A review of land–sea coupling by groundwater discharge of nitrogen to New England estuaries: Mechanisms and effects

Hydrologists have long been concerned with the interface of groundwater flow into estuaries, but not until the end of the last century did other disciplines realize the major role played by groundwater transport of nutrients to estuaries. Mass balance and stable isotopic data suggest that land-derived NO₃, NH₄, and dissolved organic N do enter estuaries in amounts likely to affect the function of the receiving ecosystem. Because of increasing human occupancy of the coastal zone, the nutrient loads borne by groundwater have increased in recent decades, in spite of substantial interception of nutrients within the land and aquifer components of watersheds. Groundwater-borne nutrient loads have increased the N content of receiving estuaries, increased phytoplankton and macroalgal production and biomass, decreased the area of seagrasses, and created a cascade of associated ecological changes. This linkage between land use and eutrophication of estuaries occurs in spite of mechanisms, including uptake of land-derived N by riparian vegetation and fringing wetlands, “unloading” by rapid water removal, and direct N inputs to estuaries, that tend to uncouple the effects of land use on receiving estuaries. It can be expected that as human activity on coastal watersheds continues to increase, the role of groundwater-borne nutrients to the receiving estuary will also increase.     

Associated geomagnetic and ionospheric variations

An investigation has been conducted into the association between geomagnetic micropulsation activity and ionospheric disturbances. It has been found that both correlated oscillations and associated irregularities may be observed at various times.     

Field-aligned electric currents and their measurement by the incoherent backscatter technique

Field-aligned electric currents flow in the magnetosphere in many situations of fundamental geophysical interest. It is shown here that the incoherent backscatter technique can be used to measure these currents when the plasma line can be observed. To our knowledge this has not been proposed before. The technique provides a ground-based means of measuring these currents which complements the rocket and satellite ones.     

Using packrat middens to assess grazing effects on vegetation change

Research on grazing effects usually compares the same sites through time or grazed and ungrazed sites over the same time period. Both approaches are complicated in arid environments where grazing can have a long undocumented history and landscapes can be spatially heterogenous. This work employs both approaches simultaneously by comparing grazed and ungrazed samples through both time and space using fossil plant macrofossils and pollen from packrat middens. A series of 27 middens, spanning from 995 yr BP to the present, were collected from Glen Canyon in southeastern Utah, USA. These middens detail vegetation change just prior to, and following, the historical introduction of domesticated grazers and also compares assemblages from nearby ungrazable mesas. Pre-grazing middens, and modern middens from ungrazed areas, record more native grasses, native herbs, and native shrubs such as Rhus trilobata, Amelanchier utahensis, and Shepherdia rotundifolia than modern middens from grazed areas. Ordinations demonstrate that site-to-site variability is more important than any temporal changes, making selection of comparable grazed versus ungrazed study treatments difficult. But within similar sites, the changes through time show that grazing lowered the number of taxa recorded, and lessened the pre-existing site differences, homogenizing the resultant plant associations in this desert grassland.     

Distributed hydrological modelling using weather radar in gauged and ungauged basins

Distributed hydrological modelling using space–time estimates of rainfall from weather radar provides a natural approach to area-wide flood forecasting and warning at any location, whether gauged or ungauged. However, radar estimates of rainfall may lack consistent, quantitative accuracy. Also, the formulation of hydrological models in distributed form may be problematic due to process complexity and scaling issues. Here, the aim is to first explore ways of improving radar rainfall accuracy through combination with raingauge network data via integrated multiquadric methods. When the resulting gridded rainfall estimates are employed as input to hydrological models, the simulated river flows show marked improvements when compared to using radar data alone. Secondly, simple forms of physical–conceptual distributed hydrological model are considered, capable of exploiting spatial datasets on topography and, where necessary, land-cover, soil and geology properties. The simplest Grid-to-Grid model uses only digital terrain data to delineate flow pathways and to control runoff production, the latter by invoking a probability-distributed relation linking terrain slope to soil absorption capacity. Model performance is assessed over nested river basins in northwest England, employing a lumped model as a reference. When the distributed model is used with the gridded radar-based rainfall estimators, it shows particular benefits for forecasting at ungauged locations.     

微粒对多晶冰流变行为的影响——(Ⅱ)滞弹性行为

用反相直接加载的方法研究了微粒对多晶冰滞弹性的影响.结果表明：在较高频率时(1 Hz 和 10-1 Hz),滞弹性应变与应力峰值呈线性关系;在较低频率时(10-2 Hz),其应力/应变偏离线性关系.微粒在高频时(1 Hz)通过阻碍晶界滑移对晶界弛豫产生重要影响,增加了模量和降低了内耗.但微粒对低频时的位错弛豫没有明显的影响.通过滞弹性实验计算了非线性弛豫模型的两个重要参数,计算表明K值约为007 Pa,α值约为054.     

微粒对多晶冰及冰川流变行为的影响——(Ⅰ)基于位错的弛豫模型

为量化冰及冰川在流变过程中位错密度随流变应力的变化,发展了一个基于位错的非线性弛豫模型.模型的计算表明：在冰的指数蠕变阶段,滞弹性试验所形成的应力/应变滞后环的宽度与面积随流变应力的增加呈线性增加,位错密度随流变应力的增加呈平方增加;在冰的线性蠕变阶段,滞弹性试验所形成的应力/应变滞后环的宽度、面积和位错密度保持不变.