The distribution of rare phenolic type compounds in wild and cultivated wheats

In 14 species of Aegilops, four species of Triticum and two species of Hordeum, a complex of rare phenolic compounds was found and showed quantitative differences between the wild and domestic species. There was a dramatic reduction in the cultivars to about 5% of the amount of these phenolic constituents. In the wild species these phenolic compounds may act as important germination regulators, such as water-dissolving germination inhibitors which may act as 'rain gauges'. This is especially important for the germination at the appropriate time in species inhabiting arid regions or deserts.     

Wind flows and forces in a model spruce forest

Wind tunnel tests have been conducted on a 1:75 scale model of a Sitka spruce forest in a correctly scaled turbulent boundary-layer flow. 12000 tree models were manufactured with mass, flexibility and aerodynamic drag characteristics chosen to give dynamical similarity with typical 15 m trees in a 30ms^–1 gale. To measure the dynamic response of a sample tree, set within this model forest, a miniature, fast response strain-gauge balance was designed and built. Linked to a computer for on-line data sampling, this balance provided measurements of the fluctuating along-wind and acrosswind components of the overturning moment at ground level, leading to values of mean and extreme moments and the frequency spectrum of the sway motion. Associated measurements of local wind flow characteristics were made with hot-wire anemometers and a laser anemometer. The response of the tree has the characteristics of classical lightly damped vibration and there is evidence that resonant sway motion increases the extreme overturning moments significantly above the values produced by wind gust forces alone.     

HIGH PRECISION PHOTOGRAMMETRIC MONITORING OF THE DEFORMATION OF A STEEL BRIDGE

Site procedures, instrumentation, analytical methods and accuracies achieved are described for the measurement of the deformation of a military steel bridge under load in a test gantry. Some remarks concerning the advantages and disadvantages of photogrammetry as a method of industrial measurement are made.     

Sporormiella as a proxy for non-mammalian herbivores in island ecosystems

Spores of the dung-fungi Sporormiella are routinely used as a proxy for past megaherbivore biomass and to pinpoint the timing of extinctions. Further ecological insight can also be gained into the impacts that followed initial human arrival in a region through correlation of spore abundance with other proxies (e.g. pollen, charcoal). Currently, the use of Sporormiella as a palaeoecological proxy has been restricted to landmasses where large-herbivore guilds are dominated by mammals. Here, we use New Zealand as a case study to show that the method can also be applied effectively to islands dominated by large avian herbivores. We examine 44 dung samples from 7 localities to show that Sporormiella spores were widely distributed in the dung of endemic avian herbivores (South Island takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri), kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), and several species of extinct moa, identified by ancient DNA analysis). In addition, we show that Sporormiella spores in a forest soil core from the Murchison Mountains, South Island, accurately trace the post-settlement decline of native avian herbivores, and combined with high-resolution radiocarbon dating reveal severely reduced local herbivore populations by the late 17th Century AD. The spores also trace the subsequent spread of Red deer (Cervus elaphus) introduced to the area in the early 20th Century AD. Our results suggest Sporormiella spores may provide a useful new tool for examining extinctions on numerous islands where terrestrial herbivore guilds were dominated by birds or reptiles. Our findings also highlight the need to consider entire herbivore communities (including birds and reptiles) when examining Late Pleistocene continental Sporormiella records, where the focus has often been tracing the decline of populations of large mammals.     

Estimating suspended sediment concentrations in areas with limited hydrological data using a mixed‐effects model

Sediment rating curves are commonly used to estimate the suspended sediment load in rivers and streams under the assumption of a constant relation between discharge (Q) and suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) over time. However, temporal variation in the sediment supply of a watershed results in shifts in this relation by increasing variability and by introducing nonlinearities in the form of hysteresis or a path‐dependent relation. In this study, we used a mixed‐effects linear model to estimate an average SSC–Q relation for different periods of time within the hydrologic cycle while accounting for seasonality and hysteresis. We tested the performance of the mixed‐effects model against the standard rating curve, represented by a generalized least squares regression, by comparing observed and predicted sediment loads for a test case on the Chilliwack River, British Columbia, Canada. In our analyses, the mixed‐effects model reflected more accurate patterns of interpolated SSC from Q data than the rating curve, especially for the low‐flow summer months when the SSC–Q relation is less clear. Akaike information criterion scores were lower for the mixed‐effects model than for the standard model, and the mixed‐effects model explained nearly twice as much variance as the standard model (52% vs 27%). The improved performance was achieved by accounting for variability in the SSC–Q relation within each month and across years for the same month using fixed and random effects, respectively, a characteristic disregarded in the sediment rating curve. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sources of the transuranic elements plutonium and neptunium in arctic marine sediments

We report here thermal ionization mass spectrometry measurements of ²³⁹Pu, ²⁴⁰Pu, ²⁴¹Pu, ²⁴²Pu, and ²³⁷Np isolated from oceanic, estuarine, and riverine sediments from the Arctic Ocean Basin. ²³⁸Pu/^239+240Pu activity ratios are also reported for alpha spectrometric analyses undertaken on a subset of these samples. Our results indicate that the Pu in sediments on the Alaskan shelf and slope, as well as that in the deep basins (Amerasian and Eurasian) of the Arctic Ocean, has its origin in stratospheric and tropospheric fallout. Sediments from the Ob and Yenisei Rivers show isotopic Pu signatures that are distinctly different from those of northern-hemisphere stratospheric fallout and indicate the presence of weapons-grade Pu originating from nuclear fuel reprocessing wastes generated at Russian facilities within these river catchments. Consequently, sediments of the Eurasian Arctic Ocean, particularly those in the Barents and Kara Seas, probably contain a mixture of Pu from stratospheric fallout, tropospheric fallout, and fuel-reprocessing wastes of riverine origin. In particular, the ²⁴¹Pu/²³⁹Pu ratios observed in these sediments are inconsistent with significant contributions of Pu to the arctic sediments studied from western European reprocessing facilities, principally Sellafield in the UK. Several other potential sources of Pu to arctic sediments can also be excluded as significant based upon the transuranic isotope ratios presented.     

