Multi-factor impact analysis of agricultural production in Bangladesh with climate change

Diverse vulnerabilities of Bangladesh's agricultural sector in 16 sub-regions are assessed using experiments designed to investigate climate impact factors in isolation and in combination. Climate information from a suite of global climate models (GCMs) is used to drive models assessing the agricultural impact of changes in temperature, precipitation, carbon dioxide concentrations, river floods, and sea level rise for the 2040–2069 period in comparison to a historical baseline. Using the multi-factor impacts analysis framework developed in Yu et al. (2010), this study provides new sub-regional vulnerability analyses and quantifies key uncertainties in climate and production. Rice (aman, boro, and aus seasons) and wheat production are simulated in each sub-region using the biophysical Crop Environment REsource Synthesis (CERES) models. These simulations are then combined with the MIKE BASIN hydrologic model for river floods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Basins, and the MIKE21 Two-Dimensional Estuary Model to determine coastal inundation under conditions of higher mean sea level. The impacts of each factor depend on GCM configurations, emissions pathways, sub-regions, and particular seasons and crops. Temperature increases generally reduce production across all scenarios. Precipitation changes can have either a positive or a negative impact, with a high degree of uncertainty across GCMs. Carbon dioxide impacts on crop production are positive and depend on the emissions pathway. Increasing river flood areas reduce production in affected sub-regions. Precipitation uncertainties from different GCMs and emissions scenarios are reduced when integrated across the large GBM Basins’ hydrology. Agriculture in Southern Bangladesh is severely affected by sea level rise even when cyclonic surges are not fully considered, with impacts increasing under the higher emissions scenario.     

The Meteoritical Bulletin,No. 100, 2014 June

Meteoritical Bulletin 100 contains 1943 meteorites including 8 falls (Boumdeid [2011], Huaxi, Ko?ice, Silistra, So?tmany, Sutter's Mill, Thika, Tissint), with 1575 ordinary chondrites, 139 carbonaceous chondrites, 96 HED achondrites, 25 ureilites, 18 primitive achondrites, 17 iron meteorites, 15 enstatite chondrites, 11 lunar meteorites, 10 mesosiderites, 10 ungrouped achondrites, 8 pallasites, 8 Martian meteorites, 6 Rumuruti chondrites, 3 enstatite achondrites, and 2 angrites, and with 937 from Antarctica, 592 from Africa, 230 from Asia, 95 from South America, 44 from North America, 36 from Oceania, 6 from Europe, and 1 from an unknown location. This will be the last Bulletin published in the current format. Information about approved meteorites can be obtained from the Meteoritical Bulletin Database (MBD) available online at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/     

Effects of grain morphology on critical state: a computational analysis

We introduce a new DEM scheme (LS-DEM) that takes advantage of level sets to enable the inclusion of real grain shapes into a classical discrete element method. Then, LS-DEM is validated and calibrated with respect to real experimental results. Finally, we exploit part of LS-DEM potentiality by using it to study the dependency of critical state (CS) parameters such as critical state line (CSL) slope \(\lambda \), CSL intercept \(\varGamma \), and CS friction angle \(\varPhi _{\mathrm{CS}}\) on the grain’s morphology, i.e., sphericity, roundness, and regularity. This study is carried out in three steps. First, LS-DEM is used to capture and simulate the shape of five different two-dimensional cross sections of real grains, which have been previously classified according to the aforementioned morphological features. Second, the same LS-DEM simulations are carried out for idealized/simplified grains, which are morphologically equivalent to their real counterparts. Third, the results of real and idealized grains are compared, so the effect of “imperfections” on real particles is isolated. Finally, trends for the CS parameters (CSP) dependency on sphericity, roundness, and regularity are obtained as well as analyzed. The main observations and remarks connecting particle’s morphology, particle’s idealization, and CSP are summarized in a table that is attempted to help in keeping a general picture of the analysis, results, and corresponding implications.     

