How a Sphagnum fuscum‐dominated bog changed into a calcareous fen: the unique Holocene history of a Slovak spring‐fed mire

In general, mires develop by autogenic succession from more groundwater‐fed to more rainwater‐fed. This study from a calcareous mire in the West Carpathians (Slovakia) describes a similar development in the Early Holocene, followed by a reverse development in the Middle and Late Holocene. Pollen, macrofossil and testate amoeba analyses show that the site started as a minerotrophic open fen woodland. After 10 700 cal a BP autogenic succession led to the accumulation of at least 1 m of Sphagnum fuscum peat. Around 9000 cal a BP, as climate could no longer sustain a stable water regime, the bog desiccated and a fire broke out. The fire removed part of the peat layer and as a consequence relative water levels rose, leading to the establishment of a wet minerotrophic swamp carr with Thelypteris palustris, Equisetum sp. and Alnus sp. with extremely slow peat accumulation. After 600 cal a BP, rapid peat accumulation with calcareous tufa formation resumed as a result of anthropogenic deforestation and hydrological changes in the catchment and resulting increased groundwater discharge. At present the mire still hosts a wealth of relict and endangered plant and animal species typical of calcareous fens and fen meadows. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GPS-derived height changes in diurnal and sub-diurnal timescales

This paper describes the research concerning precise short-time GPS solutions conducted in the Centre of Applied Geomatics, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland. The data from ASG-EUPOS (Polish Active Geodetic Network) was processed using Bernese 5.0 software and EPN (EUREF Permanent Network) standards and models. In this study, the adapted 3-hour observation window is shifted every hour for obtaining hourly geocentric coordinates in ITRF2005 reference frame. The adjusted network consisted of over 130 stations from Poland and the neighbouring countries, the period covered observations collected from June 2008 through June 2010. These two years of observations allowed for examining short-period oscillations which were found to be closely related to the tidal (dynamic) frequencies. The analysis of the residua from the IERS2003 tidal model was performed using the least squares method with the Eterna software. It confirmed the existence of significant (several millimetres) oscillations in the frequencies corresponding to S1, K1 and K2. The paper describes the idea of data processing and analysis, presents the results of vertical (the Up component) oscillations in main tidal frequency bands, and also includes discussion of possible explanation of the existence of short-period oscillations in the GPS precise solutions and the possibility of propagation of short-period oscillations into long-period spurious changes in the daily (standard) GPS solutions.     

Results of the application of tropospheric corrections from different troposphere models for precise GPS rapid static positioning

In many surveying applications, determination of accurate heights is of significant interest. The delay caused by the neutral atmosphere is one of the main factors limiting the accuracy of GPS positioning and affecting mainly the height coordinate component rather than horizontal ones. Estimation of the zenith total delay is a commonly used technique for accounting for the tropospheric delay in static positioning. However, in the rapid static positioning mode the estimation of the zenith total delay may fail, since for its reliable estimation longer observing sessions are required. In this paper, several troposphere modeling techniques were applied and tested with three processing scenarios: a single baseline solution with various height differences and a multi-baseline solution. In specific, we introduced external zenith total delays obtained from Modified Hopfield troposphere model with standard atmosphere parameters, UNB3m model, COAMPS numerical weather prediction model and zenith total delays interpolated from a reference network solution. The best results were obtained when tropospheric delays derived from the reference network were applied.     

Seismic velocity estimation from post-critical wide-angle reflections in layered structures

The travel time inversion of wide-angle seismic data is a technique commonly used in the deep seismic sounding. We propose an application of this technique to a smaller scale of a sedimentary layer, where the characteristics of seismic observations changes significantly. Field observations confirmed by synthetic analysis recognize the dominant amplitudes of wide-angle post-critical reflections. A case study is presented in this paper, of a joint interpretation of conventional reflection seismic with reflection imaging, combined with the wide-angle travel time inversion of additional full-spread observations. A joint interpretation results in a precise recognition of the seismic velocity distribution, that is further used for the seismic depth conversion with the uncertainty analysis of the depth of the reflecting horizons. Despite the salt layer in the studied structure this method is able to precisely recognize the seismic velocities of the sub-salt structures.     