Variability of shallow overland flow velocity and soil aggregate transport observed with digital videography

Field experiments at Tiramoana station 30 km north of Christchurch, New Zealand using an erosion plot 16·5 m long, 0·6 m wide, and with a slope of 14–14·5° on rendzina soil aimed to measure the variability of flow velocity and of soil aggregates transport rate in shallow overland flow. Discharge/cross‐section area ratio was used to estimate mean velocity, and high‐speed digital video camera and image analysis provided information about flow and sediment transport variability. Six flow runs with 0·5–3·0 L s^?1 discharges were supercritical with Froude numbers close to or more than 1. Mean flow velocity followed Poiseuille law, float numbers were more than 1·5 and hydraulic resistance was an inverse proportional function of the Reynolds number, which is typical for laminar flows. Hence actual velocity varied through time significantly and the power spectrum was of ‘red‐noise’, which is typical for turbulent flow. Sediment transport rates had even higher variability, and soil aggregates transport was a compound Poisson process. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial and temporal dynamics of stream water particulate and dissolved N, P and C forms along a catchment transect, NE Scotland

The dynamics of dissolved and particulate N, P and organic C were examined for field drains, through a headwater (4 km²), into a mesoscale stream (51 km²) and river (1844 km²) catchment. Distributions of N and P forms were similar in the agricultural headwater and field drains; annual P fluxes of particulate and dissolved forms were of equal magnitude, whilst N was dominated by NO₃–N. Across all scales organic P was an important, often dominant, component of the dissolved P. Temporal variation in nutrient concentrations and proportions was greatest in the headwater, where storms resulted in the generation of large concentrations of suspended particulate matter, particulate and dissolved P, particularly following dry periods. The data suggest that groundwater and minor point source inputs to the mesoscale catchment buffered the temporal variability in hydrochemistry relative to the headwater. Summer low flows were associated with large PO₄–P concentrations in the mesoscale catchment at a critical time of biological sensitivity. At the largest river catchment scale, organic forms of C, N and P dominated. Inorganic nutrient concentrations were kept small through dilution by runoff from upland areas and biological processes converted dissolved N and P to particulate forms. The different processes operating between the drain/headwater to the large river scale have implications for river basin management. Given the prevalence of organic and particulate P forms in our catchment transect, the bioavailability of these fractions needs to be better understood.     

Aeolian fetch distance and secondary airflow effects: the influence of micro‐scale variables on meso‐scale foredune development

Unsuccessful attempts to use process‐scale models to predict long‐term aeolian sediment transport patterns have long been a feature of aeolian research. It has been proposed that one approach to overcome these problems is to identify micro‐scale variables that are important at longer timescales. This paper assesses the contribution of two system variables (secondary airflow patterns and fetch distance) to medium‐term (months to years) dune development. The micro‐scale importance of these variables had been established during previous work at the site (Magilligan Strand, Northern Ireland). Three methods were employed. First, sand drift potentials were calculated using 2 years of regional wind data and a sediment transport model. Second, wind data and large trench traps (2 m length × 1 m width × 1·5 m depth) were used to assess the actual sediment transport patterns over a 2‐month period. Third, a remote‐sensing technique for the identification of fetch distance, a saltation impact sensor (Safire) and wind data were utilized to gauge, qualitatively, sediment transport patterns over a 1‐month period. Secondary airflow effects were found to play a major role in the sediment flux patterns at these timescales, with measured and predicted rates matching closely during the trench trap study. The results suggest that fetch distance is an unimportant variable at this site. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The association of potassic trachytes and carbonatites at the Dicker Willem Complex, southwest Namibia: coexisting, immiscible, but not cogenetic magmas

The only significant silicate intrusive rock type in the Dicker Willem carbonatite complex is trachyte, forming, in places, an anastomosing array of minor intrusions cutting basement gneiss close to the carbonatite contact. Bodies are predominantly composite breccias, composed of trachyte clasts, commonly in the form of ellipsoidal pellets, enclosed within, and sharply delineated from, a matrix of carbonatite. Despite close temporal and spatial relationships to carbonatite magmatism, the ultrapotassic, quartz-normative composition and isotope systematics of the trachytes preclude any genetic derivation from the carbonatitic and ijolitic rocks of the central complex. Sr, Nd and Pb isotope ratios of trachytes strongly resemble those of the highest grade, potassic fenites, whose metasomatic trend converges from the unaltered basement gneiss towards the homogeneous signature of the nepheline sövite–sövite–ijolite suite. Trachytes are interpreted as forming by melting of a cupola of high-grade fenite in response to the advective heat flux from rising carbonatite magma or fluid. Mixed carbonatite and trachyte were emplaced in a fluidised system as contemporaneous, but genetically unrelated, immiscible magmas.