Patterns of bedload entrainment and transport in forested headwater streams of the Columbia Mountains,Canada

We monitor bedload transport and water discharge at six stations in two forested headwater streams of the Columbia Mountains, Canada. The nested monitoring network is designed to examine the effects of channel bed texture, and the influence of alluvial (i.e. step pools and riffle pools) and semialluvial morphologies (i.e. boulder cascades and forced step pools) on bedload entrainment and transport. Results indicate that dynamics of bedload entrainment are influenced by differences in flow resistance attributable to morphology. Scaled fractional analysis shows that in reaches with high form resistance most bedload transport occurs in partial mobility fashion relative to the available bed material, while calibers finer than 16 mm attain full mobility during bankfull flows. Equal mobility transport for a wider range of grain sizes is achieved in reaches exhibiting reduced form resistance. Our findings confirm that the Shields value for mobilization of the median surface grain size depends on channel gradient and relative submergence; however, we also find that these relations vary considerably for cobble and gravel bed channels due to proportionality between dimensionless shear stress and grain size. Exponents of bedload rating curves across sites correlate most with the D_90s of the mobile bed, however, where grain effects are controlled (i.e. along individual streams), differences in form resistance across morphologies exert a primary control on bedload transport dynamics. Application of empirical formulae developed for use in steep alpine channels present variable success in predicting transport rates in forested snowmelt streams. Formulae that explicitly account for reductions in mobile bed area and high morphological resistance associated with woody debris provide the best approximation to observed empirical data. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ocean tides and resonance

Tidal currents and surface amplitudes are calculated globally for the dominating diurnal and semidiurnal constituents using an established tidal model under a range of altered bathymetry. The purpose is to evaluate if the well-known amplification of the global tides during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is related to changed propagation properties for the tidal wave or to changed damping due to removal of shelf seas. The response of the tides and tidal dissipation to future sea-level rise is also discussed. The tides in the present and LGM oceans were simulated first, followed by runs where the present day bathymetry was used but the shelf seas removed by the introduction of vertical walls or where sea level is allowed to rise. Previously reported results regarding tidal amplitudes and dissipation rates are reproduced in the control runs. The runs without shelf seas show significantly enhanced tidal amplitudes in the North Atlantic, whereas sea-level rise of 5 m above present levels show a significant shift in the amphidromic points on a local and regional scale but had a limited effect on the open ocean tides. Simulations with very large sea-level rise show a significantly decreased global tidal dissipation, whereas experiments without friction in present-day shallow water display results similar to those with no shelf seas. The results all point towards changing damping properties due to the removal of shelf seas as being the mechanism behind the LGM amplification, and they imply the importance of implementing future sea-level changes properly in tidal simulations.     

The Saline Lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

The McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are among a rare group of ice-free regions lying along the coast of an otherwise ice-burdened continent. For Antarctica, these are highly atypical regions of exposed rock and barren soils. Within their 4,000 km² expanse, the valleys contain a number of permanently ice-covered, closed-basin lakes, which range from freshwater to highly saline environments. This paper examines the physical structure, geochemistry, nutrient and trace metal dynamics, biology, and hydrologic history of saline Lake Bonney (both east and west lobes), Fryxell, Vanda, and Joyce and provides an update to recently published volumes on these pristine systems.     

Microbial food web contributions to bottom water hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Nutrients from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya Rivers greatly stimulate biological production in the ‘classical’ food web on the inner shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Portions of this production, especially large diatoms and zooplankton fecal pellets, sink and decompose in the bottom water, consuming oxygen and contributing to the annual development of an extensive zone of bottom water hypoxia, typically >15,000 km² since 1993. The microbial food web is also active in the Mississippi River plume, but consists of small organisms that sink slowly. This ‘recycling’ food web has not been considered as a significant contributor to vertical flux and hypoxia. However, gelatinous zooplankton, especially pelagic appendicularians such as Oikopleura dioica, mediate the conversion of microbial web organisms to organic particles with high sinking rates. When pelagic appendicularians are abundant in coastal regions of the northern Gulf of Mexico, they stimulate the rapid vertical transfer of microbial web productivity in the surface layer, which is only 5–15 m thick in the coastal hypoxic region, to the sub-pycnocline layer that becomes hypoxic each summer. In this paper we present results from two studies examining the significance of this pathway. In both 2002 and 2004, we observed high production rates of appendicularians in coastal waters. Discarded gelatinous houses and fecal pellets from the appendicularian populations often provided more than 1 g m⁻² d⁻¹ of organic carbon for the establishment and maintenance of hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. This source of organic matter flux is especially important in regions far from the river plumes and during periods of low river discharge. Autotrophic elements of this food web are primarily supported by recycled inorganic nutrients originating in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. Sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) supporting the heterotrophic components of this microbial food web may include in situ production, the Mississippi/Atchafalaya Rivers, and Louisiana's coastal wetlands. If significant, the latter source provides a possible link between Louisiana's high rates of coastal land loss and the large hypoxic zone observed along the coast during summer. Both of the latter DOM sources are independent of phytoplankton production stimulated by inputs of riverine inorganic nutrients.     

