A feather hydrogen isoscape for Mexico

Developing useful biological isoscapes for areas of the world is a priority. This is the case for Mexico that hosts a large percentage of North America's Neotropical migrant birds. Here we investigated the use of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) feathers to create a spatially explicit feather deuterium isoscape for that country using samples (n = 461) that were collected across Mexico. Considerable and useful spatial hydrogen isotopic structure was observed, suggesting that isotopes may be a potential forensic tool for evaluating origins of Mexican derived fauna and flora. The most positive feather δD values occurred in the northeast and most negative in the south-central part of the country, roughly matching δD patterns observed in groundwater. A weak negative isotopic relationship was found with altitude in both the Pacific and Atlantic drainage systems. The most parsimonious model describing isotopic spatial variation in feathers between 300 and 3000 m a.s.l. included groundwater δD (δD_gw; precipitation proxy), sex, amount of precipitation, and the coefficient of variation in amount of precipitation. Overall, δD_gw was a poor predictor of sparrow δD_f values for all of Mexico. However, this relationship was considerably strengthened when we considered sex separately, removed the Baja peninsula from our sample, and considered the Atlantic and Pacific drainage basins separately. The strongest relationship between δD_gw and δD_f was found for female sparrows in the Atlantic drainage basin (r² = 0.464). We recommend that researchers interested in inferring origins of migratory birds and other animals in Mexico create species specific isotopic basemaps that may be guided by the isotopic patterns we have observed for House Sparrows and groundwater.     

Polarization properties of silicate-like grains in circumstellar envelopes of late-type stars due to temperature variations

The influence of temperature changes in circumstellar silicate-like envelopes upon the polarization effects is investigated. It is shown that under the assumption that ΔT _g>50° and conductivity of silicate grains is indirectly proportional toT _g this mechanism can be responsible for the observed dependence of intensity vs polarization in some late-type stars, e.g. V CVn. The same effects can be produced by dirty ices and graphite grains. It is suggested that irradiation by electrons and/or protons can affect the circumstellar envelopes in a similar way, especially those of early-type stars, and irradiation by neutrons can exert an influence on the envelopes of supernovae.     

PDRS and Shocks in S106 IR and CEP a East

We present SWS grating scans of pure H2 rotational lines, as well as several infrared fine-structure lines for two embedded Young Stellar Objects, S106 IR and Cep A East. Excitation temperatures and masses were derived from the low-lying pure rotational levels of H2 and are 490 and 740 K and 0.04 and 0.007 M⊙ for S106 and Cep A, respectively. The observations were compared to theoretical models for PDRs and dissociative and non-dissociative shocks. The infrared spectrum of S106 IR is dominated by PDR emission while that of Cep A East has a large shock component. We suggest that the difference between these two objects could reflect an evolutionary trend. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effects of riverbed incision on the hydrology of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

The hydrogeomorphology of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) has been significantly altered by natural and anthropogenic drivers. In this study, the spatiotemporal changes of the flow regime were examined by analysing the long-term daily, monthly, annual and extreme discharges and water levels from 1980 to 2018, supported by further investigation of the long-term annual sediment load (from the 1960s to 2015), river bathymetric data (in 1998, 2014 and 2017) and daily salinity concentration (from the 1990s to 2015) using various statistical methods and a coupled numerical model. Then, the effects of riverbed incision on the hydrology were investigated. The results show that the dry season discharge (i.e., in March–June) of the Tien River increased by up to 23% from the predam period (1980–1992) to the postdam period (1993–2018) but that the dry season water level at My Thuan decreased by up to −46%. The annual mean and monthly water levels in June at Tan Chau and in January and June–October at My Thuan in the Tien River decreased statistically, even though the respective discharges increased significantly. These decreased water levels instead of the increased discharges were attributed to the accelerated riverbed incision upstream from My Thuan, which increased by more than three times, from a mean rate of −0.16 m/year (−16.7 Mm³/year) in 1998–2014 to −0.5 m/year (−52.5 Mm³/year) in 2014–2017. This accelerated riverbed incision was likely caused by the reduction in the sediment load of the VMD (from 166.7 Mt/year in the predam period to 57.6 Mt/year in the postdam period) and increase in sand mining (from 3.9 Mm³ in 2012 to 13.43 Mm³ in 2018). Collectively, the decreased dry season water level in the Tien River is likely one of the main causes of the enhanced salinity intrusion.     

Surface complexation effects on phosphate adsorption to ferric iron oxyhydroxides along pH and salinity gradients in estuaries and coastal aquifers

Non-conservative behavior of dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP) in estuaries is generally ascribed to desorption from iron and aluminum (hydr)oxides with increasing salinity. Here, we assess this hypothesis by simulating the reversible adsorption of phosphate onto a model oxide (goethite) along physico-chemical gradients representative of surface and subsurface estuaries. The simulations are carried out using a surface complexation model (SCM), which represents the main aqueous speciation and adsorption reactions of DIP, plus the ionic strength-dependent coulombic interactions in solution and at the mineral-solution interface. According to the model calculations, variations in pH and salinity alone are unlikely to explain the often reported production of DIP in surface estuaries. In particular, increased aqueous complexation of phosphate by Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions with increasing salinity is offset by the formation of ternary Mg-phosphate surface complexes and the drop in electrical potential at the mineral-water interface. However, when taking into account the downstream decrease in the abundance of sorption sites, the model correctly simulates the observed release of DIP in the Scheldt estuary. The sharp increase in pH accompanying the admixing of seawater to fresh groundwater should also cause desorption of phosphate from iron oxyhydroxides during seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers. As for surface estuaries, the model calculations indicate that significant DIP release additionally requires a reduction in the phosphate sorption site density. In anoxic aquifers, this can result from the supply of seawater sulfate and the subsequent reductive dissolution of iron oxyhydroxides coupled to microbial sulfate reduction.     

