European vegetation during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage-3

European vegetation during representative “warm” and “cold” intervals of stage-3 was inferred from pollen analytical data. The inferred vegetation differs in character and spatial pattern from that of both fully glacial and fully interglacial conditions and exhibits contrasts between warm and cold intervals, consistent with other evidence for stage-3 palaeoenvironmental fluctuations. European vegetation thus appears to have been an integral component of millennial environmental fluctuations during stage-3; vegetation responded to this scale of environmental change and through feedback mechanisms may have had effects upon the environment. The pollen-inferred vegetation was compared with vegetation simulated using the BIOME 3.5 vegetation model for climatic conditions simulated using a regional climate model (RegCM2) nested within a coupled global climate and vegetation model (GENESIS-BIOME). Despite some discrepancies in detail, both approaches capture the principal features of the present vegetation of Europe. The simulated vegetation for stage-3 differs markedly from that inferred from pollen analytical data, implying substantial discrepancy between the simulated climate and that actually prevailing. Sensitivity analyses indicate that the simulated climate is too warm and probably has too short a winter season. These discrepancies may reflect incorrect specification of sea surface temperature or sea-ice conditions and may be exacerbated by vegetation-climate feedback in the coupled global model.     

Mekometer measurements in the Imperial Valley, California

A network of about 130 bench marks, mostly about 800 m apart at road intersections and forming a continuous chain of quadrilaterals crossing the Imperial Valley in the vicinity of El Centro, has been measured three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1975. The instrument used was a Mekometer, a superior short-range electronic-distance-measuring (EDM) instrument having a sensitivity of 0.1 mm and a potential accuracy of better than 1 ppm. In 1975 the network was extended, particularly where it crosses the Imperial fault, to about 200 bench marks defining about 500 lines.For various reasons, it has not been possible to achieve standard errors of much less than 3 ppm in the distance measurements. Even so, about one line in three shows significant change at the 95% level in one or more of the three intervals 1971–1973, 1973–1975 and 1971–1975. Adopting stringent consistency criteria, the number of places where significant changes occurred can be reduced to seven. One of these is almost certainly associated with the Heber geothermal anomaly, one with the Imperial fault, and the others with one or other of the faults identified on the ground further to the north. The largest and most consistent changes occur on the Imperial fault, and imply an aseismic slip on it averaging about 8 mm/yr.The data also lend themselves to regional strain analysis. The results are consistent with a linear strain rate of about 0.3 ppm/yr, which is comparable with the rate deduced from large-scale geodetic surveys of the area.     

Testing techniques to quantify drumlin height and volume: synthetic DEMs as a diagnostic tool

Glacial bedform height (H) and volume (V) likely preserve important information about the behaviour of former ice sheets. However, large systematic errors exist in the measurement of H and V. Three semi‐automated methods to isolate drumlins from other components of the landscape (e.g. trees, hills) as portrayed by NEXTMap have recently been devised; however, it is unclear which is most accurate. This paper undertakes the first quantitative comparison of such readily implementable methods, illustrating the use of statistically representative ‘synthetic landscapes’ as a diagnostic tool. From this analysis, guidelines for quantifying the 3D attributes of drumlins are proposed. Specifically, to avoid obtaining incorrect estimates caused by substantial systematic biases, interpreters should currently take three steps: declutter the digital elevation model for estimating H but not V; remove height data within the drumlin; then interpolate across the resultant hole to estimate a basal surface using Delaunay triangulation. Results are demonstrated through analysis of drumlins in an area in western central Scotland. The guidance arguably represents the best current advice for subglacial bedforms in general, highlighting the need for more studies into the quality of mapped data using synthetic landscapes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The European Upper Mantle as Seen by Surface Waves

