Cattail invasion and persistence in a coastal salt marsh: The role of salinity reduction

The hypothesis thatTypha domingensis (cattail) can invade tidal marshes only after soil salinities are substantially reduced was tested experimentally by comparing the salt tolerance of seeds, seedlings, and plants reared from rhizomes. Germination rates for four southern California populations reached 100% in fresh water, decreasing to 2% at 20‰. The salt tolerance of seeds from three coastal populations was lower than that of the Salton Sea population. Salt tolerance of plants grown in the lab did not increase with age for seedlings up to 8 weeks old. Rhizome-bearing plants had greatly decreased growth at 10‰ and no growth at 25‰ However, rhizomes of about 5% of the plants survived 9 months at 45‰. The seeds and seedlings are salt sensitive, which explains why invasion into tidal marshes is restricted to prolonged periods of low soil salinity. The older, rhizome-bearing plants are salt tolerant, which explains how invading plants persist persist under hypersaline conditions.     

Late Holocene lacustrine chronology and archaeology of ancient Lake Cahuilla, California

Freshwater lakes existed intermittently in the Salton Trough of southern California during the late Holocene. The lakes formed north of the subaerial Colorado River Delta whenever the Colorado River flowed west into the trough instead of south to the Gulf of California. Water filled the trough to a maximum altitude of 12 m. Stratigraphy, radiocarbon dates, and supplementary evidence document four lacustral intervals of Lake Cahuilla between A.D. 700 and 1580. Archaeological sites are associated with the 12-m shoreline and their occupation correlates with these lacustral intervals.     

Sand supply to the Algodones dunefield, south-eastern California, USA

In an effort to gain a better understanding of the relationship between climate, sand supply and aeolian sand deposition, an investigation was undertaken in the Algodones dunefield of south-eastern California to determine: (1) the source of the sand and (2) the mode of sand supply to the Algodones dunefield. Textural, geochemical and mineralogical analyses show that the dune sands were mainly derived from Colorado River sands during episodes when the Colorado River drained west to the Salton Basin instead of south to the Gulf of California. A model is presented which relates episodic aeolian deposition in the Algodones dunefield to the growth of the resulting lake under a persistent, intense north-westerly wind regime and to subsequent desiccation of the lake following diversion of the Colorado River to the Gulf of California. Late Holocene radiocarbon ages for relict lake shoreline deposits correlate with documented episodes of extreme flooding and increased winter storminess across the south-western United States. These conditions are likely to have been the cause of intensified north-westerly winds which coincided with high stands of Lake Cahuilla. Although diversion of the Colorado River to the Salton Basin occurred at least three times during the late Holocene, it is evident that the river did not change its course in response to the majority of the floods. It appears that the critical control on diversion of the river was the difference in gradient between courses leading to the Salton Basin and Gulf of California, which in turn was influenced by fluvial deposition and tectonic activity. Flooding was able to cause diversion of the Colorado River to the Salton Basin only when the difference in gradient between the two courses was relatively small.     

Obsidian hydration dating of volcanic events

Obsidian hydration dating of volcanic events had been compared with ages of the same events determined by the ¹⁴C and KAr methods at several localities. The localities, ranging in age from 1200 to over 1 million yr, include Newberry Craters, Oregon; Coso Hot Springs, California; Salton Sea, California; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; and Mineral Range, Utah. In most cases the agreement is quite good. A number of factors including volcanic glass composition and exposuretemperature history must be known in order to relate hydration thickness to age. The effect of composition can be determined from chemical analysis or the refractive index of the glass. Exposure-temperature history requires a number of considerations enumerated in this paper.     

