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The last twenty five years multiple management issues concerning the suspended farming of filter feeding bivalves in Greece have emerged from the deficient implementation of different legislation regimes, that, on their own account, have been proven insufficient. Specifically, regarding the planning and management of cultivation areas, multiple alternatives have been proposed through the years, with some still being under consideration. Yet most of them were selected based on purely spatial criteria and none has been thoroughly investigated, regarding the system's carrying capacity. As the current governance structure, in combination with the previous and current legal framework, seems unable to solve the existing problems, a question arises: are the “legal” solutions the optimum –or even among the best-regarding the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of the coastal aquaculture in the areas under consideration? In this paper we attempt a discussion between science and management, regarding the 3 main mussel-farming areas of Thermaikos gulf, Greece: Chalastra, Imathia and Pieria. The tools that were designed in the context of integration between science and policy are used in order to investigate the appropriate structure and flexibility of the legal framework controlling the activity and the governance level in which this control should take place. Previous and ongoing research results from combined management models, implemented or developed, for the mussel-farming areas of Thermaikos gulf are the starting point of this discussion. The goal is to detect “weak spots” of the current legal framework and to investigate if and how scientific management tools can assist in the development of more flexible, yet more effective environmental legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Modelling the transport of fine sediments in the marine environment is a highly complex task with a broad field of application. Various processes take place and interact with one another to determine the movement of fine sedimentary particles in the aquatic domain. Amongst these processes stratification significantly affects the vertical propagation of a sedimentary plume, especially in areas of freshwater influence, with the possibility of matter entrapment and accumulation along the interface; this possibility is higher the finer the sedimentary matter is. The proposed modelling approach describes the physical processes that take place in the water column (advection, dispersion, coagulation, settling, effects of stratification), at the boundary of the seabed (benthic shear) and the mass-exchanges between the two (deposition, consolidation, resuspension, erosion). The Fine Sediment Transport Model was applied in the gulf of Thermaikos (NW Aegean Sea), an area of significant freshwater and riverine sediment inflow, considering the major rivers of the domain as sources of particulate matter. The results were, generally, in agreement with available in-situ measurements of suspended particulate matter. In cases of significant deviations between simulation and measurement, the source of the error did not lie within the modelling approach, but was due to the considered input parameters. The investigation revealed the existence of transport and sedimentation patterns related to the riverine source of the material and the individual parts of the gulf. The sedimentation rates were estimated at 18, 7 and 3mm/yr locally at the outflows of Aliakmon, Axios and Pinios, respectively, while the areas of high sediment accumulation coincided with locations where the benthic material ranges from very fine to fine silt. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Benthic trawlers, through the scraping of the upper layers of the seabed sediment, are responsible for major alterations to the distribution of suspended matter in coastal areas. A major trawling site in Greece is that of the Gulf of Thermaikos, located in the NW Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean). In an attempt to assess, for the first time, the quantities of the mobilized sedimentary masses and the properties of their motion in the aquatic domain of the Gulf of Thermaikos, a mathematical model has been formulated. The modeling approach includes the determination of the mechanical erosion rate, the production of turbulence due to the flow through the mesh of the net and the physical processes that control the propagation of the generated sedimentary plume in the marine environment. In the absence of information regarding the haul paths in the gulf, their determination was made stochastically, based on the existing legislative restrictions and trawlers'' fishing practices. The trawling-activated masses thereby defined for the duration of the trawling period in the gulf were very high, indeed several times greater than the related contribution from the major rivers of the area, emphasizing the significance of the activity to the sedimentary input of the local marine environment. The total annual erosion by trawls in the gulf was calculated at 3.38×106 t/yr. Τhe mean mechanical erosion rate per trawled surface (parameter free from the bias raised by the stochastic simulation of the trawl trajectories) was estimated at 430g/m2, values directly comparable to ones defined for similar coastal areas. Results from a simulation of the 2001–02 trawling period were well correlated with in-situ measurements for the same period, while the investigation of the matter''s suspension level and times revealed that the matter exhibits low residence times in the water column and at the same time moves in the vicinity of the bed, contributing to the formation and distribution of benthic nepheloid layers in the gulf. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Novel resilience assessment methodology using geomorphological data. • Method applied to multi-decadal evolution of an entire barrier chain. • Barrier morphologies and dimensions shape resilience landscape. • Resilience trajectories show regime shifts and critical dimensions. Applying the ecological resilience principles to barrier island geomorphological evolution requires approaches that perceive and interpret resilience far from predefined barrier characteristics and static views. Accepting that barrier islands, like all natural systems, are dynamic and adaptively changing in response to external disturbances is fundamental to the formulated approach. To this aim, geomorphological units and dimensions were used to describe barrier island stability landscape as an actively shifting 'topography', reshaping in response to exogenous events and in relation to intrinsic properties. The structure of the subaerial barrier was characterised using the environmental units of Beach, Dune and Marsh (or BDM), where different combinations of BDM structure define distinct barrier stable states, under a simplified framework that is applicable over a wide range of barrier structures. The methodology is based on reconstructing resilience trajectories of barrier islands through identifying the distinct BDM states and related shifts (thresholds crossed) and assessing resilience dimensions (latitude, resistance and precariousness defined as barrier width and height and proximity to mainland, respectively) that, jointly, define the shape of the stability domain. The approach was applied to the Ria Formosa barrier island system (S. Portugal), using multi-decadal geomorphological data and gradually decreasing spatial discretisation, passing from individual barrier transects to sectors and to entire barriers. The joint evolution of two inland-migrating barriers (Cabanas Island and Cacela Peninsula) was used as an exemplar of adaptive capacity in barrier geomorphic change and, therefore, of resilient response to external pressures. Resilience pathways showed that the Ria Formosa barriers have been resilient over the studied timeframe, with a tendency for maintaining or increasing BDM structural complexity. In general, the stability domain tends to shift from low latitude and high resistance forms (narrow-deep basins of attraction) in the west part of the barrier chain, to higher latitudes and lower resistance ones (wide-shallow basins) towards the east. Precariousness peaks near the edges of the system (low lagoon width) and minimises towards the central part (most detached barriers). Scaling issues regarding smoothing of longshore variability and potential consequences on masking thresholds and critical dimensions are highlighted and discussed, along with the key role of the meaning of specified resilience (of what?) in the assessment. The methodology is a novel approach, easily transferable to different systems and spatiotemporal scales of analysis, representing a step forward in interpreting and assessing barrier island resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]