Internal waves,baroclinic energy fluxes and mixing at the European shelf edge

The energy flux in internal waves generated at the Celtic Sea shelf break was estimated by (i) applying perturbation theory to a week-long dataset from a mooring at 200 m depth, and (ii) using a 2D non-hydrostatic circulation model over the shelf break. The dataset consisted of high resolution time-series of currents and vertical stratification together with two 25-h sets of vertical profiles of the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy. The observations indicated an average energy flux of 139 W m⁻¹, travelling along the shelf break towards the northwest. The average energy flux across the shelf break at the mooring was only 8 W m⁻¹. However, the waves propagating onshelf transported up to 200 W m⁻¹, but they were only present 51% of the time. A comparison between the divergence of the baroclinic energy flux and observed dissipation within the seasonal thermocline at the mooring showed that the dissipation was at least one order of magnitude larger. Results from a 2D model along a transect perpendicular to the shelf break showed a time-averaged onshelf energy flux of 153–425 W m⁻¹, depending on the magnitude of the barotropic forcing. A divergence zone of the energy flux was found a few kilometre offshore of the location of the observations in the model results, and fluxes on the order of several kW m⁻¹ were present in the deep waters further offshelf from the divergence zone. The modelled fluxes exhibited qualitative agreements with the phase and hourly onshelf magnitudes of the observed energy fluxes. Both the observations and the model results show an intermittent onshelf energy flux of 100–200 W m⁻¹, but these waves could only propagate ∼20–30 km onshore before dissipating. This conclusion was supported by a 25-h dataset sampled some 180 km onto the shelf, where a weak wave energy flux was found going towards the shelf break. We therefore conclude that shelf break generated internal waves are unlikely to be the main source of energy for mixing on the inner part of the shelf.     

Slab dehydration and basalt petrogenesis in subduction systems involving very young oceanic lithosphere

Compositions of post-Miocene basalts erupted in the Garibaldi and Central America volcanic arcs exhibit significant correlations with the age of the subducted plate. In general, SiO₂, Al₂O₃, CaO, V, and (Sr/P)_N decrease and FeO, MgO, TiO₂ and Na₂O increase as the age of the subducted plate decreases. Variations in CaO/Al₂O₃, SiO₂, (Sr/P)_N, and Ba are compatible with lesser slab input, and hence less hydrous melting conditions in the mantle wedge in segments of the arcs overlying the youngest oceanic lithosphere. This interpretation is supported by comparison with peridotite melting experiments, which suggest higher melt pressures and temperatures in the mantle wedge above very young oceanic lithosphere. These observations point to a model in which dehydration of the downgoing slab occurs at shallow depths in subduction systems involving oceanic lithosphere younger than about 20 Ma. Because young oceanic lithosphere is relatively warm, little post-subduction heating is required to produce metamorphic reactions that release slab volatiles. Geodynamic models indicate most volatile-liberating reactions will occur within the seismogenic zone in oceanic lithosphere younger than 20 Ma, thus limiting the volatile flux beneath the arc and encouraging drier, higher temperature and higher pressure melting conditions in the mantle wedge in comparison to typical arc systems. Liberation of volatiles in the downgoing plate is strongly dependant on the shear stress on the fault, but is predicted to occur within the seismogenic zone for shear stresses greater than 33 MPa. Similarly, early loss of volatiles is predicted over a wide range of convergence rates, plate dips, and convergence angles. These results are shown to be robust for realistic ranges of slab dip, convergence angle, and shear stress, suggesting that volatile-poor melt generation is a characteristic of modern and ancient arc systems that involve subduction of young oceanic lithosphere.     

