Pollution mechanisms in a Ramsar wetland: Delta of the River Evros,Greece

The pollution mechanisms affecting the protected wetland of the river Evros delta, were investigated during an one year survey (1992–1993). The eastern part of the wetland was mainly influenced by river transported pollution which is generated in the greater catchment basin of the river Evros, in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. In this part of the wetland, the highest concentrations of organic matter were found during summer, but nutrients concentrations increased during the early winter months. Nitrogen concentrations remained high throughout spring but SRP concentrations decreased considerably during the same period. In the western part of the wetland, the watercourses were mainly influenced by local activities (agriculture and animal breeding) but pollutant concentrations were lower than in the river stations. These preliminary results indicate that river transported pollution is the major factor for the quality degradation of the wetland's waters.     

The spray contribution to net evaporation from the sea: A review of recent progress

The part that sea spray plays in the air-sea transfer of heat and moisture has been a controversial question for the last two decades. With general circulation models (GCMs) suggesting that perturbations in the Earth's surface heat budget of only a few W m^–2 can initiate major climatic variations, it is crucial that we identify and quantify all the terms in that heat budget. Thus, here we review recent work on how sea spray contributes to the sea surface heat and moisture budgets. In the presence of spray, the near-surface atmosphere is characterized by a droplet evaporation layer (DEL) with a height that scales with the significant-wave amplitude. The majority of spray transfer processes occur within this layer. As a result, the DEL is cooler and more moist than the atmospheric surface layer would be under identical conditions but without the spray. Also, because the spray in the DEL provides elevated sources and sinks for heat and moisture, the vertical heat fluxes are no longer constant with height. We use Eulerian and Lagrangian models and a simple analytical model to study the processes important in spray droplet dispersion and evaporation within this DEL. These models all point to the conclusion that, in high winds (above about 15 m/s), sea spray begins to contribute significantly to the air-sea fluxes of heat and moisture. For example, we estimate that, in a 20-m/s wind, with an air temperature of 20°C, a sea surface temperature of 22°C, and a relative humidity of 80%, the latent and sensible heat fluxes resulting from the spray alone will have magnitudes of order 150 and 15 W/m², respectively, in the DEL. Finally, we speculate on what fraction of these fluxes rise out of the DEL and, thus, become available to the entire marine boundary layer.     

Sedimentation patterns of diatoms in Lake Holzmaar, Germany - (on the transfer of climate signals to biogenic silica oxygen isotope proxies)

The seasonal sedimentation pattern of diatom valves in Lake Holzmaar was investigated during 1995 by deploying sediment traps at three different lake depths. According to the sedimentation pattern, the major reproduction zone of diatoms was restricted to the upper 6 m of the water body. The population growth started late in April and blooms of Cyclotella cf. comensis Grun., which dominates the plankton diatoms, and Fragilaria crotonensis Kitton were collected in traps during June and September, and July, respectively. During summer, the seasonal sedimentation pattern of each taxon, as collected in the upper traps, was reflected in the concentrations in the lowest trap. However, in May and from September onwards, the community composition in the lowest trap and augmented trapping rates suggest both sediment focusing and resuspension of bottom sediments.The temperature signals as recorded by 18O values of diatom valves should, therefore, reflect integrated temperatures between 0 and 6 m depth. However, temperatures during summer and autumn are expected to be accentuated in the sedimentary record since the isotopic signal is weighted by both the number and the weight-mass of the valves. During summer, the transfer of these signals by the sedimenting diatoms retains the information pattern recorded, while in spring and autumn/winter additional influxes caused by resuspension may somewhat alter those temperature informations. The proxy signals finally stored in the sediments, may, therefore, not precisely represent the successive temperatures currently recorded during 1995 within mid-lake.     

Extracting commuter-specific destination hotspots from trip destination data – comparing the boro taxi service with Citi Bike in NYC

ABSTRACT

Taxi trajectories from urban environments allow inferring various information about the transport service qualities and commuter dynamics. It is possible to associate starting and end points of taxi trips with requirements of individual groups of people and even social inequalities. Previous research shows that due to service restrictions, boro taxis have typical customer destination locations on selected Saturdays: many drop-off clusters appear near the restricted zone, where it is not allowed to pick up customers and only few drop-off clusters appear at complicated crossing. Detected crossings imply recent infrastructural modifications. We want to follow up on these results and add one additional group of commuters: Citi Bike users. For selected Saturdays in June 2015, we want to compare the destinations of boro taxi and Citi Bike users. This is challenging due to manifold differences between active mobility and motorized road users, and, due to the fact that station-based bike sharing services are restricted to stations. Start and end points of trips, as well as the volumes in between rely on specific numbers of bike sharing stations. Therefore, we introduce a novel spatiotemporal assigning procedure for areas of influence around static bike sharing stations for extending available computational methods.     

