Signatures of Restoration and Management Changes in the Water Quality of a Central California Estuary

Coastal managers and policy-makers are concerned with tracking improvements to water quality linked to management changes. Long-term water quality data acquired from two wetland areas in the upper reaches of the Elkhorn Slough estuary in central California were analyzed for signatures of land restoration or water control structure management. Post-restoration averaged NO₃, NH₃, and PO₄ concentrations were 50–70% less than before-restoration concentrations. Assessment of watershed-scale effects revealed that proximity of restoration to sampling locations had almost as strong an effect on water quality as the percentage of land restored relative to watershed size. Results also suggest that restoration of even 1% of an agriculturally intensive watershed such as that of the Elkhorn Slough may result in improvements to water quality. Finally, results indicate that tide gate function can dominate water quality in managed wetlands and must be carefully tracked and managed in the context of estuarine conservation targets.     

Catchment water storage variation with elevation

One of the most important functions of catchments is the storage of water. Catchment storage buffers meteorological extremes and interannual streamflow variability, controls the partitioning between evaporation and runoff, and influences transit times of water. Hydrogeological data to estimate storage are usually scarce and seldom available for a larger set of catchments. This study focused on storage in prealpine and alpine catchments, using a set of 21 Swiss catchments comprising different elevation ranges. Catchment storage comparisons depend on storage definitions. This study defines different types of storage including definitions of dynamic and mobile catchment storage. We then estimated dynamic storage using four methods, water balance analysis, streamflow recession analysis, calibration of a bucket‐type hydrological model Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning model (HBV), and calibration of a transfer function hydrograph separation model using stable isotope observations. The HBV model allowed quantifying the contributions of snow, soil and groundwater storages compared to the dynamic catchment storage. With the transfer function hydrograph separation model both dynamic and mobile storage was estimated. Dynamic storage of one catchment estimated by the four methods differed up to one order of magnitude. Nevertheless, the storage estimates ranked similarly among the 21 catchments. The largest dynamic and mobile storage estimates were found in high‐elevation catchments. Besides snow, groundwater contributed considerably to this larger storage. Generally, we found that with increasing elevation the relative contribution to the dynamic catchment storage increased for snow, decreased for soil, but remained similar for groundwater storage.     

Armorican provenance for the mélange deposits below the Lizard ophiolite (Cornwall,UK): evidence for Devonian obduction of Cadomian and Lower Palaeozoic crust onto the southern margin of Avalonia

Devonian sedimentary rocks of the Meneage Formation within the footwall of the Lizard ophiolite complex in SW England are thought to have been derived from erosion of the over-riding Armorican microplate during collision with Avalonia and the closure of the Rheic Ocean. We further test this hypothesis by comparison of their detrital zircon suites with those of autochthonous Armorican strata. Five samples analysed from SW England (Avalonia) and NW France (Armorica) have a bimodal U–Pb zircon age distribution dominated by late Neoproterozoic to middle Cambrian (c. 710–518 Ma) and Palaeoproterozoic (c. 1,800–2,200 Ma) groupings. Both can be linked with lithologies exposed within the Cadomian belt as well as the West African craton, which is characterized by major tectonothermal events at 2.0–2.4 Ga. The detrital zircon signature of Avalonia is distinct from that of Armorica in that there is a much larger proportion of Mesoproterozoic detritus. The common provenance of the samples is therefore consistent with: (a) derivation of the Meneage Formation mélange deposits from the Armorican plate during Rheic Ocean closure and obduction of the Lizard Complex and (b) previous correlation of quartzite blocks within the Meneage Formation with the Ordovician Grès Armoricain Formation of NW France.     

