Alexander von Humboldts Isothermen

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Abschätzungen über einige Quellen des atmosphärischen Aerosols

Zusammenfassung Die vonLettau berechnete Produktion von Aitkenkernen durch Großstädte und die Abschätzung über die weltweite Wirkung von Vegetationsbränden und anderen Trübungsquellen werden diskutiert.-Nach gleichzeitigen Sonnenstrahlungsmessungen in und ausserhalb von Großstädten nimmt in der über den Städten befindlichen Luft der TrübungsfaktorT um 4 . 10^–4 sec^–1 zu. Durch Vergleich der Bevölkerungsdichten wird dieser Wert der anthropogenen Trübungsproduktion auf die Trübungszunahme der Luft über grösseren Gebieten umgerechnet. Für drei günstige Hochdrucklagen mit schwachen Winden über Mitteleuropa werden die Strahlungsmessungen von vier Stationen bearbeitet; die beobachtete Trübungszunahme (dT=0.15 bis 0.4 pro Tag) stimmt mit der errechneten gut überein. Die Rauchtrübung durch Vegetationsbrände dürfte im Mittel der Nordhalbkugel etwas geringere Wirksamkeit als Industrietrübung haben. Auf die Wichtigkeit einer Abschätzung der Trübungsproduktion aus der Gasphase, die in wolkenreichen Luftmassen eine wesentliche Rolle spielen dürfte, wird hingewiesen.

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Summary A discussion is given ofLettau's calculation of the Aitken nuclei production by towns and the estimations of the world wide effect of vegetation fires and of other nuclei sources. Sunradiation measurements, made simultanously inside and outside from cities, show that the turbidity factor of the air over towns increases by 4 . 10^–4 per sec. From consideration of the population densities, the value of anthropogeneous turbidity production is calculated for greater areas. Radiation measurements of four stations at high pressure weather situations with weak winds over Europe show a good agreement with the calculations. It seems that the mean turdidity over the northern hemisphere produced by smokes from vegetation fires has not so great effect as anthropogeneous aerosol. The attention is made to the importance of an estimation of the turbidity production from the gaseous phase, that may play an essential role in cloudy air masses.

     

Gemeinsame Tagung der Geophysikalischen und der Meteorologischen Gesellschaften in Hamburg 1948

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Western Palaearctic palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene inferred from large mammal communities,and implications for hominin dispersal in Europe

Large-scale fluctuations in global climate and resulting changes in ecology had a profound effect on human evolution and dispersal. Though hominin remains are scarce, studies focussing on the more abundant records of fossil land mammal communities can contribute greatly to our knowledge of the palaeoenvironmental circumstances that influenced and directed the global spread of hominins. To produce a comprehensive and accurate account of the evolution of western Palaearctic habitat diversity between 2.6 and 0.4 Ma BP, information generated from large mammal communities from 221 key sites has been included in this study.The palaeoecological conditions of the western Palaearctic during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene were principally controlled by the following key factors: (1) a widespread trend of temperature decrease, (2) the periodicity of the global temperature record, (3) the intensity of single climatic stages, (4) the temporal pattern of climatic variation, (5) geographical position, and (6) the distribution of continental water resources. A general picture of the evolution of western Palaearctic habitat diversity saw the replacement of extensive forested terrain by an alternating sequence of varied savannah-like and forested habitats during the 2.6–1.8 Ma span, as well as an alternation between different types of predominantly open habitats between 1.8 and 1.2 Ma. Both of these processes were governed by 41 ka temperature periodicity. During the 1.2–0.9 Ma time span, irregular climatic fluctuations were more common and habitat variability increased. The subsequent 0.9–0.4 Ma interval, a period controlled by 100 ka periodicity, was by comparison more stable, with longer climatic cycles alternating between open and forested landscapes. During the entire Early and early Middle Pleistocene, assemblages of large mammal communities reveal a distinct trend of decreasing continentality between Eastern and South-Eastern Europe on the one hand, and South-Western and North-Western Europe on the other. This trend was due to the effect of the Atlantic Ocean, while in Southern Europe the relatively low continentality was balanced by influences from the Mediterranean Sea.When plotted against evidence of hominin occurrence, the data on western Palaearctic habitat diversity inferred from large mammal communities indicate clear environmental stimuli for the earliest human dispersal in Europe. These are: (1) a wide range of habitats, implying a high diversity of resources; (2) mild climates with low seasonality, implying a lack of strong environmental fluctuations. Around 1.8 Ma at the latest, hominins of African origin entered the western Palaearctic for the first time, taking advantage of the diversity of habitats and resources, particularly along large river systems. Their subsequent westward spread between 1.7 and 1.3 Ma was restricted to Mediterranean-influenced areas, which offered a high variability of habitats and relatively low seasonality. The increase in environmental diversity, which occurred from 1.2 Ma onwards, opened up South-Eastern and Eastern Europe for hominin occupation. According to the available records, North-Western and Central Europe were initially colonized during late Early to early Middle Pleistocene interglacials, when these regions experienced periods of low seasonality and considerable habitat diversity.     

