Spatial variability of soil nutrients in disturbed riverine mangrove forests at different stages of regeneration in the San Juan River estuary,Venezuela

Geostatistical analysis of selected soil properties were performed in two mangrove sites (B7 and B9) dominated by the mangrove speciesRhizophora mangle along the San Juan River, Venezuela, to evaluate the effect of forest disturbance on nutrient spatial distributions. Plots within area B7 were clear-cut in 1972–1973 and in area B9 in 1982–1983. Four plots within each area were systematically selected and represented natural (2) and regenerated (2) forests. Individual plots were 1.5 ha in B7 and 1.25 ha in B9 and sampled at a resolution of 25 m. Soil samples were obtained at the intersection of an aligned grid with 90 points in B7 and 78 points in B9. Measured soil properties included salinity, total nitrogen, total carbon, total phosphorus, osmolality, and pore water cation concentrations (potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium). Sites were sampled in May 1996 and 1997, although spatial analysis was performed only for the data obtained in May 1997. Geostatistical analysis showed that most of the variables tested were spatially auto-correlated within each area and that there were no differences between regenerated and natural plots. Structural variance as a proportion of sample variance ranged from 55–99% for most of the properties. The significant spatial dependence observed for most of the variables in natural and regenerated plots, despite management schedules, indicates that clear-cutting did not have an effect on modifying the distribution of nutrient concentrations. These results suggest that after 15 and 25 yr following forest disturbance nutrient distributions were reestablished either there was not a net effect on patterns of element loss or tidal input was stronger than plant modifications of soils.     

Distribution of Diatoms and Development of Diatom-Based Models for Inferring Salinity and Nutrient Concentrations in Florida Bay and Adjacent Coastal Wetlands of South Florida (USA)

The composition and distribution of diatom algae inhabiting estuaries and coasts of the subtropical Americas are poorly documented, especially relative to the central role diatoms play in coastal food webs and to their potential utility as sentinels of environmental change in these threatened ecosystems. Here, we document the distribution of diatoms among the diverse habitat types and long environmental gradients represented by the shallow topographic relief of the South Florida, USA, coastline. A total of 592 species were encountered from 38 freshwater, mangrove, and marine locations in the Everglades wetland and Florida Bay during two seasonal collections, with the highest diversity occurring at sites of high salinity and low water column organic carbon concentration (WTOC). Freshwater, mangrove, and estuarine assemblages were compositionally distinct, but seasonal differences were only detected in mangrove and estuarine sites where solute concentration differed greatly between wet and dry seasons. Epiphytic, planktonic, and sediment assemblages were compositionally similar, implying a high degree of mixing along the shallow, tidal, and storm-prone coast. The relationships between diatom taxa and salinity, water total phosphorus (WTP), water total nitrogen (WTN), and WTOC concentrations were determined and incorporated into weighted averaging partial least squares regression models. Salinity was the most influential variable, resulting in a highly predictive model (r _apparent² = 0.97, r _jackknife² = 0.95) that can be used in the future to infer changes in coastal freshwater delivery or sea-level rise in South Florida and compositionally similar environments. Models predicting WTN (r _apparent² = 0.75, r _jackknife² = 0.46), WTP (r _apparent² = 0.75, r _jackknife² = 0.49), and WTOC (r _apparent² = 0.79, r _jackknife² = 0.57) were also strong, suggesting that diatoms can provide reliable inferences of changes in solute delivery to the coastal ecosystem.     

Determination of reaeration‐rate coefficient by modified tracer gas technique

The modified tracer gas technique is used to determine the reaeration coefficient in six different water bodies of the Itajaí River basin, three with rural land use and three in urban areas. Propane was used as the tracer gas and Rhodamine WT as the conservative tracer, providing information on dilution, mixing and dispersion. Liquefied petroleum gas was used instead of high purity propane, aimed at reducing the costs associated with the field trials. Reaeration‐rate coefficients observed in the field ranged from 25.8 to 367.7 d^?1. Two data sets could be observed where smaller streams had substantially larger coefficients of between 133.1 and 367.7 d^?1, while the larger streams had values ??ranging from 25.8 to 54.5 d^?1. Five empirical equations were evaluated by comparing the values ??obtained in the field. The equations proposed by Tsivolgou and Wallace and Tsivoglou and Neal showed greater adherence to the values ??determined in the tests. Reaeration‐rate coefficients obtained in the field were correlated with the hydrodynamic characteristics of the watercourses, thus establishing a mathematical function through which to obtain estimates for future evaluations. The R² value obtained using this equation was 0.959, indicating a high correlation between the calculated values ??and those estimated in the field. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nitrogen pools in Georgia coastal waters

