Chloride loading in the South Fork of the Shenandoah River,Virginia, U.S.A.

Loading trends and sources of CI^– in the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, Virginia were analyzed for the period 1929–1982. CI^– has increased from approximately 2 mg/L (2,776 tons/yr) to over 10 mg/L (14,256 tons/yr). Natural CI^– is estimated to be 1.01 mg/L (1,388 tons/yr) with precipitation providing 0.99 mg/L and rocks 0.02 mg/L. From 1929 to 1949 CI^– concentrations were relatively constant and independent of discharge, conforming to the Type II curve of Davis and Zobrist (1978), indicative of natural or relatively uncontaminated streams. Since 1952 CI^– concentrations increased exponentially as river discharge decreases conforming to the Type I curve of Davis and Zobrist for polluted streams. Since 1965 anthropogenic CI^– loading at 12,868 tons/yr has remained relatively constant. Four major sources contribute 92.2 percent (11,871 tons/yr) of the anthropogenic CI^–: (1) deicing salts—4,149 tons/yr, (2) domestic sewage—3,015 tons/yr, (3) livestock and poultry wastes—2,458 tons/yr, and (4) commercial fertilizers—2,249 tons/yr.     

The global climate action summit: increasing ambition during turbulent times

In September 2018, leaders in climate action within and outside the U.S. will convene in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit. They plan to demonstrate strong ongoing commitment to exceeding the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, despite U.S. federal opposition under President Trump, and to spur greater ambition among subnational governments and the private sector. Now that the Trump Administration is working to undo the progress made under President Obama, it is more important than ever that states and cities, as well as the private sector, redouble their efforts. Since the 2016 election, many U.S. states have demonstrated leadership by establishing ever-more ambitious clean energy and electric vehicle targets through legislation and executive action; by pushing back on the Trump Administration in public forums and in the courts; and by banding together to realise greater effectiveness through collective action. The commitment of leading states, cities, and businesses alone will not be enough to achieve the rapid reductions needed to keep planetary warming to 1.5 degrees C in the absence of U.S. federal efforts. But coming after a summer of extreme weather events, the Summit represents a critical opportunity to re-energise constituencies, highlight the need for urgent and ambitious action, and bring climate change to the forefront of policy conversations across the U.S. and beyond.

Key policy insights

• The reversal of U.S. ambitious clean energy and transportation policy, including replacing the Clean Power Plan, freezing fuel standards, and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, have created a gap at the federal level under President Trump that will be difficult – but perhaps not impossible – to fill with subnational action.

• States, local governments, and the private sector have shown a strengthened commitment to combating climate change and to the goals set out in the Paris Agreement through more ambitious legislative and executive targets, and regional initiatives like RGGI and cross-jurisdictional zero emissions vehicle programmes.

• The Global Climate Action Summit in September 2018 is a pivotal moment to energise a broader coalition within and outside the U.S. towards catalysing the level of ambition needed to exceed goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

     

Interpreting nanoscale size-effects in aggregated Fe-oxide suspensions: Reaction of Fe(II) with Goethite

The Fe(II)/Fe(III) redox couple plays an important role in both the subsurface fate and transport of groundwater pollutants and the global cycling of carbon and nitrogen in iron-limited marine environments. Iron oxide particles involved in these redox processes exhibit broad size distributions, and the recent demonstrations of dramatic nanoscale size-effects with various metal oxides has compelled us, as well as many others, to consider whether the rate and extent of Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycling depends upon oxide particle size in natural systems. Here, we investigated the reaction of Fe(II) with three different goethite particle sizes in pH 7.5 suspensions. Acicular goethite rods with primary particle dimensions ranging from 7 by 80 nm to 25 by 670 nm were studied. Similar behavior with respect to Fe(II) sorption, electron transfer and nitrobenzene reduction was observed on a mass-normalized basis despite almost a threefold difference in goethite specific surface areas. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and sedimentation measurements all indicated that, at pH 7.5, significant aggregation occurred with all three sizes of goethite particles. SEM images further revealed that nanoscale particles formed dense aggregates on the order of several microns in diameter. The clear formation of particle aggregates in solution raises questions regarding the use of primary particle surface area as a basis for assessing nanoscale size-effects in iron oxide suspensions at circum-neutral pH values. In our case, normalizing the Fe(II) sorption densities and rate constants for nitrobenzene reduction by BET surface area implies that goethite nanoparticles are less reactive than larger particles. We suspect, however, that aggregation is responsible for this observed size-dependence, and argue that BET values should not be used to assess differences in surface site density or intrinsic surface reactivity in aggregated particle suspensions. In order to realistically assess nanoscale size-effects in environmentally relevant systems that are likely to aggregate, new methods are needed to quantify the amount of surface area accessible for sorption and reaction in wet nanoparticle suspensions, rather than assuming that this value is equivalent to the surface area determined from the characterization of dry nanoparticles.     

