Soil formation and weathering in a permafrost environment of the Swiss Alps: a multi‐parameter and non‐steady‐state approach

Spatially discontinuous permafrost conditions frequently occur in the European Alps. How soils under such conditions have evolved and how they may react to climate warming is largely unknown. This study focuses on the comparison of nearby soils that are characterised by the presence or absence of permafrost (active‐layer thickness: 2–3 m) in the alpine (tundra) and subalpine (forest) range of the Eastern Swiss Alps using a multi‐method (geochemical and mineralogical) approach. Moreover, a new non‐steady‐state concept was applied to determine rates of chemical weathering, soil erosion, soil formation, soil denudation, and soil production. Long‐term chemical weathering rates, soil formation and erosion rates were assessed by using immobile elements, fine‐earth stocks and meteoric ¹⁰Be. In addition, the weathering index (K + Ca)/Ti, the amount of Fe‐ and Al‐oxyhydroxides and clay minerals characteristics were considered. All methods indicated that the differences between permafrost‐affected and non‐permafrost‐affected soils were small. Furthermore, the soils did not uniformly differ in their weathering behaviour. A tendency towards less intense weathering in soils that were affected by permafrost was noted: at most sites, weathering rates, the proportion of oxyhydroxides and the weathering stage of clay minerals were lower in permafrost soils. In part, erosion rates were higher at the permafrost sites and accounted for 79–97% of the denudation rates. In general, soil formation rates (8.8–86.7 t/km²/yr) were in the expected range for Alpine soils. Independent of permafrost conditions, it seems that the local microenvironment (particularly vegetation and subsequently soil organic matter) has strongly influenced denudation rates. As the climate has varied since the beginning of soil evolution, the conditions for soil formation and weathering were not stable over time. Soil evolution in high Alpine settings is complex owing to, among others, spatio‐temporal variations of permafrost conditions and thus climate. This makes predictions of future behaviour very difficult. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficacy of an In‐Well Sonde to Determine Magnetic Susceptibility of Aquifer Sediment

Magnetite is a natural component of many aquifers. Abiotic degradation of chlorinated solvents by magnetite can be an important mechanism for natural attenuation of these contaminants. The quantity of magnetite in aquifer materials can be estimated by measuring the magnetic susceptibility of the materials. This is most commonly done by determining the magnetic susceptibility of core samples in an analytical laboratory using a magnetic susceptibility meter. Unfortunately, the cost of acquiring core samples often makes an evaluation of abiotic degradation by magnetite economically unrealistic. Downhole sondes (probes) are available for the determination of magnetic susceptibility. In this study, a downhole sonde was evaluated as an affordable alternative to acquiring and analyzing core samples. The sonde was introduced into 10 monitoring wells. The data from the sonde were then compared to data from core samples that were collected from the same elevation as the sonde data. The core samples analyzed in the laboratory were used as the standard against which the sonde data were compared. The downhole sonde reported values that were similar to values reported on core samples. At most wells, the means of the two measurements could not be distinguished at the 95% confidence interval. When the means could be distinguished, they still agreed within a factor of two.     

Preliminary health risk assessment for polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans in seafood from Guangzhou and Zhoushan, China

Dietary intake is one of the important routes of human exposure to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The use of PBDEs may also result in exposure to polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PBDDs/DFs), as these compounds are impurities in technical mixtures of BFRs and can also be formed unintentionally by the same processes that generate chlorinated dioxins. This study determined the concentrations of polybrominated compounds in common seafood in Guangzhou and Zhoushan, and assessed the health risks of these chemicals via consumption of contaminated seafood. Seafood samples (fish, bivalves, shrimp, crab, and cephalopods) purchased from local markets in 2003 and 2004 were analyzed for PBDEs and PBDDs/DFs. The highest concentration of total PBDEs (46.3 ng g⁻¹ lipid wt.) was detected in fish from Guangzhou, in which BDEs 47 and 209 were the two predominant congeners. The total daily intakes of PBDEs, PBDDs, and PBDFs were, 946, 6.39, and 6.54 pg kg⁻¹ body weight (bw) in Guangzhou, and 489, 4.99, and 7.65 pg kg⁻¹ bw in Zhoushan, respectively. The hazard ratios for PBDDs and PBDFs were both greater than unity, indicating that these compounds may pose some health risks to the local population.     