Coupled numerical–analytical approach to landscape evolution modeling

The Earth's topography is shaped by surface processes that operate on various scales. In particular, river processes control landscape dynamics over large length scales, whereas hillslope processes control the dynamics over smaller length scales. This scale separation challenges numerical treatments of landscape evolution that use space discretization. Large grid spacing cannot account for the dynamics of water divides that control drainage area competition, and erosion rate and slope distribution. Small grid spacing that properly accounts for divide dynamics is computationally inefficient when studying large domains. Here we propose a new approach for landscape evolution modeling that couples irregular grid‐based numerical solutions for the large‐scale fluvial dynamics and continuum‐based analytical solutions for the small‐scale fluvial and hillslope dynamics. The new approach is implemented in the landscape evolution model DAC (divide and capture). The geometrical and topological characteristics of DAC's landscapes show compatibility with those of natural landscapes. A comparative study shows that, even with large grid spacing, DAC predictions fit well an analytical solution for divide migration in the presence of horizontal advection of topography. In addition, DAC is used to study some outstanding problems in landscape evolution. (i) The time to steady‐state is investigated and simulations show that steady‐state requires much more time to achieve than predicted by fixed area calculations, due to divides migration and persistent reorganization of low‐order streams. (ii) Large‐scale stream captures in a strike‐slip environment are studied and show a distinct pattern of erosion rates that can be used to identify recent capture events. (iii) Three tectono‐climatic mechanisms that can lead to asymmetric mountains are studied. Each of the mechanisms produces a distinct morphology and erosion rate distribution. Application to the Southern Alps of New Zealand suggests that tectonic advection, precipitation gradients and non‐uniform tectonic uplift act together to shape the first‐order topography of this mountain range. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial Distribution of Carbonaceous Aerosol in the Southeastern Baltic Sea Region (Event of Grass Fires)

The aerosol chemical composition in air masses affected by large vegetation fires transported from the Kaliningrad region (Russia) and southeast regions (Belarus and Ukraine) during early spring (March 2014) was characterized at the remote background site of Preila, Lithuania. In this study, the chemical composition of the particulate matter was studied by high temporal resolution instruments, including an Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) and a seven-wavelength aethalo-meter. Air masses were transported from twenty to several hundred kilometres, arriving at the measurement station after approximately half a day of transport. The concentration-weighted trajectory analysis suggests that organic aerosol particles are mainly transported over the Baltic Sea and the continent (southeast of Belarus). Results show that a significant fraction of the vegetation burning organic aerosol is transformed into oxidised forms in less than a half-day. Biomass burning aerosol (BBOA) was quantified from the ACSM data using a positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis, while its spatial distribution was evaluated using air mass clustering approach.     

Measuring the ecological integrity of an industrial district in the Amazon estuary, Brazil

The aim of the present study is to provide information on the ecological integrity of an industrial district located in the estuary of Pará River (Amazon estuary), by applying a selection of fish based multimetric indices of ecosystem integrity: Abundance Biomass Comparation (ABC); Biological Health Index; Estuarine Fish Community, Transitional Fish Classification and Estuarine Biotic Integrity Indexes. To evaluate the impacts of the industrial area and cargo terminal, three areas were considered: Zone 1, (maximum impact), Zone 2 (median risk) and Zone 3 (reference area). All the biological indices used were considered to be excellent indicators of the ecological integrity of the different sectors of the study area and were especially effective for the demonstration of the critical alterations of the fish community of Zone 1 and Zone 2. The simultaneous use of different indices family, with different assumptions, did strengthen the results enhancing the confidence in the diagnostic.