ALBERT

Description: This chapter assesses the regulation of marine geoengineering under the international law of the sea. Marine geoengineering is a notion that covers a broad range of activities which must, first and foremost, be measured against the requirements of the international law of the sea. The sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State under Article 56 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are not applicable when marine geoengineering activities have left the experimental phase and are carried out for the purpose of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). As far as marine geoengineering activities are concerned, specific reference must then naturally be made to the international law of the sea, but other international law regimes such as international environmental law remain, as far as their scope is concerned, potentially applicable. Large-scale deployment of ocean iron fertilization for CDR purposes is therefore not covered by the Meeting of the Parties resolution.

Description: The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget is considered responsible for coining the term transdisciplinarity’ in the 1970s, defining it as a higher stage after the interdisciplinary relations. To date, transdisciplinarity research is a growing field in academia, but still there is no uniform definition. In this book chapter, we explore how the term ‘transdisciplinarity’ is used in marine research including different fields like quantitative ecology and modeling, marine social science or marine conservation. We used a quantitative full-text analysis of peer-reviewed journal publications from 1992 to 2021, ensuring to include most recent contributions to the analysis. A total of over 6000 publications could be identified, about 500 of these focusing on marine realm. We applied an agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis (program R) to consider relative frequencies of significant conceptual words within the transdisciplinary landscape. Multiple research clusters have been identified and further divided regarding the study background (e.g., meta-analysis, case study, theory).

Description: This handbook provides comprehensive and critical coverage of the dynamic and complex relationship between democracy and sustainability in contemporary theory, discourse, and practice. Distinguished scholars from different disciplines, such as political science, sociology, philosophy, international relations, look at the present state of this relationship, asking how it has evolved and where it is likely to go in the future. They examine compatibilities and tensions, continuities and changes, as well as challenges and potentials across theoretical, empirical and practical contexts. This wide-spanning collection brings together multiple established and emerging viewpoints on the debate between democracy and sustainability which have, until now, been fragmented and diffuse. It comprises diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives discussing democracy’s role in, and potential for, coping with environmental issues at the local and global scales. This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of arguments, claims, questions, and insights that are put forward regarding the relationship between democracy and sustainability. In the process, it not only consolidates and condenses, but also broadens and captures the many nuances of the debate. By showing how theoretical, empirical and practical accounts are interrelated, focusing on diverse problem areas and spheres of action, it serves as a knowledge source for professionals who seek to develop action strategies that do justice to both sustainability and democracy, as well as providing a valuable reference for academic researchers, lecturers and students.

Description: This book examines from different perspectives the moral significance of non-human members of the biotic community and their omission from climate ethics literature. The complexity of life in an age of rapid climate change demands the development of moral frameworks that recognize and respect the dignity and agency of both human and non-human organisms. Despite decades of careful work in non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, recent anthologies on climate ethics have largely omitted non-anthropocentric approaches. This multidisciplinary volume of international scholars tackles this lacuna by presenting novel work on non-anthropocentric approaches to climate ethics. Written in an accessible style, the text incorporates sentiocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric perspectives on climate change. With diverse perspectives from both leading and emerging scholars of environmental ethics, geography, religious studies, conservation ecology, and environmental studies, this book will offer a valuable reading for students and scholars of these fields.

Description: The ratio of compressional wavevelocityV p to shear wavevelocityV s , and Poisson’s ratio in marine sediments and rocks are important in modeling the sea floor for underwater acoustics,geophysics, and foundation engineering. V p and V s versus depth information was linked at common depths in terrigenous sediments (to 1000 m) and in sands (to 20 m) to yield data on V p vs V s , and V p /V s and Poisson’s ratios versus depth. Soft, terrigenous sediments usually grade with depth into mudstones and shales; V p /V s ratios vary from about 13 or more at the sea floor to about 2.6 at 1000 m. Poisson’s ratios vary from above 0.49 at the sea floor to about 0.41 at 1000 m. In sands, V p , V s , and V p /V s have very high gradients in the first few meters; below about 5 m, V p /V s ratios decrease from about 9 to about 6 at 20 m; Poisson’s ratios vary from above 0.49 at the surface to above 0.48 at 20 m. The mean value of V p /V s in 30 laboratory samples of chalk and limestone is 1.90 (standard error: 0.03); mean Poisson’s ratio is 0.31. Literature data on basalts from the sea floor are reviewed. Equations relating V p to V s are given for terrigenous sediments, sands, and basalts.

Description: In studies in underwater acoustics,geophysics, and geology, the relations between soundvelocity and density allow assignment of approximate values of density to sediment and rock layers of the earth’s crust and mantle, given a seismicmeasurement of velocity. In the past, single curves of velocity versus density represented all sediment and rock types. A large amount of recent data from the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), and reflection and refraction measurements of soundvelocity, allow construction of separate velocity–density curves for the principal marine sediment and rock types. The paper uses carefully selected data from laboratory and i n s i t umeasurements to present empirical sound velocity–density relations (in the form of regression curves and equations) in terrigenous silt clays, turbidites, and shale, in calcareous materials (sediments, chalk, and limestone), and in siliceous materials (sediments, porcelanite, and chert); a published curve for DSDP basalts is included. Speculative curves are presented for composite sections of basalt and sediments. These velocity–density relations, with seismicmeasurements of velocity, should be useful in assigning approximate densities to sea‐floor sediment and rock layers for studies in marine geophysics, and in forming geoacoustic models of the sea floor for underwater acoustic studies.

Description: A simple equation is presented for the dependence of sound speed on temperature, salinity, and depth of water. The comparison with Del Grosso’s NRL II shows discrepancies of the order of tenths of m/sec for realistic values of the parameters.