The University of Athens Hellenic Macroseismic Database (HMDB.UoA): historical earthquakes

A systematic study of historical earthquakes leading to the quantification of earthquake effects in terms of macroseismic data points (MDPs) and, consequently, earthquake parameters has been carried out in the last decade at the Laboratory of Seismology of the University of Athens. For each earthquake, the available background information was evaluated and the corresponding macroseismic intensities assessed in terms of the European Macroseismic Scale 1998. A considerable amount of these MDPs contributed to the Archive of Historical Earthquake Data inventory through European initiatives (NERIES and SHARE). Based on the structure of the European Database, the local version of the Hellenic Macroseismic Database (HMDB.UoA) was designed incorporating historical earthquakes of the period 1000–1899 from the eastern Aegean area, central Greece and Ionian Islands. In its present form, the HMDB.UoA includes 90 events with I _max?≥?7 (868 MDPs) and 1,088 events with I _max?<?7 (1,273 MDPs). The database is hosted on the website http://macroseismology.geol.uoa.gr/.     

Future trends in transport and fate of diffuse contaminants in catchments,with special emphasis on stable isotope applications

A summary is provided of the first of a series of proposed Integrated Science Initiative workshops supported by the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme. The workshop brought together hydrologists, environmental chemists, microbiologists, stable isotope specialists and natural resource managers with the purpose of communicating new ideas on ways to assess microbial degradation processes and reactive transport at catchment scales. The focus was on diffuse contamination at catchment scales and the application of compound‐specific isotope analysis (CSIA) in the assessment of biological degradation processes of agrochemicals. Major outcomes were identifying the linkage between water residence time distribution and rates of contaminant degradation, identifying the need for better information on compound specific microbial degradation isotope fractionation factors and the potential of CSIA in identifying key degradative processes. In the natural resource management context, a framework was developed where CSIA techniques were identified as practically unique in their capacity to serve as distributed integrating indicators of process across a range of scales (micro to diffuse) of relevance to the problem of diffuse pollution assessment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Benthic Macrofauna on the Erodibility of Intertidal Sediments with Varying mud Content in Three New Zealand Estuaries

Fine sediment inputs can alter estuarine ecosystem structure and function. However, natural variations in the processes that regulate sediment transport make it difficult to predict their fate. In this study, sediments were sampled at different times (2011–2012) from 45 points across intertidal sandflat transects in three New Zealand estuaries (Whitford, Whangamata, and Kawhia) encompassing a wide range in mud (≤63 μm) content (0–56 %) and macrofaunal community structure. Using a core-based erosion measurement device (EROMES), we calculated three distinct measures of sediment erosion potential: erosion threshold (? _c ; N m^?2), erosion rate (ER; g m^?2 s^?1), and change in erosion rate with increasing bed shear stress (m _e ; g N^?1 s^?1). Collectively, these measures characterized surface (? _c and ER) and sub-surface (m _e ) erosion. Benthic macrofauna were grouped by functional traits (size and motility) and data pooled across estuaries to determine relationships between abiotic (mud content, mean grain size) and biotic (benthic macrofauna, microbial biomass) variables and erosion measures. Results indicated that small bioturbating macrofauna (predominantly freely motile species <5 mm in size) destabilized surface sediments, explaining 23 % of the variation in ? _c (p ≤ 0.01) and 59 % of the variation in ER (p ≤ 0.01). Alternatively, mud content and mean grain size cumulatively explained 61 % of the variation in m _e (p ≤ 0.01), where increasing mud and grain size stabilized sub-surface sediments. These results highlight that the importance of biotic and abiotic predictors vary with erosion stage and that functional group classifications are a useful way to determine the impact of benthic macrofauna on sediment erodibility across communities with different species composition.     

Extreme precipitation in WRF during the Newcastle East Coast Low of 2007

In the context of regional downscaling, we study the representation of extreme precipitation in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, focusing on a major event that occurred on the 8^th of June 2007 along the coast of eastern Australia (abbreviated “Newy”). This was one of the strongest extra-tropical low-pressure systems off eastern Australia in the last 30 years and was one of several storms comprising a test bed for the WRF ensemble that underpins the regional climate change projections for eastern Australia (New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory Regional Climate Modelling Project, NARCliM). Newy provides an informative case study for examining precipitation extremes as simulated by WRF set up for regional downscaling. Here, simulations from the NARCliM physics ensemble of Newy available at ～10 km grid spacing are used. Extremes and spatio-temporal characteristics are examined using land-based daily and hourly precipitation totals, with a particular focus on hourly accumulations. Of the different physics schemes assessed, the cumulus and the boundary layer schemes cause the largest differences. Although the Betts-Miller-Janjic cumulus scheme produces better rainfall totals over the entire storm, the Kain-Fritsch cumulus scheme promotes higher and more realistic hourly extreme precipitation totals. Analysis indicates the Kain-Fritsch runs are correlated with larger resolved grid-scale vertical moisture fluxes, which are produced through the influence of parameterized convection on the larger-scale circulation and the subsequent convergence and ascent of moisture. Results show that WRF qualitatively reproduces spatial precipitation patterns during the storm, albeit with some errors in timing. This case study indicates that whilst regional climate simulations of an extreme event such as Newy in WRF may be well represented at daily scales irrespective of the physics scheme used, the representation at hourly scales is likely to be physics scheme dependent.     

