Spatial variability of soil nutrients in Punta Fort William,Greenwich Island,maritime Antarctic

This study aims to report baseline soil nutrients, specifically the organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus profile, in soil samples collected from Puntta Fort William on Greenwich Island in maritime Antarctic. Samples were collected along two transect lines during the early summer of 2008. Ward＇s method of hierarchical agglomerative clustering was employed to group the sampling points based on their physico-chemical properties. In this context, the soil samples can be grouped into three major clus- ters： （1） Samples with intensive biological activities, （2） samples from the area recently exposed by glacial retreat and （3） samples from barren and dried areas. Nutrient contents in Punta Fort William are driven by the intensity of biological activities as well as melt water from the Qnito glacier.     

Effect of Shale Distribution on Hydrocarbon Sands Integrated with Anisotropic Rock Physics for AVA Modelling: A Case Study

Shales can be distributed in sand through four different ways; laminated, structural, dispersed and any combination of these aforementioned styles. A careful analysis of well log data is required for the determination of shale distribution in sand affecting its reservoir quality. The objective of this study is to characterize the effect of shale distribution on reservoir quality of sands using well log data. The correlation of well data in terms of lithology has revealed four sand and three shale layers in Lower Goru Formation acting as a major reservoir in the study area. Our results indicate that the laminated type of shale distribution prevails at the Basal sand level, which does not affect its reservoir quality greatly. The remaining layers of variable vertical extent show a variety of shale distribution models affecting their reservoir quality adversely. We also present anisotropic rock physics modelling for AVA analysis at Basal sand level.     

Hypercube-Based Visualization Architecture for Web-Based Environmental Geospatial Information Systems

The geospatial field significantly influences the development of the environmental domain, including a wide range of geospatial and cartographic information systems, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Multimedia Atlas Information Systems (MAIS) and more recently web-based GIS (Web-GIS). In this context, we introduce web-based environmental geospatial information systems (Web-EGIS) as a special case of Web-GIS, aiming to integrate the functionalities of geospatial information systems with the enormous quantity of specialized, distributed and highly heterogeneous environmental geo-referenced data and services. We define three main characteristics of the Web-EGIS. The first is a generic hypercube-based data organization and visualization. The next characteristic is a standard-based, three-tier service-oriented architecture. The third and last characteristic is the traceability of the architectural and design decisions, for which we introduce the new concept of an ‘Environmental Application Context’, arguing that not only the functional but also the non-functional requirements (NFRs) have an important role in defining the architecture, software components and data services of such systems. In a nutshell, a Web-EGIS is characterized by a coherent user experience through the hypercube-based visualization concept, technically supported by a service-oriented architecture that is structured according to an extensive analysis of NFRs. On this basis, we introduce the Geodata visualization and interactive training environment (GeoVITe) Platform for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research as a reference implementation of a Web-EGIS with its basic design requirements, integrative hypercube-based visualization for heterogeneous data sources, extended web cartography functionalities, and its de facto system architecture. The concept of the hypercube-based visualization is better transferred to the system architecture by understanding the ‘Environmental Application Context’ of this particular Web-EGIS, which also makes it easier to maintain and enhance. The resulting system is a support platform for research activities in the environmental domain.     

Analysis and farmers’ perception of climate change in the Kashmir Valley,India

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Analysis of climatic variables is important for the detection and attribution of climate change trends and has received considerable attention from researchers...     

