Source ambiguity from an estimation of the scaling exponent of potential field power spectra

An analysis of the field scaling power spectrum yields useful information about the source distribution, but it is uncertain whether deterministic, random, fractal or mixed approaches have to be used for the interpretation. To this end, the scaling properties of potential field spectra are analysed for a number of different source models of geological interest. Besides the models of Naidu (purely random sources) and Spector and Grant (gross block statistical ensembles) we consider other types of density and magnetization distributions with spectral exponents in the fractal range, such as a single homogeneous body with a random white source distribution. Spectral slopes in the fractal range are obtained.
We also study the effects of important natural sources, such as salt domes and sedimentary basins, representing them with simple Gaussians or combinations of Gaussian signals. The same spectral slopes as for gravity signals generated by 3-D fractal source distributions are found for them. Hence the power law decay of the field is not a characteristic only of fractal source models.
If a 3-D fractal source distribution is assumed a priori , a way of verifying the goodness of the model is to examine the whitened field at source level. The probability that the whitened field derives from a random white population is estimated for synthetic and real anomalies by applying the usual statistical tests.     

Effects of local drought condition on public opinions about water supply and future climate change

A growing body of research indicates that opinions about long-term climate change and other natural resource issues can be significantly affected by current weather conditions (e.g., outside air temperature) and other highly contingent environmental cues. Although increased severity and frequency of droughts is regarded as a likely consequence of anthropogenic climate change, little previous research has attempted to relate the experience of drought with public attitudes about water supply or water-related climate change issues. For this study, a large set (n?=?3,163) of public survey data collected across nine states of the southern United States was spatio-temporally linked with records of short-term (~12 weeks) and long-term (~5 years) drought condition at the level of each respondent’s zip code. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression models that included numerous other independent variables (environmental ideology, age, gender, education, community size, residency duration, and local annual precipitation) indicated highly significant interactions with long-term drought condition, but showed no significant effect from short-term drought condition. Conversely, attitudes about water-related climate change showed highly significant interactions with short-term drought, with weaker to no effects from long-term drought. While the finding of significant effects from short-term drought condition on opinions about future drought is broadly consistent with previous public opinion research on climate change, the finding of water supply attitudes being more responsive to longer term drought condition is, to our knowledge, a novel result. This study more generally demonstrates the methodological feasibility and applied importance of accounting for local drought condition when public opinion information is used to evaluate outreach programs for water conservation and climate change.     

Role of land surface parameterizations on modeling cold-pooling events and low-level jets

Land surface parameterization schemes play a significant role in the accuracy of meso-local scale numerical models by accounting for the exchange of energy and water between the soil and the atmosphere. The role of land surface processes during large-scale cold-pooling events was studied with two land surface schemes (LSMs) in the Advanced Research Weather Forecasting model (ARW). Model evaluation was complex due to the surface and boundary layer interactions at different temporal and spatial scales as revealed by a scale dependent variance analysis. Wavelet analysis was used for the first time to analyze the model errors with specific focus on land surface processes. The ARW model was also evaluated for the formation of a low-level jet (LLJ). It is shown that vertical resolution in the model boundary layer played a significant role in determining the characteristics of LLJ, which influenced the lower boundary layer structure and moisture distribution. The results showed that the simulated low-level jet over southern Georgia was sensitive to the land surface parameterization and led to a significant difference in the boundary layer exchange. The jet shear played a crucial role in the maintenance of turbulence and weak shear caused excessive radiative cooling leading to unrealistic cold pools in the model. The results are important for regional downscaling as the excessive cold pools that are simulated in the model can go unnoticed.     

Paleoanalogues of global warming in the 21st century

On the basis of landscape-climatic reconstructions for warming periods in the past, likely scenarios of future global warming have been developed for various warming levels that might be reached during the current century. The paleoanalogue of global warming by 0.7–1°C is the Holocene climatic optimum (5.5–6 ka B.P.) and that by 1.7–2°C is the last interglacial optimum (about 125 ka B.P.). The complex analysis concerning response of the principal ecosystem components to the expected warming signifies that there will not be any shifts of vegetation zones during the 21st century; reconstruction will touch only the internal structure of vegetable associations and broadening of interzonal ecotones.     