The amount of nitrogen present as ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, dissolved organic nitrogen, and particulate nitrogen was determined for nearshore Georgia shelf waters and for tidal water inundating a 0.5 hectare dikedSpartina alterniflora salt marsh in the adjacent estuary. Concentrations of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite were comparatively low in offshore water (<2.2 μg-at N/1), and in high tide water in the marsh (<9.9 μg-at N/1). High concentrations of ammonia, up to 73.4 μg-at N/1, were measured in low tide water draining from marsh. The largest pools of nitrogen in offshore water and in high tide water in the marsh creek were dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) (2.5 to 20.4 μg-at N/1) and particulate nitrogen (PN) (0.1 to 30.0 μg-at N/1). Concentrations in marsh creek water at low tide were higher, ranging from 4.4 to 38.0 μg-at N/1 for DON and from 13.0 to 239.0 μg-at N/1 for PN. Comparisons of the average concentrations of dissolved and particulate forms of nitrogen in the marsh tidal creek during flood and during ebb tide suggested no net movement of the inorganic nitrogen nutrients, a net influx of PN to the marsh, and a net outflux of DON from the marsh.     

Growth dynamics of cordgrass,Spartina alterniflora loisel., on control and sewage sludge fertilized plots in a Georgia salt marsh

Seasonal plant growth dynamics were followed for a year in undisturbed plots of tall and short formSpartina alterniflora Loisel. and in plots of short formS. alterniflora which were enriched with sewage sludge at a rate of 100 g dry sludge m^?2wk^?1, corresponding to a nitrogen enrichment of 2 g N m^?2wk^?1. Monthly determinations of aboveground live and dead biomass, density of live stems, the ratio of number of young shoots to total number of shoots, and belowground mass of macro-organic matter to a depth of 30 cm were made for each area. Sludge fertilization increased the live biomass of the short formS. alterniflora by up to 150% of the control live biomass, but had little effect on the dead biomass, stem density, or proportion of young shoots. There was a trend of increased amount of belowground macro-organic matter in fertilized compared to control plots during the last 6 months of the study. In all areas, there was a marked decrease in the proportion of young shoots from winter to early summer, followed by a rapid increase in the percent of young shoots from late summer to fall. Sampling of plots 7 and 20 months after termination of sludge enrichment showed higher plant biomass and % N content in surface soils, but no difference in N content of live plant tissue, in fertilized compared to unfertilized marsh. After 20 months, about half of the sludge nitrogen remaining in the soils of the fertilized plots had disappeared.     

Apparent decoupling of the He and Ne isotope systematics of the Icelandic mantle: The role of He depletion, melt mixing, degassing fractionation and air interaction

We present new He-Ne data for geothermal fluids and He-Ne-Ar data for basalts from throughout the Icelandic neovolcanic zones and older parts of the Icelandic crust. Geothermal fluids, subglacial glasses, and mafic phenocrysts are characterized by a wide range in helium isotope ratios (³He/⁴He) encompassing typical MORB-like ratios through values as high as 36.8 R_A (where R_A = air ³He/⁴He). Although neon in geothermal fluids is dominated by an atmospheric component, samples from the northwest peninsula show a small excess of nucleogenic ²¹Ne, likely produced in-situ and released to circulating fluids. In contrast, geothermal fluids from the neovolcanic zones show evidence of a contribution of mantle-derived neon, as indicated by ²⁰Ne enrichments up to 3% compared to air. The neon isotope composition of subglacial glasses reveals that mantle neon is derived from both depleted MORB-mantle and a primordial, ‘solar’ mantle component. However, binary mixing between these two endmembers can account for the He-Ne isotope characteristics of the basalts only if the ³He/²²Ne ratio of the primordial mantle endmember is lower than in the MORB component. Indeed, the helium to neon elemental ratios (⁴He/²¹Ne∗ and ³He/²²Ne_s where ²¹Ne∗ = nucleogenic ²¹Ne and ²²Ne_s = ‘solar’-derived ²²Ne) of the majority of Icelandic subglacial glasses are lower than theoretical values for Earth’s mantle, as observed previously for other OIB samples. Helium may be depleted relative to neon in high-³He/⁴He ratio parental melts due to either more compatible behavior during low-degree partial melting or more extensive diffusive loss relative to the heavier noble gases. However, Icelandic glasses show higher ⁴He/⁴⁰Ar∗ (⁴⁰Ar∗ = radiogenic Ar) values for a given ⁴He/²¹Ne∗ value compared to the majority of other OIB samples: this observation is consistent with extensive open-system equilibrium degassing, likely promoted by lower confining pressures during subglacial eruptions of Icelandic lavas. Taken together, the He-Ne-Ar systematics of Icelandic subglacial glasses are imprinted with the overlapping effects of helium depletion in the high-³He/⁴He ratio parental melt, binary mixing of two distinct mantle components, degassing fractionation and interaction with atmospheric noble gases. However, it is still possible to discern differences in the noble gas characteristics of the Icelandic mantle source beneath the neovolcanic zones, with MORB-like He-Ne isotope features prevalent in the Northern Rift Zone and a sharp transition to more primitive ‘solar-like’ characteristics in central and southern Iceland.     