Spatial patterns of sub-tidal seagrasses and their tissue nutrients in the Torres Strait,northern Australia: Implications for management

The distribution and nutritional profiles of sub-tidal seagrasses from the Torres Strait were surveyed and mapped across an area of 31,000 km². Benthic sediment composition, water depth, seagrass species type and nutrients were sampled at 168 points selected in a stratified representative pattern. Eleven species of seagrass were present at 56 (33.3%) of the sample points. Halophila spinulosa, Halophila ovalis, Cymodocea serrulata and Syringodium isoetifolium were the most common species and these were nutrient profiled. Sub-tidal seagrass distribution (and associated seagrass nutrient concentrations) was generally confined to northern-central and south-western regions of the survey area (<longitude 142.60), where mean water depth was relatively shallow (approximately 13 m below MSL) and where sediments were comprised primarily muddy sand to gravelly sand. Seagrass nitrogen and starch content, the most important nutrients for marine herbivores, were significantly correlated with species and with the plant component (above or below ground). For all seagrass species, the above-ground component (shoots and leaves) possessed greater nitrogen concentrations than the below-ground component (roots and rhizomes), which possessed greater starch concentrations. S. isoetifolium had the highest total nitrogen concentrations (1.40±0.05% DW). However, it also had higher fibre concentrations (38.2±0.68% DW) relative to the other four species. H. ovalis possessed the highest starch concentrations (2.76±0.12% DW) and highest digestibility (83.24±0.66% DW) as well as the lowest fibre (27.2±0.66% DW). The high relative abundance (found at 55% of the sites that had seagrass) and nutrient quality characteristics of H. ovalis make it an important source of energy to marine herbivores that forage sub-tidally in the Torres Strait. There were two regions in Torres Strait (north-central and south-western) where sub-tidal seagrass meadows were prevalent and of relatively higher nutritional value. This spatial and nutritional information can be used by local agencies to manage and to protect the ecological, economic and cultural values of the sub-tidal seagrass ecosystems and associated fisheries of the Torres Strait.     

DUN AND BRADSTREET'S MARKET IDENTIFIERS AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY*

An increasing number of studies of business start-ups, closings, and relocations rely on a single data base, DUNS Market Identifiers. This data file to U.S. business establishments provides researchers with essential information about individual firms and establishments. It also exhibits serveral idiosyncracies and requires careful consideration of the meaning of such basic terms as “location”and “firm.”Drawing from a recent survey of 500 New Jersey firms. I consider some of the methodological amd conceptual issues Dun and Bradstreet data pose for industrial location analysts. The Dun and Bradstreet listings exaggerate the exaggerate the incidence and magnitude of establishment openings and closing.     

Differentiation and evolution of the IVA meteorite parent body: Clues from pyroxene geochemistry in the Steinbach stony‐iron meteorite

Abstract— We analyzed the Steinbach IVA stony‐iron meteorite using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron microprobe analysis (EMPA), laser ablation inductively‐coupled‐plasma mass spectroscopy (LA‐ICP‐MS), and modeling techniques. Different and sometimes adjacent low‐Ca pyroxene grains have distinct compositions and evidently crystallized at different stages in a chemically evolving system prior to the solidification of metal and troilite. Early crystallizing pyroxene shows evidence for disequilibrium and formation under conditions of rapid cooling, producing clinobronzite and type 1 pyroxene rich in troilite and other inclusions. Subsequently, type 2 pyroxene crystallized over an extensive fractionation interval. Steinbach probably formed as a cumulate produced by extensive crystal fractionation (?60–70% fractional crystallization) from a high‐temperature (?1450–1490 °C) silicate‐metallic magma. The inferred composition of the precursor magma is best modeled as having formed by ≥30–50% silicate partial melting of a chondritic protolith. If this protolith was similar to an LL chondrite (as implied by O‐isotopic data), then olivine must have separated from the partial melt, and a substantial amount (?53–56%) of FeO must have been reduced in the silicate magma. A model of simultaneous endogenic heating and collisional disruption appears best able to explain the data for Steinbach and other IVA meteorites. Impact disruption occurred while the parent body was substantially molten, causing liquids to separate from solids and oxygen‐bearing gas to vent to space, leading to a molten metal‐rich body that was smaller than the original parent body and that solidified from the outside in. This model can simultaneously explain the characteristics of both stony‐iron and iron IVA meteorites, including the apparent correlation between metal composition and metallographic cooling rate observed for metal.