A first classification scheme of flow-bed interaction for clay-laden density currents and soft substrates

Many aquatic environments exhibit soft, muddy substrates, but this important property has largely been ignored in process-based models of Earth-surface flow. Novel laboratory experiments were carried out to shed light on the feedback processes that occur when particulate density currents (turbidity currents) move over a soft mud substrate. These experiments revealed multiple types of flow-bed interaction and large variations in bed deformation and bed erosion, which are interpreted to be related to the interplay between the shear forces of the current and the stabilising forces in the bed. Changes in this force balance were simulated by varying the clay concentrations in the flow and in the bed. Five different interaction types are described, and dimensional and non-dimensional phase diagrams for flow-bed interaction are presented.     

Governance arrangements targeting diversity in Europe: how New Public Management impacts working with social cohesion

This article analyses how policies to foster social cohesion within diverse and unequal urban contexts are affected by New Public Management and austerity policies. Based on the analysis of a handful of governance arrangements in three cities that differ in their institutional structure and diversity policy approaches (Copenhagen, Leipzig and Milan), it is shown that negative effects are quite widespread yet cushioned by a strong welfare state structure, solid local government and high priority given to the recognition of diversity. Nevertheless, the shift towards the application of market logic to social work reduces innovative potential, increases efforts spent on procedures and weakens public coordination.     

Changes in North Sea storm surge conditions for four transient future climate realizations

Storm surges in the North Sea are one of the threats for coastal infrastructure and human safety. Under an anthropogenic climate change, the threat of extreme storm surges may be enlarged due to changes in the wind climate. Possible future storm surge climates based on transient simulations (1961–2100) are investigated with a hydrodynamical model for the North Sea. The climate change scenarios are based on regionalized meteorological conditions with the regional climate model CCLM which is forced by AR4 climate simulations with the general circulation model ECHAM5/MPIOM under two IPCC emission scenarios (SRES A1B and B1) and two initial conditions. Possible sea level rise in the North Sea is not taken into account. The analysis of future wind-induced changes of the water levels is focused on extreme values. Special emphasis is given to the southeastern North Sea (German Bight). Comparing the 30-year averages of the annual 99 percentiles of the wind-induced water levels between the four climate realizations and the respective control climates, a small tendency toward an increase is inferred for all climate change realizations toward the end of the twenty-first century. Concerning the German Bight, the climate change signals are higher for the North Frisian coastal areas than for the East Frisian ones. This is consistent with an increase in frequency of strong westerly winds. Considering the whole time series (1961–2100) for selected areas, this tendency is superimposed with strong decadal fluctuations. It is found that uncertainties are related not only to the used models and emission scenarios but also to the initial conditions pointing to the internal natural variability.     

Diversity and distribution of the Siphonophora (Cnidaria) in Sagami Bay, Japan, and their association with tropical and subarctic water masses

Siphonophores were sampled using stratified 1.67-m²-mouth 330-μm mesh nets during both day- and nighttime in Sagami Bay (35°0.50′N, 139°20′E), off south-eastern Japan during a 9-day period in March 2006, when the Kuroshio Current was in an offshore non-large meander phase. The samples were collected at 50-m intervals spanning from 1,000 m depth to the surface. Fifty-eight species and 11 eudoxid forms of unknown parentage were collected, of which 5 represent first-time records from Japanese waters, and Clausophyes laetmata Pugh and Pagès 1993, Eudoxia cf. galathea Moser 1925 and Lensia panikkari Daniel 1970 were recorded for the first time not only from Japan but from the entire Pacific Ocean. The highest abundance and diversity was found below the thermocline during the day, and above it at night. A second peak in abundance, around 400 m depth, associated with a decrease in diversity, could be linked to the increase in abundance of a single species—Dimophyes arctica (Chun 1897). The siphonophore communities could be related to the different water masses in the Bay, with an important influence of lateral transport of both tropical and subarctic species into the Bay by the different water masses.     

Interactions between magnetite and humic substances: redox reactions and dissolution processes

Humic substances (HS) are redox-active compounds that are ubiquitous in the environment and can serve as electron shuttles during microbial Fe(III) reduction thus reducing a variety of Fe(III) minerals. However, not much is known about redox reactions between HS and the mixed-valent mineral magnetite (Fe₃O₄) that can potentially lead to changes in Fe(II)/Fe(III) stoichiometry and even dissolve the magnetite. To address this knowledge gap, we incubated non-reduced (native) and reduced HS with four types of magnetite that varied in particle size and solid-phase Fe(II)/Fe(III) stoichiometry. We followed dissolved and solid-phase Fe(II) and Fe(III) concentrations over time to quantify redox reactions between HS and magnetite. Magnetite redox reactions and dissolution processes with HS varied depending on the initial magnetite and HS properties. The interaction between biogenic magnetite and reduced HS resulted in dissolution of the solid magnetite mineral, as well as an overall reduction of the magnetite. In contrast, a slight oxidation and no dissolution was observed when native and reduced HS interacted with 500 nm magnetite. This variability in the solubility and electron accepting and donating capacity of the different types of magnetite is likely an effect of differences in their reduction potential that is correlated to the magnetite Fe(II)/Fe(III) stoichiometry, particle size, and crystallinity. Our study suggests that redox-active HS play an important role for Fe redox speciation within minerals such as magnetite and thereby influence the reactivity of these Fe minerals and their role in biogeochemical Fe cycling. Furthermore, such processes are also likely to have an effect on the fate of other elements bound to the surface of Fe minerals.

