Importance of grid-cell area in the estimation of estuarine residual fluxes

Estimation of residual fluxes in estuarine cross sections is a very important procedure to establish, among others aspects, residence time of contaminants, circulation pattern, and sediment transport dynamics. However, the analytical procedure to obtain such values is not trivial and is presented in detail, demonstrating the importance of the grid-cell area as a weighting element in the calculation of spatial averages. The procedure is tested with four different grid designs and it is shown that grids with proportional columns and rows are the only ones that do not introduce statistical noise in the estimation of the residual fluxes. The four designs are also tested with data from a cross section of the Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina), results again show that the proportional columns and rows grid provide the best approach in calculating residual fluxes.     

Microbial biomass response to different quantities and sources of organic matter in Brazilian coastal sediments

This study investigates the benthic microbial responses to organic matter (OM) variations in quantity and sources in two shallow water bays (Fortaleza and Ubatuba Bays) on the SE coast of Brazil on six occasions during the year. The pelagic and benthic compartments of the bays were evaluated by: (i) nutrients and chlorophyll a (Chl a) in the water column; (ii) quantity and sources of OM in the sediment (Chl a, total organic carbon and total nitrogen and lipid biomarker composition); and (iii) microbial biomass in sediments as an indicator of active benthic response. Although there were changes in water‐column nutrients during the year, Chl a was fairly constant, suggesting a regular supply of microalgae‐derived OM to the sea bottom. Based on the composition of lipid biomarkers in sediments, OM sources were classified as mostly marine and with high contributions of labile (microalgae‐derived) OM. Labile OM composition varied from diatoms in the summer to phytoflagellates in the winter and tended to accumulate in areas protected by physical disturbances in one of the bays. Microbial biomass followed this trend and was 160% higher in protected than in exposed areas. This study suggests that the coupling between labile OM and benthic microbial biomass occurs primarily in protected areas, irrespective of the time of the year. Since meio‐ and macrofaunal assemblages depend upon secondary microbial production within the sediments, this coupling may have an important role for the benthic food‐web.     

Fractal analysis of tidal channels in the Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina)

The fractal dimension (D) was estimated for nine tidal channels depicted in thematic mapper (TM) Landsat-5 imagery to derive information about the degree of geomorphological control on a tidal channel network characteristic of the Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina). Two methods, box counting and contiguity, were used to estimate fractal dimensions for each tidal channel. All channels produced D values close to 1, meaning that they are self-affine fractal features. However, these fractal dimensions do not represent the meandering pattern complexity characteristic of the tidal channels analysed. Although both methods allowed for estimation of D, the contiguity method showed that three of the channels actually are not fractal but have sinusoidal characteristics, a condition that was not detected by the former method.     

Effect of Weather-Related Episodic Events over Chlorophyll-a In a Shallow Lake: an Analysis Based on High-Frequency Data

Water Resources - With conventional monitoring at low-frequency, biological responses to weather-related events are missed. In this paper, we examine the chlorophyll-a concentrations in a shallow...     

Benthic responses to organic matter variation in a subtropical coastal area off SE Brazil

Organic matter quality, expressed as the proportion of chlorophyll a (Chl a) to degraded organic material (i.e. phaeopigments), is known to influence the structure of benthic associations and plays an important role in the functioning of the ecosystem. This study investigates the vertical distribution of microbial biomass, meiofauna and macrofauna with respect to organic matter variation in Ubatuba, Brazil, a southeastern, subtropical coastal area. On three occasions, samples were collected in exposed and sheltered stations, at high and low hydrodynamic conditions. We hypothesize that benthic assemblages will have high meio‐ and macrofaunal densities and high microbial biomass at the sediment surface at the sheltered site, and lower and vertically homogeneous microbial biomass and densities of meio‐ and macrofauna are expected at the exposed site. The accumulation of fresh organic matter at the sediment surface was observed at both stations over the three sampling dates, which contributed to the higher densities of meiofauna in the first layers of the sediment column. Macrofauna followed the same trend only at the exposed station, but changes in the number of species, biodiversity and feeding groups were registered for both stations. Microbial biomass increased at the sheltered station over the three sampling dates, whereas at the exposed station, microbial biomass was nearly constant. Physical exposure did not influence organic matter loading at the sites and therefore did not affect overall structure of benthic assemblages, which negates our original hypothesis. Most of the benthic system components reacted to organic matter quality and quantity, but relationships between different‐sized organisms (i.e. competition and/or predation) may explain the unchanged microbial profiles at the exposed site and homogeneous vertical distribution of macrofauna at the sheltered site. In conclusion, the high quality of organic matter was a crucial factor in sustaining and regulating the benthic system, but coupled results showed that interactions between micro‐, meio‐ and macrofauna can be highly complex.     