Developing markets for water reallocation: Revisiting the experience of Spanish water mercantilización

Economic instruments are being promoted as a desirable alternative to public sector action in the allocation and management of natural resources. A wide body of literature has developed that critically analyzes this phenomenon as part of a wider project of ‘neoliberalization of nature’, trying to uncover the underlying rationale and commonalities of geographically specific phenomena. The case of water is at the vanguard of these processes and is proving to be particularly contentious. In the European Union water policies are increasingly emphasizing the application of economic instruments to improve the allocative equity and economic efficiency in the use of scarce resources. However, there are few analyses of how these instruments are really working on the ground and whether they are meeting their objectives. This paper aims to contribute to this debate by critically analyzing the experience with water markets in Spain, the only country in the European Union where they are operative. It looks at water permit sales during the 2005–2008 drought period using the Tajo–Segura transfer infrastructure. The paper describes how the institutional process of mercantilización of water works in practice in Spain. It shows that the use of markets requires an intense process of institutional development to facilitate and encourage their operation. These institutions tend to favor the interests of clearly identifiable elites, instead of the public interest they supposedly promote.     

Paleomagnetic Investigation of the Bonneville Alloformation, Lake Bonneville, Utah

Paleomagnetic secular variation in a portion of the Bonneville Alloformation is compared with secular variation in lacustrine sediments in the Mono Basin, California, and with secular variation in Lake Lahontan sediments in the northwestern Great Basin. The comparison places an age of about 18,000 yr B.P., and a span of 1000 to 3000 yr, on part of a transgressive stage of Lake Bonneville near Delta, Utah, that is coeval with a wet period in the Lahontan Basin.     

全球气候变化下水资源脆弱性及其评估方法

气候变化对水资源的影响主要表现在两个方面:①对水资源供给能力的影响;②对水资源需求性的影响。气候变化下水资源脆弱性评估是水资源系统的综合评估,主要包括水资源供给与需求平衡的评估。我国水资源深受气候影响,表现在地区分布不均、洪涝灾害严重、供需矛盾突出等方面;此外,自气候变化引起关注以来,我国有关水资源脆弱性评估的研究甚少。对水资源脆弱性评估方法进行探讨,旨在为进一步探讨气候变化下我国水资源的脆弱性提供依据。     

Analysis of dynamic changes and influence factors of Lake Balkhash in the last twenty years

Lake Balkhash is the third largest inland lake in Central Asia after the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. The Ili River-Balkash Lake Basin resides in the southeastern part of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the western part of China's Ili Prefecture, which belongs to the arid and semi-arid region. In the middle to late 20th century, the Ili River-Balkash Lake Basin was affected by climate change and human activities, and the problems of water ecology and water resources became increasingly prominent, which became the focus of attention for China and Kazakhstan. In this study, the water level derived from radar altimeter data, the water surface area extracted from Landsat data, and the temperature and precipitation data in the basin were comprehensively utilised. Data analysis of the time course and correlation of hydrological, meteorological elements in the lake basin, water dynamic changes, and influencing factors of Lake Balkhash was studied. The results show that the cyclical change of regional climate is the main factor affecting the change of lake water, and human activities in the short term can regulate the change of water volume in Lake Balkhash. The research results in this paper can provide a scientific basis for the solution of water disputes in cross-border rivers between China and Kazakhstan.     

Geomorphic,geographic, and hydrographic basis for resolving the Mono Lake controversy

One of the most highly publicized and protracted land-use conflicts currently being waged in the western United States involves Mono Lake, a large, hypersaline water body that lies in the lee of California's Sierra Nevada. Since 1940, when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began to divert the tributary streams that feed Mono Lake, the lake surface has dropped 45 ft (14 m), lake volume has been halved, and lake salinity has doubled. Dust storms resulting from deflation of newly exposed playa surfaces have increased in intensity, and the spatial dimensions of lacustrine habitats have been reduced. Islands used by nesting gulls have become peninsulas, permitting coyotes to invade and disrupt the rookeries.An essential first step in resolving the Mono Lake predicament involves quantifying the relationship between lake behavior and the environmental variables that lie at the center of the controversy. This article documents these relationships, and explores some of the problems inherent in developing a management plan for Mono Lake. The approach taken here may be useful in resolving environmental problems at other of the world's closed lakes which, in increasing numbers and to an increasing degree, are being drawn down by the diversion of water.     