Integrated monitoring of the hydro-morphodynamics of a beach protected by low crested detached breakwaters

The aim of this paper is to propose an integrated low cost system for monitoring the performance of beach defence works during storms. For this purpose, the site of Igea Marina, Northern Adriatic Sea, Italy, which is protected by low crested detached breakwaters, is selected. The monitoring system is composed by a video installation, for the identification of the shoreline position and of the intertidal bathymetry at high space and time resolution, and a 2DH numerical model, to reconstruct the hydrodynamics induced by coastal defenses. The accuracy of the monitoring system is verified against available measurements of waves and currents performed during a field campaign with acoustic Doppler profilers. Assimilation of data on the shoreline position in 2DH model operatively working is challenging in the improvement of the production of risk maps. These show the current intensities and flooded areas during forecasted storms. First promising results suggest the possibility of setting up an early warning tool.     

Using nitrate to quantify quick flow in a karst aquifer

In karst aquifers, contaminated recharge can degrade spring water quality, but quantifying the rapid recharge (quick flow) component of spring flow is challenging because of its temporal variability. Here, we investigate the use of nitrate in a two-endmember mixing model to quantify quick flow in Barton Springs, Austin, Texas. Historical nitrate data from recharging creeks and Barton Springs were evaluated to determine a representative nitrate concentration for the aquifer water endmember (1.5 mg/L) and the quick flow endmember (0.17 mg/L for nonstormflow conditions and 0.25 mg/L for stormflow conditions). Under nonstormflow conditions for 1990 to 2005, model results indicated that quick flow contributed from 0% to 55% of spring flow. The nitrate-based two-endmember model was applied to the response of Barton Springs to a storm and results compared to those produced using the same model with δ¹⁸O and specific conductance (SC) as tracers. Additionally, the mixing model was modified to allow endmember quick flow values to vary over time. Of the three tracers, nitrate appears to be the most advantageous because it is conservative and because the difference between the concentrations in the two endmembers is large relative to their variance. The δ¹⁸O-based model was very sensitive to variability within the quick flow endmember, and SC was not conservative over the timescale of the storm response. We conclude that a nitrate-based two-endmember mixing model might provide a useful approach for quantifying the temporally variable quick flow component of spring flow in some karst systems.     

A model study of tide- and wind-induced mixing in the Columbia River Estuary and plume

A numerical simulation of circulation in the Columbia River estuary and plume during the summer of 2004 is used to explore the mixing involved as river water is transformed into shelf water. The model is forced with realistic river flow, tides, wind stress, surface heat flux, and ocean boundary conditions. Simulated currents and water properties on the shelf near the mouth are compared with records from three moorings (all in 72 m of water) and five CTD sections. The model is found to have reasonable skill; statistically significant correlations between observed and modeled surface currents, temperature, and salinity are all 0.42–0.72 for the mooring records. Equations for the tidally averaged, volume-integrated mechanical energy budget (kinetic and potential) are derived, with attention to the effects of: (i) Reynolds averaging, (ii) a time varying volume due to the free surface, and (iii) dissipation very close to the bottom. It is found that convergence of tidal pressure work is the most important forcing term in the estuary. In the far field plume (which has a volume 15 times greater than that of the estuary), the net forcing is weaker than that in the estuary, and may be due to either tidal currents or wind stress depending on the time period considered. These forcings lead to irreversible mixing of the stratification (buoyancy flux) that turns river water into shelf water. This occurs in both the plume and estuary, but appears to be more efficient (17% vs. 5%), and somewhat greater (4.2 MW vs. 3.3 MW), in plume vs. estuary. This demonstrates the importance of both wind and tidal forcing to watermass transformation, and the need to consider the estuary and plume as part of a single system.     

