Potential of time‐lapse photography for identifying saturation area dynamics on agricultural hillslopes

Mapping saturation areas during rainfall events is important for understanding the dynamics of overland flow. In this study, we evaluate the potential of high temporal resolution time‐lapse photography for mapping the dynamics of saturation areas (i.e., areas where water is visually ponding on the surface) on the hillslope scale during natural rainfall. We take 1 image per minute over a 100 × 15 m² depression area on an agricultural field in the Hydrological Open Air Laboratory, Austria. The images are georectified and classified by an automated procedure, using grey intensity as a threshold to identify saturation area. The optimum threshold T is obtained by comparing saturation areas from the automated analysis with the manual analysis of 149 images. T is found to be highly correlated with an image brightness characteristic defined as the greyscale image histogram mode M (Pearson correlation r = 0.91). We estimate T as T = M + C where C is a calibration parameter assumed to be constant during each event. The automated procedure estimates the total saturation area close to the manual analysis with mean normalized root mean square error of 9% and 21% if C is calibrated for each event and taken constant for all events, respectively. The spatial patterns of saturation are estimated with a geometric mean accuracy index of 94% as compared to the manual analysis of the same photos. The patterns are tested against field observations for one date as a preliminary demonstration, which yields a root mean square error of the shortest distance between the measured boundary points and the automatically classified boundary as 23 cm. The usefulness of the patterns is illustrated by exploring run‐off generation processes of an example event. Overall, the proposed classification method based on grey intensity is found to process images with highly varying brightnesses well. It is more efficient than the manual tracing for a large number of images, which allows the exploration of surface flow processes at high temporal resolution.     

An east–west‐trending Quaternary tunnel valley in the south‐eastern North Sea and its seismic–sedimentological interpretation

A combination of a dense reflection seismic grid and up to 50‐m‐long records from sediment cores and cone penetration tests was used to study the geometry and infill lithology of an E–W‐trending buried tunnel valley in the south‐eastern North Sea. In relation to previously known primarily N–S‐trending tunnel valleys in this area, the geometry and infill of this 38‐km‐long and up to 3‐km‐wide valley is comparable, but its E–W orientation is exceptional. The vertical cross‐section geometry may result from subglacial sediment erosion of advancing ice streams and secondary incision by large episodic meltwater discharges with high flow rates. The infill is composed of meltwater sands and reworked till remnants on the valley flanks that are overlain by late Elsterian rhythmic, laminated, lacustrine fine‐grained sediments towards the centre of the valley. A depression in the valley centre is filled with sediments most likely from the Holsteinian transgression and a subsequent post‐Holsteinian lacustrine quiet‐water setting. The exceptional axis orientation of this tunnel valley points to a regional N–S‐oriented ice front during the late Elsterian. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The significance of chemical,isotopic, and detrital components in three coeval stalagmites from the superhumid southernmost Andes (53°S) as high-resolution palaeo-climate proxies

Stalagmites are important palaeo-climatic archives since their chemical and isotopic signatures have the potential to record high-resolution changes in temperature and precipitation over thousands of years. We present three U/Th-dated records of stalagmites (MA1–MA3) in the superhumid southern Andes, Chile (53°S). They grew simultaneously during the last five thousand years (ka BP) in a cave that developed in schist and granodiorite. Major and trace elements as well as the C and O isotope compositions of the stalagmites were analysed at high spatial and temporal resolution as proxies for palaeo-temperature and palaeo-precipitation. Calibrations are based on data from five years of monitoring the climate and hydrology inside and outside the cave and on data from 100 years of regional weather station records.Water-insoluble elements such as Y and HREE in the stalagmites indicate the amount of incorporated siliciclastic detritus. Monitoring shows that the quantity of detritus is controlled by the drip water rate once a threshold level has been exceeded. In general, drip rate variations of the stalagmites depend on the amount of rainfall. However, different drip-water pathways above each drip location gave rise to individual drip rate levels. Only one of the three stalagmites (MA1) had sufficiently high drip rates to record detrital proxies over its complete length. Carbonate-compatible element contents (e.g. U, Sr, Mg), which were measured up to sub-annual resolution, document changes in meteoric precipitation and related drip-water dilution. In addition, these soluble elements are controlled by leaching during weathering of the host rock and soils depending on the pH of acidic pore waters in the peaty soils of the cave’s catchment area. In general, higher rainfall resulted in a lower concentration of these elements and vice versa. The Mg/Ca record of stalagmite MA1 was calibrated against meteoric precipitation records for the last 100 years from two regional weather stations. Carbonate-compatible soluble elements show similar patterns in the three stalagmites with generally high values when drip rates and detrital tracers were low and vice versa. δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values are highly correlated in each stalagmite suggesting a predominantly drip rate dependent kinetic control by evaporation and/or outgassing. Only C and O isotopes from stalagmite MA1 that received the highest drip rates show a good correlation between detrital proxy elements and carbonate-compatible elements. A temperature-related change in rainwater isotope values modified the MA1 record during the Little Ice Age (～0.7–0.1 ka BP) that was ～1.5 °C colder than today. The isotopic composition of the stalagmites MA2 and MA3 that formed at lower drip rates shows a poor correlation with stalagmite MA1 and all other chemical proxies of MA1. ‘Hendy tests’ indicate that the degassing-controlled isotope fractionation of MA2 and MA3 had already started at the cave roof, especially when drip rates were low. Changing pathways and residence times of the seepage water caused a non-climatically controlled isotope fractionation, which may be generally important in ventilated caves during phases of low drip rates. Our proxies indicate that the Neoglacial cold phases from ～3.5 to 2.5 and from ～0.7 to 0.1 ka BP were characterised by 30% lower precipitation compared with the Medieval Warm Period from 1.2 to 0.8 ka BP, which was extremely humid in this region.     