Arsenic speciation in Mono Lake, California: Response to seasonal stratification and anoxia

Mono Lake is a closed-basin, alkaline, hypersaline lake located at the western edge of the Great Basin in eastern California. We studied the distribution of arsenic (As) species in the water column of Mono Lake between February and November, 2002. This period captured the seasonal progression from winter mixing, through summer thermal stratification, to autumn overturn. Arsenic speciation was determined by ion chromatography-inductively coupled-plasma-mass spectrometry of samples preserved in the field by flash-freezing in liquid nitrogen. We found that arsenic speciation was dominated (>90%) by arsenate when oxygen was detectable. Once levels fell below 6 μmol/L O₂, arsenic speciation shifted to dominance by reduced species. Arsenate and arsenite co-occurred in a transition zone immediately below the base of the oxycline and low but significant concentrations of arsenate were occasionally detected in sulfidic hypolimnion samples. Thio-arsenic species were the dominant form of As found in sulfidic waters. Maxima of thio-arsenic species with stoichiometries consistent with mono-, di- and trithio-arsenic occurred in succession as sulfide concentration increased. A compound with a stoichiometry consistent with trithio-arsenic was the dominant As species (∼50% of total As) in high sulfide (2 mmol/L) bottom water. Lower concentrations of total As in bottom water relative to surface water suggest precipitation of As/S mineral phases in response to sulfide accumulation during prolonged anoxia.     

Assessing Li and other leachable geochemical proxies for paleo-salinity in lake sediments from the Mono Basin, CA (USA)

Regional climate-driven hydrological changes are accompanied by salinity changes in closed basin lakes. We have investigated acid leachable Li, along with other leachable ions including Mg, Ca and Sr, as geochemical proxies of salinity in lake sediments in the Mono Basin, California. All the elements in the acid leachable suite show a strong correlation with paleo-lake level estimates based on physical and stratigraphic evidence. The CaCO₃ content of lake sediments, which has been shown to be a reliable proxy for lake level changes in the Mono basin and the adjoining Owens Lake basin, corresponds well with our acid-leachable proxy data.     

Analysis of dynamic changes and influence factors of Lake Balkhash in the last twenty years

Lake Balkhash is the third largest inland lake in Central Asia after the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea.The Ili River-Balkash Lake Basin resides in the southeastern part of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the western part of China's Ili Prefecture,which belongs to the arid and semi-arid region.In the middle to late 20^thcentury,the Ili River-Balkash Lake Basin was affected by climate change and human activities,and the problems of water ecology and water resources became increasingly prominent,which became the focus of attention for China and Kazakhstan.In this study,the water level derived from radar altimeter data,the water surface area extracted from Landsat data,and the temperature and precipitation data in the basin were comprehensively utilised.Data analysis of the time course and correlation of hydrological,meteorological elements in the lake basin,water dynamic changes,and influencing factors of Lake Balkhash was studied.The results show that the cyclical change of regional climate is the main factor affecting the change of lake water,and human activities in the short term can regulate the change of water volume in Lake Balkhash.The research results in this paper can provide a scientific basis for the solution of water disputes in cross-border rivers between China and Kazakhstan.     

PALEOGEOLOGIC RECONSTRUCTIONS OF THE RUSSIAN PLATFORM

A belt of low-angle normal (or detachment) faults ～250 km long extends from the northern end of the Salton Trough, California to southern Laguna Salada, Baja California, Mexico. The detachment system is divided into two principal segments. The northern segment, here termed the “west Salton detachment system,” comprises top-to-the-east detachment faults along the eastern Peninsular Ranges that root under the Salton Trough. The southern segment, here termed the Laguna Salada detachment system, comprises top-to-the-west detachment faults in northeastern Baja California and the Yuha Desert region of the southwesternmost Salton Trough. Detachments of that system root under Laguna Salada and the Peninsular Ranges of northern Baja California. Both of these systems experienced a major episode of activity in late Miocene to Pleistocene time, synchronous with deposition of the Imperial and Palm Spring formations, and the Laguna Salada detachment system may still be active. Thus, their activity temporally overlapped, partly or completely, with activity on dextral faults of the San Andreas boundary between the Pacific and North American plates, and with accretion of new transitional crust. Some of the detachment faults in the northern segment may have had mid-Miocene normal slip and/or Cretaceous thrust or normal slip as well, although compelling evidence for either is lacking. These detachment faults are distinctly younger than detachments east of the San Andreas fault, which generally ceased activity by middle or late Miocene time and are overlapped by marine or lacustrine rocks (Bouse Formation); these units are equivalent in age to the syntectonic strata of the Salton Trough but are much thinner and essentially undeformed.     

