End member and Bayesian mixing models consistently indicate near-surface flowpath dominance in a pristine humid tropical rainforest

The impacts of forest conversion on runoff generation in the tropics have received much interest, but scientific progress is still hampered by challenging fieldwork conditions and limited knowledge about runoff mechanisms. Here, we assessed the runoff generation, flow paths and water source dynamics of a pristine rainforest catchment in Costa Rica using end member mixing analysis (EMMA) and a Bayesian mixing model (MixSIAR). Geochemical tracer data collected over a 4-week field campaign were combined with tritium data used to assess potential deeper groundwater flow pathways to the perennial stream. The streamflow composition was best captured using three end-members, namely throughfall, shallow (5–15 cm) and deeper (15–50 cm) soil water. We estimated the end-member contributions to the main stream and two tributaries using the two mixing approaches and found good agreement between results obtained from EMMA and MixSIAR. The system was overwhelmingly dominated by near-surface sources, with little evidence for deeper and older groundwater as tritium-derived baseflow mean transit time was between 2.0 and 4.4 years. The shallow soil flow pathway dominated streamflow contributions in the main stream (median 39% and 49% based on EMMA and MixSIAR, respectively), followed by the deeper soil (32% and 31%) and throughfall (25% and 19%). The two tributaries had even greater shallow soil water contributions relative to the main stream (83% and 74% for tributary A and 42% and 63% for tributary B). Tributary B had no detectable deep soil water contribution, reflecting the morphology of the hillslope (steeper slopes, shallower soils and lower vegetation density compared to hillslope A). Despite the short sampling campaign and associated uncertainties, this study allowed to thoroughly assess runoff generation mechanisms in a humid tropical catchment. Our results also provide a first comparison of two increasingly used mixing models and suggest that EMMA and MixSIAR yield comparable estimates of water source partitioning in this tropical, volcanic rainforest environment.     

Grain-size end-members and environmentally sensitive grain-size components: A comparative study in the mud shelf depocenters off southern Brazil

The current study aims to do a comparative analysis of the results obtained with two End-Member(EM)grain-size modeling techniques(AnalySize and BasEMMA)and the Environmental Sensitive Grain-Size(ESGS)modeling for sediment samples collected in the mudbelts of the southern Brazilian shelf.The methods were compared using grain-size data from the south Brazilian shelf,and the results are discussed here.It is the first time that the concept of ESGS,in its present form,is utilized outside China.The results show that despite its relative ease of use,the ESGS is not fully comparable to the EM analyses,and only two grain-size ESGS classes were recognized as analogous to EMs.The comparison of the AnalySize and BasEMMA procedures also revealed significant differences between the techniques.A comparative analysis between the two EM techniques revealed advantages in the BasEMMA,especially in the better correlation of the end-members with the original grain size distribution.The analysis of the geographical distribution of the EM abundances allowed point sources of sandy populations to be recognized as well as the contribution of the Rio de la Plata as a source of silty sediments to be inferred.     

Geological evidence for strong historical earthquakes in an “aseismic” region: The Pollino case (Southern Italy)

The Pollino Range is the southernmost segment of the Southern Apennines at the boundary with the Calabrian Arc. While several strong earthquakes (magnitude 6.5–7.0) have occurred in nearby regions, the Pollino area has no known historical record of seismic events of magnitude > 5. We carried out an aerial photograph interpretation and a field survey of the Pollino fault (the major Quaternary normal fault of the area) in order to characterize geologically the seismic potential of this structure. We dug two sets of trenches across fault scarps within the apecies of latest Pleistocene to Holocene alluvial fans at the Masseria Quercia Marina (MQM) and Grotta Carbone (GC) sites, in the central segment of the southern Pollino Range front. At both sites we identified two surface faulting events affecting the alluvial fan deposits and two overlying colluvial units of historical age. The penultimate event produced a vertical offset of 80–90 cm at GC and 50–60 cm at MQM; while the last event produced a vertical offset of 40–50 cm at GC and few centimeters of offset at MQM. Detailed geomorphological field observations suggest that the two historical earthquakes reactivated the entire length of the Masseria Marzano-Civita segment of the Pollino fault (rupture length about 18 km). For events in this range of rupture length and vertical displacement, comparison with surface faulting earthquakes in the Apennines (and abroad) indicates a magnitude of 6.5–7.0. Therefore, the maximum potential earthquake and the seismic hazard of the Pollino area are significantly larger than that suggested by the available historical seismic catalogue.     

A study for improving precipitation occurrences modelling with a Markov chain

Daily precipitation occurrences and their monthly wet-days' sums of precipitation-measuring stations in Greece are modelled with a Markov chain. The order of the chain is taken to be seasonally varying in accordance with the precipitation station's meteorological conditions and geographical location. The modelling efficiency of the Markov chain is significantly improved when it is conjunctively used with a second-order autoregressive stochastic model fitted on the monthly wet-days' sums.     

