Urban structures and daily mobility patterns in a city of long distances—the case of Muscat/Oman

Population growth, urban sprawl and a high degree of car dependency as well as slowly rising petrol prices contribute towards increasing challenges for everyday urban mobility in Muscat, Oman. Until now, only a few empirical studies have dealt with urban mobility in Oman. Therefore, this article draws mainly on our own empirical findings to answer the following questions: What do daily and weekly mobility patterns look like in Muscat? How do these practices differ depending on the social position of the household, i.e. their nationality, income and education? Which interdependent effects can be discerned between everyday mobility practices and the fragmented and segregated urban structures? Since our research questions focus on the interrelations between urban structures and individual mobility, we chose a mixed‐methods approach including methods derived both from social and spatial research. This article in particular draws on our quantitative survey covering 850 households and extensive mappings of three selected case study areas and secondary data analysis.     

Loading of a seismic zone to failure deforms nearby volcanoes: a new earthquake precursor

The South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ) was loaded to failure in June 2000, resulting in two M6.6 earthquakes. The SISZ is an E–W‐trending zone with an overall sinistral movement. Numerical models indicate that, when the SISZ is loaded to failure, there are stress concentrations at its ends: tensile in the north‐east and south‐west quadrants, and compressive in the north‐west and south‐east quadrants. These model predictions fit well with observations. Geodetic measurements indicate considerable compression, uplift and associated intense seismicity in recent years in the volcanoes of Hengill and Eyjafjallajokull, located in the quadrants of compression, whereas there have been unusually frequent eruptions in the past decades in the Hekla Volcano, located in one of the quadrants of extension. The models predict that following the large June 2000 earthquakes, stress relaxation within the SISZ should lead to stopping of the intense seismicity and deformation in the volcanoes of Hengill and Eyjafjallajokull, again in agreement with observations. However, when similar episodes of deformation and seismicity start again, particularly in the Hengill Volcano, a large earthquake would be expected within several years in the SISZ. The numerical models, and the deformation and seismic data, indicate that monitoring of ‘soft’ inclusions such as volcanoes (many with magma chambers) in the vicinity of a seismic zone may serve as precursors to large earthquakes.     

Ir anomalies and other elemental markers near the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary in a flysch sequence from the Western Tethys (Slovenia)

Ir abundance anomalies, platinum-group elements (PGE) enrichment and increased concentrations of meteoritic (Ni, Fe, Co) and nonmeteoritic (Sb, As, Zn and Cu) elements were found in the Palaeocene–Eocene (P/E) boundary interval in a flysch sequence from the Western Tethys (Goriška Brda section, W. Slovenia). This records one of the most important calcareous deep benthic extinctions in the history of the Earth. Although the observed geochemical patterns could indicate complex sources for these metals, such as weathering of the continental and oceanic crust, volcanic processes, as well as diagenetic mobilization and redistribution, we cannot preclude the highly speculative possibility that the observed Ir abundances may also indicate extraterrestrial contamination.     

Variability of Stable Isotope Fingerprints of the Serpulid Ficopomatus enigmaticus Within a Permanently Stratified Estuary: Implications for (Palaeo)environmental Interpretations

This paper examines how the mixing of freshwater and seawater, and related mixing of freshwater and marine particulate organic matter (POM) in the permanently stratified estuary of the River Krka, Croatia, are reflected in the stable isotope fingerprints of soft tissues and tubes of the serpulid Ficopomatus enigmaticus. The carbon stable isotope composition (δ¹³C values) of the river-borne POM is retained over long distances, causing a depletion in ¹³C of POM in brackish waters. A trophic depletion in ¹³C was recorded in serpulid soft tissues. The serpulid carbonate tubes were depleted in ¹³C even at locations with salinity close to that of the sea and were subject to large isotope fractionation between dissolved inorganic C (DIC) and carbonate caused by vital effects, making carbonate depleted in ¹³C by several per mil compared with DIC. These effects, though large in the freshwater zone, fade towards the sea. The carbonate δ¹⁸O values of tubes reflect the δ¹⁸O values of the water. The temperature-related differences in δ¹⁸O values of tubes from different sites are masked by source-related differences in the δ¹⁸O values of water arising from mixing of freshwater and seawater in the estuary. Therefore, in serpulide tubes, the terrestrial component can easily be overestimated because of vital effects during biomineralisation and trophic depletion in ¹³C in freshwater and brackish environments.     

Zircon trace element chemistry at sub-micrometer resolution for Tarawera volcano,New Zealand,and implications for rhyolite magma evolution

Zoned crystals can be important recorders of magmatic processes in space and time. However, in most situations, the temporal dimension is difficult to quantify. Here, we have employed secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling to excavate parallel pits into non-polished crystal faces of zircon to obtain ~5 μm resolution U–Th disequilibrium ages (one pit) that can be correlated with trace element zoning at sub-μm resolution derived from a second pit. Data from 17 crystals representing each of the four rhyolite eruptions of Tarawera volcano, an intra-caldera edifice within the Okataina Volcanic Centre, reveal diverse zircon growth conditions over time. Most crystals display rimward depletions in Zr/Hf and Ti, broadly consistent with cooling and crystallization. However, a significant fraction of crystals lacks these patterns and displays rimward trace element variations consistent with isothermal or prograde crystallization. Oscillatory zonation patterns in Y, Th, and U are superimposed on the Zr/Hf and Ti trends. Despite the limited number of crystals analyzed in this way, the striking lack of ubiquitous trace element zoning patterns in crystals from the same hand sample implies that fractional crystallization upon cooling was punctuated by magma recharge and crystal mixing affecting different parts of the magma reservoir. By combining data from all crystals, a systematic change to more heterogeneous trace element abundances is revealed by zircon crystal domains <45 ka following the Rotoiti caldera-forming eruption. This contrasts with the more uniform conditions of zircon crystallization lasting >100 ka prior to caldera formation and is best explained by the post-caldera system consisting of small, isolated melt pockets that evolved independently. An important conclusion is that the zircon ‘cargo’ in volcanic rocks reflects thermally and compositionally divergent processes that act near simultaneously in a magma storage region and not exclusively the conditions in the eruptible magma.     

