Seasonal soil water storage changes beneath central Amazonian rainforest and pasture

Evaporation and infiltration were compared for tropical rainforest and pasture, near to Manaus, Brazil from October 1990 to February 1992 using measurements of soil water storage over a depth of 2 m. The soil is a clayey oxisol of low water available capacity. In both of the dry seasons studied, the maximum change in soil water storage in the forest was 154 mm and in the pasture it was 131 and 112 mm. Similar behaviour of the soil water reservoir below forest and pasture in the wet season implied that differences in evaporation and drainage were small. In the dry season, soil water storage behaviour in the upper metre of the soil was similar but there were marked differences in the second metre. The pasture took up little water from below 1.5 m but the forest appeared to utilise all of the available water in the 2 m profile in both seasons.

The water balance of the 2 m profile showed that the pasture evaporation rate was equal to that of the forest until storage had decreased 80 mm from the maximum. There was then a decline in pasture evaporation rate to 1.2 mm day⁻¹ as the storage decreased by a further 50 mm. In contrast, the forest uptake rate remained above 3.5 mm day⁻¹ until storage had decreased 140 mm from the maximum (within 15 mm of the extraction limit), before declining abruptly to less than 1.5 mm day⁻¹. There was strong evidence that the forest was able to abstract water from depths greater than 3.6 m.

Spatial variability of soil water storage was significantly greater beneath the pasture than beneath the forest, particularly following rainfall events in the dry season. This was largely the result of redistribution of rainfall as local surface runoff. There was no evidence of redistribution or runoff in the forest.     

Directional seas should be ergodic

Directional seas are often modelled as a double summation of plane sinusoidal waves from different directions at a set of discrete frequencies. Unfortunately, this model is commonly used in a way which produces unrealistic standing wave phenomena and hence is not ergodic. Consequently, time averages of variables are not necessarily the same as space averages and averages over different realisations. The resulting point spectrum is randomly distributed about the target point spectrum as required, but the time history generated is only representative of a short record of the target sea. In this note, the basis of the phenomenon and its consequences for both wave tank and computer simulation work are described. Two alternative techniques of directional wave generation are discussed.

Standing waves also occur near reflectors in the sea and test tanks; their effects on point and directional wave measurements are discussed.     

Simultaneous Sv and TS measurements on Young-of-the-Year (YOY) freshwater fish using three frequencies

When this article was originally published     

Responses of marine phytoplankton in iron enrichment experiments in the northern North Sea and northeast Atlantic Ocean

Short-term iron enrichment experiments were carried out with samples collected in areas with different phytoplankton activity in the northern North Sea and northeast Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1993. The research area was dominated by high numbers of pico-phytoplankton, up to 70,000 ml⁻¹. Maximum chlorophyll a concentrations varied from about 1.0 μg l⁻¹ in a high-reflectance zone (caused by loose coccoliths, remnants from a bloom of Emiliania huxleyi) and about 3.5 μg l⁻¹ in a zone in which the phytoplankton were growing, to about 0.5 μg l⁻¹ in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. From the high-reflectance zone to the northeast Atlantic Ocean, nitrate concentrations increased from 0.5 μM to 6.0 μM. Concentrations of reactive iron in surface water showed an opposite trend and decreased from about 2.6 nM in the high-reflectance zone to <1.0 nM in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. In the research area, no signs of true iron deficiency were found, but iron enrichments in the high-reflectance zone, numerically dominated by Synechococcus sp., resulted in increased nitrate uptake. Ammonium uptake was hardly affected. Strong support for the effect of Fe on cell physiology is given by the increase in the f-ratio. Net growth rates of the phytoplankton (changes in cell numbers over 24 h) were almost unchanged. Phytoplankton collected from the northeast Atlantic Ocean, did not show changes in the nitrogen metabolism upon addition of iron. Net growth rates in these incubations were low or negative, with only slightly higher values with additional iron.     

Early diagenesis of phytyl esters in a contemporary temperate intertidal sediment

Analysis of a sediment core for hydrolysed chlorins (acidic chlorins e.g. pheophorbide a) and non-acidic chlorins, and free, bound and esterified alcohols have been performed and the results have been interpreted in terms of input and sedimentary interconversions. There is an association of the acidic chlorin input with an input of unesterified aliphatic n-alkanols (> C₂₀), and subsequent degradation of the chlorins with depth. Input of phytol to the anoxic region of the sediment is not associated with the n-alkanols:phytol in the sediment is derived largely from chlorophyll-a input to the surface layers as intact microalgae. Degradation with depth involves conversion of the chlorophyll-a to non-chlorin, colourless phytyl esters prior to incorporation of the phytol into a bound fraction. At depth this bound phytol is hydrolysed resulting in release of free phytol.     