Ecosystem-based marine spatial management: Review of concepts, policies, tools, and critical issues

Conventional sectoral management and piecemeal governance are considered less and less appropriate in pursuit of sustainable development. Ecosystem based marine spatial management (EB-MSM) is an approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including human uses, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation. Marine spatial planning and ocean zoning are emerging concepts that can support EB-MSM. EB-MSM is driven by high-level goals that managers aim to achieve through the implementation of measures. High-level goals and objectives need to be translated into more operational objectives before specific targets, limits and measures can be elaborated.Monitoring, evaluation and adaptation are necessary to ensure that marine management measures are both effective and efficient. Solid monitoring frameworks are the foundation of adaptive management, as they provide the necessary information to evaluate performance and the effectiveness of management actions. Marine protected areas (MPAs) - possibly set up in networks - constitute a key component in EB-MSM policies and practises and have been applied as a cornerstone in conservation of marine biodiversity, management of fish populations, development of coastal tourism, etc. Moreover, MPA experiences have provided methods and concepts (such as zoning) to a wider EB-MSM context. The assignment of values to biophysical features of the marine environment allows the direct assessment of related management choices and may assist EB-MSM.A range of monetary valuation techniques have been proposed to reduce attributes of goods and services to a single metric. However, in the marine environment such an approach is often over simplistic, and thus less reductive techniques may be necessary. Rather than producing a single metric, the results of non-monetary assessments guide policy allowing weight to be given as necessary to potential areas of conflict and consensus.Strategies to take into account climate change effects and geohazard risks in EB-MSM have been applied or proposed worldwide. EB-MSM regimes must be alert to such risks and flexible to account for changes.     

The Riverine Past of Lake Seliger

Water Resources - Lake Seliger has been always classified as a former glacial water body, a remnant of a vast proglacial lake, which has existed since the disappearance of the last glacial Ice...     

PALEOGEOGRAPHICAL MAPPING: APPROACHES,METHODS, AND RESULTS

The authors describe the evolution of a new field in cartography—the substantive basis of which is the preparation of a series of spatial reconstructions (climate, landscape components) of the past on the basis of principles of comprehensive mapping of contemporary geosystems. The paper investigates how such an approach may be used to assess the present status of landscapes from the perspective of their general evolution and assist in the formulation of long-range predictions. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA from: Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, seriya geograficheskaya, 1998, No. 5, pp. 30-43.     

The Unbearable Closeness of The East: Embodied Micro-Economies of Difference,Belonging, and Intersecting Marginalities in Post-Socialist Berlin

Abstract

This article examines the micro-politics of belonging in the post-socialist outskirts of Berlin, in Marzahn, one of many new urban immigrant settlement areas in Europe. More specifically, it focuses on what locals perceive as an acceptance-precluding conspicuous presence of nominally white immigrants of German ancestry from the former Soviet Union, the Aussiedler (resettlers). Long-term residents read and interpret these immigrants’ everyday embodiments by constructing what I call micro-economies of embodied difference in order to mark immigrants as non-belonging Eastern-European. In order to make sense of such practices and local antipathy towards the Aussiedler, I analyze the embeddedness of this suburban locality in the regional politics of belonging, showing how Marzahn and its long-time residents have themselves become post-wall Berlin's (and Germany's) internal Others, saturated with uncommodifiable traces of now-denigrated state-socialist Easternness. I suggest that in such a context these residents’ practice of ascribing the unwanted Easternness to recent immigrants works to deflect it in order to buttress their own claims to full membership citizenship in the unified Germany from which they have long been excluded. [Key words: belonging, immigrants, embodied difference, Othering, Easternness, Berlin.]     

Delineation of mafic intrusions near Bedford (Virginia,USA) using geological and geophysical methods

In the present work, geological and geophysical methods were used to delineate the locations of multiple mafic intrusions at the Claytor Nature Study Center (CNSC) near Bedford, VA. An investigation of the groundwater hydrology of CNSC was launched in 2007. As a first step in that project a preliminary geological survey revealed sparse evidence of a number of diabase intrusions in the area. While diabase intrusions are not particularly permeable features, contact metamorphism of the host rock could provide conduits for groundwater due to stress fractures and joints and high-temperature recrystallization of the rock matrix. Following the geological survey, geophysical surveys including seismic refraction, ground penetrating radar, and magnetic ground measurements were conducted to determine the location and extent of these multiple igneous intrusions. Seismic and radar surveys proved to be inconclusive, but the magnetic surveys showed strong magnetic anomalies. The magnetic data were obtained using a Geometrics G-856 proton precession magnetometer and were interpreted using the Mag2dc algorithm and SGeMS geostatistical software. The results show that the intrusions are dikes that cut across nearly perpendicular to the regional metamorphic structures and trend generally north–south with a dip of approximately 75°–90° to the west. These findings are consistent with one of the general directions of stresses associated with the North Atlantic seafloor spreading in late Triassic or early Jurassic period. Subsequent hydrologic testing and groundwater modeling confirm the role of the dikes in the overall hydrogeology of the site.