Annual and seasonal trends of cooling, heating, and industrial degree-days in coastal regions of Saudi Arabia

In this study, we systematically analyze the changing properties of reference evapotranspiration (ETref) across China using Penman?CMonteith (P-M) method, exploring the major sensitive meteorological variables for ETref, and investigating influences of human activities, mainly urbanization in this study, on ETref changes in both space and time. We obtain some important conclusions: (1) decreasing annual and seasonal ETref is observed in the east, south and northwest China. However, a long strip lying between these regions is identified to be characterized by increasing ETref; (2) in the regions east to 100°E, the net total solar radiation is the main cause behind the decreasing ETref. In northwest China, however, relative humidity is recognized as the most sensitive variable for the ETref; (3) in the east and south China, urbanization greatly influences the ETref by directly decreasing net solar radiation. The increased air pollution and aerosols in the highly urbanized regions are the main driving factors causing decreasing net radiation; and (4) this study reveals accelerating hydrological cycle from south to north China. Besides, increasing ETref in the source regions of large rivers in China may pose new challenges for the basin-scale water resource management. The results of this study highlight the integrated effects of climate changes and human activities on ETref changes in different regions of China, which will be of great scientific and practical merits in in-depth understanding of hydrological cycle alterations under the changing environment in China.     

The Rumuruti chondrite group

Since 1994, the Rumuruti (R) chondrites have been recognized as a new, well-established chondrite group differing from carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites. The first R chondrite, Carlisle Lakes, was found in Australia in 1977. Meanwhile, the number has increased to 107 (December, 2010). This group is named after the Rumuruti meteorite, the first and so far the only R chondrite fall. Most of the R chondrites are breccias containing a variety of different clasts embedded in a clastic matrix. Some textural and mineralogical characteristics can be summarized as follows: (a) the chondrule abundance in large fragments and in unbrecciated rocks is ∼35–50 vol%; (b) Ca,Al-rich inclusions are rare; (c) the olivine abundance is typically 65–78 vol%; (d) the mean chondrule diameter is ∼400 μm; (e) in unequilibrated R chondrites, low-Ca pyroxene is dominating, whereas in equilibrated R chondrites it is Ca-rich pyroxene; (f) the typical olivine in a metamorphosed lithology is ∼Fa_38–40; (g) matrix olivine in unequilibrated, type 3 fragments and rocks has much higher Fa (∼45–60 mol%) compared to matrix olivines in type 4–6 lithologies (∼Fa_38–41); (h) spinels have a high TiO₂ of ∼5 wt%; (i) abundant different noble metal-bearing phases (metals, sulfides, tellurides, arsenides) occur. The exception is the metamorphosed, type 5/6 R chondrite La Paz Icefield 04840 which contains hornblende, phlogopite, and Ca-poor pyroxene, the latter phase typically occurring in low-grade metamorphosed R chondrites only.In bulk composition, R chondrites have some affinity to ordinary chondrites: (a) the absence of significant depletions in Mn and Na in R chondrites and ordinary chondrites is an important feature to distinguish these groups from carbonaceous chondrites; (b) total Fe (∼24 wt%) of R chondrites is between those of H and L chondrites (27.1 and 21.6 wt%, respectively); (c) the average CI/Mg-normalized lithophile element abundances are ∼0.95 × CI, which is lower than those for carbonaceous chondrites (≥1.0 × CI) and slightly higher than those for ordinary chondrites (∼0.9 × CI); (d) trace element concentrations such as Zn (∼150 ppm) and Se (∼15 ppm) are much higher than in ordinary chondrites; (e) the whole rock Δ¹⁷O of ∼2.7 for R chondrites is the highest among all meteorite groups, and the mean oxygen isotope composition is δ¹⁷O = 5.36 ± 0.43, δ¹⁸O = 5.07 ± 0.86, Δ¹⁷O = +2.72 ± 0.31; (f) noble gas cosmic ray exposure ages of R chondrites range between ∼0.1 and ∼70 Ma. More than half of the R chondrites analyzed for noble gases contain implanted solar wind and, thus, are regolith breccias. The 43 R chondrites from Northern Africa analyzed so far for noble gases seem to represent at least 16 falls. Although the data base is still scarce, the data hint at a major collision event on the R chondrite parent body between 15 and 25 Ma ago.     