Open image in new window

     

Use of EGM08 model and shuttle radar topography mission data for geoid computation in the State of Rio de Janeiro,Brazil: A case study with Voronoi/Delaunay discretisations

The EGM08 geopotential model complete to degree and order 2159 was used in a remove-compute-restore (RCR) method for the geoid computation in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Terrain and indirect effect corrections were computed using a 6-arcsec resolution DTE, derived from the TOPODATA Project (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data) raised by the National Institute for Space Research. INPE, Brazil. We applied Voronoi/Delaunay discretisations for discrete Stokes integration. In these schemes, target area is partitioned into polygons/triangles, respectively, and the computation is carried out by point-wise numerical integration and no gridding is mandatory. For both procedures, the cells were produced using either observed gravity data combined with gridded Bouguer derived information. Particularly in Delaunay scheme, as the gravity anomalies are interpolated into the triangular cells, and geoid undulations are computed for their vertices, Stokes function singularity was gone. Externally estimated errors resulting from a comparison with GPS/leveling data were presented for both the schemes and classical ones, as well as for the EGM08 undulations. They yielded RMS differences equal to 0.105 m, 0.110 m, 0.110 m, 0.115 m and 0.228 m, respectively, for Voronoi, Delaunay, Voronoi/Delaunay with gridded-data alone and EGM08, computed between 32 GPS/leveling points.     

Earthquakes in Switzerland and surrounding regions during 2008

This report of the Swiss Seismological Service summarizes the seismic activity in Switzerland and surrounding regions during 2008. During this period, 451 earthquakes and 75 quarry blasts were detected and located in the region under consideration. The three strongest events occurred in the Valais, near Lac des Toules (M_L 3.6), and in Graubünden, near Ilanz (M_L 3.7) and Paspels (M_L 4.0). Although felt by the population, they were not reported to have caused any damage. However, with a total of only 15 events with M_L ≥ 2.5, the seismic activity in the year 2008 was far below the average over the previous 33 years.     

The compatibility of erosion data at different temporal scales

Soil erosion processes have been studied intensively throughout the last decades and rates have been measured at the plot scale as well as at larger scales. However, the relevance of this knowledge for the modelling of long-term landscape evolution remains a topic of considerable debate. Some authors state that measurements of current rates are irrelevant to landscape evolution over a longer time span, as they are inconsistent with some fundamental characteristics of landscapes, such as the fact that the long-term sediment delivery ratio needs to be equal to 1 and that extrapolation of current rates would imply that all soils in Europe should have disappeared by now (e.g. Parsons, A.J., Wainwright, J., Brazier, R.E., Powell, D.M., 2006. Is sediment delivery a fallacy? Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 31, 1325–1328). In this study, we investigate if and to what extent estimates of long-term erosion rates are consistent with information obtained over much shorter time spans for the Loam Belt of Belgium.In a first step, observed short-term and long-term patterns in the Belgian loess area are compared statistically by classifying the study area into landscape element classes and comparing average erosion values per class. This analysis shows that the erosion intensities on the two temporal scales are of the same order of magnitude for each landscape element class. Next, the spatially distributed model WaTEM LT (Water and Tillage Erosion Model Long Term) is calibrated based on the available short-term data by optimising average erosion values for the same landscape element classes. Finally, the calibrated model is used to simulate long-term landform evolution, and is validated using long-term data based on soil profile truncation. We found that the model allows simulating landscape evolution on a millennial time scale using information derived from short-term erosion and deposition data. However, it is important that land use is taken into account for the calibration in order to obtain realistic patterns on a longer time scale. Our analysis shows that, at least for the study area considered, data obtained on erosion and deposition rates over various temporal scales have the same orders of magnitude, thereby demonstrating that measurements of current rates of processes can be highly relevant for interpreting long-term landscape evolution.     

Ein geochemisches Modell für den Tiefseeboden im Peru-Becken—und die Reaktion des Systems auf technische Eingriffe

Ocean Dynamics - A prognostic model, which numerically simulates the effects of deep-sea mining on the geochemical conditions at the Peru Basin deep-sea floor, is presented. The model is based on...     

Use of suppressive subtractive hybridization and cDNA arrays to discover patterns of altered gene expression in the liver of dihydrotestosterone and 11-ketotestosterone exposed adult male largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)

In this study male largemouth bass (LMB) were exposed to the naturally occurring androgens, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) or 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) in order to identify genes that are differentially regulated by these steroid hormones. Using subtractive hybridization on livers of fish treated with DHT against vehicle control, many novel LMB genes were cloned. These genes were added to our gene library and arrayed. Six genes were up-regulated and five were down-regulated by both androgens. But, each androgen also regulated specific genes. One gene that was identified as a potential androgen marker was spermidine-spermine-N¹-acetyltransferase that was up-regulated by both androgens. Determining which genes are responsive to natural androgens will help to identify biochemical pathways that are impacted.