Viticulture in California: Cool airconditioned valleys as the equivalent of warm sheltered “côtes”

This essay focuses on the distinctive geographic setting of viticulture in California. It assesses the significance of the prevailing environmental conditions for wine growing in California and offers an explanation of the spatial pattern of Californian wine climate regions. Wine varieties in California, as almost everywhere in the world, are of European origin (Vitis vinifera). The ultimate result of a bio-geographic diffusion process of Vitis vinifera was the development of superior wine varieties in a climate that is marginal for wine growing in Western Europe (Cf-Köppen). Nestled in a cooler and more precarious macro-climatological environment, the relatively warm micro climates of the slopes (cotes) allow wine growing. The noble varieties peculiar to the slopes have been successfully transplanted in California's coastal valleys, this not-withstanding the California environment, which is diametrically opposed to that in Western Europe. In a hot macro environment (Cs-Köppen), high-quality wine growing is only possible due to the cool airconditioned micro climate in the valleys.     

Deposition of trace substances via cloud interception on a coniferous forest at Kleiner Feldberg

A resistance model to calculate the deposition of cloud droplets on a coniferous forest and some improved parameterizations of the indispensable input parameters are described. The deposition model is adapted to the coniferous forest at the Kleiner Feldberg site and verified by the data of a drip water monitoring station below the forest canopy. The measurements of liqud water content, wind speed and trace substance compounds in cloud water of the Ground-based Cloud Experiment (GCE) at Kleiner Feldberg in 1990 are used to calculate the cloud water deposition fluxes and the deposition of trace substances via cloud water interception. The calculated deposition of trace substances via cloud water interceptions is three to six times higher than via rain during the experiment. On a long term data basis the yearly amount of cloud water deposition is 180 mm year^–1 at Kleiner Feldberg site (840 m a.s.l.) while the precipitation amount is 1030 mm year^–1. Due to higher trace substance concentrations in cloud water compared to rain the ionic deposition via cloud water interception and via precipitation were assessed to be of comparable magnitude.     

Accretion tectonics and crustal structure in Alaska

The entire width of the North American Cordillera in Alaska is made up of “suspect terranes”. Pre-Late Cretaceous paleogeography is poorly constrained and the ultimate origins of the many fragments which make up the state are unclear. The Prince William and Chugach terranes accreted since Late Cretaceous time and represent the collapse of much of the northeast Pacific Ocean swept into what today is southern Alaska. Greater Wrangellia, a composite terrane now dispersed into fragments scattered from Idaho to southern Alaska, apparently accreted into Alaska in Late Cretaceous time crushing an enormous deep-marine flysch basin on its inboard side. Most of interior eastern Alaska is the Yukon Tanana terrane, a very large entirely fault-bounded metamorphic-plutonic assemblage covering thousands of square kilometers in Canada as well as Alaska. The original stratigraphy and relationship to North America of the Yukon-Tanana terrane are both obscure. A collapsed Mesozoic flysch basin, similar to the one inboard of Wrangellia, lies along the northern margin. Much of Arctic Alaska was apparently a vast expanse of upper Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic deep marine sediments and mafic volcanic and plutonic rocks now scattered widely as large telescoped sheets and Klippen thrust over the Ruby geanticline and the Brooks Range, and probably underlying the Yukon-Koyukuk basin and the Yukon flats. The Brooks Range itself is a stack of north vergent nappes, the telescoping of which began in Early Cretaceous time. Despite compelling evidence for thousands of kilometers of relative displacement between the accreted terranes, and large amounts of telescoping, translation, and rotation since accretion, the resulting new continental crust added to North America in Alaska carries few obvious signatures that allow application of currently popular simple plate tectonic models. Intraplate telescoping and strike-slip translations, delamination at mid-crustal levels, and large-scale lithospheric wedging were important processes in northern Cordilleran tectonic evolution.     