Climatology of surface and near-bed temperature and salinity on the north-west European continental shelf for 1971–2000

A 30-year (1971–2000) temperature and salinity climatology is presented for surface and near-bed regions of the NW European shelf seas, with a resolution of 1/6^°$1/6^{°}$ longitude by 1/10^°$1/{10}^{°}$ latitude. The data have been extracted from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) data centre and supplemented by additional records from the World Ocean Data Centre (WODC). From the original data, which are irregularly distributed in space and time, the mean monthly temperature and salinity are calculated, as well as the climatic mean annual cycle. The climatology presented here is an improvement upon all existing climatologies presented in the literature for the NW European shelf; covering a wider area on a finer scale and including the surface and near-bed distribution of both temperature and salinity. Comparison of our data with existing climatologies shows good agreement, with differences occurring where our climatology is an improvement. This climatology, which will prove to be valuable to many users in the marine community, will be regularly updated and made available to all users via the ICES data centre.     

Landforms on Asteroid 25143-Itokawa: A geomorphological perspective on periglacial origin and meltwater history

Asteroid surface geology offers a full range of opportunities for geomorphologists to participate in the analysis of landform distributions, deposit composition, source areas for sediments, age estimations, and the reconstruction of geohydrological records. A recent touchdown (2005) on 25143-Itokawa, a Near Earth Object (NEO), by the Hayabusa Spacecraft provides imagery (released, 2008, by the Japanese Aerospace Agency) that allows the analysis of data relevant to geomorphologists. The abbreviated interpretation of landform distributions on Itokawa discussed below provides a preliminary analysis of landform morphogenesis in a cold climate with near-zero gravity. The analysis generates several questions related to source of water, cause of fluid propagation and explanations of previously unrecognized processes of denudation.     

Microtremor study of site effects and soil-structure resonance in the city of Ljubljana (central Slovenia)

The city of Ljubljana is located in one of the three areas with the highest seismic hazard in Slovenia, and it is also the most densely populated. Site effects due to Quaternary sediments, which fill the up to 200 m-deep basin, are characteristic of the whole city area, but they can be especially strong in the southern part of Ljubljana, which is built on very soft lacustrine deposits. Existing microzonation studies of the city are inadequate, since there is a lack of borehole, geophysical and earthquake data. The microtremor horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method was therefore applied to a 200 m dense grid of free-field measurements over an area of 45 km² (1,223 measuring points) in order to assess the fundamental frequency of the sediments. The main difficulties in microtremor measurement arose from high levels of traffic and industrial noise, and from underground structures. Experimental conditions which can influence data quality, such as strong wind and water saturation of soil, were analysed. Very clear HVSR peaks were obtained in the entire southern part of the city, whereas in the northern part the site response is in general lower due to lower impedance contrast of gravel with the bedrock. The iso-frequency map of sediments shows a distribution in the range of 0.9–10 Hz. In the southern part of Ljubljana, sediment frequency correlates well with the thickness of soft sediments known from geophysical investigations and sparse drilling. Average amplitude of the HVSR peaks is considerably higher in the southern part (6.7 ± 2.4) than in the northern part (4.0 ± 2.0) of the city, indicating a high impedance contrast of lacustrine sediments with the bedrock. Microtremor measurements were also performed inside 122 buildings of various heights. We focused on important public buildings and selected blocks of flats and houses. To assess the longitudinal and transverse fundamental frequencies of each building, amplitude spectra and the spectral ratio between the upper floor and the basement were analysed for both directions. When one of these frequencies is close to a nearby free-field fundamental frequency, a potential soil-structure resonance is present. This was found in 12 of the measured buildings. Three of them are tall residential buildings (from 10 to 15 floors) with a fundamental frequency of 2–3 Hz, and nine of them are low-rise buildings (from 3 to 5 floors) with a fundamental frequency ranging from 3 to 4.5 Hz. Using the relationship between fundamental frequency and height, the typical height of buildings that might cause soil-structure resonance can be estimated at a given sediment frequency obtained from free-field measurements.