Estimating the expansion of urban areas and urban heat islands (UHI) in Ghana: a case study

Natural Hazards - This research is focused on identifying urban sprawl pattern and extent in two rapidly growing major Ghanaian cities (Accra and Kumasi) and how urban expansion affected heat...     

Case 21 water level and strain changes preceding and following the August 4, 1985 Kettleman Hills, California, earthquake

Two of the four wells monitored near Parkfield, California, during 1985 showed water level rises beginning three days before theM _w 6.1 Kettleman Hills earthquake. In one of these wells, the 3.0 cm rise was nearly unique in five years of water level data. However, in the other well, which showed a 3.8 cm rise, many other changes of comparable size have been observed. Both wells that did not display pre-earthquake rises tap partially confined aquifers that cannot sustain pressure changes due to tectonic strain having periods longer than several days. We evaluate the effect of partial aquifer confinement on the ability of these four wells to display water level changes in response to aquifer strain. Although the vertical hydraulic diffusivities cannot be determined uniquely, we can find a value of diffusivity for each site that is consistent with the site's tidal and barometric responses as well as with the rate of partial recovery of the coseismic water level drops. Furthermore, the diffusivity for one well is high enough to explain why the preseismic rise could not have been detected there. For the fourth well, the diffusivity is high enough to have reduced the size of the preseismic signal as much as 50%, although it should still have been detectable. Imperfect confinement cannot explain the persistent water level changes in the two partially confined aquifers, but it does show that they were not due to volume strain. The pre-earthquake water level rises may have been precursors to the Kettleman Hills earthquake. If so, they probably were not caused by accelerating slip over the part of the fault plane that ruptured in that earthquake because they are of opposite sign to the observed coseismic water level drops.     

Toxicological Study of Fluorescent Hydrologic Tracer Dye Effects on Cave Bacteria

Fluorescent dyes are commonly used as hydrologic tracers in a variety of surface and subsurface environments, including karst aquifers and caves, but the fragile nature of karstic groundwater ecosystems suggests a cautious approach to selecting dyes. This study tested the effects of four fluorescent dye tracers (uranine, eosin, pyranine, sulforhodamine B) on microorganisms from Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico, United States. Toxicity of the dyes was tested on bacteria isolated from the cave and on a sediment sample collected adjacent to Snowy River in Fort Stanton Cave. The isolates showed minimal inhibition by the four dyes in an agar diffusions assay. Minimum inhibitory concentrations calculated from liquid culture assays of one isolate were 35 g/L for uranine, 3.5 g/L for eosin, 0.1 g/L for pyranine, and 10 mg/L for sulforhodamine B. A ¹⁴C-glucose radiotracer experiment showed zero inhibition of overall microbial activity in a sediment sample at all dye concentrations, except at 350 g/L eosin. Thus, there are no cave-specific findings to indicate that Fort Stanton's microbes are especially sensitive to these commonly used dyes. Moreover, a literature survey of mutagenicity tests on these dyes indicates they are safe for environmental use. These results corroborate previous dye toxicity tests and suggest that these four dyes are suitable for use at Fort Stanton Cave in the concentration ranges commonly used for groundwater tracing. While broader testing of dyes with microbes from other caves is advised, the results suggest the dyes may be safe for all karst aquifers.     

Impact of elevated ammonium on reproduction in two Hawaiian scleractinian corals with different life history patterns

Elevated nutrients have the potential to disrupt reproduction in scleractinian corals, with consequent impacts on population dynamics. Reproduction in broadcast spawning (Montipora capitata) and brooding (Pocillopora damicornis) species was assessed following exposure to elevated ammonium in a microcosm experiment. Planulation in P. damicornis ceased following 4 months of ammonium exposure and did not recover until 3 months after termination of nutrient enrichment. Larval settlement and survivorship were not affected by ammonium enrichment. Few significant changes were found for reproductive parameters of M. capitata. There was a significant but small decrease in egg size (430 microm in control eggs to 408 microm in eggs from ammonium enrichment treatments), but no differences in total fecundity or fertilization success. This may be related to the presence of zooxanthellae in the eggs of M. capitata, in contrast to changes in reproduction previously reported in Acropora species, whose eggs do not contain zooxanthellae.