Climatic control of the surge periodicity of an Icelandic outlet glacier

Surging outlet glaciers are important in draining large ice caps, but the mechanisms controlling surge periodicities are poorly known. We investigated a sediment sequence from the glacier‐fed Lake Lögurinn in eastern Iceland, and our unique annually resolved data, based on sedimentary varves, imply that Eyjabakkajökull, an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull, began surging about 2200 cal a BP (before 1950 AD). Approximately 1700 cal a BP, the glacier started to surge at a uniform 34‐ to 38‐year periodicity that prevailed until the coldest part of the Little Ice Age when the periodicity almost halved to 21–23 years. Since the late 1800 s the surge periodicity of Eyjabakkajökull has returned to a longer period of 35–40 years. We suggest that surge periodicities of Eyjabakkajökull are forced by climatically driven mass balance changes, which may be a common forcing factor for similar surge‐type outlet glaciers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combined effects of waves and plants on a mud deposition event at a mudflat-saltmarsh edge in the Bahía Blanca estuary

This study was carried out at the Bahía Blanca Estuary, Argentina, at the seaward edge of a saltmarsh. The saltmarsh-mudflat boundary in the study area shows sediment deposits at a higher elevation immediately seaward of the saltmarsh edge. We compared field determinations of water velocity, bed shear stress, wind wave conditions and variations of the bed elevation in the mudflat and within the Spartina alterniflora canopy at the seaward edge of a saltmarsh, and we evaluated the relative role of vegetation in the observed morphology. A mud deposition event that raised bed elevation in more than 5 cm occurred during the study period, with TSS concentrations > 500 mg l⁻¹, but simultaneous measurements performed on the bed levels confirmed that the sediments deposited did not originate from local resuspension within the edge of the canopy. In similar tidal cycles in terms of local wave activity and bed shear stresses at the sampling site, deposition occurred only with winds aligned with the azimuth of the Canal Principal, reaching a maximum fetch of more than 20 km in front of the sampling site.     

Regional sea-surface temperatures explain spatial and temporal variation of summer precipitation in the source region of the Yellow River

ABSTRACT

The summer precipitation (June–September) in the source region of the Yellow River accounts for about 70% of the annual total, playing an important role in water availability. This study divided the source region of the Yellow River into homogeneous zones based on precipitation variability using cluster analysis. Summer precipitation trends and teleconnections with global sea-surface temperatures (SST) and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) from 1961 to 2010 were investigated by Mann-Kendall test and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. The results show that the northwest part (Zone 1) had a non-significantly increasing trend, and the middle and southeast parts (zones 2 and 3) that receive the most precipitation displayed a statistically significant decreasing trend for summer precipitation. The summer precipitation in the whole region showed statistically significant negative correlations with the central Pacific SST for 0–4 month lag and with the Southern Indian and Atlantic oceans SST for 5–8 month lag. Analyses of sub-regions reveal intricate and complex correlations with different SST areas that further explain the summer precipitation variability. The SOI had significant positive correlations, mainly for 0–2 months lag, with summer precipitation in the source region of the Yellow River. It is seen that El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events have an influence on summer precipitation, and the predominant negative correlations indicate that higher SST in equatorial Pacific areas corresponding to El Niño coincides with less summer precipitation in the source region of the Yellow River.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor D. Gerten     

Trend analysis for rainfall in Delhi and Mumbai, India

Urbanisation has burdened cities with many problems associated with growth and the physical environment. Some of the urban locations in India are becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards related to precipitation and flooding. Thus it becomes increasingly important to study the characteristics of these events and their physical explanation. This work studies rainfall trends in Delhi and Mumbai, the two biggest Metropolitan cities of Republic of India, during the period from 1951 to 2004. Precipitation data was studied on basis of months, seasons and years, and the total period divided in the two different time periods of 1951–1980 and 1981–2004 for detailed analysis. Long-term trends in rainfall were determined by Man-Kendall rank statistics and linear regression. Further this study seeks for an explanation for precipitation trends during monsoon period by different global climate phenomena. Principal component analysis and Singular value decomposition were used to find relation between southwest monsoon precipitation and global climatic phenomena using climatic indices. Most of the rainfall at both the stations was found out to be taking place in Southwest monsoon season. The analysis revealed great degree of variability in precipitation at both stations. There is insignificant decrease in long term southwest monsoon rainfall over Delhi and slight significant decreasing trends for long term southwest monsoon rainfall in Mumbai. Decrease in average maximum rainfall in a day was also indicated by statistical analysis for both stations. Southwest monsoon precipitation in Delhi was found directly related to Scandinavian Pattern and East Atlantic/West Russia and inversely related to Pacific Decadal Oscillation, whereas precipitation in Mumbai was found inversely related to Indian ocean dipole, El Ni?o- Southern Oscillation and East Atlantic Pattern.     

Forecasting monthly precipitation in Central Chile: a self-organizing map approach using filtered sea surface temperature

Western South America is subject to considerable inter-annual variability due to El Ni?o–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) so forecasting inter-annual variations associated with ENSO would provide an opportunity to tailor management decisions more appropriately to the season. On one hand, the self-organizing maps (SOM) method is a suitable technique to explore the association between sea surface temperature and precipitation fields. On the other hand, Wavelet transform is a filtering technique, which allows the identification of relevant frequencies in signals, and also allows localization on time. Taking advantage of both methods, we present a method to forecast monthly precipitation using the SOM trained with filtered SST anomalies. The use of the SOM to forecast precipitation for Chillan showed good agreement between forecasted and measured values, with correlation coefficients (r ²) ranging from 0.72 to 0.91, making the combined use filtered SST fields and SOM a suitable tool to assist water management, for example in agricultural water management. The method can be easily tailored to be applied in other stations or to other variables.