Earliest mordellid-like beetles from the Jurassic of Kazakhstan and China (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea)

Within this study the subfamily Praemordellinae is reviewed and the holotype of Praemordella martynovi Scegoleva-Barovskaja, 1929 is re-described. The genera Cretanaspis Huang and Yang, 1999, Mirimordella Liu et al., 2007, Bellimordella Liu et al., 2008 and Wuhua Wang and Zhang, 2011 is attributed to Praemordellinae. One new species, Wuhua peregrina sp. nov., is erected based on two well-preserved specimens from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou Biota (Inner Mongolia, China). The morphological characters of Praemordellinae are given and a key to genera of Praemordellinae is presented. Praemordellinae is closely related to extant Mordellidae in having humpbacked body, strongly deflexed head, filiform antennae and pectinate tarsal claws, but it is differing in that the pygidium absent and hind femora not well developed. It is also similar to Ripiphoridae in having a convex body and simple tarsi, but differs Ripiphoridae in having filiform antennae. Praemordellinae is probably a stem group including the ancestor of Mordellidae and Ripiphoridae. Also, within this paper, the fossil record of Mordellidae is summarized.     

Toward very high horizontal resolution NWP over the alps: Influence of increasing model resolution on the flow pattern

The increasing resolution of contemporary regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, reaching horizontal grid sizes of O(1 km), requires robust and reliable dynamical cores, working well beyond the approximation of quasi-horizontal flows. That stimulates an interest in an application for NWP purposes of dynamical cores based on the anelastic, or — more generally — sound-proof flow equations, and characterized by appropriate robustness and reliability. The paper presents results from testing the dynamical core of EULAG, the anelastic research model for multi-scale flows, as a prospective NWP dynamical core. The model simulates the semi-realistic frictionless and adiabatic flow over realistic steep Alpine topographies, employing horizontal grid sizes of 2.2, 1.1, and 0.55 km. The paper demonstrates not only the numerical robustness of EULAG, but also studies the influence of the varying horizontal resolution on the simulated flow. Results show that the increased horizontal resolution increases orographic drag on the flow. While the general flow pattern remains the same, increased resolution influences the flow on scales from hundreds of kilometers to meso-gamma scales. The differences are especially apparent in the near-surface layer of 1.5 to 3 km deep, and in the distribution and amplitudes of the orographically-induced gravity waves.     

Testing the anelastic nonhydrostatic model EULAG as a prospective dynamical core of a numerical weather prediction model Part I: Dry benchmarks

In this paper, a feasibility of anelastic approach for numerical weather prediction (NWP) is examined. The study concerns the anelastic nonhydrostatic model EULAG as a prospective candidate for the new dynamical core of a high-resolution NWP model. Such an application requires a series of benchmark tests to be performed. The study presents the results of dry idealized two-dimensional linear and non-linear tests. They include evolution of cold and warm density currents in neutrally stratified atmosphere, inertia-gravity waves in short and long channels, as well as mountain gravity waves for a set of different flow regimes. Detailed comparison of the results with the reference solutions, based mainly on the results of compressible models, indicates a high level of conformity for all of the experiments. It verifies the anelastic approach as strongly consistent with the compressible one for a broad class of atmospheric problems. It also corroborates the robustness of EULAG numerics, an essential requirement of dynamical core of NWP model.     

Background Concentrations of Nickel in the Sediments of the Carpathian Dam Reservoirs (Southern Poland)

The background nickel (Ni) concentrations in the sediments of two sub‐mountain reservoirs (Dobczyce and Czorsztyn) situated in the Carpathian Flysh (southern Poland) were evaluated. Ni concentrations (15.6–83.1 µg g^?1 dry wt.) in both reservoir sediments were affected mainly by the high background content of Ni in the surrounding watershed. Distribution of elevated Ni concentrations mostly revealed an impact of long‐range transport influenced by the flow of the main tributary. Ni spatial pattern was mainly influenced by mineral compounds of Fe, Mn, and Al, and to a lesser degree by organic matter content and silt and clay fractions of the sediments of both investigated reservoirs. Spatial distribution was additionally modified by hydrological conditions (flood events and course of the old river‐bed). In both reservoirs, substantial portions of Ni were bound to potentially immobile phases, i.e., moderately reducible and residual phases (64–82% in total). Laboratory experiments showed that changes in pH affected Ni leaching from the sediment to a small degree (at pH ～3 up to 19.9%). Our results indicated that Ni in these reservoirs has low mobility and, therefore, poses a low toxicological risk to aquatic organisms.     

Assessment of the Global and Regional Land Hydrosphere and Its Impact on the Balance of the Geophysical Excitation Function of Polar Motion

The impact of continental hydrological loading from land water, snow and ice on polar motion excitation, calculated as hydrological angular momentum (HAM), is difficult to estimate, and not as much is known about it as about atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) and oceanic angular momentum (OAM). In this paper, regional hydrological excitations to polar motion are investigated using monthly terrestrial water storage data derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and from the five models of land hydrology. The results show that the areas where the variance shows large variability are similar for the different models of land hydrology and for the GRACE data. Areas which have a small amplitude on the maps make an important contribution to the global hydrological excitation function of polar motion. The comparison of geodetic residuals and global hydrological excitation functions of polar motion shows that none of the hydrological excitation has enough energy to significantly improve the agreement between the observed geodetic excitation and geophysical ones.     

