An interdisciplinary approach to depict landscape change drivers: A case study of the Ticuiz agrarian community in Michoacan, Mexico

Landscape changes are driven by a combination of physical, ecological and socio-cultural factors. Hence, a large amount of information is necessary to monitor these changes and to develop effective strategies for management and conservation. For this, novel strategies for combining social and environmental data need to be developed. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the value of an innovative interdisciplinary approach to help in explaining landscape change. We integrated three main sources of information: biophysical landscape attributes, land-use/cover change analysis and social perceptions of land-use change, institutional and policy factors and environmental services. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to develop a weight for each variable described or quantified. Finally we identified proximate causes and underlying driving forces of land transformation in the study area. The study was undertaken in a typical community in Mexico.     

Short-Period Fluctuations in Coronal Mass Ejection Activity during Solar Cycle 23

We have constructed a time series of the number of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed by SOHO/LASCO during solar cycle 23. Using spectral analysis techniques (the maximum entropy method and wavelet analysis) we found short-period (< one year) semiperiodic activity. Among others, we found interesting periodicities at 193, 36, 28, and 25 days. We discuss the implications of such short-period activity in terms of the emergence and escape of magnetic flux from the convection zone, through the low solar atmosphere (where these periodicities have been found for numerous activity parameters), toward interplanetary space. This analysis shows that CMEs remove the magnetic flux in a quasiperiodic process in a way similar to that of magnetic flux emergence and other solar eruptive activity.     

A method to estimate the longshore sediment transport at ebb-tidal deltas based on their volumetric growth: Application to the Guadiana (Spain–Portugal border)

Current techniques assessing longshore sediment transport rates have large uncertainties, pleading for the development of alternative and complementary approaches. The present study proposes a method to estimate the decadal average rate of longshore transport at modern ebb-tidal deltas based on a sediment budget analysis of the outer shoal growth. This transport is obtained as the balance of the other contributions to the shoal with the total sediment input rate obtained from an inverse application of the inlet reservoir model. The method is applied to the Guadiana ebb-tidal delta, yielding an average longshore sediment transport rate (~85 000 m3 year⁻¹) in good agreement with expectations for the region. It is exemplified that this decadal averaged rate can be used to improve longshore sediment transport expressions in order to study its variability over shorter time scales. At the Guadiana, the yearly longshore sediment transport from the improved formula ranges from ~25 000 m³ (westward) to ~245 000 m³ (eastward) and is related to the North Atlantic Oscillation index. Overall, the proposed method constitutes an alternative tool to constrain the average longshore sediment transport rate over decades in the vicinity of tidal inlets. It is applicable to ebb-tidal deltas where the outer shoal growth (from an early to a mature stage) is well documented by bathymetric maps, and where the main transport pathways towards the outer shoal can be specified. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical queries on semantic trajectories using graph databases

This article studies the analysis of moving object data collected by location‐aware devices, such as GPS, using graph databases. Such raw trajectories can be transformed into so‐called semantic trajectories, which are sequences of stops that occur at “places of interest.” Trajectory data analysis can be enriched if spatial and non‐spatial contextual data associated with the moving objects are taken into account, and aggregation of trajectory data can reveal hidden patterns within such data. When trajectory data are stored in relational databases, there is an “impedance mismatch” between the representation and storage models. Graphs in which the nodes and edges are annotated with properties are gaining increasing interest to model a variety of networks. Therefore, this article proposes the use of graph databases (Neo4j in this case) to represent and store trajectory data, which can thus be analyzed at different aggregation levels using graph query languages (Cypher, for Neo4j). Through a real‐world public data case study, the article shows that trajectory queries are expressed more naturally on the graph‐based representation than over the relational alternative, and perform better in many typical cases.     

Particle Filter-based assimilation algorithms for improved estimation of root-zone soil moisture under dynamic vegetation conditions

In this study, we implement Particle Filter (PF)-based assimilation algorithms to improve root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) estimates from a coupled SVAT-vegetation model during a growing season of sweet corn in North Central Florida. The results from four different PF algorithms were compared with those from the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) when near-surface soil moisture was assimilated every 3 days using both synthetic and field observations. In the synthetic case, the PF algorithm with the best performance used residual resampling of the states and obtained resampled parameters from a uniform distribution and provided reductions of 76% in root mean square error (RMSE) over the openloop estimates. The EnKF provided the RZSM and parameter estimates that were closer to the truth than the PF with an 84% reduction in RMSE. When field observations were assimilated, the PF algorithm that maintained maximum parameter diversity offered the largest reduction of 16% in root mean square difference (RMSD) over the openloop estimates. Minimal differences were observed in the overall performance of the EnKF and PF using field observations since errors in model physics affected both the filters in a similar manner, with maximum reductions in RMSD compared to the openloop during the mid and reproductive stages.     

