International economic institutions: Formal mechanisms for dealing with resource conflict

States employ international economic institutions as formal mechanisms in resource related conflict management. It is little known that states incorporate water resource management treaties in regional trade agreements (REIs) to jointly manage (1) the multifaceted use of rivers and (2) the territorial implications of rivers as borders. Both can lead to political tensions. I evaluate institutional effectiveness, through REI institutional design, in militarized interstate conflict. The role of trade institutions in geo-politics is a broad theme addressed. African dyads, REIs and conflict from 1950 to 1996 are the focus. I test the liberal hypothesis that institutions diminish the likelihood of militarized interstate conflict. Findings suggest allies that share memberships in REI water treaties with provisions for territorial boundary issues are more likely to fight than are other states. This relationship is weak, however, lending support to realist claims.     

Petrography and geochemistry of eclogites from the Mir kimberlite,Yakutia, Russia

 Diamond-bearing eclogites are an important component of the xenoliths that occur in the Mir kimberlite, Siberian platform, Russia. We have studied 16 of these eclogite xenoliths, which are characterized by coarse-grained, equigranular garnet and omphacite. On the basis of compositional variations in garnet and clinopyroxene, this suite of eclogites can be divided into at least two groups: a high-Ca group and a low-Ca group. The high-Ca group consists of high-Ca garnets in equilibrium with pyroxenes that have high Ca-ratios [Ca/(Ca+Fe+Mg)] and high jadeite contents. These high-Ca group samples have high modal% garnet, and garnet grains often are zoned. Garnet patches along rims and along amphibole- and phlogopite-filled veins have higher Mg and lower Ca contents compared to homogeneous cores. The low-Ca group consists of eclogites with low-Ca garnets in equilibrium with pyroxenes with a low Ca-ratio, but variable jadeite contents. These low-Ca group samples typically have low modal% of garnet, and garnets are rarely compositionally zoned. Three samples have mineralogic compositions and modes transitional to the high- and low-Ca groups. We have arbitrarily designated these samples as the intermediate-Ca group. The rare-earth-element (REE) contents of garnet and clinopyroxene have been determined by ion microprobe. Garnets from the low-Ca group have low LREE contents and typically have [Dy/Yb]_n < 1. The high-Ca group garnets have higher LREE contents and typically have [Dy/Yb]_n > 1. Garnets from the intermediate-Ca group have REE contents between the high- and low-Ca groups. Clinopyroxenes from the low-Ca group have convex-upward REE patterns with relatively high REE contents (ten times chondrite), whereas those from the high-Ca group have similar convex-upward shapes, but lower REE contents, approximately chondritic. Reconstructed bulk-rock REE patterns for the low-Ca group eclogites are relatively flat at approximately ten times chondrite. In contrast, the high-Ca group samples typically have LREE-depleted patterns and lower REE contents. The δ¹⁸O values measured for garnet separates range from 7.2 to 3.1‰. Although there is a broad overlap of δ¹⁸O between the low-Ca and high-Ca groups, the low-Ca group samples range from mantle-like to high δ¹⁸O values (4.9 to 7.2‰), and the high-Ca group garnets range from mantle-like to low δ¹⁸O values (5.3 to 3.1‰). The oxygen isotopic compositions of two of the five high-Ca group samples and four of the eight low-Ca group eclogites are consistent with seawater alteration of basaltic crust, with the low-Ca group eclogites representative of low-temperature alteration, and the high-Ca group samples representative of high-temperature hydrothermal seawater alteration. We interpret the differences between the low- and high-Ca group samples to be primarily a result of differences in the protoliths of these samples. The high-Ca group eclogites are interpreted to have protoliths similar to the mid to lower sections of an ophiolite complex. This section of oceanic crust would be dominated by rocks which have a significant cumulate component and would have experienced high-temperature seawater alteration. Such cumulate rocks probably would be LREE-depleted, and can be Ca-rich because of plagioclase or clinopyroxene accumulation. The protoliths of the low-Ca group eclogites are interpreted to be the upper section of an ophiolite complex. This section of oceanic crust would consist mainly of extrusive basalts that would have been altered by seawater at low temperatures. These basaltic lavas would probably have relatively flat REE patterns, as seen for the low-Ca group eclogites. Received: 10 July 1995 / Accepted: 17 May 1996     

The dissolution kinetics of shallow marine carbonates in seawater: A laboratory study