Continuous Monitoring Reveals Drivers of Dissolved Oxygen Variability in a Small California Estuary

Estuarine ecosystem diversity and function can be degraded by low oxygen concentrations. Understanding the spatial and temporal patterns of dissolved oxygen (DO) variation and the factors that predict decreases in DO is thus essential to inform estuarine management. We investigated DO variability and its drivers in Elkhorn Slough, a shallow, well-mixed estuary affected by high nutrient loading and with serious eutrophication problems. Long-term (2001–2012), high-resolution (15 min) time series of DO, water level, winds, and solar radiation from two fully tidal sites in the estuary showed that hypoxia events close to the bottom are common in the summer at the more upstream estuarine station. These events can occur in any lunar phase (spring to neap), at any time of the day, and both on sunny or cloudy days. They are, however, short-lived (lasting in average 40 min) and mainly driven by momentary low turbulent diffusion around slack tides (both at high and low water). Tidal advective transport explains up to 52.1% of the daily DO variability, and the water volume (or DO reservoir) contained in the estuary was not sufficient to avoid hypoxia in the estuary. Solar radiation was responsible for a positively correlated DO daily cycle but caused a decreased in the averaged DO in the summer at the inner station. Wind-driven upwelling reduced the average DO at the more oceanic station during spring. The approach we employed, using robust techniques to remove suspect data due to sensor drift combined with an array of statistical techniques, including spectral, harmonic, and coherence spectrum analysis, can serve as a model for analyses of long-term water quality datasets in other systems. Investigations such as ours can inform coastal management by identifying key drivers of hypoxia in estuaries.     

New data on the Neoproterozoic – Cambrian geotectonic setting of the Teplá-Barrandian volcano-sedimentary successions: geochemistry,U-Pb zircon ages,and provenance (Bohemian Massif,Czech Republic)

The Teplá-Barrandian unit (TBU) of the Bohemian Massif was a part of the Avalonian-Cadomian belt at the northern margin of Gondwana during Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian times. New detrital zircon ages and geochemical compositions of Late Neoproterozoic siliciclastic sediments confirm a deposition of the volcano-sedimentary successions of the TBU in a back-arc basin. A change in the geotectonic regime from convergence to transtension was completed by the time of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary. The accumulation of around 2,500 m Lower Cambrian continental siliciclastics in a Basin-and-Range-type setting was accompanied by magmatism, which shows within-plate features in a few cases, but is predominantly derived from anatectic melts displaying the inherited island arc signature of their Cadomian source rocks. The geochemistry of clastic sediments suggests a deposition in a rift or strike-slip-related basin, respectively. A marine transgression during Middle Cambrian times indicates markedly thinned crust after the Cadomian orogeny. Upper Cambrian magmatism is represented by 1,500 m of subaerial andesites and rhyolites demonstrating several geochemical characteristics of an intra-plate setting. Zircons from a rhyolite give a U-Pb-SHRIMP age of 499±4 Ma. The Cambrian sedimentary and magmatic succession of the TBU records the beginning of an important rifting event at the northern margin of Gondwana.

West African provenance for Saxo-Thuringia (Bohemian Massif): Did Armorica ever leave pre-Pangean Gondwana? – U/Pb-SHRIMP zircon evidence and the Nd-isotopic record

Neoproterozoic rocks in the Saxo-Thuringian part of Armorica formed in an active margin setting and were overprinted during Cadomian orogenic processes at the northern margin of Gondwana. The Early Palaeozoic overstep sequence in Saxo-Thuringia was deposited in a Cambro-Ordovician rift setting that reflects the separation of Avalonia and other terranes from the Gondwana mainland. Upper Ordovician and Silurian to Early Carboniferous shelf sediments of Saxo-Thuringia were deposited at the southern passive margin of the Rheic Ocean. SHRIMP U/Pb geochronology on detrital and inherited zircon grains from pre-Variscan basement rocks of the northern part of the Bohemian Massif (Saxo-Thuringia, Germany) demonstrates a distinct West African provenance for sediments and magmatic rocks in this part of peri-Gondwana. Nd-isotope data of Late Neoproterozoic to Early Carboniferous sedimentary rocks show no change in sediment provenance from the Neoproterozoic to the Lower Carboniferous, which implies that Saxo-Thuringia did not leave its West African source before the Variscan Orogeny leading to the Lower Carboniferous configuration of Pangea. Hence, large parts of the pre-Variscan basement of Western and Central Europe often referred to as Armorica or Armorican Terrane Assemblage may have remained with Africa in pre-Pangean time, which makes Armorica a remnant of a Greater Africa in Gondwanan Europe. The separation of Armorica from the Gondwana mainland and a long drift during the Palaeozoic is not supported by the presented data.