China's urban transition

This article describes recent changes in urban patterns in Shanghai-Nanjing, Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan, Canton-Hong Kong, and Dalian-Shenyang. The urban patterns in these metropolitan areas are viewed as part of an urban transition that is responding to population growth, a structural shift in employment, relaxed rules on migration and household registration, and foreign investment and trade. It is argued that these metropolitan coastal areas will form the key growth centers and will lead China's economic development. Urban transition is defined as the shift from rural to urban and from agricultural employment to industrial, commercial, or service employment. China's large cities always dominated as important centers of politics and trade. The recent shift is from interior to coastal cities due to a new world view and a movement away from the isolationism of prior centuries. It is assumed that cities are formed to take advantage of economies of scale in production, consumption, and distribution and to conform to regional specialization. Governments can intervene in growth processes. China's development of cities reflects state controls and market forces. The size and scale of China's population influenced the development process, which resulted in differences in the shape and process of the urban transition. It was under Chinese communism that cities became more than a set of discrete regional urban systems. Reference is made to Oshima's model of change that is specific to monsoon countries. Oshima argues that monsoon agricultural conditions require a distinct strategy based on full employment in order to achieve industrial transition. Rice cultivation requires a large and disciplined labor force. The discussion focuses on other models as well, such as the McGee's model of the extended metropolis and its extension by Zhou Yixing to China. China's changes may not follow Skeldon's models of urbanization in developing countries, because of state control of migration. However, the longer migrants remain in cities the more likely Skeldon's models of early European transitions apply to China's urban transition.     

Power spectrum of brightness temperature fluctuations derived from solar eclipse observations at 2.8 GHz

In this paper we report on the MEM power spectrum analysis of brightness temperature fluctuations observed at 2.8 GHz during the total solar eclipse of 16 February 1980. The observed periodicities range from 3.5 min to 64 min. These periodicities may arise due to spatial and/or temporal variations in the solar radio emission. The observed periodicities imply presence of scale sizes ranging from 70,000 to 600,000 km assuming that the brightness fluctuations arise because of spatial variation only. On the other hand, if these fluctuations are due to temporal variation, the observed periodicities correspond well to predicted modes of solar global oscillations.     

Adding the missing third and fourth dimensions to trajectory analysis in carbonate systems

We developed a seismic geomorphology-based procedure to enhance traditional trajectory analysis with the ability to visualize and quantify lateral variability along carbonate prograding-margin types (ramps and rimmed shelves) in 3D and 4D. This quantitative approach analysed the shelf break geometric evolution of the Oligo-Miocene carbonate clinoform system in the Browse Basin and delineated the feedback between antecedent topography and carbonate system response as controlling factor on shelf break rugosity. Our geometrical analysis identified a systematic shift in the large-scale average shelf break strike direction over a transect of 10 km from 62° to 55° in the Oligo-Miocene interval of the Browse Basin, which is likely controlled by far-field allogenic forcing from the Timor Trough collision zone. Plotting of 3D shelf break trajectories represents a convenient way to visualize the lateral variability in shelf break evolution. Shelf break trajectories that indicate contemporaneous along-strike progradation and retrogradation correlate with phases of autogenic slope system re-organization and may be a proxy for morphological stability of the shelf break. Shelf break rugosity and shelf break trajectory rugosity are not inherited parameters and antecedent topography does not dictate long-term differential movement of the shelf margin through successive depositional sequences. The autogenic carbonate system response to antecedent topography smooths high-rugosity areas by filling accommodation and maintains a relatively constant shelf break rugosity of ~150 m. Color-coding of the vertical component in the shelf break trajectory captures the creation and filling of accommodation, and highlights areas of the transect that are likely to yield inconsistent 2D sequence stratigraphic interpretations.     

Darkness on the Edge of Town: Mapping Urban and Peri-Urban Australia Using Nighttime Satellite Imagery

This article explores the use of nighttime satellite imagery for mapping urban and peri-urban areas of Australia. A population-weighted measure of urban sprawl is used to characterize relative levels of sprawl for Australia's urban areas. In addition, the expansive areas of low light surrounding most major metropolitan areas are used to map the urban–bush interface of exurban land use. Our findings suggest that 82 percent of the Australian population lives in urban areas, 15 percent live in peri-urban or exurban areas, and 3 percent live in rural areas. This represents a significantly more concentrated human settlement pattern than presently exists in the United States.     

河北平原水系密度与隐伏活动构造的关系

以1926年出版的比例尺为1：5万的顺直地形图作为基础图件，用地理信息系统技术对河北平原作水系密度计量分析，揭示隐伏在第四纪巨厚的沉积物之下活动构造的信息，研究结果证实水系线密度统计图与使用其它地球科学方法获得的成果，例如基底活动断块图，地貌类型图和第四纪厚度图都有很好的对应，特别与布格重力图对应更好，研究结果发现水系密度图与布格重力异常图在总体一致性较好的前提下，多处反向异常区均为近代强震发生的区域，提出这种地表水系密度统计研究的成果不仅可以揭示深部隐伏的活动构造，而且具有较明确的时间含义。