Experimental investigation of melt topology in partially molten quartzo-feldspathic aggregates under hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic stress

Continental collision results in deep burial of crustal rocks and their subsequent partial melting. Field relations of melt along zones of intense deformation suggest that partially molten rocks may play an important role in regional tectonics. However, subsequent deformation may erase the microstructures produced by the earlier deformation mechanisms, inhibiting our understanding of the rheology of partially molten crustal rocks. Thus, in this paper, we report the results of an experimental study of the distribution of 2–5 vol% melt in quartzo-feldspathic aggregates of various grain sizes: 2–5, 5–10, 10–16 and 26–31 μm. Three types of samples were examined, all with the composition of 60 wt% albite, 25 wt% potassium feldspar, 10 wt% quartz and 5 wt% biotite. The first group included mineral powders annealed at 1000 °C, 1.0 GPa, for c. 100 h. The second group included commercially hot-pressed mineral powders which yielded c. 25 vol% glass; cores of this material were also annealed at 1000 °C, 1.0 GPa, for c. 100 h. The third group included cores of hot-pressed material that were annealed at 1000 °C, 1.0 GPa, for c. 45 h, then deformed. All samples were quenched rapidly in order to examine the melt distribution. Wetting angles are very similar in both the hydrostatically annealed and the deformed samples. Analysis of melt pool orientations reveal that melt migrates away from grain boundaries normal to the maximum compressive stress direction in response to the applied non-hydrostatic stress. This response is easily seen in the coarser-grained samples in which melt pools elongated parallel to the maximum compressive stress direction formed during deformation. If these results extrapolate to naturally deformed rocks, it will be important to consider the orientation of the state of stress in a region during syn-magmatic deformation because of its effect on the melt distribution.     

Optical and infrared observations of the Centaur 1997 CU26

Minor planet 1997 CU₂₆ is a Centaur, and is probably undergoing dynamical evolution inwards from the Kuiper Belt. We present optical and infrared ( VRIJHK ) photometry which gives mean colours of V − R =0.46±0.02, V − I =1.02±0.02, V − J =1.74±0.02, V − H =2.15±0.02 and V − K =2.25±0.02. The resulting relative reflectance spectrum lies between those of Chiron and Pholus (although closer to that of Chiron). A 1.6–2.6 μm spectrum confirms the broad absorption feature at 2.05 μm associated with water ice reported by Brown et al. 1997 CU₂₆ displays no significant light curve variation and (unlike Chiron) has no observable coma. We place an upper limit to the dust production rate of 1.5 kg s⁻¹. J -band data taken at phase angles of 1.°7 to 4.°0 give a phase parameter of G _J =0.36±0.1, and are consistent with a phase parameter of G =0.15 in the V band (a value often assigned to low-albedo objects when no other information is available) if we assume a phase reddening of 0.017 mag deg⁻¹ in the J band. We find V (1, α =4.°1) =7.022±0.02, from which we deduce, by assuming G =0.15±0.1, an absolute visual magnitude of H _V =6.64±0.04.     

南极洲万达盐湖水中方解石饱和指数的垂直变化及其控制因素

南极洲万达盐湖为饱和方解石湖水。计算出的方解石饱和指数随水深增加而变化。在Ca²⁺及HCO₃^-活度值均一的上部氧化环境湖水中,pH及溶解氧(DO)是控制该变化的主要因素,在下部还原环境湖水中,Ca²⁺及HCO₃^-的活度对方解石的饱和指数SI的变化起主要作用。这充分揭示了湖底部近代沉积物中分布较多方解石矿物的原因。     

Determining the Intrinsic CME Flux Rope Type Using Remote-sensing Solar Disk Observations

A key aim in space weather research is to be able to use remote-sensing observations of the solar atmosphere to extend the lead time of predicting the geoeffectiveness of a coronal mass ejection (CME). In order to achieve this, the magnetic structure of the CME as it leaves the Sun must be known. In this article we address this issue by developing a method to determine the intrinsic flux rope type of a CME solely from solar disk observations. We use several well-known proxies for the magnetic helicity sign, the axis orientation, and the axial magnetic field direction to predict the magnetic structure of the interplanetary flux rope. We present two case studies: the 2 June 2011 and the 14 June 2012 CMEs. Both of these events erupted from an active region, and despite having clear in situ counterparts, their eruption characteristics were relatively complex. The first event was associated with an active region filament that erupted in two stages, while for the other event the eruption originated from a relatively high coronal altitude and the source region did not feature a filament. Our magnetic helicity sign proxies include the analysis of magnetic tongues, soft X-ray and/or extreme-ultraviolet sigmoids, coronal arcade skew, filament emission and absorption threads, and filament rotation. Since the inclination of the post-eruption arcades was not clear, we use the tilt of the polarity inversion line to determine the flux rope axis orientation and coronal dimmings to determine the flux rope footpoints, and therefore, the direction of the axial magnetic field. The comparison of the estimated intrinsic flux rope structure to in situ observations at the Lagrangian point L1 indicated a good agreement with the predictions. Our results highlight the flux rope type determination techniques that are particularly useful for active region eruptions, where most geoeffective CMEs originate.