Stemflow and throughfall in a tropical dry forest

The rainfall received by a small plot of tropical deciduous forest on sand dunes in Veracruz, Mexico, was partitioned into stemflow and throughfall components to determine whether funnelling by stemflow could reduce soil leaching by transmitting large volumes of water through vertical soil pathways beneath each stem. Although soil infiltration capacities were high, only a very small proportion of incoming rainfall was funnelled by canopy stems. This is attributed to the widely-branched morphology of mature trees. Smaller trees and shrubs were more effective funnellers of rainfall, and a crude estimate of the magnitude of stemflow in the understorey stratum in one rain event suggested a contribution approximately ten times that of canopy stemflow. However, even if augmented by the understorey stratum in this way, total stemflow is unlikely to have exceeded 10 per cent of gross precipitation, implying that it does not represent an important leaching-avoidance mechanism in this forest.     

Remote Data Collection and Control for Hydrogeologic Monitoring

A hydrogeologic field experiment, conducted at a research site some 125 miles (200km) from the home base, used commercially available computer controller technology for data collection and experimental control. A telephone line connected to the equipment facilitated the downloading of data, provided a means of remotely monitoring the operating performance, and made it possible to adjust the monitoring procedures.
This experiment demonstrated the benefits of a remotely controlled data acquisition system for a long-term investigation. Identification of problems and the adjustment of the sampling algorithm by telephone reduced costly travel time. The considerable amount of data collected, the data evaluation techniques, and the continuous monitoring, provided a high degree of confidence in the results.     

Late Archaean crust-mantle interactions: geochemistry of LREE-enriched mantle derived magmas. Example of the Closepet batholith,southern India

The Closepet batholith in South India is generally considered as a typical crustal granite emplaced 2.5 Ga ago and derived through partial melting of the surrounding Peninsular Gneisses (3.3 to 3.0 Ga). In the field, it appears as a composite batholith made up of at least two groups of intrusions. (a) An early SiO₂-poor group (clinopyroxene quartz-monzonite and porphyritic phyritic monzogranite) is located in the central part of the batholith. These rocks display a narrow range in both initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.7017–0.7035) and _Nd(–0.9to –4.1). (b) A later SiO₂-rich group (equigranular grey and pink granites) is located along the interface between the SiO₂-poor group and the Peninsular Gneisses. They progressively grade into migmatised Peninsular Gneisses, thus indicating their anatectic derivation. Their isotopic characteristics vary over a wide range (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios=0.7028–0.7336 and _Nd values from-2.7 to-8.3, at 2.52 Ga). Field and geochronological evidence shows that the two groups are broadly contemporaneous (2.518–2.513 Ga) and mechanically mixed. This observation is supported by the chemical data that display well defined mixing trends in the _Sr vs _Nd and elemental variation diagrams. The continuous chemical variation of the two magmatic bodies is interpreted in terms of interaction and mixing of two unrelated end-members derived from different source regions (enriched peridotitic mantle and Peninsular Gneisses). It is proposed that the intrusion of mantle-derived magmas into mid-crustal levels occurred along a transcurrent shear zone; these magmas supplied additional heat and fluids that initiated anatexis of the surrounding crust. During this event, large-scale mixing occurred between mantle and crustal melts, thus generating the composite Closepet batholith. The mantle-derived magmatism is clearly associated with granulite facies metamorphism 2.51±0.01 Ga ago. Both are interpreted as resulting from a major crustal accretion event, possibly related to mantle plume activity.     

The permanent tide in GPS positioning

The treatment of the permanent tidal deformation of the Earth in GPS computation has been an almost unmentioned topic in the GPS literature. However, the ever increasing accuracy and the need to combine the GPS based coordinates with other methods requires a consistent way to handle the tides. Our survey shows that both the ITRF-xx coordinates and the GPS based coordinates are nowadays reduced to a non-tidal crust, conventionally defined using physically meaningless parameters. We propose to use instead the zero-crust concept which corresponds to concepts already accepted in the resolution of IAG in 1983 for gravimetric works.     