Quasiintegrals of the photogravitational eccentric restricted three-body problem with Poynting–Robertson drag

A restricted three-body problem for a dust particle, in presence of a spherical cometary nucleus in an eccentric (elliptic, parabolic or hyperbolic) orbit about the Sun, is considered. The force of radiation pressure and the Poynting– Robertson effect are taken into account. The differential equations of the particle’s non-inertial spatial motion are investigated both analytically and numerically. With the help of a complex representation, a new single equation of the motion is obtained. Conversion of the equations of motion system into a single equation allows the derivation of simple expressions similar to the integral of energy and integrals of areas. The derived expressions are named quasiintegrals. Relative values of terms of the energy quasiintegral for a smallest, largest, and a mean comet are calculated. We have found that in a number of cases the quasiintegrals are related to the regular integrals of motion, and discuss how the quasiintegrals may be applied to find some significant constraints on the motion of a body of infinitesimal mass.     

Formal definition and dating of the GSSP (Global Stratotype Section and Point) for the base of the Holocene using the Greenland NGRIP ice core,and selected auxiliary records

The Greenland ice core from NorthGRIP (NGRIP) contains a proxy climate record across the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary of unprecedented clarity and resolution. Analysis of an array of physical and chemical parameters within the ice enables the base of the Holocene, as reflected in the first signs of climatic warming at the end of the Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 cold phase, to be located with a high degree of precision. This climatic event is most clearly reflected in an abrupt shift in deuterium excess values, accompanied by more gradual changes in δ¹⁸O, dust concentration, a range of chemical species, and annual layer thickness. A timescale based on multi‐parameter annual layer counting provides an age of 11 700 calendar yr b2 k (before AD 2000) for the base of the Holocene, with a maximum counting error of 99 yr. A proposal that an archived core from this unique sequence should constitute the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period) has been ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences. Five auxiliary stratotypes for the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary have also been recognised. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synsedimentary brecciation in the Eifelian (Middle Devonian) Baltic Basin: sudden catastrophe or diagenetic collapse?

The Eifelian sedimentary record in the epeiric Baltic Basin contains an extensive brecciated interval known as the Narva Breccia. During recent decades, the origin of this breccia has been attributed to (1) palaeoseismicity, (2) extraterrestrial impact event or (3) diagenetic collapse. Our studies show the presence of two different breccia types that form 11 stratigraphic horizons and contain several laterally and stratigraphically unrelated breccias. The occurrence of Type‐1 and Type‐2 breccias, together with carbonate sabkha and carbonate inter‐ to supratidal tidal flat deposits on the basin margins, indicates synsedimentary brecciation formed in a sabkha environment. Type‐2 breccia could also originate from wave‐cycling loading.     

Earth System governmentality: Reflections on science in the Anthropocene

This paper examines Earth System Science as a novel approach to global environmental change research. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's governmentality concept, the paper opens up the Earth System metaphor to political analysis and asks what it does to our understanding of nature and society as a governable domain. We trace the scientific practices that have produced the Earth System as a thinkable analytical category back to the International Geophysical Year in 1957. We also identify ‘the Anthropocene’ as a central and yet ambiguous system of thought for Earth System Science that harbours different strategies for sustainability in terms of (1) the persons over whom government is to be exercised; (2) the distribution of tasks and actions between authorities; and (3) contrasting ideals or principles for how government should be directed.