Monitoring gravel augmentation in a large regulated river and implications for process‐based restoration

The artificial gravel augmentation of river channels is increasingly being used to mitigate the adverse effects of river regulation and sediment starvation. A systematic framework for designing and assessing such gravel augmentations is still lacking, notably on large rivers. Monitoring is required to quantify the movement of augmented gravel, measure bedform changes, assess potential habitat enhancement, and reduce the uncertainty in sediment management. Here we present the results of an experiment conducted in the Rhine River (French and German border). In 2010, 23 000 m³ of sediments (approximately the mean annual bedload transport capacity) were supplied in a by‐passed reach downstream of the Kembs dam to test the feasibility of enhancing sediment transport and bedform changes. A 620‐m‐long and 12‐m‐wide gravel deposit was created 8 km downstream from the dam. Monitoring included topo‐bathymetric surveys, radio‐frequency particle tracking using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags, bed grain size measurement, and airborne imagery. Six surveys performed since 2009 have been described (before and after gravel augmentation, and after Q₂ and Q₁₅ floods). The key findings are that (i) the augmented gravel was partially dispersed by the first flood event of December 2010 (Q₁); (ii) PIT tags were found up to 3200 m downstream of the gravel augmentation site after four years, but the effects of gravel augmentation could not be clearly distinguished from the effects of floods and internal remobilization on more than 3500 m downstream; (iii) linear and log‐linear relationships linking bedload transport, particle mobility, and grain size were established; and (iv) combined bathymetry and PIT tag surveys were useful for evaluating potential environmental risks and the first morpho‐ecological responses. This confirmed the complementary nature of such techniques in the monitoring of gravel augmentation in large rivers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of hydrocarbon volatility and adsorption on source-rock pyrolysis

Petroleum source-rock evaluations by pyrolysis are based on the concept that free hydrocarbons in rock samples are volatilized below 300°C while hydrocarbons cracked from kerogen come off at higher temperatures. The pyrolysis of pure hydrocarbons with different mineral matrices shows that free hydrocarbons containing 16 or more carbon atoms may not be evolved eblow 300°C, but at varying higher temperatures. The extent to which this occurs depends on the hydrocarbon volatility, the mineral matrix and the pyrolysis instrument design. Source-rock parameters which use the P₁ (S₁) peak may be not be reproducible between instruments if the rock contains appreciable amounts of high molecular weight hydrocarbons.     

Of tidy gardens and clean houses: housing officers as agents of social control

This paper seeks to contribute to the theme of institutional geographies by exploring how the prevailing socio-spatial order is recreated and legitimated in the ways in which public rented housing is managed and delivered by housing associations and local authorities in the UK. The public rented sector has been increasingly catering for the most vulnerable sections of the population who are dependent on state benefits and cannot afford any other form of housing. As a result, housing staffs have found themselves having to take on a welfare role which entails controlling and policing social tenants who are seen to be causing disorder in society. This paper shows how a dominant housing management discourse reproduced by policies and staff at both front-line and management levels is that of an emerging ‘underclass’ promoted by right wing politicians and the media since the 1980s. According to dominant housing management discourse the members of this underclass are disrupting traditional patriarchal and capitalist institutions and values. Tenants’ houses and gardens not conforming to culturally and socially acceptable standards of cleanliness and tidiness symbolises tenants’ lack of conformity to the prevailing institutional order. Drawing on in-depth interviews with housing officers and managers, and observations of interviews between staff and tenants in six housing organisations, this paper analyses the ways in which housing organisations seek to control social tenants through the imposition of certain norms of cleanliness over their houses and gardens.     

Summer algal blooms in a coastal ecosystem: the role of atmospheric deposition versus entrainment fluxes

The nitrogen inputs from atmospheric deposition and bottom water entrainment to the surface layer were modelled in the summer period (May–September) over a 11-year period (1989–1999) and compared to investigate the significance of these fluxes for generating blooms in the Kattegat. In the summer periods the average atmospheric deposition was 2.81 mg N m⁻² d⁻¹ compared to average entrainment fluxes of 5.42 mg N m⁻² d⁻¹, 1.21 mg N m⁻² d⁻¹ and 1.15 mg N m⁻² d⁻¹ for the northern, central and southern part of the Kattegat, respectively. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition alone could not sustain biomass increases associated with observed blooms and entrainment fluxes dominated the high nitrogen inputs to the surface layer. The potential for a bloom through growth was typically obtained after several days of high nitrogen inputs from entrainment in the frontal area of the northern Kattegat and to some extent from atmospheric deposition. The modelled nitrogen input in this area could account directly for 30% of the observed blooms in the Northern sub-basin, and through advective transport 24% and 19% of the observed blooms in the central and southern Kattegat. The direct nitrogen inputs through atmospheric deposition and entrainment to the central and southern sub-basins were small and could not be linked to any bloom observation.     

Pressure solution - The importance of the electrochemical surface potentials

“Pressure solution”, frequently found in clay-rich sandstone, is characterized by enhanced quartz dissolution at inter-grain contacts. The origin of pressure solution and many other related dissolution processes remains elusive. Using an Electrochemical Surface Forces Apparatus we visualized and measured the dissolution of silica glass surfaces close to an electrode surface. The dissolution rates correlate quantitatively with the electrode potential via the Butler-Volmer equation for corrosion. Our experimental results demonstrate that at low temperature, apparent pressure solution and many other mineral dissolution phenomena can be driven by electrochemical processes rather than a pressure-driven process. This finding highlights the role of electrochemical surface potentials in dissolution phenomena at dissimilar material interfaces, and provides new perspectives on pressure solution in particular and a new theoretical basis for predictive control of dissolution phenomena in general.     

Remote sensing and avian influenza: A review of image processing methods for extracting key variables affecting avian influenza virus survival in water from Earth Observation satellites

Recent studies have highlighted the potential role of water in the transmission of avian influenza (AI) viruses and the existence of often interacting variables that determine the survival rate of these viruses in water; the two main variables are temperature and salinity.     

Evaluating explanatory models of the spatial pattern of surface climate trends using model selection and bayesian averaging methods

We evaluate three categories of variables for explaining the spatial pattern of warming and cooling trends over land: predictions of general circulation models (GCMs) in response to observed forcings; geographical factors like latitude and pressure; and socioeconomic influences on the land surface and data quality. Spatial autocorrelation (SAC) in the observed trend pattern is removed from the residuals by a well-specified explanatory model. Encompassing tests show that none of the three classes of variables account for the contributions of the other two, though 20 of 22 GCMs individually contribute either no significant explanatory power or yield a trend pattern negatively correlated with observations. Non-nested testing rejects the null hypothesis that socioeconomic variables have no explanatory power. We apply a Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) method to search over all possible linear combinations of explanatory variables and generate posterior coefficient distributions robust to model selection. These results, confirmed by classical encompassing tests, indicate that the geographical variables plus three of the 22 GCMs and three socioeconomic variables provide all the explanatory power in the data set. We conclude that the most valid model of the spatial pattern of trends in land surface temperature records over 1979–2002 requires a combination of the processes represented in some GCMs and certain socioeconomic measures that capture data quality variations and changes to the land surface.     

Quantifying historic skew surges: an example for the Dunkirk Area,France

Natural Hazards - As instrumental records often cover only short time periods, historical information is the main source of data in order to extend natural disaster catalogs. This study...