Residential Tourism,Swimming Pools,and Water Demand in the Western Mediterranean

Many Mediterranean areas have recently witnessed a proliferation of new urban and tourist-related features following low-density residential patterns that contrast with the traditional high-density urban typologies of Mediterranean cities. The aim of this research is to investigate the links between residential tourism and water consumption through swimming pools, which constitute one key element of the new urban landscapes in the coast of Alicante (southeastern Spain). We have digitized pools in nine municipalities of coastal Alicante and calculated the average depth and estimated water losses due to evaporation. Results show that swimming pools are widely available in tourist residential enclaves but that they tend to display different characteristics according to factors such as the history of the urbanization process and relative wealth of the different areas. We have detected a clear contrast between the large individual pools of the richer northern municipalities and the smaller individual pools and community pools in the newly developed but less well-off urban enclaves of the southern coast.     

Evolution of comet orbits under the perturbing influence of the giant planets and nearby stars

The orbital evolution of 500 hypothetical comets during 10⁹ years is studied numerically. It is assumed that the birthplace of such comets was the region of Uranus and Neptune from where they were deflected into very elongated orbits by perturbations of these planets. Then, we adopted the following initial orbital elements: perihelion distances between 20 and 30 AU, inclinations to the ecliptic plane smaller than 20°, and semimajor axes from 5 × 10³ to 5 × 10⁴ AU. Gravitational perturbations by the four giant planets and by hypothetical stars passing at distances from the Sun smaller than 5 × 10⁵ AU are considered. During the simulation, somewhat more than 50% of the comets were lost from the solar system due to planetary or stellar perturbations. The survivors were removed from the planetary region and left as members of what is generally known as the cometary cloud. At the end of the studied period, the semimajor axes of the surviving comets tend to be concentrated in the interval 2 × 10⁴ < a < 3 × 10⁴ AU. The orbital planes of the comets with initial $\text{a ≧ 3 × 10}{}^4\text{AU}$ acquired a complete randomization while the others still maintain a slight predominance of direct orbits. In addition, comet orbits with final a < 6 × 10⁴AU preserve high eccentricities with an average value greater than 0.8 Most “new” comets from the sample entering the region interior to Jupiter's orbit had already registered earlier passages through the planetary region. By scaling up the rate of paritions of hypothetical new comets with the observed one, the number of members of the cometary cloud is estimated to be about 7 × 10¹⁰ and the conclusion is drawn that Uranus and Neptune had to remove a number of comets ten times greater.     

Neue Ungarische geoelektrische Instrumente

Zusammenfassung Die Einleitung gibt einige Gesichtspunkte der heutigen geoelektrischen Instrumentenentwicklung in Ungarn. Dann werden zwei neue ungarische geoelektrische Instrumente u.z.w.: 1) ein den spezifischen Widerstand unmittelbar lieferndes Instrument und 2) ein isolationsfehlerloses geophysikalisches Fotoregistrier-instrument mit ihren theoretischen Grundlagen behandelt. Am Ende des Artikels werden einige technische Daten der Instrumenten mitgeteilt.

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Summary The introduction deals with the general aspects of the development of modern geoelectrical instruments in Hungary. Then two hungarian geoelectrical instruments: 1) an instrument giving directly the value of the resistivity and 2) a geophysical recording instrument free from isolation errors are discussed from the point of view of the theoretical problems of the instrument-constructions. Finally some technical data of the instruments are presented.

     

Inorganic nitrogen in coral reef sediments

Representative profiles of inorganic nitrogenous species dissolved in interstitial waters of coral reef sands are presented. Ammonium is the dominant nitrogenous species in these pore waters with concentrations of up to 40 μm. Nitrate is present but in lower concentrations. Nitrite is found only occasionally in trace amounts. Computations of diffusive fluxes and inferences concerning microbial activity are derived from the profile structures. Computed flux rates of nitrogenous species from the sediment to the water column range between 0.75 and 1.37 μM m⁻¹ h⁻¹. These inputs may represent a significant source of recycled nitrogen to the primary producers of the coral reef ecosystem.     