Lower Rotliegend fluvio-lacustrine sequences in the Saar-Nahe Basin

The Rotliegend beds of the middle of the Kusel Group to the middle of the Lebach Group in the Saar-Nahe Basin are characterized by sedimentary sequences which developed in streams, deltas, and lakes. The stream sequences consisting of cross-stratified sandstone units are attributed to braided fluvial environment. The lake-delta sequences usually show gradual transition from lacustrine mudstones to delta-front cross-stratified sandstones and to floodbasin, crevasse and overbank sandstones and mudstones. Loaded high-intensity flows occasionally result in deformation- and erosion-structures. Low-energy lacustrine sedimentation is evident from paper-shales and massive mudstones. The mudstones alternate with cross-laminated sandstones where influenced by terrigenous influx.     

Use of C-Band frequencies for satellite navigation: benefits and drawbacks

Although not considered for the first generation of European Galileo satellites, the use of C-Band frequencies for navigation purposes may be taken into account for a future generation of Galileo. For this reason, a frequency band of 20 MHz bandwidth (5,010–5,030 MHz) has been allocated in the course of the World Radio Communications Conference 2000 held in Istanbul, Turkey. The use of C-Band navigation signals offers both advantages and drawbacks. One example is the ionospheric path delay which is inversely proportional to the (squared) carrier frequency and is therefore significantly smaller at C-Band. On the other hand, the use of C-Band frequencies results in increased attenuation effects such as free space loss or rainfall attenuation. It is therefore necessary to provide a detailed analysis of the effects of C-Band frequencies on the navigation process. In order to assess the feasibility of using C-Band frequencies, various aspects of signal propagation and satellite signal tracking at C-Band are examined in the context of this article. In particular, aspects like free space loss, atmospheric effects, foliage attenuation, code and carrier tracking performance, code noise, phase noise and multipath are discussed with respect to their performance at C-Band. In order to allow comparison with the current GPS system, the performance at C-Band is compared to the L-Band performance under similar or identical conditions. The results of this analysis will finally be discussed with respect to their impact on satellite payload and receiver design.

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Decadal-scale variations of water mass properties in the deep Weddell Sea

Data from cruises between 1989 and 2003 with FS Polarstern were used to construct section-wide potential temperature and salinity time series of the main water masses in the Weddell Gyre. In tandem with these CTD data, two time series between 1989 and 1995 are presented from moored instruments in the central Weddell Sea. The regional and methodological consistency of the dataset allows us to quantify variations which are not visible in less homogeneous datasets. The data reveal significant temperature and salinity variations of the Warm Deep Water and the Weddell Sea Bottom Water on a decadal time scale. The longest time series were obtained at the prime meridian. Here warming is observed in the Warm Deep Water from 1992 to 1998 followed by cooling. In the Weddell Sea proper, measurements of instruments moored in the Weddell Sea Bottom Water layer recorded a temperature increase over 6 years at a rate of 0.01 °C a^–1. After the mooring period, CTD casts in 1998 point to a weakening of the trend. The warming trend in the bottom water occurs over most of the Weddell Sea, as detected in the additional CTD surveys. The variations are close to the detection level in the voluminous Weddell Sea Deep Water. The initial warming trend of the Warm Deep Water is consistent with warming trends reported in literature of subsurface waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The reversal of the trend in the Weddell Sea seems to be related to variations of the atmospheric conditions which can affect both the intrusion of Circumpolar Deep Water from the north and the circulation of the Weddell Gyre. Because the Warm Deep Water is the major source water for the formation of deep and bottom water in the Weddell Sea, it is suggested that its increase in temperature and salinity is likely to at least partly cause the variations which were observed in the bottom water.Responsible Editor: Jörg-Olaf Wolff     

Internal-wave-induced and double-diffusive nutrient fluxes to the nutrient-consuming surface layer in the oligotrophic subtropical North Atlantic

In the literature, an inconsistency exists between estimates of biotically-effected carbon export inferred from large-scale geochemical studies (Jenkins 1982; 47 gC m^–2 a^–1) and local measurements of turbulent nutrient supply (Lewis et al. 1986; 4 gC m^–2 a^–1) in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic. Nutrient supply to the upper ocean by turbulent mixing is reexamined using local standard oceanographic measurements and high-resolution vertical profiles of nutrients averaged over a large region directly comparable to that investigated by Jenkins (1982).Responsible Editor: Franciscus Colijn