The largest karst cave discovered in a tunnel during motorway construction in Slovenia’s Classical Karst (Kras)

Karst researchers of the Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU are regularly consulted during the planning of Slovenia’s motorways and invited to observe and monitor construction in the karst areas. More than 350 caves have been discovered in the course of building 60 km of new motorways over the past decade. Access to the most important caves is preserved by concrete tubes closed with metal covers at the roadside. The largest cave system in a tunnel, named LC-S647, is almost entirely preserved. The protection of this cave will serve as a good example for the preservation of natural heritage in the future. Construction work for the motorway uncovered a high degree of karstification. In particular, the discovery of this cave in the Kastelec tunnel LC-S647 showed the existence of a major cave system in the geological and speleological past. A number of unconnected passages have also been found. Caves discovered during highway construction have brought new knowledge about the cavernosity and the geological history of this part of the karst.     

Črna Jama as a cold air trap cave within Postojna Cave,Slovenia

?rna Jama is the coldest section of cave within the Postojna Cave System. Mean annual air temperatures at the ?rna Jama 2 site are 5.6 °C (2015) and 5.7 °C (2016), and at the ?rna Jama 3 site 7.1 °C (2015) and 7.2 (2016), whereas the mean external air temperature was 10.3 °C (2015) and 10.0 °C (2016). In Lepe Jame, the passage most heavily visited by tourists, the mean cave-air temperature is 10.7 °C (2014–2017). ?rna Jama exhibits winter and summer temperature regimes. During warm periods (T_cave < T_out), it acts as a cold air trap, exchanging no air with the outside atmosphere. Under such conditions the cave-air temperature shows no short-term diurnal temperature oscillations. Cave-air temperature is significantly stable and affected only by elevation of the groundwater table, which is associated with precipitation. During cold periods (T_cave > T_out), ventilation takes place and dense, cold, outside air sinks into ?rna Jama because of the favourable cave entrance morphology. Recent ?rna Jama air temperature data (2014–2017) indicate a < 0.5 °C higher temperature than that recorded in historical data since 1933. ?rna Jama is the most appropriate place within the Postojna Cave System to study long-term climatic changes. There are hardly any tourist visits to the cave, and human impacts on the cave climate are essentially reduced.     

Local characteristics of Postojna Cave climate, air temperature, and pressure monitoring

In Postojna Cave, air temperature and pressure monitoring has been conducted since July 21, 2008. Air pressure in the cave at three monitoring sites fluctuates synchronically with outside air pressure. Temperature data for Postojna 1 and 3 show good correlation with outside climate conditions for the period 2009?C2010. The temperature at Postojna 1 was increasing constantly from March to May 2009, while at Postojna 2, it was decreasing. Postojna 1 has a seasonal trend in accordance with outer trend, while seasonal trend at Postojna 2 is just contrary to outside trend. Microclimate studies at Postojna 2 show local variability, especially in winter, and exhibit special microclimate conditions that may be due to ventilation of unknown passages in the back.     

Impact of peak period visits on the Postojna Cave (Slovenia) microclimate

Cave air temperature, carbon dioxide concentrations in the cave air and external air temperature were analysed at several locations in Postojna Cave over the course of six holiday periods in 2009–2011. The results show that a 1-day increase in visitor numbers from 200 to 3,500 raised the cave air temperature by a maximum of 0.5 °C. The air temperature increases are within the annual range of cave air temperature variations. A fivefold increase in visitor numbers resulted in a carbon dioxide concentration that was at least twice as high as normal. The carbon dioxide concentration increased from 450 to 1,750 ppm (December 2009–January 2010). After 10 days of peak period visits, both the CO₂ concentration and the temperature returned almost to the pre-holiday values. The gradual increase in mean annual air temperature in the cave (2004–2010) is not related to the number of visitors but to outside climate conditions.     

