Sediment yield and storage variations in the Négron River catchment (south western Parisian Basin,France) during the Holocene period

In the Négron River catchment area (162 km²), surface‐sediment stores are composed of periglacial calcareous ‘grèze’ (5 × 10⁶ t) and loess (21 × 10⁶ t), and Holocene alluvium (12·6 × 10⁶ t), peat (0·6 × 10⁶ t) and colluvium (18·5 × 10⁶ t). Seventy‐five per cent of the Holocene sediments is stored along the thalwegs. Present net sediment yield, calculated from solid discharge at the Négron outlet, is low (0·6 t km^?2 a^?1) due to the dominance of carbonate rocks in the catchment. Mean sediment yield during the Holocene period is 7·0 t km^?2 a^?1 from alluvium stores and 7·6 t km^?2 a^?1 from colluvium stores. Thus, the gross sediment yield during the Holocene period is about 18·7 t km^?2 a^?1 and the sediment delivery ratio 3 per cent. The yield considerably varies from one sub‐basin to another (3·9 to 24·5 t km^?2 a^?1) according to lithology: about 25 per cent and 50 per cent of initial stores of periglacial grèze and loess respectively were reworked during the Holocene period. Sediment yield has increased by a factor of 6 in the last 1000 years, due to the development of agriculture. The very high rate of sediment storage on the slope during that period (88 per cent of the yield) can be accounted for by the formation of cultivation steps (‘rideaux’). It is predicted that the current destruction of these steps will result in a sediment wave reaching the valley floors in the coming decades. Subboreal and Subatlantic sediments and pollen assemblages in the Taligny marsh, where one‐third of the alluvium is stored, show the predominant influence of human activity during these periods in the Négron catchment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Comparative Study of Five Reference Materials and the Lombard Meteorite for the Determination of the Platinum‐Group Elements and Gold by LA‐ICP‐MS

A range of independently characterised reference materials (RMs) for LA‐ICP‐MS, used for the determination of the platinum‐group elements (PGE) and Au in a sulfide matrix, were analysed and compared: 8b, PGE‐A, NiS‐3, Po727‐T1, Po724‐T and the Lombard meteorite. The newly developed RM NiS‐3 was used as the RM for the calibration of all LA‐ICP‐MS analyses and the measured concentrations of the other RMs compared against their published concentrations. This data were also used to assess the consistency of concentrations calibrated against the different RMs. It was found that Po727‐T1 and 8b produced results that were comparable, within uncertainty, for all elements. Po727‐T1 also produced consistent results with NiS‐3 for all elements. All other RMs showed differences for some elements, especially Ru in Po724‐T, and Os, Ir and Au in PGE‐A. The homogeneity of the PGE and Au in each RM was assessed, by comparing the precision of multiple LA‐ICP‐MS spot analyses with the average uncertainty of the signal. Po724‐T, Po727‐T1 and the Lombard meteorite were found to be homogeneous for all elements, but 8b, PGE‐A and NiS‐3 were heterogeneous for some elements. This is the first direct comparison between a range of independently characterised PGE and Au LA‐ICP‐MS RMs.     

Strategically Locating Wildlife Crossing Structures for Florida Panthers Using Maximal Covering Approaches

Crossing structures are an effective method for mitigating habitat fragmentation and reducing wildlife‐vehicle collisions, although high construction costs limit the number that can be implemented in practice. Therefore, optimizing the placement of crossing structures in road networks is suggested as a strategic conservation planning method. This research explores two approaches for using the maximal covering location problem (MCLP) to determine optimal sites to install new wildlife crossing structures. The first approach is based on records of traffic mortality, while the second uses animal tracking data for the species of interest. The objective of the first is to cover the maximum number of collision sites, given a specified number of proposed structures to build, while the second covers as many animal tracking locations as possible under a similar scenario. These two approaches were used to locate potential wildlife crossing structures for endangered Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) in Collier, Lee, and Hendry Counties, Florida, a population whose survival is threatened by excessive traffic mortality. Historical traffic mortality records and an extensive radio‐tracking dataset were used in the analyses. Although the two approaches largely select different sites for crossing structures, both models highlight key locations in the landscape where these structures can remedy traffic mortality and habitat fragmentation. These applications demonstrate how the MCLP can serve as a useful conservation planning tool when traffic mortality or animal tracking data are available to researchers.     

