南极Lambert, Mellor和Fisher冰川的物质平衡及Amery冰架底部物质通量的估算

利用现场观测与遥感数据对Lambert, Mellor和Fisher冰川的物质平衡及其在Amery冰架的底部融化与冻结状况进行了估算. 结果表明, 澳大利亚组织的Lambert冰川盆地(LGB)考察路线的上游地区, Lambert与Mellor冰川分别为(3.9±2.1)和(2.1±2.4) Gt·a^-1的正平衡, 而Fisher冰川基本处于平衡状态. 上游地区总的正平衡为(5.9±4.9) Gt·a^-1. 考察路线以下, 3条冰川均处于负平衡, 总的负平衡为(-8.5±5.8) Gt·a^-1. 整个Lambert, Mellor和Fisher冰川均接近于平衡状态. 3条冰川总净平衡为(-2.6±6.5) Gt·a^-1. 前人认为GL线(1970年代初澳大利亚在LGB建立的冰川运动观测点的连线)以上的内陆盆地处于显著正平衡, 可能是因为过高地估算了总积累量, 并低估了穿过GL线的冰通量. 靠近Amery冰架南端着地线, 冰架底部的平均融化速率为(-23.0±3.5) m冰·a^-1, 向下游方向快速减小, 并在距冰架最南端约300 km处过渡为底部冻结. 沿3条冰川在Amery冰架的冰流带(flowband), 冻结速率约介于(0.5±0.1)~(1.5±0.2) m 冰·a^-1. 由于冰流带底部的融化, 流入冰架的内陆冰损失了大约80%±5%. 3条冰流带底部总融化和总冻结分别为(50.3±7.5)和(7.0±1.1) Gt 冰·a^-1, 这要比前人通过模拟和海洋观测估算的整个Amery冰架底部总融化和总冻结还要大很多.     

Genesis of the Permian Baimazhai magmatic Ni–Cu–(PGE) sulfide deposit, Yunnan, SW China

The ~260 Ma-old Baimazhai Ni–Cu–(PGE) sulfide deposit in the Jinping region, Yunnan, SW China, is hosted in a small mafic–ultramafic intrusion, which intruded Ordovician sandstone and slate. The intrusion is concentric with lens shape, about 530 m long, 190 m wide and 24 to 64 m thick, trends 296°, and dips 22°NE. The massive sulfide ore body forms the core of the intrusion and is surrounded by variably mineralized orthopyroxenite, websterite and barren gabbro. The proportion of gabbro, websterite, orthopyroxenite and massive ore is approximately 30, 30, 20 and 20 vol.%, respectively. Magmatic pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite make up more than 90% of the massive ores. The massive ores contain high Ni (1.6 to 4.2 wt%) and Cu (0.4 to 6.5 wt%) and low ∑PGE contents (85 to 524 ppb). They have Pd/Ir ratios ranging from 6.7 to 530, Pd/Pt ratios from 0.7 to 2.6 and Cu/(Pd×1,000) ratios from 31 to 400, which are comparable with those of the silicate rocks [Pd/Ir = 4 to 183, Pd/Pt = 0.7 to 3.5, and Cu/(Pd×1,000) = 100 to 400]. Similar Pd/Pt and Cu/Pd ratios of the silicate rocks and massive ores throughout the intrusion indicate a single sulfide segregation event. Excess sulfide melt segregation resulted from intensive crustal contamination that formed Si-rich and Mg-rich basaltic magmas in a deep-seated staging chamber before magma emplacement. The immiscible sulfide melts and the silicate melts were eventually evacuated from the staging magma chamber by compressive forces. Flow differentiation under high velocity concentrated the sulfide melts toward the middle of the magma flow, and consequently, formed a massive sulfide ore body in the central part of the intrusion. Low concentrations of PGEs and general absence of platinum-group minerals in the massive ores may have resulted from a relatively large mass fraction of the sulfide melts (e.g. R-factor = ~70) in Baimazhai compared with other intrusions elsewhere, such as Noril’sk-Talnakh with a R-factor of >10,000.     