Spatial variability of phytoplankton absorption coefficients and pigments off Baja California during November 2002

We have estimated the spatial variability of phytoplankton specific absorption coefficients (a* _ph ) in the water column of the California Current System during November 2002, taking into account the variability in pigment composition and phytoplankton community structure and size. Oligotrophic conditions (surface Chl < 0.2 mg m⁻³) dominated offshore, while mesotrophic conditions (surface Chl 0.2 to 2.0 mg m⁻³) where found inshore. The specific absorption coefficient at 440 [a* _ph (440)] ranged from 0.025–0.281 m²mg⁻¹ while at 675 nm [a* _ph (675)] it varied between 0.014 and 0.087 m²mg⁻¹. The implementation of a size index based on HPLC data showed the community structure was dominated by picoplankton. This would reduce the package effect in the variability of a* _ph (675). Normalized a _ph curves were classified in two groups according to their shape, separating all spectra with peaks between 440 and 550 nm as the second group. Most samples in the first group were from surface layers, while the second group were from the deep chlorophyll maximum or deeper. Accessory photoprotective pigments (APP) tended to decrease with depth and accessory photosynthetic pigments (APS) to increase, indicating the importance of photoprotective mechanisms in surface layers and adaptation to low light at depth. Samples with higher ratios of APP:APS (>0.4) were considered as phytoplankton adapted to high irradiances, and lower ratios (<0.26) as adapted to low irradiances. We found a good relationship between APP:APS and a* _ph (440) for the deeper layer (DCM and below), but no clear evidence of the factors causing the variability of a* _ph (440) in the upper layer.     

Cosmological parameters and redshift periodicity

This work is the continuation of the search for such a cosmological model using which the observed redshift distribution of galaxies in the sample of Broadhurstet al. (1990) turns out to be maximally periodic in the calculated spatial distance. In a previous work, Paálet al. (1992) have demonstrated that among theflat models with non-negative cosmological constant (e.e., vacuum density) the one with a vacuum: dust ratio 2:1 provides the optimum. Now we extend that study to the case of arbitrary space curvature and find equally good periodicity in a surprisingly wide range of models. By use of the dimensionless parameters ₀= ₀/ _crit and ₀=/3H ₀ ² acceptable periodicity is obtained forall points of the parameter plane within the strip between the parallel lines 0.83₀–0.30< ₀(₀)<0.83₀+0.85(₀<1.8), whilst the best periodicities appear along the line ₀=0.83₀+0.39 fitting to the previous optimum at ₀=1/3, ₀=2/3. Any nonpositive value of ₀ gives bad periodicity unless the space curvature is strongly negative and ₀<0.4. Fairly good periodicity is observed only in the range of the deceleration parameter –1.2q ₀<0.2, corresponding to a small or even negative total gravitational attraction and an expansion time-scale longer than usually expected.     

Evaluation of 2D models for the prediction of surface depression storage using realistic reference values

Depression storage (DS) is the maximum storage of precipitation and runoff in the soil surface at a given slope. The DS is determined by soil roughness that in agricultural soils is largely affected by tillage. The direct measurement of DS is not straightforward because of the natural permeability of the soil. Therefore, DS has generally been estimated from 2D/3D empirical relationships and numerical algorithms based on roughness indexes and height measurements of the soil surface, respectively. The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of some 2D models for DS, using direct and reliable measurements of DS in an agricultural soil as reference values. The study was carried out in experimental microplots where DS was measured in six situations resulting from the combination of three types of tillage carried out parallel and perpendicular to the main slope. Those data were used as reference to evaluate four empirical models and a numerical method. Longitudinal altitudinal profiles of the relief were obtained by a laser profilometer. Infiltration measurements were carried out before and after tillage. The DS was largely affected by tillage and its direction. Highest values of DS are found on rougher surfaces mainly when macroforms cut off the dominant slope. The empirical models had a limited performance while the numerical method was the most effective, even so, with an important variability. In addition, a correct hydrological management should take into account that each type of soil tillage affects infiltration rate differently. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A long‐term vegetation history of the Mojave–Colorado desert ecotone at Joshua Tree National Park

Thirty‐eight dated packrat middens were collected from upper desert (930–1357 m) elevations within Joshua Tree National Park near the ecotone between the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert, providing a 30 ka record of vegetation change with remarkably even coverage for the last 15 ka. This record indicates that vegetation was relatively stable, which may reflect the lack of invasion by extralocal species during the late glacial and the early establishment and persistence of many desert scrub elements. Many of the species found in the modern vegetation assemblages were present by the early Holocene, as indicated by increasing Sørenson's Similarity Index values. C₄ grasses and summer‐flowering annuals arrived later at Joshua Tree National Park in the early Holocene, suggesting a delayed onset of warm‐season monsoonal precipitation compared to other Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert localities to the east, where summer rains and C₄ grasses persisted through the last glacial–interglacial cycle. This would suggest that contemporary flow of monsoonal moisture into eastern California is secondary to the core processes of the North American Monsoon, which remained intact throughout the late Quaternary. In the Holocene, northward displacement of the jet stream, in both summer and winter, allowed migration of the subtropical ridge as far north as southern Idaho and the advection of monsoonal moisture both westward into eastern California and northward into the southern Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.