Selected instability indices in Europe

A climatology of various parameters associated with severe weather and convective storms has been created for Europe that involves using radiosounding data collected at the University of Wyoming for the period from 1991 to 2005. The analysis is based on monthly means, frequency distributions of such parameters as convective available potential energy (CAPE), convective inhibition energy (CIN), KI - index, total totals index (TTI), and the severe weather threat index (SWEAT). Monthly average CAPE values exceeding 300 Jkg^?1 are observed over the west Mediterranean Sea and the neighboring coastal countries. The similar seasonal cycle and spatial distributions exhibit CIN fields with summer monthly means above 100 Jkg^?1 observed on the south part of the researched domain. The KI, TTI, and SWEAT indices, which assess both the lapse ratio between 850 and 500 hPa and low level humidity, show the privileged region (the Alpine area and the Carpathian Basin) with the highest instability conditions. Orography clearly plays an important role in this structure. Farther from this area, the monthly average decreases to the east, west, north, and south of the research domain. Ward’s procedure was applied to create objective regionalization according to instability conditions. This method tends to produce two regions with relatively different instability conditions and few subregions with similar conditions. The first region, covering the Alpine area, the west Mediterranean Sea, west Turkey and the southern Ukraine, is characterized by the highest instability. The rest of the investigated area is the second region with a more stable atmosphere.     

Investigation of the 16-year and 18-year ZTD Time Series Derived from GPS Data Processing

The GPS system can play an important role in activities related to the monitoring of climate. Long time series, coherent strategy, and very high quality of tropospheric parameter Zenith Tropospheric Delay (ZTD) estimated on the basis of GPS data analysis allows to investigate its usefulness for climate research as a direct GPS product. This paper presents results of analysis of 16-year time series derived from EUREF Permanent Network (EPN) reprocessing performed by the Military University of Technology. For 58 stations Lomb-Scargle periodograms were performed in order to obtain information about the oscillations in ZTD time series. Seasonal components and linear trend were estimated using Least Square Estimation (LSE) and Mann—Kendall trend test was used to confirm the presence of a linear trend designated by LSE method. In order to verify the impact of the length of time series on trend value, comparison between 16 and 18 years were performed.     

Properties of a Finite Stochastic Cellular Automaton Toy Model of Earthquakes

Finite version of Random Domino Automaton — a recently proposed toy model of earthquakes — is investigated in detail. Respective set of equations describing stationary state of the FRDA is derived and compared with infinite case. It is shown that for a system of large size, these equations are coincident with RDA equations. We demonstrate a non-existence of exact equations for size N ≥ 5 and propose appropriate approximations, the quality of which is studied in examples obtained within the framework of Markov chains.We derive several exact formulas describing properties of the automaton, including time aspects. In particular, a way to achieve a quasi-periodic like behaviour of RDA is presented. Thus, based on the same microscopic rule — which produces exponential and inverse-power like distributions – we extend applicability of the model to quasi-periodic phenomena.     

The Late Vistulian and Holocene evolution of Jezioro Lake: a record of environmental change in southern Poland found in deposits and landforms

Jezioro Lake is the only natural lake in southern Poland outside mountainous areas to have existed continuously since the Pleistocene. The record of environmental change in the Late Vistulian (Weichselian) and Holocene is preserved in the deposits and landforms around the lake. This paper presents the results of paleogeographical and paleoecological research that emabled us to reconstruct the history of the Jezioro Lake. At the end of the Vistulian period, the outlet of the lake was blocked by a parabolic dune moving in from the west. Limnic sedimentation was evident in the sediment core at all levels from the Holocene, with remains of Cladocera, Chironomidae larvae, and aquatic plants. The lake did not disappear at that time, although its area decreased by a factor of 12 by the end of the period. Paleobotanical research permitted the reconstruction of sequences of plant communities and changes in nutrient status and water level. An initial oligotrophic lake, as indicated by the presence of Iso?tes lacustris L., changed to a eutrophic lake, as indicated by the presence of Potamogeton natans L. and Nuphar sp., then the lake progressed to the present-day dystrophic lake that is surrounded by a swamp. The profile of organic deposits contains a record of environmental change at least since the Younger Dryas in southern Poland.