Limnogeology of Laguna Miscanti: evidence for mid to late Holocene moisture changes in the Atacama Altiplano (Northern Chile)

Sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical analyses of sediment cores from 9 m-deep, saline Laguna Miscanti, Chile (23 ° 44S, 67 °46W, 4140 m a.s.l.) together with high-resolution seismic profiles provide a mid to late Holocene time series of regional environmental change in the Atacama Altiplano constrained by ²¹⁰Pb and conventional ¹⁴C dating. The mid Holocene was the most arid interval since the last glacial maximum, as documented by subaerial exposure and formation of hardgrounds on a playa surface. Extremely low lake levels during the mid Holocene appear consistent with lower effective moisture recorded at other sites along the Altiplano and in the Amazon Basin. Termination of this arid period represented a major shift in the regional environmental dynamics and inaugurated modern atmospheric conditions. The cores show a progressive upward increase in effective moisture interrupted by numerous century-scale drier periods of various intensities and durations that characterize a fluctuating late Holocene climate. In spite of chronological uncertainties, the major environmental changes seem to correlate with the available paleorecords from the region providing a coherent account of effective moisture variability in the tropical highlands of South America.This is the 16th in a series of papers published in this special AMQUA issue. These papers were presented at the 1994 meeting of the American Quaternary Association held 19–22 June, 1994, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Linda C. K. Shane served as guest for these papers.     

Are there really blue stragglers in Per OB1?

The spatial distribution of O-type stars projected onto the Per OB1 association has been investigated. From the limited data available we find evidence to suggest that there are several distinct clusters of early type stars in the association's line of sight. It is found that all those stars identified in the past as being blue stragglers are likely situated in the most distant cluster and consequently they are unlikely to be coevally related to the closer stellar groups. Our argument is that all those stars previously classified as blue stragglers in Per OB1 are normal O and OBN stars.     

Gas content of infrared luminous markarian galaxies

The atomic and molecular hydrogen gas properties of a complete sample of Markarian galaxies with flux density at 60 µm higher than 1.95 Jy are presented. We present the improved far-infrared luminosity function of Markarian galaxies; and its comparison with other samples. We find that 40% of the bright IRAS galaxies of far-infrared luminosity higher than 10^10.5 L are Markarian galaxies. There is an absence of correlation between HI content of Markarian galaxies and current star formation activity, implying that star formation in these systems has complex structure and it is not a simple function of the HI content. On the contrary, the H₂ content of Markarian galaxies is well correlated with star formation activity. It is argued that tight correlation between HI and H₂ contents is a consequence of transformation of atomic hydrogen into molecular.Published in Astrofizika, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 636–644, October–December, 1995.     

Late-glacial and early Holocene lake sediments,ground-water formation and climate in the Atacama Altiplano 22–24°S

Precipitation rates in the Atacama Altiplano 22–24°S were 400–500 mm yr^–1 during late glacial and early Holocene times as opposed to 200 mm yr^–1 today. This humid phase (Tauca phase) was likely due to strengthened tropical (monsoonal) circulation, which brought continental moisture to the Atacama Altiplano. The lake level of Laguna Lejía (23°30S, 4350 m) at that time was up to 25 m higher than it is today. Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca data from lake sediments show that, what today is a highly saline lake was a freshwater lake at that time. Seasonally-laminated calcareous sediments were deposited between 13 500 and <10 400 yr B.P. indicating the maximum of the humid phase. Climatic changes in the past are important for current groundwater resources.¹⁴C and³H data from lake-, ground- and well water suggest that modern groundwater formation (i.e. water <40 years) in the Altiplano is very limited under current arid conditions. We conclude that significant amounts of the water resources in this area originated during the time of the late-glacial and early Holocene humid climate. Tritium data from snow samples show that the moisture in the Altiplano at 22–24°S is mainly of continental origin, whereas precipitation from the westerlies hardly contributes to the water supply in this area. This precipitation pattern matches the paleodata, and we suggest that current precipitation formation may provide an analogue framework for late-glacial circulation in this area.This is the 3rd in a series of papers published in this special AMQUA issue. These papers were presented at the 1994 meeting of the American Quaternary Association held 19–22 June, 1994, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Linda C. K. Shane served as guest editor for these papers.     

On the periodic variations of secondary cosmic rays and the geomagnetic Pc4 pulsations in BMAr

In a set of balloon flights in the Brazilian magnetic anomaly region (BMAr) short time periodic variations were observed, i.e. pulsation, of secondary charged and neutral particle fluxes, X- and -ray fluxes with amplitudes of about 2–4%. The pulsations are accompanied by the geomagnetic Pc4 pulsations and have similar periodicity. The phenomenon was observed over various local times and in quiet and disturbed magnetospheric conditions. One of the explanations of this effect, i.e. periodic variation of local cut-off rigidity, and following pulsations of primary and secondary cosmic ray intensity is suggested.