations for this treaty at the Third United Nations Conference for the Law of the Sea (hereinafter “UNCLOS III”), lasted for nine years, from 1973 to 1982. The Convention regulates the principal aspects of international oceans affairs. It establishes and fixes the limits of maritime zones, provides for the rights and duties of states in these zones, establishes the law app- cable in the international seabed area on the basis of the principle of common heritage of mankind, imposes obligations on states to protect the marine environment, and provides for the means of dispute sett- ment. One of the most contentious and divisive issues at UNCLOS III were the outer limits of the continental shelf. Previously, in the 1958 Con- 2 vention on the Continental Shelf (hereinafter the “1958 Convention”), no limits were established for the continental shelf. States were allowed to claim areas of continental shelves based on their capacity to exploit the mineral resources of the shelf. The legal framework in the 1958 Convention would obviously conflict with the principle of the common heritage of mankind. Delegates realized that limits have to be est- lished, but up to where and on the basis of which principles, was a c- tentious question.
The book should be of interest not only to earth scientists, students of polar travel and exploration, and historians but to all readers who are fascinated by the great minds of science.--Henry R. Frankel, University of Missouri-Kansas City, author of The Continental Drift Controversy "Science & Education"
This book presents an in-depth discussion of the biological and ecological geography of the oceans. It synthesizes locally restricted studies of the ocean to generate a global geography of the vast marine world.Based on patterns of algal ecology, the book divides the ocean into four primary compartments, which are then subdivided into secondary compartments.*Includes color insert of the latest in satellite imagery showing the world's oceans, their similarities and differences*Revised and updated to reflect the latest in oceanographic research*Ideal for anyone interested in understanding ocean ecology -- accessible and informative

The Law of the Sea

Preparatory Commission for the International Sea-Bed Authority and for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 464


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This book is a product of the joint JGOFS (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study)/LOICZ (Land–Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) Continental Margins Task Team which was established to facilitate continental margins research in the two projects. It contains signi cant information on the physical, biogeochemical, and ecosystems of continental margins nationally and regionally and provides a very valuable synthesis of this information and the physical, biogeochemical and ecosystem processes which occur on continental margins. The publication of this book is timely as it provides a very strong foundation for the development of the joint IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems Research)/LOICZ Science Plan and Implemen- tion Strategy for biogeochemical and ecosystems research in the continental margins and the impacts of global change on these systems. This initiative will move forward integrated biogeochemical and ecosystems research in the continental margins. We thank all the contributors to this volume and especially Kon-Kee Liu who has dedicated a great deal of time to ensuring a high-quality book is published. IMBER Scienti c Steering Committee Julie Hall LOICZ Scienti c Steering Committee Jozef Pacyna v 1 Preface In general, interfaces between the Earth’s larger material reservoirs (i. e. , the land, atmosphere, ocean, and sediments) are important in the control of the biogeoche- cal dynamics and cycling of the major bio-essential elements, including carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), and silicon (Si), found in organic matter and the inorganic skeletons, shells, and tests of benthic and marine organisms.
The continental margins of the world constitute the most impressive and largest physiographic feature of the earth's surface, and one of fundamentally great geological significance. Continental margins have been the subject of increasing attention in recent years, an interest focused by a body of new data that has provided new insights into their character. This interest was further stimulated by the realization that, in addition to the abundant living resources, continental margins contain petroleum and mineral resources that are accessible with existing technology. This realization, along with their basic geological importance, has provoked further research into the nature of continental margins throughout the world. A summary of these findings, as related to both recent and ancient continental margins, is the subject of this book. At various times in the past we had been approached individually to prepare a basic reference to continental margins; we then proposed to do such a volume jointly. However, the stimulus for the present volume eventually arose from a Penrose Conference arranged through the Geological Society of America. This conference was attended by specialists of numerous disciplines and from throughout the world, many of whom insisted that such a volume would be both timely and useful. Consequently, we agreed to undertake the task of assembling this book, with the objectives of making it available as soon and as inexpensively as possible.
The world's continental shelves are the sites of vast resources of food, energy and minerals, the exploitation of which is continuously increasing. Fluctuating global sea levels throughout the Quaternary period produced multiple transgressive and regressive cycles that profoundly affected and shaped these shelves. The complex interactions among climate, sea level, tectonics, oceanography and sediment input have formed distinctive sediment packages on each shelf and provide a guide to the interpretation of older shelf sequences throughout the geological record. This Memoir compiles studies on 23 selected shelves from all the continents, focusing on their evolution and examining the patterns of sedimentation during the past approximately 125 000 years. In addition to providing basic background information for each area, the chapters consider specific aspects of continental shelf research, from seismic stratigraphy to geomorphology, from palaeoceanography to palaeo sea-level reconstruction and from palaeontology to geochemistry.