Estimation of the Aerial Cover of Seagrasses of Lakshadweep Islands (India) Using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS P6 LISS IV)

Seagrasses ecosystems are fragile yet highly productive ecosystems of the world showing declining trend throughout the world due to natural and anthropogenic pressures. Effective conservation and management plan is thus required to protect these resources, to aid with conservation need mapping and monitoring of seagrasses using high resolution remote sensing data is very much required. Hence, the present study was made to record the seagrass aerial cover in the Lakshadweep islands using IRS P6 LISS IV satellite data. The suitability of LISS IV sensor for seagrass mapping was tested for the first time with an overall accuracy of 73.16%. The study found an area of 2590.2?ha of seagrasses in Lakshadweep islands with 1310.8?ha and 1279.4?ha dense and sparse seagrass cover respectively. The study recommends the use of LISS IV data for mapping the shallow water seagrasses, as mapping efficiency increases nearly 4 times more than the LISS III data, as the former (LISS IV) picks up the small patches of seagrasses and delineates the coral and reef vegetation patches from seagrass class.     

Study of runoff response to land use change in the East River basin in South China

The East River in South China plays a key role in the socio-economic development in the region and surrounding areas. Adequate understanding of the hydrologic response to land use change is crucial to develop sustainable water resources management strategies in the region. The present study makes an attempt to evaluate the possible impacts of land use change on hydrologic response using a numerical model and corresponding available vegetation datasets. The variable infiltration capacity model is applied to simulate runoff responses to several land use scenarios within the basin (e.g., afforestation, deforestation, and reduction in farmland area) for the period 1952–2000. The results indicate that annual runoff is reduced by 3.5 % (32.3 mm) when 25 % of the current grassland area (including grasslands and wooded grasslands, with 46.8 % of total vegetation cover) is converted to forestland. Afforestation results in reduction in the monthly flow volume, peak flow, and low flow, but with significantly greater reduction in low flow for the basin. The simulated annual runoff increases by about 1.4 % (12.6 mm) in the deforestation scenario by changing forestland (including deciduous broadleaf, evergreen needleleaf, and broadleaf, with 15.6 % of total vegetation cover) to grassland area. Increase in seasonal runoff occurs mainly in autumn for converting cropland to bare soil.     

A comparison of outer electron radiation belt dropouts during solar wind stream interface and magnetic cloud driven storms

Energetic electrons are trapped in the Earth’s radiation belts which occupy a toroidal region between 3 and 7 \(\hbox {R}_{\mathrm{E}}\) above the Earth’s surface. Rapid loss of electrons from the radiation belts is known as dropouts. The source and loss mechanisms regulating the radiation belts population are not yet understood entirely, particularly during geomagnetic storm times. Nevertheless, the dominant loss mechanism may require an event based study to be better observed. Utilizing multiple data sources from the year 1997–2007, this study identifies radiation belt electron dropouts which are ultimately triggered when solar wind stream interfaces (SI) arrived at Earth, or when magnetic clouds (MC) arrived. Using superposed epoch analysis (SEA) technique, a synthesis of multiple observations is performed to reveal loss mechanism which might, perhaps, be a major contributor to radiation belt losses under SI and MC driven storms. Results show an abrupt slower decaying precipitation of electron peak (about 3000 counts/sec) on SI arrival within 5.05 \(< L\) < 6.05, which persist till 0.5 day before gradual recovery. This pattern is interpreted as an indication of depleted electrons from bounce lost cone via precipitating mechanism known as relativistic electron microburst. On the other hand, MC shows a pancake precipitating peak extending to lower L (Plasmapause); indicating a combination of electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler mode waves as the contributing mechanisms.     

A Bayesian framework for updating model parameters while considering spatial variability

The study presents a recent slope failure in India which resulted in the burial of a village and claimed large number of lives. Current methods of probabilistic back analysis incorporate uncertainty in the analysis but do not consider spatial variability. In this study, back analysis is performed using Bayesian analysis in conjunction with random field theory. The probabilistic method is shown to be efficient in back-analysing a slope failure. It also provides confidence in parameter values to be used for post-failure slope design. The back analysis method which does not consider spatial variability overestimates the uncertainty in analysis, which can lead to uneconomical slope remediation design and measures.     

Hydraulic conductivity and pore fluid chemistry in artificially weathered plastic clay

Triaxial and oedometer tests have examined how freezing–thawing (FT) and drying–wetting (DW) affect the hydraulic conductivity of a natural plastic clay. Because the clay was expansive, FT and DW in the laboratory produced only one order of magnitude increase in hydraulic conductivity above the ‘undisturbed’ value when permeated with water. Permeation with sodium carbonate or dimethyl sulfoxide reduced the hydraulic conductivity towards the undisturbed value, though some increases still remained. Hydraulic conductivities measured by oedometer were lower than those in the triaxial tests and varied strongly with applied pressure.     