The dissolution kinetics of shallow water marine carbonates (low-Mg calcite, aragonite and Mg-calcites) were investigated in seawater (S = 35) at 25°C and a P_CO2 of 10^?2.5 atm. using the pH-stat method. Carbonate dissoluton rates (μmoles g^?1 hr^?1) fit the empirical kinetic expression, R = k(1 - Ω)ⁿ, where R = dissolution rate, k = rate constant, Ω = saturation state, and n = order of reaction. Reaction orders were near 2.9 for low-Mg calcites, 2.5 for aragonites and 3.4 for Mg-calcites.The rate constant, k, expressed as μmoles g^?1 hr^?1, varied by nearly a factor of ten for the different samples, reflecting differences in amount of reactive surface area. Reactive surface area of the biogenic phases ranged from 0.3% to 66% of the total surface area determined by the BET gas adsorption method. The discrepancy between reactive and total surface area was greatest for samples with high BET surface areas (> 1 m² g^?1) and delicate microstructures.Relative dissolution rates of the various biogenic carbonates as a function of seawater calcium carbonate ion molal product (IMP) were related to both mineral stability and grain microstructure. In seawater undersaturated with respect to aragonite, finely crystalline aragonites dissolved more rapidly than thermodynamically less stable high Mg-calcites (15–18 mole% MgCO₃) with lower reactive surface areas. Therefore, under certain conditions, differences in grain microstructural complexity can override thermodynamic constraints and lead to selective dissolution of a thermodynamically more stable mineral phase.     

Impact of Carbonate Precipitation on Riverine Inorganic Carbon Mass Transport from a Mid-continent, Forested Watershed

Physiochemical controls on the carbonate geochemistry of large river systems are important regulators of carbon exchange between terrestrial and marine reservoirs on human time scales. Although many studies have focused on large-scale river carbon fluxes, there are few investigations of mechanistic aspects of carbonate mass balance and transport at the catchment scale. We determined elemental and carbonate geochemistry and mass balances for net carbonate dissolution fluxes from the forested, mid-latitude Huron River watershed, established on carbonate-rich unconfined glacial drift aquifers. Shallow groundwaters are near equilibrium with respect to calcite at pCO₂ values up to 25 times atmospheric values. Surface waters are largely groundwater fed and exhibit chemical evolution due to CO₂ degassing, carbonate precipitation in lakes and wetlands, and anthropogenic introduction of road salts (NaCl and CaCl₂). Because the source groundwater Mg²⁺/HCO₃ ^? ratio is fairly constant, this parameter permits mass balances to be made between carbonate dissolution and back precipitation after groundwater discharge. Typically, precipitation does not occur until IAP/K calcite values exceed 10 times supersaturation. Stream chemistry changes little thereafter even though streams remain highly supersaturated for calcite. Our data taken together with historical United States Geological Survey (USGS) data show that alkalinity losses to carbonate precipitation are most significant during periods of lowest discharge. Thus, on an annual basis, the large carbon flux from carbonate dissolution in soil zones is only decreased by a relatively small amount by the back precipitation of calcium carbonate.     

Observation and analysis of frequency-dependent anisotropy from a multicomponent VSP at Bluebell-Altamont field, Utah

In this paper, we present results from the analysis of a multicomponent VSP from a fractured gas reservoir in the Bluebell-Altamont Field, Utah. Our analysis is focused on frequency-dependent anisotropy. The four-component shear-wave data are first band-pass filtered into different frequency bands and then rotated to the natural coordinates so that the fast and slow shear-waves are effectively separated. We find that the polarisations of the fast shear-waves are almost constant over the whole depth interval, and show no apparent variation with frequency. In contrast, the time delays between the split shear-waves decrease as the frequency increases. A linear regression is then applied to fit the time-delay variations in the target and we find that the gradients of linear fits to time delays show a decrease as frequency increases. Finally, we apply a time-frequency analysis method based on the wavelet transform with a Morlet wavelet to the data. The variation of shear-wave time delays with frequency is highlighted in the time-delay and frequency spectra. We also discuss two mechanisms giving rise to dispersion and frequency-dependent anisotropy, which are likely to explain the observation. These are scattering of seismic waves by preferentially aligned inhomogeneneities, such as fractures or fine layers, and fluid flow in porous rocks with micro-cracks and macro-fractures.     

Conflicting rights to the city in New York's community gardens

In the mid-1990s, New York City initiated what would prove to be a long, highly visible struggle involving rights claims related to property, housing, and public space in the form of community gardens. The competing discourses of rights were part of a struggle over the kind of city that New York was to become, and more specifically, whether it would be one in which difference is accepted and in which access to the city and the public realm would be guaranteed. Using interviews with participants in the conflict over community gardens, we evaluate how the resolution to the gardens crisis, which in part occurred through the privatization of what are often taken to be public or community rights to land, transform not only the legal status of the gardens but also, potentially, their role as places where different `publics' can both exercise their right to the city and solidify that right in the landscape.     

A primer on upscaling tools for porous media

Over the last few decades a number of powerful approaches have been developed to intelligently reduce the number of degrees of freedom in very complex heterogeneous environs, e.g. mathematical homogenization, mixture and hybrid mixture theory, spatial averaging, moment methods, central limit or Martingale methods, stochastic-convective approaches, various other Eulerian and Lagrangian perturbation schemes, projection operators, renormalization group techniques, variational approaches, space transformational methods, continuous time random walks, and etc. In this article we briefly review many of these approaches as applied to specific examples in the hydrologic sciences.