Assessing drought in the drylands of northeast Brazil under regional warming exceeding 4 °C

Natural Hazards - Historically, during periods of extreme drought, food security in the drylands of the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil (NEB) is under severe risk due to agricultural collapse....     

Predicting significant wave height with artificial neural networks in the South Atlantic Ocean: a hybrid approach

Ocean Dynamics - Accurate simulations of significant wave height (Hs) are extremely important for the safety of navigation, port operations, and oil and gas exploration. Thus, accurate forecasts of...     

High-precision geochronology of Mesozoic magmatism in Macao,Southeast China:Evidence for multistage granite emplacement

Six new high precision U-Pb zircon ID-TIMS ages plus thirteen in situ high spatial resolution U-Pb zircon LA-MC-ICPMS ages are reported from Jurassic plutonic(metaluminous to weakly peraluminous biotite granites)and Jurassic to Cretaceous hypabyssal(dacites)rocks from Macao.Despite its relatively small area(~30 km^2),the new ages tightly constrain the Macao granitic magmatism to two periods ranging from 164.5±0.6 Ma to 162.9±0.7 Ma and 156.6±0.2 Ma to 155.5±0.8 Ma,separated by ca.6 Ma.Inherited zircons point to the existence of a basement with ages up to Paleo-Proterozoic and late Archean in the region.In addition,younger dacitic rocks were dated at 150.6±0.6 Ma and<120 Ma.U-Pb zircon ages and whole-rock REE data of Macao granites indicate that the first pulse is also represented in Hong Kong and Southeast(SE)China,while magmatism with the chemical characteristics of the second pulse seems to not be represented outside Macao.The two granitic magmatic pulses have distinct mineralogical and geochemical features that support their discrete nature rather than a continuum of comagmatic activity and suggest that the Macao granitic suite was incrementally assembled during a period of ca.9 Ma,a hypothesis also extendable to the neighboring Hong Kong region for a time lapse of ca.24 Ma.In Macao,the transition from granitic magmatism(Middle to Upper Jurassic)to the younger dacite dykes(Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous)most likely corresponds to a change in the regional tectonic setting,from an extensional regime related with foundering of the subducting paleoPacific plate during the Early Yanshanian period to the reestablishment of a normal subduction system in SE China during the Late Yanshanian period.     

Long-term changes in fish communities of the Ria Formosa coastal lagoon (southern Portugal) based on two studies made 20 years apart

Fish communities of the Ria Formosa coastal lagoon (south Portugal) were sampled on a monthly basis with a beach seine at 4 sites, during two different time periods: 1980–1986 and 2001–2002. Community indices, species ranking and multivariate analysis were used in order to identify changes in the fish community between the two time periods. A total of 153,511 fish representing 57 taxa were recorded. Although species composition was very similar for both sampling periods, multivariate analysis performed on annual species abundance in number and weight revealed differences in fish community structure between the two periods. Structural changes in fish community were related mostly to a sharp decrease in the abundance of Mugilidae from 1980–1986 to 2001–2002. These changes were probably associated to a decrease in organic matter contents and nutrients concentrations due to improvements in sewage treatment and better water circulation inside the lagoon. The changes in fish community structure are more evident in the inner areas of the lagoon than near the inlet. The association between changes in sewage patterns and changes in the ichthyofaunal community structure reinforces the importance of fish communities as a biological indicator of human induced changes in marine systems.     

