The application of δ13C and C/N ratios as indicators of organic carbon sources and paleoenvironmental change of the mangrove ecosystem from Ba Lat Estuary, Red River, Vietnam

In this study, two sediment cores (~70 cm) were collected from separate mangrove forests straddling the Ba Lat Estuary, Red River of northern Vietnam, to examine the origins of sedimentary organic carbon (SOC) and reconstruct the paleoenvironment. In addition, mangrove leaves and particulate organic matter were collected and measured for δ¹³C to trace the origins of SOC. The cores were analyzed by high-resolution sections for δ¹³C, TOC, C/N ratios, sediment grain size, water content, and porosity, with values of δ¹³C, TOC, and C/N ratios ranging from −28.19 to −22.5‰, 2.14–30.94 mg/g, and 10.29–18.32, respectively. The δ¹³C and TOC relationship indicated that there were some small residual effects of diagenetic processes on TOC and δ¹³C values in mangrove sediments. However, the shifts of δ¹³C and C/N ratios from the bottom to the surface sediment of the cores explained the change in organic matter sources, with values of C/N > 12 and δ¹³C < −25‰, and C/N < 12 and δ¹³C > −25‰ indicated terrestrial (e.g., mangrove litter) and marine phytoplankton sources, respectively. The covarying δ¹³C, C/N ratios, and sediment grain sizes during the past 100 years in sediment cores showed that the paleoenvironment may be reconstructed into three environments (subtidal, tidal flat, and intertidal mangrove). General trends in δ¹³C and C/N followed a gradual increase in the C/N ratio and a concomitant decrease in δ¹³C from the subtidal, through to tidal flat, and to the intertidal mangrove. δ¹³C and C/N ratios are therefore effective in measuring the continuum of environmental change in mangrove ecosystem.     

Geochemistry of surface waters in the vicinity of open pit mines at the Cay Cham deposit, Thai Nguyen province, northern Vietnam

This study provides an assessment of the environmental impact of open pit mining operations at the Cay Cham titanomagnetite-ilmenite deposit (northern Vietnam). The results of surface water sampling indicate the formation of acid mine drainage and contamination of adjacent areas by heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Ni, and Mn). The acid mine drainage is produced by oxidation leaching of sulfide minerals associated with primary mineralization owing to the low neutralization potential of the natural waters in the humid environment of tropical rainforest. The study showed that alternating dry and wet seasons typical of this climatic region promote the generation of stored acidity leading to a sharp decrease in pH of drainage water during the wet season and result in the negative impacts of this mine on both flowing and stagnant surface waters.     

Structural controls on the occurrence and morphology of karstified assemblages in northeastern Vietnam: a regional perspective

Karstified assemblages occur widely in, and distinctively shape, the geological landscape of the northeastern part of Vietnam. These carbonate rocks were deposited during three major periods of basinal evolution including: (1) Late Cambrian, (2) Early Devonian to Early Carboniferous, and (3) Carboniferous to Earliest Triassic. These sedimentary units contain primary sedimentary structures and have undergone numerous post-depositional geological processes including multiple deformational events, which can be regionally correlated. Several thrusting events and associated folding have led to significant thickening of the carbonate units. The subsequent post-thrusting cross-folding events, followed by several phases of brittle faulting and fracturing further modified the spatial geometry and outcrop of these rocks. The combination and interaction of the primary structures with those formed during the long-lived and complicated deformational history is an important controlling factor in local and regional hydrogeological systems in the region. The geological structures now recorded in the carbonate units ultimately govern the formation of the unique modern surface and sub-surface geomorphology of the karstic terrains in northeastern Vietnam. These structures should be further investigated in the context of water resource assessment and natural hazard prediction and mitigation.     

Tracing carbon transfer and assimilation by invertebrates and fish across a tropical mangrove ecosystem using stable isotopes

Mangroves are highly productive ecosystems that exhibit a diverse range of habitats, including tidal creeks and flats, forest gaps and interior forest with varying understory light intensity, tidal dynamics, geomorphological settings, and overall biological production. Within mangrove ecosystems, invertebrates and fish feed on heterogeneous food sources, the occurrence of which is unevenly distributed across the system. This provides a basis for testing models of carbon transfer across mangrove ecosystems. We hypothesized that the carbon transfer and assimilation by fish and invertebrates will vary across the different mangrove habitats and that such variations can be predicted by their stable isotope compositions. We analysed δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N signatures of consumers and their potential organic carbon sources across a tropical mangrove ecosystem in Vietnam. The δ¹³C values of crabs and snails significantly decreased from the tidal flat to interior forest, indicating that variations in carbon transfer and assimilation occurred at small scales <30 m. Reduced variation in δ¹³C of suspension‐feeding bivalves suggested that tidal water was a vector for large‐scale transport of carbon across the mangrove ecosystem. An analysis of co‐variance using habitat as a fixed factor and feeding habit and movement capacity of consumers as co‐variates indicated that habitat and feeding types were major features that affected the δ¹³C values of invertebrates and fish. The findings demonstrate that carbon transfer and assimilation across mangrove ecosystems occur as a diverse combination of small (<30 m) and large (>30 m) scale processes.     