Seasonal variability of near-surface isothermal layer and thermocline characteristics of the Tropical Indian Ocean

Summary A subset of world ocean monthly mean temperature climatology generated by Levitus and Boyer (1994), is utilised to describe the observed seasonal variability of the characteristics of the near-surface isothermal layer and thermocline for the entire tropical Indian Ocean (TIO). The most salient features of the observed annual cycle are described in terms of amplitude and phase of the annual and semi-annual frequencies employing Fourier analysis technique. On the annual mode, the near-surface isothermal layer depth (ILD), exhibits larger variability away from the equator with peak values in the northernmost Arabian Sea, the northernmost Bay of Bengal and the southern TIO, while on the semi-annual mode, it shows larger variability in the central Arabian Sea. The variability of the near-surface isothermal layer temperature (ILT), on the annual mode, is very weak in the warmpool region, and increases with latitude, while on the semi-annual mode, it shows larger variability in the northwestern Arabian Sea. The variability of 20°C isotherm topography (D20), on the annual mode, is weakest in the equatorial region and largest in the coastal regions of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and in the southern T10, while on the semi-annual mode, it is prominent in the eastern and western equatorial regions. The thermocline gradient (TG) is very sharp below the warmpool region and diffuses meridionally. On the annual mode, it shows larger variability in the southern TIO, off Somalia and northernmost Arabian Sea, while on the semiannual mode, it shows larger variability in the southwestern Arabian Sea and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. The relationship between near-surface isothermal layer and thermocline characteristics over an annual cycle are explored through correlation analysis. The correlation between ILD and ILT is strong over much of the basin with the exception of the equatorial and coastal upwelling/downwelling zones where internal ocean dynamics are important. In the southern TIO, entrainment of colder waters appears to be important in maintaining the annual cycle of ILT as strong correlation is noticed between ILT and TG. In the Indo-Pacific throughflow region and another region west of it, the annual Rossby waves appear to control D20, as correlations between D20 and other fields are strong in these regions. A similar strong correlation between D20 and ILD is also noticed in the southeastern Arabian Sea where mode-2 Rossby waves identified in numerical model solutions.With 5 Figures     

Use of general circulation model output in the creation of climate change scenarios for impact analysis

Many scientific studies warn of a rapid global climate change during the next century. These changes are understood with much less certainty on a regional scale than on a global scale, but effects on ecosystems and society will occur at local and regional scales. Consequently, in order to study the true impacts of climate change, regional scenarios of future climate are needed. One of the most important sources of information for creating scenarios is the output from general circulation models (GCMs) of the climate system. However, current state-of-the-art GCMs are unable to simulate accurately even the current seasonal cycle of climate on a regional basis. Thus the simple technique of adding the difference between 2 × CO₂ and 1 × CO₂ GCM simulations to current climatic time series cannot produce scenarios with appropriate spatial and temporal details without corrections for model deficiencies. In this study a technique is developed to allow the information from GCM simulations to be used, while accommodating for the deficiencies. GCM output is combined with knowledge of the regional climate to produce scenarios of the equilibrium climate response to a doubling of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration for three case study regions, China, Sub-Saharan Africa and Venezuela, for use in biological effects models. By combining the general climate change calculated with several GCMs with the observed patterns of interannual climate variability, reasonable scenarios of temperature and precipitation variations can be created. Generalizations of this procedure to other regions of the world are discussed.     

Spatial variability of rainfall at an experimental station in Niger,West Africa

Summary Variability of rainfall in the semi-arid regions can cause problems in evaluating experimental trials. To describe the spatial rainfall patterns over a large experimental station, rainfall was monitored during the 1986 and 1987 rainy seasons using 18 raingages over the 500 ha experimental station of ICRISAT Sahelian Center, in Niger, West Africa. Average relative variability of individual rain storms, defined as the percentage deviation from the mean, varied from 2 to 62%, while the variability over the rainy season was 17.1%. Isohyetal patterns of individual rain storms as well as seasonal totals showed distinct coherence in the spatial pattern over the station. The effects of total volume, duration, direction and intensity of storms and the time of year on the spatial correlations were analyzed. Storm value showed a large influence on the correlation decay with distance. Correlations in the W — E and SW — NE directions were higher in comparison to those in the N — S and NW — SE directions. Point rainfall measurements were better correlated with the network average rainfall than with the rainfall recorded at the meteorological station. Variograms among raingages revealed that the distance of independence was approximately 1 000 m for almost all storms. Use of a network of raingages over agricultural experiment stations reduces the average relative variability of areal rainfall estimates and provides a means to develop simple relations for estimation of point rainfall for individual applications.With 8 Figures