Effect of Silica Activity on OH- IR Spectra of Olivine: Implications for Low-aSiO2 Mantle Metasomatism

Hydrogen solubility and hydroxyl substitution mechanism in olivineat upper-mantle conditions are not only a function of pressure,temperature, water fugacity and hydrogen fugacity, but are alsoinfluenced by silica activity. Olivine synthesized in equilibriumwith magnesiowüstite displays hydroxyl stretching bandsin the wavenumber range from 3640 to 3430 cm^–1. In contrast,olivine in equilibrium with orthopyroxene shows absorption bandsin a narrower wavenumber range from 3380 to 3285 cm^–1.The two fundamentally different spectra are assigned to hydroxylin tetrahedral and octahedral sublattices, respectively. Olivinein equilibrium with orthopyroxene is also less capable of incorporatinghydroxyl, relative to olivines in equilibrium with magnesiowüstite,by about a factor of ten. A comparison of spectra obtained aspart of this study with hydroxyl spectra of natural mantle olivinesshows that the latter display hydroxyl stretching patterns reminiscentof equilibrium with magnesiowüstite, although undoubtedlyolivine in the Earth’s mantle coexists with orthopyroxene.This may be attributed to a metasomatic overprint by a low-silicafluid and/or melt that was in reaction relationship with orthopyroxene.A likely metasomatic agent is a carbonatitic melt. When carbonatiticmelts decompose to oxides and CO₂, they may temporarily imposea low-aSiO₂ environment inherited by the olivine structure.If this suggestion proves true, Fourier transform IR spectroscopymay be used to fingerprint metasomatic episodes in the lithosphericmantle. KEY WORDS: FTIR spectrometry; olivine; mantle; metasomatism; water     

Evaluation of the seismic hazard of Lebanon

This paper presents the results of a study undertaken todetermine the seismic hazard of Lebanon. The seismic hazard evaluation wasconducted using probabilistic methods of hazard analysis. Potential sourcesof seismic activities that affect Lebanon were identified and the earthquakerecurrence relationships of these sources were developed from instrumentalseismology data, historical records, and earlier studies undertaken toevaluate the seismic hazard of neighboring countries. The sensitivityof the results to different assumptions regarding the seismic sources in theLebanese segment and choice of the attenuation relationship wasevaluated. Maps of peak ground acceleration contours, based on 10percent of probability of exceedance in 50 years and 100 years time spans,were developed.     

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine: Multi-decadal whole-watershed experimental acidification

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) is a long-term research site established to study the response of forest ecosystem function to environmental disturbances of chronic acidic deposition and ecosystem nitrogen enrichment. Starting in 1989, the West Bear (treated) watershed received bimonthly applications of ammonium sulfate [(NH₄)₂SO₄] fertilizer from above the canopy, whereas East Bear (reference) received ambient deposition. The treatments were stopped in 2016, marking the beginning of the recovery phase. Research at the site has focused on soils, streams, and vegetation. Here, we describe data collected over three decades at the BBWM—input and stream output nutrient fluxes, quantitative soil pits and soil chemistry, and soil temperature and moisture.     

A field test of tubino's (1991) model of alternate bar formation

This study investigates the fluvial dynamics of straight natural stream channels. In particular, this experimental field study quantitatively assesses a physically based non-linear mathematical theory of alternate bar formation under unsteady natural flow conditions within a straight alluvial stream. The study site is an artificially straightened section of the Embarras River located approximately 16 km south of Champaign, Illinois. Data were collected on channel form, gradient, alternate bar dimensions, bed sediment size and flow stage over a 2 year study period. Both linear and non-linear steady flow hydrodynamic theories suggest that alternate bars are critical to the process of meander development. But these theories do not predict bar development for unsteady flow conditions, which typically occur in natural alluvial channels. Tubino (1991) suggests that bar evolution for a flood hydrograph can be divided into three parts: (1) a period of limited bar growth during the rising stage of the flood; (2) a stage of modest bar decay near the peak of the flood; and (3) a stage of non-linear bar growth during the prolonged falling stage of the flood. Bars developed during the falling limb of a hydrograph, and exhibited sequential development rather than the uniform growth along the reach predicted by Tubino's model. As flow stage decreased, short, low, fine-grained bars were superimposed on long, high and coarser-grained bars that developed under preceding high flow stages. These results suggest that the process of bar formation in artificially straightened natural streams with heterogeneous bed material may occur under different flow conditions and in a different manner than predicted by theoretical models. Further work should focus on attempting to isolate the physical mechanisms responsible for alternate bar formation in straight natural streams with heterogeneous bed material and flashy hydrologic flow regimes.