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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are showing strong recovery from commercial whaling in the western South Atlantic. In this region, humpback whales migrate annually from their winter breeding grounds off the coast of Brazil to their summer feeding grounds near to the Polar Front, an area that includes the waters of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI). This latter region includes a Marine Protected Area (MPA), which has been developed to ensure sustainable management of fisheries, and protection of foraging predators. To date, management measures within the MPA have primarily been concerned with foraging predators that rely upon Antarctic krill, including for a number of previously over-exploited species. This includes the regional humpback whale population now in recovery in the western South Atlantic. With humpback whales increasing, understanding their spatiotemporal distribution within the MPA is important as it will help inform management particularly in respect of interactions between humpback whales and the regional fishery for Antarctic krill. Here we develop habitat models from the distribution and movement patterns of 16 individuals at their high-latitude feeding grounds, south of 50°S. We show that whale habitat use varies throughout the foraging period. Upon reaching their feeding ground, whales use the area to the east of the South Sandwich Islands, moving westward into the centre of the Scotia Arc and towards South Georgia during the high summer, and then expanding back towards the east in the winter. Based on these findings, we discuss the implications for the future, including necessary research required for underpinning management.

Replacements are the future of the dairy industry. Focusing on improving health management of replacements will yield tremendous returns through decreased losses of animals with the greatest genetic potential on the dairy, decreased costs of medication, improved growth rates, improved feed efficiency and earlier entry into the milking herd. Health management begins before replacements are born with attention to the nutrition of lactating and dry cows, the vaccination of lactating and dry cows, control of length of the dry period and both control of the disease status of the dams and the cleanliness of the calving environment. Adequate consumption of colostrums by newborn calves is very important. Attention must be paid to biosecurity to prevent introduction of diseases into the herd and to digestive disorders such as diarrhea, internal parasites and appropriate vaccination programs for the calves. Health management of replacements is often overlooked because producers do not see the immediate returns for their efforts.

Intake of colostrum by neonatal calves and early transition to calf starter are two important factors in successful calf programs. Thirty-one Holstein calves were used to determine health and performance of calves that were 1) allowed to remain with their dams for 3 d and suckle (suckled calves) or were removed from their dams and fed colostrum only by bottle (bottle calves); and were 2) fed ground, pelleted, or textured starters, formulated to be isonitrogenous. Bottle calves were removed from their dams at birth, fed 2.84 L of colostrum, placed in individual hutches, and fed 1.89 L of colostrum 12 h after the first feeding. Suckled calves were removed from their dams after 3 d and placed in individual hutches. Once calves were housed in hutches, they were fed 2 L of whole milk twice daily and were provided starters and water beginning on d 3. Calves were weighed at birth and weekly for 6 wk. Blood samples were obtained at birth, 24 h, and weekly for serum protein determination. Starter intake, fecal scores, and electrolyte treatments were recorded daily. Weaning began when calves had consumed 0.68 kg starter for 2 d consecutively. There were no differences in treatment means between suckled and bottle calves for total gain, grain consumption, days with fecal scores >2, or electrolyte treatments per calf. Average days to weaning was greater for bottle calves compared with suckled calves. Mean serum protein concentration at 24 h was greater for bottle (6.0 g/dl) compared with suckled calves (5.8 g/dl) and only 2 of 15 bottle calves had serum protein concentrations

The Zagros fold-and-thrust belt is amongst the world’s most seismically active mountain ranges, and is influential in our understanding of continental collisions. The presence of Hormuz salt at the base of the ∼10 km-thick folded sedimentary cover, together with the general absence of coseismic surface rupturing, have led to an assumption that earthquakes are concentrated within the basement. Here, we reinterpret the seismicity of the Zagros in light of InSAR studies that show some recent earthquakes ruptured the ‘Competent Group’ of mechanically strong strata in the lower sedimentary cover. Local network data demonstrate that microseismicity occurs within the basement, reaching depths of ∼20 km and in places ∼30 km. Centroid depths of larger (Mw > 5) earthquakes are mostly ∼4–14 km, with rare events up to ∼20 km (and ∼28 km along the Oman Line). Within the Simply Folded Belt, most of these events are contained within the Competent Group and are limited to Mw < 6.1. However, the Mw 6.7 Ghir and Khurgu earthquakes were too large to have been contained within the Competent Group and probably ruptured both basement and cover. Both are associated with asymmetric anticlines containing rare exposures of Palaeozoic strata, features that may be symptomatic of places where larger (Mw > 6.5) earthquakes occur. Earthquakes within the Competent Group can account for much of the overall shortening at this level, but the seismic strain rate in the basement is much lower. It is unclear whether the basement deforms by aseismic creep or folding beneath the SFB or by ductile shortening beneath the High Zagros or Iranian Plateau.

In situ cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements on sedimentary quartzites, together with analysis of abandoned river terraces, can be used to show how drainage responded to the lateral propagation of a late Quaternary anticline forming above a blind reverse fault in Central Otago, New Zealand. A close link between the progression of cosmogenic ages and the tectonic geomorphology allows us to confirm that uplift and propagation rates on the anticline are in the ranges 0.08–0.12 mm yr−1 and 0.8–1.5 mm yr−1, respectively, over the last 550,000 years. The agreement between the isotopic and geomorphological evidence in turn requires that minimum 10Be exposure ages as great as 660 ka are not in steady state with respect to erosion. This is a geochemical result of significance, as it opens the possibility of a more regional analysis of landscape evolution in this region, using the same rocks. On an adjacent anticline, thought to be even older on geomorphological arguments, 10Be concentrations give minimum exposure ages in the range 750–1400 ka. These extremely old minimum ages are rare worldwide, as they are usually limited to smaller values by erosion. They are attributable to the very resistant nature of the quartz-rich boulders in which the measurements were made, which in places are shown to have erosion rates lower than 0.5 mm kyr−1.