Links between observed micro-meteorological variability and land-use patterns in the highveld priority area of South Africa

Links between spatial and temporal variability of Planetary Boundary Layer meteorological quantities and existing land-use patterns are still poorly understood due to the non-linearity of air–land interaction processes. This study describes the results of a statistical analysis of meteorological observations collected by a network of ten Automatic Weather Stations. The stations were in operation in the highveld priority area of the Republic of South Africa during 2008–2010. The analysis revealed localization, enhancement and homogenization in the inter-station variability of observed meteorological quantities (temperature, relative humidity and wind speed) over diurnal and seasonal cycles. Enhancement of the meteorological spatial variability was found on a broad range of scales from 20 to 50?km during morning hours and in the dry winter season. These spatial scales are comparable to scales of observed land-use heterogeneity, which suggests links between atmospheric variability and land-use patterns through excitation of horizontal meso-scale circulations. Convective motions homogenized and synchronized meteorological variability during afternoon hours in the winter seasons, and during large parts of the day during the moist summer season. The analysis also revealed that turbulent convection overwhelms horizontal meso-scale circulations in the study area during extensive parts of the annual cycle.     

Community Structure in the Amber Forest: Study of the Arthropod Syninclusia in the Rovno Amber(Late Eocene of Ukraine)

<正>Arthropodan syninclusions in the Late Eocene Rovno amber were examined using x~2 to reveal correlation of the component groups(some taxa of Diptera,ants,aphids,and mites) supposedly indicative of the biocoenotic relationships in the ancient amber forest.Three tightly correlated groups were identified,representing a putative aerial plankton guild(Chironomidae+Ceratopogonidae) and two tree-trunk guilds,one of which (Dolichopodidae+Germaraphis) is possibly connected to more open or/and more hygrophilous habitats than the other(Sciara zone Diptera +"Acarus"rhombeus).The ants were not linked with any of the above components.     

Time constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas (Central Argentina)

The application of the SHRIMP U/Pb dating technique to zircon and monazite of different rock types of the Sierras de Córdoba provides an important insight into the metamorphic history of the basement domains. Additional constraints on the Pampean metamorphic episode were gained by Pb/Pb stepwise leaching (PbSL) experiments on two titanite and garnet separates. Results indicate that the metamorphic history recorded by Crd-free gneisses (M2) started in the latest Neoproterozoic/earliest Cambrian (553 and 543 Ma) followed by the M4 metamorphism at ~530 Ma that is documented in the diatexites. Zircon ages of 492 Ma in the San Carlos Massif correlate partly with rather low Th/U ratios (<0.1) suggesting their growth by metamorphic fluids. This age is even younger than the PbSL titanite ages of 506 Ma. It is suggested that the fluid alteration relates to the beginning of the Famatinien metamorphic cycle in the neighbouring Sierra de San Luis and has not affected the titanite ages. The PTt evolution can be correlated with the plate tectonic processes responsible for the formation of the Pampean orogene, i.e., the accretion of the Pampean basement to the Río de La Plata craton (M2) and the later collision of the Western Pampean basement with the Pampean basement.     

On the Velocity Gradient in Stably Stratified Sheared Flows. Part 2: Observations and Models

Observations of the dependence of the dimensionless wind speed gradient f_m{\phi_m} as a function of the Monin–Obukhov stability parameter z/L _o under strong stability diverge from results of large-eddy simulation (LES) modelling. A kinetic energy budget analysis indicates that it is likely caused by violations of the assumptions of stationarity and/or homogeneity of turbulence in the field experiments rather than in imperfections of the LES. This confirms the validity of the widely used linear approximation for f_m{\phi_m} not only at weak to moderate stability, but also under strong stability. The new interpretation of the linear approximation of f_m{\phi_m} is given in terms of turbulent scales, which gives hope for its applicability to the free atmosphere as well.     

Forthcoming Meetings on Planetary Boundary-layer Theory, Modelling and Applications

In this short communication we highlight the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) “Atmospheric Boundary Layers: Modelling and Applications for Environmental Security”, to be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 18–22 April 2006 (http:// pbl-nato-arw.dmi.dk) and the “Summer School on Air-Sea Interaction” to be held in Helsinki, Finland, 28 August–1 September 2006 (http://www.scasi.fi). These two events are connected to the ongoing Ev Marie Curie Chair Project “Planetary boundary layers – Theory, modelling and role in earth systems” (PBL – TMRES, Contract MEXC-CT-2003-509742, www.atm.helsinki.fi/PBL/).     