Generalized polytropes: Stellar structure with a boltzmann factor

In order to study the structure of a chemically homogeneous star in equilibrium, a density profile of the form T ^N exp(–µm(–)/kT) is suggested. As for polytropes, qualitative aspects of the resulting stellar model can be discussed analytically. In particular it is shown that one reobtains forN=3 Eddington's standard model, whereas forN<3 nearly polytropic models result. WhenN>3, the effective polytropic index does vary appreciably over the star. Numerical results indicate that the proposed density profile is quite reasonable in view of the simplicity of the model. From a comparison of the degree of precision of a polytropic approximation with that of the newly proposed model it follows that the new approximation is definitely better than the polytropic one. It is suggested that the model may be useful to study the structure of stellar clouds, clusters and (spherical) galaxies.Now at Department of Applied Mathematics, Queen Mary College, University of London, England.     

The oblateness effect on the solar radiation incident at the top of the atmospheres of the outer planets

Calculations of the daily solar radiation incident at the top of the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, with and without the effect of the oblateness, are presented in a series of figures illustrating the seasonal and latitudinal variation of the ratio of both insolations. It is shown that for parts of the summer, the daily insolation of an oblate planet is increased, the zone of enhanced solar radiation being strongly dependent upon the obliquity, whereas the rate of increase is fixed by both the flattening and the obliquity. In winter, the oblateness effect results in a more extensive polar region, the daily solar radiation of an oblate planet always being reduced when compared to a spherical planet. In addition, we also numerically studied the mean daily solar radiation. As previously stated by A.W. Brinkman and J. McGregor (1979, Icarus, 38, 479–482), it is found that in summer the horizon plane is tilted toward the Sun for latitudes less than the subsolar point, but is titled away from the Sun beyond this latitude. It follows that the mean summer daily insolation is increased between the equator and the subsolar point, but decreased poleward of the above-mentioned limit. In winter, however, the horizon plane is always tilted away from the Sun, causing the mean winter daily insolation to be reduced. The partial gain of the mean summertime insolation being much smaller than the loss during winter season evidently yields a mean annual daily insolation which is decreased at all latitudes.     

Cosmic gamma-ray emission and comet collisions with compact stars

The probability that γ-ray bursts may be generated by the infall of comet-like objects on the neutron stars, as recently proposed by Harwit and Salpeter (1973), is reexamined. Although hypothetical cometary clouds around the parent star may survive the supernova outburst virtually untouched, the frequency of γ-outbursts due to the comet impact on the neutron star or white dwarf is only about 10^?3 of the observed occurrence. A considerably higher rate of comets passing per year at critical periastron distance must be assumed if the γ-ray outbursts are to be due to the collision of coments with compact stars.     

GPS Water Vapor and Its Comparison with Radiosonde and ERA-Interim Data in Algeria

Remote sensing of atmospheric water vapor using global positioning system(GPS) data has become an effective tool in meteorology,weather forecasting and climate research. This paper presents the estimation of precipitable water(PW)from GPS observations and meteorological data in Algeria,over three stations located at Algiers,Bechar and Tamanrasset.The objective of this study is to analyze the sensitivity of the GPS PW estimates for the three sites to the weighted mean temperature(T_m),obtained separately from two types of T_m–T_s regression [one general,and one developed specifically for Algeria(T_s stands for surface temperature)],and calculated directly from ERA-Interim data. The results show that the differences in T_m are of the order of 18 K,producing differences of 2.01 mm in the final evaluation of PW. A good agreement is found between GPS-PW and PW calculated from radiosondes,with a small mean difference with Vaisala radiosondes.A comparison between GPS and ERA-Interim shows a large difference(4 mm) in the highlands region. This difference is possibly due to the topography. These first results are encouraging,in particular for meteorological applications in this region,with good hope to extend our dataset analysis to a more complete,nationwide coverage over Algeria.     

Approaches for modeling longitudinal dispersion in pore-networks

The purpose of this study is to quantify the dispersivity in the longitudinal direction by upscaling pore scale mixing over a network domain and to verify the dispersivity with that obtained through the more rigorous upscaling technique, the Brownian particle tracking model (BPTM). We model a porous medium with a network of pore-units that are comprised of pore bodies and bonds of finite volume. Such a pore-unit is assumed to be a mixing cell with the steady state flow condition for a single fluid. Dispersivity can be obtained by solving the mixing cell model (MCM) for the concentration in each pore-unit and by averaging the concentrations for a large number of pore units (as a function of time and space). A minimal size of network that ascertains an asymptotic value of dispersivity was determined and verified with large size pore networks. This numerically computed dispersivity is compared with the results from the BPTM for the same porous medium and flow conditions. We show that the dispersivity obtained from the MCM is equally reliable for the heterogeneous pore-networks and can be estimated as a function of pore size heterogeneity. For homogeneous networks with the MCM, the iteration time step plays an important role. On the other hand, for networks with the BPTM, the assumption of intra-bond velocity profile affects the results.