The grey-green divide: multi-temporal analysis of greenness across 10,000 urban centres derived from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL)

ABSTRACT

The presence of green spaces within city centres has been recognized as a valuable component of the city landscape. Vegetation provides a variety of benefits including energy saving, improved air quality, reduced noise pollution, decreased ambient temperature and psychological restoration. Evidence also shows that the amount of vegetation, known as ‘greenness’, in densely populated areas, can also be an indicator of the relative wealth of a neighbourhood. The ‘grey-green divide’, the contrast between built-up areas with a dominant grey colour and green spaces, is taken as a proxy indicator of sustainable management of cities and planning of urban growth. Consistent and continuous assessment of greenness in cities is therefore essential for monitoring progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11. The availability of multi-temporal greenness information from Landsat data archives together with data derived from the city centres database of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) initiative, offers a unique perspective to quantify and analyse changes in greenness across 10,323 urban centres all around the globe. In this research, we assess differences between greenness within and outside the built-up area for all the urban centres described by the city centres database of the GHSL. We also analyse changes in the amount of green space over time considering changes in the built-up areas in the periods 1990, 2000 and 2014. The results show an overall trend of increased greenness between 1990 and 2014 in most cities. The effect of greening is observed also for most of the 32 world megacities. We conclude that using simple yet effective approaches exploiting open and free global data it is possible to provide quantitative information on the greenness of cities and its changes over time. This information is of direct interest for urban planners and decision-makers to mitigate urban related environmental and social impacts.     

Exposing the urban continuum: implications and cross-comparison from an interdisciplinary perspective

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing availability of geospatial data describing patterns of human settlement and population such as various global remote-sensing based built-up land layers, fine-grained census-based population estimates, and publicly available cadastral and building footprint data. This development constitutes new integrative modeling opportunities to characterize the continuum of urban, peri-urban, and rural settlements and populations. However, little research has been done regarding the agreement between such data products in measuring human presence which is measured by different proxy variables (i.e. presence of built-up structures derived from different remote sensors, census-derived population counts, or cadastral land parcels). In this work, we quantitatively evaluate and cross-compare the ability of such data to model the urban continuum, using a unique, integrated validation database of cadastral and building footprint data, U.S. census data, and three different versions of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) derived from remotely sensed data. We identify advantages and shortcomings of these data types across different geographic settings in the U.S., which will inform future data users on implications of data accuracy and suitability for a given application, even in data-poor regions of the world.     

A matter of tolerance: Distribution potential of scyphozoan polyps in a changing environment

Jellyfish blooms are unpredictable, unsustainable events, frequently affecting aquatic ecosystems severely. Of particular interest are the consequences of environmental change for jellyfish populations, especially in semi‐enclosed habitats. Regional and seasonal changes in water chemistry and physics may control the distribution of sessile polyps in the Baltic Sea, hence potentially driving the population dynamics of the two abundant medusa species Aurelia aurita and Cyanea capillata (Scyphozoa, Cnidaria). In laboratory experiments, settlement, growth, survival and physiological condition of A. aurita polyps were investigated at different levels of water temperature, pH and salinity. Survival and physiological condition of C. capillata polyps were examined after exposure to low salinity levels. Increased settlement of A. aurita planula larvae was observed on substrate plates at low temperature (4°C), low pH (7.4) and low salinity (7.5 psu), whereas early polyp growth was constrained by salinity ≤10 psu. Aurelia aurita polyps were in good physiological condition over the whole temperature range, while exposure to pH <6.5 led to stepwise tissue degradation. Salinity reduction to ≤5 and ≤8 psu caused irreversible degeneration of A. aurita and C. capillata polyps, respectively. Observed physiological limits suggest distribution of polyp populations of A. aurita in central and of C. capillata in western parts of the Baltic Sea, while future climate changes may particularly restrict occurrence of the less tolerant C. capillata.     

Architecture and temporal variations of a terrestrial CO2 degassing site using electric resistivity tomography and self-potential

International Journal of Earth Sciences - The Hartoušov mofette field in NW Bohemia, Czech Republic, is characterized by strong CO2 degassing from the Lithospheric Mantle. In a test survey...     

Effects of lateral confinement in natural and leveed reaches of a gravel‐bed river: Snake River,Wyoming, USA

This study examined the effects of natural and anthropogenic changes in confining margin width by applying remote sensing techniques – fusing LiDAR topography with image‐derived bathymetry – over a large spatial extent: 58 km of the Snake River, Wyoming, USA. Fused digital elevation models from 2007 and 2012 were differenced to quantify changes in the volume of stored sediment, develop morphological sediment budgets, and infer spatial gradients in bed material transport. Our study spanned two similar reaches that were subject to different controls on confining margin width: natural terraces versus artificial levees. Channel planform in reaches with similar slope and confining margin width differed depending on whether the margins were natural or anthropogenic. The effects of tributaries also differed between the two reaches. Generally, the natural reach featured greater confining margin widths and was depositional, whereas artificial lateral constriction in the leveed reach produced a sediment budget that was closer to balanced. Although our remote sensing methods provided topographic data over a large area, net volumetric changes were not statistically significant due to the uncertainty associated with bed elevation estimates. We therefore focused on along‐channel spatial differences in bed material transport rather than absolute volumes of sediment. To complement indirect estimates of sediment transport derived by morphological sediment budgeting, we collected field data on bed mobility through a tracer study. Surface and subsurface grain size measurements were combined with bed mobility observations to calculate armoring and dimensionless sediment transport ratios, which indicated that sediment supply exceeded transport capacity in the natural reach and vice versa in the leveed reach. We hypothesize that constriction by levees induced an initial phase of incision and bed armoring. Because levees prevented bank erosion, the channel excavated sediment by migrating rapidly across the restricted braidplain and eroding bars and islands. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence for short-lived oscillations in the biological records from the sediments of Lago Albano (Central Italy) spanning the period ca. 28 to 17 k yr BP

