Morphotectonics of a small river basin in the South Indian granulite terrain: An assessment through spatially derived geomorphic indices

Neotectonic activity in Mahe (Mayyazhi) river basin and its implication in landform development and stream characteristics were investigated with the help of the digital elevation model-derived geomorphic indices. The analysis is based on the commonly used geomorphic indices such as hypsometric curve and integral, drainage basin asymmetry, transverse topographic symmetric factor (T), stream length (SL) gradient index and longitudinal profiles of the stream. Hypsometric integrals indicate that the basin has reached the base level and lesser amount of material remains for erosion and transportation. The basin is asymmetric and has a south-south-east directional tilt, but with a probable spin caused due to the presence of major strike slip fracture, the mouth portion of the Mahe river has been tilted towards north-north-west. The SL index with sudden and non-uniform variations supports the finding and indicates the relative tectonic activity and its influence over the river networks in the area. Longitudinal profile of the stream also reveals gradational changes in the profile with the presence of knick points. Cross comparison of the analysed geomorphic indices points towards neotectonic activity in the basin, which modified the river basin to the present morphology and is reflected in the characteristics of the river and the basin as a whole.     

South Asian monsoon response to weakening of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in a warming climate

Climate Dynamics - Observational records and climate model projections reveal a considerable decline in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Changes in the AMOC can have a...     

Evaluation of heavy metal contamination in groundwater samples from Kapas Island,Terengganu, Malaysia

An attempt has been made to delineate the hydrochemistry for a small island based on the major ions and heavy metal concentrations. In this investigation, six sampling campaigns were conducted to measure the concentrations of major ions (Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO₃, Cl, and SO₄) and heavy metals (Zn, Cr, Pb, Mn, As, and Cu) in groundwater samples collected from seven sampling stations (boreholes) located on Kapas Island, Terengganu, Malaysia. The distribution of major ions is illustrated by a piper plot where Ca–HCO₃ is the dominant type. In addition, the concentrations of heavy metals demonstrate that Mn shows as being the highest concentrated heavy metal in the groundwater sampled in the sampling campaigns; the average Mn content in groundwater sampled was 54.05 μg/L. However, a comparison of the heavy metal (Mn, Cr, Zn, As, Pb, and Cu) concentrations in groundwater samples with the Drinking Water Quality Standard prescribed by World Health Organization reveals that none of these heavy metals exceeded the recommended threshold limits. The principal component analyses (PCA) extracted four components that control the groundwater chemistry. Components 1 and 2 from the PCA analyses extracted approximately 52.11 % of the total variance, which represent the heavy metals (As and Mn) and physical parameters (pH, redox potential, electrical conductivity, temperature, and total dissolved solids). Based on the output of the PHREEQC hydrogeochemical software, several species of heavy metals exist, in which the dominant species found are Mn²⁺, PbCO₃, Cu(OH)₂, and Zn⁺.     

Sustainable groundwater management on the small island of Manukan,Malaysia

Numerical models are capable of simulating various groundwater scenarios and relate it towards groundwater management. This paper focuses on numerical modeling and water balance approaches in the search for a sustainable management plan in Manukan Island. The impacts of pumping and recharge rates represented by groundwater scenarios were investigated by means of hydraulic heads, chloride concentrations and water balance components. Overpumping and inconsistency in recharge rate are the stresses shown in Scenario A. Scenario B involved with reduction pumping rate by 25% has shown an increase in groundwater levels, chloride concentration and groundwater storage. Scenario C showed the most promising finding compared with Scenarios A and B. Highest hydraulic heads, lowest chloride concentration (1,552.2 mg/L) and positive groundwater storage (254.3 m³/day) were obtained in Scenario C. Chloride concentration in pumping wells still exceeds World Health Organization International Standard limit in Scenario C which illustrates an additional water treatment is needed. Nevertheless, in view of a compromise groundwater management plan in study area, Scenario C is the best plan so far to protect the groundwater resources in the study area. More understanding of the artificial recharge method (percolation tank) and study site by means of modeling studies is needed. Additionally, further progress is needed in obtaining the water usage data from each part to determine the best pumping rate. A sustainable groundwater management plan is crucial to maintain the natural resources and social benefits as well as to protect the ecological balance of Manukan Island.     