We derive a global, three-dimensional tomographic model of horizontally and vertically polarized shear velocities in the upper mantle. The model is based on a recently updated global database of Love- and Rayleigh-wave fundamental-mode phase-anomaly observations, with a good global coverage and a particularly dense coverage over Europe and the Mediterranean basin (broadband stations from the Swiss and German seismic networks). The model parameterization is accordingly finer within this region than over the rest of the globe. The large-scale, global structure of our model is very well correlated with that of earlier shear-velocity tomography models, based both on body- and surface-wave observations. At the regional scale, within the region of interest, correlation is complicated by the different resolution limits associated to different databases (surface waves, compressional waves, shear waves), and, accordingly, to different models; while a certain agreement appears to exist for what concerns the grand tectonic features in the area, heterogeneities of smaller scale are less robustly determined. Our new model is only one step towards the identification of a consensus model of European/Mediterranean upper-mantle structure: on the basis of the findings discussed here, we expect that important improvements will soon result from the combination, in new tomographic inversions, of fundamental-mode phase-anomaly data like ours with observations of surface-wave overtones, of body-wave travel times, of ambient “noise”, and by accounting for an a-priori model of crustal structure more highly resolved than the one employed here.     

Using data assimilation method to calibrate a heterogeneous conductivity field and improve solute transport prediction with an unknown contamination source

Hydraulic conductivity distribution and plume initial source condition are two important factors affecting solute transport in heterogeneous media. Since hydraulic conductivity can only be measured at limited locations in a field, its spatial distribution in a complex heterogeneous medium is generally uncertain. In many groundwater contamination sites, transport initial conditions are generally unknown, as plume distributions are available only after the contaminations occurred. In this study, a data assimilation method is developed for calibrating a hydraulic conductivity field and improving solute transport prediction with unknown initial solute source condition. Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is used to update the model parameter (i.e., hydraulic conductivity) and state variables (hydraulic head and solute concentration), when data are available. Two-dimensional numerical experiments are designed to assess the performance of the EnKF method on data assimilation for solute transport prediction. The study results indicate that the EnKF method can significantly improve the estimation of the hydraulic conductivity distribution and solute transport prediction by assimilating hydraulic head measurements with a known solute initial condition. When solute source is unknown, solute prediction by assimilating continuous measurements of solute concentration at a few points in the plume well captures the plume evolution downstream of the measurement points.     

Effects of Local Dispersion and Kinetic Sorption on Evolution of Concentration Variance in a Heterogeneous Aquifer

A Eulerian stochastic method is applied to develop a theory of concentration variance for solute transport in a heterogeneous medium. The study focuses on the effects of kinetic sorption and local dispersion on solute dissipation. Spatial distribution of the concentration variance is obtained by scaling the zero local dispersion form of σ_c ². The scaling function resulting from the local dispersion and kinetic sorption is derived in a closed integral form. It satisfies the measurement of total concentration variance resulting from the Eulerian mass balance using spatially integrated concentration moments. The spatially integrated moments bypass the need for classical closures applied to joint moments between concentration and velocity fields. The study results indicate that kinetic sorption reduces the total development of concentration variance in comparison with non-reactive solute transport. Kinetic sorption acts as a reduction mechanism, but not as a dissipating mechanism like the local dispersion. Kinetic sorption and local dispersion are not additive processes and their effects on the concentration variance depend on the stage of transport time.     

Clay mineral variations in Holocene terrestrial sediments from the Indus Basin

We employed X-ray diffraction methods to quantify clay mineral assemblages in the Indus Delta and flood plains since ~ 14 ka, spanning a period of strong climatic change. Assemblages are dominated by smectite and illite, with minor chlorite and kaolinite. Delta sediments integrate clays from across the basin and show increasing smectite input between 13 and 7.5 ka, indicating stronger chemical weathering as the summer monsoon intensified. Changes in clay mineralogy postdate changes in climate by 5–3 ka, reflecting the time needed for new clay minerals to form and be transported to the delta. Samples from the flood plains in Punjab show evidence for increased chemical weathering towards the top of the sections (6–< 4 ka), counter to the trend in the delta, at a time of monsoon weakening. Clay mineral assemblages within sandy flood-plain sediment have higher smectite/(illite + chlorite) values than interbedded mudstones, suggestive of either stronger weathering or more sediment reworking since the Mid Holocene. We show that marine records are not always good proxies for weathering across the entire flood plain. Nonetheless, the delta record likely represents the most reliable record of basin-wide weathering response to climate change.