The ECORS-Truc Vert’08 nearshore field experiment: presentation of a three-dimensional morphologic system in a macro-tidal environment during consecutive extreme storm conditions

A large multi-institutional nearshore field experiment was conducted at Truc Vert, on the Atlantic coast of France in early 2008. Truc Vert’08 was designed to measure beach change on a long, sandy stretch of coast without engineering works with emphasis on large winter waves (offshore significant wave height up to 8 m), a three-dimensional morphology, and macro-tidal conditions. Nearshore wave transformation, circulation and bathymetric changes involve coupled processes at many spatial and temporal scales thus implying the need to improve our knowledge for the full spectrum of scales to achieve a comprehensive view of the natural system. This experiment is unique when compared with existing experiments because of the simultaneous investigation of processes at different scales, both spatially (from ripples to sand banks) and temporally (from single swash events to several spring-neap tidal cycles, including a major storm event). The purpose of this paper is to provide background information on the experiment by providing detailed presentation of the instrument layout and snapshots of preliminary results.     

On the assessment of Argo float trajectory assimilation in the Mediterranean Forecasting System

The Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) has been operational for a decade, and is continuously providing forecasts and analyses for the region. These forecasts comprise local- and basin-scale information of the environmental state of the sea and can be useful for tracking oil spills and supporting search-and-rescue missions. Data assimilation is a widely used method to improve the forecast skill of operational models and, in this study, the three-dimensional variational (OceanVar) scheme has been extended to include Argo float trajectories, with the objective of constraining and ameliorating the numerical output primarily in terms of the intermediate velocity fields at 350 m depth. When adding new datasets, it is furthermore crucial to ensure that the extended OceanVar scheme does not decrease the performance of the assimilation of other observations, e.g., sea-level anomalies, temperature, and salinity. Numerical experiments were undertaken for a 3-year period (2005–2007), and it was concluded that the Argo float trajectory assimilation improves the quality of the forecasted trajectories with ~15%, thus, increasing the realism of the model. Furthermore, the MFS proved to maintain the forecast quality of the sea-surface height and mass fields after the extended assimilation scheme had been introduced. A comparison between the modeled velocity fields and independent surface drifter observations suggested that assimilating trajectories at intermediate depth could yield improved forecasts of the upper ocean currents.     

Seasonal variation of histopathological and histochemical markers of PAH exposure in blue mussel (Mytilus edulis L.)

The aim of this work was to study seasonal variation of histopathological and histochemical markers in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis L.) exposed to pyrogenic PAH contaminants. Mussels were collected in January, June, September and October from a sampling site in the vicinity of the discharge from an aluminium smelter and from a clean reference site. Histopathological analysis was carried out on the digestive gland (DG) and the gonads, lipofuscin and neutral lipids were analysed in the DG. Clear responses in lipofuscin and neutral lipids were detected in the DG of mussels collected from the polluted site at some sampling times. Moreover, these mussels presented atrophy in digestive tubules and haemocytic aggregates in the gonad and DG. However, in all parameters studied, the magnitude of the response showed clear seasonal variation.     

Biosorption of methylene blue from aqueous solutions by Typha angustata phytomass

The objective of this study was to investigate the biosorption of an azo dye (Methylene blue) by a wetland phytomass (Typha angustata) under post-phytoremediation scenario. Thus, the phytomass was used without any chemical modification. The batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of contact time and temperatures (25–45 °C) on the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution by cattail phytomass (CP). More than 80 % of MB dye was removed from the aqueous solution within first 10 min of the experiment. Langmuir isotherm was modeled to describe the monolayer adsorption of MB dye (R ² = 0.995) with the maximum adsorption capacity of 8.1 mg/g at 25 °C. Pseudo-second-order kinetic model adequately described the kinetics of absorption process (R ² = 0.999). The adsorption of MB on the cattail phytomass was a spontaneous and endothermic process that was governed by chemisorption. Hence, CP could be applied as a potential low cost biosorbent to treat dyeing wastewater.