Heterogeneous characteristics of streambed saturated hydraulic conductivity of the Touchet River,south eastern Washington,USA

Traditionally a streambed is treated as a layer of uniform thickness and low saturated hydraulic conductivity (K) in surface‐ and ground‐water studies. Recent findings have shown a high level of spatial heterogeneity within a streambed and such heterogeneity directly affects surface‐ and ground‐water exchange and can have ecological implications for biogeochemical transformations, nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and reproduction of gravel spawning fish. In this study a detailed field investigation of K was conducted in two selected sites in Touchet River, a typical salmon spawning stream in arid south eastern Washington, USA. In‐stream slug tests were conducted to determine K following the Bouwer and Rice method. For the upper and lower sites, each 50 m long and 9 m wide and roughly 20 m apart, a sampling grid of 5 m longitudinally and 3 m transversely was used. The slug tests were performed for each horizontal coordinate at 0·3–0·45, 0·6–0·75, 0·9–1·05 and 1·2–1·35 m depth intervals unless a shallower impenetrable obstruction was encountered. Additionally, water levels were measured to obtain vertical hydraulic gradient (VHG) between each two adjacent depth intervals. Results indicated that K ranged over three orders of magnitude at both the upper and lower sites and differed between the two sites. At the upper site, K did not differ significantly among different depth intervals based on nonparametric statistical tests for mean, median, and empirical cumulative distribution, but the spatial pattern of K varied among different depth intervals. At the lower site, K for the 0·3–0·45 m depth interval differed statistically from those at other depth intervals, and no similar spatial pattern was found among different depth intervals. Zones of upward and downward water flow based on VHG also varied among different depth intervals, reflecting the complexities of the water flow regime. Detailed characterization of the streambed as attempted in this study should be helpful in providing information on spatial variations of streambed hydraulic properties as well as surface‐ and ground‐water interaction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PM2.5 co-benefits of climate change legislation part 2: California governor’s executive order S-3-05 applied to the transportation sector

California Governor’s Executive Order (CGEO) S-3-05 requires that California greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions be reduced to 80 % below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Meeting this target will require drastic changes in transportation technology, fuel, and behavior which will reduce criteria pollutant emissions as well as GHG emissions. The improvement to local air quality caused by the reduced criteria pollutant emissions must be calculated to fully evaluate the overall benefits and costs of CGEO S-3-05. In the present study, seven different transportation scenarios that move towards the goals of CGEO S-3-05 in the transportation sector were examined to determine how they would affect future airborne particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations in California: (1) hydrogen fuel cells, (2) electric vehicles, (3) high efficiency vehicles, (4) public mass transit, (5) biofuels, (6) biofuels + hybrid electric vehicles, and (7) hydrogen fuel cells + electric vehicles. The air quality implications of each scenario were evaluated using a chemical transport model applied during a wintertime stagnation episode representing future climate in California. Scenarios (6) and (7) reduced population-weighted PM_2.5 mass concentrations by ~9 % and PM_2.5 elemental carbon (EC) concentrations by ~30 % relative to base-case predictions.     

Lettau’s Contribution to the Obukhov Length Scale: A Scientific Historical Study

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - It has been repeatedly assumed that Heinz Lettau found the Obukhov length in 1949 independently of Obukhov in 1946. However, it was not the characteristic length scale,...     

Role of a rheophyte in bench development on a sand‐bed river in southeast Australia

Casuarina cunninghamiana Miq. is an important rheophytic tree in New South Wales, Australia because it is fast growing and can tolerate flood disturbance. Widden Brook is an active sand‐bed stream that has widened substantially since initial European settlement in the early 1800s and is characterized by high flood variability and multi‐decadal periods of alternating high and low flood frequency, called flood‐ and drought‐dominated regimes. Channel contraction by bench formation is currently occurring. Conversion of coarse‐grained point bars to benches is an important process of channel contraction. When point bars grow to a height where suspended sediment is first deposited to thicknesses of at least 50 mm by sub‐bankfull floods, rapid establishment of C. cunninghamiana occurs. As the trees grow they partially block bankside flows, thereby locally reducing flow velocity and inducing further deposition on the benches. Such synergistic relationships between bar height and inundation, fine‐grained sediment deposition, tree establishment and the development of a bankside low current velocity zone are fundamental for bench development. Size‐class frequency data demonstrate that C. cunninghamiana on the benches consists of pure even‐aged stands with most trees clustering near the average diameter. Two benches have similar size class frequency distributions but a third has significantly smaller trees. Recruitment on benches is episodic, may occur in areas open to grazing and is dependent on favourable conditions that allow tree survival. These favourable conditions include high seed availability, low levels of competition, deposition of fine sediments and adequate moisture for tree growth. Although C. cunninghamiana germinates on bars, seedlings are eliminated by prolonged inundation or flood scour and do not reach maturity. Recurring catastrophic floods or a sequence of large floods in rapid succession episodically destroy benches by substantial channel widening and initiate a new phase of bar and bench development. A conceptual model of the conversion of point bars to benches by thick mud deposition and C. cunninghamiana recruitment has been developed for sand‐bed streams draining similar sandstone catchments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Development’, resistance and the geographies of affect in Oecussi: Timor‐Leste's Special Economic Zone (ZEESM)