The driving forces behind the Caspian Sea mean water level oscillations

Closed basins such as the Caspian Sea rapidly respond to variations in atmospheric and geological events. This study has been conducted to deduce the role of natural and anthropogenic influences on the Caspian Sea mean water level fluctuations for the period of 1998–2005. It is recognized that climate is the primary mechanism of the Caspian Sea mean water level variations based on the relatively small differences of the Caspian Sea hydrologic budget residuals and the Caspian Sea mean water level fluctuations. This is further supported by the similarity in water-level variations of the Caspian Sea with those of Lake Van and Lake Urmia. On the other hand, the Caspian Sea needed to lose some of its water to attain water balance equilibrium in 2000 and 2001. The year 2000 showed anomalous seismic activity particularly in the southwestern part of the Caspian Sea. Two significant earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.8 and 6.5 M_w occurred on November 25, 2000. The focal mechanisms of these earthquakes and numerous aftershocks indicated normal faulting and, therefore, caused the Caspian Sea lake level to decline in 2000. The contribution of submarine mud volcano eruptions to the Caspian Sea lake level could be insignificant based on the comparison of water budget residuals and the mean water level variations. Neither crustal deformation (based on the GPS measurements) nor the offshore oil and natural gas production activities in the Caspian Sea are responsible for noticeable changes to the level of the Caspian Sea.     

Scale,governance and the management of river basins: A case study from Central Iran

Aquatic socio-ecological systems show pervasive cross-scale interactions and problems of fit between ecosystems and institutions. Nested bio-hydrological processes within river basins are prone to third-party impacts, and equitable/sustainable management of water resources requires adequate governance patterns that both cover relevant scalar levels and handle cross-scale interactions. This paper provides the example of the Zayandeh Rud basin, in central Iran, and describes the historical evolution of water use at three different nested scales. It shows how the gradual overallocation of water resources (basin closure) and the manipulation of the hydrological cycle by the state and other actors have resulted in a constant spatial and social redistribution of water use and associated benefits and costs. State-centered modes of governance characterized by the priority to large-scale infrastructure, vested political and financial interests, lack of attention to local processes and hydrological interconnectedness, and the neglect of environmental degradation, must give way to forms of comanagement that better articulate the different levels of control and governance.     

水资源复合系统基本特征的探讨

水资源复合系统是以水事活动为主体,由自然生态系统和社会经济系统复合而成的一类专业复合系统。本文围绕水资源复合系统基本特征这个中心论题,论述了水与自然生态和社会经济发展的关系,水事活动在自然与社会发展协调中的作用;提出水事活动是自然和社会诸多过程的统一体;最后概括了水资源复合系统的总体特征。     

Analysis and simulated diagenesis of kerogen in a Recent bottom mud from Mono Lake,California: a comparison with selected ancient kerogens

