Hydrogeological and mixing process of waters in deep aquifers in arid regions: south east Tunisia

This study addresses the hydrogeochemistry of thermal and cold waters from south east Tunisia. Temperature intervals are 38.5–68 °C and 22–27.8 °C for thermal water and cold water, respectively. Three distinct hydrogeological systems supply water either for irrigation or for drinking; they are: (1) the Continental Intercalaire geothermal aquifer (CI), (2) the Turonian aquifer and (3) the Senonian aquifer. A synthetic study including hydrochemical, hydrogeological and geothermal approaches have been applied in order to evaluate the inter-aquifers water transfer in south east of Tunisia. By using silica geothermometers and saturation indices for different solid phases, estimated thermal reservoir temperature varies between 52 and 87 °C and between 75 and 110 °C, respectively. Based on chemical and thermal data, mixing, which occurs between the ascending deep geothermal water and shallow cold water, is about 57 % cold water.     

Biochemical biomarkers in adult female perch (Perca fluviatilis) in a chronically polluted gradient in the Stockholm recipient (Sweden)

A battery of biochemical biomarkers and the SigmaPCB concentration in adult female perch (Perca fluviatilis) verified an aquatic pollution gradient with the city of Stockholm (Sweden) as a point source of anthropogenic substances. The investigation included both an upstream gradient, 46 km westwards through Lake M?laren, and a downstream gradient, 84 km eastwards through the Stockholm archipelago. Besides the main gradient from Stockholm, there were strong indications of pollution coming from the Baltic Sea. The results indicated a severe pollution situation in central Stockholm, with poor health status of the perch, characterised by increased specific EROD activity in the liver, increased liver EROD somatic index, decreased AChE activity in the muscle, increased amount of DNA adducts in the liver, and a high concentration of biliary 1-pyrenol. In addition, laboratory exposure to common EROD inducers elicited an abnormal response, suggestive of chronic intoxication.     

Evolution of Pleistocene travertine depositional system from terraced slope to fissure-ridge in a mixed travertine-alluvial succession (Jebel El Mida,Gafsa, southern Tunisia)

The Quaternary stratigraphic record of Jebel El Mida, composed of continental deposits, is a useful example of concomitant travertines and alluvial deposition in an extensional setting. Travertine deposition occurred in a faulted Pleistocene alluvial fan giving rise to seven (recognised) facies interfingering with five other alluvial ones. The travertine depositional events indicate a tectonically driven evolution from terraced slope (facies group FC1–FC6) to a travertine fissure ridge-type depositing phase (facies group of FC1–FC7). Interfingering between travertine and alluvial facies indicates the co-existence of adjacent and time-equivalent depositional environments. The travertine deposition resulted from deep origin hydrothermal fluids channelled along damaged rocks volumes associated to a regional fault system, named as the Gafsa Fault (GF). The travertine–terrigenous succession in Jebel El Mida highlights the major role played by the GF in controlling: (i) the hydrothermal fluid flow, still active as also indicated by the numerous thermal springs aligned along the fault zone; (ii) paleoflow directions, discharge locations, volume, rate and fluctuations of the water supply. The paleoclimatic correlation with adjacent localities reveals that, at that time, humid episodes could have contributed to the recharge of the hydrothermal system and to the deposition of alluvial sediments.     

Deformation correlations,stress field switches and evolution of an orogenic intersection: The Pan-African Kaoko-Damara orogenic junction,Namibia