A systematic regional approach for climate change adaptation to protect biodiversity

Developing appropriate climate change adaptations to protect biodiversity requires taking into account the dynamics of agro-ecological and socio-economic change. A framework for approaching this problem was proposed, but not applied in detail, as part of a major biodiversity and climate change report prepared in Australia. This paper describes the first trial application of the method. It was applied across Vietnam as the Government is interested in identifying adaptation options and detailed data are readily available for its 65 provinces. The process involves identifying ecoregions and collating information for each region based on the current conditions and trends in biodiversity, population, income and agricultural production. Climate change scenarios are identified for each region, together with governance options. Educational needs and key adaptation actions are then identified for each region taking into account the agro-ecological and socio-economic input data. It is concluded that the framework could easily be applied in other countries and should assist the development of strategic adaptation options.     

Potential for forest carbon plantings to offset greenhouse emissions in Australia: economics and constraints to implementation

The theoretical potential for carbon forests to off-set greenhouse gas emissions may be high but the achievable rate is influenced by a range of economic and social factors. Economic returns (net present value, NPV) were calculated spatially across the cleared land area in Australia for ‘environmental carbon plantings’. A total of 105 scenarios were run by varying discount rate, carbon price, rate of carbon sequestration and costs for plantation establishment licenses for water interception. The area for which NPV was positive ranged from zero ha for tightly constrained scenarios to almost the whole of the cleared land (104 M ha) for lower discount rate and highest carbon price. For the most plausible assumptions for cost of establishment and commercial discount rate, no areas were identified as profitable until a carbon price of AUD$40 t CO₂ ^?1 was reached. The many practical constraints to plantation establishment mean that it will likely take decades to have significant impact on emission reductions. Every 1 M ha of carbon forests established would offset about 1.4 % of Australia’s year 2000 emissions (or 7.4 Mt CO₂ year^?1) when an average rate of sequestration per ha was reached. All studies that predict large areas of potentially profitable land for carbon forestry need to be tempered by the realities that constrain land use change. In Australia and globally, carbon plantings can be a useful activity to help mitigate emissions and restore landscapes but it should be viewed as a long-term project in which co-benefits such as biodiversity enhancement can be realised.     

Analysis of Galileo E5 and E5ab code tracking

The world of global navigation satellite systems has been enhanced with several new or improved signals in space aiming to optimize accuracy, reliability, navigation solution, and interoperability between different constellations. However, such developments bring various challenges to the receivers’ designers. For example, acquisition and tracking stages turn into more complex processes while handling the increasing bandwidth requires additional processing power. In this context, we study the code tracking of Galileo E5ab in a full band or of only one of its components, i.e., either E5a or E5b. More specifically, an architecture for tracking the E5 pilot channel as an AltBOC(15,10) or BPSK(10) modulation is introduced, and the performance of well-known discriminator types is analyzed using analytical derivations and simulations of linearity and stability regions, thermal noise tracking errors, multipath error envelopes and tracking thresholds. Different parameters, such as the front-end filter bandwidth, the early/late chip spacing, un-normalized and normalized discriminators, are taken into consideration. The results obtained are used to illustrate the main advantages and drawbacks of tracking the E5 signal as well as to help defining the main tracking loop parameters for an enhanced performance.     

Lunar bulk sample trace element contents and kreep

The geochemical coherence between the labile element Cl and more refractory F, K, REE and P in lunar soils is utilized to gain insight into the evolution of the lunar samples studied.Paper dedicated to Prof. Harold C. Urey on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 29 April 1973.Work sponsored by USAEC and NASA.     

196Hg and202Hg isotopic ratios in chondrites: revisited

Additional evidence for an isotopically anomalous Hg fraction in unequilibrated meteorites has been obtained using neutron activation to produce¹⁹⁶Hg and²⁰²Hg followed by stepwise heating to extract the Hg. In the latest experiments Allende matrix samples released the anomalous Hg but various high-temperature inclusions did not. Nucleogenetic processes are suggested as the probable cause of the anomaly.     

The halogens in Luna 16 and Luna 20 soils

Cl and P₂U₅ do not appear to exhibit the same correlation in soils from the Luna 20 and possibly the Luna 16 sites as they do in samples from the Apollo 11–15 sites. Nevertheless, the coherence between labile Cl and other KREEP-related elements is maintained.