The insoluble organic matter, or kerogen, in a Recent bottom mud (<1000yr old) from Mono Lake, California, has been analyzed by vacuum pyrolysis-GC-MS and compared with the kerogen from several Precambrian rocks, including the Belingwe and Transvaal stromatolites. The Mono Lake kerogen consists mainly of cyclic and acyclic aliphatic components with lesser amounts of aromatics present. It is less aromatic and more susceptible to thermal degradation than the Precambrian kerogens, and its products show a much greater diversity especially among the unsaturated aliphatics and the heteroatomic components. The presence of these compounds, most notably 2,5-dimethylfuran, in the Mono Lake kerogen indicates a relatively rapid formation and incorporation into a young kerogen and suggests that their presence in the Precambrian kerogens, such as the Belingwe stromatolite, may be consistent with an ancient biological origin.In simulated diagenesis experiments the Recent mud was heated at 150°C for 3 months or 225°C for 8 months. The former was insufficient to affect the kerogen pyrolysis products. The latter, however, caused a large decrease in the heteroatomic components and a slight increase in the abundance of n-alkanes relative to that of the cyclic and branched alkanes. This suggests that the presence of some of these components in Precambrian rocks should be consistent with a high degree of preservation of these rocks, as appears to be the case for the Belingwe and Transvaal stromatolites.     

Neoliberalizing environmental governance? Land trusts, private conservation and nature on the Oak Ridges Moraine

With recent changes in the ways that state agencies are implementing their environmental policies, the line between public and private is becoming increasingly blurred. This includes shifts from state-led implementation of environmental policies to conservation plans that are implemented and managed by multi-sectoral networks of governments, the private sector and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). This paper examines land trusts as private conservation initiatives that become part of neoliberal governance arrangements and partnerships that challenge our conceptions of environmental preservation and democratic participation. The paper starts with an examination of the concept of neoliberalized environmental governance. Next, it addresses the shifting social constructions of property and land in the context of protecting large scale ecosystems. Through a case study of the extension of new environmental governance arrangements on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Ontario, we examine the relationships that have formed between different levels of the state and environmental non-governmental organizations. Finally, we analyze the expansion of land trusts and private conservation initiatives that are predicated on private land ownership and the commodification of nature, the emerging discourses and practices of private conservation, and how these are implicated in the privatization and neoliberalization of nature.     

内陆河流域水文过程研究的一些科学问题

水科学研究的发展,对水文科学提出了新的挑战,即如何在流域、区域和全球尺度进行学科交叉、综合集成和协同研究,从而更全面地认识水在地球资源和环境变化中的作用,认识水圈及其与大气圈、岩石圈和生物圈的相互作用。为了解内陆河流域水文循环和水量平衡各分量之间的变化和转化关系及其与生态和环境之间的相互作用,以及对全球变化和人类活动的响应和反馈,基于内陆河流域上游山区径流形成区、中游人工绿洲水资源开发利用区和下游荒漠绿洲径流散失区的流域水文循环特征,从能水通量、生态和生物地球化学过程讨论了山区水文过程;从生态水文、尺度转换、阈值和反馈讨论了水文和植被的相互作用;从国外提出的关键作用带的概念讨论了内陆河流域地下水—土壤—植被作用层的水文过程。提出了开展内陆河流域水文过程观测和研究的基本框架。     

南海天然气水合物资源勘查战略接替区初步分析与预测

二十多年来,南海天然气水合物勘查评价均主要集中在南海北部大陆边缘陆坡深水区,且先后在珠江口盆地神狐、珠江口盆地东部海域调查区和琼东南盆地陵水-松南调查区取得了天然气水合物勘查试采的重大突破及进展,陆续发现了两个大规模的天然气水合物藏,初步评价预测南海天然气水合物资源规模达800亿吨油当量左右,取得了南海天然气水合物勘探的阶段性重大成果.然而,南海天然气水合物资源进一步深化和拓展勘探的有利领域在哪里？尤其是可持续滚动勘探的战略接替区及选区在何处？其与目前陆坡深水油气及水合物勘探紧密相邻的外陆坡-洋陆过渡带（OCT）乃至洋盆区是否具有天然气水合物形成的地质条件？根据海洋地质调查及初步的地质综合分析研究,认为外陆坡-洋陆过渡带乃至洋盆区具备天然气水合物成藏的基本地质条件,可作为南海未来天然气水合物勘查的战略接替区和可持续滚动勘探的战略选区及资源远景区.针对这些影响和决定将来天然气水合物勘探决策部署及走向等关键问题进行初步分析与探讨,抛砖引玉希望能够对未来南海天然气水合物资源勘查评价及战略接替区之选择有所裨益！