Impact of land-surface elevation and riparian evapotranspiration seasonality on groundwater budget in MODFLOW models

Riparian groundwater evapotranspiration (ETg) constitutes a major component of the water balance especially in many arid and semi-arid environments. Although spatial and temporal variability of riparian ETg are controlled by climate, vegetation and subsurface characteristics, depth to water table (DTWT) is often considered the major controlling factor. Relationships between ETg rates and DTWT, referred to as ETg curves, are implemented in MODFLOW ETg packages (EVT, ETS1 and RIP-ET) with different functional forms. Here, the sensitivity of the groundwater budget in MODFLOW groundwater models to ETg parameters (including ETg curves, land-surface elevation and ETg seasonality) are investigated. A MODFLOW model of the hypothetical Dry Alkaline Valley in the Southwestern USA is used to show how spatial representation of riparian vegetation and digital elevation model (DEM) processing methods impact the water budget when RIPGIS-NET (a GIS-based ETg program) is used with MODFLOW’s RIP-ET package, and results are compared with the EVT and ETS1 packages. Results show considerable impact on ETg and other groundwater budget components caused by spatial representation of riparian vegetation, vegetation type, fractional coverage areas and land-surface elevation. RIPGIS-NET enhances ETg estimation in MODFLOW by incorporating vegetation and land-surface parameters, providing a tool for ecohydrology studies, riparian ecosystem management and stream restoration.     

Observations of the Early Evening Boundary-Layer Transition Using a Small Unmanned Aerial System

The evolution of the lower portion of the planetary boundary layer is investigated using the Small Multifunction Research and Teaching Sonde (SMARTSonde), an unmanned aerial vehicle developed at the University of Oklahoma. The study focuses on the lowest 200 m of the atmosphere, where the most noticeable thermodynamic changes occur during the day. Between October 2010 and February 2011, a series of flights was conducted during the evening hours on several days to examine the vertical structure of the lower boundary layer. Data from a nearby Oklahoma Mesonet tower was used to supplement the vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, and pressure, which were collected approximately every 30?min, starting 2 h before sunset and continuing until dusk. From the profiles, sensible and latent heat fluxes were estimated. These fluxes were used to diagnose the portion of the boundary layer that was most affected by the early evening transition. During the transition period, a shallow cool and moist layer near the ground was formed, and as the evening progressed the cooling affected an increasingly shallower layer just above the surface.     

Correlation and spectral analysis of daily solar radio flux

Correlation and spectral analysis of solar radio flux density and sunspot number near the maximum of the sunspot cycle has indicated the existence of

1. long period amplitude modulation of the slowly varying component (SVC) of radio emission
2. coronal storage over a period of the order of three solar rotations
3. fast decay (one solar rotation period or less) of gyromagnetic emissions from radio sources
4. shift in location of chromospheric sources compared to those of either the upper corona or the photosphere.

     

Food Web Structure and Trophic Control in Central Puget Sound

We developed a food web model of central Puget Sound to provide science-based support for ecosystem-based management and to refine our understanding of bottom-up and top-down trophic forcing. Phytoplankton accounted for a large fraction of total biomass, total throughput, and caused considerable bottom-up effects in most functional groups in a dynamic simulation fit to time series data from 1981 to 2000. Top-down control was most apparent in the case of bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), which exhibited keystone tendencies and appeared capable of causing trophic cascades. Increasing top-down control in several predator–prey relationships improved model fits to time series data from 1981 to 2000, but not as much as introducing non-equilibrium dynamics (biomass accumulation terms) to several key vertebrates. Fishing had little effect on system dynamics. Our model appears well-suited for addressing strategic, scenario-based questions of how the community as a whole will respond to management actions.     

