Barions and ΛCDM Model Problems

Astronomy Reports - We examine the inner profiles of the rotation curves of galaxies in the velocity range from dwarf galaxies to Milky-way like galaxies, having maximum of rotation,...     

Food Web Structure and Habitat Connectivity in Fish Estuarine Nurseries—Impact of River Flow

River flow variability is known to influence estuarine production, yet knowledge on its effect upon estuarine food webs dynamics is still scarce. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were used to assess the effect of river flow in the connectivity and food web interactions between the two main fish nursery areas of the Tagus estuary. The aims of the present work were to investigate the seasonal variation in food web structure and the exchange rate of individuals of marine juvenile fish among estuarine nurseries, to compare the spring of a rainy year (2001) with that of an average year (2000), and to investigate the impact of the winter floods of 2001. A low level of connectivity was observed for the fish species that use these areas as nurseries. In low river flow conditions, two isotopically distinct food webs were established in each nursery area. These food webs were very sensitive to small variations in the freshwater input. Winter floods seem to disrupt the localized food webs that are established in low river flow periods, leading to the re-establishment of a wider food web. While in rainy years this wide food web is maintained until spring, in average years the food web undergoes fragmentation into two localized and isotopically distinctive food webs. The increase in frequency of droughts due to climate change should lower the connectivity of the estuarine fish nurseries food webs, causing habitat fragmentation and consequent loss in complexity and resilience.     

Reviews in Garnet—Biotite Geothermometer：Its Versions,Inherent Problems of Accuracy and Precision,and Perspective for Further Research

This paper briefly introduces twenty-one versions of garnet-biotite Fe-Mg exchange geothermometry,points out the sources of systematic errors inherent in geothermometry.The sources lie in that:(1) ideal Fe-Mg mixing in garnet and biotite is assumed;(2)non-ideal properties of bot garnet and biotite are not considered completely;(3) minor elements-Mn, Ca in garnet,and Al^Ⅵ,Ti,Mn in biotite are almost neglected;(4)effects of pressure on equilibrium,although little,are almost not taken into consideration,and experiments were conducted at one fixed pressure;(5)the data used for egression analysis is too scarce in quantity;(6)internal consistency of the data used for empirical calibration is not fully guaranteed;(7) the authors take energy parameters W‘s(Margule‘s parametrs)independent of pressure and temperature,though the former are actually the functions of the latter items;and (8)the most important composition-activity relationship is not consistent with the mineral compositions used for calibration.Furthermore,it is believed that empirical calibrations cannot avoid the following problems;(1) effect of retrograde metamorphism;(2)inconsistent data set;(3)effect of pressure on temperature estimation;and (4)effect of Fe^3 calculation.Exact experimental work should be done in order to accurately calibrate the geotermometer in which the Margule‘s parameters should be treated as the functions of pressure,temperature,and mineral compositions.     

Gold enrichment characteristics and exploration prospects in Zambia: Based on 1∶1000000 geochemical mapping

The 1∶1000000 geochemical mapping of Zambia provides catchment sediment geochemical data for 58elements including Au from 746 sediment samples at 736 sampling sites,corresponding to a sampling density of about one site per 1000 km2.Under strict quality control using field duplicates,certified reference materials,and analytical replicate samples,the Au was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry(ICP-MS).The detection limit of Au was 0.20×10^-9.The 95%range(2.5%–97.5%)of Au concentrations was from 0.24×10^-9 to 1.36×10^-9,and the median value was 0.40×10^-9.The most noticeable Au distribution patterns shown on the map are mainly located between Lusaka and Ndola(Lufilian Arc Belt).In addition,several high Au value areas occurred in Mansa,Muyombe,Chipata,and Livingstone.The spatial distribution patterns of Au in tectonic units,drainage basins,and geomorphological landscapes could be related to the Lufilian Arc Belt and Bangweulu Block.The Au concentrations show metallogenic belts between Muyombe and Mbala areas,between Mansa and Ndola areas,and between Lusaka and Kasempa areas.     