We report the results of analyses of pigments (derived from algae and photosynthetic bacteria), diatoms and invertebrate fossil remains (ostracods, cladocerans, chironomids) in two late Pleistocene sediment cores from Lago Albano, a crater lake in Central Italy. The record contains evidence for oscillations in lake biota throughout the period ca. 28 to 17 k yr BP. The earliest of these are contained in the basal 3.5 m of light olive-gray and yellowish-gray spotted muds sampled in core PALB 94-1E from 70 m water depth. The later oscillations are best represented in the more extended sediment sequence recovered from a second core site, PALB 94-6B, in 30 m water depth. The sediments at site 1E, containing the earlier oscillations (ca. 28-24 k yr BP), predate any sedimentation at the shallower site, from which we infer an initially low lake level rising to permit sediment accumulation at site 6B from ca. 24 k yr onwards. At site 6B, massive silts rich in moss remains are interbedded with laminated silts and carbonates. These sediments span the period ca. 24 to 17 k yr and are interpreted as representing, respectively, times of shallow water alternating with higher lake stands, when the lake was stratified and bottom water was stagnant. A range of mutually independent chronological constraints on the frequency and duration of the oscillations recorded in the lake biota indicate that they were aperiodic and occurred on millennial to century timescales. We interpret them as responses to climate forcing through its impact on lake levels and changing aquatic productivity. The time span they occupy, their frequency and their duration suggest that at least some of these changes may parallel both the Dansgaard-Oeschger events recorded in Greenland Ice Cores and the contemporary oscillations in North Atlantic circulation documented in marine sediment cores.     

Deflection and Rotation of CMEs from Active Region 11158

Between 13 and 16 February 2011, a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) erupted from multiple polarity inversion lines within active region 11158. For seven of these CMEs we employ the graduated cylindrical shell (GCS) flux rope model to determine the CME trajectory using both Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and coronagraph images. We then use the model called Forecasting a CME’s Altered Trajectory (ForeCAT) for nonradial CME dynamics driven by magnetic forces to simulate the deflection and rotation of the seven CMEs. We find good agreement between ForeCAT results and reconstructed CME positions and orientations. The CME deflections range in magnitude between \(10^{\circ }\) and \(30^{\circ}\). All CMEs are deflected to the north, but we find variations in the direction of the longitudinal deflection. The rotations range between \(5^{\circ}\) and \(50^{\circ}\) with both clockwise and counterclockwise rotations. Three of the CMEs begin with initial positions within \(2^{\circ}\) from one another. These three CMEs are all deflected primarily northward, with some minor eastward deflection, and rotate counterclockwise. Their final positions and orientations, however, differ by \(20^{\circ}\) and \(30^{\circ}\), respectively. This variation in deflection and rotation results from differences in the CME expansion and radial propagation close to the Sun, as well as from the CME mass. Ultimately, only one of these seven CMEs yielded discernible in situ signatures near Earth, although the active region faced toward Earth throughout the eruptions. We suggest that the differences in the deflection and rotation of the CMEs can explain whether each CME impacted or missed Earth.     

Intra-coastal ballast water flux and the potential for secondary spread of non-native species on the US West Coast

Ballast water is a dominant mechanism for the interoceanic and transoceanic dispersal of aquatic non-native species (ANS), but few studies have addressed ANS transfers via smaller scale vessel movements. We analyzed ballast water reporting records and ANS occurrence data from four US West Coast port systems to examine patterns of intra-coastal ballast water transfer, and assess how ballast transfers may have influenced the secondary spread of ANS. In 2005, one third of the vessels arriving to the US West Coast originated at one of four West Coast port systems (intra-coastal traffic). These vessels transported and discharged 27% (5,987,588 MT) of the total ballast water volume discharged at these ports that year. The overlap of ANS (shared species) among port systems varied between 3% and 80%, with the largest overlap occurring between San Francisco Bay and LA/Long Beach. Our results suggest that intra-coastal ballast water needs further consideration as an invasion pathway, especially as efforts to promote short-sea shipping are being developed.