Role of Convective Structures and Background Turbulence in the Dry Convective Boundary Layer

We quantify the role of the convective buoyant structures and the remainder turbulence, here called background turbulence, in the convective atmospheric boundary layer in horizontally homogeneous, dry and barotropic conditions. Three filtering methods to separate the structures and the background turbulence are first evaluated. These are: short-time averaging, Fourier filtering and proper orthogonal decomposition. The Fourier method turns out to be the most appropriate for the present purpose. The decomposition is applied to two cases: one with no mean flow and another with moderate mean wind speed. It is shown that roughly 85 % of the vertical flux of the potential temperature and about 72 % of the kinetic energy is carried by the structures in the mixed layer in both cases. The corresponding percentage for the potential temperature variance is 81 % in the zero mean-wind case and 76 % in the moderate mean-wind case. The structures are responsible for as much as 94 % of the momentum flux in the mixed layer of the moderate mean-wind case. In the surface layer the background turbulence is generally more important than the structure contribution in both cases. The budget of the potential temperature flux is analyzed in detail and it is shown that its turbulent transport term is mostly built up by the structures but also the interaction between the structures and the background turbulence plays a significant role. The other important budget terms are shown to be dominated by the structures except for the pressure–temperature gradient covariance.     

Biodiversity and socio-environmental problems of the south-eastern Baltic coastal zone

The diversity of life occurs at several hierarchical levels of biological organisation, including the biotope (habitats) diversity. The knowledge of the coastal habitat diversity and its sensitivity to the anthropogenic impact is one of the most important preconditions for the sustainable use and development of the coastal regions. This paper gives a brief overview of a recent study, which was aimed to classify the Lithuanian coastal zone underwater habitats and identify anthropogenic threats to the area.     

Pb/Pb and U/Pb zircon dating of subvolcanic rhyolite as a time marker for Hercynian granite magmatism and Sn mineralisation in the Eibenstock granite, Erzgebirge, Germany: Considering effects of zircon alteration

Tin mineralisation is closely related to rhyolite stocks and dykes which occur in the endo- and exocontact of the Eibenstock granite, Erzgebirge, Germany. The same structures which cut the granite control the rhyolite emplacement and the location of ore-bearing greisen bodies. Albitisation and greisenisation related to tin mineralisation as well as sericitisation and argillic alteration may be traced by changes in chemical and mineralogical composition of both rhyolite and granite wall rock. Comprehensive zircon studies by scanning electron microscopy (secondary and backscattered electron as well as cathodoluminescence imaging; EDX measurements) reveal that zircon from rhyolite and from the enclosing granite shows significant changes in chemical composition and crystallinity, including distortion of the U-Pb isotope system when affected by greisenisation. Single evaporation analysis of zircon from rhyolite with little or no greisenisation gave a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 290±5 Ma, whereas zircon from little altered granite gave a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 320±8 Ma. The single evaporation age of zircon from rhyolite is confirmed by ²³⁸U/²⁰⁶Pb SHRIMP ages of 297±8 Ma. The significant time gap of at least 20 Ma between granite intrusion and rhyolite formation suggests that the late magmatic evolution of the Eibenstock granite cannot be regarded as a source for tin-ore forming fluids as previously assumed.     

Atmospheric boundary layer over steep surface waves

Turbulent air-sea interactions coupled with the surface wave dynamics remain a challenging problem. The needs to include this kind of interaction into the coupled environmental, weather and climate models motivate the development of a simplified approximation of the complex and strongly nonlinear interaction processes. This study proposes a quasi-linear model of wind-wave coupling. It formulates the approach and derives the model equations. The model is verified through a set of laboratory (direct measurements of an airflow by the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique) and numerical (a direct numerical simulation (DNS) technique) experiments. The experiments support the central model assumption that the flow velocity field averaged over an ensemble of turbulent fluctuations is smooth and does not demonstrate flow separation from the crests of the waves. The proposed quasi-linear model correctly recovers the measured characteristics of the turbulent boundary layer over the waved water surface.