IGU Study group “famine research and food production systems”

IGU-Reports

IGU Study group famine research and food production systems     

IGU study group “Famine research and food production systems”

The International Geographical Union Reports

IGU study group Famine research and food production systemsIn collaboration with the IGU study group critical environmental regions/places     

Impact of bioturbation on reservoir quality and production – A review

Bioturbation is a typically small scale yet potentially significant geological process altering rock properties by reworking. For many years, bioturbation studies found application in exploration geology to estimate paleobathymetry, interpreting depositional environment and identifying key stratigraphic surfaces. These act as vital inputs to the geological models, for determination of source rock potential, reservoir quality and modeling of petroleum systems. Recently geologists extended the application of bioturbation studies to address production related challenges. Recognizing the bioturbation effects and incorporating them in reservoir simulation models can improve production predictions and enhanced oil recovery operations. This paper discusses bioturbation and its effects on reservoir quality, its performance and production.     

Islands and oil — locality and structure

This paper analyses the meeting between the international petroleum industry and two local communities. The building of an oil terminal in a local community is both a major event, and a generator of processes on the local level. Three different angles is used to enlighten these processes; categorised as as place, people and mind. The place analysis consentrates on the effects on population and workforce development, the people analysis look at the institutional and planning processes, and the mind analysis the effects on the feeling of local identification. The paper demonstrates that local factors are of crucial importance even for the international petroleum industry.     

A New Formation Mechanism of Coesite without the Plate Deeply-Subduction and Fast-Exhumation——Comment on the Article “Discussion on Some Problems of Quartz-Coesite Phase Transition”

本文分析评论了嵇少丞等(2010)发表的“石英—柯石英相变研究中若干问题讨论”一文.指出他们对柯石英非俯冲折返新机制的一些误解,对某些热力学、物理学概念,及其在地学问题中的解释理解的不同.分析了机械球磨的作用机制;论证了机械球磨作用本质与构造挤压剪切作用本质的同一性.分析了岩石糜棱岩化过程的两个阶段;讨论了地震波形成柯石英机制的可能性.围绕比较标准问题,论证了高能机械球磨(预处理)能大大降低α-石英转变成柯石英的压力、温度和合成时间,促进柯石英的形成.用小尺度不均匀局域高压微区模型解释了人工合成柯石英的规律性、南极洲天然矿物的行为,柯石英的寄生矿物、岩石——锆石、榴辉岩包裹体、非包裹体的形成.列举事例澄清了“球磨引进的Fe杂质提高柯石英形成压力迟缓合成”的说法;讨论了第二相存在对石英—柯石英转变的影响和“应变禁区”边界区的应力梯度相变驱动力可以形成柯石英问题.指出了机械球磨石英原料预处理和静高压合成柯石英后处理两步法,是一种实验室研究柯石英形成规律的有效物理方法;小尺度不均匀局域高压微区模型和无需板块深俯冲快折返的柯石英形成机制,是一种有希望的柯石英形成新机制.     

Non-conservative P and N fluxes and net ecosystem production in San Quintin Bay,México

San Quintin Bay, Mexico, is a hypersaline coastal lagoon where the main external forcing of physical and biogeochemical processes is oceanic. Non-conservative fluxes of inorganic N (ΔDIN) and P (ΔDIP), and aspects of net ecosystem metabolism were studied in this lagoon during August 1995, August 1996, and February 1996, by following the LOICZ budgetary modeling approach. The whole-system water exchange time during summer (≈13 d) was shorter than in winter (≈26 d) as northwesterly winds enhancing mixing with the ocean are more intense during the spring-summer upwelling season. Whole-bay ΔDIP values of +0.2 to +0.3 mmol m^?2 d^?1 in August, and <+0.01 mmol m^?2 d^?1 in February indicate that the system is a net source of dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP). DIP fluxes from the Bay to the ocean during August are probably balanced by a net import of particulate organic matter between 1,000–1,300 × 10³ mol C d^?1, equivalent to a net ecosystem production (NEP) between ?24 and ?31 mmol C m^?2 d^?1. ΔDIN showed opposite trends in August 1995 and August 1996, with a net import of 13×10³ mol N d^?1 and a net export of 30× 10³ mol N d^?1, respectively. However, N fixation minus denitrification (“apparent denitrification”) estimates of ≈?4 mmol N m^?2 d^?1 in both periods indicate that San Quintin Bay is a net sink of nitrogen. Results from a 3-box model indicate that during summer Box C, adjacent to the ocean, contributed 70–80% of the excess DIP produced in the whole-system. This observation and high apparent denitrification values of ≈?7 mmol N m^?2 d^?1 at the entrance of the Bay, suggest that the net heterotrophic condition of San Quintin Bay in summer is largely determined by imports of labile phytoplanktonic carbon generated in the adjacent ocean during upwelling.A net flux of organic carbon of 30×10⁶ mol C yr^?1 was estimated from Box C, adjacent to the ocean, to Box B, locally known as Bahia Falsa, which is the area designated for oyster aquaculture in the lagoon. It is estimated that this net organic carbon supply is almost equivalent to the annual oyster food demand; our estimate is that oyster aquaculture in San Quintin Bay accounts for the vast majority of the net heterotrophy of Bahia Falsa.     