Phenotypic plasticity in Bacillus cereus strains isolated from various Antarctic habitats

We studied five strains of psychrotolerant Bacillus cereus （B. cereus） isolated from Antarctic snow （BCsn）, ice （BCic）, lake water （BCwt）, sediment （BCsd）, and soil （BCsl） samples in terms of their growth, biochemical properties, and heat shock re- sponses. Analyses of growth kinetics at 4℃ showed that BCsn had the fastest generation time （16.1 h）, whereas BCWT had the slowest （30.8 h）. Strain BCsd formed the largest zone of lipid hydrolysis （18 mm） whereas BCsn formed the smallest zone （3 mm）.Only BCsd produced gelatinase. These physiological differences illustrate adaptations of B. cereus isolates to different niches. Strains BCsl and BCwr were resistant to all 12 of the antibiotics tested. Strains BCsn, BCio, and BCsd were resistant to cell wall synthesis inhibitors （penicillin and ampicillin） and susceptible to protein synthesis inhibitors （tetracycline and streptomycin）. A carbon-substrate utilization assay revealed that BCsn, BCic and BCwr could specifically utilize D-glucose-6-phosphate, salicin, and 2＇-deoxyadenosine, respectively, indicating a degree of metabolic diversity among these Antarctic B. cereus strains. An analy- sis of heat shock proteins （HSPs） produced in response to a 60℃ heat treatment revealed significant variations in the amounts of HSP33 （p = 0.01, df= 4）, HSP44 （p = 0.003, dr= 4）, and HSP60 （p = 0.04, df= 4） among the strains. This emphasizes the impor- tance of HSPs in bacterial taxonomy. These results show that there are considerable adaptive variations among B. cereus strains from extremophilie environments. This could be significant in evaluating the taxonomy and evolution of this species.     

Monsoon circulation interaction with Western Ghats orography under changing climate

In this study, the authors have investigated the likely future changes in the summer monsoon over the Western Ghats (WG) orographic region of India in response to global warming, using time-slice simulations of an ultra high-resolution global climate model and climate datasets of recent past. The model with approximately 20-km mesh horizontal resolution resolves orographic features on finer spatial scales leading to a quasi-realistic simulation of the spatial distribution of the present-day summer monsoon rainfall over India and trends in monsoon rainfall over the west coast of India. As a result, a higher degree of confidence appears to emerge in many aspects of the 20-km model simulation, and therefore, we can have better confidence in the validity of the model prediction of future changes in the climate over WG mountains. Our analysis suggests that the summer mean rainfall and the vertical velocities over the orographic regions of Western Ghats have significantly weakened during the recent past and the model simulates these features realistically in the present-day climate simulation. Under future climate scenario, by the end of the twenty-first century, the model projects reduced orographic precipitation over the narrow Western Ghats south of 16°N that is found to be associated with drastic reduction in the southwesterly winds and moisture transport into the region, weakening of the summer mean meridional circulation and diminished vertical velocities. We show that this is due to larger upper tropospheric warming relative to the surface and lower levels, which decreases the lapse rate causing an increase in vertical moist static stability (which in turn inhibits vertical ascent) in response to global warming. Increased stability that weakens vertical velocities leads to reduction in large-scale precipitation which is found to be the major contributor to summer mean rainfall over WG orographic region. This is further corroborated by a significant decrease in the frequency of moderate-to-heavy rainfall days over WG which is a typical manifestation of the decrease in large-scale precipitation over this region. Thus, the drastic reduction of vertical ascent and weakening of circulation due to ??upper tropospheric warming effect?? predominates over the ??moisture build-up effect?? in reducing the rainfall over this narrow orographic region. This analysis illustrates that monsoon rainfall over mountainous regions is strongly controlled by processes and parameterized physics which need to be resolved with adequately high resolution for accurate assessment of local and regional-scale climate change.     

Hydrochemical changes in a small tropical island’s aquifer: Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia

Small islands groundwater are often exposed to heavy pumpings as a result of high demand for freshwater consumption. Intensive exploitation of groundwater from Manukan Island’s aquifer has disturbed the natural equilibrium between fresh and saline water, and has resulted increase the groundwater salinity and leap to the hydrochemical complexities of freshwater–seawater contact. An attempt was made to identify the hydrochemical processes that accompany current intrusion of seawater using ionic changes and saturation indices. It was observed that the mixing between freshwater–seawater created diversity in geochemical processes of the Manukan Island’s aquifer and altered the freshwater and seawater mixture away from the theoretical composition line. This explained the most visible processes taking place during the displacement.     