Artifact size and spatial process: Macro- and microartifacts in a mississippian house

Despite their evident utility in archaeological analysis, microartifacts (those artifacts smaller than 2 mm) have, as a class, been used only sparingly by archaeologists and then only as if they were larger artifacts. This article explores the variable information microartifacts contain, using a case study from the Loy Site, a Mississippian village in East Tennessee. We show that microartifacts provide different information from that obtained from macroartifacts. We also demonstrate that comparisons among different size classes provide new information on dynamic aspects of artifact deposition. Especially in spatial analysis, comparing distributions of different size artifacts enhances our interpretative capabilities over any single artifact size class.     

Colloidally separated samples from Allende residues: Noble gases,carbon and an ESCA-study

A non-colloidal fraction separated by physical means from an $\text{HF}\text{HCl}$-resistant residue of the Allende carbonaceous meteorite exhibits a ratio of isotopically “normal” (Q-type) xenon to “anomalous” xenon (X-type) that is ~4 times larger than usually observed. Coincidentally this fraction contains carbon that is isotopically heavier by ~10%. than bulk Allende residue samples. ESCA analyses of companion colloidal separates show that the major portion of the S contained in our $\text{HF}\text{HCl}$-residues is elemental rather than a sulfide. They also confirm earlier observations that no elementally distinct surface coating is present, in accord with the absence of a surface-sited sulfur-bearing gas carrier, and that the oxygen content is increased after etching with nitric acid. For these separates noble gas data coupled with the ESCA data for nitrogen and the isotopic data for carbon point to the existence of heterogeneities among the noble gas-, carbon- and nitrogen-bearing phases and, thus, preservation of discrete components from the variety of source regions (or production mechanisms, or both) sampled by the Allende parent body. In sharp contrast to the success of physical and chemical methods in yielding samples in which one of the major noble gas components predominates to an extraordinary degree over the other, carbon isotopic compositions that have been inferred for the respective carrier phases in these same samples are strongly contradictory. Mass and isotope balance considerations lead us to conclude that a major fraction of the carbonaceous matter in Allende is noble-gas-poor, a result that could be confirmed by direct isolation of a sample, the carbon in which is dominated by this variety; and for that reason no simple relationship is discernable yet between observed isotopic compositions and either major noble gas component. Similar ambiguities may exist for nitrogen. The possible relationship between carbon-rich phases in ureilites and carbonaceous chondrites is considered.     

World-wide increase in tropospheric methane, 1978–1983

Tropospheric concentrations of methane in remote locations have averaged a yearly world-wide increase of 0.018±0.002 parts per million by volume (ppmv) during the period from January 1978 to December 1983. The concentrations in the north temperate zone are always greater than those in the south temperate zone by 7±1% because the major methane sources are all predominantly located in the northern hemisphere. The average world-wide tropospheric concentration of methane in dry air was 1.625 ppmv at the end of 1983, measured against an NBS standard certified as 0.97 ppmv (but with an accuracy of only ±1%). The world-wide concentration increases are described by a linear equation with a standard deviation of 0.003 ppmv for ten different collection periods during 1978–1983. The precision of measurement of the methane concentration in the atmospheric samples and in the standard was measured to be ±0.4% for each. Repetitive measurements of an air sample collected in November 1977 have shown the same concentration for six years with a standard deviation for these data of ±0.003 ppmv.The causes for the steady increase in methane concentration in the troposphere cannot be fixed with certainty from present data. Contributing causes can include increases in the source strengths from cattle and rice fields. The atmospheric concentrations of CO, CH₄ and HO are all closely coupled with one another, and increased concentrations of CO and/or CH₄ should cause reduced concentrations of HO, which in turn should lengthen the atmospheric lifetimes of CO and CH₄.Among other physical and chemical effects, a increase of 0.18 ppmv per decade should contribute a greenhouse warming of about 0.04°C per decade. Other secondary contributions to the greenhouse effect from increases in CH₄ may arise from methane-induced increases in stratospheric H₂O, in tropospheric O₃, and in numerous other trace species whose concentration is controlled by reaction with HO radicals.An increased CH₄ source strength may result from the effect of increasing atmospheric temperatures on the known aqueous biological CH₄ sources, such as swamps, and may be an added consequence of the greenhouse effect.