Current Atmospheric Deposition Loads and Their Trends in the Czech Republic Determined by Mapping the Distribution of Moss Element Contents

Biomonitoring of atmospheric deposition loads of 13, 14 and 35 elements and their compounds through moss analysis was carried out in the Czech Republic (CZ) in 1991, 1995 and 2000, respectively. The last biomonitoring campaign revealed very high contents of typical soil elements and lanthanides in southern Moravia. The variations in current element contents in moss, which can be explained by the action of six factors, were correlated with altitude, with total biennial precipitation, and with the bedrock types in the sampling plots. The element contents in moss samples repeatedly collected from the identical plots showed a steady decrease in atmospheric deposition loads in the CZ in the last decade of the 20th century. The main reasons for this phenomenon are listed. The results of cluster analyses and PCAs have found no substantial changes in the qualitative element composition of atmospheric deposition in CZ in recent years. Isoline maps are presented, which document changes in the distribution of Cd, Pb and S contents in moss in 1995 and 2000. An estimate of absolute deposition loads (g m^–2 year^–1) for given areas of the CZ can be made, using the list of bulk deposition indices.     

Andalusite in granulites of the bohemian massif

Summary In granulites of South-Bohemia not only the usually occurring Al₂SiO₅ polymorphs, kyanite and sillimanite, were found but also andalusite. Its presence indicates that the metamorphic development of these granulites is characterized by a high PT-gradient. The granulitic rocks of the Bohemian Massif can be regarded as a facies series ranging from the granulite facies through the amphibolite facies to the hornblende-hornfels facies. The lower limit of the PT-conditions of this series should be placed below the position of the triple point of Al₂SiO₅.

---

Andalusit in Granuliten der Böhmischen Masse

Zusammenfassung In den Mineralparagenesen der südböhmischen Granulite wurde neben den üblicherweise auftretenden Al₂SiO₅-Modifikationen, Disthen und Sillimanit, auch Andalusit gefunden. Seine Anwesenheit weist darauf hin, daß die metamorphe Entwicklung der erwähnten Granulite durch einen ausgeprägten PT-Gradienten gekennzeichnet wurde. Die Granulitgesteine der Böhmischen Masse kann man als eine Faziesserie ansehen, die von der Granulitfazies über die Amphibolitfazies bis in die Hornblende-Hornfelsfazies reicht. Die untere Grenze der PT-Bedingungen dieser Serie ist unter die Lage des Tripelpunktes von Al₂SiO₅ zu setzen.

---

---

With 5 Figures     

The End-to-End Attribution Problem: From Emissions to Impacts

When a damaging extreme meteorological event occurs, the question often arises as to whether that event was caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The question is more than academic, since people affected by the event will be interested in recurring damages if they find that someone is at fault. However, since this extreme event could have occurred by chance in an unperturbed climate, we are currently unable to properly respond to this question. A solution lies in recognising the similarity with the cause-effect issue in the epidemiological field. The approach there is to consider the changes in the risk of the event occurring as attributable, as against the occurrence of the event itself. Inherent in this approach is a recognition that knowledge of the change in risk as well as the amplitude of the forcing itself are uncertain. Consequently, the fraction of the risk attributable to the external forcing is a probabilistic quantity. Here we develop and demonstrate this methodology in the context of the climate change problem.     

Territorial dynamics and boundary effects in a protected area of the Central Iberian Peninsula

We analysed the main changes in land use over a 21 year period within the perimeter of a Protected Natural Area (PNA) and outside this perimeter. The area is characterised by its Mediterranean mid-mountain landscape and its piedmont, which extends almost as far as the city of Madrid. We employed cartography of land use and plant formation from 1980 and 2001. We identified land uses and their changes in this time period in order to determine the principal territorial dynamics (scrub encroachment, urban development, forest encroachment, new pastures and new crops). Subsequently, we performed a comparative analysis between the changes inside and those outside the protected area. The results show that there is a boundary effect between the protected area and the surrounding zone, which is more notable in the areas where urban development has intensified. This kind of research serves to establish whether or not a PNA contributes to protecting and conserving natural resources as compared to what occurs in the unprotected surrounding area, which tends to be subjected to more aggressive dynamics.     

Seismically active fracture zones and distribution of thermal springs in Ecuador

Summary The analysis of the geometry of distribution of earthquake foci occurring in the continental South American plate above the subducted Nazca plate reveals that in the region of Ecuador these earthquakes accumulate in 8 well-separated fracture zones. These zones are interpreted as a system of deep seismically active fractures induced in the continental plate by the process of subduction. It is shown that the position of known thermal springs and of observed hydrothermal alterations in Ecuador correlates with the outcrops of the fracture zones.

---

¶rt;aumuu an¶rt;u a mu muma num uu a¶rt; ¶rt;uu a¶rt; naa m mu mu anm 8 m¶rt; a a, m umnmua au uu amu a a muma um n ¶rt;uu. aam, m nmu um ma umuu uu¶rt;ma uu a¶rt; a¶rt;am ¶rt;a mu a .

     

The effect of thermal treatment on the 57Fe Mössbauer spectrum of beryl

Mössbauer spectra (MS) of blue, green and yellow beryl (ideally Be₃Al₂Si₆O₁₈) containing approximately 1% of iron were obtained at 295 and 500 K. Room temperature (RT) spectra of both blue and green samples showed the presence of an asymmetric Fe²⁺ doublet (ΔE _Q~2.7 mm/s, δ~1.1 mm/s), with a very broad low-velocity peak. There is no clear evidence for the presence of a ferric component. The MS of the yellow sample at RT consists of an intense central absorption with parameters typical for Fe³⁺ (ΔE _Q~0.4 mm/s, δ~0.29 mm/s), plus an apparently symmetrical Fe²⁺ doublet. This sample acquires a light-blue shade upon heating in air at about 620 K. Thermal treatments at high temperatures caused no significant changes in the MS, but the green and yellow beryl acquire a blue colour. All these results are interpreted in relation to the existence of channel water and the distribution of iron among the available crystallographic sites.     

Radio Emission from Three-dimensional Relativistic Hydrodynamic Jets: Observational Evidence of Jet Stratification

High-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio, blue-violet spectra of three red giant branch tip stars in M15 have been obtained with the Keck I High-Resolution Echelle Spectrograph. These spectra have been analyzed to determine the abundances of several neutron-capture elements, including the radioactive chronometer element thorium. There are two principal results of this study. First, the abundances of the heavier (Z>/=56) elements for each of the three stars is well matched by a scaled solar system r-process abundance distribution. Second, a weighted mean-observed Th/Eu ratio for the stars implies an age for the neutron-capture material in M15 stars of 14+/-3 Gyr, in reasonable agreement with other recent age estimates for Galactic globular clusters.