Age calibrated deformation histories established by detailed mapping and dating of key magmatic time markers are correlated across all tectono-metamorphic provinces in the Damara Orogenic System.Correlations across structural belts result in an internally consistent deformation framework with evidence of stress field rotations with similar timing,and switches between different deformation events.Horizontal principle compressive stress rotated clockwise ~180°in total during Kaoko Belt evolution,and~135° during Damara Belt evolution.At most stages,stress field variation is progressive and can be attributed to events within the Damara Orogenic System,caused by changes in relative trajectories of the interacting Rio De La Plata,Congo,and Kalahari Cratons.Kaokoan orogenesis occurred earliest and evolved from collision and obduction at ~590 Ma,involving E-W directed shortening,progressing through different transpressional states with ~45° rotation of the stress field to strike-slip shear under NW-SE shortening at ~550-530 Ma.Damaran orogenesis evolved from collision at ~555-550 Ma with NW-SE directed shortening in common with the Kaoko Belt,and subsequently evolved through ~90°rotation of the stress field to NE-SW shortening at ~512-508 Ma.Both Kaoko and Damara orogenic fronts were operating at the same time,with all three cratons being coaxially convergent during the 550-530 Ma period;Rio De La Plata directed SE against the Congo Craton margin,and both together over-riding the Kalahari Craton margin also towards the SE.Progressive stress field rotation was punctuated by rapid and significant switches at ~530-525 Ma,~508 Ma and ~505 Ma.These three events included:(1)Culmination of main phase orogenesis in the Damara Belt,coinciding with maximum burial and peak metamorphism at 530-525 Ma.This occurred at the same time as termination of transpression and initiation of transtensional reactivation of shear zones in the Kaoko Belt.Principle compressive stress switched from NW-SE to NNW-SSE shortening in both Kaoko and Damara Belts at this time.This marks the start of Congo-Kalahari stress field overwhelming the waning Rio De La Plata-Congo stress field,and from this time forward contraction across the Damara Belt generated the stress field governing subsequent low-strain events in the Kaoko Belt.(2)A sudden switch to E-W directed shortening at ~508 Ma is interpreted as a far-field effect imposed on the Damara Orogenic System,most plausibly from arc obduction along the orogenic margin of Gondwana(Ross-Delamerian Orogen).(3)This imposed stress field established a N-S extension direction exploited by decompression melts,switch to vertical shortening,and triggered gravitational collapse and extension of the thermally weakened hot orogen core at ~505 Ma,producing an extensional metamorphic core complex across the Central Zone.     

Field testing of one-way and two-way cyclic lateral responses of single and jet-grouting reinforced piles in soft clay

Piles supporting transmission towers, offshore structures (such as wind turbines), or infrastructures in seismic areas are frequently subjected to either one-way or two-way cyclic lateral loadings. Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to compare and understand the effects of different loading regimes (one-way or two-way cycling) on lateral responses of piles in soft clay. For this reason, a series of field tests in soft clay are carried out to compare one-way and two-way cyclic responses of single piles and of jet-grouting reinforced piles. The field tests reveal that the single pile subjected to two-way cycling experiences much more rapid degradation in lateral stiffness and capacity, but accumulates much smaller residual pile deflection (δ _p), than the single pile under one-way cycling. This is because the reverse part of the two-way cycling also generates plastic strain, causing additional softening and strength reduction in the soil surrounding the pile. After each cycling, non-zero bending moment (i.e. locked in moment, or M _L) is retained in the single piles, and the M _L increases with the δ _p. The one-way cycling leads to two times larger M _L than the two-way cycling, as it causes greater δ _p. The maximum M _L in the pile after one-way cycling can be up to 40% of the maximum bending moment induced during the previous cyclic loading stage. After application of jet-grouting surrounding the upper part of the single pile, it greatly reduces degradation of lateral pile stiffness, accumulation of δ _p and therefore development of M _L. Compared to the field measurements, the API (API RP 2A-WSD, recommended practice for planning, designing, and constructing fixed offshore platform-working stress design, 21st edn. API, Washington, 2000) code underestimates the lateral stiffness of the pile under one-way cycling, while overestimates that of the pile under two-way cycling, leading to a non-conservative prediction of bending moment in the latter pile.     

Phytoremediation assessment of native plants growing on Pb–Zn mine site in Northern Tunisia

Pollution by heavy metals presents an environmental concern, and their toxicity threats soil, water, animals and human health. Phytoremediation can be used as a solution to remediate contaminated soils. The aim of this study was to identify native plants collected from tailings: material of Pb–Zn mine sites of Fedj Lahdoum and Jebel Ressas (two abandoned mines located, respectively, in the northwest of Tunisia and in the south of Tunis City). The tolerance of plant to heavy metals (lead, zinc and cadmium) is evaluated. Soil samples were collected and analyzed for Pb, Zn and Cd concentration. The total soil Pb, Zn and Cd are, respectively, reached 6132 mg kg^?1, 11,052 mg kg^?1 and it doesn’t exceed 479 mg kg^?1 for Cd. The highest content of Zn in plants was detected in shoots of Rumex bucephalophorus (1048 mg kg^?1), and the highest Pb concentration was detected in roots of Chrysopogon zizanioides (381 mg kg^?1), while for Cd Silene colorata it accumulated the highest content in roots (51 mg kg^?1). From all plants, only 12 have a translocation factor for Pb which is higher than one. Among all plants, only 17 have a translocation factor that is higher than one for Zn, while for Cd only 13 plants indicate TF > 1. As for the biological absorption coefficient, all samples indicate a rate which is lower than one. These plants can be primarily hyper accumulators and useful in remediation of lead- and zinc-contaminated soils after further biochemistry researches in mechanism of accumulation and translocation of heavy metals in plants.     

