Estimating climate change effects on net primary production of rangelands in the United States

The potential effects of climate change on net primary productivity (NPP) of U.S. rangelands were evaluated using estimated climate regimes from the A1B, A2 and B2 global change scenarios imposed on the biogeochemical cycling model, Biome-BGC from 2001 to 2100. Temperature, precipitation, vapor pressure deficit, day length, solar radiation, CO₂ enrichment and nitrogen deposition were evaluated as drivers of NPP. Across all three scenarios, rangeland NPP increased by 0.26 % year^?1 (7 kg C ha^?1 year^?1) but increases were not apparent until after 2030 and significant regional variation in NPP was revealed. The Desert Southwest and Southwest assessment regions exhibited declines in NPP of about 7 % by 2100, while the Northern and Southern Great Plains, Interior West and Eastern Prairies all experienced increases over 25 %. Grasslands dominated by warm season (C4 photosynthetic pathway) species showed the greatest response to temperature while cool season (C3 photosynthetic pathway) dominated regions responded most strongly to CO₂ enrichment. Modeled NPP responses compared favorably with experimental results from CO₂ manipulation experiments and to NPP estimates from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Collectively, these results indicate significant and asymmetric changes in NPP for U.S. rangelands may be expected.     

A statistical approach to disentangle environmental forcings in a lacustrine record: the Lago Chungará case (Chilean Altiplano)

A high resolution multiproxy study (magnetic susceptibility, X-ray diffraction, XRF scanner, gray-colour values, Total Organic Carbon, Total Inorganic Carbon, Total Carbon and Total Biogenic Silica) of the sedimentary infill of Lago Chungará (northern Chilean Altiplano) was undertaken to unravel the environmental forcings controlling its evolution using a number of different multivariate statistical techniques. Redundancy analyses enabled us to identify the main provenance of the studied proxies whereas stratigraphically unconstrained cluster analyses allowed us to distinguish the “outsiders” as result of anomalous XRF scanner acquisitions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to identify and isolate the main underlying environmental gradients that characterize the sedimentary infill of Lago Chungará. The first eigenvector of the PCA could be interpreted as an indicator of changes in the input of volcaniclastic material, whereas the second one would indicate changes in water availability. The chronological model of this sedimentary sequence was constructed using 17 AMS ¹⁴C and 1 ²³⁸U/²³⁰Th dates in order to characterize the volcaniclastic input and the changes in water availability in the last 12,300 cal years BP. Comparison of the reconstructed volcaniclastic input of Lago Chungará with the dust particle record from the Nevado Sajama ice core suggested that the Parinacota volcano eruptions were the main source of dust during the mid and Late Holocene rather than the dry out lakes as has previously been pointed out. The comparison of the water availability reconstruction of Lago Chungará with three of the most detailed paleoenvironmental records of the region (Paco Cocha, Lake Titicaca and Salar Uyuni) showed an heterogeneous (and sometimes contradictory) temporal and spatial pattern distribution of moisture. Although the four reconstructions showed a good correlation, each lacustrine ecosystem responded differently to the moisture oscillations that affected this region. The variations in the paleoenvironmental records could be attributed to the dating uncertainities, lake size, lake morphology, catchment size and lacustrine ecosystem responses to the abrupt arid events.     

Dark matter halo creation in moving barrier models

In hierarchical models of structure formation, the time derivative of the halo mass function may be thought of as the difference of two terms – a creation term, which describes the increase in the number of haloes of mass m from mergers of less massive objects, and a destruction term, which describes the decrease in the number of m -haloes as these merge with other haloes, creating more massive haloes as a result. The first part of this paper focuses on estimating the distribution of times when these creation events take place. In models where haloes form from a spherical collapse, this distribution can be estimated from the same formalism which is used to estimate halo abundances: the constant-barrier excursion-set approach. In the excursion-set approach, moving rather than constant barriers are necessary for estimating halo abundances when the collapse is triaxial. First, we generalize the excursion-set estimate of the creation time distribution by incorporating ellipsoidal collapse. Then, we show that these moving barrier based predictions are in better agreement with measurements in numerical simulations than are the corresponding predictions of the spherical collapse model. In the second part of the paper, we link the creation time distribution to the creation term mentioned above. For this quantity, the improvement provided by the ellipsoidal collapse model is more evident. These results should be useful for studies of merger-driven star formation rates and active galactic nucleus activity. We also present a similar study of the creation of haloes conditioned on belonging to an object of a certain mass today, and reach similar conclusions – the moving barrier based estimates are in substantially better agreement with the simulations. This part of the study may be useful for understanding the tendency for the oldest stars to exist in the most massive objects, and for star formation to only occur in lower mass objects at late times.     

Present and Future Cometary Science with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer

Interferometric observations are essential to probe the molecular emission in the inner cometary atmospheres and study the outgassing from the nucleus. Mapping the continuum emission can provide information about the dust and/or nucleus properties. We present here a summary of the observations of the dust and gas coma of comet 17P/Holmes and nuclear observations of 8P/Tuttle, both carried out with the IRAM interferometer at Plateau de Bure (PdBI) in 2007–2008. The observations of these two comets demonstrate the ability of the PdBI in terms of cometary science. In the near future, several improvements will be made (new receivers at 0.8 mm, a new wide-band correlator) allowing more frequent and more detailed studies of comets. On the long term, NOEMA, an expansion project, may add up to six antennas to the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, and increase the baseline lengths. Such an instrument would offer a complement to ALMA to track comets of the northern hemisphere with about half the sensitivity of ALMA for continuum studies.     