Shake table testing of an elevator system in a full‐scale five‐story building

This paper investigates the seismic performance of a functional traction elevator as part of a full‐scale five‐story building shake table test program. The test building was subjected to a suite of earthquake input motions of increasing intensity, first while the building was isolated at its base and subsequently while it was fixed to the shake table platen. In addition, low‐amplitude white noise base excitation tests were conducted while the elevator system was placed in three different configurations, namely, by varying the vertical location of its cabin and counterweight, to study the acceleration amplifications of the elevator components due to dynamic excitations. During the earthquake tests, detailed observation of the physical damage and operability of the elevator as well as its measured response are reported. Although the cabin and counterweight sustained large accelerations because of impact during these tests, the use of well‐restrained guide shoes demonstrated its effectiveness in preventing the cabin and counterweight from derailment during high‐intensity earthquake shaking. However, differential displacements induced by the building imposed undesirable distortion of the elevator components and their surrounding support structure, which caused damage and inoperability of the elevator doors. It is recommended that these aspects be explicitly considered in elevator seismic design. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relating 27-Day Averages of Solar,Interplanetary Medium Parameters,and Geomagnetic Activity Proxies in Solar Cycle 24

Solar Physics - During solar minimum, the Sun is relatively inactive with few sunspots observed on the solar surface. Consequently, we observe a smaller number of highly energetic events such as...     

An Early Pleistocene interglacial deposit at Pingorsuit,North-West Greenland

At the Pingorsuit Glacier in North-West Greenland, an organic-rich deposit that had recently emerged from the retreating ice cap was discovered at an elevation of 480 m above sea level. This paper reports on macrofossil analyses of a coarse detritus gyttja and peaty soil, which occurred beneath a thin cover of till and glacifluvial deposits. The sediments contained remains of vascular plants, mosses, beetles, caddisflies, midges, bryozoans, sponges and other invertebrates. The flora includes black spruce, tree birch, boreal shrubs and wetland and aquatic taxa, which shows that mires, lakes and ponds were present in the area. We describe a new extinct waterwort species Elatine odgaardii. The fossils were deposited in a boreal environment with a mean July air temperature that was at least 9 °C higher than at present. The fossil assemblages show strong similarities with others from Greenland that have been assigned an Early Pleistocene age, and we suggest a similar age for the sediments found at the margin of the Pingorsuit Glacier. At the Pingorsuit Glacier in North-West Greenland, an organic-rich deposit was discovered at an elevation of 480 m above sea level. The sediments contained remains of vascular plants, mosses, beetles, caddisflies, midges, bryozoans, sponges and other invertebrates. The fossils were deposited in a boreal environment with a mean July air temperature that was at least 9 °C higher than at present.     

From land to sea: provenance,composition, and preservation of organic matter in a marine sediment record from the North-East Greenland shelf spanning the Younger Dryas–Holocene

The organic matter content of marine sediments is often used to infer past changes in ocean conditions. However, the organic carbon pool preserved in coastal sediments is a complex mixture derived from different sources and may not reflect in situ processes. In this study, we combine taxonomic identification of reworked palynomorphs with pyrolysis organic geochemistry and reflected-light organic petrographic microscopy to investigate the provenance, composition and preservation of organic matter in a marine sediment core retrieved from the NE Greenland shelf. Our study reveals continuous yet variable input of land-derived organic carbon to the marine environment throughout the late Younger Dryas–Holocene, with the highest input of inert carbon in the late Younger Dryas. Although the sediments contain some recent marine palynomorphs, there is no other evidence of fresh marine organic carbon. In contrast, our results indicate that these shelf sediments represent a significant sink of recycled organic carbon. The results of pyrolysis geochemistry revealed that ~90% of the total organic carbon in the sediments is inert. The organic petrography analyses revealed that >70–84% of the organic carbon in the sediment core is terrigenous. Reworked dinoflagellate cysts showed a continuous provenance of Cretaceous land-derived material, most likely from the nearby Clavering Island. Our study points to the importance of constraining the organic matter origin, composition and preservation in marine sediments to achieve more accurate palaeoenvironmental reconstructions based on organic proxies.     

Effectiveness of Neural Kriging for Three-Dimensional Modeling of Sparse and Strongly Biased Distribution of Geological Data with Application to Seafloor Hydrothermal Mineralization

Mathematical Geosciences - Three-dimensional modeling of geoscientific data of limited amounts and strongly biased locations is difficult and impractical using almost any method. To obtain a...