Estimates of heat flow and heat production and a thermal model of the São Francisco craton

An updated analysis of geothermal data from the highland area of eastern Brazil has been carried out and the characteristics of regional variations in geothermal gradients and heat flow examined. The database employed includes results of geothermal measurements at 45 localities. The results indicate that the Salvador craton and the adjacent metamorphic fold belts northeastern parts of the study area are characterized by geothermal gradients in the range of 6–17°C/km. The estimated heat flow values fall in the range of 28–53 mW/m², with low values in the cratonic area relative to the fold belts. On the other hand, the São Francisco craton and the intracratonic São Francisco sedimentary basin in the southwestern parts are characterized by relatively higher gradient values, in the range of 14–42°C/km, with the corresponding heat flow values falling in the range of 36–89 mW/m². Maps of regional variations indicate that high heat flow anomaly in the São Francisco craton is limited to areas of sedimentary cover, to the west of the Espinhaço mountain belt. Crustal thermal models have been developed to examine the implications of the observed intracratonic variations in heat flow. The thermal models take into consideration variation of thermal conductivity with temperature as well as change of radiogenic heat generation with depth. Vertical distributions of seismic velocities were used in obtaining estimates of radiogenic heat production in crustal layers. Crustal temperatures are calculated based on a procedure that makes simultaneous use of the Kirchoff and Generalized Integral Transforms, providing thereby analytical solutions in 2D and 3D geometry. The results point to temperature variations of up to 300°C at the Moho depth, between the northern Salvador and southern São Francisco cratons. There are indications that differences in rheological properties, related to thermal field, are responsible for the contrasting styles of deformation patterns in the adjacent metamorphic fold belts.     

Regulating the farmers’ market: Paysan expertise,quality production and local food

This paper considers the meaning of local, quality food in the context of a farmer’s market in Montpellier, France. The focus is on understanding how farmers conceptualize ‘local’, how they perceive and cater to their clients’ demand for quality food, and what mechanisms are deployed to ensure a joint approach to these conventions. With a market association capable of carrying out site inspections to weed out ‘fake-farmers’ and an expectation that each vendor would participate in staged demonstrations of agrarian competency, the market emerges as an exclusive and tightly regulated commercial space that promotes both local protectionism and alternative consumption practices.     

Explaining low yields and low food production in Cameroon: a farmers’ perspective

While a bottom-up approach to identifying problems affecting food production among small-scale farmers has been urged as an appropriate means of finding sustainable solutions, few studies have determined the practical process of doing so and measured the outcomes of such an approach. This paper uses information gained mainly through focus groups with small-scale farmers and semi-structured interviews, to identify farmers’ perceptions of reasons behind low yields and low agricultural production in three communities of Cameroon’s North West region. Three biophysical factors are identified as the main reasons of low production: the long and more frequent dry spells and late start of the start of the rainy season. Three socio-economic reasons are identified as most important: land scarcity, money to invest in agriculture and labour scarcity. Farmers rank their reasons based on the importance to their agricultural production in their local area. Some of the important claims made by farmers are tested using field data and statistical analysis. These include the claims that: (1) the rainy season is increasingly starting later than it used to; and (2) the length of dry spells are increasingly longer than they used to be. The results of these statistical tests are significant, showing that farmers’ knowledge of some of the local problems affecting their activities can serve as an important input into formal research and policy design. Peoples’ understanding of a problem affects the way they will act on it—in terms of searching for solutions and implementing change. Farmers can therefore provide useful insights on why they think there are large yield gaps within their local production environments. The current agricultural development policy of the Cameroon government is advocating greater public–private engagement and can benefit from farmers’ inputs and opinions in the design of relevant policies. In the same light, nonlocal based researchers and research institutions can draw on farmers’ knowledge to create and accumulate knowledge on sustainable solutions to problems of low yields and low food production in Cameroon.     