Pacific decadal oscillation and variability of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall

Recent studies have furnished evidence for interdecadal variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The importance of this phenomenon in causing persistent anomalies over different regions of the globe has drawn considerable attention in view of its relevance in climate assessment. Here, we examine multi-source climate records in order to identify possible signatures of this longer time scale variability on the Indian summer monsoon. The findings indicate a coherent inverse relationship between the inter-decadal fluctuations of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) and the Indian monsoon rainfall during the last century. A warm (cold) phase of the Pacific interdecadal variability is characterized by a decrease (increase) in the monsoon rainfall and a corresponding increase (decrease) in the surface air temperature over the Indian subcontinent. This interdecadal relationship can also be confirmed from the teleconnection patterns evident from long-period sea level pressure (SLP) dataset. The SLP anomalies over South and Southeast Asia and the equatorial west Pacific are dynamically consistent in showing an out-of-phase pattern with the SLP anomalies over the tropical central-eastern Pacific. The remote influence of the Pacific interdecadal variability on the monsoon is shown to be associated with prominent signals in the tropical and southern Indian Ocean indicative of coherent inter-basin variability on decadal time scales. If indeed, the atmosphere–ocean coupling associated with the Pacific interdecadal variability is independent from that of the interannual El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), then the climate response should depend on the evolutionary characteristics of both the time scales. It is seen from our analysis that the Indian monsoon is more vulnerable to drought situations, when El Niño events occur during warm phases of the Pacific interdecadal variability. Conversely, wet monsoons are more likely to prevail, when La Niña events coincide during cold phases of the Pacific interdecadal variability.     

A first-order Markov model for assessing rainfall discontinuity in central Australia

Summary For six stations in central Australia daily rainfalls were combined over five-day intervals. The resulting pentads were classed as either wet or dry according to whether a total of at least 0.1 inch of rain had occurred. A first order Markov model and a simple random model were constructed for the distribution of runs of wet and dry pentads. A ² test showed that the random model gives a poor fit to the observed frequencies. With the Markov model, however, good agreement was obtained with the exception of a few cases. Although the Markov model could be further improved it seems to be a practical statistical tool for assessing the long-term incidence of runs of wet or dry weather in central Australia.

---

Zusammenfassung Für sechs Stationen in Mittelaustralien wurden tägliche Niederschlagssummen zu Pentaden-Summen zusammengefaßt. Die resultierenden Pentaden wurden als naß oder trocken klassifiziert, je nachdem, ob wenigstens 2,5 mm Regen gefallen war oder nicht. Für die Verteilung von Folgen von trokken und nassen Pentaden wurden ein Markov-Modell 1. Ordnung und ein einfaches Zufallsmodell konstruiert. Ein ² zeigte, daß das Zufallsmodell die beobachteten Häufigkeiten nur schlecht wiedergibt. Mit dem Markov-Modell wurde dagegen, mit Ausnahme einiger Fälle, gute Übereinstimmung erzielt. Obwohl das Markov-Modell noch weiter verbessert werden könnte, scheint es eine praktische Möglichkeit zur Darstellung länger dauernder Folgen von nassen oder trockenen Pentaden in Mittelaustralien zu bieten.

---

Résumé On a établi les sommes pentadaires des précipitations de six stations d'Australie centrale. Les groupes de cinq jours ainsi établis sont répartis en deux classes, humides ou secs selon que la dite somme dépasse 2,5 mm de pluie ou non. Pour l'étude de la répartition de successions de pentades humides ou sèches on a construit un modèle de Markov du premier ordre et un modèle aléatoire simple. Un examen au mogen du teste ² a montré que lemodèle aléatoire ne reflète que très mal fréquences observées. On obtient par contre, quelques cas exceptés, une assez bonne coïncidence avec le modèle de Markov. Bien que ce dernier puisse encore être amélioré, il semble présenter une possibilité pratique pour la représentation de successions importantes de pentades humides ou sèches en Australie centrale.

---

---

With 2 Figures