Hyperspectral image betweenness centrality clustering based adaptive spatial and spectral neighborhood approach for anomaly detection

Segmentation-based anomaly detectors proceeds to the clustering of the hyperspectral image as a first step. However, most of the well-known clustering methods cluster anomalous pixels as a part of the background. This paper presents a new hyperspectral image clustering approach based on the betweenness centrality measure. The proposed approach starts by the construction of an adaptive spatial and spectral neighborhood for each pixel. This neighborhood is based on the selection of the nearest spectral and spatial neighbors in multiple windows around each pixel to allow well-suited representation of the image features. In the next step, this neighborhood is clustered based on the edge betweenness measure algorithm that splits the image into regions sharing similar features. This approach (1) allows the reduction of intercluster relationship, (2) favors intracluster relations, and (3) preserves small clusters that can hold anomalous pixels. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is efficient for clustering and overcomes the state of the art approaches.     

盐生植物萌发期对盐胁迫的适应研究进展

目前我国盐渍土地面积较大,尤其是青藏高原的盐渍地,常伴有干旱、半干旱的生境,导致植物不易生长,生态环境相对恶劣,这种生态现状亟待解决。盐生植物具有一定的耐盐性和耐旱性,是改善盐渍地的首选植物,种子的活力决定了种子萌发的情况,多数学者为改善严峻的生态环境开始了盐生植物引种的研究。测定种子活力有直接方法和间接方法,大多数学者采用的是直接方法,即在实验室模拟一定条件直接测定萌发率。简述了盐生植物的概况、制造胁迫的主要方法以及检测种子活力的指标,综述了近年来不同学者对盐爪爪、白刺等具有代表性的22种盐生植物在种子萌发期的耐盐性以及抗旱性的相关研究,为改善盐渍地的生态环境、提升盐渍地的生产量提供了理论基础。     

洪泽湖水沙变化趋势和冲淤时空分布及驱动因素

为了研究洪泽湖水沙特性、变化趋势与冲淤时空分布规律,运用累积距平法、Mann-Kendall趋势与突变检验以及R/S分析法等方法,分析了洪泽湖19502016年的水沙特征;采用地理信息技术,基于1992年和2016年实测地形,对湖区泥沙冲淤空间分布进行了定量计算与分析.结果表明,入湖径流量无明显增加或减少的趋势,输沙量和含沙量呈明显减小趋势,1990年以后含沙量基本稳定在0.2 kg/m^3以下;淮河干流(包括池河)入湖水量和沙量约占入湖总量的89.6%,三河闸出湖水沙占总出湖量的60%.淮干入湖口和溧河洼为主要淤积区域,淤积量分别为2300×10^4和1900×10^4 m^3,平均淤积厚度分别为0.35和0.25 m;其他区域自然冲淤基本平衡.上游水库和河道闸坝的拦沙作用、农业种植结构变化和水土保持、大规模人工采砂等是入湖沙量减少的主要影响因素;湖区水动力特性是泥沙自然淤积主导因素,而湖区库容变化的主因则是人工采砂、围湖造田和围网养殖,且人类活动的影响远大于自然冲淤.     

Simulation of urban climate with high-resolution WRF model: A case study in Nanjing, China

In this study, urban climate in Nanjing of eastern China is simulated using 1-km resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a single-layer Urban Canopy Model. Based on the 10-summer simulation results from 2000 to 2009 we find that the WRF model is capable of capturing the high-resolution features of urban climate over Nanjing area. Although WRF underestimates the total precipitation amount, the model performs well in simulating the surface air temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation frequency and inter-annual variability. We find that extremely hot events occur most frequently in urban area, with daily maximum (minimum) temperature exceeding 36°C (28°C) in around 40% (32%) of days. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect at surface is more evident during nighttime than daytime, with 20% of cases the UHI intensity above 2.5°C at night. However, The UHI affects the vertical structure of Planet Boundary Layer (PBL) more deeply during daytime than nighttime. Net gain for latent heat and net radiation is larger over urban than rural surface during daytime. Correspondingly, net loss of sensible heat and ground heat are larger over urban surface resulting from warmer urban skin. Because of different diurnal characteristics of urban-rural differences in the latent heat, ground heat and other energy fluxes, the near surface UHI intensity exhibits a very complex diurnal feature. UHI effect is stronger in days with less cloud or lower wind speed. Model results reveal a larger precipitation frequency over urban area, mainly contributed by the light rain events (< 10 mm d^?1). Consistent with satellite dataset, around 10?C20% more precipitation occurs in urban than rural area at afternoon induced by more unstable urban PBL, which induces a strong vertical atmospheric mixing and upward moisture transport. A significant enhancement of precipitation is found in the downwind region of urban in our simulations in the afternoon.