LandScan USA: a high-resolution geospatial and temporal modeling approach for population distribution and dynamics

High-resolution population distribution data are critical for successfully addressing important issues ranging from socio-environmental research to public health to homeland security, since scientific analyses, operational activities, and policy decisions are significantly influenced by the number of impacted people. Dasymetric modeling has been a well-recognized approach for spatial decomposition of census data to increase the spatial resolution of population distribution. However, enhancing the temporal resolution of population distribution poses a greater challenge. In this paper, we discuss the development of LandScan USA, a multi-dimensional dasymetric modeling approach, which has allowed the creation of a very high-resolution population distribution data both over space and time. At a spatial resolution of 3 arc seconds (～90 m), the initial LandScan USA database contains both a nighttime residential as well as a baseline daytime population distribution that incorporates movement of workers and students. Challenging research issues of disparate and misaligned spatial data and modeling to develop a database at a national scale, as well as model verification and validation approaches are illustrated and discussed. Initial analyses indicate a high degree of locational accuracy for LandScan USA distribution model and data. High-resolution population data such as LandScan USA, which describes both distribution and dynamics of human population, clearly has the potential to profoundly impact multiple domain applications of national and global priority.     

Mapping and analysing virtual outcrops

Laser scanning is a very efficient way to generate realistic, high-resolution digital models of 3-D geological outcrops. This paper discusses the methodologies involved in the creation and analysis of virtual outcrops, based on laser scanner data. The visualisation of the laser scanner data as a photorealistic 3-D object is described. Geological features picked out on the virtual outcrop (e.g. fractures, faults or bedding planes) can be extrapolated outward, into space, and inward, into the subsurface, using tension surfaces.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at Reviewed by: J.D. Clemens, D. Yuen     

Reversal asymmetry in Mesoproterozoic overprinting of the 1.88-Ga Gunflint Formation, Ontario, Canada: non-dipole effects or apparent polar wander?

Eighty-two palaeomagnetic samples of calcareous and jaspilitic grainstones (iron-formation or ‘taconite’) and chert carbonate were collected from the 1.88-Ga Gunflint Formation at 22 sites in the Thunder Bay area, Ontario. Twenty clasts of Gunflint taconite also were sampled from the basal conglomerate of the overlying Mesoproterozoic Sibley Group. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate the Gunflint Formation in the sampling area has not experienced regional dynamic metamorphism. Analyses by variable-field translation balance and X-ray diffraction show that the predominant magnetic mineral is hematite but a small amount of magnetite also is present in some samples. Altogether, 213 Gunflint specimens and 59 Sibley conglomerate specimens were subjected to stepwise thermal demagnetisation and 74 Gunflint specimens to stepwise alternating-frequency demagnetisation. The following components were isolated for the taconites:

• Gunflint magnetite: normal declination D=293.4°, inclination I=30.8°, α₉₅=7.2°, n=21; reverse D=86.7°, I=–54.6°, α₉₅=5.8°, n=29.

• Gunflint hematite: normal D=243.6°, I=23.6°, α₉₅=6.0°, n=11; reverse D=70.3°, I=–51.4°, α₉₅=3.2°, n=79.

• Sibley clasts magnetite: normal D=282.7°, I=33.4°, α₉₅=7.6°, n=20.

• Sibley clasts hematite: normal D=254.5°, I=56.2°, α₉₅=8.4°, n=13; reverse D=110.6°, I=–55.7°, α₉₅=8.3°, n=11.

None of these sets passed the reversal test, with the normal component generally being the shallower. Fold tests were negative or inconclusive and the conglomerate test also was negative. Chert carbonate at one other site appears to have acquired a remanence carried by magnetite (D=97.3°, I=−78.2°, α₉₅=6.3°, n=18) prior to folding related to Keweenawan (1.1 Ga) Logan diabase sill emplacement. Most of the components we identified match components for Keweenawan sills, volcanic rocks, intrusions and baked contact rocks in the Thunder Bay area, indicating that Keweenawan magmatism caused widespread chemical remagnetisation of the Proterozoic country rock in our sampling area. Although others have argued that asymmetry was a feature of the Keweenawan geomagnetic field, the declinations of our Gunflint and Sibley hematite and magnetite components are different, suggesting that the components were acquired at significantly different times. We conclude that the reversal asymmetry shown by our Gunflint and Sibley data may best be ascribed to apparent polar wander during Keweenawan times.