FLOW SEPARATION IN UNDISTURBED SOILS USING MULTIPLE ANIONIC TRACERS. PART 1. ANALYTICAL METHODS AND UNSTEADY RAINFALL AND RETURN FLOW EXPERIMENTS

Tracers provide one of the few ways of obtaining realistic information on the flows of water and solutes in undisturbed structured soils. Three fluorinated organic acids [pentafluorobenzoic acid, 2,6-diflurobenzoic acid and o-(trifluoromethyl) benzoic acid] and bromide were tested as anionic tracers in situations where the separation of different flow components is of interest. The fluorobenzoates were relatively conservative (approximately 90% for loam soil) although, in some instances, co-elution or complexation may lead to apparently non-conservative behaviour. Tracer mixtures applied to soils, were separated and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The relative mobilities of the tracers were studied during unidirectional steady flow in large undisturbed soil columns brought back to the laboratory. The breakthrough curves showed highly dispersive behaviour, with very early breakthrough of solute and a long tail. Contributions to the column outflow of different simultaneous applications of rainfall and return flow, labelled with different tracers, were separated using multicomponent mixing equations. The results show the importance of preferential flow and relatively immobile storage in the transport process.     

FLOW SEPARATION IN UNDISTURBED SOIL USING MULTIPLE ANIONIC TRACERS. PART 2. STEADY-STATE CORE-SCALE RAINFALL AND RETURN FLOWS AND DETERMINATION OF DISPERSION PARAMETERS

A series of experiments designed to study the separation of flow components from two large undisturbed cores under steady-state rainfall (downward) and return (upward) flows under near-saturated conditions is summarized. The experiments were conducted on soil columns collected from Lancaster University and the Slapton Wood catchment, Devon. The use of the relatively conservative tracers, potassium bromide, o-(trifluoromethyl)benzoic acid and 2,6-difluorobenzoic acid and a combination of application rates made it possible to quantify the different sources of water contributing to the discharge hydrographs. There is significant retention of tracer within the cores, despite the application of several pore volumes of water. The use of steady flow conditions allowed the determination of dispersion coefficients, dispersivity and proportion of ‘mobile’ water content parameters of the advection–dispersion equation. It was found that there were significant differences between the dispersivities at different flow-rates under upward and downward flux conditions and that in the undisturbed cores studied here the apparent proportions of mobile pore water ranged between 0.33 and 1.0, with an apparently complex relationship to flux rate. Prediction of transport in undisturbed soil remains problematic and tracer experiments will continue to be needed to provide a fundamental understanding of the complex flow processes involved.     

The quaternary glacial history of the Lahul Himalaya,northern India

This paper presents the first glacial chronology for the Lahul Himalaya, Northern India. The oldest glaciation, the Chandra Glacial Stage, is represented by glacially eroded benches at altitudes greater than 4300 m above sea-level. This glaciation was probably of a broad valley type. The second glaciation, the Batal Glacial Stage, is represented by highly weathered and dissected lateral moraines, which are present along the Chandra valley and some of its tributaries. This was an extensive valley glaciation. The third major glaciation, the Kulti Glacial Stage, is represented by well-preserved moraines in the main tributary valleys of the Chandra valley. This represents a less extensive valley glaciation. Two minor glacial advances, the Sonapani I and II, are represented by small sharp-crested moraines, which are within a few hundred metres or few kilometres of the present-day glaciers. The change in style and extent of glaciation is attributed to an increase in aridity throughout the Quaternary, due either to global climatic change or uplift of the Pir Panjal mountains to the south of Lahul, which restricted the northward penetration of the south Asian summer monsoon. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential sensitivity of flounder (Platichthys flesus) in response to oestrogenic chemical exposure: an issue for design and interpretation of monitoring and research programmes

This study was conducted as an initial investigation of 'differential response' in one of the main sentinel organisms used for monitoring programmes in United Kingdom estuaries, the flounder Platichthys flesus. It has been hypothesised that monitoring using species with a wide geographical spread and limited migration, such as flounder, might result in the comparison of different genetic stocks and certainly of populations with differing early life stage contaminant exposure histories. Furthermore, it is probable that these pre-exposure and genetic differences could manifest themselves in an ability to respond differently to contaminant exposure, so-called 'differential response'. It is important that the extent and nature of this response is understood, if we want to be able to fully interpret the monitoring data from such programmes. During this study, flounder were collected from four separate sources; wild caught fish from the estuaries of the Rivers Alde, Mersey and Tyne, and farmed flounder from Port Erin Farm, Isle of Man. Under controlled laboratory conditions, groups of fish from each source were exposed to water-borne concentrations of the synthetic oestrogen ethynylestradiol (EE2) at a nominal concentration of 50 ng/l. Plasma was taken from each male fish after 6 and 10 days exposure and analysed for the presence of vitellogenin (VTG) using an ELISA technique. Significant levels of VTG induction were evident in fish from all sources after both 6 and 10 days exposure. Flounder from the Mersey were the only fish with significantly elevated initial background levels of VTG (day 0) and this appeared to be reflected in that these specimens showed the highest induction response after day 6. However, after day 10, fish from all other sites had a slightly higher mean VTG than those from the Mersey which showed significantly (p < 0.05) lower mean plasma VTG. It is suggested that other differential responses may have been masked by the use of a high dose of EE2 which produced maximum induction in nearly all fish. The findings of the study are discussed in terms of implications for further research into the differential response issue and how the initial plasma VTG figures contribute to a time-series from the Mersey, Tyne and Alde estuaries.     

Aleksandr Georgievich Rozanov (on his 70th birthday)

Chronicle

Aleksandr Georgievich Rozanov (on his 70th birthday)     

Jeans Instability of a Protoplanetary Circular Disk Taking into Account the Magnetic Field and Radiation in Nonextensive Tsallis Kinetics

Solar System Research - Within the framework of Tsallis nonextensive statistics, the criteria for the Jeans gravitational instability are derived for a self-gravitating protoplanetary disk, whose...     

Resistance of Enzymes to Ionizing Radiation under Model Conditions of the Martian Regolith

Solar System Research - Ionizing radiation is one of the main factors that destroy biomolecules in extraterrestrial conditions. The effects of radiation depend on the conditions of the exposure...     

TERMO-LR Experiment on the Luna-27 Lander: Study of Thermophysical,Physicomechanical, and Electromagnetic Properties of the Lunar Soil

Solar System Research - The device is being developed for the TERMO-LR experiment on the Luna-27 lunar lander; it is intended for contact geophysical measurements of various properties of the lunar...     

On the Attractive Force of an Elliptical Gaussian Ring

Solar System Research - A numerical-analytical method for analyzing the orbital evolution of a planetary satellite under the influence of a perturbing body moving in an elliptical orbit is...     

Catalog of X-Ray Active Galactic Nuclei Based on ROSAT BSC and FSC Sources

Astrophysics - A general catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been created from identified optical sources of X-ray data from the Hamburg-ROSAT Catalog (HRC) and the Byurakan-Hamburg ROSAT...