[1] Rising temperatures caused by climatic warming may cause poleward range shifts and/or expansions in species distribution. Tropical reef corals (hereafter corals) are some of the world's most important species, being not only primary producers, but also habitat-forming species, and thus fundamental ecosystem modification is expected according to changes in their distribution. Although most studies of climate change effects on corals have focused on temperatureinduced coral bleaching in tropical areas, poleward range shifts and/or expansions may also occur in temperate areas. We show the first large-scale evidence of the poleward range expansion of modern corals, based on 80 years of national records from the temperate areas of Japan, where centurylong measurements of in situ sea-surface temperatures have shown statistically significant rises. Four major coral species categories, including two key species for reef formation in tropical areas, showed poleward range expansions since the 1930s, whereas no species demonstrated southward range shrinkage or local extinction. The speed of these expansions reached up to 14 km/year, which is far greater than that for other species. Our results, in combination with recent findings suggesting range expansions of tropical coral-reef associated organisms, strongly suggest that rapid, fundamental modifications of temperate coastal ecosystems could be in progress. Citation: Yamano, H., K. Sugihara, and K. Nomura (2011), Rapid poleward range expansion of tropical reef corals in response to rising sea surface temperatures, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L04601,

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We describe the architecture and development of the highest latitude coral reefs currently known on Earth, located in Japan at 34°N. The reefs are distributed within turbid inner bays and undergo winter sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) that fall to 13 °C, well below the generally accepted lower limit (18 °C in winter) of tropical coral reef formation. Despite low SSTs and high turbidity, coring indicates reefs ranging to 555 cm in thickness since ca. 4.3 k.y. ago. The reefs exhibit high adaptability to this extremely marginal environment. Variability of the Tsushima Warm Current and the Asian monsoon could have affected the evolution of these reefs. The corals are dominantly faviids, in contrast to Acropora and Porites that tend to dominate low-latitude, tropical-subtropical reefs. Defi ning the end of the distributional range, the reefs serve as baselines for understanding coral reef distribution along SST and turbidity gradients.

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Abstract. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is a widely used technique for measuring soil water content. To examine its applicability to rock, the authors applied TDR to a variety of rocks in the laboratory. The obtained relationships between the apparent dielectric constant and the volumetric water content showed a behavior that can be partly explained by the effect of gaps between the TDR probe and rock. For rocks with an effective porosity smaller than that of soil, the well-known model presented by Topp et al. [1980] for soil tended to overestimate the water content. For such rocks it was determined that an individual calibration was needed for accurate determination of water content. If no experimental calibration is possible, frequently used mixing models may be used to establish the calibration function. Our investigations suggest that TDR showed the potential for measuring the apparent dielectric constant of rock and, further, for determining water content in rock. IntroductionA quantitative understanding of the extent and hydraulic properties of the unsaturated zone around an underground facility, such as an oil storage cavern or a high-level nuclear waste repository,• is one of the important issues for characterization of the surrounding geological environment. To date there is no well-established methodology to determine accurately the water content in rock. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is a well-known tool for measuring volumetric water content in soil, which implies that the method has the potential for determining water content in rock.In this method a probe is embedded in the material of interest and electromagnetic pulses with a voltage of 300 mV and a frequency spectrum up to 1.

Material cored during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 310 'Tahiti Sea Level' revealed that the fossil reef systems around Tahiti are composed of two major stratigraphic sequences: (i) a last deglacial sequence; and (ii) an older Pleistocene sequence. The older Pleistocene carbonate sequence is composed of reef deposits associated with volcaniclastic sediments and was preserved in Hole 310-M0005D drilled off Maraa. Within an approximately 70-m-thick older Pleistocene sequence (33.22-101.93 m below seafloor; 92.85-161.56 m below present sealevel) in this hole, 11 depositional units are defined by lithological changes, sedimentological features, and paleontological characteristics and are numbered sequentially from the top of the hole downward (Subunits P1-P11). Paleowater depths inferred from nongeniculate coralline algae, combined with those determined by using corals and larger foraminifers, suggest two major sealevel rises during the deposition of the older Pleistocene sequence. Of these, the second sealevel rise is associated with an intervening sealevel drop. It is likely that the second sealevel rise corresponds to that during Termination II (TII, the penultimate deglaciation, from Marine Isotope Stages 6 to 5e). Therefore, the intervening sealevel drop can be correlated with that known as the 'sealevel reversal' during TII. Because there are limited data on the Pleistocene reef systems in the tropical South Pacific Ocean, this study provides important information about Pleistocene sealevel history, the evolution of coral reef ecosystems, and the responses of coral reefs to Quaternary climate changes.

East Asian industrialisation has shown that modern industry has occurred across different cultures under a variety of factor-endowment conditions. The global history of the diffusion of industrialisation over the past two centuries suggests two distinct routes. The first is the 'Western path' associated with capital-and energy-intensive industry. The second path to creating a modern industrial economy is the 'East Asian path' based on labour-intensive industrialisation that has built on quality labour resources cultivated in the traditional sector. This was the path followed by Japan from the nineteenth century and by many other countries in Asia during the twentieth century.JEL categories: N10, N15, O11, O43, O53