Application of a Bayesian model to infer the contribution of coalbed natural gas produced water to the Powder River,Wyoming and Montana

The Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming and Montana contains significant coal and coal bed natural gas (CBNG) resources. CBNG extraction requires the production of large volumes of water, much of which is discharged into existing drainages. Compared to surface waters, the CBNG produced water is high in sodium relative to calcium and magnesium, elevating the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). To mitigate the possible impact this produced water may have on the quality of surface water used for irrigation, the State of Montana passed water anti‐degradation legislation, which could affect CBNG production in Wyoming. In this study, we sought to determine the proportion of CBNG produced water discharged to tributaries that reaches the Powder River by implementing a four end‐member mixing model within a Bayesian statistical framework. The model accounts for the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹³C_DIC, [Sr] and [DIC] of CBNG produced water and surface water interacting with the three primary lithologies exposed in the PRB. The model estimates the relative contribution of the end members to the river water, while incorporating uncertainty associated with measurement and process error. Model results confirm that both of the tributaries associated with high CBNG activity are mostly composed of CBNG produced water (70–100%). The model indicates that up to 50% of the Powder River is composed of CBNG produced water downstream from the CBNG tributaries, decreasing with distance by dilution from non‐CBNG impacted tributaries from the point sources to ~10–20% at the Montana border. This amount of CBNG produced water does not significantly affect the SAR or electrical conductivity of the Powder River in Montana. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of intensive aquifers exploitation on groundwater salinity in coastal wetlands

The coastal plain of the Río de la Plata constitutes a large wetland which develops on the right margin of the river estuary. Anthropic activities such as intensive exploitation of groundwater carried out in the vicinity of the wetland can modify the natural hydrological regime. The aim of this work is to asses the effects of intensive aquifer exploitation in coastal wetlands using hydrogeological models. Such models allow to evaluate changes in the environmental conditions of wetland at regional level. The hydrogeological model exposed in this work shows how the intensive groundwater exploitation affects the wetland area, generating important variations both in the groundwater flows and in the salinity of the groundwater. Identification of these modifications to the environment is important to generate guidelines leading to minimize these affectations.     

Alternative representation of planetary perturbations

An attempt is made to find a representation of planetary perturbations which does not require a Fourier expansion. For the planetary type three body problem a sequence of canonical transformations is given based on Landen transformations coupled with a rescaling of the time. The expansion is carried out to the order 2 in the Hamiltonian.     

Ocean-bottom seismometer observations of seismic activity at Loihi Seamount,Hawaii

This study reports the result of deep ocean-bottom seismometer recording of an undersea volcanic event in progress. An array of five three-component, isolated sensor ocean-bottom seismometers (ISOBS) was deployed for 28 days on the summit and flanks of Loihi Seamount, Hawaii, to monitor seismicity. The deployment was prompted by reports from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) of a swarm of small-magnitude events located beneath the active submarine volcano in late September, 1986. Monitoring of this earthquake swarm by the University of Hawaii commenced 1 October 1986. Although seismicity tapered off rapidly after 11 October, more than 200 events were located. Systematic changes in spatial clustering during the initial swarm activity suggest changing patterns of stress within this crustal volume, possibly due to induced stress resulting from magma movement in the underlying crust or deep portions of the edifice.Most of the very shallow (< 10 km) events were located beneath the summit and southwest flank of the elongate edifice. No shallow tremor was observed despite a search through the data, although such tremor may have ceased prior to deployment of the ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS). Constraints on the association between seismicity and observed topographic and tectonic elements of Loihi are also of primary importance. Many of the earthquakes located near the steep flanks generated rock falls that were recorded on the OBSs. This is consistent with the results of dredge and bottom photography data indicating that the flanks are covered with fragments of shattered lava pillows and flows. Dike intrusion and mass wasting are major influences on the morphology of Loihi. Intact flows have been observed near the deep portion of the south rift zone; however, few events were located in that region during this swarm.     

Egg production of the copepodAcartia tonsa in Florida Bay during summer. 1. The roles of food environment and diet

The diet and egg production rate ofAcartia tonsa were measured during the thermally stable period between June and October 1995 at four locations in inner and outer Florida Bay. We sought to characterize the role ofA. tonsa in the bay’s pelagic food web, which has been changing since 1987, when the dominant submerged vegetation began shifting from benthic seagrasses to planktonic algae. At Rankin Lake, a shallow basin on the north side of the inner bay, where extensive seagrass mortality and persistent cyanobacteria blooms have occurred, microplankton biomass was relatively high and dominated by heterotrophic protists and dinoflagellates. Nanoplankton at Rankin, Lake, while numerically abundant, usually contributed only a small portion of the biomass. The ingestion rate ofA. tonsa in Florida Bay varied independently of food concentration (i.e., total microplankton biomass), but rates were higher (mean±SD =3.88 ± 0.73 μg C copepod^?1 d^?1) on the north side of the bay than on the south side (0.78 ±0.11 μg C copepod^?1 d^?1). Microzooplankton and dinoflagellates were important dietary constituents, especially in the vicinity of Rankin Lake. Egg production in this region (mean ± SD = 14.2 ± 7.7 eggs female^?1 d^?1) was considerably high than the baywide mean (5.8±0.81 eggs female^?1d^?1), and principal components analysis revealed associations between egg production and both dietary microzooplankton and dinoflagellate biomass. However, although grazing rates were relatively high in the inner bay,A. tonsa removed only 1–6% of the primary production from the water column during the summer and its egg production rates were low relative to typical rates for the species.     

Inventory and Ventilation Efficiency of Nonnative and Native Phragmites australis (Common Reed) in Tidal Wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay

Nonnative Phragmites is among the most invasive plants in the U.S. Atlantic coast tidal wetlands, whereas the native Phragmites has declined. Native and nonnative patches growing side by side provided an ideal setting for studying mechanisms that enable nonnative Phragmites to be a successful invader. We conducted an inventory followed by genetic analysis and compared differences in growth patterns and ventilation efficiency between adjacent native and nonnative Phragmites stands. Genetic analysis of 212 patches revealed that only 14 were native suggesting that very few native Phragmites populations existed in the study area. Shoot density decreased towards the periphery of native patches, but not in nonnative patches. Ventilation efficiency was 300?% higher per unit area for nonnative than native Phragmites, likely resulting in increased oxidation of the rhizosphere and invasive behavior of nonnative Phragmites. Management of nonnative Phragmites stands should include mechanisms that inhibit pressurized ventilation of shoots.     

A parallel, implicit, cell‐centered method for two‐phase flow with a preconditioned Newton–Krylov solver

A new parallel solution technique is developed for the fully implicit three‐dimensional two‐phase flow model. An expandedcell‐centered finite difference scheme which allows for a full permeability tensor is employed for the spatial discretization, and backwardEuler is used for the time discretization. The discrete systems are solved using a novel inexact Newton method that reuses the Krylov information generated by the GMRES linear iterative solver. Fast nonlinear convergence can be achieved by composing inexact Newton steps with quasi‐Newton steps restricted to the underlying Krylov subspace. Furthermore, robustness and efficiency are achieved with a line‐search backtracking globalization strategy for the nonlinear systems and a preconditioner for each coupled linear system to be solved. This inexact Newton method also makes use of forcing terms suggested by Eisenstat and Walker which prevent oversolving of the Jacobian systems. The preconditioner is a new two‐stage method which involves a decoupling strategy plus the separate solutions of both nonwetting‐phase pressure and saturation equations. Numerical results show that these nonlinear and linear solvers are very effective.