Residual Exchange Flows in Subtropical Estuaries

Observations of residual exchange flows at the entrance to four subtropical estuaries, two of them semiarid, indicate that these flows are mainly tidally driven, as they compare favorably with theoretical patterns of tidal residual flows. In every estuary examined, the tidal behavior was that of a standing or near-standing wave, i.e., tidal elevation and tidal currents were nearly in quadrature. The pattern of exchange flow that persisted at every estuary exhibited inflow in the channel and outflow over the shoals. Curiously, but also fortuitously, this pattern coincides with the exchange pattern driven by density gradients in other estuaries. The tidal stresses and the residual elevation slopes should be the dominant mechanisms that drive such tidal residual pattern because the Stokes transport mechanism is negligible for standing or near-standing waves. Time series measurements from the semiarid estuaries showed fortnightly modulation of the residual flow by tidal forcing in such a way that the strongest net exchange flows developed with the largest tidal distortions, i.e., during spring tides. This modulation is opposite to the modulation that typically results in temperate estuaries, where the strongest net exchange flows tend to develop during neap tides. The fortnightly modulation on tidal residual currents could be inferred from previous theoretical results because residual currents arise from tidal distortions but is made explicit in this study. The findings advanced herein should allow the drawing of generalities about exchange flow patterns in subtropical estuaries where residual flows are mainly driven by tides.     

Direct Conversion of Food Waste into 3D Porous Carbon Traps for Selective Adsorption of Cationic Dyes

Conversion of waste biomass into valuable functional materials accomplishes the concept of circular economy in the development of sustainable waste management, and also recovery of such resources possibly reduces the requirement of feedstocks. In this scenario, the development of methodologies toward the direct conversion of the raw biomass into solid adsorbent materials without the use of any templates is highly desirable, but exceptionally challenging due to the complexity of the process. Here the direct synthesis of 3D porous carbon traps by a simple, cost-effective, and template-free process starting from a kitchen-based recipe and fermented food waste is described. Precisely, a robust carbon trap is formed with a spongy structure and highly interconnected hierarchical pores after the pyrolysis of a rice-based foam in the air. The developed materials float on water and interact efficiently with cationic dyes at static conditions. Importantly, such performance of the 3D carbon traps is not affected in the presence of anionic dyes, indicating the excellent selectivity towards the adsorption of cationic dyes. The adsorbent can be easily recovered and reused for up to 3 cycles without releasing any byproducts, thus, without causing hazardous risk of any secondary pollution to the environment.     

Tectonic significance of an earthquake sequence in the Zacoalco half-graben, Jalisco, Mexico

We studied a sequence of small earthquakes that occurred during the months of April and May of 1997, in Jalisco, southwestern Mexico. The earthquakes were located along a set of active faults that form the Zacoalco half-graben (La Lima fault system), west of Lake Chapala, within the rift–rift–rift triple junction. A total of 33 events were located, with magnitudes ranging from 1.5 to 3.5, recorded by a portable array of broadband seismographs. We identified two groups of events: one corresponding to a shallow normal fault, synthetic to La Lima fault system, and another group associated with a deeper fault. The events that occurred on the synthetic fault show normal faulting oriented on a NW–SE plane, dipping shallowly towards the SW. The other group of mechanisms showed either a normal fault oriented NW–SE and dipping steeply to the NE, or a very shallow-dipping normal fault, dipping to the SW. Earthquake distribution and fault plane solutions suggest that the Zacoalco half-graben developed from blocks that rotate as slip occurs on listric faults. These mechanisms could represent the type of motion expected for larger earthquakes in the area, like the one that occurred in 1568.     

Spatial analysis of the impact of shrimp culture on the coastal wetlands on the Northern coast of Sinaloa, Mexico

In the Mexican coasts, as in many tropical and subtropical coastal areas, shrimp culture grew exponentially over the last three decades. This process has produced an intense debate on the economic benefits but also about the extent and intensity of the impact of this activity on the coastal ecosystems, particularly the effects of pond construction on mangrove areas and other coastal wetlands. For the Northern coast of Sinaloa (Northwest Mexico), a region where shrimp culture is actively practiced and reproduces most of the shrimp controlled production model in Mexico, a land cover change-detection analysis, with Landsat images, outputs that 75% of the shrimp farming in this region has been built on saltmarshes while less than 1% was constructed on mangrove areas. Through the estimation of landscape metrics for different scenarios (with and without shrimp culture infrastructure), we find that in addition to direct removal of saltmarshes, shrimp aquaculture has significantly modified the spatial patterns of coastal wetlands, retreating wetland borders and fragmenting their patches. These last impacts are mainly related with the development of the linear infrastructure associated with shrimp culture (drainage channels and roads), rather than the construction of the ponds. Present findings and other from similar studies done in Northwest Mexico; allow us to estimate that 60% of shrimp farming in Mexico impacted directly on saltmarshes, contrasting with the 3% of shrimp farms built on mangroves.