The effect of peat structure on the spatial distribution of biogenic gases within bogs

Northern peatlands are a large source of atmospheric methane (CH₄) and both a source and a sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). The rate and temporal variability in gas exchanges with peat soils is directly related to the spatial distribution of these free‐phase gases within the peat column. In this paper, we present results from surface and borehole ground‐penetrating radar surveys – constrained with direct soil and gas sampling – that compare the spatial distribution of gas accumulations in two raised bogs: one in Wales (UK), the other in Maine (USA). Although the two peatlands have similar average thickness, physical properties of the peat matrix differ, particularly in terms of peat type and degree of humification. We hypothesize that these variations in physical properties are responsible for the differences in gas distribution between the two peatlands characterized by (1) gas content up to 10.8% associated with woody peat and presence of wood layers in Caribou Bog (Maine) and (2) a more homogenous distribution with gas content up to 5.7% at the surface (i.e. <0.5 m deep) in Cors Fochno (Wales). Our results highlight the variability in biogenic gas accumulation and distribution across peatlands and suggest that the nature of the peat matrix has a key role in defining how biogenic gas accumulates within and is released to the atmosphere from peat soils. © 2015 The Authors. Hydrological Processes published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Modelling the effects of changes in rainfall event characteristics on TSS loads in urban runoff

The effect of changes in rainfall event characteristics on urban stormwater quality, which was described by total suspended solids (TSS), was studied by means of computer simulations conducted with the Storm Water Management Model for a climate change scenario for northern Sweden. The simulation results showed that TSS event loads depended mainly on rainfall depth and intensity, but not on antecedent conditions. Storms with low‐to‐intermediate depths and intensities showed the highest sensitivity to changes in rainfall input, both for percentage and absolute changes in TSS wash‐off loads, which was explained by the contribution of pervious areas and supply limitations. This has significant implications for stormwater management, because those relatively frequent events generally carry a high percentage of the annual pollutant load. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fault imaging in sparsely sampled 3D seismic data using common‐reflection‐surface processing and attribute analysis – a study in the Upper Rhine Graben

Cost reduction in seismic reconnaissance is an issue in geothermal exploration and can principally be achieved by sparse acquisition. To address the adherent decrease in signal/noise ratio, the common‐reflection‐surface method has been proposed. We reduced the data density of an existing 3D dataset and evaluated the results of common‐reflection‐surface processing using seismic attributes. The application of the common‐reflection‐surface method leads in all cases to an improvement of the signal/noise ratio. The most distinct improvement can be seen in the low fold regions. The improvement depends strongly on the midpoint aperture, and there is a tradeoff between reflector continuity and horizontal resolution. If small scale targets are to be imaged, a small aperture size is necessary, which may be far below the Fresnel zone for a specific reflector. The substantial reduction of the data density leads in our case to an irrecoverable information loss.     

Influence of artificial groundwater lakes on the abundance and activity of bacteria in adjacent subsurface systems

Bacterial abundances and activity, estimated by 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining (DAPI) and the reduction of 2-(p-iodophenyl)-3-(p-nitrophenyl)-5-phenyl tetrazolium chloride (INT), were investigated in two oligotrophic artificial groundwater lakes and the surrounding aquifers. To evaluate the effect of lake water on groundwater downstream, samples were taken from wells at different distances from the lakes, and the total number of bacteria and the number of active bacteria in these samples were compared with samples collected upstream. In addition, sterilized sandy sediments were exposed in groundwater wells to measure the number and activity of bacteria attached to particles. At one of the study sites, where the lake sediments were disturbed by dredging, total bacterial abundance and the number of respiring bacteria in the groundwater aquifer was clearly influenced by the lake water. The average bacterial abundances decreased from 2.6 ± 1.9 × 10⁵ cells ml⁻¹ in the well closest to the lake (S2) to 2.9 ± 3.8 × 10⁴ cells ml⁻¹ in the most distant one (S4), which was equivalent to cell numbers in the upstream well. The number of respiring bacteria showed a similar tendency with 1.3 ± 2.7 × 10⁴ active cells ml⁻¹ in S2 and 1.9 ± 1.5 × 10³ active cells ml⁻¹ in S4. At the second study site, which was not influenced by dredging, bacteria in the downstream wells seemed not to be affected by the lake water. The number and activity of bacteria, which colonized exposed sediments, were not significantly different in the upstream and downstream wells, indicating a minor influence of lake water on this habitat. Our results suggest that gravel-pit lakes may influence the free living bacterial assemblages in nearshore groundwater systems, but do not visibly affect numbers and activity of bacteria attached to the surface of aquifer sediments.