Multi‐Scale Qualitative Location: A Topology‐Based Model

Qualitative locations describe spatial objects by relating the spatial objects to a frame of reference (e.g. a regional partition in this study) with qualitative relations. Existing models only formalize spatial objects, frames of reference, and their relations at one scale, thus limiting their applicability in representing location changes of spatial objects across scales. A topology‐based, multi‐scale qualitative location model is proposed to represent the associations of multiple representations of the same objects with respect to the frames of reference at different levels. Multi‐scale regional partitions are first presented to be the frames of reference at multiple levels of scale. Multi‐scale locations are then formalized to relate multiple representations of the same objects to the multiple frames of reference by topological relations. Since spatial objects, frames of reference, and topological relations in qualitative locations are scale dependent, scale transformation approaches are presented to derive possible coarse locations from detailed locations by incorporating polygon merging, polygon‐to‐line and polygon‐to‐point operators.     

Diatom‐based reconstruction of summer sea‐surface salinity in the South China Sea over the last 15 000 years

We present a new reconstruction of summer sea‐surface salinity (SSS) over the past 15 000 years based on a diatom record from piston core 17940, located on the northern slope of the South China Sea (SCS). The reconstructed diatom‐based summer SSS values for the modern period are in accord with instrumental observations of summer SSS in the area. Here, the modern summer SSS is primarily controlled by river runoff, in particular from the Pearl River. The reconstruction presented in this study shows that the summer SSS varied between 33.3 and 34.2 psu over the past 15 000 years. The long‐term summer SSS trend closely followed the trend of the orbitally controlled solar insolation at 20°N, suggesting that orbital forcing was the dominant driver of changes in summer SSS in this area. Comparisons to speleothem δ¹⁸O data and studies of surface hydrography in the region suggest that changes in solar insolation affected the summer SSS through changes in the East Asian Monsoon and sea‐level changes associated with the last deglaciation. Univariate spectral analyses indicate that centennial‐scale oscillatory variations in summer SSS were superimposed on the long‐term trend. During the deglacial period (c. 12 000–9000 cal. a BP), the dominant periodicity was centred around 230–250 years, whereas a ～350‐year oscillation dominated in the period 2200–4500 cal. a BP. The balance of evidence suggests that these centennial‐scale changes in summer SSS may have been driven by solar‐induced changes in the East Asian Monsoon, but further evidence is needed to firmly establish this relationship.     

Hydrologic modelling of the effect of snowmelt and temperature on a mountainous watershed

Snowmelt-runoff modelling in a mountainous basin is perceived as difficult due to the complexity of simulation. Theoretically, the snowmelt process should be influenced by temperature changes. It is still controversial as how to incorporate the temperature changes into the snowmelt-runoff model in a mountainous basin. This paper presents the results of a study in the North Fork American River basin where the snowmelt-runoff mechanism is modelled by relating the temperature changes to the elevation band in the basin. In this study, a distributed hydrologic model is used to explore the orographic effects on the snowmelt-runoff using the snowfall-snowmelt routine in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Three parameters, namely maximum snowmelt factor, minimum snowmelt factor, and snowpack temperature lag were analysed during the simulation. The model was validated using streamflow data from October 1, 1991 to September 30, 1994 with and without considering the elevation band. The result of this study suggests that the snowmelt-runoff model associated with the elevation band better represents the snowmelt-runoff mechanism in terms of Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient (E _NS ), R ², and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE).     

A case study for the integration of predictive mineral potential maps

This study aims to elaborate on the mineral potential maps using various models and verify the accuracy for the epithermal gold (Au) — silver (Ag) deposits in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment assuming that all deposits shared a common genesis. The maps of potential Au and Ag deposits were produced by geological data in Taebaeksan mineralized area, Korea. The methodological framework consists of three main steps: 1) identification of spatial relationships 2) quantification of such relationships and 3) combination of multiple quantified relationships. A spatial database containing 46 Au-Ag deposits was constructed using GIS. The spatial association between training deposits and 26 related factors were identified and quantified by probabilistic and statistical modelling. The mineral potential maps were generated by integrating all factors using the overlay method and recombined afterwards using the likelihood ratio model. They were verified by comparison with test mineral deposit locations. The verification revealed that the combined mineral potential map had the greatest accuracy (83.97%), whereas it was 72.24%, 65.85%, 72.23% and 71.02% for the likelihood ratio, weight of evidence, logistic regression and artificial neural network models, respectively. The mineral potential map can provide useful information for the mineral resource development.