In 2013, it was announced that Timor‐Leste's Oecussi enclave would become the site of a special economic zone. Arid, and inhabited mostly by semi‐subsistence farmers from West Timor's Meto ethno‐linguistic group, the plan entails remaking the enclave as an industrial, transport and tourism hub. To facilitate this, in mid‐2015 the authorities began the process of clearing hundreds of indigenous gardens and homes from land slated for mega‐projects intended to make the region attractive to foreign investors. In this paper, I describe how, for many Meto, land tends to be experienced as a spiritually mediated ‘geography of affect’ (Lea & Woodward, 2010) in which questions of place, belonging, spirituality and personal fortune cannot easily be divided, a reality that raises questions about the suitability of the plan's vision of globalized and investment driven ‘development’. Drawing on Scott, I argue that in Oecussi, spirits associated with the land are not apolitical, but are sometimes perceived as acting to protect locals against powerful outsiders – a characteristically Meto ‘weapon of the weak’ that is in keeping with their previous encounters with colonial regimes.     

Nickeliferous sulfides in xenoliths,olivine megacrysts and basaltic glass

The composition of olivine and nickeliferous sulfide inclusions from a selection of mafic and ultramafre rocks, xenoliths and megacrysts, including picritic basalts from Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, kimberlite from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and megacrysts from Mount Shasta, California are compared with the mean experimental value of the distribution coefficient for Ni/Fe exchange (K_D3=32). Only nine of the forty five olivipe/bulk-sulfide pairs investigated have compositions consistent with equilibration at high temperature, yielding calculated K_D3 values in the range 22 to 41. The remaining pairs have calculated K_D3 values which range from 0 to 19. Bulk-sulfides in disequilibrated assem-blages are consistently depleted in nickel and within both indivudual associations and individual petrographic sections they exhibit a wide variation in NiS content. The bulk copper contents of olivine-and groundmass-hosted sulfides from Kilauea Volcano range from 0.5 to 43 at%, and samples from the Kilauea Iki lava lake are more Fe-and Cu-rich and generally have lower K_D3 values than those from the eruption itself. As with magmatic Ni–Cu sulfide deposits, most nickeliferous sulfide inclusions in mantle-related rocks and xenoliths and in volcanic rocks do not have pristine early-magmatic bulk compositions, and it would seem to be premature to attribute these sulfides solely to either a mantle or an early-magnatic origin.     

奥地利Gosau群Bibereck组Campanian早期海水变深序列的地层学和地球化学

Schmidsippl剖面位于奥地利北钙质阿尔卑斯构造带内Gosau群典型地区。剖面出露的Bibereck组记录了一个海侵和沉积区海水变深过程。Bibereck 组之下是Santonian 晚期Hochmoos 组(Sandkalkbank段),主要为砂质、粉砂质灰色生物扰动构造发育的泥灰岩,含少量双壳类碎片。Hochmoos组之上为灰色泥灰岩和泥灰质灰岩。Bibereck组下部显示变深到近滨-远滨过渡带区域;向上,泥灰岩指示细粒泥质远滨沉积,水深大致50~150 m;之上出现浮游有孔虫含量超过90%的泥灰质灰岩,代表着半深海沉积环境。生物地层数据显示采样层位整体位于浮游有孔虫asymetrica elevata 带,由Globotruncanita elevata 和Dicarinellaasymetrica 的共同出现来界定。钙质超微化石Calculites obscurus、Lucianorhabdus cayeuxii、Arkhangelsk iella cymbiformis 的出现指示属于钙质超微化石带CC17b/UC12,相当于Campanian初期。地层深度剖面上,Ca/Al比值和Catot含量显示海水来源的Ca在0~5 m地层内几近于零,向上快速增加;(Fe/Al)/碳酸盐显示两个峰值,代表更还原条件,分别位于4 m和10 m位置;K/Al比值的下降被解释为更潮湿气候条件;剖面上部Ba含量的增加显示向更低原始生产条件的变化;陆源矿物在剖面7 m以下保持稳定,之上一直到剖面顶部不断下降。生物地层     

A tidal theory for the origin of the solar nebula

There are two angular momentum (AM) problems associated with the formation of stars in general and the solar system in particular. The first is how to dispose of the AM possessed by turbulent protostellar clouds. Two-dimensional calculations of the gravitational infall of rotating gas clouds by several authors now indicate that stars are formed in groups or clusters rather than as single entities. Added evidence comes from observation of probable regions of star formation and young clusters, plus the fact that most stars are presently members of binaries or other multiples. Thus the first problem is solved by postulating the fragmentation of massive clouds with most of the AM ending up in the relative orbits. These clusters are notoriously unstable and evolve with the ejection of single stars like the Sun.The second problem is the uneven distribution of AM with mass in the solar system. It turns out that the collapse time for the majority of the infalling material is comparable to the time necessary for significant dynamical interaction of the protostellar fragment with its neighbors. It is found here through calculations utilizing very simplified numerical models that the last few tens of percent of infalling material can easily have sufficient AM transferred to it by the tidal action of passing protostars to form a solar nebula and ensure alignment of the solar spin. The most important parameter is the degree of central condensation: fragments without several tenthsM in a central core tend to be torn apart by encounters, or at least stimulated into binary fission. A stabilizing central mass maintains its identity and acquires a rotating envelope of material.Paper presented at the Conference on Protostars and Planets, held at the Planetary Science Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, between January 3 and 7, 1978.