A review of snow manipulation experiments in Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

Snow cover is one of the most important factors controlling microclimate and plant growing conditions for Arctic and alpine ecosystems. Climate change is altering snowfall regimes, which in turn influences snow cover and ultimately tundra plant communities. The interest in winter climate change and the number of experiments exploring the responses of alpine and Arctic ecosystems to changes in snow cover have been growing in recent years, but their outcomes are difficult to summarize because of the large variability in manipulation approaches, extents and measured response variables. In this review, we (1) compile the ecological publications on snow manipulation experiments, (2) classify the studies according to the climate scenarios they simulate and response variables they measure, (3) discuss the methods applied to manipulate snow cover, and (4) analyse and generalize the response in phenology, productivity and community composition by means of a meta-analysis. This meta-analysis shows that flowering phenology responded strongly to changes in the timing of snowmelt. The least responsive group of species were graminoids; however, they did show a decrease in productivity and abundance with experimentally increased snow covers. The species group with the greatest phenological response to snowmelt changes were the dwarf shrubs. Their abundance also increased in most long-term snow fence experiments, whereas species richness generally declined. We conclude that snow manipulation experiments can improve our understanding of recently observed ecosystem changes, and are an important component of climate change research.     

Spatio-temporal patterns of throughfall and solute deposition in an open tropical rain forest

The brief interaction of precipitation with a forest canopy can create a high spatial variability of both throughfall and solute deposition. We hypothesized that (i) the variability in natural forest systems is high but depends on system-inherent stability, (ii) the spatial variability of solute deposition shows seasonal dynamics depending on the increase in rainfall frequency, and (iii) spatial patterns persist only in the short-term. The study area in the north-western Brazilian state of Rondônia is subject to a climate with a distinct wet and dry season. We collected rain and throughfall on an event basis during the early wet season (n = 14) and peak of the wet season (n = 14) and analyzed the samples for pH and concentrations of , Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl⁻, , and DOC. The coefficient of variation for throughfall based on both sampling intervals was 29%, which is at the lower end of values reported from other tropical forest sites, but which is higher than in most temperate forests. Coefficients of variation of solute deposition ranged from 29% to 52%. This heterogeneity of solute deposition is neither particularly high nor particularly low compared with a range of tropical and temperate forest ecosystems. We observed an increase in solute deposition variability with the progressing wet season, which was explained by a negative correlation between heterogeneity of solute deposition and antecedent dry period. The temporal stability of throughfall patterns was low during the early wet season, but gained in stability as the wet season progressed. We suggest that rapid plant growth at the beginning of the rainy season is responsible for the lower stability, whereas less vegetative activity during the later rainy season might favor the higher persistence of “hot” and “cold” spots of throughfall quantities. The relatively high stability of throughfall patterns during later stages of the wet season may influence processes at the forest floor and in the soil. Solute deposition patterns showed less clear trends but all patterns displayed a short-term stability only. The weak stability of those patterns is apt to impede the formation of solute deposition-induced biochemical microhabitats in the soil.     

Effects of linking up of discontinuities on fracture growth and groundwater transport

It is proposed that the growth of fractures is the basic process for generating and maintaining permeability in solid rock (bedrock). Many extension fractures grow as hydrofractures, whereas many shear (and extension) fractures grow through the formation of transverse fractures that connect the adjacent tips of existing fractures. In a boundary-element analysis, the hydrofractures are modeled as being driven open by a fluid overpressure that varies linearly from 10 MPa at the fracture centre to 0 MPa at the fracture tip. The host rock has a uniform Young's modulus of 10 GPa, a Poisson's ratio of 0.25, and is dissected by vertical joints and horizontal contacts, each of which is modeled as an internal spring of stiffness 6 MPa m⁻¹. The number of joints and contacts, and their location with respect to the hydrofracture tip are varied in different model runs. The results of the analyses indicate that the tensile stresses generated by overpressured hydrofractures open up joints and contacts out to considerable distances from the fracture tip, so that they tend to link up to form a hydraulic pathway. Using the same Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and internal spring constant for joints as in the hydrofracture models, boundary-element models were made to study the interaction stresses that cause neighbouring joints to become interconnected through the growth of linking transverse fractures that, ultimately, may evolve into shear fractures. The models were subjected to tensile stress of 6 MPa acting normal to the joint planes as the only loading. The offset (horizontal distance) and underlap (vertical distance) between the adjacent tips of the joints were varied between model runs. The results show a concentration of tensile and shear stresses in the regions between the neighbouring tips of the joints, but these regions become smaller when the underlap of the joints decreases and changes to overlap. These stress-concentration regions favour the development of transverse (mostly shear) fractures that link up the nearby tips of the joints, so as to form a segmented shear or extension fracture. Analytical results on aperture variation of a hydrofracture in a homogeneous, isotropic rock are compared with boundary-element results for a hydrofracture dissecting layered rocks. The aperture is larger where the hydrofracture dissects soft (low Young's modulus) layers than where it dissects stiff layers. Aperture variation may encourage subsequent groundwater-flow channeling along a pathway generated by a hydrofracture in layered rocks. Electronic Publication