Thermal structure and energy budget in a small high mountain lake: La Caldera,Sierra Nevada,Spain

This work examines the diel change of energy storage and its associated patterns of thermal stratification during the ice‐free period in a high mountain lake (La Caldera Lake, Sierra Nevada, Spain), in response to meteorological conditions. Bihourly data have been implemented to a standard methodology of surface heat exchange calculations in lakes. Strong variations have been observed on the diverse components of the energy budget at different time scales, ranging from diel to seasonal. Additionally, time‐series analyses have been applied to reveal the underlying periodicities involved in relation to the different variables studied. The results obtained from this study provided realistic conditions for the environmental modelling of such processes, which are very sensitive in time scale.     

Can we use tracer tests to obtain data for performance assessment of repositories for nuclear waste?

With regard to the long-term safety of repositories for spent nuclear fuel, tracer tests have commonly been used in site characterisation (SC) for finding information that can be later used for performance assessment (PA). The question arises as to whether data obtained in tracer tests performed over a time scale of weeks or months are relevant for PA calculations. As part of a study overseen by the Äspö Task Force, the mechanisms that determine the radionuclide residence time under SC and PA conditions are addressed, given that they influence the validity of data transference from SC to PA. The results show that radionuclide transport in SC and PA, although governed by the same retardation mechanisms, are dominated by different sub-processes. In a practical sense this means that the parameter values (typically fracture apertures and “in situ” apparent retention data) determined in tracer tests, performed as a part of the SC program, should not be used directly for making PA predictions. The emphasis in SC should focus more on the determination of other parameters of relevance at PA timescales. The PA-specific flow rate, flow connectivity, and flow-wetted surface to flow ratio are given here as examples.     

The crustal structure of Cuba derived from Receiver Function Analysis

Teleseismic waveforms recorded by thebroadband seismic stations of Cuba havebeen analysed using the receiver functionmethod. The thickness of the crust at sevensites on the island was found to be inagreement with previous studies. Theresults suggest a clear layering at somesites with a Moho depth ranging between 18and 31 km. In eastern Cuba, the seismicstations located in the south experiencethinner crust in comparison with stationslocated in the north, which is consistentwith a southward gradual thinning revealedby other studies. The thickest crust isfound at Cascorro (CCC) in the interiorpart of the island. The velocity modelscomputed from the receiver-functioninversion show an upper-mantle P-wavevelocity between 7.6 and 8.0 km/sec. Lowvelocity zones are visible at some sites.     

Tectonomagmatism in continental arcs: evidence from the Sark arc complex

The island of Sark (Channel Islands, UK) exposes syntectonic plutons and country rock gneisses within a Precambrian (Cadomian) continental arc. This Sark arc complex records sequential pulses of magmatism over a period of 7 Ma (ca. 616–609 Ma). The earliest intrusion (ca. 616 Ma) was a composite sill that shows an ultramafic base overlain by a magma-mingled net vein complex subsequently deformed at near-solidus temperatures into the amphibolitic and tonalitic Tintageu banded gneisses. The deformation was synchronous with D₂ deformation of the paragneissic envelope, with both intrusion and country rock showing flat, top-to-the-south LS fabrics. Later plutonism injected three homogeneous quartz diorite–granodiorite sheets: the Creux–Moulin pluton (150–250 m; ca. 614 Ma), the Little Sark pluton (>700 m; 611 Ma), and the Northern pluton (>500 m; 609 Ma). Similar but thinner sheets in the south (Derrible–Hogsback–Dixcart) and west (Port es Saies–Brecqhou) are interpreted as offshoots from the Creux–Moulin pluton and Little Sark pluton, respectively. All these plutons show the same LS fabric seen in the older gneisses, with rare magmatic fabrics and common solid state fabrics recording syntectonic crystallisation and cooling. The cooling rate increased rapidly with decreasing crystallisation age: >9 Ma for the oldest intrusion to cool to lower amphibolite conditions, 7–8 Ma for the Creux Moulin pluton, 5–6 Ma for the Little Sark pluton, and <3 Ma for the Northern pluton. This cooling pattern is interpreted as recording extensional exhumation during D₂. The initiation of the D₂ event is suggested to have been a response to the intrusion of the Tintageu magma which promoted a rapid increase in strain rate (>10⁻¹⁴ s⁻¹) that focussed extensional deformation into the Sark area. The increased rates of extension allowed ingress of the subsequent quartz diorite–granodiorite sheets, although strain rate slowly declined as the whole complex cooled during exhumation. The regional architecture of syntectonic Cadomian arc complexes includes flat-lying “Sark-type” and steep “Guernsey-type” domains produced synchronously in shear zone networks induced by oblique subduction: a pattern seen in other continental arcs such as that running from Alaska to California.