Impact of climate change on hydrological conditions of Rhine and Upper Danube rivers based on the results of regional climate and hydrological models

The main objective of the Effects of Climate Change On the Inland waterway Networks (ECCONET) EU FP7 project was to assess the effect of climate change on the inland waterway transport network with special emphasis on the Rhine and Upper Danube catchments. The assessment was based on consolidation and analysis of earlier and existing research work as well as application of existing climate change and hydrological modelling tools. A key premise at the planning stage of the project had been that all impact studies conducted within ECCONET should be comparable with each other. This can be guaranteed by the common meteorological and hydrological basis. The climate model simulations, which are the most physics- and process-oriented tools for projecting the future climate evolution, include several uncertainties. In addition, uncertainties exist in the hydrological model simulations. In ECCONET, an effort was made to quantify the uncertainty range by using “representative projections” that represent both the lower and upper signals of hydrological low-flow parameters for 2021–2050 over the Rhine catchment. Their evaluation indicated that the finally chosen two regional climate model simulations could be applied also for the Upper Danube catchments as representative projections. The raw climate model outputs have been corrected to the observation data set through application of the linear scaling and the delta-change method. The first impact studies carried out after validation of the hydrological models resulted in discharge scenarios used as input to the economic models in ECCONET.     

Potential pollution risk in natural environment of golf courses: an example from Rusovce (Slovakia)

The objective of the article presented herein is to highlight the specific issue of the protection of water sources in the vicinity of golf courses. Currently we have experienced the construction of a large number of golf courses, which are often found in areas where the protection of natural groundwater resources is needed. In this article, limit conditions are specified, which could be used in construction of other golf courses in the world, where there is a potential threat of contamination of groundwater resources. The issue is demonstrated on a case study in the area of a water resource, Rusovce. A major concern of golf courses is the fact that in an apparently clean environment of these anthropogenic structures contamination occurs, resulting from the maintenance, and the current legislation does not address this specific group of areas. These are particularly dangerous substances derived from fertilizer and turf protection, in particular the use of pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, acaricides, e.g. nematocides, and related products, such as growth regulators used for plant protection). The results of the modelling at the water source, Rusovce, show that the combination of negative factors (for example, the groundwater table level close to the surface along with extremely high precipitation totals or the areas flooding and the lack of a golf course bedrock sealing) the limit value of 0.100 μg/l of pesticides concentration in groundwater was exceeded up to 0.880 μg/l. Similarly, such excess may occur in the case of an emergency situation (for example, the spilling of the barrel with the pesticide), where the concentration of pesticides in groundwater may be increased up to 0.874 μg/l in standard conditions (without flooding with an average depth of groundwater table level beneath the terrain). But even under a standard level of security for the establishment and operation of a golf course and standard procedures for the maintenance of the lawn, the concentration of pesticides in the wells reached 0.0001 μg/l.     

Dioritic intrusions of the Slavkovský les (Kaiserwald), Western Bohemia: their origin and significance in late Variscan granitoid magmatism

Mafic and intermediate intrusions occur in the Slavkovsky les as dykes, sills and minor tabular bodies emplaced in metamorphic rocks or enclosed in late Variscan granites near the SW contact of the Western Krušné hory/Erzgebirge granite pluton. They are similar in composition and textures to the redwitzites defined in NE Bavaria. Single zircon Pb-evaporation analyses constrain the age of a quartz monzodiorite at 323.4 ± 4.4 Ma and of a granodiorite at 326.1 ± 5.6 Ma. The P–T range of magma crystallization is estimated at ~1.4–2.2 kbar and ~730–870°C and it accords with a shallow intrusion level of late Variscan granites but provides lower crystallization temperatures compared to the Bavarian redwitzites. We explain the heterogeneous composition of dioritic intrusions in the Slavkovsky les by mixing between mafic and felsic magmas with a minor effect of fractional crystallization. Increased K, Ba, Rb, Sr and REE contents compared to tholeiitic basalts suggest that the parental mafic magma was probably produced by melting of a metasomatised mantle, the melts being close to lamprophyre or alkali basalt composition. Diorites and granodiorites originated from mixed magmas derived by addition of about 25–35 and 50 vol.%, respectively, of the acid end-member (granite) to lamprophyre or alkali-basalt magma. Our data stress an important role of mafic magmas in the origin of late Variscan granitoids in NW Bohemian Massif and emphasize the effect of mantle metasomatism on the origin of K-rich mafic igneous rocks.     

Determination of Sulfur Balance Between the Atmosphere and a Norway Spruce Forest Ecosystem: Comparison of Gradient Dry + Wet and Throughfall Deposition Measurements

Total sulfur deposition was determined above a Norway spruce forest, in Hungary. Two methods were applied, on one hand dry + wet deposition measurements and on the other, throughfall and stemflow deposition estimations have been carried out. Results show: total depositions are 3.3 and 3.2 g S m^–2 yr^–1 determined by dry + wet and throughfall deposition methods, respectively. The share of the dry deposition in the total S-load is 73%. The agreement between the results of the two different methods is good and suggests the needlessness of complicated dry + wet flux measurements, i.e. the total and dry deposition of sulfur compounds to forests can be determined by simple throughfall and wet deposition measurements.