Problems of high fluoride waters in Turkey

The geochemistry theory can provide information about the distribution, contents and migration in nature of the chemical elements in minerals, rocks, soils, waters, atmospheres, etc. Therefore, it has been applied extensively. Nowadays the petroleum supply throughout the world is in tension. The coal resources are unfriendly to the environment, because coals contain many harmful chemical elements. How to exploit the efficient clean liquid energy from coals is a hot subject of study. This paper deals with the present domestic and international applications of geochemistry in coal liquefaction research, on the basis of coal geology, points out the shortages and problems that need to be dissolved, clarifies the necessity of coal liquefaction technique research under the coal geochemistry background. To enhance the oil production and reduce environmental effects, the direct coal liquefaction technique research should take it into consideration the three-aspects coupling pattern, which includes the influence of coal direct liquefaction activity combined with different geochemical parameters, the different migration behaviors of harmful elements in the coal liquefaction process, and the geological control factors of coal-forming environments. It is indicated that the coal geochemistry is extensively applied in coal direct liquefaction technique research.     

To process or not to process? Factors enabling and constraining shea butter production and income in Burkina Faso

Processing of environmental products by rural households in developing countries is often considered a way to lift poor natural resource-dependent households out of poverty by increasing the returns to labour of their harvesting activities. Still, the bulk of environmental products in developing countries is commercialised unprocessed. This paper examines the factors enabling and constraining the processing of shea nuts into shea butter in Burkina Faso. Our analysis is based on socio-economic survey data collected from 536 households in the Zoundwéogo and Cascades provinces of Burkina Faso, as well as qualitative interview data collected from 74 shea butter producers in the province of Sissili. The factors affecting the selection of shea butter production as a livelihood activity as well as the economic success of this activity are analysed using a Heckman selection model. Moreover, we study the effect of locality of residence, defined as place of residence along the rural–urban continuum, on shea butter processing and income. We demonstrate that, among members of a shea butter producer Union, women living in urban areas produce significantly larger quantities of shea butter for sale to the Union and earn superior revenues from these sales than their rural counterparts. We relate these urban–rural discrepancies to the physical and socio-economic conditions that characterise life in different localities and propose policy recommendations based on our findings.     

Age,Mechanism and Direction of Eash Qinling—Dabieshan Lithosphere Delamination——Petrological Evidence and Stipulation

Throughy studies of P-T-t paths and decompressive retrograde metamorphic textures of metamorphic rocks in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region,the authors determined the Mesozoic crust rapid uplifting age,and then inferred that in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region lithosphere delamination occurred from T3 to J1.The Yanshanian granites produced by delamination are developed well in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region.But due to the Gondwana plate effect,magmatism in the region caused by delamination lagged until J3 when the northern Tibet terrane and the Eurasian plate completely amalgamated.Additionally,due to western Pacific plate subducting underneath the Eurasian plate,in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region the stress state was transformed from compression to extension.So in the region from J3 to K2 magmatism was most intensive,and liberalization was also relatively strong.Geophysical data reflect that in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region the asthenosphere rose to the shallow level,the Moho is flat with no mountain root,and the crustal thickness is less than 40 km on average. These features agree with those of collisional orogenes in which delamination has occurred.Through contrastin differences in surface and interior depth between east and west Qinling we believe that elamination proceeded from east to west.     

Sustainable groundwater management——problems and scientific tools

Groundwater is a strategic resource due to its usually high quality and perennial availability. However, groundwater management all over the world often lacks sustainability as evidenced by falling water tables, drying wetlands, increasing sea-water intrusion and general deterioration of water quality. As groundwater cannot be renewed artificially on a large scale, sustainable management of this resource is vital. A number of scientific tools are available to assist in his task. Three items are discussed here. They include methods for the determination of groundwater recharge, groundwater modeling including the estimation of its uncertainty, and thenterfacing to the socio-economic field. Generally the quality of water management work can be largely enhanced with new tools available, including remote sensing, digital terrain models, differential GPS, environmental tracers, automatic data collection, modeling and the coupling of models from different disciplines