Local‐ and regional‐scale biomorphodynamics due to tree uprooting in semi‐natural and managed montane forests of the Sudetes Mountains,Central Europe

In this work, direct and indirect geomorphic consequences of wind‐related tree uprooting are examined, using an extensive dataset from the mountain range of the Sudetes, Poland. The role of local conditions in influencing the geomorphic efficacy of tree uprooting is examined, as well as issues of upscaling individual observations from experimental sites. This problem is approached at a range of spatial and observational scales, from monitoring of root plate degradation over time through to examination of wind effects at a slope scale and region‐wide analysis. In our study area the mean root plate volume is between 0.4 and 4.2 m³ for spruce and 2.4 m³ for beech, and their degradation may last tens of years. The density of relict pit‐and‐mound microtopography varies from 2.7 up to 40 pairs per hectare and the maximum coverage of terrain is 4.7%. The volume of treethrow mounds varies from 0.5 to 3.1 m³ and mounds seem to outlive the pits formed in the same episode of disturbance. However, in specific lithological and topographic conditions, pit‐and‐mound topography does not form. The maximum biogenic transport attributable to a single windstorm event is c. 80 m³ ha^?1, while soil turnover times are calculated in the order of 1000–10 000 years. Rock fragment ‘mining’ is an important biogeomorphic process, both in terms of impact on hillslope surfaces and on soil properties. Gravel armours and small‐scale stepped topography may form instead of typical pit–mound associations in specific circumstances. Managed forests appear more prone to wind damage and associated geomorphic consequences. In the Sudetes Mountains, the variable role of tree uprooting in local and regional hillslope denudation is governed by forest stand structure, topography and regolith properties, with the former significantly influenced by human activity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

General energetic analysis of fracture instabilities in elastic media and the elastic field rupture

The singular integral equations method makes it possible to determine a general analytical solution to the problem of a crack subjected to any stresses, including singular ones. The singularity of stresses means that they tend to infinity in the concentration point. In exponential functions describing this relationship, the exponent characterizes the stress curvature growth. Also the energy released by crack opening can be described by a simple analytical formula. The problem is solvable for an exponent greater than −1. The class of all the cracks subject to stresses that exponentially grow to one of the crack ends is divided into three sub-classes. One of these embraces most of crack types, also Griffith’s. The remaining two are a source of microcracks in an elastic medium. The onset of such a stress concentration gives rise to a microcrack which cancels the stress singularity up to that with the exponent of −1/2, ensuring a strong stability of the medium. An analysis of the nucleation of such cracks brought about a concept of elastic field rupture without destruction of interatomic bonds, which has implications relating to the conductivity of metals. A general formula for the crack energy singles out a special crack of unit length, whose energy is constant and independent of stress concentration.     

A multiyear analysis of aerosol optical thickness over Europe and Central Poland using NAAPS model simulation

This study contains a comparative analysis of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) between numerical calculations obtained from the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) model and direct observations from the AERONET robotic network and the Saharan Aerosol over WArsaw (SAWA) field campaign. AOT was calculated for 500 nm wavelength. The comparison shows underestimation of the total aerosol optical thickness simulated by NAAPS. The correlation coefficients between model and observation oscillates between 0.57 and 0.72. Results of seven-year (1998–2004) NAAPS simulation of aerosol components (sea salt, mineral dust, sulphate, and smoke) show large temporal and spatial variability of the aerosol optical thickness over Europe. The least polluted region is the Iberian Peninsula, while the highest aerosol burdens occurred in Central Europe, mostly due to anthropogenic sulphate particles. Finally, the analysis of mineral dust transport shows frequent episodes of Saharan dust inflow over Central Europe. There are about 20 days a year (4 days in May) when instantaneous AOT associated with mineral dust aerosol increases over 0.1.     

Hindcasting global temperature by evolutionary computation

Interpretation of changes of global temperature is important for our understanding of the climate system and for our confidence in projections for the future. Massive efforts have been devoted to improve the accuracy of reproducing the global temperature by the available climate models, but the hindcasts are still inaccurate. Notwithstanding the need to further advance climate models, one may consider data-driven approaches, providing practically useful results in a simpler and faster way. Without assuming any prior knowledge about physics and without imposing a model structure that encapsulates the existing knowledge about the underlying processes, we hindcast global temperature by automatically identified evolutionary computation models. We use 60 years of records of global temperature and climate drivers, with training and testing periods being 1950–1999 and 2000–2009, respectively. This paper demonstrates that the global temperature observed in the past is mimicked with reasonably good accuracy. Evolutionary computation holds promise for modeling the global climate system, which looks hopelessly complex in classical perspective.