A novel fuzzy <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-nearest neighbor inference model with differential evolution for spatial prediction of rainfall-induced shallow landslides in a tropical hilly area using GIS

This research represents a novel soft computing approach that combines the fuzzy k-nearest neighbor algorithm (fuzzy k-NN) and the differential evolution (DE) optimization for spatial prediction of rainfall-induced shallow landslides at a tropical hilly area of Quy Hop, Vietnam. According to current literature, the fuzzy k-NN and the DE optimization are current state-of-the-art techniques in data mining that have not been used for prediction of landslide. First, a spatial database was constructed, including 129 landslide locations and 12 influencing factors, i.e., slope, slope length, aspect, curvature, valley depth, stream power index (SPI), sediment transport index (STI), topographic ruggedness index (TRI), topographic wetness index (TWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), lithology, and soil type. Second, 70 % landslide locations were randomly generated for building the landslide model whereas the remaining 30 % landslide locations was for validating the model. Third, to construct the landslide model, the DE optimization was used to search the optimal values for fuzzy strength (fs) and number of nearest neighbors (k) that are the two required parameters for the fuzzy k-NN. Then, the training process was performed to obtain the fuzzy k-NN model. Value of membership degree of the landslide class for each pixel was extracted to be used as landslide susceptibility index. Finally, the performance and prediction capability of the landslide model were assessed using classification accuracy, the area under the ROC curve (AUC), kappa statistics, and other evaluation metrics. The result shows that the fuzzy k-NN model has high performance in the training dataset (AUC?=?0.944) and validation dataset (AUC?=?0.841). The result was compared with those obtained from benchmark methods, support vector machines and J48 decision trees. Overall, the fuzzy k-NN model performs better than the support vector machines and the J48 decision trees models. Therefore, we conclude that the fuzzy k-NN model is a promising prediction tool that should be used for susceptibility mapping in landslide-prone areas.     

Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in Soft Tissues of Bivalve Mollusks from Natural Lakes in Eastern Sikhote Alin (Russia) and the Mekong Delta (Vietnam)

Doklady Earth Sciences - The concentrations of seven heavy metals (HMs) in tissues of bivalve mollusks of the families Unionidae (genera Ensidens, Scabies, Kunashiria) and Cyrenidae (genus...     

Determination of Abundances of Fifty‐Two Elements in Natural Waters by ICP‐MS with Freeze‐Drying Pre‐concentration

To precisely determine the abundances of fifty‐two elements found within natural water samples, with mass fractions down to fg g^?1 level, we have developed a method which combines freeze‐drying pre‐concentration (FDC) and isotope dilution internal standardisation (ID‐IS). By sublimation of H₂O, the sample solution was reduced to < 1/50 of the original volume. To determine element abundance with accuracy better than 10%, we found that for solutions being analysed by mass spectrometry the HNO₃ concentration should be > 0.3 mol l^?1 to avoid hydrolysis. Matrix‐affected signal suppression was not significant for the solutions with NaCl concentrations lower than 0.2 and 0.1 cg g^?1 for quadrupole ICP‐MS and sector field ICP‐MS, respectively. The recovery yields of elements after FDC were 97–105%. The detection limits for the sample solutions prepared by FDC were ≤ 10 pg g^?1, except for Na, K and Ca. Blanks prepared using FDC were at pg‐levels, except for eleven elements (Na, Mg, Al, P, Ca, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn). The abundances of fifty‐two elements in bottled drinking water were determined from five different geological sources with mass fractions ranging from the fg g^?1 to μg g^?1 level with high accuracy.     

Repartition non orthogonale des sens du premier mouvement des ondes P

Usually, one can explain the orthogonal distribution of first movement by the dislocation model of seismic sources, namely a uniform slip. However, other representations may be obtained if the normal component of the dislocation is present. When this component is less than 0.6 times the tangential one, we obtain conical distributions. Some models which simulate a volume phenomenon provide analogous results. We show that they could agree with some observations.     

Design of multiple tuned mass dampers by using a numerical optimizer

A new method to design multiple tuned mass dampers (multiple TMDs) for minimizing excessive vibration of structures has been developed using a numerical optimizer. It is a very powerful method by which a large number of design variables can be effectively handled without imposing any restriction before the analysis. Its framework is highly flexible and can be easily extended to general structures with different combinations of loading conditions and target controlled quantities. The method has been used to design multiple TMDs for SDOF structures subjected to wide‐band excitation. Some novel results have been obtained. To reduce displacement response of the structure, the optimally designed multiple TMDs have distributed natural frequencies and distinct damping ratios at low damping level. The obtained optimal configuration of TMDs was different from the earlier analytical solutions and was proved to be the most effective. A robustness design of multiple TMDs has also been presented. Robustness is defined as the ability of TMDs to function properly despite the presence of uncertainties in the parameters of the system. Numerical examples of minimizing acceleration structural response have been given where the system parameters are uncertain and are modeled as independent normal variates. It was found that, in case of uncertainties in the structural properties, increasing the TMD damping ratios along with expanding the TMD frequency range make the system more robust. Meanwhile, if TMD parameters themselves are uncertain, it is necessary to design TMDs for higher damping ratios and a narrower frequency range. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.