Influence of glacier advance on the development of the multipart Riffeltal rock glacier,Central Austrian Alps

The multipart Riffeltal rock glacier, located in a tributary valley of the Kaunertal, Tyrol, Austria is investigated to enlarge the knowledge about spatial and temporal development of rock glaciers in and at the margins of pro‐glacial areas and to get a better understanding of glacier–rock glacier interactions. The subject of interest consists of a complex system of two adjacent rock glacier tongues and various superposed lobes with differing ages, origin and root zones, and therefore diverse development. To determine the reasons for their diverging development, the internal structure and permafrost occurrence on and in the surrounding area of the rock glacier were studied by application of geomorphological mapping, geophysical methods and measurement of the basal temperature of the winter snow cover (BTS). Permafrost modelling was performed on the basis of BTS data and land surface parameters derived from a high resolution airborne laser scanning (ALS) digital elevation model (DEM). Additionally, the ALS data were used to measure vertical and horizontal changes of the rock glacier surface between 2006 and 2012. Glacier–rock glacier interactions during and since the Little Ice Age (LIA) are evident for the development of the studied rock glacier. A geomorphic map gives important information about the connection between glacial advance or retreat and permafrost or ground ice occurrence. The combination of all information helps in the analysis of diverse kinematic action of neighbouring rock glacier tongues. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Independent measurement of biogenic silica in sediments by FTIR spectroscopy and PLS regression

We present an independent calibration model for the determination of biogenic silica (BSi) in sediments, developed from analysis of synthetic sediment mixtures and application of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRS) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) modeling. In contrast to current FTIRS applications for quantifying BSi, this new calibration is independent from conventional wet-chemical techniques and their associated measurement uncertainties. This approach also removes the need for developing internal calibrations between the two methods for individual sediments records. For the independent calibration, we produced six series of different synthetic sediment mixtures using two purified diatom extracts, with one extract mixed with quartz sand, calcite, 60/40 quartz/calcite and two different natural sediments, and a second extract mixed with one of the natural sediments. A total of 306 samples—51 samples per series—yielded BSi contents ranging from 0 to 100 %. The resulting PLSR calibration model between the FTIR spectral information and the defined BSi concentration of the synthetic sediment mixtures exhibits a strong cross-validated correlation ( \( {\text{R}}^{ 2}_{\text{cv}} \)  = 0.97) and a low root-mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV = 4.7 %). Application of the independent calibration to natural lacustrine and marine sediments yields robust BSi reconstructions. At present, the synthetic mixtures do not include the variation in organic matter that occurs in natural samples, which may explain the somewhat lower prediction accuracy of the calibration model for organic-rich samples.     

Variability and alterations of water temperatures across the Elbe and Danube River Basins

Climate change is predicted to be a major threat to river ecosystems in the 21st century, but long-term records of water temperature in streams and rivers are rare. This study uses long-term water temperature series from the Elbe and the Danube River Basin to quantify the variability, magnitude, and extent of temperature alterations at different time scales. The observed patterns in monthly and daily water temperatures have been successfully described through statistical models based on air temperature, river discharge and the North Atlantic Oscillation Index. These models reveal that air temperature variability describes more than 80 % of the total water-temperature variability, linking anticipated changes in water temperature mainly to those in air temperature. The North Atlantic Oscillation effect deteriorates with decreasing latitude, while the discharge effect becomes more important and increases with the increase in discharge amount. The detected water temperature alterations include a phase shift in spring warming of almost 2 weeks, an increase in the number of days with temperatures above 25 °C and an increase in the duration of summer heat stress. These findings underline a significant risk for fundamental changes in river ecosystems, specifically in disruption of established patterns in food-web synchrony, and may lead to significant distortions in community structure and composition.     

Probabilistic GIS-based method for delineation of urban flooding risk hotspots

Identifying urban flooding risk hotspots is one of the first steps in an integrated methodology for urban flood risk assessment and mitigation. This work employs three GIS-based frameworks for identifying urban flooding risk hotspots for residential buildings and urban corridors. This is done by overlaying a map of potentially flood-prone areas [estimated through the topographic wetness index (TWI)], a map of residential areas and urban corridors [extracted from a city-wide assessment of urban morphology types (UMT)], and a geo-spatial census dataset. A maximum likelihood method (MLE) is employed for estimating the threshold used for identifying the flood-prone areas (the TWI threshold) based on the inundation profiles calculated for various return periods within a given spatial window. Furthermore, Bayesian parameter estimation is employed in order to estimate the TWI threshold based on inundation profiles calculated for more than one spatial window. For different statistics of the TWI threshold (e.g. MLE estimate, 16th percentile, 50th percentile), the map of the potentially flood-prone areas is overlaid with the map of urban morphology units, identified as residential and urban corridors, in order to delineate the urban hotspots for both UMT. Moreover, information related to population density is integrated by overlaying geo-spatial census datasets in order to estimate the number of people affected by flooding. Differences in exposure characteristics have been assessed for a range of different residential types. As a demonstration, urban flooding risk hotspots are delineated for different percentiles of the TWI value for the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.     

Grain size effect on the electrical conductivity of clinopyroxene

Complex impedance spectra of polycrystalline samples (with grain size fractions ~5–63, 63–160 and 160–250 μm) and a single crystal sample (with orientation parallel to b), prepared from a natural megacryst augite, were measured in a piston cylinder apparatus at 10 kbar and 500–1,000°C and with a Solartron 1260 Impedance/Gain Phase analyzer over a frequency range of 0.1–10⁶ Hz. The main charge carriers are attributed to small polarons, and the activation enthalpy is 83 ± 3 to 90 ± 3 kJ/mol. The measured electrical conductivity shows no difference between the polycrystalline and single crystal samples, suggesting independence of electrical conductivity on grain size given a change above ~5 μm. The electrical conductivity of augite is much higher than that of olivine, indicating that, if regionally enriched, augites may lead to zones of high electrical conductivity and electrical anisotropy in the deep lithosphere.     

Characteristics of developing scour-holes at a sand-embedded cylinder

Characteristics of developing scour-holes at a sand-embedded 0.2 m diameter circular cylinder are presented. Non-intrusive, high-resolution topographic measurements of developing scour-holes were made with an experimental installation using a laser distance sensor （LDS） and precision step-motors. A clear-water experiment was conducted with bed shear stress equal to 95% of the critical bed shear stress for the initiation of sediment motion at the undisturbed plane sand bed with a d50 of 0.26 mm. During the running experiment of 21 hours duration, measurements were taken by the LDS in different azimuthal half-planes with θ= 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165 and 180° in order to study the spatio-temporal variation of geometric properties in developing scour-holes. After 21 hours, the equilibrium condition was approached, with a scour rate less than d50 per hour. Measurement of maximum scour depth in different azimuthal half-planes at different points in time during the experiment show that scour started at the cylinder side and surrounded the cylinder after about 20% of experiment time. Slopes of developing scour-holes presented three regions with different inclinations, which were attributed to vortex action. Both maximum scour depth and maximum scour radius at different azimuthal half-planes are well correlated with the maximum scour depth at plane with θ = 0°. When providing maximum scour depth at the cylinder front, the presented correlations are useful for simple calculation of scour-hole topography. This work provides an experimental database for advanced numerical simulation for loose sediment hydraulics.